2026 may be year homeowners accept new rate reality

For the last few years, many homeowners have felt like they were holding a winning hand, a 2 to 3 percent mortgage rate that seemed too good to ever give up. And honestly, who could blame them? Those rates were historic. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell below 3 percent in 2020 and 2021, a level that has only occurred briefly in United States history and has since more than doubled, with rates hovering in the low to mid-6 percent range through late 2025.