Mortgage Rates Are Moving the Wrong Way. I’m Buying These 3 Housing Stocks Anyway.
Mortgage rates had cooled off a bit as we were heading into 2026, but they have moved in the wrong direction since then. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage now has an interest rate above 7%, and home prices haven't exactly cooled off in many markets across the U.S. I won't sugar-coat it. This is a bad backdrop for housing stocks . Homebuilders are having to spend heavily on buyer incentives, mortgage origination volumes are low (especially for refinancing), and housing affordability was already stretched before mortgage rates started to rise again. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading