High mortgage rates and home prices threaten homeownership

Still, pending home sales — in which contracts have been signed but the sales haven’t closed yet — fell 4.7% over the past year, which economists attribute to higher mortgage rates.

Realtors say higher interest rates on mortgages, combined with inflation more broadly, are persuading some people to put off buying homes.

“It’s definitely impacting the psyche of the buyer,” said Kerry Adams, a Realtor with Compass Real Estate in the Washington area.

“They’re saying: ‘I’m already feeling it at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and now I’m feeling it in mortgage rates. Maybe I’ll sit on the sidelines a little while longer.’”

Many young adults today are moving back in with their parents instead of renting or buying their own homes.

Last year, a record 25.2 million adults under 35 lived with their parents, according to Realtor.com.

The median age of a first-time homebuyer today is 40, an all-time high, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Ian Sohan, 26, hopes to buy a house in Virginia — but the math isn’t looking good.

“It’s discouraging,” Sohan said. “I’d like to one day own my own home.”

Sohan is looking for a house with his fiancée, Eden Law, that has enough room for any future kids and maybe their moms, too.

In their area of Northern Virginia, houses that fit their needs start around $600,000. In the couple’s ideal neighborhood, in Arlington, those houses are closer to $1 million.

“I haven’t quite been priced out of the market entirely,” Sohan said. But he may “get pushed out of the areas I’d like to live in or maybe expect a longer commute than I really wanted.”

“It’s just making it a lot more intimidating to even go for the purchase and have the confidence that the economy will be enough to be able to afford that house five, 10 years from now, let alone 30 years,” he said.