US homeowners are staying in their houses for the longest period in at least 25 years – creating a “lock-in” effect that’s weighing on supply and keeping home prices sky-high.
As of the end of 2025, home sellers had owned their homes for an average of 8.6 years, according to industry data cited by Axios.
That’s the longest people have been staying put since at least 2000, the furthest back the relevant records go — when the national average was just 4.2 years.
Rises in both interest rates and home prices played a role, experts said.
“Homeowners who locked in 2% to 3% mortgage rates during 2020 and 2021 are understandably reluctant to move and give that up, and that lock-in effect has kept resale inventory tight and prices elevated,” Bill Banfield, Rocket Mortgage’s chief business officer, told The Post.
As of last week, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.11%, according to Freddie Mac.
“People holding on to low interest rates tells part of the story,” Sarah DeFlorio, vice president of mortgage banking at William Raveis Mortgage, told The Post.
“Still, we also have to contend with the massive appreciation in home prices since COVID, which has amplified affordability issues for many would-be homebuyers.”
There is hope for a more robust real estate market soon, though. Prices have cooled slightly, and borrowers who took adjustable-rate mortgages will be forced back into the market over the next few years as those rates rise, DeFlorio said.
National home prices at the end of 2025 were down less than 1% from the previous year, according to Parcl Labs, which analyzes listing data. While it’s just a fractional difference, it is also the first time home prices have gone negative in more than two years.
“Even if rates aren’t going back to 3% or 4%, many borrowers now view anything below 6% as a real opportunity and are increasingly willing to re-enter the market when rates start with a five,” Banfield added.
But in the meantime, a housing supply shortage, stubbornly high interest rates and steep price tags are keeping the real estate market on ice.
President Trump has proposed several initiatives to ease the affordability crisis, including a homebuying ban on institutional investors and a $200 billion mortgage bond-buying spree.
Critics have questioned the impact of these proposals, since institutional investors like Blackstone do not own anywhere near the majority of single-family homes.
Homeowner tenure has grown steadily in nearly every major metro area over the past two decades, according to ATTOM.
The trend is “especially pronounced in coastal and Northeast metros, where tenure often exceeds a decade, while many Sun Belt and Midwest markets continue to see comparatively shorter ownership periods,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber told Axios.
Barnstable, Mass.; Springfield, Mass.; and New Haven, Conn., saw the longest average homeownership at 14.1 years, 13.5 years and 13.4 years, respectively, according to the data.
The shortest tenures were found in Provo, Utah; Crestview, Fla.; and Oklahoma City, Okla., at 6.9 years, 7 years and 7.3 years, respectively.
Last year, as buyers struggled to contend with high prices and staggering mortgage rates, the number of US homeowners fell 0.1% to 86.19 million – the first drop in nearly a decade, according to realty firm RedFin.
The median age of a new homeowner hit a record high at 40 years old – up from 38 years old in 2024 and 33 in 2020, according to the National Association of Realtors’ annual report.
First-time buyers accounted for just 21% of all US home purchases in 2025 – a new low since the NAR started tracking the data in 1981.
Many would-be homeowners remained on the fence last year, reneging on their plans to sign on the dotted line – and they’re not optimistic about buying a home this year, either.
Just 29% of Americans who planned to purchase a home last year actually went through with it, according to an annual survey by NerdWallet.
A measly 15% of respondents said they planned to buy a home this year.
