As we all know, the mortgage industry is barely surviving right now.  Lenders are very slow, business is hard to find.  A huge part of that is how much higher interest rates are now versus the last couple years.  Right now, 91.8% of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage have an interest rate below 6.0%.  With current mortgage rates around 6.50%, no homeowners are refinancing and many borrowers are choosing to stay in their existing home rather than sell and buy a new home at a higher rate.  This is one reason existing inventory is so very limited.  Looking deeper at the statistics on rates accentuates this even more.  82.4% of mortgagees have a sub 5% rate, 62% have a sub 4% rate, and 23.5% have a sub 3% rate.  Wow.