30 Year Mortgage Rate Hits 8% for First Time Since 2000, Echoing Dot-Com Bubble Collapse
In a seismic shift for homebuyers, the 30 year mortgage rate has surged past 8%—a level not seen since the year 2000, when the dot-com bubble was bursting and the economy was bracing for recession. Historians note this mirrors the panic of the 1991 savings and loan crisis, where rates spiked at 9.25% and crushed affordability for a generation. Today's buyers, already squeezed by record home prices, are facing a 'buyer strike' that could trigger a housing reset, experts warn, as the Fed's inflation fight draws eerie parallels to the 1981 Volcker shock—the last time the 30 year mortgage rate topped 18%. Wall Street is buzzing: is this the calm before the next big crash, or a hidden historical pattern of 30-year rate cycles that always ends in reckoning?