If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the real estate market in the last several years, it’s that things change quickly.
Low mortgage rates and a need for additional room fueled a home buying and selling frenzy at the height of the pandemic.
According to CoreLogic, home prices were 18.5% higher at the end of 2021 than they were a year ago.
Fewer homes are being advertised now than two years ago in areas where the real estate market was previously strong. Those same houses are now more expensive and have been on the market for a longer period of time.
Those factors, combined with high interest rates, have some homeowners feeling “trapped,” according to new data analysis by MoneyGeek.
The personal finance site looked at 312 metro areas around the country to assess where average mortgage spending has gone up while housing supply has gone down.
For some homeowners, those economic trends mean it’s too costly to move homes right now, even if they want to.
MoneyGeek discovered that homeowners in the South were the most likely to feel stuck.
Homeowners intending to buy a property in two Georgia cities, Gainesville and Atlanta, would end up paying more than $10,000 per year on a new mortgage.
Furthermore, with fewer homes on the market, there is more competition for a limited supply.
In the Northeast, supply issues are especially bad. MoneyGeek reports a 20% drop in new listings in just two years.
Meanwhile, in pricy West Coast locales, average monthly mortgages now top $5,000.
| Rank | Metro area | % change in mortgage (2021 to 2023) | Additional mortgage spending (2021 to 2023) | Avg. monthly mortgage | % change in home value (2021 to 2023) | % change in new listings | % change in days on market |
| 1 | Gainesville, GA | 83.7% | $10,720 | $1,960 | 24.8% | -27.8% | 29.7% |
| 2 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA | 82.4% | $10,953 | $2,020 | 23.9% | -25.6% | 27.2% |
| 3 | Ocean City, NJ | 77.9% | $17,515 | $3,334 | 20.8% | -31.7% | 9.3% |
| 4 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | 71.2% | $23,447 | $4,698 | 16.3% | -29.6% | 18.7% |
| 5 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 73.1% | $15,363 | $3,032 | 17.5% | -24.9% | 25.6% |
| 6 | Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA | 69.6% | $30,734 | $6,244 | 15.1% | -31.1% | 17.7% |
| 7 | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | 82.2% | $10,931 | $2,019 | 23.7% | -23.9% | 12.9% |
| 8 | The Villages, FL | 86.7% | $12,370 | $2,219 | 26.8% | -26.1% | 0.8% |
| 9 | Flagstaff, AZ | 79.3% | $16,901 | $3,184 | 21.8% | -16.2% | 34.2% |
| 10 | Bend, OR | 68.1% | $17,535 | $3,608 | 14.1% | -24.4% | 29.3% |
| 11 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 67.0% | $39,038 | $8,110 | 13.4% | -34.6% | 15.9% |
| 12 | Naples-Marco Island, FL | 104.5% | $19,515 | $3,182 | 38.9% | -15.8% | 10.1% |
| 13 | Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV | 72.6% | $11,332 | $2,246 | 17.2% | -20.1% | 43.4% |
| 14 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (Tie) | 66.7% | $23,466 | $4,885 | 13.2% | -27.8% | 15.7% |
| 14 | Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ (Tie) | 74.3% | $12,543 | $2,452 | 18.4% | -17.1% | 53.3% |
| 16 | Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA | 80.6% | $25,748 | $4,806 | 22.7% | -16.1% | 10.2% |
| 17 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 65.6% | $18,399 | $3,872 | 12.4% | -27.1% | 25.5% |
| 18 | Athens-Clarke County, GA | 76.1% | $8,872 | $1,711 | 19.6% | -23.3% | 17.2% |
| 19 | Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI | 88.4% | $29,980 | $5,326 | 27.9% | -28.2% | -8.8% |
| 20 | North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL | 97.4% | $14,888 | $2,515 | 34.0% | -12.8% | 13.4% |
More homeowners are feeling “trapped” in their mortgages across the country, but situations are better in West Virginia, Illinois, and Louisiana.
Residents of Wheeling, West Virginia, Parkersburg, West Virginia, Alexandria, Louisiana, Danville, Illinois, and Decatur, Illinois, according to MoneyGeek’s data, were the least likely to feel trapped.