Moving Now Costs $1,100 More Per Month for the Average U.S. Homeowner

The average U.S. homeowner would pay $1,100 more every month to buy a median-priced home today, according to a new report from Realtor.com. That single figure explains why the housing market has effectively frozen: sellers are refusing to give up mortgages written at rates near 4%.

Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale quantified the friction in the report. "Home sales have been stuck for several years, and this research helps illuminate one of the major friction points for today's homeowners who might like to move," Hale said. "For the typical mortgage holder, buying a home at today's median-price and current rates would mean finding about $1,100 more each month for principal and interest, before property taxes and insurance."

Note the caveat buried in that quote: the $1,100 gap covers principal and interest only. Taxes and insurance, which have grown more expensive in many markets, sit on top.

How Big Is the National Payment Gap?

Realtor.com's math puts the average monthly cost of buying a home at $2,468, up from $1,332 — an 85.3% increase. The calculation assumes a median-priced home, a 14.3% down payment, and a 7.32% mortgage rate, set against the 4% average rate attached to outstanding mortgages. In plain terms, a household that moved today would spend roughly $13,200 more per year on principal and interest than it does now.

Hale stressed that a modest rate cut would not close the gap. "Even at 6%, the typical payment would still be more than 60% higher," she said. "For many families, that is money they simply don't have to spare." The promise of relief from falling rates, in other words, only holds if rates fall a long way — and prices cooperate.

The takeaway: rate cuts alone are not the escape hatch many homeowners are waiting for.

Where Do Payments More Than Double?

The national average masks far sharper jumps in individual metros. Six U.S. cities stand out:

• Portland, Maine: current holders pay $1,270 per month at 4%; a new purchase runs $3,392 with 21% down — a $2,000-plus monthly hit and a 167% increase, the nation's highest.
• San Jose area: payments balloon from $2,659 to $7,039, a 165% jump, even with a market-typical 26% down payment.
• Los Angeles, Albany, Providence, Boise City, and Worcester: monthly payments would more than double for homeowners who move.

In many of the doubling cities, existing mortgage holders enjoy rates below 4%, which widens the gap. The pattern is consistent: expensive markets plus cheap legacy mortgages equal the strongest lock-in effect in the country.

The takeaway: geography, not just rates, decides how trapped a homeowner is.

Where Is the Lock-In Effect Weakest?

Pittsburgh shows the smallest percentage payment increase among the 100 largest U.S. metro areas. A typical current holder there pays $1,005 per month at a 4.1% rate; a new buyer would pay $1,441. That is still a 43% increase — a raise of $436 per month, or about $5,200 per year — yet in this market it qualifies as good news.

Baltimore, Buffalo, New Orleans, Detroit, and Birmingham also post percentage increases under 60%, according to the Realtor.com data. The common thread is lower home prices and relatively higher rates on existing mortgages, which shrink the gap between staying and moving.

Realtor.com Senior Economist Hannah Jones cautioned against reading these markets as havens. "More affordable markets offer homeowners a smaller payment jump, not an escape from higher costs," Jones said in the report.

The takeaway: cheaper cities soften the blow; they do not eliminate it.

Will Lower Rates Fix Affordability?

Jones does not think so. "Lower rates alone would not erase the affordability gap," she said. "Slower home-price growth and rising incomes would also help narrow the difference between what households pay now and what it would take to buy."

That is a three-variable fix — rates, prices, and incomes — and the report's own numbers show why all three matter. Even at a 6% mortgage rate, payments stay more than 60% above current levels nationally. Unless home-price growth slows or incomes rise meaningfully, the $1,100 monthly gap will keep existing homeowners where they are, and keep the market stuck.