The share of below-3% mortgages outstanding declined in Q2 to 20.4% of all mortgages outstanding, the smallest share since Q2 2021 (red in the chart), according to data by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. What’s too high are home prices, not mortgage rates. Just how crazy were those ultra-low mortgage rates? Between early 2021 through 2022, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was below CPI inflation – meaning negative “real” mortgage rates, better than free money! At the peak of this craziness, “real” mortgage rates were 4 percentage points below CPI, with mortgage rates below 3% and CPI inflation exceeding 7%.