‘We’re locked in’: Spike adds to Seattle’s ‘housing freeze’ claims amid raised interest rates

Interest rates have fallen to 6.17%, the lowest since October 2024, but the rates remain considerably higher than post-pandemic levels, when they reached below 3%.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neil, hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, detailed the potential “housing freeze” on the market that is caused by raised interest rates and homeowners being less likely to move due to immediate monthly payment increases if they were to secure a current interest rate.

“Sometimes in life you just get lucky when you’re buying a house, and my wife and I were one of those people who bought at a time when interest rates were historically low,” Jake said. “Now you’re seeing basically a freeze in the housing market. Even though the rates are dropping slightly, people are not willing to sell their homes, get out of a favorable 3-or 4% interest rate, and basically double their monthly payment.”

Spike explained how he is inadvertently participating in the housing freeze, even though his family wishes to downsize to a new home, but higher interest rates have contributed to the decision to stay at home.

“To your point about being frozen, you know, we’d love to downsize because the maintenance is a lot on our 3,800-square-foot home, it’s a lot of space,” Spike said. “We’d love to downsize, but we’re locked in on a pretty great interest rate for our home. We’ve been there a little over 20 years now.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.