Rate shocks kill housing deals at the closing table, not the showroom.
Under 7% financing, demand destruction first surfaces as signed contracts failing to close: qualification failures drove D.R. Horton's cancellation rate to 20% and resale cancellations to a five-year high.
The same conclusion keeps arriving from across the workspace's research — 1 topics independently instantiate this theme. Filter the evidence by where it came from:
Rate-locked-out buyers fail to close after signing, making failed closings the leading edge of demand destruction in resale.
The largest US builder attributes its 20% cancellation jump to financing qualification failure at closing, not to fading buyer interest.
Under 7%+ financing, demand destruction surfaces at the closing table as failed contracts rather than as lost showroom traffic.