Simply put, everything in finance is supply and demand. Then you add greed, natural and world events and that’s where things get screwy. Like @nonoise said, the stock market is still above where it was 6-7 months ago, so the sky isn’t falling. Can it get worse? Sure. I bought my first house in the early 80’s and was thrilled to assume a loan for only 8.5%! The going rates for home mortgages was 12.5% for a 30 year fixed loan and up. Can you imagine the screaming if 13% home loans came back?