Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Zillow say mortgage rates can’t fall enough for Americans to afford a home

But in the past couple of years, buyers have had no such luck

While they’ve let up some, today’s 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 6.75%, according to Mortgage News Daily

Economists and real-estate groups have warned they don’t see that figure budging much in the near future

And to make matters worse, some have said the mortgage rate it would take to make s feel affordable again isn’t achievable

On Tuesday, Zillow economic analyst Anushna Prakash reported mortgage rates would need to drop to 4.43% for a typical to be affordable to an average buyer

But “that kind of a rate decline is currently unrealistic,” Prakash wrote

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Services also said in an early July report that mortgage rates are one of the main deterrents for both buyers and sellers. “Many owners are reluctant [to] put their s on the market and give up the low mortgage rates they already have,” according to Berkshire Hathaway Services. “To them, high price gains won’t mitigate their ability to pay more for another at significantly higher interest rates.” This issue is also referred to as golden handcuffs—or the locked-in mortgage rate effect

The idea is that current owners have no incentive to put their s on the market, even if they want to move, because they’d forgo a much lower mortgage rate they had locked in years ago

This causes a litany of other blems in the housing market, namely inventory

The number of unsold existing s for sale rose 9% month-over-month in April, according to Berkshire Hathaway Services, to 1.45 million; that’s equal to 4.4 months’ supply on hand at the current sales pace and the highest level in five years

It just means there aren’t enough people who can actually afford to buy a

The factors influencing housing affordability Although inventory levels are increasing, prices and mortgage rates continue to be a roadblock for potential buyers

Mortgage rates have remained “stubbornly high,” Berkshire Hathaway Services said, deterring new buyers from the market

According to a Realtor.com report published Thursday, the typical spent 58 days on the market in July, which is 7 days longer than the same time last year

Mortgage rates are certainly a factor among buyers when deciding to make an offer, and prices are also up more than 50% since the onset of the pandemic, according to the U.S

Case-Shiller Price Index

All the while, wages haven’t grown at the same pace as appreciation, making buying a house feel even more unaffordable

And if nothing changes mortgage rates, inventory, or wage growth, it’s ly the housing affordability crisis in the U.S. will persist, Alexandra Gupta, a real-estate broker with The Corcoran Group, told Fortune. “Some first-time buyers are turning to long-term renting or even co-living models because the idea of owning a has become so out of reach

Others are relying more on family support to get into the market,” Gupta said. “We’re seeing a reshaping of the housing ladder.” The small glimmer of hope, though, is price growth appears to be slowing, according to the Case-Shiller indices. “With affordability still stretched and inventory constrained, national prices are holding steady, but barely,” Nicholas Godec, head of fixed-income tradables and commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement

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