 and down 40% since Joe Biden took office. What's crashing the number of sales, of course, is interest rates, which at 7.5% are putting houses out of reach. You need to make six figures to qualify for a starter home, and your mortgage will be half your income. What makes this interesting is that crashing sales were supposed to bring prices back to earth after the pandemic bubble. They have not, for the simple reason that rates went up so fast, it's locked people in.