The economic disturbance known as mortgage-rate “lock-in” cost the US economy $20 billion over a one-year period starting in 2022, according to a working paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. … Soaring mortgage rates a little over two years ago created strong disincentives for workers to move, since doing so would mean taking out new, larger mortgages. Higher home prices compounded the problem. That translated into an overall decrease in household mobility, which has economic consequences because it adds friction to the free flow of workers to job opportunities, write the authors, economists at the University of California Irvine and Berkeley.

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