Millions of Americans bought homes in recent years with mortgage rates at 6.5% or higher, often betting they could refinance to a lower rate within a year or two.

Now, with little hope of a rate cut in July after a solid jobs report on Thursday, many of these owners face the predicament of paying those higher costs for longer than they expected.

Sean and Jennifer Glocker bought a townhouse in the oceanside community of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., in 2023. Their mortgage rate was 7.6%, but they were happy with the price and expected rates to drop below 6% within a year. Then they would refinance.

Their plan hasn’t gone as expected. Mortgage rates are holding above 6.6%, making it still unattractive to refinance. Meanwhile, their home-insurance costs for the townhouse have risen. They listed the property for sale in March, and cut the price in June.

“Since we haven’t been able to refi…[it is] not worth carrying it any longer,” Sean Glocker said. “It’s a bit disappointing.”

Many real-estate agents and lenders advise that if buyers can afford a mortgage payment at the current rate, they should buy while there is less competition and plan to refinance later when mortgage rates decline.

For most homeowners with a mortgage rate of 6.5% or higher, it doesn’t make sense to refinance.

This real estate adage that a buyer should “marry the house and date the rate” has often worked in the past. Millions of homeowners refinanced in 2020 and 2021 when mortgage rates fell to historic lows. Many of them saved hundreds of dollars a month on mortgage payments.

But rates haven’t dropped below 6% since September 2022, and economists don’t expect a return to the lows of a few years ago.

With mortgage rates staying higher for longer, those who had hoped to refinance within a year or two are stuck. The housing market remains divided between homeowners who locked in cheap borrowing costs and those who are burdened by higher monthly payments.

Brad Glenn, with his wife, Amanda, says he wishes he had refinanced in September when mortgage rates dipped.

Most of the 7.5 million households with mortgage rates of 6.5% or higher took out those loans since 2022, according to Intercontinental Exchange. Homeowners often want to reduce their rates by at least half a percentage point to make the costs associated with refinancing worthwhile.

Economists don’t expect a wave of foreclosures if rates hold at current levels. Lending rules are stricter than they were before the 2007-09 recession, and buyers need to be able to afford their monthly payments to qualify for a loan.

But that doesn’t mean the payments aren’t uncomfortable for some homeowners, and not everyone may be able to refinance if rates eventually decline. Home prices are falling in some parts of the country, especially Texas and Florida, and some homeowners owe more on their mortgages than the properties are worth.

And if rising tax or insurance costs have pushed up homeowners’ monthly payments while their incomes haven’t changed, that could make it difficult for them to qualify for a new loan.

“There is definitely a buyer pool that is feeling the constraints of the rates that they’re in and bummed that they can’t refinance,” said Stacey Melton, vice president at Reasy Financial in Peoria, Ariz. “I’m still getting calls on the daily from people who want to refinance, and it just unfortunately isn’t making sense for them.”

One in five Americans who bought since the start of 2023 regrets taking on such a high mortgage rate, according to a survey by tech company Clever Real Estate.

Rates surged in 2022 after the Federal Reserve increased short-term interest rates to slow inflation. Many economists expected inflation to come under control relatively quickly, but it proved stickier than expected.

Some buyers are only now feeling the pinch. Since the start of 2022, 2% to 3% of new purchase mortgages have included temporary buydowns, which can lower the buyer’s mortgage rate for one, two or three years, according to the AEI Housing Center at the American Enterprise Institute.

When Leah and Mac Hudson bought a three-bedroom home in Nashville, Tenn., in 2023, their home builder paid for a buydown that lowered their 6.75% mortgage rate to 4.75% for the first year of the loan and 5.75% for the second.

Mac and Leah Hudson expect their mortgage payments to increase this year.

The Hudsons don’t expect to refinance before their rate rises to 6.75% later this year. That will add about $250 to their monthly payments and reduce the amount they can put toward their retirement savings or short-term investments, said Mac Hudson.

“We could afford it, even at the highest rate, but we were hoping for rates to come down,” he said.

Refinance activity rose in September 2024, when average mortgage rates briefly dropped close to 6%. But not everyone took advantage before rates climbed higher again.

“I should have done it,” said Brad Glenn, who estimated that refinancing in September could have saved him about $400 a month that he could have spent on a car payment or saving for retirement. “I was kind of hanging on, thinking that there was more room for them to fall.”

Justin and Marissa Dance refinanced in May to a five-year balloon loan.

Some homeowners with high rates are looking for other ways to lower their payments. That includes making a large payment toward the loan principal to recast the mortgage, or refinancing into an adjustable-rate mortgage.

When Justin and Marissa Dance bought a house in Chubbuck, Idaho, in 2023, they negotiated for the seller to pay to lower their mortgage rate for the first two years of the loan. Their rate was set to rise to 6.99% in September, which would have cost them an extra $400 a month. Their third child is due in August.

They refinanced in May into a five-year balloon loan at a 5.99% rate. The remaining loan balance is due at the five-year mark, but the Dances expect to refinance again before then, he said.

“Last time, I thought for sure that [mortgage rates would fall], so I guess that’s humbled me a bit,” he said. “We’re expecting the worst but hoping for the best.”