Is the 18% Mortgage Happening Again?

In October 1981, the average 30-year mortgage in the United States reached 18.63 percent. A payment on the typical new house took 47 cents of every dollar a family earned. Car dealers mailed their keys to the Federal Reserve, home builders mailed it blocks of two-by-four, and the home builders of Jackson, Mississippi, sent the President a door. This autumn mortgage rates have climbed for seven weeks in a row, inflation has turned up again, and the Fed has raised rates. We put 1981 and 2026 side by side, row by row: inflation, the rate, the payment, the Fed, home sales, jobs, the lenders, and the federal debt. The oil crisis of 1973, against 2026:    • Is the 1973 Oil Crisis Happening Again?   Black Monday, 1987, against 2026:    • Is Black Monday Happening Again?   Support the channel: https://buymeacoffee.com/marketghosts Chapters: 00:00 Then and now 00:39 Eighteen percent 02:59 The second wave 05:25 Saturday night 08:12 The price 10:17 How it ended 11:51 Is it happening again? Sources: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), read 10 Oct 2026: Freddie Mac's weekly 30-year mortgage rate, consumer prices, the federal funds rate and its target, the prime rate, Treasury bill rates, unemployment, new home sales and prices, family income, real GDP, federal debt, interest and receipts Federal Reserve: transcript of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting of 6 Oct 1979; transcript of Chairman Volcker's press conference of the same evening (FRASER, St. Louis Fed); statement of 16 Sep 2026 Federal Reserve History: "Volcker's Announcement of Anti-Inflation Measures", "The Great Inflation", "Recession of 1981 to 82", "Savings and Loan Crisis", "Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982", "Latin American Debt Crisis of the 1980s" Joseph R. Coyne, "Reflection on the FOMC Meeting of October 6, 1979", Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, March/April 2005; Lindsey, Orphanides and Rasche, "The Reform of October 1979", Federal Reserve Board, 2005 Joint Economic Committee, hearing of 17 Oct 1979, "The Dollar, Inflation, and U.S. Monetary Policy" (FRASER) The American Presidency Project: Jimmy Carter's address of 15 Jul 1979 and his remarks of 14 Mar and 2 Oct 1980; Ronald Reagan's address of 5 Feb 1981, news conferences of 19 Jan and 18 Feb 1982 and radio address of 18 Jun 1983 National Archives, Ronald Reagan Library: the door sent by the Home Builders Auxiliary of Jackson, Mississippi, 23 Nov 1981, and its caption FRASER (St. Louis Fed): "Wood 2x4 Mailed to Mr. Paul Volcker", Home Builders Association of Mississippi, about 1980 Stacey Schreft, "Credit Controls: 1980", Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Review, 1990; FDIC, "History of the Eighties"; James Hamilton, "Historical Oil Shocks" (2011) US Energy Information Administration: imported crude oil and gasoline prices; National Association of Realtors: existing-home sales, 2023 to August 2026 US Office of Management and Budget, historical tables (interest and receipts since 1940); US Bureau of Labor Statistics Christian Science Monitor, 20 Nov 1981 and 19 Aug 1982; Joseph Treaster, "Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend" (2004) Narration: AI voice. Every photograph and film clip is real, credited below. Pictures, public domain or free of known restrictions: White House photographs and objects (Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan presidential libraries, National Archives); John Margolies (Library of Congress); David E. Lucas (Columbus Metropolitan Library); Library of Congress (U.S. News and World Report collection, Carol M. Highsmith, Historic American Buildings Survey and Engineering Record); EPA DOCUMERICA and Dorothea Lange (National Archives); Federal Reserve Board; Architect of the Capitol; The White House; NASA; LatLongLens, Alfvanbeem, Alexis Doine and Cbaile19 (public domain dedications). Pages: Federal Reserve; Joint Economic Committee. Maps drawn from Natural Earth (public domain). Film: President Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy, 5 Feb 1981, White House Communications Agency, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (CC BY 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., cropped and colour-corrected. Creative Commons Attribution photographs from Wikimedia Commons, cropped and colour-corrected: Rick Obst (Eugene), G. Edward Johnson (the Federal Reserve; Vinita; Seligman; Reno), Tony Webster (Idaho Springs), APK (Washington row houses), Kidfly182 (Wall Street), Harrison Keely (Athens, Georgia), ajay_suresh (US Treasury and US Capitol), Sarah Stierch (First Republic Bank) and ProtoplasmaKid (Bank of Mexico), all CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Tony Webster (Silicon Valley Bank, Tempe), ajay_suresh (Nasdaq) and Seattle Municipal Archives (Central Pontiac), CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.... Music: Density & Time (YouTube Audio Library). Market Ghosts is for education and entertainment. Nothing in this video is financial advice. #MortgageRates #1981 #Inflation