If you have $2,000 per month in your budget for your mortgage payment, that budget won't allow you to buy quite the same house now as compared to six months ago.

Six months ago, you could purchase a $451,000 house in the City of Harrisonburg, put 20% down, finance the purchase with a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 3.22%, pay your tax bill and homeowners insurance all for a smidge less than $2,000.

Today, you can purchase a $353,000 house in the City of Harrisonburg, put 20% down, finance the purchase with a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 5.81%, pay your tax bill and homeowners insurance all for slightly less than $2,000.

As such, if you have a fixed budget for your housing costs, you have lost $98,000 of purchasing power over the past six months given the increased interest rates.

Six months ago, plenty of buyers with a $2,000 budget may have been buying $353K houses... not $451K houses... so for some buyers the increased monthly costs are likely painful, but may not change their purchasing decisions.

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This article was inspired by an even more thorough analysis of this dynamic over here.