You need to move. Your rate says stay. Here are your actual options.

Millions of homeowners are running the same painful math: the family outgrew the house, the job moved, life changed, but trading a 3% mortgage for a 6–7% one doubles the payment. The FHFA measured the result: about 1.7 million home sales that simply never happened.

Most people believe they have two options. There are more. Here is the honest list.

Option 1: Stay put

Legitimate, and right for many. But make it a choice, not a default: know what staying is worth (see what your rate is worth) and what it costs you in space, commute, or family needs.

Option 2: Rent the house out, buy the next one

The internet’s favorite answer, and the fastest-growing one, Zillow documents a wave of “accidental landlords.” It preserves the rate, but be honest about what you’re buying: a small business with vacancy risk, repairs, tenant management, landlord insurance (often re-rated higher), and tax complexity. If the only reason you’re becoming a landlord is the rate, it’s worth asking whether there’s a way to keep the value without the business.

Option 3: Let a buyer assume your loan

Real, but narrow: generally only FHA/VA loans, and the buyer must bridge the equity gap in cash. We wrote an honest guide to assumption.

Option 4: Wait for rates to fall

The most expensive “option,” because it isn’t one. Your locked-in value shrinks as market rates fall and dies the day you pay off the loan, waiting only reduces what there is to keep. If a move is coming, the time to explore your options is before you list, not after.

Option 5: The lender-executed path most people haven’t heard of

Some lenders can preserve the value of your low-rate loan for you when you sell: a discounted payoff, executed as a loan assumption + defeasance inside the lender. You move; you keep a substantial part of the rate’s value (typically ~10% of balance); the lender improves its own position. It is not theoretical, U.S. credit unions have closed these transactions, with documented outcomes of $41,107 and $95,409 kept by the families involved. (Case studies.)

The catch: it only exists where your lender offers it. Which leads to the single most useful thing you can do this week: ask your bank or credit union, “Do you offer a discounted payoff or an assumption + defeasance program that would let me keep the value of my rate if I sell?” Even if the answer is “not yet,” you’ll have asked the question that brings these programs to market.

Takara builds this program (DREAM) for banks and credit unions, B2B only; we never transact with consumers. Homeowners: your path runs through your own lender. Financial institutions: book a call.