High mortgage rates aren't stopping these Twin Cities home buyers

Ditching his first home in Hopkins for a bigger one nearby more than doubled Michael Vennerstrom's mortgage rate , but he's OK eating the cost.

Why it matters: Even this expensive housing market can't stop a young family running out of bedrooms from moving or a Baby Boomer who's tired of cleaning an empty nest.

What they're saying: "If rates drop, we can [refinance], but if they don't, thankfully we upgraded our square footage when we could," says Vennerstrom, who has a toddler and a new baby with his partner.

First-time home buyers who can afford it are also taking the plunge.

• "Mortgage rates are high, but rent is going up like clockwork," says Daniel Hage, who's purchasing a house in Falcon Heights.

Reality check: Many U.S. homeowners feel locked into their current mortgage.

• Those with a mortgage rate below 3% say their likelihood of moving in the next three years would soar from about 17% to 28% if they could keep their current loan , per recent surveys from the New York Fed.
• The number of Twin Cities homes available to buy is down 5% from a year earlier, according to Redfin data .

Some people are moving to save money. Crystal homeowners Anna and Patrick Fischer, plus their two children, are shacking up with their in-laws in Montana to avoid a near-7% mortgage rate .

• It's nerve-wracking "leaving behind our lower mortgage rate we'll probably never see again," Anna Fischer tells Axios.
• They're using the proceeds from selling their three-bedroom starter home to pay off student loan debt and hope to buy another house in a couple of years.

What's next: More golden handcuffs could start to loosen. Optimism has grown that the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates in September, Axios' Felix Salmon reports.