That's a pretty unfair characterization of the situation.

1. Rates had been low for quite awhile. Will the rate eventually go up? Of course! But people can only guess when.

2. We're required to consider the possibility of rates going up (the stress test), but I'd thought that for some borrowers we're already past what they were stress tested against.

3. For many, this period of low rates felt like their last chance to get their foot in the door. Whether rates went up or not, it was looking like the barrier to entry (either price or mortgage eligibility) were going up one way or another. You either wait and risk never being able to buy a home (or at least not in the location you want), or buy and risk rates going up. Might some people lose that gamble? Yeah. Pretty easy to understand why they took it though