Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer · Sep 30, 2026
With Jim Cramer, Host of Mad Money and former hedge fund manager
The national average 30-year mortgage rate is 7.34%, against 3% five years ago, and Jim Cramer said that has frozen the housing market and everything that depends on it.
Most market commentary treats a mixed day as noise. Cramer read Wednesday's session, with the Dow down 444 points, as one more sign that housing, IPOs, mergers and data centers are all stuck at once.
"Market after market is getting frozen right now and that's killing stocks."
Cramer, a former hedge fund manager who runs the CNBC Investing Club's charitable trust, spent the rest of Mad Money on Bloom Energy, the newly listed fashion brand Reformation, a lightning round of caller stocks and why he never sold Microsoft.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 8 calls that matter.
Key Takeaways
Mortgage rates have frozen housing: a 15-year loan averages 6.70%, against 2.32% five years ago
The whole housing supply chain is suffering: RH fell from $745 to $121, and Whirlpool suspended its dividend
IPOs and mergers have frozen too: Inspire Brands shelved its listing and a health-ring maker scrapped a $2.2 billion offering
A bull run needs the war to end, oil to fall and the Fed to drop its next rate hike
Bloom Energy is up 219% this year, and Cramer still calls it his favorite way to play AI power
Reformation trades at 12 times 2028 earnings but is only a speculative position
Microsoft went from $349 in June to about $513 as its data center spending started paying back
1. The Frozen Housing Market
Cramer borrowed "let it go" from Disney's "Frozen" and said markets will not get the big rally he wants until the war ends, oil retreats, rate increases stop and rates come down.
"Right now, the national average for a 15-year mortgage is 6.70." — Jim Cramer
He said the rate was 2.32% exactly five years ago, and the 30-year rate is 7.34%, against 3% then.
"That is outrageous." — Jim Cramer
Families can't move
A family that bought with a 3% mortgage and now needs a bigger home would more than double its interest payments by moving, he said.
"The nearly 7.5% mortgage has made housing the least affordable it's been in 40 years." — Jim Cramer
He said housing punches above its weight because each sale involves salespeople, title agents, loan officers and lawyers, and then spending on furniture, appliances, paint, roofs and kitchens.
