Google Searches For Mortgage Help Hit Great Recession Levels—But This Isn’t 2008 (Yet)

Mortgage panic searches spike to financial crisis levels—but the foundations aren't crumbling.

Behind The Numbers

Google queries for mortgage relief and refinancing options just mirrored 2008's peak anxiety metrics. Yet unemployment remains low, housing inventory tight, and lending standards nowhere near the subprime madness of the past.

Tech Meets Tension

Algorithms amplify fear—every search spike triggers more headlines, fueling a self-reinforcing cycle of doubt. Borrowers aren't defaulting en masse; they're just digitally nervous.

The Real Trigger

Rising rates squeezed adjustable mortgages and refinancing hopefuls. Unlike the Great Recession, though, today's homeowners hold record equity—and most secured fixed-rate loans during the cheap money era.

Wall Street's déjà vu moment smells more like algorithmic deja-search than systemic collapse. But when banks start repackaging loan distress into synthetic ETFs, maybe then we’ll talk crisis.

Key Takeaways

• Google searches for "help with mortgage" (searched without quotes) have nearly met the number of searches for that phrase during the Great Recession, but that doesn't mean a housing market collapse is coming.
• The Google Trends data could be conflating searches related to renters struggling to buy a home, one analyst said.
• Mortgage delinquencies, which rose dramatically during the financial crisis, are low.

The number of Google searches for "help with mortgage" (searched without quotes) is almost as high as it was during the Great Recession. That alarming stat went viral on Wednesday—even Sen. Elizabeth Warren sounded the alarm—but it doesn’t mean we’re headed for another housing market collapse.

Investopedia pulled data from Google Trends on Wednesday, and we noticed it did not exactly match the chart Warren reposted Tuesday evening on X.

Here’s a snapshot of the data in Google Trends as we saw it on Sept. 17, 2025:

Google Trends

Yes, the search total is almost as high today as it was then. But, there are a few things to keep in mind about Google Trends.

First, the three gray “Note” lines mark times when Google changed the way it collects Search data. Today’s numbers aren’t counted the same way as in 2009, meaning it isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. 

Second, "help with mortgage" (searched without quotes) is capturing more than just people looking for relief from their mortgage payments. It also pulls in searches that relate to help with mortgage applications or customer service. Looking at “help with mortgage” or similar queries like “help with mortgage payments" doesn’t produce the same jump. 

Related Stories

Homeowners Are Still Making Their Mortgage Payments

While housing costs are high, the data shows homeowners are making mortgage payments.

Important

The delinquency rate on single-family residential mortgages was less than 2% in the second quarter of 2025—a far cry from the more than 11% rate peak reached in 2010. That was a crux of the Great Recession: homeowners defaulted on their mortgage loans at high rates and many lost their houses to foreclosure. 

George Pearkes, a macro analyst at Bespoke Investment Group, said the Google Trends data is capturing something different this time around.  

“The big problem right now is not delinquency (which is extremely low still despite the trends data steadily moving higher for years now) but mortgage payments being out of reach for current renters,” Pearkes said. “So we should be careful to not conflate those three things as all being about payment stress.”

The Bottom Line

The number of Google searches for "help with mortgage" (searched without quotes) may echo the Great Recession, but a closer look reveals some important differences. Google’s data tracking and its user base have changed since then, and the phrase “help with mortgage” isn’t specific enough to capture a meaningful data point. Mortgage delinquencies, a measure of people actually missing payments, are low. Buying a home is still quite expensive, and many struggle to afford the expense, but it’s important not to conflate that with mortgages going under.