Housing Still ‘Rock-Solid’: Pro

Interest rates have room to rise before they impact housing, Ivy Zelman of Zelman & Associates said Thursday.

"We have a lot of ceiling before we would even get to a normal level of affordability," she said, adding that it was time to recognize there was "a new playbook that you need to put in action."

On CNBC's "Fast Money," Zelman reiterated that she was still the most bullish she has been in 22 years, pointing to employment growth, an improving economy, household growth and "a shortage of shelter."

"The fundamentals are rock-solid," she added.

In a March interview, Zelman called the market a "Nirvana for housing."

(Read More: 'We're in Nirvana for Housing': Zelman)

Mortgage rates ticking upward, she added, weren't enough to quell the growth of the housing market – for now.

"We think mortgage rates will start to have an impact at some point," Zelman said. "For every 25-basis-point increase — just a rule of thumb — it's equivalent to a price increase of about 3 percent, so realistically as mortgage rates continue to move up, they will start to have an impact on buying power, so we want to recognize that."

(Read More: Real Estate 'A Tremendous Buy': CEO)

Zelman also said that home prices were still cheap.

"At the same time, if you just look at the monthly payment and what people can afford, I think home prices from here, even if mortgage rates were at 6 percent, we could still see home prices rise another 20 percent before we would just get back to average affordability," she added.

(Read More: Jeff Gundlach: Bet on a 'Most-Hated Asset')

"As of right now, even if the 10-year continues to move higher, we think we have room before we're going to start to see the impact on affordability."