New-home sales data shows 8.5 months of supply, 38% of builders cutting prices, and a median price down 5.8% year over year. Before you take a builder’s incentive package at face value, here is what the numbers actually mean and how to negotiate in this market.
FHA delinquency hit 11.79% in Q2 2026. Before the headlines make your decisions for you, here is what the data actually says, and what escrow shock is really doing to borrowers right now.
Six straight weeks. Freddie Mac’s October 1 survey put the 30-year fixed at 7.28%, the highest weekly average since November 2023 and the largest single-week jump since October 2022. Mortgage News Daily’s real-time tracking touched 7.58% on September 29. The MBA’s weekly numbers showed purchase applications down 14% from a year ago and refinance applications … Read more
Mortgage rates are not credit card rates. They are not car loan rates. Those types of debt are directly tied to the federal funds rate, which is why they move in lockstep with Fed decisions. When the Fed raises rates, those go up. When the Fed cuts, those come down. It is a fairly direct … Read more
Tomorrow, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates for the first time in years. The odds according to CME FedWatch are somewhere between 85 and 90 percent. Financial media will cover it like breaking news. And a lot of homebuyers will be watching, waiting to see what happens to mortgage rates before they … Read more
There’s a number that gets cited a lot right now: 2,746 down payment assistance programs available nationwide, per the Q2 2026 Homeownership Program Index from Down Payment Resource (published July 22, 2026). Here is the problem with that number. Just 49 of those programs are Mortgage Credit Certificates. MCCs reduce your federal tax liability after … Read more
The Number Getting Shared Is Not the Full Picture Zillow published research in August 2026 showing it takes 15 years on average before buying a home outperforms renting. That number spread quickly. And if your first reaction was something like “that is way too long, I might as well just keep renting” — you are … Read more
That Number You’re Shopping With Is Not Your Payment You found a calculator online, ran the numbers, and the payment looked like something you could work with. So you started shopping. This is how most buyers enter the market, and it is also how most buyers end up in an uncomfortable conversation with their lender … Read more
Most online mortgage calculators give you a number. The problem is that the number is usually wrong. It’s a principal-and-interest estimate that gets dressed up to look like a payment, and by the time a lender runs the actual figures, buyers are often caught off guard by how different the real total is. We built … Read more
Freddie Mac’s latest survey put the 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.69 percent, the highest reading in just over a year. Rates have climbed for five straight weeks, and July existing home sales fell 1.7 percent to a 4.06 million annual pace. If you’ve been watching the news, you know this story has gotten plenty … Read more