Category: Mortgages and Insurance

American homeowners are heading into a fifth consecutive year of rising insurance premiums, with households in disaster-prone states bearing the steepest costs. California faces a projected 16 percent jump tied to emergency rate settlements, while families in Nebraska and Louisiana already pay more than $6,000 a year. The increases reflect a collision of wildfire and…

Seniors in high-cost housing markets just got a bigger financial tool for retirement, but a separate eligibility restriction may shut out thousands of older adults who lack permanent residency. The Federal Housing Administration set the 2026 Home Equity Conversion Mortgage maximum claim amount at $1,249,125, a figure that tracks directly to the Federal Housing Finance…

Homeowners sitting on record levels of property wealth just caught a break on borrowing costs. The average rate on a home equity line of credit slipped to 7.21 percent in early June, matching the lowest level recorded so far in 2026. That drop arrives alongside a first-quarter estimate from ICE placing tappable U.S. home equity…

Mortgage borrowers gained a new option on April 22, 2026, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac simultaneously cleared VantageScore 4.0 for use in home loan underwriting. The move breaks a decades-long period in which FICO was the only credit scoring model accepted by the government-sponsored enterprises and the…

Homebuyers locking in a 30-year fixed mortgage are absorbing a cost penalty that has not been this steep in more than three decades. The gap between the average mortgage rate and the 10-year Treasury yield has ballooned to levels last seen around 1990, adding roughly $190 a month to a typical borrower’s payment compared with…

Homeowners along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts face a narrow window to secure flood coverage before the 2026 hurricane season ramps up. NOAA issued its seasonal outlook on May 21, projecting 8 to 14 named storms with a 70 percent probability, while any National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policy purchased today carries a 30-day waiting…

Borrowers with FHA-backed mortgages fell behind on payments at a rate not seen in more than a decade during the first quarter of 2026, pushing the overall U.S. mortgage delinquency rate to 3.6 percent, the highest since 2014. FHA loans, which serve a disproportionate share of first-time and lower-income buyers, posted a 7.2 percent delinquency…

At 12:01 a.m. on June 1, 2026, a clause buried on page four or five of millions of homeowners insurance policies along the Florida and Gulf coastlines quietly went live. The Atlantic hurricane season now runs through November 30, and for property owners from Brownsville, Texas, to Key West, the financial stakes have nothing to…

Hurricane season opens June 1, 2026, and an unknown number of Florida homeowners with properties valued at $400,000 or more will enter it without wind coverage from the state’s insurer of last resort. The reason: they have not purchased a flood insurance policy, which Citizens Property Insurance Corporation now requires as a condition of providing…

Homebuyers who hesitated in early May just watched their window narrow. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.53% for the week ending May 29, 2026, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. That is the second consecutive weekly increase after rates briefly touched 6.41% at the start of the month, a level…