The financial news that actually matters
The week of September 8, 2022, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey pegged the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 5.89 percent. It was the last time a typical American homebuyer could lock in a rate below 6 percent. Every weekly reading since has come in at 6 percent or higher. As of late May…
Picture a homeowner in suburban Denver who bought a three-bedroom house in 2020 with a 2.875% fixed-rate mortgage. Her home has appreciated roughly 40% since then. On paper, she has more than $200,000 in equity. In practice, she is stuck. Selling and buying a comparable house at today’s rates would add nearly $900 a month…
For the first time in eight years, Florida homeowners insured through the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation will see their premiums go down instead of up. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced in January 2026 that Citizens policyholders will receive an average rate reduction of 8.7%, with some customers seeing cuts above 10%, effective…
A buyer closing on a $400,000 home this weekend will pay about $150 more each month than someone who locked in a rate late last year. That is not a typo, and it is not a rounding error. It is the cost of borrowing money in a bond market that just crossed a line Wall…
Say you are 55, paying $2,800 a year for long-term care insurance, and every dollar of that premium comes from after-tax income because touching your 401(k) before 59½ would trigger a 10 percent early-withdrawal penalty. That math just changed. Under Section 334 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, you can now pull up to $2,500 a…
The official number looked like a small win for homebuyers. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, released Thursday, pegged the average 30-year fixed mortgage at 6.36% for the week ending May 14, 2026, a slight dip after two consecutive increases. But by the time that figure hit inboxes, it was already outdated. The 10-year Treasury yield, the…
If you own a home in California and pay around $2,000 a year for insurance, a 16% increase would push that bill to roughly $2,320 by the end of 2026. That figure is illustrative, not drawn from a specific policy or data set, but it reflects the scale of what Insurify’s forecast projects for the…
A Florida homeowner renewing their policy in 2026 can expect to pay roughly $10,240 a year for coverage, according to industry estimates. That figure sits 189 percent above the national average and marks the fifth consecutive year of increases, a streak that has turned property insurance into one of the most destabilizing costs of owning…
Homebuyers scanning rate sheets this week found a number that looked, at first glance, like a small break: 6.36% on a 30-year fixed mortgage, down from the prior two weeks of increases. On a $400,000 loan, that translates to roughly $2,490 a month in principal and interest (calculated using standard amortization at 6.36% over 360…
In January 2022, a borrower closing on a $400,000 house with 10% down could lock a 30-year fixed mortgage near 3.2% and walk away with a principal-and-interest payment of roughly $1,560 a month. That same borrower purchasing that same house in June 2026, now priced closer to $440,000 after cumulative appreciation, would face a rate…