The financial news that actually matters
A Florida homeowner paying the state average for property insurance is now spending roughly $850 a month before a single hurricane makes landfall. According to a Government Accountability Office report covering 2019 through 2024, the average annual premium in Florida has reached $10,240, which is 189% above the national average of roughly $3,540. That figure…
Millions of American homeowners are doing the same math and reaching the same conclusion: don’t move. A borrower who locked in a 3% mortgage during the pandemic and finances $334,000 today at 6.46% would see their monthly principal-and-interest payment leap from about $1,409 to roughly $2,108, a difference of nearly $700. Stretch the loan amount…
When a Denver-area homeowner who goes by Sarah on a local housing forum bought her three-bedroom ranch in early 2021, she locked in a 2.87% fixed rate that keeps her monthly payment at $1,480. She and her husband have spent the past year talking about moving closer to her aging parents in Phoenix. Every time…
The 10-year Treasury yield surged past 4.60% on Tuesday, May 13, 2026, its highest close in roughly a year, after a Consumer Price Index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics came in far hotter than Wall Street expected. By the end of the week, the damage had reached the housing market: the average 30-year…
When Maria Delgado-Loss opened her renewal notice in April 2026, the number stopped her mid-step in the kitchen. Her homeowners premium in suburban Houston had jumped 38% in a single year, pushing the annual bill past $4,200. She and her husband sat at the table that night crossing items off a list: the family beach…
To illustrate the lock-in dilemma, consider a hypothetical but representative scenario: a homeowner in suburban Denver who bought a three-bedroom house in 2021 and locked in a 2.875% mortgage rate. Since then, the home’s estimated value has climbed by more than $120,000. On paper, she is wealthier than she has ever been. In practice, she…
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.33% this week, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the highest level in roughly a month. That jump landed during Kevin Warsh’s first full week as Federal Reserve Chair, and his opening act in the role was blunt: in prepared testimony before the Senate Banking Committee,…
When your homeowners insurance renewal arrives and the number has jumped by $800, something else in the family budget has to give. For millions of Americans, that something has been a vacation, a roof repair, or the savings account they were trying not to touch. A Pew Research Center survey conducted March 16 to 22,…
The roof over Pew Research Center’s latest housing survey is, fittingly, one many Americans can barely afford to insure. In a nationally representative poll conducted in March 2026, 71% of U.S. homeowners said their home insurance costs had risen, and 57% reported making at least one financial sacrifice to keep their policies in force. The…
Two years ago, nearly half of all mortgaged homes in the United States qualified as “equity-rich,” a term the property data firm ATTOM uses when an owner owes less than 50% of the home’s estimated market value. In the first quarter of 2025, that share dropped to 43.3%, the lowest level since 2021 and a…