The financial news that actually matters
In 2009, roughly one in every 45 American households received a foreclosure notice. In 2024, that figure was closer to one in 370. The gap between those two numbers is the single most important thing to understand about today’s foreclosure headlines. Foreclosure filings across the United States have climbed about 26% from the historic lows…
For two years, would-be homebuyers told themselves the same thing: wait for rates to drop. By late May 2026, many of them stopped waiting. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.22% for the week ending May 22, its highest point in a month, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey published through…
Four months ago, a borrower shopping for a $400,000 home could lock in a 30-year fixed rate as low as 5.75% in January. That same loan now costs 6.22%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the first week of May 2026. The difference works out to roughly $123 more per month, or…
The spring homebuying window just got more expensive. After drifting down to 6.30% in mid-April, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate reversed course and climbed to 6.39% by the second week of May, according to Mortgage News Daily. The catalyst was not domestic: it was a military…
A couple hunting for a three-bedroom in the Dallas suburbs this spring will scroll through roughly 30% more active listings than they would have found a year ago, according to metro-level tracking from Realtor.com. Phoenix looks similar. Nationally, the number of homes sitting on the market has climbed about 20% from the trough recorded in…
If you are shopping for a mortgage in May 2026, here is the number that matters most right now: 6.20%. That is where the 30-year fixed rate landed for the week ending April 24, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. And according…
When Maria Gonzalez opened her homeowners insurance renewal letter in April 2026, the number had jumped again. Her premium for a three-bedroom house in a fire-adjacent community east of Los Angeles climbed 19% in a single year. She is not alone, and her experience is not unusual. For the fifth consecutive year, homeowners insurance premiums…
The last time Americans saved this little of their paychecks, the economy was sliding into the worst recession in a generation. In March 2026, the personal saving rate dropped to 3.6%, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the lowest reading since December 2007. But unlike a typical consumer boom, the culprit was not a…
A home listed for sale in the United States now takes a median of 64 days to go under contract, the longest stretch since the early months of the pandemic, according to Redfin’s latest housing market update. That alone would signal a slower market. But the more striking number is the one underneath it: roughly…
Lenders filed foreclosure notices on 118,727 U.S. properties during the first quarter of 2026, according to ATTOM’s Q1 2026 Foreclosure Market Report. That is a 26% jump from the same period last year and a 6% increase over the final quarter of 2025, marking the highest quarterly total since pandemic-era protections started expiring. The numbers…