The financial news that actually matters
The call from the hospital comes on a Tuesday. By Thursday, someone in the family is standing in the kitchen of a house that no longer has an owner, wondering who pays the mortgage this month. The deed will transfer through probate eventually, but three federal systems covering taxes, insurance and mortgage servicing keep running…
The safety net is gone, and the fall is getting steeper. Foreclosure filings across the United States surged 26% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier, while completed bank repossessions of homes spiked 45%, according to a quarterly report published by ATTOM, a national property data analytics firm,…
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell for the third consecutive week, landing at 6.76% in Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending May 1, 2026. That marks the lowest weekly reading since mid-March and a meaningful step down from the 6.95% average recorded just three weeks earlier. The decline…
Patrick Barber has sold homes in San Francisco for more than two decades. He weathered the dot-com crash, the 2008 collapse, and the pandemic freeze. But nothing prepared him for what happened last month in Noe Valley, when a three-bedroom house drew 14 competing offers. “Almost every winning bid came from someone at an AI…
Renewing a homeowners insurance policy in 2026 will cost more for most Americans. How much more depends almost entirely on where the house sits. Nationwide, annual premiums are projected to rise between 3% and 8% this year, according to state-level modeling published by Insurify, an insurance-comparison platform that bases its forecasts on recent carrier filings,…
National home prices in the United States have slipped into negative territory on a year over year basis for the first time since the housing market was still climbing out of its post-crisis slump. That shift does not point to a crash, but it does mark a clear break from the long stretch of annual…
Homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages during the pandemic’s low-rate window are running into a much harsher borrowing environment as their introductory periods expire. For that group, the jump is real: a loan that once looked manageable at roughly 3% can reset materially higher, lifting monthly payments and putting new strain on household budgets. But…
Nearly half of U.S. homeowners say they are considering a move because of weather-related risk, a striking sign that climate anxiety is no longer limited to abstract forecasts or long-range policy debates. It is showing up in household decisions about where to live, what a home will cost to protect, and whether staying put still…
Banks have seized an estimated 367,000 homes across the United States, pushing foreclosure activity to its highest level since 2020. The wave of repossessions, building steadily for nearly a year, is concentrated in a handful of states where homeowners face mounting pressure from elevated interest rates and lingering post-pandemic debt. For millions of families, the…
New home construction permits in the United States fell 3.1% in January 2026, dropping to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,376 thousand units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s monthly residential construction report. The pullback comes as borrowing costs remain elevated, a backdrop that can weigh on new-project economics. For prospective homebuyers and renters…