The financial news that actually matters
The U.S. housing market is no longer moving to the rhythm sellers enjoyed during the pandemic boom.Across much of the country, homes are sitting longer, buyers are negotiating harder, and more sellers are trimming asking prices to attract attention. The pressure point is affordability. After years of sharp price gains and a long stretch of…
Home insurance prices are moving into a new phase, and for many homeowners the change is likely to feel less like another routine increase and more like a reset. After several years of sharp premium growth, insurers are increasingly pricing policies around what they expect future wildfire, storm, and hurricane losses to look like, not…
The affordability squeeze in the U.S. housing market is no longer showing up only in mortgage calculators and frustrated buyer budgets. It is showing up in asking prices. By early February, the market was sending a clearer message to sellers than it had a year earlier: buyers are still out there, but they are more…
Los Angeles renters are finally getting a break. After years of relentless increases, new-lease rents across the LA metro area have fallen back to their lowest point since early 2022, giving tenants more room to negotiate in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets. The shift does not mean Los Angeles has suddenly become…
U.S. homebuilders are floating an ambitious idea: a national push to build as many as 1 million lower-cost houses under the name “Trump Homes.” The proposal, first reported by Bloomberg and echoed by Reuters, immediately grabbed attention because it linked two powerful forces in the housing market at once: the country’s deep affordability crunch and…
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…
Some housing economists and market analysts say 30-year fixed mortgage rates could fall below 5% by 2026, though the timing is uncertain. The forecast rests heavily on expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue easing monetary policy as inflation cools toward its target. For prospective buyers who have struggled with higher borrowing costs in recent…
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…