Real Estate
Housing market coverage, home buying and selling, mortgages, rentals, and property investment. From market trends to the practical decisions involved in owning or renting.
Latest in Real Estate
Cash-out refinances just hit a 14-year high — homeowners are trading sub-3% mortgages for 6.51% to pay off credit cards, often adding $900 a month to the payment
Somewhere in America, a homeowner who locked in a 2.75 percent mortgage during the pandemic is sitting at a kitchen table, staring at $25,000 in...
Adjustable-rate mortgages locked in at sub-3% during 2021 are resetting this year — the average reset adds about $700 to the monthly payment
The first wave of payment shock is arriving. Homeowners who signed 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgages in 2021, when introductory rates dipped below 3 percent, are now...
Existing-home sales nudged up in April while inventory rose 5.8% — meaning buyers can now demand a seller cover up to 6% of closing costs on a conventional loan
The spring housing market was supposed to wake up. Instead, it barely stirred. Existing-home sales rose just 0.2% in April 2026 to a seasonally adjusted...
HUD-approved housing counselors review your full mortgage situation for free — homeowners who use one avoid foreclosure at roughly twice the rate of those who go it alone
The letter from the servicer usually arrives about 45 days after a missed mortgage payment. It’s polite, bureaucratic, and easy to set aside. Then a...
Conventional-loan buyers can ask sellers to cover up to 6% of closing costs — a routine concession nearly half of 2026 buyers are negotiating into the contract
When Marcus and Tia Reynolds found a four-bedroom listing in suburban Charlotte priced at $385,000, their agent suggested something that would have been laughed off...
A reverse mortgage lets a 62-year-old homeowner tap home equity tax-free — but new HUD rules require both spouses on the loan, or the survivor can be evicted
After 34 years in the same house, a 74-year-old widow in a complaint filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau described learning, only after her...
First-time buyers can claim up to $2,000 a year in federal tax credits for life through a Mortgage Credit Certificate — yet fewer than 30,000 borrowers used one in 2025
Consider a hypothetical first-time buyer who closes on a $280,000 mortgage in Texas. At the closing table, her loan officer hands her a document that...
A low home appraisal can sink your sale or refinance — but lenders must now offer a “reconsideration of value,” and solid comps often raise the number
A seller signs a contract at $425,000, then the appraisal comes back at $400,000. The buyer’s lender will only finance based on the lower figure,...
If your mortgage escrow collected more than it needed, the servicer owes you the surplus back — check your annual statement for a refund you may have missed
Every month, a slice of your mortgage payment disappears into an escrow account your servicer controls. That money is earmarked for property taxes and homeowners...
You don’t have to use the title company your lender picks — shopping your own title insurance and closing services can cut hundreds off the bill
Picture this: you are three weeks from closing on a $400,000 house, buried in paperwork, and your lender emails you the name of a title...
You may be able to take over the seller’s old sub-4% mortgage — FHA, VA, and USDA loans are assumable, saving a buyer hundreds a month
When Sarah Nguyen started house-hunting in suburban Denver in early 2026, she assumed a $350,000 purchase meant a monthly principal-and-interest payment north of $2,200 at...
FHA mortgage insurance now sticks for the life of the loan — but refinancing into a conventional mortgage at 20% equity drops it for good
A homeowner who took out a $350,000 FHA loan in 2020 with 3.5 percent down is paying roughly $160 a month in mortgage insurance right...
Many states knock thousands off a primary home’s taxable value through a homestead exemption — but you usually have to file for it, and millions never do
A homeowner in Texas with a $350,000 house could be paying roughly $1,000 more in school-district property taxes every year than an identical neighbor, not...
Putting a lump sum toward your mortgage and asking for a recast lowers your monthly payment for good — without the cost or paperwork of refinancing
Say you inherit $50,000 and send it straight to your mortgage company. You might expect next month’s bill to shrink. It won’t. On a standard...
Once you owe less than 80% of your home’s value, you can demand your lender drop private mortgage insurance — often $100 or more off every monthly payment
Every month, millions of homeowners write a check that includes a line item most of them would rather not think about: private mortgage insurance. PMI...
The typical first-time homebuyer is now a record 40 years old — and first-timers make up just one in five buyers, the smallest share ever recorded
Not long ago, buying a first home was a milestone most Americans hit before their mid-30s. According to the latest data from the National Association...
A record 2,600 programs now offer first-time buyers an average $18,000 toward a down payment — and most of that money goes unclaimed every year
A first-time buyer in Texas puts 6% down on a $340,000 house. That is $20,400 out of pocket before closing costs. A state housing finance...
Property-tax bills have hit record highs across most of the country — and rising escrow payments are quietly pushing “fixed” mortgage payments up by hundreds a month
When Maria Gonzalez closed on a three-bedroom house outside Houston in 2021, her monthly mortgage payment was $1,640. By spring 2026, it had climbed to...
Rents are falling fastest across the Sun Belt, down nearly 6% in Austin — while Midwest and Northeast tenants are paying about 5% more than a year ago
A one-bedroom apartment in Austin, Texas, rented for an estimated median of about $1,100 per month as of the Apartment List May 2026 report, according...
Buying the typical home now costs over $1,000 more a month than renting it — the widest gap on record, and it’s keeping a generation stuck as tenants
Run the numbers on a median-priced home in Phoenix today and the result is blunt: buying costs roughly $1,200 more per month than renewing a...