Mortgages & Rates
Mortgage rate movements, refinancing, loan types, rate locks, lender comparisons, and how interest rates affect housing affordability.
Latest in Mortgages & Rates
FHA proposes its first broad update in over 20 years to the property rules homes must meet for FHA loans
FHA has proposed its first broad update in more than 20 years to the minimum property requirements that homes must meet to back an FHA-insured...
About half of U.S. mortgages still carry rates of 4% or lower, keeping owners locked in, Fed Governor Barr says
“About half of all mortgages still carry rates of 4 percent or lower,” Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said on Sept. 23, and nearly 80%...
Cash-out refinances made up 54.4% of all refinances in June, FHFA data show
More than half of the refinances Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed in June, 54.4 percent, pulled cash out of a home rather than simply...
Pennymac is already lending up to $850,000 on conforming loans, ahead of FHFA’s official 2027 limit
Pennymac is now underwriting conventional loans up to $850,000 on one-unit properties in most states, weeks before the Federal Housing Finance Agency is due to...
Mortgage rates climbed to 7.03% this week, Freddie Mac says, up from 6.95%
Thirty-year mortgage rates averaged 7.03% this week, up from 6.95% a week earlier, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey reported, an eight-basis-point increase in the...
HUD is auctioning about 4,200 reverse mortgages worth $1.3 billion on homes where every borrower has died
About 4,200 federally insured reverse mortgages, carrying roughly $1.3 billion in unpaid balances, are being sold in bulk by the Department of Housing and Urban...
FHA will accept VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T credit scores on mortgages starting January 1, 2027
Starting Jan. 1, 2027, FHA-insured mortgages will accept two additional credit-score models, VantageScore 4.0 and FICO Score 10T, under FHA INFO 2026-21, a notice the...
The 30-year mortgage rate climbed to 6.95%, its highest in a year, raising the cost of every new loan
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage climbed to 6.95% for the week ending September 17, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey,...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac opened VantageScore 4.0 to every approved lender September 9, while FICO 10T stays ineligible
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The 30-year mortgage rate climbed to 6.76 percent, a 14-month high
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage climbed to 6.76 percent this week, the highest level Freddie Mac’s benchmark survey has recorded in more...
A non-borrowing spouse can keep the home after a reverse-mortgage borrower dies
A reverse mortgage loan normally comes due the moment the last borrower on it dies, which can force a sale of the home within months....
The reverse-mortgage borrowing limit rose to about $1.25 million, and only citizens and green-card holders qualify
The most a homeowner can borrow through a federally insured reverse mortgage climbed to $1,249,125 for 2026, up $39,375 from 2025’s $1,209,750, under a schedule...
Recasting a mortgage lowers the monthly payment without a full refinance
A homeowner sitting on a lump sum of cash and a mortgage payment they’d like smaller doesn’t have to choose between refinancing, with its new...
Homeowners can drop private mortgage insurance once their equity reaches 20%
Private mortgage insurance is one of the few recurring costs on a mortgage statement with a built-in expiration date, and federal law gives homeowners two...
Mortgage rates are pushing toward 7% after a Fed official floated a rate hike
Mortgage rates edged higher this week after Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said the central bank “should act decisively to raise” short-term interest rates unless...
Mortgage rates near 6.7% are keeping homeowners locked into older, cheaper loans
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage held at 6.66% for the week ending Aug. 27, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market...
A reverse mortgage now gives a surviving spouse who wasn’t on the loan more protection to stay in the home
A federal rule change has widened protection for a surviving spouse left off a reverse mortgage, letting that spouse stay in the home for life...
HUD is auctioning off thousands of reverse mortgages where the owner died, and heirs who miss the deadline can lose the home
The Department of Housing and Urban Development will start reviewing bids on Sept. 1 for 5,500 federally insured reverse mortgages left behind after both the...
The typical homeowner now pays $2,354 a month once property taxes and insurance are added to the mortgage
A homeowner carrying a typical mortgage now pays $2,354 a month for housing, and only $1,843 of that payment actually covers the loan itself. The...
Homeowners can deduct the points paid to lower a mortgage rate, often all in the first year on a purchase
Points paid at a mortgage closing are a form of prepaid interest, and each point a borrower buys shaves the interest rate on the monthly...