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
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...
A homeowner can pocket up to $250,000 of home-sale profit tax-free, and a married couple up to $500,000
Selling a longtime family home can produce a six-figure profit, and the tax code lets most owners keep a large share of it without owing...
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...
A reverse mortgage can turn home equity into monthly cash for a homeowner 62 or older, but it shrinks what heirs inherit
A Home Equity Conversion Mortgage lets a homeowner who is at least 62 turn part of the equity in a house into cash without sending...
Mortgage rates are stuck near 6.7%, but buyers now have room to negotiate in most big U.S. markets as inventory rises
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.66% in Freddie Mac’s survey released Aug. 27, 2026, barely moved from 6.65% the week before and up only slightly...
A widow or widower keeps the $500,000 home-sale tax exclusion for up to two years
The death of a spouse quietly resets the tax math on the family home, and the change can cost a survivor hundreds of thousands of...
A 1031 exchange lets a landlord swap a rental and defer the capital-gains tax
A rental property sold outright can hand its owner a tax bill that swallows a large slice of decades of appreciation, and that figure arrives...
A veteran can refinance a VA loan to a lower rate with little paperwork through an IRRRL
The VA’s streamline refinance, formally the Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan, lets a veteran swap an existing VA mortgage for a lower-rate one without an...
A home-equity line can fund repairs, but it puts the house on the line if payments stop
When a roof fails or a furnace dies, a home-equity line of credit is often the cheapest large sum a homeowner can reach. It typically...
Renting out a room brings taxable income, but many of the rental’s costs are deductible
Turning a spare bedroom into rent money looks like a clean win for a homeowner facing higher costs, but the IRS treats it as the...
Some states and counties offer down-payment help and closing-cost grants to older or first-time buyers
The cash needed to close on a home — a down payment plus thousands in closing costs — is the wall that stops many would-be...
Some towns let seniors trade volunteer hours for a break on their property-tax bill
For an older homeowner squeezed by a rising property-tax bill, one form of relief is unusual because it does not require proving poverty or hitting...
Appealing your property-tax assessment can shave hundreds off the bill, and many owners win
A property-tax bill looks fixed, but the number that drives it is an estimate — and estimates can be wrong. Every bill starts with an...
Many states offer renters a property-tax credit that few ever claim
Property tax feels like a homeowner’s problem, which is exactly why a benefit built for renters slips past the people it was designed for. A...
You can drop private mortgage insurance once you reach 20% home equity
Private mortgage insurance is a charge many homeowners keep paying long after federal law says it can stop. Lenders require it on conventional loans made...
Recasting a mortgage can cut the monthly payment without refinancing at today’s higher rates
A homeowner sitting on a low mortgage rate who has come into a lump sum faces an awkward problem: refinancing to lower the monthly payment...
A homestead exemption can shave hundreds off a property-tax bill and shield some home equity
A homestead exemption is one of the few tax breaks a homeowner claims once and keeps collecting for years, and in most states it removes...
Couples can shield up to $500,000 of home-sale profit from federal tax
A house bought decades ago is, for many retirees, their single largest untaxed gain — a property purchased for a fraction of today’s price and...