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 homestead exemption can shield part of a home’s value from creditors and trim the property-tax bill
Two homeowners with identical houses on the same street can owe very different property-tax bills and face very different exposure to creditors, and the reason...
Mortgage closing costs can run 2% to 5% of the loan, due at signing
The interest rate gets almost all the attention when a person buys or refinances a home, but a second, often-overlooked bill lands at the end...
Disabled veterans pay no funding fee on a VA home loan and can buy with nothing down
On a typical first VA loan with nothing down, the government’s funding fee runs 2.15 percent of the amount borrowed — about $6,450 on a...
The home-sale tax break — $250,000 single, $500,000 for couples — hasn’t risen since 1997
The tax break that shields most home sellers from a capital-gains bill is showing its age. When a primary residence is sold, an owner can...
Mortgage rates near 6.65% are sitting close to a one-year high, squeezing retirees who hoped to downsize
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage stood at 6.65% in the week of August 20, 2026, down two basis points from the prior...
Almost anyone who bought a home through an agent can claim part of a $120 million commission settlement before October 27
The National Association of Realtors and a group of large brokerages have agreed to pay $120,334,500 to settle claims that they kept home-sale commissions artificially...
Property assessments can climb even when home values fall, and you can appeal a bill set above market value
A falling home value does not guarantee a falling tax bill. Because assessed values are set on a lag and often trail market swings by...
Americans owe $459 billion on home-equity credit lines, a variable-rate debt secured by the house
Americans now owe $459 billion on home-equity lines of credit, the highest total in more than a decade and the seventeenth consecutive quarter that the...
A home seller can exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 married, a limit frozen since 1997
When a homeowner sells a primary residence at a profit, the federal tax code lets a single seller shield up to $250,000 of that gain...
The 30-year mortgage is stuck near 6.7%, squeezing retirees who want to downsize
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage sat at 6.67 percent in mid-August, barely changed from the week before and still higher than it...
A home’s tax assessment can climb faster than the market, leaving some owners taxed above what the house is worth
A property-tax assessment is supposed to track what a home is worth, but the two figures can drift apart, sometimes sharply. When a county’s assessed...
A reverse mortgage can turn home equity into monthly cash, but fees and a growing loan balance eat into heirs’ inheritance
A reverse mortgage can convert years of home equity into tax-free monthly cash for owners 62 and older, and it asks for no monthly repayment...
Homeowners can exclude up to $250,000 of home-sale profit, or $500,000 for couples
A homeowner who sells a primary residence can generally shield up to $250,000 of profit from federal capital-gains tax, and a married couple filing jointly...
Mortgage rates near 6.8% sit close to a one-year high, complicating a retiree’s downsizing math
The cost of borrowing to buy a home is sitting near its highest level in a year, and the timing complicates a decision many older...
Nearly half of U.S. homes are taxed above market value, and a formal assessment appeal can cut the bill
Estimates of how many American homes are assessed above their true market value run startlingly high — by several measures approaching half of all properties....
Reverse-mortgage borrowers must keep paying property taxes and insurance or risk losing the home
A reverse mortgage can turn home equity into cash for a retiree without a monthly loan payment, but that convenience hides an obligation that catches...
On FHA reverse mortgages with case numbers assigned on or after August 4, 2014, a non-borrowing spouse must be listed correctly to stay after the borrower dies
A spouse can live in a reverse-mortgaged home for years without being a borrower, then face the loan becoming due when the borrowing spouse dies....
Property assessments can rise, and some homes are taxed above market value
A property-tax assessment is an official estimate, not an untouchable verdict. County guidance across the country tells homeowners to appeal when the enrolled or appraised...
The federal reverse-mortgage limit rises to $1,249,125 in 2026 as seniors’ home equity hits a record
The federal ceiling attached to the most common reverse mortgage is $1,249,125 in 2026, up $39,375 from last year. The increase arrives while older homeowners...
VA-backed home loans can require zero down and no private mortgage insurance
A VA-backed purchase loan can remove two costs that usually arrive together for a lightly funded home purchase: the down payment and monthly mortgage insurance....