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
Putting a lump sum toward your mortgage and recasting lowers the payment without refinancing
Homeowners sitting on a windfall, whether from an inheritance, a bonus, or the sale of another asset, can cut their monthly mortgage payment without the...
Homeowners 62 and older can tap home equity with a reverse mortgage and make no monthly payments
Homeowners aged 62 and older who have built up equity in their homes can convert that wealth into cash through a federally insured reverse mortgage...
Splitting your mortgage into biweekly half-payments slips in one extra payment a year and can shave years off it
Homeowners who split their monthly mortgage payment into two biweekly installments effectively make one full extra payment each year, a simple scheduling change that can...
A transfer-on-death deed passes your house to heirs without probate
Homeowners in California and Texas now have a direct way to pass real property to heirs at death without opening a probate case. A transfer-on-death...
The typical U.S. home sold for a record $429,300 in May, the 35th straight month prices rose from a year earlier
Homebuyers across the United States hit a new price ceiling in May, with the median existing home selling for $429,300, a record that extends an...
Putting a lump sum toward your mortgage and asking for a recast lowers the monthly payment without refinancing
Homeowners who locked in fixed-rate mortgages before interest rates climbed can still cut their monthly payments without giving up those favorable terms. A mortgage recast,...
A reverse mortgage can free up cash in retirement, but the loan balance grows and can eat the home equity you leave behind
Retirees who tap their home equity through a reverse mortgage gain immediate spending power, but the trade-off is concrete: interest compounds on the loan balance...
Mortgage discount points cost about 1% of the loan to buy down your rate, paying off only if you stay put
Homebuyers who pay mortgage discount points hand over a fee equal to 1% of their loan amount at closing in exchange for a lower interest...
A home-equity line now averages well above 8%, so tapping your house costs far more than your old mortgage
Homeowners sitting on record equity are discovering that their house has become a much more expensive ATM. While many locked in fixed mortgage rates near...
A year ago the 30-year mortgage averaged 6.81%; today’s 6.5% has barely dented record home prices
Homebuyers hoping that a year of modest rate relief would cool prices have found little comfort. The 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 6.81% in a June...
Once you owe less than 80% of your home’s value, you can demand the lender cancel private mortgage insurance
Homeowners paying private mortgage insurance on conventional loans have a federal right to cancel that coverage once their loan balance drops to 80 percent of...
There are now 470,000 more home sellers than buyers, handing buyers the upper hand
Homebuyers across the United States now face a market tilted sharply in their favor, with sellers outnumbering active buyers by roughly 630,000, the largest gap...
The 30-year mortgage is averaging about 6.47% after the Fed signaled no rate cuts
Homebuyers shopping for a fixed-rate loan this week face a 30-year mortgage rate averaging 6.47 percent, a level that keeps monthly payments elevated even as...
About 308,000 homes sold in May, up 5.2% from a year ago even as prices set records
American home buyers closed on about 308,446 properties in May 2026, a 5.2 percent jump from a year earlier and the strongest monthly sales total...
The median U.S. home sold for a record $398,771 in May as buyer demand cooled
American homebuyers paid more than ever for a house in May 2026, even as fewer of them competed for listings and nearly six in ten...
Austin renters now pay about 5.1% less than they did a year ago
A one-bedroom apartment in Austin that listed for $1,400 a month last spring might now be advertised closer to $1,330. Across the metro, asking rents...
34.7% of home listings now carry a price cut as buyers regain leverage
More than a third of U.S. home listings now carry a price reduction, a share that has climbed as elevated borrowing costs and fresh supply...
Mortgage rates jumped within hours of the Fed’s decision and erased a week of relief
Homebuyers who spent the past week watching borrowing costs edge lower got a rude reversal on September 17, 2025, when mortgage rates climbed back within...
Home-equity and variable-rate borrowers got no relief from the Fed’s decision
Millions of Americans carrying home-equity lines of credit and adjustable-rate mortgages will keep paying the same elevated rates after the Federal Reserve held its benchmark...
San Francisco now leads the country in rent growth at 6.3% over the past year
Renters across San Francisco are absorbing the steepest annual rent increases of any major U.S. metro, with prices climbing 6.3 percent year over year as...