Category: Housing Market

The average U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.95% for the week ending September 17, 2026, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS). That is 19 basis points above last week’s 6.76% and 69 basis points above …Read more  »

Your mortgage rate can stay fixed and your payment can still jump — often by roughly $175 a month or more — when the escrow account that pays property taxes and homeowners insurance runs short. Cotality’s 2026 escrow analysis, cited …Read more  »

U.S. mortgage holders sat on a record $18 trillion in home equity in the second quarter of 2026, according to ICE’s Mortgage Monitor. About 47.5 million borrowers held roughly $11.7 trillion in “tappable” equity — equity that could be accessed …Read more  »

When mortgage rates sit near 7%, many buyers cannot force the payment down with price alone — but they can often reduce cash to close or buy the rate lower with a seller closing-cost credit. In a market where Redfin …Read more  »

In July 2026, 53% of new single-family homes sold in the United States were priced under $400,000, up from 50% a year earlier, according to Census Bureau and HUD New Residential Sales data highlighted in HousingWire and other trade coverage. …Read more  »

First-time homebuyers accounted for just 21% of recent purchases — the lowest share since the National Association of Realtors began tracking the series in 1981 — while the median age of first-time buyers climbed to a record 40, according to …Read more  »

The typical U.S. homebuyer’s monthly mortgage payment reached $2,641 in the four weeks ending September 6, 2026 — a 14-month high and the highest level since June 2025, according to Redfin. That is the number buyers feel in their checking …Read more  »

Investors purchased about 27% of U.S. single-family homes in the second quarter of 2026, according to Cotality — down from roughly 28% in Q1 — as mega-buyers who own 1,000+ properties stepped back sharply. Cotality estimated on the order of …Read more  »

All-cash buyers are pulling back in 2026. Realtor.com’s August research put the early-year cash share of sales around 31.4%, down from about 32.3% a year earlier, with cash transactions falling faster (−11.2%) than overall sales (−8.5%) in that window. NAR …Read more  »