Category: Mortgages and Insurance

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.01% last week, its lowest point in more than three years, offering a rare window of relief for homebuyers who have spent months sidelined by elevated borrowing costs. The decline coincided with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down most of the tariffs imposed by the…

The U.S. Department of Commerce has sharply increased antidumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber, nearly tripling the rate most exporters face and adding fresh cost pressure to an already strained housing market. At the same time, climate-driven insurance premium spikes are eroding home values in disaster-prone regions, squeezing buyers from both the construction side and…

Federal prosecutors and state regulators across the country have taken enforcement action against faith-based health plans that collected millions in member contributions while leaving families responsible for nearly all of their own medical bills. A co-founder of Medical Cost Sharing, a Christian health care sharing ministry based in St. Joseph, Missouri, pleaded guilty to an…

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan package of bills reforming California’s insurer of last resort on October 9, 2025, the latest in a string of state actions aimed at reversing a home insurance crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of homeowners dependent on a strained backup plan or no coverage at all. The reforms…

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage in the United States fell to 6.01% as of February 19, 2026, hitting its lowest point in more than three years. The drop, recorded in Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, has reignited debate over whether buyers who sat on the sidelines during the rate spike…

Dave Ramsey, the personal finance commentator known for his aggressive anti-debt philosophy, has been urging would-be buyers to focus less on headline mortgage-rate moves and more on affordability and personal financial readiness. The average U.S. long-term mortgage rate recently dipped to 6.01%, its lowest level in more than three years according to Freddie Mac data….

A California homeowner staring at a $44,000 insurance bill and quotes reaching $80,000 a year has become the sharpest illustration yet of a home-insurance market in free fall. The state’s insurer of last resort, the FAIR Plan, faces a $1 billion funding shortfall after the 2025 Southern California wildfires, and the mechanism designed to close…

Homeowners paying condo and HOA fees now number 21.6 million across the United States, roughly one in four owner-occupied households, and the bills they face are climbing fast enough to reshape where people choose to live. With a national median monthly fee of $135 and approximately 3 million households paying more than $500 per month,…

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.01 percent this week, its lowest reading since September 2022, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The drop, from 6.09 percent just one week earlier and 6.85 percent a year ago, reflects a steady downward slide that has shaved nearly a full percentage point off borrowing…

Mortgage rates on 30-year fixed loans eased to around the low-6% range this week, prompting renewed interest in refinancing among homeowners eager to lock in lower monthly payments. The decline follows a retreat in 10-year Treasury yields, the benchmark that most directly shapes long-term mortgage pricing. For millions of borrowers who took out loans when…