Existing-Home Sales Fell 2.0% in August While Supply Reached a Decade High
NAR reported 3.98 million annualized sales and 4.9 months of inventory, the deepest supply in more than ten years.
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Top real estate stories for September 23, 2026
Rents Have Risen Seven Months Straight and Are Still Below Last Year
Mortgage Rates Jumped 19 Basis Points in a Single Week to 6.95%
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Lodging REITs Returned 42.8% in the First Half While Apartment REITs Managed 8.3%
Illustrative residential architecture; not a property discussed in the article.
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The Fed Held Rates Steady at Jerome Powell's Last Meeting as Chair — With a Record Number of Dissents
Four officials broke from the April decision, the most dissents at a single meeting in more than three decades, as the housing sector stayed the weakest part of an otherwise expanding economy.
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Fannie Mae Notched Its 34th Straight Profitable Quarter, and Net Worth Passed $116 Billion
The mortgage giant's second-quarter earnings show the conservatorship-era income machine still running, even as it reports helping fewer than half a million households.
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Freddie Mac's Profit Jumped 61%, but Its Delinquency Rates Kept Creeping Up
A credit reserve release lifted second-quarter net income to $3.8 billion, even as single-family and multifamily delinquency both rose for a second straight year-over-year comparison.
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Private Mortgage Insurers Wrote 21% More New Business, Just as Fannie and Freddie Changed the Credit-Score Rules
MGIC and Radian posted another profitable quarter as the GSEs let insurers choose between VantageScore and FICO for capital purposes — a change analysts call a work in progress, not a breakthrough.
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Overall Mortgage Delinquencies Edged Down, but FHA Serious Delinquencies Jumped 225 Basis Points
MBA's second-quarter survey found the seriously delinquent rate rising for a fourth straight quarter even as the seasonally adjusted headline number improved slightly.
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The Fed Says Home Prices Are Still 'Well Above' What Fundamentals Justify
The Federal Reserve's May Financial Stability Report flags elevated residential valuations even as mortgage delinquencies stay low and equity cushions remain large.
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A Federal Judge Blocked the Trump Administration's Bid to End a Redlining Consent Order Early
'A promise to reach substantial compliance in the future is not substantial compliance,' the judge wrote, keeping Provident-owned Lakeland Bank under oversight through September 2027.
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NewRez Will Pay $15.5 Million After Charging More Than 4,200 Borrowers for Insurance They Already Had
State regulators say the servicer force-placed hazard insurance on customers with active homeowners policies; New Jersey and Massachusetts even disagree on how many states joined.
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HUD's Inspector General Says Ginnie Mae Never Formally Assessed the Risk of Its Biggest Nonbank Lenders
A handful of nonbank issuers now dominate a portfolio that guarantees a share of more than $9 trillion in mortgage-backed securities, and the agency's own watchdog says nobody has run the numbers on what a failure would mean.
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Consumer Credit Grew at Its Fastest Pace in Over a Year in July, and Nonrevolving Debt Led the Way
The Fed's G.19 release shows credit-card and installment borrowing accelerating together — a signal that bears on mortgage underwriting even though the report excludes housing debt entirely.
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The CFPB Wants to Rework Closing-Disclosure Rules — Not, as First Assumed, the HMDA Reporting Threshold
A 22-question request for information targets TRID timing, the right of rescission and reverse-mortgage disclosures, implementing a March executive order on mortgage credit access.
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Banks Say Mortgage Lending Standards Are the Tightest They've Been Since 2005 — Except for Business Loans
The Fed's quarterly loan officer survey found weaker demand for home loans on balance, even as home equity line demand strengthened and commercial real estate standards eased.
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HUD Rolled Out Fourteen FHA Policy Changes Aimed at Cutting Lender Costs
Five mortgagee letters eliminate a homebuyer disclosure form, make appraisal field reviews optional, and ease 203(k) rehab-loan draw limits, continuing a two-year deregulatory push at the FHA.
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South Florida's Luxury Market Grew Without Cutting Prices in the Second Quarter
Keyes/Illustrated Properties data show luxury single-family sales up 20% and condo transactions up 23%, driven by buyers from New York and Illinois rather than California.
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Miami-Dade's Best June Since 2023 Hides a Split Market
House sales are up and inventory is tight; condo sales are up too, but prices there are falling and a post-Surfside reserve law is a big reason why.
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A House With No Water Views Just Set West Palm Beach's Non-Waterfront Record
122 Bloomfield Drive sold for $15.7 million, or about $1,820 a square foot, as buyers pay coastal-adjacent prices to avoid coastal insurance costs.
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Boca Raton's Priciest Home Ever Sold Within Hours of Hitting the Market
The Dingle brothers' $75 million waterfront spec mansion at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club more than doubled the city's previous record — set by their own 2024 land purchase.
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Aspen's Trophy Homes Are Selling for Less Than the Ask, and Fewer Are Selling at All
A Rihanna-rented Ute Avenue mansion fetched $63.5 million against a $79 million prior ask, while $10 million-plus sales in Aspen and Snowmass fell 35% year over year in August.
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Three Cities Won HUD's Biggest Public-Housing Redevelopment Grants This Year
Fayetteville, Gainesville and New Bern each secured roughly $25 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grants, part of a competition that drew at least 14 applicant cities.
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Chicago Housing Authority's Third Jobs Plus Grant Bets on Letting Residents Keep Their Raises
A $2.3 million, five-year HUD award at Wentworth Gardens pairs job placement with a rent-incentive mechanism designed to remove the disincentive to earn more.
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