Category: Real Estate and Mortgages

If you sell your main home in 2026, you can still exclude up to $250,000 of gain from your taxable income if you're single, or $500,000 if you're married filing jointly. That number hasn't changed since the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 — nearly thirty years, no inflation adjustment, ever.…

Government incentives and a booming economy have definitely made this a sellers market. But the key for any seller to get the highest price possible is to still make their home stand out to prospective buyers, which involves having a good sales strategy before and while selling the house. Here…

MISTAKE #1 - Choosing a real estate agent who is not committed to forming a strong business relationship with you HERE’S HOW TO AVOID IT: Making a connection with the right real estate agent is crucial. Choose a professional who is dedicated to serving your needs—before, during and after the…

Like me, a good friend of mine recently bought a house after a long and arduous search. In talking with him I thought his journey to buying a house would provide some timely advice for those in the market to buy a house (hurry before the new home buyer credit…

Foreclosure filings in the U.S. exceeded 300,000 for the sixth straight month as job losses that boosted the unemployment rate to a 26-year high left many homeowners unable to keep up with their mortgage payments. A total of 358,471 properties, or one in 357 households, received a default or auction…

Short answer: there is no active federal first-time homebuyer tax credit for 2026. If you're searching for this because you've heard about a "$15,000 homebuyer credit," you're likely thinking of a proposal from the Biden administration's housing agenda that was floated but never passed Congress. It's not law today, though…

The 2026 FHA loan limit just rose to $541,287 in most of the country, and conventional conforming loans now top out at $832,750. Beyond those limits, the core FHA-versus-conventional decision hasn't changed: it comes down to your down payment, your credit score, and how mortgage insurance is structured on each.…

Despite median home prices across the nation falling by 14 percent to $169,000, there are emerging signs that the housing market may be stabilizing and reaching a bottom. For new or would-be homeowners, mortgage rates below 5% and all the stimulus tax incentives have made buying a house much more…

Just another sign that the Mortgage Giants are really in much more trouble than the government regulators are letting on. David Moffet was CEO of Freddie Mac for just under 6 months and he must have thought the problems are too much too handle. The C-Level musical chairs at Freddie…

Before pulling the trigger on buying your house, you need to consider the case for buying now versus waiting for conditions to improve. In today's housing market, which is characterized by a "locked-in" effect where many existing homeowners with low mortgage rates are reluctant to sell, there is a strong…

The national average apartment rent was $1,742 a month in June 2026, up slightly from May, according to Apartments.com's rent report, while the Census Bureau's rental vacancy rate has climbed to around 7.2–7.3% — one of the highest readings in years. That combination (rents drifting up, vacancies also up) means…

In an attempt to help struggling American homeowners, the U.S. Department of Treasury, HUD, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Hope Now Alliance recently outlined a plan to avoid "preventable" foreclosures. Households that have missed three or more mortgage payments may receive assistance through refinanced…

I wrote a while back on how the US was leading home price declines earlier this year. Looks like the world has caught up to this unfortunate trend and pushed the relative US declines to the middle of the pack. As the most recent IMF economic report shows, the US…