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Mortgage Debt Hit $13.4 Trillion, but Half the Jump Was Paperwork, and HELOCs Just Had Their Biggest Quarter Since 2005

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Key Takeaways Total household debt rose $334 billion, or 1.8 percent, to $19.1 trillion in the third quarter of 2026, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York report released November 10. Mortgage balances rose $257 billion to $13.4 trillion, but about half of that increase was balances being reported again after a gap in the previous quarter, not new borrowing. Home equity line of credit balances rose $23 billion to $481 billion, the largest quarterly increase since 2005 and the 18th straight quarterly gain. 5.0 percent of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous quarter, while the New York Fed says the overall credit quality of housing debt remains strong. Household debt hit another record in the third quarter, and housing debt did most of the lifting. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit on Tuesday, November 10, 2026. Total household debt expanded by $334 billion...
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72% of Homebuyers Worry About Hidden Problems, and 45% Do Not Know What to Ask About a Home's Systems

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Key Takeaways 72% of homebuyers worry about hidden problems a home tour will not reveal, and 45% say they do not really know what to ask about a home's systems, according to Pearl's Home Performance Gap survey of 833 recent and active buyers. More than half of buyers say it is difficult to understand a home's true condition, even though 99% use online listing services and their agents to narrow their choices to a short list. Safety and health is the dimension buyers most often rank first when choosing a home, yet safety, health, or air quality appeared in just 6% of buyers' own definitions of home performance. Eight in ten buyers said a standardized home performance score would be valuable, and 91% said it would make them more confident choosing between homes. Most buyers can judge a kitchen from a photo. Far fewer can judge the furnace, the pipes, or the roof that will decide what the home actually costs them after closing. That gap now has a name and a set of numbers ...
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Mid-Atlantic Sales Fell 12% in October, but Inventory Jumped 22.1% While Prices Held Flat

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Key Takeaways Mid-Atlantic closed sales fell 12.0% from a year earlier to 16,794 in October, and new purchase contracts fell 17.4% to 17,784, according to Bright MLS. Active listings jumped 22.1% to 58,931 even though new listings fell 2.0%, so inventory is building because homes are sitting, not because sellers are flooding the market. The regional median sold price was unchanged from a year ago at $425,000, but the metros split: Philadelphia rose 2.8% to $400,000, Baltimore held flat at $405,000, and Washington, D.C., slipped 0.8% to $625,000. Contracts fell hardest in Washington, D.C., down 20.4%, while showings across the region dropped 12.8% to 244,073. The Mid-Atlantic housing market did not crack in October. It slowed down, all at once, on almost every measure Bright MLS tracks. Bright MLS released its October 2026 housing market report on November 10, 2026. Bright is the largest multiple listing service in the United States, with over 100,000 real estate professionals across si...
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ARMs Hit a Record 17% of Mortgage Locks as Total Lock Volume Fell 19% in October

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Key Takeaways Adjustable-rate mortgages reached 17% of all mortgage rate locks in October, up from 14% in September and the highest share in Optimal Blue data going back to 2019. Total lock volume fell 19% from September and 38% from a year earlier, and refinances shrank to just 16% of production as rate-and-term refinance volume fell 85% year over year. First-time buyers accounted for 45% of conforming purchase locks and 70% of FHA locks, while FHA share rose to 20% of all production. The conforming 30-year rate ended October at 7.15%, down 24 basis points in the month but up 99 basis points from a year earlier, and Optimal Blue forecasts 7.30% over the next month. Borrowers did not wait out high rates in October. They changed loan types instead. Optimal Blue released its October 2026 Market Advantage mortgage data report on November 10, 2026. The report is built on direct lock and secondary market data, not a survey, and its pricing platform is used to price and lock more than one-th...
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Prices Rose 0.4% in October, Shelter Drove Over 30% of It, and There Is No Annual Inflation Rate This Time

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Key Takeaways Consumer prices rose 0.4% in October after rising 0.6% in September, and core prices rose 0.3% for a third straight month, beating forecasts of 0.3% and 0.2% in a Reuters poll of economists. Shelter rose 0.3% and accounted for over thirty percent of the monthly increase, while rent of primary residence rose a cooler 0.2%. There is no official annual inflation rate for October: the Bureau of Labor Statistics never collected October 2025 prices during last year's lapse in appropriations, so it cannot publish 12-month changes. Core inflation landed exactly on the 0.3% line Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller set the night before for considering a 50 basis point hike at the December 8-9 meeting. Inflation cooled from September's pace and still came in hotter than expected. That combination is what makes the October Consumer Price Index, released November 10, 2026 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a difficult report for anyone waiting on cheaper bor...
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VA Loans Can Buy a Home About 4 Years Sooner, but 0% Down Costs $20 More a Month

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Key Takeaways A 0% down VA loan saved $41,925 upfront on the September median-priced home versus a 10% down conforming loan, cutting the time to homeownership by around four years, according to a new Realtor.com report. At the same 10% down, a VA loan payment was $2,387 a month versus $2,648 for a conforming loan, a saving of $261 a month, or 9.8%. Over the past year, 75.7% of VA-financed purchases required no down payment, and 24.3% of VA borrowers had fair credit scores, versus just 4.8% of conforming borrowers. The biggest barrier may be awareness: only 3 in 10 veterans were aware of the zero down payment benefit in a Veterans United survey cited in the report. A veteran who can afford a monthly payment but has not yet saved a down payment may be waiting years for no reason. That is the central finding of the Realtor.com VA loan report released on November 10, 2026, in recognition of Veterans Day. The report compares VA loans with conforming loans originated over the past 12 months...
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FHA Loans Are Now 47.2% of Seriously Late Mortgages, the Highest Share in Over 20 Years

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Key Takeaways FHA loans made up 47.2% of mortgages 60 days or more past due in the third quarter of 2026, the highest concentration in more than 20 years, according to TransUnion. The FHA delinquency rate reached 5.60%, up from 4.09% a year earlier, while performance on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and jumbo loans remained stable. The overall borrower-level 60-day delinquency rate was 1.64%, up from 1.36% a year earlier, so late payments are rising in one corner of the market, not across all of it. Mortgage originations still rose 12.8% year over year to 1.5 million in the second quarter, and refinance volume rose about 40%. Mortgage trouble is not spreading evenly. It is piling up in FHA loans, the loans many first-time and low-down-payment buyers use. TransUnion released its Q3 2026 Credit Industry Insights Report on November 5, 2026. The report covers 54.7 million mortgage loans and $13.1 trillion in balances. The Late Payments Are Concentrated in FHA Loans Nearly half of mortgages 60 ...
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