# Mortgage Mom Radio > Weekly mortgage education and live Q&A with Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926. Real-talk advice on home buying, refinancing, and the financing programs big banks don't tell you about. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About Debbie URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/about/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T20:07:27.000Z About # Meet Debbie Marcoux. Branch Manager, host, educator, and three-decade mortgage professional on a mission to make home financing something you actually understand. **Debbie Marcoux** is a licensed mortgage loan originator (**NMLS #237926**) and host of the *Mortgage Mom Radio* podcast and weekly live show. She has over 30 years of mortgage and real estate experience and is currently a Branch Manager at **JMJ Financial Group** (**NMLS #167867**). Debbie is licensed to originate mortgages in **14 U.S. states**: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. She specializes in conventional, FHA, VA, jumbo, DSCR (debt-service coverage ratio) investor loans, and bank-statement loans for self-employed borrowers. *Verify Debbie's license on the [NMLS Consumer Access registry](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com).* ![Debbie Marcoux, host of Mortgage Mom Radio](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/debbie.jpg) ## A 30-year career, two real estate careers, and a mission. Debbie started her real estate career in 1995 at the age of 18, selling homes through some of the most formative years of the California market. In 2001, her first son was born, and the unpredictable schedule of a working real estate agent gave way to something more sustainable. In 2002, she pivoted into mortgage lending — a side of the business that let her use the same client relationships, the same market expertise, and the same instinct for guiding people through big decisions, with the office hours that come with raising a family. She has been originating mortgages ever since. Over the course of 24+ years in lending (and a full 31 years in real estate overall), Debbie has helped thousands of families through every kind of market — the housing boom, the 2008 crash, the rate-shock years, and everything in between. **31**Years in real estate & mortgage **14**States licensed **20+**Podcast episodes & growing **NMLS**#237926 The Mission, in her words > “Mortgage Mom Radio is a real estate and mortgage education program. Early in my career I found that most of the issues that would arise for a client was simply due to not having enough knowledge or education about the homebuying and home financing process, the market, or the opportunities available to meet their goals. > > Watching my clients struggle and realizing that there is a deep need for education in this field, I developed Mortgage Mom Radio. We also help our clients choose the right mortgage program to fit their needs — Conventional, FHA, VA, Bank Statement, Investment Programs, Renovation, Fix & Flip, Reverse, and more. > > 30 years later, both of my sons have also joined the team. If you need help and don't know who to call — call MOM.” — Debbie Marcoux ## From Saturday-morning radio to live Wednesdays on YouTube. The show has worn three different faces over the last decade. The mission — free, honest, plain-English mortgage education — never changed. 2016 ### Saturday mornings on Go Country 105. The show launched on live radio in Los Angeles — an unusual home for mortgage education, but it worked. Listeners called in with real questions every week. Later ### The radio show became a podcast. As listeners began catching the show on demand instead of live, the format shifted naturally to podcasting — available everywhere, anytime, on every app. Today ### Live every Wednesday at 3PM PST on YouTube. The current chapter is a weekly live show. “I love the listener interactions and live questions during the show,” Debbie says — and viewers can text LIVE to 844‑935‑3634 to get the link delivered to their phone every week. The Mortgage Mom Legacy ## Both of her sons are on the team. The same first son whose 2001 arrival kicked off Debbie's switch into mortgage is now part of the business. So is his younger brother. Both are currently working alongside Debbie as **Loan Officer Assistants and Production Managers** of the podcast and YouTube channel — and they're instrumental in the team's success. Both are scheduled to be licensed within the next month, continuing the Mortgage Mom legacy. - **Manuel “Manny” Zermeno** NMLS #2403157 - **Miguel “Mikey” Zermeno** NMLS #2850875 The Branch ## Same team. New home base. Debbie recently moved from Valencia, CA to Lake Havasu City, AZ and now runs her branch from her new location. It's the same awesome team and the same excellent service her clients have come to expect — just a new view out the window. ## The full toolbox. Choosing the right loan program is half the battle. These are the programs Debbie works with every day. **Conventional**Fixed and ARM, low-down options, 97% LTV first-time buyer programs. **FHA**Lower credit thresholds, 3.5% down, strong for first-time and credit-rebuilding buyers. **VA**Zero-down financing for service members, veterans, and qualifying spouses. **Bank Statement**For self-employed borrowers using 12–24 months of bank deposits instead of tax returns. **Investment Programs**DSCR, rental income qualifying, and conventional investment loans. **Renovation**FHA 203(k), HomeStyle, and other rehab loans that finance the purchase plus the work. **Fix & Flip**Short-term financing for investors buying, renovating, and reselling. **Reverse**HECM loans for homeowners 62+ who want to tap equity without selling. Not sure which one fits? That's exactly what the conversation is for. [Schedule a call](https://phone.booking.appointmentreminder.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). ## If you need help and don't know who to call — call MOM. Whether you're buying your first home, your fifth, or refinancing what you already have, start with a conversation. No pressure, no jargon, no surprises. [Start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/) [Schedule a call](https://phone.booking.appointmentreminder.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Thanks for Subscribing URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/thanks/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:36:25.000Z You're In # Welcome aboard. You'll get your first weekly letter this Wednesday. Until then — here are a few good places to start. [Listen to the latest episode](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/podcast/) [Try the free tools](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/) ## While you're here. If you ever have a mortgage question, you can reach Debbie directly — no obligation, no sales pitch. [Ask a question](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/contact/) [Start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/) ### State Licensing URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/licensing/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T20:07:26.000Z *Verify any license on the* [*NMLS Consumer Access registry*](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com)*. Mortgages originated through *JMJ Financial Group, NMLS #167867*.* Licensing # Licensed in 14 states. **Debbie Marcoux (NMLS #237926)** is licensed as a mortgage loan originator in **14 U.S. states**: Arizona (AZ-0941504), California (DFPI), Colorado (237926), Florida (FL-LO76508), Georgia (GA-69178), Hawaii (HI-237926), Idaho (ID-MLO-2080237926), Illinois (IL-031.0058339), Nevada (NV-57237), North Carolina (NC-I-210940), Oregon, Tennessee (TN-184373), Texas, and Washington (WA-MLO-237926). *Verify any license on the [NMLS Consumer Access registry](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). Mortgages originated through *JMJ Financial Group, NMLS #167867*.* [View NMLS profile ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [Search NMLS directly ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/Home.aspx/MainSearch?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) **14** active state licenses **#237926** NMLS ID **30+** years originating ## Where Debbie is licensed. Highlighted states are active originations. Hover any state for the license number. AlaskaHawaii ## Every state — verifiable. AZ ### Arizona Loan Originator License License # LO-0941504 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) CA ### California Mortgage Loan Originator License License # CA-DBO237926 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) CO ### Colorado Mortgage Loan Originator License License # 237926 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) FL ### Florida Mortgage Loan Originator License License # LO76508 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) GA ### Georgia Mortgage Loan Originator License License # 69178 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) HI ### Hawaii Mortgage Loan Originator License License # HI-237926 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ID ### Idaho Mortgage Loan Originator License License # MLO-2080237926 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) IL ### Illinois Mortgage Loan Originator License License # 031.0058339 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) NV ### Nevada Mortgage Loan Originator License License # 57237 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) NC ### North Carolina Mortgage Loan Originator License License # I-210940 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) OR ### Oregon Mortgage Loan Originator License License # 237926 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) TN ### Tennessee Mortgage Loan Originator License License # 184373 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) TX ### Texas Mortgage Loan Originator License # 237926 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) WA ### Washington Mortgage Loan Originator License License # MLO-237926 Status Active [Verify on NMLS ↗ ](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Loan Originator licensing is administered by individual state regulators and recorded nationally through the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS). License numbers and statuses above are pulled directly from NMLS Consumer Access. To independently verify any of these, visit the [official NMLS Consumer Access record for NMLS #237926](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/237926?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). **States served:** Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington. ## Need a mortgage in one of these states? Whether you're buying, refinancing, or just shopping rates — Debbie can help in any of the 14 states above. [Start your application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/) [Get in touch](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/contact/) ### Client Reviews URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/reviews/ Last updated: 2026-08-24T20:35:09.000Z Client Reviews # What it's like to work with Debbie. Real reviews from real clients on Google and Yelp. We don't curate the bad ones — click through to either profile to read every review. [ 5.0 Google · 19 reviews View on Google → ](https://share.google/55hBnoD37HlBMBbZ2?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ 4.9 Yelp · 41 reviews View on Yelp → ](https://www.yelp.com/biz/mortgage-mom-radio-valencia-8?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Google ## From Google Reviews. [See all on Google →](https://share.google/55hBnoD37HlBMBbZ2?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Google “Debbie was a true professional throughout the entire transaction and her team was so easy to work with all the way through close of escrow. I can't wait to use Debbie again for future deals and would encourage others to use her for your real estate needs — she's the best!” DP David Perry August 2026 Google “From beginning to end, Debbie was professional, knowledgeable, responsive, and always willing to answer our questions and guide us through every step of the loan process. Buying a home can feel overwhelming, but Debbie made the process much easier for us. We are now officially homeowners, and we couldn't be happier!” FM Flor Montejo August 2026 Google “Debbie was the absolute best during our home buying process. She was thorough, knowledgeable, and extremely professional. We will only work with Debbie in the future.” RP Rebecca Perez August 2026 Google “After having a very difficult experience with my previous lender, she stepped in and completely changed my experience for the better. Even though I was located in a different state, she went above and beyond to make me feel supported and taken care of. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a knowledgeable, trustworthy, and dedicated mortgage lender.” KO Kristin Okon August 2026 Google “We found the perfect house for our family but just couldn't find a way to make it work financially. Debbie refused to give up — she went above and beyond to find a lending product that both met our needs and was reasonable from a cost perspective. We would not be in our new home without Debbie's creativity and perseverance.” GT Gerald Turpin July 2026 Google “Debbie was amazing to work with! She made everything very easy and went out of her way to help me. I would absolutely go through her again and will confidently recommend her to everyone.” BR Brenda Roberts July 2026 Google “She was very honest and thorough about the million questions I had. She's very knowledgeable and works very quickly during escrow. Most importantly, she's willing to get you the best deal. We loved working with her and would highly recommend giving her a call if you're even on the fence.” RC Roberto Castro July 2026 Google “Debbie was great and easy to work with. Truly felt like she was a mom looking out for us! Would 100% work with her again and recommend her to our own family.” KC Karina Castro July 2026 Google “The mortgage process can be quite complicated for the lay person however Debbie made it easy to understand and easy to get through. She is extremely knowledgeable and so helpful. She made sure that I knew exactly where we were at every step in the process.” LB Lisa Beck July 2026 Google “Debbie was very helpful. We found her to be professional, knowledgeable, and attentive through our whole loan process. Highly recommend.” ZN Zack Newman July 2026 Google “Debbie & her team were amazing finding me an awesome Realtor to list & sell my home in North Las Vegas. I will definitely continue to use her & her team for my future real estate needs. BEST team ever. Thank you so much.” LB Lisa Brown July 2026 Google “If you've ever been through the mortgage process, you know how overwhelming it can feel. Debbie took all of that away. Every single step of the way, she walked us through exactly what was happening, what to expect, and what we needed to do. She called us at 8am our time — which was 6am her time — just to make sure we didn't have any questions. She doesn't just process your mortgage, she guides you through one of the biggest financial decisions of your life with patience, knowledge, and genuine care.” SH S. Hill June 2026 Google “We have worked with Debbie for more than 15 years and have trusted her with every real estate purchase we've made during that time. We have now completed well over a dozen transactions with Debbie and her team, and we wouldn't consider working with any other lender. Her professionalism, integrity, and dedication have earned our complete trust.” DC Desiree Chavez June 2026 Google “Debbie helped my son purchase a condo recently. This would not have been possible without her knowledge, experience and patience. She walked my son through every step in the process, and offered honest options to hurdles thrown our way. Debbie was so on the ball, she had our loan docs ready before our closing date. Our Escrow Officer is now recommending Debbie, as she said she never gets loan documents early from lenders.” ME M. E. June 2026 Google “I reached out to Debbie at Mortgage Mom Radio with only a 21 day closing. She had our loan approved and loan documents out in just two weeks. She did an amazing job, and was very delightful, responsive, and friendly as well! My realtor was so impressed she is now referring her clients to Debbie. She deserves 6 stars, if that were an option.” MV Mary Vachon June 2026 Google “Debbie went above and beyond my expectations in the loan approval process. Thanks to Debbie we met every contingency as scheduled. The electronic application process was seamless, and Debbie's personal approach was great!” JM Joseph Meeker June 2026 Google “So grateful for their help at every step of the process! Would recommend the Mortgage Moms to anyone who wants a smart, caring, informed helping hand throughout the stressful process of buying a house!” AV Alyssa Vikesland June 2026 Google “Debbie was amazing. She was polite, professional and got our loans completed in a timely manner.” VR Vincent Randolph June 2026 Google “Debbie and her group helped me every step of the way!” RM Randall Mounger June 2026 Yelp ## From Yelp. [See all on Yelp →](https://www.yelp.com/biz/mortgage-mom-radio-valencia-8?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Yelp “Debbie is very knowledgeable — she knows the mortgage industry like the back of her hand. She is genuine, honest, friendly and conducts her business professionally. Debbie built the Mortgage Mom brand around educating clients through her experience and passion for wanting others to be successful. She helps clients make educated home buying decisions and doesn't make you feel like you're signing your life away for your home.” MH Makele H. Canoga Park, CA · Jan 2022 Yelp “Debbie has YOUR best interest at heart. After getting a quote from a different lender I called Debbie back to see if she could offer me a better deal. She took a look at the numbers of the other lender and to my surprise she told me to go with the other lender as it would save me some money. She is not out to just make a sale — she really wants to give you a loan that is best for you, even if it's not her processing the loan.” JA Juan A. Whittier, CA · Sep 2020 Yelp “Debbie is an unbelievable loan officer! She is a master at mortgage numbers and was always available to take our call. Debbie & Heidi had us approved and our loan funded without a hitch. They made the whole process so easy for us and definitely were on their 'A' game! In this day & age, it's so hard to find someone that goes over and above and is so on-the-ball.” CJ C & J L. Torrance, CA · Jun 2019 Yelp “Debbie and Heidi are awesome! They jumped in quickly and helped my husband and I work on a loan approval in Knoxville, TN. I used to listen to them on the radio on Saturday mornings when we lived in Anaheim, CA. After listening to them for so many months, I knew that I really wanted to work with them. They are licensed in several states, so helping us after we moved was a 'no-brainer'.” SE Shannon E. Knoxville, TN · May 2024 Yelp “Debbie, Marla, and the entire team at Mortgage Mom were incredibly knowledgeable and informative about the home buying process! As a young, single professional I've been interested in becoming a homeowner for some time but just didn't know where to even begin. I walked in knowing the basics and left feeling equipped with the tools, information, and confidence to make buying a home a reality, and not just a dream.” CB Coco B. Lomita, CA · Apr 2018 Yelp “I attended one of her seminars and learned a great deal about how to approach the complicated lending process as a working mom. I appreciated how she and her team never pitched or talked down to anyone, no matter how little we knew.” MC Melissa C. Newport Beach, CA · Sep 2020 ## Ready to start your own story? Whether you're buying your first home or your fifth, Debbie will walk you through every step. [Start your application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/) [Ask a question first](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/contact/) ### Press & Media Kit URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/press/ Last updated: 2026-08-27T04:05:11.000Z Press & Media Kit # For reporters, podcasters, *and bookers.* Everything you need to quote Debbie, book her on your show, or write about Mortgage Mom Radio. Bios, headshots, logos, recent press, and speaking topics — all on one page. [Book Debbie](#book) [Download the kit](#assets) ## Press contact - Email [questions@mortgagemomradio.com](mailto:questions@mortgagemomradio.com?subject=Press%20inquiry) - Phone [(844) 935-3634](tel:18449353634) - Response time Usually within one business day - Time zone America/Phoenix (year-round MST) 30+ years in real estate & lending 13 states licensed 250+ episodes published Wed 3pm PT weekly live show Bios ## Pick your length. Three pre-written bios for any byline length. Click “copy” and paste into your piece — every word has been fact-checked. Short Copy Debbie Marcoux is “The Mortgage Mom,” host of Mortgage Mom Radio and a Branch Manager at JMJ Financial. She’s been in lending since 2002 and is licensed in 14 states (NMLS #237926). Standard Copy Debbie Marcoux is “The Mortgage Mom” — host of Mortgage Mom Radio, a weekly podcast and live YouTube show that demystifies the home loan process for buyers, sellers, and refinancers in plain English. Debbie has been in the lending industry since 2002, started her real estate career in 1995, and has closed thousands of loans across her 30+ years in the business. She is currently a Branch Manager at JMJ Financial and is licensed as a Mortgage Loan Originator in 14 states (NMLS #237926). Her show airs Wednesdays at 3pm Pacific and is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and as a YouTube replay. Long Copy Debbie Marcoux is “The Mortgage Mom” — a registered trademark, host of Mortgage Mom Radio, and a working Branch Manager who closes loans for real clients every week. Her show started as a way to answer the same questions she was hearing on calls all day, and has grown into a weekly podcast and live YouTube broadcast reaching homeowners and homebuyers across the country. Debbie began her career in 1995 as a licensed real estate salesperson before moving into mortgage lending in 2002\. Over the next two-plus decades she has closed thousands of loans, with a particular focus on first-time homebuyers, specialty loan programs, and helping families navigate complex purchase and refinance scenarios. Today she runs the Lake Havasu City branch of JMJ Financial (NMLS #41DBO-46011, California DBO) and holds active NMLS licenses in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. Mortgage Mom Radio has been featured among top mortgage podcasts industry professionals subscribe to, and Debbie regularly partners with real estate agents, builders, and homebuyer education programs across the West. She speaks in plain English about the things most lenders won’t — fees, rate math, fraud red flags, loan-program tradeoffs, and what to actually do when the market turns. Two of her sons, Manny (NMLS #2403157) and Mikey (NMLS #2850875), also work on the team. Always cite NMLS #237926 and reference the trademark on first mention: “The Mortgage Mom” is a registered trademark. Speaking topics ## What Debbie can talk about. Eight topic areas with depth. Each one is something Debbie has covered on the show, taught in workshops, or worked through with hundreds of real clients. Pick one, mix several, or pitch a new angle. ### Rate cuts, rate holds, and the math homeowners actually need What Fed moves mean for mortgage rates this week — and the real difference between “rates dropped” on the news and the rate a buyer locks today. ### First-time homebuyer reality check Down payment myths, what closing costs actually include, when to use FHA vs conventional vs USDA, and how to qualify on one income. ### Refinance decision-making in a high-rate world When refis make sense, when they don’t, cash-out vs rate-and-term, breakeven math, and what to do if you’re sitting on a 3% mortgage. ### Mortgage fraud and consumer protection The fraud patterns Debbie sees in the wild — wire fraud, appraisal scams, deed theft, predatory loan officers — and how borrowers can protect themselves. ### Specialty loan programs nobody talks about Portable mortgages, 50-year terms, DSCR for investors, bank statement loans, ITIN borrowers, down-payment assistance — the programs hiding in plain sight. ### Real estate investing for regular people Investment property loans, 1031 exchanges, house hacking, moving an investment property out of California, and the loan rules that change everything for landlords. ### Women in finance and small-business leadership Building a multi-state lending team as a woman in a male-dominated industry, running Mortgage Mom Radio Inc as CEO, and bringing the next generation into the business. ### Why mortgage education matters now more than ever How housing affordability, generational wealth, and financial literacy intersect — and why every homebuyer deserves to understand what they’re signing. Downloadable assets ## Headshots, logos, and the full kit. Right-click + save, or click any tile to download. All assets are cleared for editorial use as long as you credit Mortgage Mom Radio and don’t alter the trademark or logo. [ ![Debbie Marcoux headshot](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/debbie.jpg) Debbie — main headshot JPG · high-res ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/debbie.jpg) [ ![Debbie Marcoux on set](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/debbie.png) Debbie — on set PNG · broadcast ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/debbie.png) [ ![Mortgage Mom Radio logo — dark on light](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/logo-dark.jpg) Logo — dark on light JPG · for print & light backgrounds ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/logo-dark.jpg) [ ![Mortgage Mom Radio logo — white on dark](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/logo-white.png) Logo — white on dark PNG · for web & dark backgrounds ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/logo-white.png) ### Full media kit (PDF) Bios, headshots, logos, talking points, show description, and recent press — zipped into one downloadable kit. Ideal for booking producers. [Request the full kit](mailto:questions@mortgagemomradio.com?subject=Media%20kit%20request) Featured in ## Recent press & mentions. Where Mortgage Mom Radio has shown up. Click through to read the original source. [ iJungo 2022 Top 13 Mortgage Podcasts Successful Loan Officers Should Subscribe To “First beginning her real estate career back in 1995, Mortgage Mom Radio podcast host Debbie Marcoux now hops on the mic every week to share her wealth of lending knowledge.” Read the mention → ](https://ijungo.com/top-13-mortgage-podcasts/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ Team Whitney Real Estate 2024 Trusted Preferred Lenders — South Bay “Debbie is the host of the Mortgage Mom Radio show, which is based on educating the consumer on the real estate and mortgage process.” Read the mention → ](https://www.teamwhitney.com/preferred%5Flenders%5Fin%5Fthe%5Fsouth%5Fbay?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ Apple Podcasts — Business / Investing 2019–present Mortgage Mom Radio — charted in mortgage education Mortgage Mom Radio has been a steady presence in the Apple Podcasts business / investing category since 2019, with 250+ episodes published. Read the mention → ](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1304740997?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ Amazon Music Podcasts 2019–present Mortgage Mom Radio “A mortgage and real estate education show hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS ID 237926 — helping all those who are navigating the real estate, home buying, and mortgage process.” Read the mention → ](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/80ba9751-f236-4839-97dc-0728fbbde563/mortgage-mom-radio?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Book Debbie ## Pitch a story, book a guest spot, or set up an interview. Tell us what you’re working on. We’ll come back with a yes / no / let’s-talk usually within one business day. If you have a hard deadline, put it in the subject and we’ll move it up. - Podcast and YouTube guest spots - Local and national TV / radio - Print and online editorial interviews - Corporate / industry speaking engagements Your name Outlet / show Email Phone (optional) Type of opportunity Pick one Podcast or YouTube guest spot TV / radio interview Print or online editorial Corporate or industry speaking Quote / source for an in-progress story Something else What’s the angle, deadline, or topic? Send the pitch Press inquiries are read same-day on weekdays. We never share your contact info or your story angle. ### Sponsors & Advertisers URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/sponsors/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T20:05:49.000Z Sponsors & Advertisers # Talk to homeowners and homebuyers *who are actually paying attention.* Mortgage Mom Radio reaches motivated buyers, sellers, and refinancers across podcast, YouTube, a weekly live show, and a growing email list. If your product helps people move, finance, or protect a home — you belong here. [Request the rate card](#rate-card) [See sponsorship options](#what-you-get) ## At a glance - **Host-read** — every read is Debbie, on-air, in her own voice. No voiceover talent. - **Multi-channel** — one sponsor package can run across podcast, video, newsletter, and social. - **Mortgage-native audience** — listeners come for rate education and lending help. They're already in market. - **Quarterly minimums** — we don't do one-off ads. Sponsors run for at least a quarter so the audience actually remembers you. The audience ## A small list, but the right one. We won't quote you a million downloads. What we will tell you is that the people who tune in are actively making mortgage decisions — they call Debbie, they apply, and they refer their friends. That's the audience your spot reaches. 30+ years on air Debbie's been broadcasting mortgage education to homeowners and buyers since the early '90s. 13 states served Active NMLS licenses in AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Weekly live show Wednesdays at 3PM Pacific on YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook — plus the on-demand replay. 4 channels Podcast (Apple + Spotify), YouTube, weekly newsletter, and the SMS opt-in list. Want hard download, view, and open-rate numbers? They're in the rate card — [request it below](#rate-card). What sponsors get ## Four ways to show up. Most sponsors run a bundle — an audio read plus a newsletter mention, for example. We'll size it to your budget when you request the rate card. Audio ### Pre-roll & mid-roll reads 30 or 60-second host-read spots in every podcast episode — dropped into the existing distribution feed (Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube). Debbie reads everything personally, no canned voiceover. Video ### On-camera integrations Live mentions during the Wednesday show, plus pre-recorded segments where Debbie walks viewers through a sponsor's product (great for title companies, insurance, home services, fintech). Newsletter ### Weekly newsletter placements Top-of-fold banner or a dedicated 'Recommended by Debbie' callout in the weekly mortgage roundup email. Sent every Friday to engaged subscribers. Social ### Cross-channel social Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok callouts attached to your spot, plus a featured spot on the show's YouTube community tab. Available as standalone or bundled. Good fit? ## Who advertises with us. We protect the audience — that's the whole job. Sponsors are carefully selected so listeners can trust every recommendation. Here's who tends to fit. **Not a fit:** crypto, payday loans, multi-level marketing, get-rich-quick offers, or anything Debbie wouldn't personally recommend to her own clients. - Title and escrow companies - Homeowners insurance carriers - Real estate brokerages and teams - Home-service brands (HVAC, roofing, solar, security) - Builder marketing programs - Down-payment assistance programs - Fintech tools for homebuyers and homeowners - Tax, financial planning, and estate services “ > Working with Debbie is the easiest media buy I make all year. She reads everything herself, she actually uses the product, and her audience calls us by name when they reach out. That doesn't happen with most podcasts. Sponsor testimonial — swap in real quote Request the rate card ## Tell us a bit about your brand and we'll send the deck. The rate card includes audience numbers, available formats, package pricing, current openings on the calendar, and a few example reads so you can hear how your spot would sound. We send it as a PDF, usually within one business day. - One-page audience overview with download / view / open-rate data - Available formats and current quarter inventory - Sample audio reads and video integrations - Quarterly and annual package pricing Your name Company Work email Phone (optional) Monthly budget range Pick a range Under $1,000 / mo $1,000 — $2,500 / mo $2,500 — $5,000 / mo $5,000 — $10,000 / mo $10,000+ / mo Not sure yet What are you hoping to promote? Send the rate card We read every inquiry. Rate cards usually go out within one business day. Your information is never shared. ## Got a quick question instead? Email [questions@mortgagemomradio.com](mailto:questions@mortgagemomradio.com) with “Sponsorship” in the subject and we'll get back to you. ### Referral Partners URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/partners/ Last updated: 2026-09-01T16:26:45.000Z Referral Partners # Real estate agents we trust. These are the agents Debbie partners with regularly across the states she serves. If you're buying or selling and need a great agent on the ground, start here. [Are you an agent? Apply to be a partner](#become-a-partner) Arizona ## Arizona. ![Niky Goudreau](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/niky-goudreau.jpg) ### Niky Goudreau Realty One Group Mountain Desert Areas servedLake Havasu City License #SA548015000 [928-486-3456](tel:9284863456)[Visit website →](https://www.nikyg.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Jamison Briley](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/jamison-briley.webp) ### Jamison Briley Real Estate Brokers of Arizona Areas servedMaricopa & Pinal Counties (Phoenix metro) License #BR652355000 [480-694-6883](tel:4806946883)[Visit website →](https://www.realestatebrokersofarizona.com/phoenix-real-estate?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Britanie Criscione](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/britanie-criscione.jpg) ### Britanie Criscione Coldwell Banker Realty — The River Cities Group Areas servedLake Havasu City, Bullhead City, Kingman, Golden Valley, Fort Mohave, Mohave Valley & Topock License #SA711518000 [928-219-0075](tel:9282190075)[Visit website →](https://desertkeysisters.sites.cbmoxi.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Aubree Vincent](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/aubree-vincent.jpg) ### Aubree Vincent Coldwell Banker Realty — The River Cities Group Areas servedLake Havasu City, Bullhead City, Kingman, Golden Valley, Fort Mohave, Mohave Valley & Topock License #SA700686000 [951-374-2811](tel:9513742811)[Visit website →](https://desertkeysisters.sites.cbmoxi.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Chelsea Weighner](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/chelsea-weighner.jpg) ### Chelsea Weighner The Gillette Group at Real Broker Areas servedQueen Creek, San Tan Valley, Apache Junction, Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe & Mesa License #SA665342000 [970-672-6569](tel:+19706726569)[Visit website →](https://gillettegroupaz.com/agents/chelsea-weighner?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) California ## California. ![Vera Nelson](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/vera-nelson.jpg) ### Vera Nelson Hythe Realty Areas servedAll of Southern California License #02117676 [626-298-3025](tel:6262983025)[Visit website →](https://www.hytherealty.com/agents?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Michelle Cervantes](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/michelle-cervantes.jpg) ### Michelle Cervantes JohnHart Real Estate · Fluent in Spanish Areas servedRiverside, San Bernardino, Orange & Los Angeles Counties License #01828344 [626-712-7143](tel:+16267127143)[Visit website →](https://michellecervantes.jhagents.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Jorge (George) Huerta Fuentes](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/jorge-huerta-fuentes.jpg) ### Jorge (George) Huerta Fuentes eXp Realty · Fluent in Spanish Areas servedLos Angeles County License #02164206 [661-468-0402](tel:+16614680402)[Visit website →](https://jorgehuertafuentes.exprealty.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Tony Geraets](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/tony-geraets.jpg) ### Tony Geraets Keller Williams Exclusive Properties · The Barkley Group Areas servedVentura & Los Angeles Counties — Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, San Fernando Valley, Ventura, Santa Paula, Fillmore & Piru License #01338521 [805-404-3650](tel:+18054043650)[Visit website →](https://thebarkleygroup.net/about?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Deborah Cowles](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/deborah-cowles.jpg) ### Deborah Cowles Compass Areas servedOrange County License #01232658 [949-697-1219](tel:9496971219)[Visit website →](https://www.dkcowles.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Ann Harris](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/ann-harris.jpg) ### Ann Harris Alta Realty Group Areas servedSouth Orange County License #01339869 [949-433-3225](tel:9494333225)[Visit website →](https://www.facebook.com/annharris29/) ![Wayne Smith](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/wayne-smith.jpg) ### Wayne Smith Corona del Mar Properties Areas servedNewport Beach License #00922140 [949-300-2215](tel:9493002215)[Visit website →](https://www.coronadelmarproperties.com/about/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Alyssa Banko](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/alyssa-banko.jpg) ### Alyssa Banko Moore Realty Solutions / Property Gals Areas servedSanta Clarita Valley, LA County License #02039877 [661-904-4380](tel:6619044380)[Visit website →](https://www.zillow.com/profile/PROPERTYGALS5?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Howard Herron](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/howard-herron.jpg) ### Howard Herron Litchfield Asset Management Areas servedSimi Valley & San Fernando Valley License #01909928 [818-995-1999](tel:8189951999)[Visit website →](https://www.litchfieldmgmt.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Stacey Franklin](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/stacey-franklin.jpg) ### Stacey Franklin Pinnacle Estate Properties Areas servedSanta Clarita, LA County License #01412742 [818-515-6959](tel:8185156959)[Visit website →](https://staceyfranklinrealestate.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Patrice Howard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/patrice-howard.jpg) ### Patrice Howard 1st Property Real Estate Areas servedAntelope Valley & Kern County License #01086726 [661-406-7635](tel:6614067635)[Visit website →](https://1stpropertyrealestate.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Cassidy Cook](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/cassidy-cook.jpg) ### Cassidy Cook Coldwell Banker Realty Areas servedWoodland Hills, Calabasas, Westlake, Agoura & Thousand Oaks License #01880999 [661-231-5783](tel:+16612315783)[Visit website →](https://cassidycookrealestate.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Nathan Strager](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/nathan-strager.jpg) ### Nathan Strager Virtue Real Estate Areas servedSan Diego License #CA 02200677 [702-301-1091](tel:7023011091)[Visit website →](https://www.nathanstrager.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Justin Berry](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/justin-berry.jpg) ### Justin Berry Caritas Realty Areas servedCathedral City, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Indian Wells, Indio, Desert Hot Springs, Thousand Palms, Bermuda Dunes, Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley License #01768534 [760-449-3584](tel:7604493584)[Visit website →](https://caritasrealty.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Bobbie Cerda](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/bobbie-cerda.jpg) ### Bobbie Cerda TradeMark Real Estate, Inc. Areas servedLos Angeles County — South Pasadena, Pasadena, Alhambra & San Marino License #01781812 [323-788-1171](tel:3237881171)[Visit website →](https://trademark-realestate.com/bobbie-cerda/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Florida ## Florida. ![Tracy Finkelstein](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/tracy-finkelstein.jpg) ### Tracy Finkelstein Re/Max Marketing Specialists Areas servedPasco & Hernando Counties License #SL3596750 [813-323-1314](tel:8133231314)[Visit website →](https://tracy.hardyrealtor.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Doug Kunz](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/doug-kunz.jpg) ### Doug Kunz In The Home Zone Realty Areas servedVolusia County License #3266697 [321-544-8405](tel:3215448405)[Visit website →](https://inthehomezonerealty.com/team?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Sarah McCandless](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/sarah-mccandless.jpg) ### Sarah McCandless Equity Realty Areas servedCollier County (Naples) License #3253913 [239-825-8674](tel:2398258674)[Visit website →](https://heritagehometeamfl.com/agent/sarah-mccandless?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Georgia ## Georgia. ![Elizabeth Recoulle](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/elizabeth-recoulle.jpg) ### Elizabeth Recoulle Next Move Real Estate & Property Management Areas servedSavannah, Hinesville, Collier, Rincon, Richmond Hill & Gainesville License #402554 [912-230-2273](tel:+19122302273) Nevada ## Nevada. ![Kayla Sisson](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/kayla-sisson.jpg) ### Kayla Sisson RE/MAX Professionals Areas servedWashoe County (Reno) License #S.019384 [775-657-0800](tel:7756570800)[Visit website →](https://lclarkegroup.com/agent/kayla-sisson?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Nathan Strager](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/nathan-strager.jpg) ### Nathan Strager Virtue Real Estate Areas servedLas Vegas License #CA 02200677 [702-301-1091](tel:7023011091)[Visit website →](https://www.nathanstrager.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Kylie Lawson](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/kylie-lawson.jpg) ### Kylie Lawson LPT Realty, LLC Areas servedWashoe (Reno/Sparks), Carson City, Churchill (Fallon), Lyon (Fernley, Dayton) & Douglas (Gardnerville/Minden) Counties License #S.0202556 [775-293-2083](tel:7752932083)[Visit website →](https://www.zillow.com/profile/kylielawson44?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Robin Verley](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/08/robin-verley.jpg) ### Robin Verley Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties Areas servedLas Vegas & Henderson License #S.0042954 [702-275-0989](tel:7022750989)[Visit website →](https://theverleygroup.bhhsnv.com/robin-verley---team-lead?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Oregon ## Oregon. ![Kevin Hall](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/kevin-hall.jpg) ### Kevin Hall Hall Group Properties Areas servedPortland, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Dunthorpe License #201207799 [503-799-7255](tel:5037997255)[Visit website →](https://hallgroupproperties.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) South Carolina ## South Carolina. ![Diana Sroufe](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/diana-sroufe.jpg) ### Diana Sroufe Charter One Realty Areas servedBeaufort County (Hilton Head) License #49739 [843-368-7399](tel:8433687399)[Visit website →](https://diana-sroufe.charteronerealty.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Tennessee ## Tennessee. ![Margaret Lavier](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/margaret-lavier.jpg) ### Margaret Lavier Southern Homes & Farms Areas servedKnox County (Knoxville) License #276153 [865-548-2934](tel:8655482934)[Visit website →](https://www.southernhomesandfarms.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Misty Lindsey](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/misty-lindsey.jpg) ### Misty Lindsey Elam Real Estate Areas servedMiddle Tennessee — Murfreesboro, Nashville, Rutherford County License #334195 [615-653-3622](tel:6156533622)[Visit website →](https://elamre.com/misty-lindsey/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Texas ## Texas. ![Priscilla Hernandez](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/priscilla-hernandez.jpg) ### Priscilla Hernandez JPAR Real Estate Areas servedBexar, Comal & Medina Counties (San Antonio) License #625921 [210-264-9432](tel:2102649432)[Visit website →](https://find.jpar.com/agent/69591/Priscilla+Hernandez/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Alex Wilson](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/alex-wilson.jpg) ### Alex Wilson Vortex Realty Areas servedAustin to San Antonio License #729831 [210-557-1828](tel:2105571828)[Visit website →](https://facebook.com/alexjwilrealtor) ![Denise McPeters](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/partners/denise-mcpeters.jpg) ### Denise McPeters McPeters Group Areas servedCollin, Denton, Kaufman & Rockwall Counties (North Texas) License #0622368 [214-675-6004](tel:2146756004)[Visit website →](https://mcpetersgroup.com/about-us/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Julie Dollahite](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/06/julie-dollahite.jpg) ### Julie Dollahite Bachman Realty Group Areas servedDenton, Wise, Tarrant, Cooke, Collin & Montague Counties (DFW) License #0821074 [214-534-7471](tel:2145347471)[Visit website →](https://www.bachmanrealtygroup.com/agents/julie-dollahite/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ## Become a referral partner. Debbie is always looking for great agents in the markets she lends in. Tell her about yourself and your market, and she'll reach out if it looks like a fit. Full name \* Brokerage \* License # \* State & areas served \* Phone \* Email \* Website or profile link Tell Debbie about your business Send application Sending opens your email app with your application addressed to [marketing@mortgagemomradio.com](mailto:marketing@mortgagemomradio.com) — or just email us directly. ### Schedule an Appointment URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/schedule/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T20:05:45.000Z Schedule an Appointment # Let's find a time to talk. Pick a day and time that works for you and book a phone appointment with Debbie directly — no obligation, no pressure. To schedule an appointment with **Debbie Marcoux (NMLS #237926)**, "The Mortgage Mom," book a phone appointment below and pick the day and time that work best for you. You can also call or text [(844) 935-3634](tel:+18449353634) or email [debbie@mortgagemomradio.com](mailto:debbie@mortgagemomradio.com). Office in Lake Havasu City, Arizona — serving 14 states remotely. *Mortgages originated through *JMJ Financial Group, NMLS #167867*.* ## Book your phone appointment. Pick a day and time below — you'll get a confirmation and a reminder before your call. Trouble with the calendar? [Open the booking page in a new tab →](https://phone.booking.appointmentreminder.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Your appointment goes straight to **Debbie Marcoux (NMLS #237926)**. ## Prefer to reach out directly? Toll-Free [(844) 935-3634](tel:8449353634) Call or text MOM to this number Email [debbie@mortgagemomradio.com](mailto:debbie@mortgagemomradio.com) Direct Line [(661) 349-8300](tel:6613498300) Office 2150 N Kiowa Blvd, Suite A-108 Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403 By appointment only Live Show [Wednesdays at 3PM PST on YouTube](https://youtube.com/mortgagemomradio/live?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [Text yourself the link each week →](https://slktxt.io/15Csn?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ## Find the office. By-appointment branch in Lake Havasu City, Arizona — same team, same service, new view. [Get directions →](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&destination=2150+N+Kiowa+Blvd+A-108,+Lake+Havasu+City,+AZ+86403&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Apply Now URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T20:05:47.000Z Apply # Start your application. Whether you're buying or refinancing, the first step is the same: a quick conversation about what you're trying to do. Pick whichever way is easiest. Start a mortgage application with **Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926**, a licensed mortgage loan originator with **JMJ Financial Group (NMLS #167867)**. Debbie is licensed in 14 states: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, WA. Loan programs available: **Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, Jumbo, DSCR (investor), Bank Statement (self-employed), Reverse Mortgage, and Refinance**. Applications are processed through a secure encrypted portal — no documents are sent over email. [ Full online application The full 1003 application through Debbie's secure JMJ Financial portal. Takes about 15 minutes and goes straight to her. Start application → ](https://portal.jmj.me/lo/dmarcoux?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ Schedule a call Pick a time that works for you and Debbie will call. Best if you want to talk through your options before applying. Book a time → ](https://phone.booking.appointmentreminder.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ Just ask a question Not sure what you need yet? Send a quick message and Debbie will get back to you. Send a message → ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/contact/) [ Run the numbers first Not ready to talk yet? Use the free tools to see what you'd qualify for. See the tools → ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/) ## What happens after you apply. 1. **Discovery call** — Debbie calls to understand your goals, timeline, and situation. No pressure. 2. **Pre-approval** — She runs your credit and income, and gives you a pre-approval letter you can shop with. 3. **Loan structuring** — Once you have a property (or refi target), she structures the loan to fit your goals. 4. **Closing** — Debbie's team walks you through underwriting and closing, start to finish. ### Mortgage Tools URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:15:41.000Z Free Tools # Calculators and quick answers. Run the numbers yourself before you talk to anyone. No email, no signup, no pressure — just math you can trust. **Mortgage Mom Radio's free tools** include calculators for monthly mortgage payments, home affordability, rent vs. buy comparisons, extra-payment payoff acceleration, debt-to-income (DTI) ratios, and the blended interest rate across all of your debts. All calculators run in your browser — no email, signup, or credit pull required. The page also offers downloadable PDF guides covering loan programs, the home-buying timeline, and refinance break-even math. Tools are maintained by **Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926**, a mortgage loan originator licensed in 14 states. [Mortgage Payment](#payment) [Affordability](#afford) [Rent vs. Buy](#rentbuy) [Extra Payment](#extra) [DTI](#dti) [Blended Rate](#blended) [Free Guides PDF](#guides) Calculator 01 ## Mortgage Payment Principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and HOA — the real monthly cost of a home, not just the loan part. Home price $ Down payment $ Interest rate % Loan term years 30 25 20 15 10 Property tax % / yr Home insurance $ / yr HOA $ / mo PMI % / yr Estimated monthly payment $0 - Principal & interest**$0** - Property tax**$0** - Home insurance**$0** - HOA**$0** - PMI **$0** Loan amount: **$0** · Down: **0%** Calculator 02 ## Affordability How much house can you actually buy? This uses the 43% back-end DTI most conventional lenders cap at, then backs into a max purchase price. Gross monthly income $ Monthly debt payments $ (cards, car, student loans) Down payment $ Interest rate % Property tax % / yr Home insurance $ / yr DTI cap % 36% (conservative) 43% (conventional) 50% (aggressive) Max home price $0 - Max monthly PITI**$0** - Max loan amount**$0** - Down payment**$0** This is what underwriting *allows*. What you *should* spend may be lower — talk to Debbie. Calculator 03 ## Rent vs. Buy How many years until buying beats renting? Factors in mortgage cost, appreciation, opportunity cost on your down payment, and rent inflation. Home price $ Down payment $ Interest rate % Current rent $ / mo Home appreciation % / yr Rent inflation % / yr Investment return on down % / yr Selling costs % of sale Buying beats renting at — - Monthly mortgage (P&I + tax + ins)**$0** - Cost to own after 5 yrs**$0** - Cost to rent after 5 yrs**$0** - Cost to own after 10 yrs**$0** - Cost to rent after 10 yrs**$0** “Cost” here means net out-of-pocket after equity, appreciation, and the opportunity cost of investing your down payment instead. Calculator 04 ## Extra Payment How much faster do you pay off the loan — and how much interest do you save — if you throw an extra amount at the principal every month? Loan amount $ Interest rate % Loan term years 30 25 20 15 Extra payment $ / mo You'll pay off — - Standard payoff**—** - With extra payment**—** - Interest paid (standard)**$0** - Interest paid (with extra)**$0** - Interest saved**$0** Tip: even $100 extra per month on a 30-year loan can shave years off and save tens of thousands. Calculator 05 ## Debt-to-Income (DTI) The single number underwriters care about most. Front-end is housing only; back-end is housing plus every other monthly debt. Gross monthly income $ Proposed housing payment $ / mo (PITI) Car payments $ / mo Credit card minimums $ / mo Student loans $ / mo Other debt $ / mo Front-end DTI 0% Back-end DTI 0% Enter numbers to see your verdict. - Conventional cap**43–50%** - FHA cap**up to 56.9%** - VA cap**no hard cap (residual income matters)** Calculator 06 ## Blended Interest Rate Your real cost of borrowing isn’t your mortgage rate — it’s the weighted average of everything you owe. Add up your debts to see the blended rate, then test whether consolidating into one loan would actually beat it. First mortgage balance $ First mortgage rate % APR HELOC / second balance $ HELOC / second rate % APR Credit card balance $ Credit card rate % APR Auto loan balance $ Auto loan rate % APR Other debt balance $ Other debt rate % APR Compare: one new loan at % APR Your blended rate 0% Total owed $0 Enter your balances to see your blended rate. - Interest per month at your blended rate**$0** - Interest per month at the compared rate**$0** - Monthly interest difference**$0** - Highest-rate debt you carry**—** A lower blended rate is only half the story. Stretching short-term debt back out over 30 years can cost more in total interest even at a better rate, closing costs come out of the savings, and rolling credit cards into your home turns unsecured debt into debt secured by your house. Educational math only — not a quote or an offer of credit. ## Done running numbers? When you're ready for the real version of these numbers — with your actual rate, your actual program, and your actual approval — Debbie's a phone call away. [Start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/) [Schedule a call](https://phone.booking.appointmentreminder.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Free Guides ## Plain-English guides you can actually use. Print ‘em, share ‘em, scribble on ‘em. No email required. [ ![](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/first-time-homebuyer-guide-cover.png) ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/first-time-homebuyer-guide.pdf) PDF · \~16 pages ### First-Time Homebuyer Guide Everything I wish every first-time buyer knew before they started: how lenders look at you, what credit really means, down payment myths, and the timeline from pre-approval to keys. [Download PDF](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/first-time-homebuyer-guide.pdf) [ ![](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/mortgage-document-checklist-cover.png) ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/mortgage-document-checklist.pdf) PDF · 2 pages · printable ### Mortgage Document Checklist The exact paperwork you need to gather before you apply — W‑2s, pay stubs, asset statements, ID. Tick the boxes as you go. [Download PDF](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/mortgage-document-checklist.pdf) [ ![](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/refinance-decision-worksheet-cover.png) ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/refinance-decision-worksheet.pdf) PDF · 3 pages · fillable ### Refinance Decision Worksheet Plug in your current rate, your new quote, and your closing costs. The worksheet tells you the break-even month so you stop guessing whether it’s worth it. [Download PDF](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/refinance-decision-worksheet.pdf) [ ![](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/closing-costs-explained-cover.png) ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/closing-costs-explained.pdf) PDF · 4 pages ### Closing Costs Explained Every line item on a Loan Estimate — what it is, who keeps the money, and what’s negotiable. The page nobody reads, written in English. [Download PDF](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/guides/closing-costs-explained.pdf) Want me to walk you through any of these? [Reach out](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/contact/) or [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/). ### Newsletter URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/ Last updated: 2026-07-31T22:44:26.000Z ### What's in it - **The week's episode** — with show notes and timestamps so you can jump to what matters. - **Rate watch** — what moved this week and whether it actually matters for buyers and refinancers. - **One listener question** — the answer in plain English, no industry jargon. - **Occasional resources** — free guides, calculators, and tools as they're released. ### What's not - **No spam.** One email a week, period. - **No selling your data.** Your email goes to Debbie. That's it. - **No sales pitches.** If you ever want to talk about a mortgage, you'll reach out to her — not the other way around. - **One-click unsubscribe** on every email. > “I started Mortgage Mom Radio because too many people walk into a mortgage blind. The newsletter is just the show in shorter form — the stuff you actually need to know, delivered once a week.” > > — Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Past Issues ## Every issue. *Any time.* Each week's letter lands here automatically the moment it goes out — free to read, no signup needed. Loading past issues… ### Live Show URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/live/ Last updated: 2026-09-07T01:20:11.000Z The Live Show # Wednesdays at 3pm Pacific. Live, unfiltered, and yours. Every Wednesday Debbie goes live on YouTube to walk through the week in mortgage news, take real questions in chat, and answer them in plain English. Tune in live or catch the replay — either way, you'll know more than you did yesterday. **Mortgage Mom Radio LIVE** streams every **Wednesday at 3pm Pacific Time** on YouTube and Facebook. Host **Debbie Marcoux (NMLS #237926)** takes live mortgage questions from viewers, covers the week's interest-rate movement, and explains current loan programs in plain English. *Can't make it live? Episodes are released as podcast audio within 24 hours on [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1304740997?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) and [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com).* Next live show in \--days : \--hrs : \--min : \--sec LIVE NOW — scroll down to watch ![Can You Take Over Someone Else's 3% Mortgage?](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JU8iV7Bi3jU/maxresdefault.jpg) Latest replay Can You Take Over Someone Else's 3% Mortgage? Live chat Got a question? Send it to Debbie. The live chat opens when the stream goes live. Until then — drop your question here and Debbie will answer it on the next show (or reply by email if it's time-sensitive). Your email Your question Send to Debbie Goes to **live@mortgagemomradio.com** · usually replied within a business day. Never miss a show ## Get a text when we go live. One text per show — you get the YouTube link the moment Debbie goes live. No spam, no sales calls, unsubscribe by replying STOP. [Text LIVE to 844-935-3634 →](https://slktxt.io/15Csn?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Or tap the button on your phone — we'll open your messages app pre-filled. What to expect ## An hour that respects your time. 01 ### The week in rates What moved this week, what's coming, and whether the headlines actually matter for buyers and homeowners. 02 ### Real questions, plain answers Debbie pulls questions from chat, email, and the text line and answers them on-air in English — no industry jargon. 03 ### One deep-dive topic Every show goes deep on one thing — closing costs, refis, loan programs, credit, fraud — so you leave knowing something new. The Replay Wall ## Catch up on past live shows. [All replays on YouTube →](https://www.youtube.com/@mortgagemomradio/streams?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JU8iV7Bi3jU/mqdefault.jpg) Can You Take Over Someone Else's 3% Mortgage? Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU8iV7Bi3jU&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yUqtf74MeJs/mqdefault.jpg) Why Friday Matters More To Your Rate Than The Next Fed Meeting Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUqtf74MeJs&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XWv3VxEyYZo/mqdefault.jpg) The List Price Is The Opening Bid! Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWv3VxEyYZo&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GyhP0Ssvpms/mqdefault.jpg) Foreclosures just jumped 21% this year. Is this 2008 all over again? Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyhP0Ssvpms&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oPt4SRJgDRc/mqdefault.jpg) Homeowners Insurance is killing deals at closing! Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPt4SRJgDRc&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WzSInrrdFt0/mqdefault.jpg) The Fed Just Said No Rate Cut Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vo8njS74v54/mqdefault.jpg) Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oPazCDwUu_M/mqdefault.jpg) The Biggest Condo Lending Change In Over A Decade! Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPazCDwUu%5FM&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/m9Vnr2DlR2E/mqdefault.jpg) The Fed just flipped the script. Rate Hike on the table? Watch on YouTube → ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Vnr2DlR2E&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ## Ready to talk to a human? If the show got you thinking and you'd rather just have the conversation, that's why Debbie's here. [Start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/) [Ask a question](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/contact/) ### Podcast URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/podcast/ Last updated: 2026-09-07T01:25:56.000Z The Podcast # Every Wednesday, *the market.* Explained. 250+ episodes and counting. Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926, breaks down rates, programs, and the week's market news in plain English. Live at 3pm Pacific, then everywhere else within a day. 250+ Episodes 30+ yrs Experience 13 States licensed — LATEST EPISODE MMR Loading… — — ## Listen anywhere. Free · New episode every Wednesday [ Apple PodcastsSubscribe ](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1304740997?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ SpotifyFollow the show ](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ Amazon MusicFollow ](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/80ba9751-f236-4839-97dc-0728fbbde563/mortgage-mom-radio?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ YouTubeWatch live Wed 3pm PT ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRP%5FfcvQxsuttfzPDMY406A/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ RSS feedAny podcast app ](https://feeds.blubrry.com/feeds/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio.xml?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ Text remindersText MOM to 844-935-3634 ](https://slktxt.io/15Csn?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ## The archive. — episodes × ### Never miss *a Wednesday.* One email every Wednesday morning. The week's episode, a rate watch, one listener question. [Get the newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/) ### Terms of Use URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/terms/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:41:31.000Z Legal # Terms of Use. Please read these terms carefully before using mortgagemomradio.net. ## Acceptance By accessing or using this website, podcast, YouTube content, or any related materials produced by Mortgage Mom Radio (a DBA of JMJ Financial Group, NMLS ID 167867), you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, please do not use the site. ## Educational content, not financial advice Mortgage Mom Radio is a real estate and mortgage education program. The content on this site, podcast, livestream, and newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not personalized financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. Mortgage product availability, rates, and program guidelines change frequently and vary by borrower and property. Always speak with a licensed mortgage professional about your individual situation before acting. ## No solicitation in states where not licensed Debbie Marcoux is a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator (NMLS #237926) authorized to originate residential mortgage loans only in the states listed on the [licensing page](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/licensing/). Nothing on this site is intended as a solicitation in any state where Debbie or JMJ Financial Group is not properly licensed. ## Equal Housing Opportunity JMJ Financial Group is an Equal Housing Lender. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, source of income (provided the applicant has the legal capacity to contract), or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law. ## Third-party links This site links to third-party tools, calculators, agents, sponsors, and resources. We do not control those sites, and linking to them does not imply endorsement of every page or product on them. Use third-party services at your own discretion. ## Intellectual property All audio, video, written content, brand marks, and design elements on this site are owned by Mortgage Mom Radio / JMJ Financial Group unless explicitly attributed otherwise. You may share episodes and posts via the normal sharing tools (social embeds, native podcast clients) but may not re-host, modify, or commercially redistribute content without written permission. ## Disclaimers and limitation of liability Information is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Mortgage Mom Radio and JMJ Financial Group disclaim all liability for any decision made based on content from this site. ## Changes to these terms We may update these terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date below reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of the site after a change constitutes acceptance of the new terms. **Last updated:** June 30, 2026 Questions about these terms? Email [questions@mortgagemomradio.com](mailto:questions@mortgagemomradio.com). ### Privacy Policy URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/privacy/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:41:31.000Z Legal # Privacy Policy. What we collect, what we do with it, and how to control it. ## Who we are Mortgage Mom Radio is a real estate and mortgage education brand operated by Debbie Marcoux (NMLS #237926), a Mortgage Loan Originator with JMJ Financial Group (NMLS #167867). This policy explains what information mortgagemomradio.net (the "site") collects about you and how it's used. It applies to this website, the podcast, the newsletter, and our livestream tools. ## Information we collect - **Information you give us** — name, email, phone, address, loan-related details, and anything else you submit through a contact form, newsletter signup, application portal, text-message opt-in, or direct email. - **Information collected automatically** — browser type, device, referring URL, pages visited, and aggregate traffic data through standard analytics tools. - **Information from third parties** — when you click "Apply Now" you are routed to the secure JMJ Financial loan portal, which collects the information required to process a mortgage application under its own Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLBA) disclosures. ## How we use it - To respond to your questions and provide the show, newsletter, and texts you've requested. - To pre-qualify you for a mortgage, when you ask us to. - To improve the site, the show, and our educational materials. - To comply with applicable law, including consumer-finance recordkeeping and licensing requirements. ## What we never do - We don't sell your personal information. - We don't share your information with unaffiliated marketers for their own use. - We don't use your information for surveillance advertising. ## Text-message opt-in If you text LIVE to 844-935-3634 or sign up via slktxt.io/15Csn, you'll receive a weekly text with the YouTube link to that week's live show. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP at any time to opt out, or HELP for help. ## Cookies and analytics We use standard cookies and analytics to understand which pages and episodes are popular. You can disable cookies in your browser settings; some site features may not work without them. ## Your rights You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. California residents have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA); EU residents have additional rights under the GDPR. Send any such request to [questions@mortgagemomradio.com](mailto:questions@mortgagemomradio.com). ## Security We use industry-standard safeguards to protect your information. No system is perfectly secure — but if a breach affecting your personal data ever occurs, we'll notify you as required by law. ## Changes We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date below reflects the most recent revision. **Last updated:** June 30, 2026 ### Accessibility URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/accessibility/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:41:30.000Z Legal # Accessibility. We're committed to making Mortgage Mom Radio usable by everyone — homebuyers, listeners, and partners alike. ## Our commitment Mortgage Mom Radio strives to conform to [WCAG 2.2 Level AA](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) across this website, our podcast, our newsletter, and our YouTube content. We design with screen readers, keyboard navigation, color contrast, and reduced-motion preferences in mind. ## What we do - Every page is keyboard navigable. - All images include descriptive alternative text. - Color contrast meets or exceeds AA ratios for body copy and interactive elements. - Animations honor the operating-system "reduce motion" preference. - Podcast episodes are released in formats supported by the major accessible podcast clients. - YouTube videos are auto-captioned, and we proof captions on flagship episodes. ## Known limitations Some embedded third-party tools (loan applications, calculators, video players) are controlled by their respective providers and may not yet match the accessibility level of the rest of the site. We're actively working with those vendors to improve them. ## Need help, or found a barrier? If anything on the site is hard to access — anything at all — please tell us. We'll work directly with you to get the information you need and to fix the underlying problem. - Email: [questions@mortgagemomradio.com](mailto:questions@mortgagemomradio.com) - Phone (toll-free): [(844) 935-3634](tel:8449353634) **Last updated:** June 30, 2026 ### Meet the Team URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/team/ Last updated: 2026-07-07T16:58:04.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio # Meet the *Team* Family-run, licensed across the country, and built on the idea that your home and your future come first. Here are the faces behind the show, the files, and the phone calls. ## The *People* ![Debbie Marcoux](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/debbie.jpg) ### Debbie Marcoux Branch Manager · Loan Officer · Host, Mortgage Mom Radio NMLS #237926 Debbie is the voice behind Mortgage Mom Radio and the driving force behind the team. Licensed across Arizona, California, Washington, Texas, Idaho, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, and Tennessee, she has spent more than two decades helping families understand what's actually happening in the mortgage market. Every Wednesday at 3pm PT she goes live to break down rates, programs, and the questions listeners are actually asking. [Apply with Debbie →](https://portal.jmj.me/lo/dmarcoux?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Heather Barkley-Kilpatrick](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/heather.jpg) ### Heather Barkley-Kilpatrick Loan Originator · Real Estate Agent NMLS #2068355 · DRE #01213079 Heather is the rare mortgage professional who also holds an active California real estate license, which means she sees every transaction from both sides of the table. That dual perspective lets her spot problems before they slow a deal down and coach her clients through what to expect at every step. She brings a calm, straight-talking approach and a deep bench of real-world experience to every file. [Apply with Heather →](https://portal.jmj.me/lo/heatherbarkleykilpatrick?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ![Miguel Zermeno](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/mikey.jpg) ### Miguel “Mikey” Zermeno Head of Marketing & PR · Podcast Producer · Web NMLS #2850875 Mikey runs everything you see, hear, and read from Mortgage Mom Radio. He produces the weekly podcast and live show, designs and builds the website, and drives the marketing, PR, and social content that puts Debbie's advice in front of new homebuyers every week. If it has a Mortgage Mom Radio logo on it, chances are Mikey either made it, edited it, or shipped it. He is currently completing pre-licensing coursework and preparing for his state licensing exams. ![Manuel Zermeno](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/manny.jpg) ### Manuel “Manny” Zermeno Loan Coordinator NMLS #2403157 Manny is the team's loan coordinator and the person keeping every file moving between application and the closing table. He works directly with borrowers, processors, escrow, and title to chase down conditions, keep timelines honest, and make sure nothing stalls out. Clients hear from him early and often, which is exactly the point. He is currently completing pre-licensing coursework and preparing for his state licensing exams. ![Amy Jones](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/amy.jpg) ### Amy Jones Loan Processor Mortgage Mom Radio Amy is the team's loan processor and one of the reasons files actually get to the closing table on time. She has been in the mortgage business since 2019, starting on the disclosures desk before moving into full processing a couple of months later, and she has been sharpening that craft ever since. Detail-oriented, unflappable under deadline pressure, and quietly relentless about follow-through, Amy is the person turning approved applications into keys in the door. ## The *Good Boys* Every family business has its unofficial staff. Ours have four legs. ![Obi-Wan Marcoux](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/obi.jpg) Still Employed ### Obi-Wan “Obi” Marcoux Head of Front-Door Security · Chief Morale Officer Currently Employed · Very Good Boy Obi-Wan stepped up when Buck stepped down, and the team has never looked back. Calm, focused, and roughly the size of a loveseat, he takes his post at the front door with the quiet authority of a dog who knows exactly what he's doing. Between shifts he conducts wellness checks on every human in the building and offers emotional support during rate-lock decisions. ![Buckshot Marcoux](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/buck.jpg) Fired ### Buckshot “Buck” Marcoux Former Head of Front-Door Security · Currently Retired Beloved · Semi-Trusted Near Exits Buck had a promising career as MMR's Head of Front-Door Security until an incident involving an unattended door, an open street, and a full sprint required HR to have a difficult conversation. He's now enjoying early retirement in a semi-executive capacity — mostly napping, occasionally supervising, and posing for beach-themed photoshoots. Very much alive. Very much loved. ### Ready to *work with us*? Whether you're buying your first home, refinancing, or just want to understand your options — we're here for the whole conversation. [Apply Now](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/) [Get In Touch](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/contact/) ### Welcome — Your Free Guides URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/welcome/ Last updated: 2026-07-20T23:53:33.000Z Welcome # You're in. Welcome to the family. Thank you for subscribing to the Mortgage Mom Radio newsletter. Your three free homebuyer guides are ready to download below, and your first weekly email arrives Friday morning. Your Free Guides ## Three guides to get you started. ### The First-Time Buyer's 10-Step Guide From checking your credit to getting the keys — the whole journey, one step at a time. [Download the guide](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/content/files/2026/07/MMR-First-Time-Buyer-10-Steps.pdf) ### Conventional vs FHA vs VA vs USDA A side-by-side comparison of the four major loan programs, so you know which one fits. [Download the guide](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/content/files/2026/07/MMR-Loan-Program-Comparison.pdf) ### The New Condo Lending Rules The biggest condo financing change in over a decade — what buyers, sellers, and boards need to know. [Download the guide](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/content/files/2026/07/MMR-Condo-Rules-Guide.pdf) What To Expect ## Every Friday morning, in your inbox. Each week Debbie breaks down where mortgage rates are trending, recaps Wednesday's live show, and answers real listener questions in plain English. No jargon, no sales pressure — just the straight story on the housing market. Want to catch the show live? Debbie streams every Wednesday at 3pm PT — watch at [mortgagemomradio.com/live](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/live/). ### Have a question about your own situation? Text **MOM** to **844-935-3634** and Debbie will walk you through your numbers. Deborah Marcoux, NMLS #237926\. JMJ Financial. 2150 Kiowa Blvd N, Suite A-108, Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403\. This content is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment to lend. Programs, rates, terms, and conditions are subject to change without notice and to credit approval. ### Contact URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/contact/ Last updated: 2026-07-22T23:00:56.000Z # This page has moved. Our contact page is now the appointment page. [Continue to Schedule an Appointment →](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/schedule/) ### Episodes URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/episodes/ Last updated: 2026-09-07T01:26:10.000Z Search every episode 88 episodes, every one with a full transcript. ## Results Nothing matched. Try a shorter word — “escrow”, “VA”, “appraisal”. ## New here? Start with these three. [The whole workshopHow to Buy a House Step by Step: The Complete Home Buyer WorkshopTwo hours, start to finish. If you watch one thing, watch this one.](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-buy-a-house-step-by-step-the-complete-home-buyer-workshop/)[Most askedWhat Actually Moves Mortgage Rates? (It's Not the Fed)Why the Fed doesn't set your rate, and what actually does.](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-friday-matters-more-to-your-rate-than-the-next-fed-meeting/)[Myth-bustingDo You Really Need 20% Down to Buy a House? Real Estate Myths DebunkedThe belief that keeps more people renting than any other.](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/do-you-really-need-20-down-to-buy-a-house-real-estate-myths-debunked/) ## Buying your first home 15 episodes → [How to Buy Your First Home When Mortgage Rates Are at 2026 HighsJul 22, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-buy-your-first-home-when-mortgage-rates-are-at-2026-highs/)[Should You Wait for Lower Mortgage Rates to Buy or Refinance?Sep 25, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-wait-for-lower-mortgage-rates-to-buy-or-refinance/)[Who Counts as a First-Time Home Buyer? PMI, Assumable Loans, and More Questions AnsweredMar 13, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/who-counts-as-a-first-time-home-buyer-pmi-assumable-loans-and-more-questions-answered/)[How to Buy a House Step by Step: The Complete Home Buyer WorkshopMar 6, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-buy-a-house-step-by-step-the-complete-home-buyer-workshop/)[Do You Really Need 20% Down to Buy a House? Real Estate Myths DebunkedMar 6, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/do-you-really-need-20-down-to-buy-a-house-real-estate-myths-debunked/)[Should You Buy a Home Now or Wait for Interest Rates to Come Down?Feb 28, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-buy-a-home-now-or-wait-for-interest-rates-to-come-down/)[Should You Find Out What You Qualify For Before You're Ready to Buy?Feb 21, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-find-out-what-you-qualify-for-before-youre-ready-to-buy/)[Buy Now or Wait for Rates to Drop? Why Dave Ramsey Says BuyOct 11, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/buy-now-or-wait-for-rates-to-drop-why-dave-ramsey-says-buy/)[Can't Find a Rental? You Can Probably Afford to Buy InsteadMay 10, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/cant-find-a-rental-you-can-probably-afford-to-buy-instead/)[Buying a Home After Chapter 13 Bankruptcy — and What Rates Really Look LikeFeb 15, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/buying-a-home-after-chapter-13-bankruptcy-and-what-rates-really-look-like/)[Should You Wait For Rates To Drop Before You Buy?Dec 7, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-wait-for-rates-to-drop-before-you-buy/)[What Does a 1% Rate Increase Do to Your Buying Power?Nov 2, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-does-a-1-rate-increase-do-to-your-buying-power/)[Should You Buy A Home Now Or Wait For Rates To Drop?Oct 12, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-buy-a-home-now-or-wait-for-rates-to-drop/)[If Home Prices Are Falling, Why Is My Offer Still Getting Outbid?Sep 19, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/if-home-prices-are-falling-why-is-my-offer-still-getting-outbid/)[Moving To Another State? What Happens To Your Pre-ApprovalAug 17, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/moving-to-another-state-what-happens-to-your-pre-approval/) ## Money you can ask the seller for 7 episodes → [What Can You Ask the Seller to Pay For? Seller Concessions in a Buyer's MarketAug 19, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-list-price-is-the-opening-bid/)[When Should You Lock In Your Mortgage Rate? Rate Locks ExplainedFeb 14, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/when-should-you-lock-in-your-mortgage-rate-rate-locks-explained/)[How to Get a Mortgage Rate Below 5% in 2024: Seller-Paid Buydowns ExplainedJan 10, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-get-a-mortgage-rate-below-5-in-2024-seller-paid-buydowns-explained/)[Fed Holds Rates Again: New 2024 Loan Limits and 5% Down on 2-4 Unit HomesDec 13, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/fed-holds-rates-again-new-2024-loan-limits-and-5-down-on-2-4-unit-homes/)[Are Good-Credit Buyers Really Paying More? The 2023 Mortgage Fee Change, ExplainedMay 3, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/are-good-credit-buyers-really-paying-more-the-2023-mortgage-fee-change-explained/)[FHA Cut Its Mortgage Insurance: What It Saves You Every MonthFeb 22, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/fha-cut-its-mortgage-insurance-what-it-saves-you-every-month/)[Seller Credit or Price Reduction? Why the Credit WinsAug 10, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/seller-credit-or-price-reduction-why-the-credit-wins/) ## Getting approved when it's complicated 9 episodes → [How Do You Assume Someone Else's 3% FHA Or VA Mortgage?Sep 2, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-do-you-assume-someone-elses-3-fha-or-va-mortgage/)[Why Is It So Hard to Get a Mortgage on a Condo? The 2026 Rule Changes, ExplainedJul 16, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-a-mortgage-on-a-condo-the-2026-rule-changes-explained/)[What Is a Portable Mortgage? And Is a 50-Year Mortgage a Good Idea?Nov 21, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-portable-mortgage-and-is-a-50-year-mortgage-a-good-idea/)[Can You Get a Mortgage Without Tax Returns? No-Ratio, Bank Statement, DSCR, and Construction Loans ExplainedSep 24, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-mortgage-without-tax-returns-no-ratio-bank-statement-dscr-and-construction-loans-explained/)[How to Raise Your Credit Score Before You Buy a HomeJan 24, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-raise-your-credit-score-before-you-buy-a-home/)[How to Improve Your Credit Score Before You Apply for a MortgageSep 6, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-improve-your-credit-score-before-you-apply-for-a-mortgage/)[Can You Get a Home Loan With a 550 Credit Score or No Tax Returns?Aug 23, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-home-loan-with-a-550-credit-score-or-no-tax-returns/)[Can You Get a Mortgage Without Tax Returns? Four Alternative Loan ProgramsMay 17, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-mortgage-without-tax-returns-four-alternative-loan-programs/)[Conforming, High Balance, Or Jumbo: Which Loan Are You?Nov 30, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/conforming-high-balance-or-jumbo-which-loan-are-you/) ## Refinancing and tapping your equity 9 episodes → [Cash-Out vs. Rate-and-Term: Which Refinance Are You Actually Getting?Sep 3, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/cash-out-vs-rate-and-term-which-refinance-are-you-actually-getting/)[Rates Broke an 11-Month Barrier — Should You Lock Now or Wait for the Fed?Aug 27, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/rates-broke-an-11-month-barrier-should-you-lock-now-or-wait-for-the-fed/)[How Much Does It Cost to Refinance a Mortgage — and When Is It Worth It?Feb 26, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-refinance-a-mortgage-and-when-is-it-worth-it/)[Is a Free Refinance Later Really Free? Buy Now, Refinance Later ExplainedNov 1, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-a-free-refinance-later-really-free-buy-now-refinance-later-explained/)[Should You Sell Right Now? What Your Home Equity Is Actually WorthAug 16, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-sell-right-now-what-your-home-equity-is-actually-worth/)[Should You Refinance If It Means Giving Up a 3% Mortgage Rate?Jun 7, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-refinance-if-it-means-giving-up-a-3-mortgage-rate/)[Homeowner In Debt: Refinance, HELOC, Sell, Or Short Sale?Nov 9, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/homeowner-in-debt-refinance-heloc-sell-or-short-sale/)[Can You Refinance To Consolidate A HELOC Into Your First Mortgage?Oct 26, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-refinance-to-consolidate-a-heloc-into-your-first-mortgage/)[Can The Bank Freeze My HELOC If Home Values Drop?Sep 12, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-the-bank-freeze-my-heloc-if-home-values-drop/) ## When the headlines get scary 12 episodes → [Are Foreclosures Rising in 2026? Why This Is Not 2008 All Over AgainAug 12, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/foreclosures-just-jumped-21-this-year-is-this-2008-all-over-again/)[Can Homeowners Insurance Kill Your Home Purchase? How to Protect Your DealAug 6, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/homeowners-insurance-is-killing-deals-at-closing/)[Will Home Prices Crash When Mortgage Rates Drop?Apr 16, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-home-prices-crash-when-mortgage-rates-drop/)[Lost Your Home in the LA Wildfires? Insurance Claims, FEMA Help, and Your MortgageJan 9, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/lost-your-home-in-the-la-wildfires-insurance-claims-fema-help-and-your-mortgage/)[California Homeowners Insurance Crisis: What To Do If Your Policy Is DroppedJan 17, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/california-homeowners-insurance-crisis-what-to-do-if-your-policy-is-dropped/)[What Is a Zombie Mortgage? How an Old Second Lien Comes BackOct 18, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-zombie-mortgage-how-an-old-second-lien-comes-back/)[Is the Housing Market About to Crash — or Are You Just Waiting for Nothing?Jun 21, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-the-housing-market-about-to-crash-or-are-you-just-waiting-for-nothing/)[Will California Home Prices Fall? The Spring 2023 Market, By the NumbersApr 20, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-california-home-prices-fall-the-spring-2023-market-by-the-numbers/)[Why Did Silicon Valley Bank Fail, and What Did It Do to Mortgage Rates?Mar 15, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-did-silicon-valley-bank-fail-and-what-did-it-do-to-mortgage-rates/)[Have Home Prices Bottomed? What the 2023 Forecasts Actually SayMar 1, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/have-home-prices-bottomed-what-the-2023-forecasts-actually-say/)[Does A Housing Recession Mean Home Prices Are About To Crash?Sep 7, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/does-a-housing-recession-mean-home-prices-are-about-to-crash/)[Why Are Rents Skyrocketing, And What Can A Renter Actually Do About It?Aug 24, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-rents-skyrocketing-and-what-can-a-renter-actually-do-about-it/) ## Owning, investing, and retiring 8 episodes → [Should You Sell Your California Rental? 1031 Exchanges and Where Investors Are Finding Cash FlowFeb 18, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-sell-your-california-rental-1031-exchanges-and-where-investors-are-finding-cash-flow/)[Does the Bank Own Your Home With a Reverse Mortgage? The Biggest Myths, DebunkedJun 4, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/does-the-bank-own-your-home-with-a-reverse-mortgage-the-biggest-myths-debunked/)[5% Down on a 2-4 Unit Property: Fannie Mae's New Rules for Owner-OccupantsOct 25, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/5-down-on-a-2-4-unit-property-fannie-maes-new-rules-for-owner-occupants/)[What Is a DST? Using a 1031 Exchange to Stop Being a LandlordAug 9, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-dst-using-a-1031-exchange-to-stop-being-a-landlord/)[Why Are Investment Property Mortgage Rates So Much Higher Than Owner-Occupied?Jan 25, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-investment-property-mortgage-rates-so-much-higher-than-owner-occupied/)[A Half-Point Fed Hike — and How To Start a Real Estate Portfolio From One Small CondoDec 14, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/a-half-point-fed-hike-and-how-to-start-a-real-estate-portfolio-from-one-small-condo/)[How Does A Reverse Mortgage Actually Work?Nov 16, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-does-a-reverse-mortgage-actually-work/)[Can You Buy A Home Using A Reverse Mortgage?Oct 5, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-buy-a-home-using-a-reverse-mortgage/) ## Rules that changed the game 6 episodes [What the New Housing Bill Means for Home Buyers, Sellers, and OwnersJul 1, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-the-new-housing-bill-means-for-home-buyers-sellers-and-owners/)[Will the NAR Settlement Lower Home Prices? What Buyers and Sellers Need to KnowMar 27, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-the-nar-settlement-lower-home-prices-what-buyers-and-sellers-need-to-know/)[Will Mortgage Rates Drop in 2024? What 2023 Changed for Home BuyersJan 3, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-mortgage-rates-drop-in-2024-what-2023-changed-for-home-buyers/)[Housing Market Predictions for 2024: Will Home Prices or Mortgage Rates Come Down?Nov 29, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/housing-market-predictions-for-2024-will-home-prices-or-mortgage-rates-come-down/)[How To Choose a Real Estate Agent: Questions To Ask Before You List Or BuyMar 8, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-choose-a-real-estate-agent-questions-to-ask-before-you-list-or-buy/)[Single Women Own 2.6 Million More Homes Than Single MenFeb 13, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/single-women-own-2-6-million-more-homes-than-single-men/) ## Rates, the Fed, and when to lock 21 episodes → [What Actually Moves Mortgage Rates? (It's Not the Fed)Aug 26, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-friday-matters-more-to-your-rate-than-the-next-fed-meeting/)[The Fed Held Rates Again — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Up?Jul 29, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-again-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-up/)[Is a Fed Rate Hike Coming? Why You Should Lock Your Mortgage Rate NowJul 8, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-a-fed-rate-hike-coming-why-you-should-lock-your-mortgage-rate-now/)[Will the Fed Still Cut Rates in 2026? What the Strong January Jobs Report Means for Your MortgageFeb 11, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-the-fed-still-cut-rates-in-2026-what-the-strong-january-jobs-report-means-for-your-mortgage/)[The Fed Cut Rates 0.25% — Will Mortgage Rates Drop Now?Sep 17, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-cut-rates-0-25-will-mortgage-rates-drop-now/)[PPI Went Negative — Should You Lock a Mortgage Rate Before the Fed Meets?Sep 10, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/ppi-went-negative-should-you-lock-a-mortgage-rate-before-the-fed-meets/)[The Fed Paused Rate Cuts — What It Means for Mortgage RatesJan 29, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-paused-rate-cuts-what-it-means-for-mortgage-rates/)[The Fed Cut Rates — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Up and the Dow Drop 1,100 Points?Dec 18, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-cut-rates-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-up-and-the-dow-drop-1-100-points/)[Mortgage Rates Improved Half a Percent in a Week — Should You Buy Before the Fed Cuts?May 15, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/mortgage-rates-improved-half-a-percent-in-a-week-should-you-buy-before-the-fed-cuts/)[Why Are Mortgage Rates Going Down? The Consumer Debt Signal Behind the TurnMay 8, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-mortgage-rates-going-down-the-consumer-debt-signal-behind-the-turn/)[The Fed Held Rates Again — So When Will Mortgage Rates Come Down?Mar 20, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-again-so-when-will-mortgage-rates-come-down/)[Mortgage Rates Are Falling: Should You Buy Now or Wait for 2024?Dec 6, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/mortgage-rates-are-falling-should-you-buy-now-or-wait-for-2024/)[Why Did Mortgage Rates Just Drop? And Why That Makes Buying HarderNov 8, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-did-mortgage-rates-just-drop-and-why-that-makes-buying-harder/)[The Fed Held Rates Steady — So When Will Mortgage Rates Actually Come Down?Sep 20, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-steady-so-when-will-mortgage-rates-actually-come-down/)[Inflation Rose for a Second Straight Month — What That Means for Mortgage RatesSep 13, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/inflation-rose-for-a-second-straight-month-what-that-means-for-mortgage-rates/)[The Fed Raised Rates Again — So Why Didn't Mortgage Rates Move?Aug 3, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-rates-again-so-why-didnt-mortgage-rates-move/)[Why Do Mortgage Rates Change So Fast? Inside the Rate Roller CoasterMay 31, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-do-mortgage-rates-change-so-fast-inside-the-rate-roller-coaster/)[The Fed Raised a Quarter Point — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Down?Mar 22, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-a-quarter-point-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-down/)[The Fed Raised Rates Again — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Get Better That Day?Feb 1, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-rates-again-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-get-better-that-day/)[What Did Analysts Expect From Mortgage Rates and Home Prices in 2023?Jan 11, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-did-analysts-expect-from-mortgage-rates-and-home-prices-in-2023/)[Why a Fed Rate Hike Doesn't Automatically Raise Your Mortgage RateJul 25, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-a-fed-rate-hike-doesnt-automatically-raise-your-mortgage-rate/) Every episodeall 88, by year ### 202612 episodes [How Do You Assume Someone Else's 3% FHA Or VA Mortgage?Sep 2, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-do-you-assume-someone-elses-3-fha-or-va-mortgage/)[What Actually Moves Mortgage Rates? (It's Not the Fed)Aug 26, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-friday-matters-more-to-your-rate-than-the-next-fed-meeting/)[What Can You Ask the Seller to Pay For? Seller Concessions in a Buyer's MarketAug 19, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-list-price-is-the-opening-bid/)[Are Foreclosures Rising in 2026? Why This Is Not 2008 All Over AgainAug 12, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/foreclosures-just-jumped-21-this-year-is-this-2008-all-over-again/)[Can Homeowners Insurance Kill Your Home Purchase? How to Protect Your DealAug 6, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/homeowners-insurance-is-killing-deals-at-closing/)[The Fed Held Rates Again — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Up?Jul 29, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-again-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-up/)[How to Buy Your First Home When Mortgage Rates Are at 2026 HighsJul 22, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-buy-your-first-home-when-mortgage-rates-are-at-2026-highs/)[Why Is It So Hard to Get a Mortgage on a Condo? The 2026 Rule Changes, ExplainedJul 16, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-a-mortgage-on-a-condo-the-2026-rule-changes-explained/)[Is a Fed Rate Hike Coming? Why You Should Lock Your Mortgage Rate NowJul 8, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-a-fed-rate-hike-coming-why-you-should-lock-your-mortgage-rate-now/)[What the New Housing Bill Means for Home Buyers, Sellers, and OwnersJul 1, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-the-new-housing-bill-means-for-home-buyers-sellers-and-owners/)[Should You Sell Your California Rental? 1031 Exchanges and Where Investors Are Finding Cash FlowFeb 18, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-sell-your-california-rental-1031-exchanges-and-where-investors-are-finding-cash-flow/)[Will the Fed Still Cut Rates in 2026? What the Strong January Jobs Report Means for Your MortgageFeb 11, 2026](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-the-fed-still-cut-rates-in-2026-what-the-strong-january-jobs-report-means-for-your-mortgage/) ### 202511 episodes [What Is a Portable Mortgage? And Is a 50-Year Mortgage a Good Idea?Nov 21, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-portable-mortgage-and-is-a-50-year-mortgage-a-good-idea/)[Can You Get a Mortgage Without Tax Returns? No-Ratio, Bank Statement, DSCR, and Construction Loans ExplainedSep 24, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-mortgage-without-tax-returns-no-ratio-bank-statement-dscr-and-construction-loans-explained/)[The Fed Cut Rates 0.25% — Will Mortgage Rates Drop Now?Sep 17, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-cut-rates-0-25-will-mortgage-rates-drop-now/)[PPI Went Negative — Should You Lock a Mortgage Rate Before the Fed Meets?Sep 10, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/ppi-went-negative-should-you-lock-a-mortgage-rate-before-the-fed-meets/)[Cash-Out vs. Rate-and-Term: Which Refinance Are You Actually Getting?Sep 3, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/cash-out-vs-rate-and-term-which-refinance-are-you-actually-getting/)[Rates Broke an 11-Month Barrier — Should You Lock Now or Wait for the Fed?Aug 27, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/rates-broke-an-11-month-barrier-should-you-lock-now-or-wait-for-the-fed/)[Does the Bank Own Your Home With a Reverse Mortgage? The Biggest Myths, DebunkedJun 4, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/does-the-bank-own-your-home-with-a-reverse-mortgage-the-biggest-myths-debunked/)[Will Home Prices Crash When Mortgage Rates Drop?Apr 16, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-home-prices-crash-when-mortgage-rates-drop/)[How Much Does It Cost to Refinance a Mortgage — and When Is It Worth It?Feb 26, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-refinance-a-mortgage-and-when-is-it-worth-it/)[The Fed Paused Rate Cuts — What It Means for Mortgage RatesJan 29, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-paused-rate-cuts-what-it-means-for-mortgage-rates/)[Lost Your Home in the LA Wildfires? Insurance Claims, FEMA Help, and Your MortgageJan 9, 2025](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/lost-your-home-in-the-la-wildfires-insurance-claims-fema-help-and-your-mortgage/) ### 202416 episodes [The Fed Cut Rates — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Up and the Dow Drop 1,100 Points?Dec 18, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-cut-rates-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-up-and-the-dow-drop-1-100-points/)[Should You Wait for Lower Mortgage Rates to Buy or Refinance?Sep 25, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-wait-for-lower-mortgage-rates-to-buy-or-refinance/)[Mortgage Rates Improved Half a Percent in a Week — Should You Buy Before the Fed Cuts?May 15, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/mortgage-rates-improved-half-a-percent-in-a-week-should-you-buy-before-the-fed-cuts/)[Why Are Mortgage Rates Going Down? The Consumer Debt Signal Behind the TurnMay 8, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-mortgage-rates-going-down-the-consumer-debt-signal-behind-the-turn/)[Will the NAR Settlement Lower Home Prices? What Buyers and Sellers Need to KnowMar 27, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-the-nar-settlement-lower-home-prices-what-buyers-and-sellers-need-to-know/)[The Fed Held Rates Again — So When Will Mortgage Rates Come Down?Mar 20, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-again-so-when-will-mortgage-rates-come-down/)[Who Counts as a First-Time Home Buyer? PMI, Assumable Loans, and More Questions AnsweredMar 13, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/who-counts-as-a-first-time-home-buyer-pmi-assumable-loans-and-more-questions-answered/)[How to Buy a House Step by Step: The Complete Home Buyer WorkshopMar 6, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-buy-a-house-step-by-step-the-complete-home-buyer-workshop/)[Do You Really Need 20% Down to Buy a House? Real Estate Myths DebunkedMar 6, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/do-you-really-need-20-down-to-buy-a-house-real-estate-myths-debunked/)[Should You Buy a Home Now or Wait for Interest Rates to Come Down?Feb 28, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-buy-a-home-now-or-wait-for-interest-rates-to-come-down/)[Should You Find Out What You Qualify For Before You're Ready to Buy?Feb 21, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-find-out-what-you-qualify-for-before-youre-ready-to-buy/)[When Should You Lock In Your Mortgage Rate? Rate Locks ExplainedFeb 14, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/when-should-you-lock-in-your-mortgage-rate-rate-locks-explained/)[How to Raise Your Credit Score Before You Buy a HomeJan 24, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-raise-your-credit-score-before-you-buy-a-home/)[California Homeowners Insurance Crisis: What To Do If Your Policy Is DroppedJan 17, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/california-homeowners-insurance-crisis-what-to-do-if-your-policy-is-dropped/)[How to Get a Mortgage Rate Below 5% in 2024: Seller-Paid Buydowns ExplainedJan 10, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-get-a-mortgage-rate-below-5-in-2024-seller-paid-buydowns-explained/)[Will Mortgage Rates Drop in 2024? What 2023 Changed for Home BuyersJan 3, 2024](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-mortgage-rates-drop-in-2024-what-2023-changed-for-home-buyers/) ### 202333 episodes [Fed Holds Rates Again: New 2024 Loan Limits and 5% Down on 2-4 Unit HomesDec 13, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/fed-holds-rates-again-new-2024-loan-limits-and-5-down-on-2-4-unit-homes/)[Mortgage Rates Are Falling: Should You Buy Now or Wait for 2024?Dec 6, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/mortgage-rates-are-falling-should-you-buy-now-or-wait-for-2024/)[Housing Market Predictions for 2024: Will Home Prices or Mortgage Rates Come Down?Nov 29, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/housing-market-predictions-for-2024-will-home-prices-or-mortgage-rates-come-down/)[How to Cook a Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey: Oven, Roaster, or Deep FryerNov 15, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-cook-a-juicy-thanksgiving-turkey-oven-roaster-or-deep-fryer/)[Why Did Mortgage Rates Just Drop? And Why That Makes Buying HarderNov 8, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-did-mortgage-rates-just-drop-and-why-that-makes-buying-harder/)[Is a Free Refinance Later Really Free? Buy Now, Refinance Later ExplainedNov 1, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-a-free-refinance-later-really-free-buy-now-refinance-later-explained/)[5% Down on a 2-4 Unit Property: Fannie Mae's New Rules for Owner-OccupantsOct 25, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/5-down-on-a-2-4-unit-property-fannie-maes-new-rules-for-owner-occupants/)[What Is a Zombie Mortgage? How an Old Second Lien Comes BackOct 18, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-zombie-mortgage-how-an-old-second-lien-comes-back/)[Buy Now or Wait for Rates to Drop? Why Dave Ramsey Says BuyOct 11, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/buy-now-or-wait-for-rates-to-drop-why-dave-ramsey-says-buy/)[The Fed Held Rates Steady — So When Will Mortgage Rates Actually Come Down?Sep 20, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-steady-so-when-will-mortgage-rates-actually-come-down/)[Inflation Rose for a Second Straight Month — What That Means for Mortgage RatesSep 13, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/inflation-rose-for-a-second-straight-month-what-that-means-for-mortgage-rates/)[How to Improve Your Credit Score Before You Apply for a MortgageSep 6, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-improve-your-credit-score-before-you-apply-for-a-mortgage/)[Can You Get a Home Loan With a 550 Credit Score or No Tax Returns?Aug 23, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-home-loan-with-a-550-credit-score-or-no-tax-returns/)[Should You Sell Right Now? What Your Home Equity Is Actually WorthAug 16, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-sell-right-now-what-your-home-equity-is-actually-worth/)[What Is a DST? Using a 1031 Exchange to Stop Being a LandlordAug 9, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-dst-using-a-1031-exchange-to-stop-being-a-landlord/)[The Fed Raised Rates Again — So Why Didn't Mortgage Rates Move?Aug 3, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-rates-again-so-why-didnt-mortgage-rates-move/)[Is the Housing Market About to Crash — or Are You Just Waiting for Nothing?Jun 21, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-the-housing-market-about-to-crash-or-are-you-just-waiting-for-nothing/)[Should You Refinance If It Means Giving Up a 3% Mortgage Rate?Jun 7, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-refinance-if-it-means-giving-up-a-3-mortgage-rate/)[Why Do Mortgage Rates Change So Fast? Inside the Rate Roller CoasterMay 31, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-do-mortgage-rates-change-so-fast-inside-the-rate-roller-coaster/)[Can You Get a Mortgage Without Tax Returns? Four Alternative Loan ProgramsMay 17, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-mortgage-without-tax-returns-four-alternative-loan-programs/)[Can't Find a Rental? You Can Probably Afford to Buy InsteadMay 10, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/cant-find-a-rental-you-can-probably-afford-to-buy-instead/)[Are Good-Credit Buyers Really Paying More? The 2023 Mortgage Fee Change, ExplainedMay 3, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/are-good-credit-buyers-really-paying-more-the-2023-mortgage-fee-change-explained/)[Will California Home Prices Fall? The Spring 2023 Market, By the NumbersApr 20, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-california-home-prices-fall-the-spring-2023-market-by-the-numbers/)[The Fed Raised a Quarter Point — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Down?Mar 22, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-a-quarter-point-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-down/)[Why Did Silicon Valley Bank Fail, and What Did It Do to Mortgage Rates?Mar 15, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-did-silicon-valley-bank-fail-and-what-did-it-do-to-mortgage-rates/)[How To Choose a Real Estate Agent: Questions To Ask Before You List Or BuyMar 8, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-choose-a-real-estate-agent-questions-to-ask-before-you-list-or-buy/)[Have Home Prices Bottomed? What the 2023 Forecasts Actually SayMar 1, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/have-home-prices-bottomed-what-the-2023-forecasts-actually-say/)[FHA Cut Its Mortgage Insurance: What It Saves You Every MonthFeb 22, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/fha-cut-its-mortgage-insurance-what-it-saves-you-every-month/)[Buying a Home After Chapter 13 Bankruptcy — and What Rates Really Look LikeFeb 15, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/buying-a-home-after-chapter-13-bankruptcy-and-what-rates-really-look-like/)[Single Women Own 2.6 Million More Homes Than Single MenFeb 13, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/single-women-own-2-6-million-more-homes-than-single-men/)[The Fed Raised Rates Again — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Get Better That Day?Feb 1, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-rates-again-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-get-better-that-day/)[Why Are Investment Property Mortgage Rates So Much Higher Than Owner-Occupied?Jan 25, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-investment-property-mortgage-rates-so-much-higher-than-owner-occupied/)[What Did Analysts Expect From Mortgage Rates and Home Prices in 2023?Jan 11, 2023](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-did-analysts-expect-from-mortgage-rates-and-home-prices-in-2023/) ### 202216 episodes [A Half-Point Fed Hike — and How To Start a Real Estate Portfolio From One Small CondoDec 14, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/a-half-point-fed-hike-and-how-to-start-a-real-estate-portfolio-from-one-small-condo/)[Should You Wait For Rates To Drop Before You Buy?Dec 7, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-wait-for-rates-to-drop-before-you-buy/)[Conforming, High Balance, Or Jumbo: Which Loan Are You?Nov 30, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/conforming-high-balance-or-jumbo-which-loan-are-you/)[How Does A Reverse Mortgage Actually Work?Nov 16, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-does-a-reverse-mortgage-actually-work/)[Homeowner In Debt: Refinance, HELOC, Sell, Or Short Sale?Nov 9, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/homeowner-in-debt-refinance-heloc-sell-or-short-sale/)[What Does a 1% Rate Increase Do to Your Buying Power?Nov 2, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-does-a-1-rate-increase-do-to-your-buying-power/)[Can You Refinance To Consolidate A HELOC Into Your First Mortgage?Oct 26, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-refinance-to-consolidate-a-heloc-into-your-first-mortgage/)[Should You Buy A Home Now Or Wait For Rates To Drop?Oct 12, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-buy-a-home-now-or-wait-for-rates-to-drop/)[Can You Buy A Home Using A Reverse Mortgage?Oct 5, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-buy-a-home-using-a-reverse-mortgage/)[If Home Prices Are Falling, Why Is My Offer Still Getting Outbid?Sep 19, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/if-home-prices-are-falling-why-is-my-offer-still-getting-outbid/)[Can The Bank Freeze My HELOC If Home Values Drop?Sep 12, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-the-bank-freeze-my-heloc-if-home-values-drop/)[Does A Housing Recession Mean Home Prices Are About To Crash?Sep 7, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/does-a-housing-recession-mean-home-prices-are-about-to-crash/)[Why Are Rents Skyrocketing, And What Can A Renter Actually Do About It?Aug 24, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-rents-skyrocketing-and-what-can-a-renter-actually-do-about-it/)[Moving To Another State? What Happens To Your Pre-ApprovalAug 17, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/moving-to-another-state-what-happens-to-your-pre-approval/)[Seller Credit or Price Reduction? Why the Credit WinsAug 10, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/seller-credit-or-price-reduction-why-the-credit-wins/)[Why a Fed Rate Hike Doesn't Automatically Raise Your Mortgage RateJul 25, 2022](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-a-fed-rate-hike-doesnt-automatically-raise-your-mortgage-rate/) ## Posts ### Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly - September 11, 2026 URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter-2026-09-11/ Last updated: 2026-09-11T20:51:48.000Z | Friday, September 110.32%between the rate on the news and the rate on your sheetFreddie Mac published 6.76% yesterday morning. Lenders were quoting 7.08% today. The survey is taken Monday through Wednesday and released on Thursday, so the headline number is always a day or two behind the market. Your rate sheet is not.Freddie Mac PMMS and Mortgage News Daily, September 11, 2026\. National averages for illustration only, not a commitment to lend. Your rate depends on credit, loan amount, property and full underwriting. | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | The market right nowWho has the leverage, and where41/50of the largest markets now favor buyers1 in 5listings took a price cut in July35%of builders cut prices in August63%of builders are paying incentivesRates are not the only lever, and they are the one you have least control over. There is money on the table in most of the country right now — what matters is how you take it. Off the price it barely moves your payment; as a rate buydown it moves a lot.Sources: [National Mortgage Professional](https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/buyers-gain-negotiating-power-41-major-housing-markets?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [NAHB, August 2026](https://www.nahb.org/news-and-economics/press-releases/2026/08/affordability-pressures-keep-builder-confidence-low?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). Housing-market conditions vary by metro and by property; national figures are not a forecast for any specific home or offer. | | From DebbieWe are back above 7%. Daily lender pricing on a 30-year conventional loan is at 7.08% this morning, up from 6.88% a week ago, and the 10-year Treasury is at 4.97%. Nobody at the Fed voted on anything. It all happened in the bond market again.And not for lack of trying. The government announced a $6 billion buyback of its own bonds, which is supposed to push yields down. Yields went *up* instead, because the market wanted more than it got. That is the whole lesson of Wednesday’s show: it is never just what they do, it is what they do versus what everyone expected.Then this morning, the August inflation report. The headline came in hot — up **0.4%** for the month and **3.4%** over the year, with gasoline alone accounting for over a third of the monthly jump. But core inflation, which strips out food and energy, actually *cooled*, to **2.4%** from 2.5% in July. A hot headline with a cool core usually gets a much smaller reaction than people expect.Here is the catch, and it is why I recorded the video below. That cool number is *not* the one the Fed steers by. They watch core PCE, and for July it was running at 3.3% while core CPI sat at 2.5%. So a friendly CPI report does not automatically mean relief. The Fed meets on the 15th and 16th, and I am not going to pretend to know what they will do.What I do know is that waiting for a headline to rescue your payment has not worked for anybody this year. If you are under contract or close to it, lock-or-float is a real decision that depends on your closing date, not on the news. Let’s make it together.— Debbie | | New this weekLast week it was Jackson Hole. This week, two official inflation reports that disagree by almost a full point — 20 min on which one actually moves the Fed.[![CPI vs PCE Explained: Why Official Inflation Numbers Don’t Agree](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CAJE3HHawSQ/maxresdefault.jpg)](https://youtu.be/CAJE3HHawSQ?ref=mortgagemomradio.com)CPI vs PCE Explained: Why Official Inflation Numbers Don’t AgreeFor July, core CPI came in at 2.5% and core PCE at 3.3% — same month, same country, both correct. Debbie walks through what CPI, core CPI, PCE and core PCE each actually measure, which one the Fed really steers by, and why core CPI is running further below core PCE than at any point since 2000\. It comes down to one thing: shelter. No predictions, just the numbers everyone quotes at you.[Watch the breakdown · 20 min](https://youtu.be/CAJE3HHawSQ?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) | | This week’s buyer$450,000 · first-time · 680 score · $22,000 available$3,528FHA6.64% / 7.54% APR$15,750 down · $203 MIMI for the life of the loan$3,656Conventional 3%7.08% / 7.19% APR$13,500 down · $236 PMIPMI drops off at 78% LTVA hundred and twenty-eight dollars a month apart, and not for the reason most people assume. FHA gets you in with a lower credit floor and easier debt-to-income guidelines, but that mortgage insurance follows you for the life of the loan. Conventional needs a stronger credit profile, and the PMI falls off on its own at 78% loan-to-value.Rates as of September 11, 2026 from Mortgage News Daily; APR estimates use industry-standard fee uplifts. For illustration only. Not a commitment to lend. Actual rates, payments and eligibility depend on full underwriting. Property tax estimated at \~1.0% of purchase price annually and homeowners insurance at \~$1,400/year; actual amounts vary by county, property and coverage. HOA dues not included. | | On the show this week[![Treasury Buybacks Explained: What Actually Moves Your Mortgage Rate](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DLx0E9Gj_XQ/maxresdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLx0E9Gj%5FXQ&ref=mortgagemomradio.com)Treasury Buybacks Explained: What Actually Moves Your Mortgage RateThe government announced it would spend $6 billion buying back its own bonds. That is supposed to push yields down, and mortgage rates with them. Yields went up instead, and the 10-year hit its highest level since 2023\. Debbie explains why — it is never just what they do, it is what they do versus what the market expected — plus where rates actually stand right now, one surprise on ARMs, and what to do if you have been waiting for rates to come down.[Watch the replay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLx0E9Gj%5FXQ&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) | | ![Mortgage Mom Radio](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/mom-logo-square.png)Talk to meDebbie MarcouxMortgage Mom · NMLS #237926 · on air Wednesdays 3PM PTIf something in here raised a question, ask me. You do not have to be ready to buy, you do not need paperwork, and there is no application involved. Most of what I do all day is answer questions for people who are still figuring it out.Pick a time that works for you and we will talk it through.[Book an appointment](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/schedule/)**Where I can help.** Licensed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. If you are buying somewhere else, tell me anyway and I will say so straight away. | | Send me your scenario.I will run your actual numbers for your actual situation. No pressure, no application.[Text MOM to 844-935-3634](sms:8449353634&body=MOM)[Text LIVE](sms:8449353634&body=LIVE) for show alerts · [Forward this](#) | | Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 · JMJ Financial dba Mortgage Mom Radio, NMLS #167867 · Equal Housing Lender. Licensed in AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, WA.Debbie Marcoux is a licensed mortgage loan originator. She is not a financial advisor, investment adviser, tax professional or attorney, and nothing in this newsletter is financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Consult your own professional about your particular situation before acting.For illustrative and educational purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Rates, terms and eligibility subject to underwriting approval and change without notice. | ### Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly - September 4, 2026 URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter-2026-09-04/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:53:38.000Z | Friday, September 40.17%between the rate on the news and the rate on your sheetFreddie Mac published 6.71% yesterday morning. Lenders were quoting 6.88% today. The survey is taken Monday through Wednesday and released on Thursday, so the headline number is always a day or two behind the market. Your rate sheet is not.Freddie Mac PMMS and Mortgage News Daily, September 4, 2026\. National averages for illustration only, not a commitment to lend. Your rate depends on credit, loan amount, property and full underwriting. | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | The market right nowWho has the leverage, and where41/50of the largest markets now favor buyers1 in 5listings took a price cut in July35%of builders cut prices in August63%of builders are paying incentivesRates are not the only lever, and they are the one you have least control over. There is money on the table in most of the country right now — what matters is how you take it. Off the price it barely moves your payment; as a rate buydown it moves a lot.Sources: [National Mortgage Professional](https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/buyers-gain-negotiating-power-41-major-housing-markets?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [NAHB, August 2026](https://www.nahb.org/news-and-economics/press-releases/2026/08/affordability-pressures-keep-builder-confidence-low?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). Housing-market conditions vary by metro and by property; national figures are not a forecast for any specific home or offer. | | From DebbieLast week I told you to watch Jackson Hole instead of waiting on the September meeting. Here is where that leaves us seven days later.When I wrote to you last Friday, traders put the odds of a rate *increase* in September at roughly **one in three**. They now put it at about **two in three**. That is not a small drift. Chairman Warsh was unambiguous that the 2% inflation target is firm, PCE came in at 3.7% and well above it, and the market did the math out loud.You can see it in the numbers. Freddie Mac’s survey went from 6.66% to 6.71%. Daily lender pricing went from 6.76% to 6.88%. The 10-year Treasury is at 4.77%. Nobody at the Fed voted on anything. This all happened in the bond market, exactly where I said it would.Here is the part that surprises people, though. Most of a September hike is *already in* your rate sheet. Lenders do not wait for the vote, they price the expectation. So the meeting on the 16th may come and go without moving your quote much at all — because the move already happened, over the last two weeks, while everyone was waiting.Which turns the real question into lock or float. That one depends on your closing date and your risk tolerance, not on a headline, and it is worth twelve minutes of your time. I recorded exactly that, below.— Debbie | | Since Jackson HoleLast week we talked about what Friday might change. New this week, 12 min on where it actually landed.[![Lock Or Float? Rate Hike Odds Jumped To 66% After Jackson Hole](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qCfyOXb-a6U/maxresdefault.jpg)](https://youtu.be/qCfyOXb-a6U?ref=mortgagemomradio.com)Lock Or Float? Rate Hike Odds Jumped To 66% After Jackson HoleRate sheets have already priced much of this in, which is why a hike on the 16th may not move mortgage rates much on the day it happens. Debbie covers what Warsh actually said and why the market read it as hawkish, what “already priced in” really means, the 60-day rule she gives clients on locking, and the one question to ask any lender about float-down programs before you lock.[Watch the breakdown · 12 min](https://youtu.be/qCfyOXb-a6U?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) | | This week’s buyer$450,000 · first-time · 680 score · $22,000 available$3,470FHA6.44% / 7.34% APR$15,750 down · $203 MIMI for the life of the loan$3,597Conventional 3%6.88% / 6.99% APR$13,500 down · $236 PMIPMI drops off at 78% LTVA hundred and twenty-seven dollars a month apart, and not for the reason most people assume. FHA gets you in with a lower credit floor and easier debt-to-income guidelines, but that mortgage insurance follows you for the life of the loan. Conventional needs a stronger credit profile, and the PMI falls off on its own at 78% loan-to-value.Rates as of September 4, 2026 from Mortgage News Daily; APR estimates use industry-standard fee uplifts. For illustration only. Not a commitment to lend. Actual rates, payments and eligibility depend on full underwriting. Property tax estimated at \~1.0% of purchase price annually and homeowners insurance at \~$1,400/year; actual amounts vary by county, property and coverage. HOA dues not included. | | On the show this week[![Can You Take Over Someone Else’s 3% Mortgage?](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JU8iV7Bi3jU/maxresdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU8iV7Bi3jU&ref=mortgagemomradio.com)Can You Take Over Someone Else’s 3% Mortgage?There are people paying two and a half percent on a mortgage right now, and if that loan is FHA, VA or USDA a buyer may be able to take it over instead of borrowing at today’s rates. It is called an assumption, almost nobody uses it, and it is not the same thing as the portable mortgage in the policy debate. Debbie covers who qualifies, what it actually saves, and the two things that stop most assumptions from happening.[Watch the replay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU8iV7Bi3jU&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) | | ![Mortgage Mom Radio](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/assets/images/mom-logo-square.png)Talk to meDebbie MarcouxMortgage Mom · NMLS #237926 · on air Wednesdays 3PM PTIf something in here raised a question, ask me. You do not have to be ready to buy, you do not need paperwork, and there is no application involved. Most of what I do all day is answer questions for people who are still figuring it out.Pick a time that works for you and we will talk it through.[Book an appointment](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/schedule/)**Where I can help.** Licensed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. If you are buying somewhere else, tell me anyway and I will say so straight away. | | Send me your scenario.I will run your actual numbers for your actual situation. No pressure, no application.[Text MOM to 844-935-3634](sms:8449353634&body=MOM)[Text LIVE](sms:8449353634&body=LIVE) for show alerts · [Forward this](#) | | Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 · JMJ Financial dba Mortgage Mom Radio, NMLS #167867 · Equal Housing Lender. Licensed in AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, WA.Debbie Marcoux is a licensed mortgage loan originator. She is not a financial advisor, investment adviser, tax professional or attorney, and nothing in this newsletter is financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Consult your own professional about your particular situation before acting.For illustrative and educational purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Rates, terms and eligibility subject to underwriting approval and change without notice. | ### How Do You Assume Someone Else's 3% FHA Or VA Mortgage? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-do-you-assume-someone-elses-3-fha-or-va-mortgage/ Last updated: 2026-09-07T01:25:24.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Can You Take Over Someone Else’s 3% Mortgage?” • Live show from Wednesday, September 2, 2026 • 37 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Millions of homeowners are sitting on mortgages in the 2s and 3s that they got between 2020 and 2022\. If one of them sells you their house, can you take their interest rate with it? Sometimes — and Debbie devoted this whole show to exactly how that works: which loans can actually be assumed, why you still have to qualify from scratch, the cash gap that stops most of these deals, and the one group of sellers who pay a real price for saying yes. **One note before you plan around this.** The program specifics Debbie states on air — the half-point assumption fee, how high a second mortgage will go behind an assumed first, and the $36,000 basic entitlement figure on a VA certificate of eligibility — are set by the servicer, the VA and FHA, and they were what applied on the air date below. Confirm the current numbers with your servicer and your loan officer before you build a plan on them. ## Key takeaways - **In practice, “assumable” means FHA and VA.** Those are 30-year fixed loans with an assumption option built in. Conventional loans *can* be assumable, but the majority of notes don’t allow it on a fixed rate — it’s usually only adjustable-rate loans, and typically only once the fixed period has expired and the loan is in its adjustment phase. Debbie has never in her career seen an assumable 30-year fixed conventional mortgage. - **Assuming a loan does not mean skipping the qualifying.** You take over the seller’s rate, balance and terms — but the bank that holds the note still has to approve you. FHA and VA are full income documentation products: pay stubs and W-2s, or tax returns if you’re self-employed, plus credit report, credit score and debt-to-income review. There is no bank statement or DSCR path into an assumption. - **The gap is what kills most of these deals.** You have to cover the difference between what the seller still owes and what you’re paying for the house — in cash, or with a second mortgage or home equity line. Most second-lien options cap at 90% of value (so a 10% down payment); some go to 95% (5% down). - **Run a blended rate before you fall in love with the number.** Debbie’s example: a $1 million home where you assume $400,000 at 3% and need a $500,000 second at around 8%. Seconds price higher than firsts, so the blend may or may not beat one straight new loan in the mid-6s to high-6s — roughly where the market sat that week *(week of September 2, 2026 — averages, not quotes)*. - **Budget for a half-point fee and normal closing costs.** Going through the servicer, there’s a **0.5% assumption fee**. On top of that you get the usual escrow, title or attorney fees — estimate about **2% of the sales price** ($12,000 on a $600,000 home) — and Debbie says expect to bring at least 5–10% out of pocket even with a second mortgage helping. - **A VA seller pays the real price.** Their entitlement stays tied up in that loan until whoever assumed it pays it off — which a buyer sitting on a 3% rate is never likely to do. Basic entitlement on a certificate of eligibility typically reads $36,000, used in a calculation against the county conforming limit. Veterans *can* hold more than one VA loan if entitlement remains — a $500,000 loan taken 15 years ago and paid down to $250,000 may leave room for another $300,000–$400,000 purchase — but buying the next home with zero down is most likely off the table. - **Plan on a slow close, and check turn times first.** A 90-day assumption is not unreasonable; Debbie has seen 30 to 45 days but calls it uncommon; 60 days is the realistic middle. Sellers should call their servicer and ask its turn times *before* accepting an offer from a buyer who wants to assume. And note who does what: Debbie can structure the gap financing and run the math, but the assumption itself is processed by the servicer, not by a loan officer. ## Chapters - 01:30Today’s topic: assumable mortgages - 04:20The short version: whose loan can you assume? - 05:00Conventional loans: usually only adjustable-rate notes - 05:50This is not a portable mortgage - 07:20The gap between what the seller owes and what the home is worth - 09:40Covering the gap: cash, a second mortgage or a HELOC - 11:50How far a second will stretch: 90% and 95% options - 12:40Running a blended rate before you commit - 14:20Assuming a loan does not mean skipping qualification - 15:10Applying with the servicer: full income docs, credit and DTI - 20:20The seller’s side: what a VA seller gives up - 21:40VA entitlement and the $36,000 on your certificate of eligibility - 24:10Can a veteran still buy again with zero down? - 26:30The half-point assumption fee, closing costs and cash to close - 29:10Why your loan officer cannot process the assumption - 30:50Timelines: expect at least 60 days, plan for 90 ### Find out whether an assumption pencils out for you Bring the seller’s rate, balance and asking price, and the team can run the gap and the blended rate before you write the offer. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, theme music, the licensing recitations, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### Today’s topic: assumable mortgages Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I’m Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and today we are going to be talking about assumable mortgages. I have had so many questions around this — not just recently, but really over the last couple of years — and it is not something I’ve ever talked about or touched on in the show. So I do want to have that conversation today. I want to talk about how it works. I want you to be aware of what kinds of loans you would be able to assume, and what exactly you have to do as the borrower trying to assume that mortgage from the seller. I also want to make sure the seller is aware of what they’re getting into, and whether that might be something beneficial for them to advertise if they’re planning to sell their home. If it looks like I am reading, I am. I want to make sure I stay on target and that I get you all of the information I promised in the description of the show. ### The short version: whose loan can you assume? The short version is that sellers holding primarily FHA and VA mortgages can offer to let you, as the buyer, assume their interest rate. If they have a 3% interest rate, or three and three quarters, or four and a half, or even five, and they want to allow you to assume their mortgage, that is something they can do if they currently hold a VA or an FHA loan. Now, you can also do that with conventional loans, and a lot of people don’t know that. However, the majority of the notes that are written do not allow assumptions on fixed rate mortgages. So typically, if the loan is conventional, it has to be an adjustable. If you are a seller with a conventional adjustable-rate loan, what you might want to do is pull up your documents, look through your note, look at what you signed and what it says, and see whether that’s an option you could offer to a new buyer coming into your property. Even somebody with a five- or seven-year fixed period: typically, if the bank they got the mortgage from does allow assumptions, they do not allow the assumption until after the fixed rate term has expired. It has to be in its adjustable portion before it becomes an assumable loan. And that’s not every lender — every single conventional lender writes their notes differently. Some will offer the loan to be assumed and others will not. I have never personally in my career seen a 30-year fixed rate conventional mortgage that was assumable. I have only ever seen it offered on a loan that is adjustable, and already in its adjustment phase. So I am really focusing mostly today on VA and FHA loans, because those are 30-year fixed interest rates that do have assumable options available. ### This is not a portable mortgage I want to make this very, very clear: today’s episode is about assuming somebody’s loan. This is not a show about portable mortgages. Portable mortgages are a completely different animal, and something that has not been approved. There is a bill on the table where they are talking about the possibility of rolling that out. About a year ago here on my channel I did explain what portable mortgages are, why they are not available today in the US, and what some of the challenges will be in rolling something like that out should it be approved. But as of today, September the 2nd, 2026, portable mortgages are not currently available. You can always go search the YouTube page — almost every single video I have comes from my live show, so go to my live playlist and look for portable mortgages. There is nothing approved and no further guidance on it, so there is nothing more I can tell you than what I told you a year ago. ### The gap: what they owe versus what the home is worth So if you have a VA or an FHA loan, or your conventional loan happens to have an assumable option on it, how does it work? This is very important both to somebody who has a mortgage today and to somebody buying a home who would like to be able to assume one of those low interest rate mortgages. What you have to think about is the gap — the spread between how much they owe on the loan and what the home is worth today. So if they owe $500,000, for example, and their home is worth $700,000, think about that for a minute. Most of the interest rates that are below 5% were achieved during the years of 2020 through 2022, for the most part. Some people were able to jump into 5% interest rates on VA and FHA loans more recently than that, around October. But really the majority of those loans came to be between 2020 and the end of 2022. So those clients, even though when they bought those homes they either got in with zero down or on an FHA with maybe three and a half percent down, their homes have gone up in value. Their properties are worth more money than they were back then. If they bought it for $500,000 in 2020, realistically it’s appreciated quite a bit — it’s probably worth six or seven hundred, possibly more, depending on where they bought, the pocket or the area they’re in, whether they bought new from a builder, whether they renovated. There’s no way for me to give you an exact number, but know that there is going to be a spread between what they owe and what the property is worth. So you, as the buyer, need to be able to come in with that difference in cash. And mind you, they’ve probably been paying on that loan for four or five years as well. So what do they owe on that loan today, versus the price they want for their property? ### Covering the gap How do we figure out how to cover the spread? Because not everybody has $100,000 or $150,000 or $200,000 sitting in cash. If you do, fabulous — if you have somebody with a 3% interest rate who’s willing to let you assume that loan and you’ve got the money, fabulous. But a lot of times buyers don’t have the money to cover the spread. What you would need to do is call someone like me — a loan officer or a lender — and find out what second mortgage options are available to you. If you don’t have the cash, you are going to need to get the cash somehow to bridge that gap. We can offer a second mortgage, or possibly a home equity line of credit, to help you bridge it. Be aware: most second mortgages or home equity line options available are not going to let you go to 100% financing. Many of them cap at 90%, which means you will need a 10% down payment. Some of the options we’ve got will let you go to 95%, which means you would need a minimum of 5% available. So what you want to find out is: what is the interest rate the seller has? What is the loan amount on that loan? How much are they selling for? How much of a loan do you need? Do you have the cash, or do you need a loan? Then you make the phone call to me, someone on my team, or a lender you’ve been talking to, and you discuss your options — what interest rate will that second be at, what will that monthly payment be. ### Running a blended rate Then we’re going to do some work with a blended rate calculator. For example, maybe you are buying a million-dollar home. Maybe the seller has a mortgage that is $400,000 at 3%, but you need a $500,000 second mortgage. Second mortgages will have a higher interest rate than a first mortgage would. So it’s going to take somebody like me who can show you a blended rate calculator to help you determine: if we look at $400,000 at 3% and $500,000 at, you know, 8%, what are you actually paying on all of that money? Does it make more sense to do one straight mortgage loan for a new purchase, maybe at an interest rate in the mid-6s to high-6s, which is about where the market is at today? So we need to talk about it. You need to get the details. It is very important for you to know that information, and then to figure out how you’re going to bridge that gap. Is it an awesome option? Absolutely it is. But it is truly based on the scenario the seller has available: how much do they owe, what is their interest rate, how much do they need, what are they selling for — and then what does that mean for you, and what is the best option for you based on that seller’s terms? ### Assuming a loan does not mean skipping the qualifying Another thing that is very important, and a lot of people do not realize and misunderstand: assuming somebody’s mortgage does not mean that you don’t have to qualify. It is very, very important that you hear that. When you assume somebody’s mortgage you are literally assuming their interest rate, their loan balance, their terms — everything they agreed upon and signed on the dotted line. You are assuming those things. The bank that holds that note still has to approve you to take over that note. Let’s back up. Number one: the seller of the property is going to call the 800 number on their mortgage statement, talk to the bank, and say, “I’m going to sell my home. I’ve got a buyer who is interested in assuming my mortgage. What are the steps? What do we do? What do I tell them to get started?” There will be a loan application you have to complete and documentation you have to supply. It will be almost identical to a mortgage loan application you would do for a brand new mortgage loan. That bank will review your income, your pay stubs and your W-2s — or if you are self-employed, they will be looking at your tax returns. Remember that the majority of the loans available for assumption today are VA and FHA loans, and VA and FHA loans are full income documentation qualifying mortgage products. That means you have to qualify exactly the same way as the person who took that loan on day one. So if you are self-employed, this is not a bank statement loan. This is not a DSCR loan where the property’s rental income carries it. You have to qualify with full income documentation and a full credit package. Your credit report and credit score, your monthly debts, your debt-to-income ratios — everything will be reviewed. So once again, I want to make sure you all are aware: this is not a way to get into a property without having to qualify. You absolutely have to qualify, and you have to bridge the gap between the current seller’s loan amount and the property value you agreed to purchase at, either in cash or with another loan helping you. ### The seller’s side: what a VA seller gives up Before I go further, I want to talk about the detriment for the seller in allowing somebody to assume their loan, so that you are aware of what those consequences or repercussions could be. Start with the benefits, though. The biggest benefit to the seller is that they’ve got something they can offer that somebody else in their same neighborhood or the same tract may not be able to offer. When a buyer is walking in looking at homes, they’ve got a subdivision picked out, and there are two or three or four homes to choose from, that home with the assumable mortgage might be more attractive than the home they have to go out and get brand new financing on at today’s interest rates. Seller, that’s a benefit for you. Buyer, that’s a benefit for you — you get to walk in and possibly assume somebody’s interest rate that is lower than today’s market. But with VA, this is absolutely the biggest piece a seller needs to be aware of. If they are a veteran with a VA loan, or even still active military but their current mortgage is a VA loan, and they are thinking about letting a buyer come in and assume that loan — they are the ones who will be hurt the most by that decision. So if you are not a veteran and you have a seller who is willing to let you assume their loan, you are a very, very special person. You need to think about it as: you are extremely lucky. Because it truly does hurt somebody who’s got a VA loan. ### VA entitlement and the $36,000 on your certificate of eligibility How does it hurt them? They have what’s called VA entitlement. When we go to do a loan for a veteran, we have to pull up whether or not they have earned their entitlement to get VA financing. If you are a vet and you want to see whether you have entitlement, you can go to your VA portal, go into your certificate of eligibility, print it out, and you will see your entitlement number says $36,000\. That is the typical number we see on a VA certificate. I have never seen a number different than that unless somebody has already taken a VA loan and has a loan outstanding — and that is exactly what would happen to a seller who decides to let somebody assume their loan. A lot of people get very confused, because they say, “Well, $36,000 isn’t going to buy me a $600,000 property. That doesn’t do me any good.” That $36,000 is part of a calculation we do based on where the subject property is located and what the conventional conforming loan limits are for that area, for the county that property is located in. So ignore the $36,000, other than knowing this: if you have never had a VA loan — or you’ve had one before but don’t currently have one outstanding, you’ve paid it off — that number on your certificate of eligibility will say $36,000. If you allow somebody to assume your VA loan, you are losing your entitlement for the amount of that loan. However much of that entitlement was used toward the loan you have outstanding today does not get replenished for you, because that loan is still outstanding. Although somebody else walked in and assumed that loan, that loan was taken on your eligibility. So your entitlement will remain reduced until the person who assumes your loan pays that loan off. And what are the chances that a buyer coming in and assuming a 3% interest rate is going to want to pay that loan off? Probably not very high. They’re most likely never going to want to pay that loan off. ### Can a veteran still buy again? So the question we have is: do you still have enough entitlement available to go buy another property, reutilizing your VA benefit? Most clients I have are buying homes zero down, and they are utilizing almost all — if not all — of the entitlement available to them. Many times veterans are led to believe they can only have one VA loan outstanding at any given point in time. That is absolutely not true. You can have more than one VA loan if you have the eligibility or the entitlement available to get a second property. For example: let’s say you took a loan for $500,000 fifteen years ago and you only owe $250,000 on that mortgage today. You have paid that balance down to where you very well may have enough entitlement to go get another loan in the county and the area you’re looking to buy — maybe another $300,000 or $400,000 property. Are you going to be able to go buy another five or six hundred thousand dollar property with zero down payment? Most likely not. We’ve got to do the calculations, and sitting here in studio not knowing every single person’s specifications, there’s no way for me to answer that as a flat-out no — but most likely no. Would we be able to get you a second VA loan if you had some money available for a down payment? Very good possibility that we could. So that is something very important for people to understand. As a seller, you are losing part of your eligibility and your opportunity at a new property, or future properties you might want to get using your VA loan. ### The half-point assumption fee, closing costs and cash to close I do want you guys to know this: there is a half of a percent assumption funding fee that does apply. When you assume somebody’s mortgage going directly through the bank they’ve got their mortgage with, you are going to be charged a half of a percent assumption fee. Make sure you’ve got that in the back of your mind. I’ve had people call me before who were assuming someone’s loan and didn’t realize there were closing costs in this whole purchase transaction. You will have closing costs, no different than any other transaction — escrow fees, title fees, attorney fees. My podcast goes nationwide, so depending on the state you are doing your financing in, that determines whether you’re in an escrow state, a title state or an attorney state. But those normal fees will apply, and you will have to bring money in to close on top of the amount of the gap between the sales price and the seller’s loan balance. Again, somebody like me — a loan officer, a lender — can help you obtain a second mortgage, which could bridge some of that gap, but you should still expect to bring in 5 to 10% at a minimum out of your own pocket, plus your closing costs. Those move quite a bit depending on the state, the county, the city, but I would say if you anticipate about 2% of the sales price, that’s a good relative number as you’re estimating in your head. You buy it for $600,000, I would estimate about $12,000 in closing costs, plus the difference you need for the gap. ### Why your loan officer cannot process the assumption Could you possibly get the opportunity to get into an interest rate that is lower than the market today? Absolutely, you totally can. I’m absolutely here to help you, my team is here to help you, we have worked on these numerous times in the past and can guide you. But here is one thing I do want you to be aware of: I personally do not handle the assumption piece. Just like I said a bit ago in the show, you have to apply with the lender that currently holds the note. I cannot be involved in any of that. I originate brand new financing — that is what I do as a mortgage loan officer. I do not work with servicing; that has nothing to do with me. Can I guide you? Can I tell you who to call and how to get it started? Absolutely. Can I guide you on whether the assumable makes sense — how much is their interest rate today, what is their loan balance today, how much are you going to buy the property for, what does that mean your gap is going to be, how do we get you the money for the gap, what is that money going to cost you, how much money are you going to need out of pocket? Absolutely. Those are the things that I do. But I cannot help you complete your package for that lender, I cannot help you get it submitted, and I cannot help you get approved for that loan. Unfortunately, that happens through servicing. When you have a mortgage and there’s an 800 number on your statement, those people you call on the phone — who aren’t always the most helpful — are the people you will be working with as a buyer trying to assume that seller’s note. ### Timelines: expect at least 60 days So it does get a little bit difficult, and they do take time. Be aware that it is not at all unreasonable to think that a mortgage assumption could take as long as 90 days. I have actually seen them go through in 30 to 45 days — I have seen that happen, but it is not very common. I would say if you go somewhere in the middle and expect at least 60 days for something like that to close, you’d be on the right track as far as your thought process. Seller, that is a question you want to ask your mortgage company before you even entertain the option of letting somebody assume your loan. You want to know from them: how long is the process once the person applies and submits the package for review? How long do they need? What are their turn times? Because if they tell you it’s a 60 to 90 day process, and you want to close on your home because you need the proceeds out of your property faster than that, you may not want to go down that path of accepting an offer from a buyer who wants to assume your loan. ### Wrap-up So there’s a lot to it, and a lot of information you need to know about it. My team is here to help you in any way we can. Whether you are a seller or a buyer interested in understanding it in more detail, go to mortgagemomradio.com and get yourself an appointment with me — I do phone appointments and my calendar is there. If you want to call spur of the moment to see if I’m available, nine times out of ten I am; if I’m not, I will call you back as soon as I can that same day. The toll-free number is 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4. I’ve got calculators and all kinds of great things on my website. Get yourself signed up for my newsletter — it goes out every single week and keeps you up to date on where our interest rates are today, and I always offer a scenario and a recap of what we talked about last week in case you missed an episode. One thing about newsletters: Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook love to send them to spam or junk. So if you signed up but haven’t seen one come through, check your spam or junk folder — good chance it’s in there — and tell your email provider we are not junk, and then you’ll never miss one going forward. I’m streaming on Facebook and YouTube, and this show is interactive — put your questions in the chat and I will read them out loud and answer them, even if they have nothing at all to do with that day’s subject. That is what this show is here for. A viewer on Facebook wrote in with a “great information” today, and you are so very welcome — it is my absolute pleasure. I’m live every single Wednesday right around 3 o’clock. If you want to make sure you get in while I’m live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634\. You will not be spammed — I promise you get one text message each week telling you what we’re talking about, with a link to join so you don’t miss the show and can ask your questions. When you think of loans, when you think of mortgage, think of Mortgage Mom Radio. I’ll be back again right here next week right around 3 PM. I’ll talk to you guys all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of Wednesday, September 2, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### What Actually Moves Mortgage Rates? (It's Not the Fed) URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-friday-matters-more-to-your-rate-than-the-next-fed-meeting/ Last updated: 2026-09-01T23:59:46.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, August 26, 2026 • 54 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve hasn't touched the Fed funds rate once in 2026 — and yet mortgage rates are up significantly since January. In this episode, Debbie explains where your mortgage rate actually comes from, what caused the August 17 global bond sell-off, and why a single speech at Jackson Hole can move your rate before the Fed ever votes on anything. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed doesn't set your mortgage rate.** Credit cards, HELOCs, and car loans track the Fed funds rate directly. A 30-year fixed mortgage tracks the **10-year Treasury yield**, because mortgage bonds compete with Treasuries for the same investor dollars. - **Proof from this year:** the Fed hasn't moved once in 2026, but the 10-year Treasury climbed from 4.2% in January to 4.66% by late August — and spiked above 5.31% on August 17, its highest level since 2007, in a global bond sell-off that also hit Japan and Germany. - **News moves rates in hours, not meetings.** Lenders sometimes get three rate sheets in a single day. A quoted rate isn't real until it's locked — that's not a bait-and-switch, it's how the bond market works. - **Markets are pricing roughly 1-in-3 odds of a September rate *hike*, not a cut.** Every major forecaster has the 30-year fixed staying above 6% through the rest of 2026 and most of 2027\. A plan built on waiting for 5% rates is built on a forecast nobody is making. - **In escrow? Debbie's recommendation: lock before Friday** — ideally with a float-down option, so you're protected if rates jump but can still capture a meaningful improvement. - **Buyers: use the seller's money, not yours.** Negotiate seller concessions to buy down your rate, and plan it with your lender before you write the offer. - **Buy the payment you can hold for the long haul.** Never stretch into a payment you can barely afford on the bet that a refinance will rescue you. ## Chapters - 02:20What today's show covers - 07:15The Fed hasn't moved all year — so why are rates up? - 08:00What the Fed funds rate actually controls - 08:55Q&A: first-time buyer programs when one of you already owns a home - 13:50Mortgage rates follow the 10-year Treasury - 17:10August 17: the global bond sell-off, explained - 19:00The Treasury's buyback announcement — and why the relief lasted one day - 20:30Why rate sheets change mid-day (it's not bait-and-switch) - 26:00Friday at Jackson Hole: Kevin Warsh's first keynote as Fed chair - 30:201-in-3 odds of a hike: stop waiting for 5% rates - 34:20Lock or float? Debbie's recommendation - 36:50Buyers: negotiate seller concessions to buy down the rate - 40:20This week's numbers: Freddie Mac averages, 10-year Treasury, Fed funds - 45:20Q&A: is it smart to buy a home at 25? - 49:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ## Questions answered on this show ### “I just bought a house. My fiancé wants to buy next year — can he still use first-time home buyer benefits if we buy together?” If he buys alone, yes — most first-time buyer programs require *everyone on the loan* to be a first-time buyer, so adding a partner who already owns disqualifies you from the majority of them (though not all). But low down payments don't require first-timer status: FHA is 3.5% down, and a conventional loan on a primary residence can be 5% down even for repeat buyers. Two more things most people get wrong: you *can* hold more than one FHA loan at a time if there's a documented reason (a growing family needing a bigger home qualifies), and if you rent out your departing FHA home, that rental income only counts toward qualifying if you're moving at least 100 miles away — FHA's relocation rule. ### “Is it smart to buy at 25 in this market?” Yes — with the right expectations. People who paused in 2020 to wait for a better market were still waiting in 2025 while values kept appreciating, and now rates are elevated too. Real estate cycles up and down, but each cycle tops higher than the last. Buy as if you're buying at the top: a payment you can comfortably carry for at least five years. That first property becomes the stepping stone to the next one — Debbie's advice is to never sell it. ## This week's numbers (week of August 26, 2026 — averages, not quotes) - Freddie Mac 30-year fixed average: **6.65%** (second straight weekly decline; 6.58% a year ago) - 15-year fixed average: **5.95%** - 30-year refinance average: **7.15%** — purchase, refinance, and cash-out each price differently - VA 30-year fixed average: **\~6.25%**, varying with origination fees (Debbie charges veterans no origination, processing, underwriting, or funding fees) - 10-year Treasury: **4.66%**, up from 4.2% in January; peaked above **5.31%** on August 17 - Fed funds target: **3.5–3.75%**, unchanged all year *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Talk through your own lock-or-float decision Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### The Fed hasn't moved — so why are rates up? Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about what actually moves interest rates. You've heard me say it for years: the Fed does not necessarily move mortgage rates. Today I want to explain, in more depth, exactly how we get the rates we get — and what could change on Friday. The Fed has not moved one time this year. In all of 2026 — and it's already August 26 — we've had no rate cut and no rate hike. The Fed has kept everything stable. And yet interest rates are up significantly from January. That's because mortgage rates are not directly connected to the Federal Reserve prime rate. Short-term debt is: car loans, home equity lines of credit, credit cards. Those are the Fed funds rate plus a margin. If the Fed funds rate is at 3.5–3.75% and your home equity line carries a margin of three, you're paying around 6.75%. Credit cards might carry a margin of 15% on top. When the Fed moves, those move. Mortgages don't work that way. ### Q&A: first-time buyer programs when one of you already owns Rachel asks: *“I just bought a house last week. My fiancé wants to buy a house next year. Could he still take advantage of first-time home buyer benefits if we buy together, or should he buy alone?”* Great question. If he buys alone, yes, he can use first-time buyer programs. Most of them require that *everyone on the loan* is a first-time buyer — so if you go on the loan and you already own a home, you'd be ineligible for the majority of them. There are some you could still use, but not most. But here's what matters: low down payments don't require first-timer status. If you co-sign together, an FHA loan is 3.5% down, or a conventional loan on a primary residence is 5% down. Anyone watching this — if you're buying a primary residence you're going to occupy, even if you own another home, you can still get in with primary-residence down payments. Rachel says her current loan is FHA. A lot of people believe you can only have one FHA loan at a time — that's inaccurate. You can have more than one, but you have to show FHA a reason you need another: getting married, a growing family, needing a bigger place — that would qualify you to keep your current home and buy another at the same low down payment. One caveat: if your current home is FHA and your plan is to rent it out and buy the new home FHA, we cannot use that rental income toward your qualifying income — your incomes alone need to carry both mortgage payments. The only time FHA lets us count rental income on a departing residence is when you're moving at least 100 miles away. FHA treats that as a relocation where you have no choice but to move. ### Mortgage rates follow the 10-year Treasury So what are mortgage rates actually connected to? The 10-year Treasury yield. The bond market moves just like the stock market — reacting to news and announcements that can move the needle quickly. The Fed funds rate is what banks charge each other overnight. It moves credit cards, home equity lines, and auto loans fairly directly. But a 30-year fixed mortgage is a 30-year bet. It tracks the 10-year yield because that's the closest thing the market has to a benchmark for long-term lending, and mortgage bonds have to compete with Treasuries for the same investor dollars. Where do we stand? The 10-year Treasury is at 4.66% as of today, August 26 — up from 4.2% at the start of the year, without the Fed moving once. The number people think drives mortgage rates — the Fed funds rate — sat still the whole time. ### August 17: the global bond sell-off On August 17, the 30-year Treasury yield went above 5.31%. It was a very swift, fast jolt — the highest level we've seen since 2007\. I'll tell you, it was scary. And it wasn't only America: Japan's 10-year hit a 30-year high, and Germany's 30-year hit its highest since 2011\. It was a global bond sell-off. What created it? Inflation hasn't settled. The sheer scale of government borrowing is off the charts. Corporate debt issued to fund AI buildouts hit the news. Oil prices were elevated. Everything came at us at once, and the 10-year went through the roof. So on August 19, the Treasury Department said it would double the size of its debt repurchases — essentially, “we're going to start buying back the bonds we've been selling.” Yields dipped on that news… then rebounded. Everything we gained on August 19 was erased. That is a really important detail: news moves the market. Some news spikes us, some news drops us, and it can be very, very quick. ### Why rate sheets change mid-day When a loan officer says “I can't guarantee this rate until it's locked — you're subject to the most recent rate sheet,” understand what that means. Some days we get one rate sheet; some days we get three, depending on what's moving the bond market. If you don't lock, you're subject to the newest sheet. I have feelings for the loan officers who tell you this, because many people assume it's a way to quote one rate and switch you later. It is truly out of their control. We don't control the rate sheets — we just get an email: worsening prices, check new rate sheet. Improving prices. On August 19, that Treasury announcement actually gave us an improving-prices rate sheet — for a day. Your loan officer isn't baiting you; they're preparing you to make a decision: lock now, or float with the market. It's 100% your choice. ### Friday at Jackson Hole: Warsh's first keynote as chair So why is Friday a big day? Fed Chair Kevin Warsh delivers his first-ever Jackson Hole keynote as chair this Friday, August 28 — three weeks before the next Fed meeting. A new chair's first major address is where the market forms its view of how that person will behave for *years*, not just the next meeting. After the July meeting — his first — he gave very little forward guidance. He was very difficult to read, and I said so on the show at the time. Investors read that as a lack of resolve on inflation, and long-term yields climbed to a two-decade high in the weeks that followed. Here's the line I wrote down to make sure I said on air: **mortgage rates embed the market's expectation for the entire future path of policy.** A speech that shifts the 2027 outlook can move a mortgage rate today, with no policy change at all. That's exactly what we've watched all year: the Fed hasn't moved the funds rate once, and yet we're up dramatically from January. ### Stop waiting for 5% Markets right now are pricing roughly one-in-three odds of a September rate *hike* — not a cut. Anyone sitting on the sidelines waiting for cheap money to return should hear that plainly. If you've been waiting for a 5% rate to buy your first home, or waiting for 5% to refinance when you've got debt coming out your ears or you need a roof — you cannot keep everything on hold waiting for rates that aren't forecast. I'll read exactly what I wrote this morning: **stop waiting for the Fed. Every major forecaster currently has the 30-year fixed staying above 6% through the rest of 2026 and most of 2027\. A strategy built on waiting for a 5% handle is a strategy built on a forecast nobody is making.** You cannot time the market. Do what you need to do, and make sure you're comfortable with what you sign up for — the payment at today's rate. If rates improve, we can always refinance and drop it. But sign up for something you're prepared to hold for a very long time. My own view — the Mortgage Mom forecast, no crystal ball: I think the forecasters are pretty correct this time. Toward the end of 2027 we might see rates dip into the high fives, but I think we're above 6% for at least the next 12 months. ### Lock or float? If you're in escrow right now and haven't locked: knowing Friday could be volatile, I recommend you call your loan officer and lock in your rate. I know it's scary — locking means that if rates improve a little, you don't get the benefit. But it's a warranty: if rates get worse, yours can't go higher. You have to decide what you're comfortable with. If it were me, I'd be calling the Mortgage Mom team and asking about locking with a **float-down option**. We have programs where you lock — protected if rates rise — but with a float-down feature: if the market improves by a significant amount (not a tiny move), we can offer you the lower rate. You've got today and tomorrow to get that done before Friday. If you're a buyer just getting started: rates are where they're going to stay, probably for at least a year. So negotiate with the seller for concessions to buy your interest rate down — not with your money, with the seller's money. We can plan exactly how much that saves on your monthly payment *before* you make the offer. And one more time, because it matters: real estate is for the long haul. Do not stretch into a payment you can barely afford on the theory that you'll hold on just long enough to refinance. I don't want that in your vocabulary. If the home you love is outside the budget, we talk before the offer about how the seller can help make that payment comfortable — not about you white-knuckling it. ### This week's numbers Remember: rates depend on your FICO score, the property type — condo, single family, 2-to-4 unit, manufactured — and your loan balance. Above the conforming limits you're into high-balance pricing, which is different again. These are averages for context, not a quote. The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed is hovering around 6.65% as of August 20 — the second straight weekly decline, though a minuscule one: 6.70 the week before, 6.72 before that. That's the usual pattern: a big spike, days of worse-worse-worse, then a settle. We're in the settle until we see what happens Friday. A year ago the 30-year was 6.58, so we're seven basis points above last August — and our best rates in recent memory were around October–November 2025. The 15-year fixed is about 5.95%. A 30-year *refinance* averages 7.15% — purchase, refinance, and cash-out each price differently, which is why I break these out. VA 30-year is around 6.25% on average, and it moves with origination fees — for my vets, I charge no origination, processing, underwriting, or funding fees, where a $3,500 flat fee is common in the industry, so compare the whole package, not just the rate. The 10-year Treasury is at 4.66%, and the Fed funds target is 3.5–3.75%, unchanged all year. Next week's show will have all the post-Jackson-Hole nitty-gritty. ### Q&A: buying at 25 Ethan asks: *“Is it smart in this market to buy at the age of 25?”* Yes. I have a lot of people who decided to wait, starting back in 2020 — and they were still waiting in 2023, 2024, 2025, while property values did nothing but appreciate. Now in 2026, values are up *and* rates are elevated. Every real estate market has a cycle: values go up, values come down, and over time each cycle ends higher than the last. What I want a 25-year-old to think about: pretend you're buying at the top of the market. Buy a comfortable payment you know you can carry for at least five years, somewhere you can genuinely stay. And I'll bet you anything that within five years — even buying in 2026 with elevated rates and prices — you'll be calling me to buy another property. That first home is the stepping stone: never sell it. It becomes part of your portfolio and your retirement down the road. ### Wrap-up If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — one text a week with the topic and a link to join, no spam. That's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team. At mortgagemomradio.com you'll find the calculators, the weekly newsletter, the podcast archive, and a way to submit questions for the next live show. I'll be back next Wednesday at 3 PM on YouTube and Facebook. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 26, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### What Can You Ask the Seller to Pay For? Seller Concessions in a Buyer's Market URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-list-price-is-the-opening-bid/ Last updated: 2026-09-01T23:59:48.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “The List Price Is The Opening Bid!” • Live show from Wednesday, August 19, 2026 • 63 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Nearly half of the people selling a home in America right now are handing the buyer money at closing — and most buyers still don't know they're allowed to ask. In this episode, Debbie walks through the data that makes 2026 officially a buyer's market, exactly what you can ask a seller to pay for, and why a seller-paid 2-1 rate buydown saves you far more money than the same-size price reduction. ## Key takeaways - **Seller concessions hit a record.** 46.2% of US home sales included a seller concession in May 2026 — up from 43.1% a year earlier and the highest share for any May on record (Redfin). That's regular resale homes; builder concessions run even higher. - **It's officially a buyer's market — and that's normal, not doom.** There are 48.5% more sellers than buyers nationally, and inventory sits at 4.6 months. A normal market is four to six months — we haven't had this much inventory since before 2020. - **The list price is the opening bid.** The typical resale home is closing at about 99% of asking before any credits, and 15.7% of May sales included *both* a price reduction and a concession. Getting one doesn't mean giving up the other. - **Concessions cover closing costs — never your down payment.** Budget roughly 3% of the price for closing costs. The down payment must come from you or another acceptable source: a gift, down payment assistance, or liquidating a 401(k). - **The 2-1 buydown beats a price cut.** On a $500,000 loan at 6.5%, the buydown costs the seller $11,379 and saves you about $458 a month over the first two years. The same $11,379 as a price reduction saves about $71 a month. - **Credits can stack.** Seller, real estate agent, and even lender credits can all go toward the buydown — though a lender credit means taking a higher rate, so seller money is the money to chase. - **Sellers: a concession is a net-net.** Giving a credit instead of cutting the price gets your home sold without becoming the lowest comp in the neighborhood. ## Chapters - 02:00Why 2026 is officially a buyer's market - 03:00Nearly half of sellers are handing buyers money at closing - 07:0046.2% of May sales included a concession (Redfin) - 08:3048.5% more sellers than buyers — and 4.6 months of inventory - 11:0015.7% of sales got both a price cut and a concession - 12:30The 99% sale-to-list ratio; Arizona's routine concessions - 15:00Where rates sit today, by loan type - 17:00Why now: two years of inventory build while buyers waited - 21:0057 days on market; one in five listings cut its price - 26:00What you can actually ask a seller for - 28:00A $500K example: down payment vs. closing costs - 30:00The 2-1 buydown, explained - 36:00The math: buydown vs. price reduction ($458 vs. $71 a month) - 41:00Q&A: asking for the buydown after your offer is accepted - 46:00State by state: Arizona, California, Florida, Nashville, Oahu - 57:00The take-home: ask for the credit, aim it at the rate ## Questions answered on this show ### “Can you ask the seller for a rate buydown after your offer is accepted — for example, using a repair credit?” Yes. A repair credit is still a seller concession, and it doesn't have to be earmarked in the contract for a specific use — the credit can be applied toward a buydown. The catch is size: repair credits usually come in around $4,000–$5,000, which isn't enough for a 2-1 buydown on a $500,000 loan, but it is enough for a one-year buydown — year one at 5.5% instead of 6.5%, then 6.5% for years two through thirty. The cost of any buydown depends on your exact loan amount and rate, so talk to your lender *before* you write the offer so you ask for the right dollar amount. ### “Can the buydown funds come from multiple sources — the seller and the real estate agent?” Absolutely. Seller and agent credits can combine toward the same buydown, and many of the agents Debbie refers clients to will credit what would have been a referral fee toward the buyer's closing costs. A lender can contribute too, but there's a trade: to hand back a credit (say $5,000 on a $500,000 loan — one full point), the lender has to price your loan at least a quarter percent above market, so most people prefer to start at the lowest rate and let the seller's money do the work. ## This week's numbers (week of August 19, 2026 — averages, not quotes) - Conforming 30-year conventional: **\~6.625%** - High-balance conventional (common in California): **high 6s to low 7s** - Jumbo interest-only and non-QM (bank statement, DSCR): **mid 7s — roughly 7.25–7.5%** - FHA and VA: **\~6.25%** - Share of May 2026 sales with a seller concession: **46.2%** (Redfin — a record for any May) - Months of inventory nationally: **4.6** (normal is 4–6); median listing sat **57 days** in July - Homeowner equity nationwide: **$18 trillion**, a record *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Plan your offer — and your concession ask — before you write it Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### It's officially a buyer's market Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. It is Wednesday, August 19, and today we're talking about why this has officially become a buyer's market — what the data behind that statement is, and what you can do as a buyer to capitalize on it. Here's the headline: nearly half of the people selling an existing home in America right now are handing the buyer money at closing — closing costs, repair credits, rate buydowns — and the buyers who don't get those simply aren't asking. Now, I'm going to have people jump into the feed and tell me, “There's no way — I paid over list price and there were multiple offers.” Remember, this podcast goes across the nation. There are definitely areas, including pockets of California, still seeing multiple offers over list. But those are pockets — and they're not even everywhere in California. On average across the country, we are seeing closing cost credits and rate buydowns, and honestly, that's great for sellers too. I would much rather see a seller get their price and give credits than reduce their price and become the lowest sale in the neighborhood, driving the market down. ### The numbers behind it Let's jump into the numbers, because they back up my statement that the listing price is just the starting point. Even if you pay full price for the home, it is okay to ask for the things you need. **46.2%** — the share of US home sales where the seller gave the buyer a concession in May of 2026\. That's up from 43.1% a year earlier and the highest share for any May on record, according to Redfin. I always tell you where I find my data so you can double-check me. And that's regular homeowners selling regular resale homes — builder and new-construction numbers are actually quite a bit higher. I focused this show on resales because that's the majority of the activity in the market and the majority of what crosses my desk. **48.5%** — how many more sellers than buyers there are in the market nationally right now. That's the leverage behind every one of these credits. Now, a lot of people hear “buyer's market” and jump straight to recession, prices dropping, doom and gloom. That is not the case. A buyer's market just means there's more inventory than buyers. We're running at about 4.6 months of inventory, and a normal market is between four and six months. We have not had this much inventory since before 2020 — COVID took us to the lowest inventory we've ever seen, which is why houses were getting 10, 12, 20 offers. That is not the case now. We're a buyer's market, but we're in a *normal inventory* market. The headlines could very easily spin this into something negative when it's just the facts. **15.7%** — the share of home sales that included *both* a price reduction and a concession, per Redfin. Getting one does not mean giving up the other. **99%** — the average sale-to-list ratio right now, per Redfin's weekly data through mid-August. The typical resale home is already closing about 1% under asking before any credits. You don't necessarily have to offer list price — though if it's a hot home priced aggressively to drive bids, lean on your real estate agent to guide the offer. And in Arizona, buyers are routinely negotiating 2 to 3% in seller concessions right now — $8,500 to $12,750 on a typical home, per the Arizona Daily Independent. ### Where rates are today Since about mid-July, interest rates have moved up and buyers are feeling squeezed again. Depending on the loan product: if you're in a bank statement loan, a DSCR loan, or a jumbo looking for interest-only, you could easily be in the mid-sevens — 7.25, 7.5\. Conventional high-balance — which is a lot of California — high sixes to low sevens. A normal conforming conventional loan is still about 6.625 today, and VA and FHA are running around 6.25\. With rates higher, buyers have stalled, and properties going under contract have absolutely slowed over the last couple of weeks. Sellers: if you want your home sold, be open to helping the buyer buy down that rate — that's how your home goes under contract while your neighbor's listing sits. ### Why this is happening now Inventory has been building for two years while buyers sat out waiting on rates. The normal turnover of the market — downsizing, upsizing, families growing — hasn't been happening for years because people are locked into very low rates. I have a client right now doing a home equity line specifically because they don't want to touch their 2.65% fixed mortgage. The other thing that stalled people was sticker shock. I hate to be the one to tell you, but that ship has sailed: rates have been above 6% since 2023\. In late 2023 and early 2024 we were at 7.5 to 8%. We came down in 2025 and hit the high fives, which was phenomenal — and then 2026 took us right back up to the mid-sixes and low sevens. A lot of buyers waiting for threes and fours finally realized they're not coming back, but they missed the boat on the high fives — and the people who never got off the sidelines also missed lower prices, because values are higher today than they were in 2023 and 2024. Which just proves what I've said all these years: you cannot time the market. If it's your time to sell, sell. If it's your time to buy, buy. The only thing I ask is that you get into something you can afford *assuming you never get the opportunity to refinance*. Then, when rates do drop — like they did in late 2025, when we were calling clients to cut a full point off their rate — take advantage of it. On a $500,000 or $600,000 mortgage, that's three, four, five hundred dollars a month. A few more data points: the median listing sat 57 days in July — the slowest July pace in years — and one in five active listings took a price cut in July, per Realtor.com. This is a negotiation, not a fire sale. Sellers are not desperate: quite a few are simply pulling their homes off the market rather than cutting price, because they're sitting on great rates and record equity. Homeowners nationwide are sitting on $18 trillion in equity right now. ### What you can ask a seller to pay for A closing cost credit — most commonly called a concession — is the seller giving you a credit through the closing of the loan. One rule up front: **the seller's concession cannot cover any of your down payment.** The down payment has to come from you or another acceptable source — down payment assistance, a gift from a family member, liquidating a 401(k). Then you have closing costs. Every state is a little different — Texas runs more expensive than California as a percentage — but on average, closing costs run between 1.5 and 3% of your sales price. Budget for 3% and you'll likely come in under. So say you're buying a $500,000 home with 5% down. Your down payment is $25,000, and closing costs at 3% are roughly $15,000 — you need $40,000 to close. If you've only got $30,000, you have the down payment but not the closing costs. The seller can give you a $15,000 concession to cover those closing costs — and now you've actually got $5,000 left over to help with the move. Moving is expensive; think about what it cost just to fill your refrigerator and pantry last time. ### The 2-1 buydown: my favorite program Where the seller's money helps even more is a buydown. Don't confuse a buydown with points. A permanent buydown lowers your rate for the whole 30 years — say 6.5% bought down to 6.25% — and yes, a seller can pay for that. But my favorite is the **2-1 buydown**, because it gives you the biggest savings in the first two years, much larger than a permanent buydown — with the hope that rates improve in the meantime so you can refinance if you want to. And this is nothing like the loans that got people in trouble years ago: a 2-1 buydown is a 30-year *fixed* loan. The note rate never changes. The seller just prepays the difference so your payment is based on a rate 2% lower in year one and 1% lower in year two. If rates never drop, no big deal — in year three you're simply at the rate you would have started at today. Let me run real numbers — averages, for educational purposes only, not a quote. Take a $500,000 loan at 6.5%. Year one, your payment is based on 4.5% — that's a savings of $626.91 a month, or $7,522 for the year. Year two, your payment is based on 5.5% — $321.39 a month, or $3,856\. Over two years you keep **$11,379** in your pocket — and that's exactly what the buydown costs the seller. When you negotiate, you ask the seller to pay for the buydown and you write the specific dollar amount into the offer. The number depends on your loan amount and rate, so call me before you write the offer and we'll calculate exactly what to ask for. Now compare that to a price reduction of the same size. Knock $11,379 off the price instead, and your loan amount drops to about $488,621\. At 6.5%, the payment on the full loan amount is about $3,160 a month; on the reduced loan amount, about $3,088 — you save roughly $71 a month. The buydown, spread over the same two years, saves you about $458 a month. That's why I love this program: $458 versus $71, from the same seller dollars. And you're not limited to one source. The seller, the real estate agent, and even the lender can contribute — though when a lender gives a credit, we have to price the loan above market to create it. To hand back $5,000 on a $500,000 loan — one full point — I'd have to raise the rate at least a quarter percent, to 6.75 or even 6.875\. That's why most people let the seller's money do the work and keep the lowest start rate. Many of the agents I refer clients to will also put what would have been a referral fee — which I don't want and legally can't accept as a loan officer — toward your closing costs instead. Between an agent credit and a seller credit, you might walk in the door with just your down payment. ### State by state: where the leverage is **Arizona** is firmly a buyer's market. The median sales price statewide is $443,611, nearly a third of Phoenix-metro listings have taken a price cut, and 2–3% concessions are routine — I've been seeing them on almost every contract that comes through in Tempe and Chandler. One thing buyers should understand about what a seller is actually giving: if you buy at $600,000 and ask for 3%, that's an $18,000 concession — the seller really agreed to net $582,000\. It's a direct net reduction for them, and you're ultimately getting the home at a lower effective value — while the neighborhood's comps stay strong. That's why concessions beat price cuts for everyone. **California** sales are up 6% year-over-year, but the median price has eased 2.8% off May's record — and the median price is brutal for first-time buyers. If you're a California seller, be open to concessions. I've had buyers offer full price, even above asking, to get credits for what they need in cash — and sellers turn up their noses like it hurts them. It's a net-net, guys. If the buyer offers $10,000 over list to get a $10,000 credit, you're netting the same. Help them out. And remember what changed with agent commissions after the National Association of Realtors settlement: buyers are barely scraping together down payment and closing costs. When *you* bought your home, the seller paid your agent's commission. If a buyer asks you to cover their agent's commission or closing costs, counter on price if you need to protect your net — but help them get in the door. **Florida** values have fallen three straight months, down 2.4% year-over-year, with roughly a quarter of listings carrying price cuts — among the most concession-friendly resale markets in the country. I've done four or five Florida loans in the last twelve months, and just about every contract I see has the seller offering fairly decent concessions. Florida also has some amazing down payment assistance programs. **The national extreme is Nashville**, where 75.5% of sellers gave concessions in May — three out of four, the highest of the 28 metros tracked. Nashville, like Texas, got run up artificially during the pandemic and is now price-correcting, which is okay — it needs to. And if you bought there and you're slightly underwater: this is not a walk-away-and-ruin-your-credit scenario. The declines are small. Hold on. Real estate always comes back in every cycle, and every cycle tops higher than the last. **On the flip side, Oahu is hot** — resales up 20.5% in July with the median up 13.9%, per the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The leverage is local: days on market and price-cut share on the specific listing tell you how hard to push. There are pockets that are great and pockets that are not. This is a very normal market — honestly the most normal we've seen since 2019. ### The take-home The list price is the opening bid. Ask for the credit, and aim it at the rate: buy the rate down, get the monthly payment lower, ask for closing costs to be covered, and get in with the money you have in your pocket. Stop putting your plans on hold trying to time your way back to 3 and 4% rates — those aren't coming back short of another once-in-a-generation event. Will rates dip into the fives someday? I believe so, and if you buy today you'll have the opportunity to refinance. But this is the new average, so make sure the payment you sign up for is comfortable. If you want to talk through your scenario, go to mortgagemomradio.com and book an appointment on my calendar — we'll go over your goals, your credit, and your down payment, get you pre-approved, decide what to ask the seller for *before* you shop, and hand you off to an agent we trust. You can also call the office at 844-935-3634, and if you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to that same number. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter on the website for rates, side-by-side comparisons, and links to every show. I'll be back next Wednesday right around 3:00\. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 19, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly - August 14, 2026 URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter-2026-08-14/ Last updated: 2026-08-14T22:34:58.000Z | Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly Week of August 14, 2026 Good morning — Mortgage Mom here. The 30-year ticked lower to 6.69% this week. Not a huge move, but every basis point matters when you're running numbers. A quick reminder as you read: the interest rates illustrated are based on standard conforming loan limits up to $832,750\. Interest rates for high-balance conventional loans in high-cost areas, such as Los Angeles County, do carry higher rate premiums. Inside this week's issue I walked through VA loan (no down payment) vs Conventional on a $500K purchase so you can see the actual monthly payment math side by side. And on the show this week we dug into "Foreclosures just jumped 21% this year. Is this 2008 all over again" — recap is down below with the full replay link. If you're running numbers on your own situation and want a real answer — not a maybe — text MOM to 844-935-3634 anytime. That's what I'm here for. — Debbie Rates this week ProgramRateAPR 30-Year Fixed 6.69% 6.80% 15-Year Fixed 6.26% 6.37% FHA 30-Year 6.28% 7.18% VA 30-Year 6.29% 6.54% Jumbo 30-Year 6.83% 6.94% 30yr fell 8 bps from 6.77% last week to 6.69%. ![8-week rate trend chart](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/08/rate-chart-2026-08-14.png) 5-week trend, 30-year and 15-year fixed Source: [Freddie Mac PMMS](https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Mortgage News Daily](https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage-rates?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [US 10-Year Treasury](https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/bond/tmubmusd10y?countrycode=bx&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Rates shown are national averages from third-party sources for illustrative purposes only. APR estimates use industry-standard fee uplifts and will vary based on borrower qualification, loan amount, and specific fees. Not a commitment to lend. This week's scenario **VA loan (no down payment) vs Conventional on a $500K purchase** Eligible veteran with full VA entitlement, comparing $0-down VA vs 5% down conventional VA loan (0% down) $3,691 est. monthly PITI Rate / APR6.29% / 6.54% Down (0%)$0 Loan amount$510,750 P&I$3,158 Est. tax + ins.$417 + $117 Conventional 5% down $3,833 est. monthly PITI Rate / APR6.69% / 6.80% Down (5%)$25,000 Loan amount$475,000 P&I$3,062 Monthly MI$238 Est. tax + ins.$417 + $117 VA-eligible borrowers can preserve their savings by putting nothing down and skip monthly mortgage insurance entirely. The funding fee is real, but it can be financed. For non-veterans, low-down conventional is often the fastest path to homeownership when the credit score cooperates. For illustrative purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Actual rates, payments, and eligibility depend on full underwriting and will vary based on credit score, debt-to-income, loan-to-value, property type, occupancy, reserves, and specific investor or agency overlays. Rates and terms shown reflect national averages on the date pulled and are subject to change without notice. Estimated property taxes and homeowners insurance are based on national averages and will vary depending on the specific area where the property is located. On the show this week [![Watch the replay](https://i4.ytimg.com/vi/GyhP0Ssvpms/hqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyhP0Ssvpms&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Foreclosures just jumped 21% this year. Is this 2008 all over again? Full replay linked below — Debbie walks through it all on the air. [Watch the replay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyhP0Ssvpms&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![Live show alerts - text LIVE to 844-935-3634](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/live-text-signup.png) ](sms:8449353634?&body=LIVE) [ ![Real questions. Real numbers. Text MOM to 844-935-3634](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/scenario-question.png) ](sms:8449353634?&body=MOM) [ ![Ready to talk through your own numbers? Book an appointment with Debbie](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/book-appointment.png) ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/schedule/) ● IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Catch up on recent shows A few recent shows worth catching up on: [![Homeowners Insurance is killing deals at closing!](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oPt4SRJgDRc/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPt4SRJgDRc&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [Homeowners Insurance is killing deals at closing!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPt4SRJgDRc&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPt4SRJgDRc&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [![The Fed Just Said No Rate Cut](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WzSInrrdFt0/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [The Fed Just Said No Rate Cut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [![Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vo8njS74v54/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ● SPREAD THE WORD Know someone who needs this? Shopping, refinancing, or on an HOA board?Forward this newsletter — that's how good info gets around. [Forward Newsletter](https://mortgagemomradio.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com#/portal/signup/newsletter) Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926\. JMJ Financial dba Mortgage Mom Radio, NMLS #167867\. Equal Housing Lender. Licensed in AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, WA. For illustrative and educational purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Rates, terms, and eligibility subject to underwriting approval and change without notice. | | 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| ### Are Foreclosures Rising in 2026? Why This Is Not 2008 All Over Again URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/foreclosures-just-jumped-21-this-year-is-this-2008-all-over-again/ Last updated: 2026-09-01T23:59:49.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Foreclosures just jumped 21% this year. Is this 2008 all over again?” • Live show from Wednesday, August 12, 2026 • 59 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Foreclosure filings are up 21% year-over-year and the headlines are screaming 2008\. In this episode, Debbie puts the actual numbers side by side — the Great Recession peak, the normal pre-COVID market of 2019, and today — and explains why record home equity and post-Dodd-Frank underwriting make this a normalizing market, not a crisis, plus exactly where the real stress is concentrated. ## Key takeaways - **The 21% headline is real — but it has no baseline behind it.** First-half 2026 filings were 227,548, still down roughly 86% from 2010's all-time record of 2,871,891 (per RealtyTrac data). - **2026 is on pace for a normal year.** Doubling the first half puts full-year filings around 450,000–470,000 — right in line with 2019's 493,066, the most normal market in recent memory. 2025 came in at 367,460. - **The market-share picture says it all:** in 2010, 1 in 45 homes was in foreclosure. Today it's 1 in 632 listings nationally — and foreclosures now clear faster (average timeline down 13% to 563 days) because banks aren't buried in volume. - **2008 was built on missing equity and missing income documentation** — 80/20 no-doc loans, stated income, ARMs resetting from teaser rates. Since Dodd-Frank, virtually every loan is underwritten to the ability to repay; even bank statement and DSCR loans have to prove it. - **Homeowners today sit on $18 trillion in equity ($11.7 trillion tappable, per Q2 2026 data).** A homeowner in trouble can usually sell rather than be foreclosed on — the exit that didn't exist in 2008. - **Where the real stress is:** underwater borrowers are up 44% year-over-year to about 813,000 nationally, concentrated among low-down-payment FHA/VA buyers from 2022–2025\. Texas and Florida account for 39% of underwater homes (ICE August 2026 Mortgage Monitor); the hardest-hit metros are Cape Coral (11.4%), Lakeland (7.5%), San Antonio (6.9%), and Austin (6.6%). - **Slightly underwater on a high-rate FHA or VA loan?** A streamline refinance requires no appraisal and doesn't care about your loan-to-value — you can still drop the rate and payment. ## Chapters - 02:00Why everyone is suddenly asking about foreclosures - 05:00Two headlines colliding: filings up 21%, delinquencies up - 06:002007–2010: how bad the Great Recession really got - 09:002019: the last normal year — 493,066 filings - 10:002026 so far: 227,548 filings, on pace for normal - 12:00The COVID backlog: forbearances and moratoriums - 13:30Foreclosures clear faster now: the 563-day timeline - 16:00Side by side: 1-in-45 then, 1-in-632 now - 21:00What actually caused 2008: no equity, no income docs - 26:00Q&A: will AI job losses push foreclosures up? - 29:30Q&A: buying with a fiancé before you're married - 31:00Ability-to-repay: how every loan is underwritten now - 36:00Where the stress is concentrated: Texas and Florida - 40:00State-by-state check of Debbie's licensed states - 45:00The take-home — and FHA/VA streamline refinances - 53:00$18 trillion in equity: the real difference from 2008 ## Questions answered on this show ### “With the economy as it is and AI taking over so many jobs, wouldn't foreclosure numbers keep rising?” There's no way to forecast how many jobs AI will displace or how many of those households would actually lose a home. Two things stand between a job loss and a foreclosure today. First, banks have real hardship options — a documented loss of income can qualify you for a loan modification, a 40-year term, a rate reduction, or help getting caught up, because the bank would rather keep you in the home than take the property back. Second, unlike 2008, most owners are sitting on equity: if a modification can't be worked out, they can sell the home rather than let it go to foreclosure. Could a severe AI shock change that someday? Possibly — but it's too far forward-looking to build assumptions on now. ### “I'm buying a house now and my fiancé wants to buy in the future — can we be on a loan together before we're married?” Absolutely. Many clients believe you have to be married to share a mortgage, and that's simply not accurate. Co-borrowers can be a married couple, an engaged couple, a parent and child, siblings, or just two great friends. There is nothing keeping you from being on a loan with your fiancé before the wedding. ### “I make $75,000 a year plus CD interest and have $400,000 in home equity — how much do I qualify for?” Nobody can answer that from those two numbers — and Debbie's warning is to run from anyone who tries. The TikTok lives where a rep spits out a qualification amount from a chat comment are wildly inaccurate. A real answer needs your complete monthly income, your monthly debts, how many properties and mortgages you have, what you owe on the home with the equity, and whether this is a purchase or a refinance — then it's still subject to a full application with documentation. Debbie is happy to run that math on a call: book at mortgagemomradio.com or phone 844-935-3634. ### Worried about your own payment — or slightly underwater? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### Why everyone is asking about foreclosures Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about foreclosures. Is your property going to fall in value? Is imminent doom on the way? I have been asked this repeatedly over the past week, so today's show is all about it. I'm going to give you numbers from the height of the Great Recession in 2010, compare them to 2019 — a very stable market, fully recovered, right before COVID — and then show you where things stand today. So why are clients asking this right now? Two things are colliding in the headlines this week: foreclosure filings are up 21% year-over-year, and mortgage delinquencies just posted their first meaningful quarter-over-quarter increase, per the Mortgage Bankers Association's Q1 2026 National Delinquency Survey. I always tell you where I get my data so you know it's accurate. The headlines report the 21% without the base number behind it — so you hear “foreclosures are up 21%” and assume it's 2008 all over again. That is not what it means whatsoever. But the fear is understandable, and the honest answer has real nuance worth walking through. ### Three eras, side by side Let's do the three eras. The Great Recession peaked in 2010, but it really started in 2007\. Filings climbed from about 1,285,873 properties in 2007 — up 75% from 2006 — and eventually hit the all-time record of **2,871,891** in 2010, per RealtyTrac, confirmed by Reuters. Foreclosure starts — the closest proxy to a formal notice of default — peaked in 2009 at over 2.1 million, and completed foreclosures (bank repossessions, or REOs) peaked at about 1.05 million in 2010\. That wave was driven by subprime and adjustable-rate mortgages resetting to payments people couldn't afford — and because values were collapsing under the weight of all those foreclosures, borrowers couldn't refinance and couldn't sell to get out of the pickle they were in. Now 2019, pre-pandemic — the most normal market in recent memory. Full-year filings: **493,066**, down 83% from the 2010 high and the lowest level since tracking began in 2005\. Foreclosure starts were 335,985. And today: first-half 2026 filings sit at **227,548** through June. Double that for a full-year run rate and we land somewhere between 450,000 and 470,000\. Compare that to 2019's 493,066 — we're right on target for a pretty normal market. Yes, the first half is up 21% year-over-year. It is also still down 86% from the 2010 peak. Last year, 2025, came in at 367,460 — still down 87% from the peak, though up 14% from 2024. So no, this is not 2008\. No, we are not heading into a massive crisis, and no, your house is not going to drop 50% in value come 2027\. There's no crystal ball — something unpredictable could always happen — but if things continue the way they've been going, that is not the direction we're headed. ### Why the numbers are rising: the COVID backlog Why now, and not last year or the year before? Remember that during COVID, banks offered forbearances, moved missed balances to the back of the loan, and worked loan modifications to get people caught up — and foreclosure moratoriums legally prevented banks from foreclosing. That wasn't just 2020; it ran through 2021 and 2022, and plenty of people were still finishing modifications in 2023\. The banks got the green light in 2024, so 2024 and 2025 have been the market building back to normal. And a normal market always has foreclosures — poor planning, a drastic life event, a home that burned without insurance. There will always be some, and it isn't a housing bust. Here's a detail that proves we're not in a crisis: foreclosures are actually moving *faster* than ever. The average foreclosure timeline is down to 563 days as of Q2 2026 — a 13% improvement over last year. In 2008–2010, banks drowning in millions of defaulted loans didn't have the staff to send notices, work with borrowers, and get properties to market, which is what dragged the Great Recession out. Today's volume is small enough that the pipeline just flows. One more comparison to drive it home. In 2010, one out of every 45 homes on the market across the nation was a foreclosure, per RealtyTrac's year-end report. As of 2026, it is **1 in 632 listings**. That is a substantial, substantial difference. And understand why the headline exists: anybody doing a show is trying to get you to click, and “foreclosures up 21%” does that. Now you have the baseline behind it. ### What actually caused 2008 — and what's different The biggest structural difference between 2008 and 2026 is **home equity**. In the early 2000s people were buying properties as fast as they could get them — stated income loans, a huge subprime market, 100% financing through an 80% first mortgage and a 20% second, no income documentation at all. Most of those loans were fixed for five years and then adjusted. When rates jumped by 2008, a borrower whose start rate was 4.5 or 5% suddenly reset to around 7%, often going from interest-only to fully amortized at the same time. There were even negative-amortization loans — a product I haven't seen in ages. Values tanked because foreclosures were everywhere, the equity was gone, and people could neither sell nor refinance their way out. Here's how the old 80/20 no-doc loan actually worked, because it explains everything. You ran an 80% first mortgage through the automated system, and because the system believed there was a 20% down payment, it would come back “no income, no assets, no verification required.” Then a 20% second was closed concurrently — and the second underwrote to the same guidelines as the first. So if the system said no income docs, neither loan required them. Money to close plus a credit score the system liked, and you got a mortgage. School teachers, waitresses, anyone with a W-2 could have any number typed into the application — which is fraud, but spread across hundreds of thousands of loan officers with the ability to nudge an income $500 a month to make a deal work, how many people really didn't qualify? After the Great Recession came the reform: the Dodd-Frank Act — around 2010 — the CFPB, mortgage licensing, disclosure rules, and above all the **ability-to-repay** (ATR) requirement every lender must underwrite to. Since then, I'd say 94–95% of all loans underwritten, approved, and funded have been full-documentation loans — W-2s, pay stubs, debt ratios in line. FHA and VA always were. And the products that sound like exceptions still have to prove ability to repay: A **bank statement loan** is only available if you're self-employed — if you don't own a business, you cannot get one. We gather 12 months of business bank statements and count only the genuine income deposits, then cut the total in half to allow for the running expenses of the business. A **DSCR loan** (debt service coverage ratio) can only be done on an investment property: the appraiser documents market rents, and those rents have to cover the principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. That's the ability to repay, either way. We simply no longer offer the loans that got everyone into trouble — and this underwriting has been in place for about 16 years now. ### Where the stress actually is Foreclosures are up, and there are places feeling it — so let's talk about where. Underwater borrowers are up 44% year-over-year — honestly, I'm shocked *that* isn't the headline — to about 813,000 nationally, across all 50 states. It's concentrated among FHA and VA borrowers who bought between 2022 and 2025: they closed at higher rates with very low down payments, in markets that have since given back some price. It's heavily concentrated in Texas and Florida, which together account for 39% of all underwater homes nationwide, per ICE's August 2026 Mortgage Monitor. The hardest-hit metros: Cape Coral, Florida, where 11.4% of homeowners are underwater; Lakeland, Florida at 7.5%; San Antonio at 6.9%; and Austin at 6.6%. These are the markets that saw the biggest pandemic-era price run-ups — the places people fled to in 2020 and 2021, which pushed values up too high, too fast. Now prices are readjusting, and the 2021–2022 low-down-payment buyers there have the least cushion. Quickly through the states I'm licensed in: **Arizona** — not among the high-stress states. **California** — pockets exist, but the state overall is not in negative equity. **Colorado** — one of only two states, with Louisiana, posting negative-equity readings above 3% outside the primary underwater states. **Florida** — one of the two big underwater states, home to the country's highest-stress metros, and it also posted the highest June 2026 foreclosure rate of any state — yet even there we're talking about one foreclosure per couple thousand listings, versus one in 45 during the Great Recession. **Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho** — not flagged. **Illinois** — elevated, at about one in every 2,624 properties. **Nevada** — elevated but in the same order of magnitude. **North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee** — not flagged (Tennessee surprises me; I did a lot of loans there for people leaving California). **Texas** — the other big underwater state, and it led REO completions nationally with 3,322 in early 2026\. **Washington** — not flagged. One recent bright spot: Florida is seeing the biggest uptick in purchase closings of any state in 2026 — from what I've seen, a lot of it people relocating from New York. And to answer a good chat question: everything here is residential — single family, condo, townhome, 2-to-4 unit — not commercial. ### The take-home The foreclosure headlines are real — the 21% is real — but there was no baseline behind them, and now you have it. We are in a market that is normalizing, not repeating 2008\. The one group hurting is FHA and VA buyers from 2022–2023 who closed at the highest rates with little down. If that's you and you're slightly upside down but need the payment down: on both FHA and VA we can do a **streamline refinance** — no appraisal required, and we don't care what your loan-to-value is. Being a little underwater does not stop you from dropping your rate. And if you're struggling to make a payment: I don't prepare loan modification packages, but I've watched the short sale, modification, and foreclosure processes for a very long time, and I'm always happy to talk through your options and point you in the right direction. We want everybody to keep their home. Prices are normalizing after the pandemic ran everything up — some of that had to come back. Do not walk away because you're $10,000 or $15,000 upside down. Real estate is for the long haul; every cycle ends higher than the last, and nobody can make you move from a home you own. One last number I promised: mortgage-holder equity nationwide hit **$18 trillion** in Q2 2026, with **$11.7 trillion** of it tappable. What's the difference? Loan-to-value guidelines — on most programs, about 80% of the home's value is the most you can borrow against, so not every dollar of equity is reachable. But that cushion is exactly why I don't see 2008 happening again: outside that small window of zero-to-3%-down buyers from 2022–2023, almost everyone in trouble could sell, pay off the mortgage, and avoid the foreclosure entirely. I'll be back next Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Pacific on YouTube and Facebook. If you want a text when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's also the office number if you'd like to talk through your own numbers. Have a fabulous rest of your week. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 12, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly - August 7, 2026 URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter-2026-08-07/ Last updated: 2026-08-07T22:59:54.000Z | Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly Week of August 7, 2026 Happy Friday — Mortgage Mom here. The 30-year is sitting at 6.77% again this week — quiet on the rate front, which is honestly not the worst news when you're trying to plan. Inside this week's issue I walked through Self-employed on a $1,000,000 purchase: Full Doc vs Bank Statement so you can see the actual monthly payment math side by side. And on the show this week we dug into "Homeowners Insurance is killing deals at closing" — recap is down below with the full replay link. If you're running numbers on your own situation and want a real answer — not a maybe — text MOM to 844-935-3634 anytime. That's what I'm here for. — Debbie Rates this week ProgramRateAPR 30-Year Fixed 6.77% 6.88% 15-Year Fixed 6.30% 6.41% FHA 30-Year 6.33% 7.23% VA 30-Year 6.35% 6.60% Jumbo 30-Year 6.90% 7.01% 30yr held flat at 6.77% (unchanged from last week's 6.77%). ![8-week rate trend chart](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/08/rate-chart-2026-08-07.png) 4-week trend, 30-year and 15-year fixed Source: [Freddie Mac PMMS](https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Mortgage News Daily](https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage-rates?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [US 10-Year Treasury](https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/bond/tmubmusd10y?countrycode=bx&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Rates shown are national averages from third-party sources for illustrative purposes only. APR estimates use industry-standard fee uplifts and will vary based on borrower qualification, loan amount, and specific fees. Not a commitment to lend. This week's scenario **Self-employed on a $1,000,000 purchase: Full Doc vs Bank Statement** Self-employed buyer putting 20% down ($200,000) on a $1,000,000 home - same house, two different ways to document income Full Doc loan $6,272 est. monthly PITI Rate / APR7.00% / — Down (20%)$200,000 Loan amount$800,000 P&I$5,322 Est. tax + ins.$833 + $117 Bank Statement loan $6,475 est. monthly PITI Rate / APR7.375% / — Down (20%)$200,000 Loan amount$800,000 P&I$5,525 Points (2%)$16,000 upfront Est. tax + ins.$833 + $117 A full doc loan uses two years of tax returns to document income, and when a self-employed borrower's returns support the numbers, it earns the best pricing - here, 7.00% with no points. A bank statement loan qualifies off 12 to 24 months of bank deposits instead of tax returns, which can be the difference between an approval and a denial for business owners who write off aggressively. The trade-off on this example is about 0.375% more in rate plus two points, roughly $16,000 upfront, and around $200 more per month in principal and interest. For many self-employed buyers, that flexibility is exactly what gets the deal done - the key is comparing both paths with a licensed professional before assuming either one. For illustrative purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Actual rates, payments, and eligibility depend on full underwriting and will vary based on credit score, debt-to-income, loan-to-value, property type, occupancy, reserves, and specific investor or agency overlays. Rates and terms shown reflect national averages on the date pulled and are subject to change without notice. Estimated property taxes and homeowners insurance are based on national averages and will vary depending on the specific area where the property is located. On the show this week [![Watch the replay](https://i4.ytimg.com/vi/oPt4SRJgDRc/hqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPt4SRJgDRc&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Homeowners Insurance is killing deals at closing! Full replay linked below — Debbie walks through it all on the air. [Watch the replay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPt4SRJgDRc&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![Live show alerts - text LIVE to 844-935-3634](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/live-text-signup.png) ](sms:8449353634?&body=LIVE) [ ![Real questions. Real numbers. Text MOM to 844-935-3634](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/scenario-question.png) ](sms:8449353634?&body=MOM) [ ![Ready to talk through your own numbers? Book an appointment with Debbie](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/book-appointment.png) ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/schedule/) ● IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Catch up on recent shows A few recent shows worth catching up on: [![The Fed Just Said No Rate Cut](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WzSInrrdFt0/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [The Fed Just Said No Rate Cut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [![Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vo8njS74v54/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [![The Biggest Condo Lending Change In Over A Decade!](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oPazCDwUu_M/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPazCDwUu%5FM&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [The Biggest Condo Lending Change In Over A Decade!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPazCDwUu%5FM&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPazCDwUu%5FM&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ● SPREAD THE WORD Know someone who needs this? Shopping, refinancing, or on an HOA board?Forward this newsletter — that's how good info gets around. [Forward Newsletter](https://mortgagemomradio.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com#/portal/signup/newsletter) Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926\. JMJ Financial dba Mortgage Mom Radio, NMLS #167867\. Equal Housing Lender. Licensed in AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, WA. For illustrative and educational purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Rates, terms, and eligibility subject to underwriting approval and change without notice. | | 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| ### Can Homeowners Insurance Kill Your Home Purchase? How to Protect Your Deal URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/homeowners-insurance-is-killing-deals-at-closing/ Last updated: 2026-09-02T00:00:00.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Homeowners Insurance is killing deals at closing!” • Live show from Thursday, August 6, 2026 • 48 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 About one in five home sales in 2026 is falling apart over something buyers rarely think about until week three of escrow: homeowners insurance. In this episode, Debbie explains why insurance has become the single most common non-financing reason a deal collapses, what California's FAIR Plan rate hike means for buyers and current homeowners, why Florida is its own animal, and the day-one habits that keep an insurance surprise from killing your closing. ## Key takeaways - **21% of 2026 transactions have fallen through over insurance** — making it the single most common non-financing reason for a deal to collapse. - **Premiums are now killing loan approvals, not just budgets.** A Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago working paper ties rising premiums directly to mortgage denials through higher debt-to-income ratios; in Dallas–Fort Worth, a $1,000 annual premium increase raises denial probability by 2.3 percentage points, with DFW premiums now running $2,580–$3,741 a year by zip code. - **California FAIR Plan rates jump 29.1% on October 15** — the largest single-year hike in the plan's history. You'll see it when your policy renews, and if your insurance is escrowed, expect your monthly mortgage payment to be adjusted up. - **Get insurance quotes on day one — before you write the contract.** Two or three quotes on the specific address tell you whether the premium works or whether no carrier will write the home at all. Nine times out of ten, a deal dying over insurance was preventable up front. - **A quote is not a binder.** Like an unlocked rate, a quote can change until the policy is bound — so bind as soon as your contract allows, dated near your closing date. - **Florida is different:** carriers require a wind mitigation certificate and a four-point inspection before binding — and those only happen under contract. Premiums are up 14.3% even since the 2023 tort reform, with Citizens as the fallback where private carriers won't write. - **The FAIR Plan is a last resort, not an upgrade.** It covers essentially fire only, so you also need a wraparound policy — two premiums. If you have a legacy policy with a carrier that stopped writing new California business, keep it. ## Chapters - 01:00Why this week's show is all about insurance - 03:0021% of 2026 deals are dying over insurance - 04:00Chicago Fed: premiums are driving loan denials - 05:30Dallas–Fort Worth: what premiums look like now - 07:30California FAIR Plan: 29.1% hike effective October 15 - 10:30Q&A: does the FAIR Plan cover earthquakes? - 13:00Escrowed payments will rise at renewal - 14:00Florida: premiums up 14.3% since tort reform - 17:00Failure point #1: the lowball insurance estimate - 18:30Failure point #2: no carrier will write the home - 21:00Florida's wind mitigation and four-point inspections - 24:00A quote is not a binder — bind early - 27:00Carriers pulling back from California; when you get dropped - 32:00Q&A: flood zones and flood insurance - 37:00State-by-state insurance check — now licensed in 14 states - 43:00Q&A: should Mom switch to the FAIR Plan? (No.) ## Questions answered on this show ### “We have the California FAIR Plan just for earthquake — will that go up 29.1% too?” The FAIR Plan isn't actually an earthquake policy — Debbie looked it up live to be sure. It provides basic property insurance primarily restricted to fire, lightning, smoke, and internal explosions. Standalone earthquake coverage comes separately, through the California Earthquake Authority — which is probably who this listener's policy is really with. The 29.1% increase applies to FAIR Plan policies; Debbie hadn't seen an announced earthquake-premium increase but offered to look into it. Either way, FAIR Plan holders won't see the hike mid-policy — it lands when the one-year policy renews, typically around the anniversary of the home purchase. ### “Will I get dropped if I'm in a flood area, the way people get dropped in fire zones?” No — if a home sits in a designated high flood zone, flood insurance is *required*, and the carriers writing it price the premium to the real risk of paying out, which is why it's expensive. Your lender runs a flood-zone determination in underwriting, and your real estate agent can (and should) check it before you write the contract. Flood insurance is otherwise like earthquake coverage: anyone can choose to buy it even outside a mapped zone. And a perspective check: coastal spots like Newport Beach aren't generally high flood zones unless the home is right on the sand — the highest-risk areas are the plains states, the Midwest, homes near rivers that flood, or even a Santa Clarita property backing up against a wash. ### “My mom is on a fixed income with an older policy — should she talk to her insurer about the FAIR Plan and a wraparound?” No — leave it alone. If she has an in-force policy with a major carrier, it is almost certainly cheaper and better coverage than the FAIR Plan plus a wraparound, which means two premiums and coverage Debbie describes plainly as expensive and terrible. The FAIR Plan is only the backup for properties no private carrier will write. Carriers don't drop existing customers just for staying put — drops happen over claims history, the way a car insurer might drop you after a DUI. If Mom's policy is in place and she's claim-free, keep it, be happy, and smile. ### Get your insurance quote before you write the offer Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### Insurance is killing deals at closing Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. I usually do this show on Wednesday, but we had a bit of a family emergency, so it's Thursday — I still wanted to make sure you got the same valuable information I bring you every week. Today we're talking about insurance, because insurance has been a catastrophic nightmare for many in the mortgage industry, and I'm going to share what I do with my clients to make sure we get to the closing table without hiccups. Here's the number: **21% of 2026 transactions have fallen through over insurance.** That makes it the single most common non-financing reason for a deal to collapse. And a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago working paper found that rising property insurance premiums directly increase mortgage application denials — premiums coming in higher than expected push debt-to-income ratios past the guideline and kill the underwriting approval. Their figures covered refinances, cash-out refinances, and purchase applications alike. Look at Texas. In the Dallas–Fort Worth area, a $1,000 annual premium increase raises the probability of denial by 2.3 percentage points, and DFW premiums now run $2,580 to $3,741 a year depending on the zip code. To put that in perspective: back in 2021–2022, when we put a pre-approval together with no address yet to quote, we'd estimate maybe $120 a month for homeowners insurance. At $3,741 a year, that's $311 a month — which moves your debt-to-income ratio significantly, changes how much you qualify for, and changes what you're comfortable paying. ### California FAIR Plan: the 29.1% hike Two fresh data points from just this past week. First, the California Department of Insurance approved a **29.1% rate increase for the FAIR Plan, effective October 15** — the largest single-year hike in the plan's history. If you're a current homeowner whose only available coverage was the FAIR Plan, be mindful: your next policy, when it renews, is going to cost more than what you pay today. You won't see it on October 15 if you just renewed — these are one-year policies, so it hits at your next renewal, typically around the anniversary of your purchase. And please, don't be mad at your lender or your real estate agent; nobody controls the Department of Insurance. What does it mean for your mortgage? If your insurance and property taxes are impounded — escrowed, same thing — your servicer will pay the higher renewal premium and then readjust the payment they collect from you so the escrow account stays funded. So do not be surprised if your overall monthly mortgage payment increases too. If you're a buyer, be mindful of *where* you're looking — whether the homes you're considering sit in an area where private carriers won't write and you'd be forced into the FAIR Plan. That's exactly the kind of thing we need to know during pre-approval. ### Florida: premiums up even after tort reform Second data point: Florida premiums are up **14.3% since the 2023 tort reform** — the reform that was supposed to bring premiums down for people struggling with hurricane, hail, and wind exposure. It's very important to get ahead of insurance before you get under contract and open title in Florida — or open escrow in California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, or Washington. (Florida is a title state, Illinois is an attorney state; whatever your state calls it, your offer gets accepted, something gets opened, and you wire your earnest money deposit.) If you're serious about a house, it might take an extra six or seven hours on a weekday to reach an insurance agent and confirm you still qualify with the real premium — do it before you write the contract. ### Where deals actually break **Failure point one: the lowball estimate.** Nine times out of ten, a deal dying over insurance is a problem the loan officer could have handled at the very beginning. Say the loan was pre-approved at a 43% debt-to-income ratio using an insurance estimate of $2,400 a year — and the actual quote comes back at $6,800\. That difference pushes you over the guideline, and boom: deal dead. The fix is shopping the actual address. A good loan officer has insurance agents they work with regularly and gets two or three quotes to compare the moment you fall in love with a home — either the premium works, or you learn the area is too expensive for your price range before you're locked into a contract. **Failure point two: no carrier will write the home.** We're running into this too, and again it's discoverable up front — by trying to get quotes. It used to be standard, thirty years into this business, that you could estimate a premium from the price and the area and be confident. It is not like that today. The house backing up to a brush-covered hillside can be a high-fire property while the house across the street, past a busy intersection, isn't. Location has to be checked address by address. **Florida is a different animal.** To bind a policy there, carriers require a wind mitigation inspection and a four-point inspection — and those don't happen until you're already under contract, as part of the physical inspection you pay for. The insurer is looking at the age of the roof and when it was last replaced, the age of the electrical panel, and whether the home is set up to withstand hurricane-force winds. What we *can* do up front is find out whether the home can get a private-carrier policy at all or has to go to Citizens — Florida's version of California's FAIR Plan for properties other carriers won't insure — because that alone is a big driver of premium cost. The four-point inspection can actually work in your favor, too: showing that things have been updated and are up to code helps bring the premium down. **And remember: a quote is not a binder.** Think of a rate quote — if we don't lock, you're subject to the newest rate sheet. Insurance works similarly: carriers can change what they charge at any time, so a quote left unbound is an open possibility of a higher premium. My process, day one of every transaction: get an insurance quote — two or three if you can — and then bind the policy as soon as the contract allows, dated near your closing date so you're not paying for coverage on a home you don't own yet. In Florida, we bind as soon as the wind mitigation and four-point reports are in. If you're two or three weeks into your loan, you have loan approval, and your loan officer never asked you to get an insurance quote — call and get one now. Don't find out at week three that you're falling apart. ### Carriers leaving, and who actually gets dropped In California, there's been so much wildfire damage that insurance companies are declining entire zip codes, and at least one major carrier has stopped writing new policies in the state altogether — I'm fairly sure it's State Farm, though don't quote me. Here's the important nuance: if you already have your policy with them, they will not drop you. But if you sold your home and moved, they wouldn't quote the new residence. Carriers exiting pushes more volume onto the remaining companies, which pushes premiums up — and in zip codes nobody will write, homeowners end up on the FAIR Plan. And understand what the FAIR Plan really is: it truly only covers the fire side. So you end up carrying *two* policies — the FAIR Plan plus a wraparound policy for everything else a homeowner needs, like liability if someone slips and falls or a pipe bursts. Two premiums instead of one. It gets very expensive. Florida is the exact same story with hurricanes and Citizens. So when do people get dropped? Claims. Just like a car insurer can drop you after a DUI, a home insurer can decide you're too high a risk after a claim or multiple claims. But if your policy is in force, you pay on time, and you haven't filed claims, they're not going to drop you — even if they've stopped writing new business in your state. ### State by state: insurance as of August 2026 Quick news first: I'm now licensed in **14 states** — as of last week it was 13, and I've added Colorado. If you've been looking for a loan in Colorado, I can now help you there. Here's the insurance picture across my footprint: **Arizona** — rising, especially in the wildland-urban interface: Prescott, Sedona, parts of Flagstaff. Lake Havasu, where I live, is still relatively stable — my policy there runs about a third of the average in California, Texas, or Florida. **California** — the FAIR Plan hike is happening October 15; private carriers are starting to return per Q2 CDI data, but wildfire zip codes are still really bad. **Colorado** — newly added to my licensing. **Florida** — premiums up 14.3% since the 2023 reforms; the wind mitigation certificate is non-negotiable, get the four-point inspection, and the Citizens depopulation effort is ongoing. **Georgia** — the coastal counties, Chatham and Glynn, are tightening; inland Georgia is relatively stable. **Hawaii** — wildfire underwriting scrutiny post-Lahaina remains elevated statewide, and premiums are high. **Idaho** — wildland-urban-interface pricing is rising the fastest in my 14-state footprint; quote and bind at the very start of the transaction. **Nevada** — the Vegas metro is relatively stable and Nevada has honestly been pretty good; the Lake Tahoe basin is difficult because of wildfire. **North Carolina** — the coastal Outer Banks are tightening; Charlotte and the Triangle are stable. **Oregon** — wildland-urban-interface pricing similar to Idaho and the California foothills; up in the mountains it's getting expensive and hard to place. **Tennessee** — severe convective storm losses are now driving Nashville-area premium hikes. **Texas** — hail is the number-one driver, DFW has the strongest premium sensitivity, and roof age is critical to the quote. **Washington** — stable overall, with tightening wildfire pockets in central Washington around Wenatchee and Chelan. ### The take-home There should be no reason a deal falls apart over insurance — but it happens, and honestly it comes down to not getting on top of the details right out of the gate. Do the research before the contract is written. And if you jumped under contract first — it happens; I have pre-approved clients who find their dream home a year and a half later and write an offer before calling me — that's okay, but then we scramble: call for your insurance quote right now. Falling out at the closing table is not something that should be happening. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's also the number for the office. Check out the website at mortgagemomradio.com: watch the show, play with the calculators, submit questions for the next live show, and opt into the weekly newsletter, which covers interest rates, what we talked about this week, and a scenario for extra knowledge. I'll be back next Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Pacific on YouTube and Facebook. I hope you all have an amazing rest of your week. Talk to you all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 6, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly - July 31, 2026 URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter-2026-07-31/ Last updated: 2026-07-31T22:22:39.000Z | Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly Week of July 31, 2026 Welcome back — Mortgage Mom here. The 30-year ticked lower to 6.77% this week. Not a huge move, but every basis point matters when you're running numbers. Inside this week's issue I walked through FHA vs Conventional on a $450K purchase so you can see the actual monthly payment math side by side. If you're running numbers on your own situation and want a real answer — not a maybe — text MOM to 844-935-3634 anytime. That's what I'm here for. — Debbie Rates this week ProgramRateAPR 30-Year Fixed 6.77% 6.88% 15-Year Fixed 6.31% 6.42% FHA 30-Year 6.33% 7.23% VA 30-Year 6.34% 6.59% Jumbo 30-Year 6.90% 7.01% 30yr fell 4 bps from 6.81% last week to 6.77%. ![8-week rate trend chart](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/rate-chart-2026-07-31.png) 3-week trend, 30-year and 15-year fixed Source: [Freddie Mac PMMS](https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Mortgage News Daily](https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage-rates?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [US 10-Year Treasury](https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/bond/tmubmusd10y?countrycode=bx&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Rates shown are national averages from third-party sources for illustrative purposes only. APR estimates use industry-standard fee uplifts and will vary based on borrower qualification, loan amount, and specific fees. Not a commitment to lend. This week's scenario **FHA vs Conventional on a $450K purchase** First-time buyer, 680 credit score, $22K available for down payment and closing FHA loan $3,438 est. monthly PITI Rate / APR6.33% / 7.23% Down (3.5%)$15,750 Loan amount$441,849 P&I$2,744 Monthly MI$203 Est. tax + ins.$375 + $117 Conventional 3% down $3,565 est. monthly PITI Rate / APR6.77% / 6.88% Down (3%)$13,500 Loan amount$436,500 P&I$2,837 Monthly MI$236 Est. tax + ins.$375 + $117 FHA gets in with a lower credit floor and easier debt-to-income guidelines, but the mortgage insurance follows you for the life of the loan. Conventional needs a stronger credit profile but the PMI drops off automatically at 78% loan-to-value, meaning lower long-term cost for many buyers who can qualify. For illustrative purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Actual rates, payments, and eligibility depend on full underwriting and will vary based on credit score, debt-to-income, loan-to-value, property type, occupancy, reserves, and specific investor or agency overlays. Rates and terms shown reflect national averages on the date pulled and are subject to change without notice. Estimated property taxes and homeowners insurance are based on national averages and will vary depending on the specific area where the property is located. On the show this week [![Watch the replay](https://i4.ytimg.com/vi/WzSInrrdFt0/hqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) The Fed Just Said No Rate Cut The Fed held rates steady this week for the fifth straight meeting, but the vote was 9 to 3, and all three dissenters wanted a rate hike. Debbie breaks down what the decision really means: why mortgage rates climbed to near one-year highs even while the Fed sat still, who new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is, what a possible September hike would mean for buyers and homeowners, and why waiting for lower rates has been costing people money all year. [Watch the replay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSInrrdFt0&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [ ![Live show alerts - text LIVE to 844-935-3634](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/live-text-signup.png) ](sms:8449353634?&body=LIVE) [ ![Real questions. Real numbers. Text MOM to 844-935-3634](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/scenario-question.png) ](sms:8449353634?&body=MOM) [ ![Ready to talk through your own numbers? Book an appointment with Debbie](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/book-appointment.png) ](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/schedule/) ● IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Catch up on recent shows A few recent shows worth catching up on: [![Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vo8njS74v54/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [![The Biggest Condo Lending Change In Over A Decade!](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oPazCDwUu_M/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPazCDwUu%5FM&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [The Biggest Condo Lending Change In Over A Decade!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPazCDwUu%5FM&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPazCDwUu%5FM&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [![The Fed just flipped the script. Rate Hike on the table?](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/m9Vnr2DlR2E/mqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Vnr2DlR2E&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [The Fed just flipped the script. Rate Hike on the table?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Vnr2DlR2E&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [PLAY NOW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Vnr2DlR2E&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ● SPREAD THE WORD Know someone who needs this? Shopping, refinancing, or on an HOA board?Forward this newsletter — that's how good info gets around. [Forward Newsletter](https://mortgagemomradio.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com#/portal/signup/newsletter) Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926\. JMJ Financial dba Mortgage Mom Radio, NMLS #167867\. Equal Housing Lender. Licensed in AZ, CA, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, WA. For illustrative and educational purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Rates, terms, and eligibility subject to underwriting approval and change without notice. | | 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| ### The Fed Held Rates Again — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Up? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-again-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-up/ Last updated: 2026-09-02T00:00:03.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “The Fed Just Said No Rate Cut” — live show from Wednesday, July 29, 2026 • 41 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve just held rates for the fifth straight meeting — but three of the twelve Fed officials voted to *raise* them, and Wall Street now puts 76–80% odds on a September hike. In this episode, Debbie explains what new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's “no tolerance for inflation” stance means for mortgage rates, why rates climbed even while the Fed sat still, where they actually stand this week, and what she's telling buyers, borrowers in escrow, and would-be refinancers to do right now. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed held for a fifth straight meeting — but the vote was 9–3.** Three of twelve Fed officials didn't want to hold or cut; they wanted to *raise* rates. Debbie calls that pretty telling. - **Kevin Warsh gives no forward guidance.** Unlike Jerome Powell, the new chair won't say what's coming next — only that inflation has run above the 2% target for more than five years and he has “no tolerance” for it. Debbie reads that as: he'll do what it takes to reach 2%, and a September hike wouldn't surprise her. - **Wall Street prices 76–80% odds of a hike at the September 15–16 meeting** — up from 59% a month ago. If it happens, it would be the Fed's first rate increase since July 2023, and rate sheets will likely creep up most days between now and then. - **The Fed doesn't set your mortgage rate.** HELOCs, credit cards, and car loans track the Fed funds rate; mortgages move with bonds, Treasuries, and the broader market — which is why mortgage rates rose on the very day the Fed held. - **Where rates sit this week:** Freddie Mac's 30-year weekly average is 6.58%, but Debbie's same-day read is closer to 6.75% for conventional, about 6.5% for FHA and VA, and roughly 7% for high-balance loans in high-cost areas. - **In escrow and not locked? Lock.** Debbie's blunt advice: rates are not getting better in the next two to three weeks. - **“Marry the house and marry the rate.”** You can't time a purchase — only a rate-and-term refinance is worth waiting on. And a debt-consolidation refi shouldn't wait at all: do it now, then refinance again in about six months once your score recovers. ## Chapters - 02:07What today's show covers - 04:17The Fed's decision: fifth straight hold, 9–3 vote - 05:00New Fed chair Kevin Warsh — no forward guidance - 06:47“No tolerance” for inflation above 2% - 07:44What could stop a hike: GDP, PCE, CPI, jobs - 10:04The Fed doesn't set mortgage rates - 12:11What the hold actually helps: HELOCs, credit cards, car loans - 14:19This week's rates: Freddie Mac, MBA, Zillow, 10-year Treasury - 17:05High-cost areas, high-balance pricing, and VA's no-limit advantage - 22:03Q&A: is there an age limit on a mortgage? - 23:27Wall Street: 76–80% odds of a September hike - 26:28Q&A: can heirs take over a reverse mortgage? - 27:38Q&A: are foreclosures spiking? 227,000 in context - 32:36Stop waiting for cuts — the house matters more than the headline - 34:54In escrow? Lock. Refinancers: the sub-6% window came and went - 37:25“Marry the house, marry the rate” and wrap-up ## Questions answered on this show ### “Is there an age limit on getting a mortgage — say, at 70-plus?” No. Lenders are not allowed to discriminate by age — you could be 90 years old and apply for a 30-year fixed conventional loan, and you cannot be denied on the theory that you won't be around to pay it back. The one exception is the reverse mortgage, which has a minimum age instead: typically 62, though some programs go down into your 50s. ### “Can my heirs take over my reverse mortgage when I pass?” No — a reverse mortgage is yours until you pass, and it can't be assumed. What heirs *can* do: refinance the property to pay off the reverse mortgage and keep the home in the family, or, if the home is over-encumbered (say a $1 million balance on a $500,000 property), have an appraisal done and buy it from the bank at 80% of the appraised value. Either way, something has to pay the bank off. ### “Are you seeing more foreclosures coming onto the market?” More default *notices*, yes — about 227,000 properties nationally at Debbie's last check — but not a wave of listed foreclosures. Context matters: 227,000 is a normal number, in line with 2016–2018; foreclosures have simply been rare since 2020 because of the moratorium and bank workouts. During the Great Recession there were over a *million* foreclosures listed for sale, not counting default notices. Debbie sees a market that's leveling off — which it needed to do — not one that's tanking, though sellers pulling homes off the market rather than cutting price is squeezing inventory and propping up values. ## This week's numbers (week of July 29, 2026 — averages, not quotes) - Freddie Mac 30-year fixed weekly average: **6.58%** (week of July 23) - Mortgage Bankers Association 30-year fixed: **6.76%** (end of week, July 24) - Zillow 30-year fixed daily average: **6.69%**; 15-year fixed roughly **6.07–6.15%** - Debbie's same-day read: conventional averaging about **6.75%**; FHA and VA about **6.5%**; high-balance/high-cost loans about **7%** - 10-year Treasury yield: **4.63%** (moves by the minute) - Fed funds rate: unchanged — fifth consecutive meeting with no move *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Deciding whether to lock, buy, or keep waiting? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### The Fed's decision: a fifth straight hold — and a 9–3 vote Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about the Fed's decision to leave rates as-is — which is awesome, for now — what happened, what the anticipation is for the next Fed meeting in six weeks, and what you should be doing if you're a homeowner who's been holding out on a refinance, or a buyer who's been waiting and hoping rates come down. Big day in the mortgage world. The Federal Reserve met this morning and decided to leave interest rates exactly where they are — the fifth meeting in a row without a change. But here's what nobody is talking about: out of the twelve Fed officials, three voted no. They didn't want to hold, and they didn't want to cut — they actually wanted to *increase* interest rates. That is pretty telling. ### Kevin Warsh is hard to read — on purpose There's a brand-new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, and he said their next rate hike could come as soon as September. When Jerome Powell was chair, he used to give his forward thinking — “this is what we're considering for next time” — and we'd watch the reports and gauge what was coming. Warsh is not doing that. He is not giving us foresight. The only thing he said today is that inflation remains elevated above the 2% goal, partly from supply shocks and energy prices tied to the Middle East conflict, and that the economy is still expanding at a solid pace. He told Congress he has no tolerance for inflation, which has run above the Fed's 2% target for more than five years. I'm not harping on the guy at all — we need it fixed — but it is very hard to read what he's going to do next. My opinion: when you are that serious and that forthcoming about needing to be at 2%, you're going to do what it takes to get to 2%. I would not be surprised if the Fed increased rates at the September meeting. What could stop that? Between now and then we get the economic reports: tomorrow brings second-quarter GDP and the PCE inflation report, and before the September meeting we'll also get retail spending, the jobs report, and one more CPI. We're going to have to get very familiar with these reports and read between the lines — where are they versus where they should be. In my personal opinion, it's very 50/50 whether we hold or get a hike unless something major happens with inflation — and we are not going to see a rate *cut* come September. That's my opinion, not a guarantee. ### The Fed doesn't set your mortgage rate The Fed does not actually set interest rates for mortgages. Mortgage rates are more like the stock market: we follow notes, bonds, and Treasuries, and we move with the market. Oil is a good example — not directly connected, but a very good path to follow. Yesterday oil was cheaper per barrel than Monday, and we got a little reprieve after rates had climbed day after day for almost a month. I thought maybe we'd hit the plateau — rates usually go up, up, up, level off, then come down a little. Then I woke up this morning: oil is higher again, and rates are once again not going in the right direction. How long will they keep rising? There is absolutely no way to know. So why did mortgage rates go up today when the Fed said it was holding? Because mortgages are based on the economy and the market, not the Federal Reserve prime rate. What actually benefited from today's hold: home equity lines of credit, credit card rates, and shorter-term loans — car loans, personal notes, student loans. Those are tied to prime plus a margin and will stay flat over the next 30 days. Mortgage rates have a mind of their own. ### Where rates are this week The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed weekly average is 6.58% for the week of July 23 — that's last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association had the 30-year at 6.76% at the end of the week of July 24\. Zillow's 30-year daily average is 6.69% as of today, with the 15-year around 6.07 to 6.15\. The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.63% when I pulled it about an hour and a half ago — and that number literally moves by the minute. I'd tell you that as of today, the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae average is really closer to 6.75%, with the FHA and VA averages around 6.5% — a little lower than conventional. ### High-cost areas, high-balance pricing — and VA's no-limit advantage If you're buying in an area considered high-cost — most of California, a lot of Washington, very little of Florida unless you're near Miami — you can get a conventional or FHA loan at a higher loan amount than the standard limits. But that high-cost pricing, which you'll hear called a high-balance loan, comes with a higher interest rate: when the average conventional rate is about 6.75%, you're looking at about 7% for a high-balance, high-cost-area loan. VA is different: it has no loan limit at all. You can do jumbo VA loans at $3–4 million with some of the very best rates possible. You still have to qualify on income and credit — being a veteran doesn't hand you a $3 million loan — but it is a phenomenal program, and if you're a vet, you absolutely deserve it. ### Q&A: is there an age limit? Karen asks: *“Is there an age limit to conventional loans, say 70-plus?”* There are no age limits on any loan except a reverse mortgage, where you generally need to be over 62\. We are not allowed to discriminate by age — you could be 90 years old applying for a 30-year fixed conventional loan and we cannot turn you down because we feel you wouldn't be around long enough to pay it back. And on the reverse side, some programs will go down into your 50s, so if that interests you, don't hesitate to ask. ### September: what Wall Street is betting As of today, after the Fed met this morning, Wall Street puts roughly 76 to 80% odds on a hike at the September 15–16 meeting. A month ago it was 59%. If it happens, it would be the Fed's first rate increase since July of 2023. Don't panic — as we covered, mortgage rates aren't directly tied to the Fed's rate. But if everybody believes a hike is coming in September, our rate sheets are going to slowly continue to increase most days between now and then. The Federal Reserve isn't coming to the rescue anytime soon. ### Q&A: reverse mortgages and your heirs Sam asks: *“Are reverse mortgages able to be taken over by the descendants?”* That answer is negative. A reverse mortgage is yours until you pass. When you pass, your descendants do have the opportunity to refinance the property to pay it off and keep it with the heirs. And if it's over-encumbered — say your parent owes a million dollars on a $500,000 property — the bank will do an appraisal and you'll have the opportunity to buy the home at 80% of the appraised value. But take over the loan? No. You have to do something to get that bank paid off. ### Q&A: are foreclosures spiking? Sam also asks: *“Are you seeing more foreclosures coming into the market?”* I see more *notices* — the “you're going to go into foreclosure soon if you don't do something” letters. But I have not personally seen a huge uptick in foreclosures being listed across the nation. Last I checked, a few weeks ago, we had about 227,000 properties in default. That sounds like a huge number, but remember: since COVID we really haven't seen foreclosures — there was a moratorium, and the banks helped people get caught up. Go back to 2016 or 2018 and 227,000 notices of default is a very normal number. Compare the real thing: in the crash years — the market stalled in 2006, foreclosures popped in 2007 through 2010 — we had over a million foreclosures actually listed for sale, and that didn't include the notices of default. By 2012–2013 we were pretty recovered. What we're seeing now is banks starting to do what they're supposed to be allowed to do. Nothing alarming, nothing concerning — as of today, July 29\. Could that change next week? It absolutely could. Do I think the market is starting to stall a little? Yes. Do I think you'll get the very highest price any home in your tract has ever sold for? I do not. We're starting to level off, which the market very much needed to do — we can't set a new record with every single closing. We need slow appreciation. And a lot of sellers, instead of dropping their price, are pulling their houses off the market — which only hurts inventory and helps keep values elevated. ### If you've been waiting for cuts, hear this I'm going to read what I wrote so I don't get sidetracked: **the next Fed move is more likely up than down. Waiting for a lower rate has cost buyers all year. If the payment works today, the house matters more than the headline.** Quote me on that. I have clients who have been waiting since 2022, when the first hikes started. Waiting through 2023, 2024, 2025 — and now we're in 2026\. The rates are what they are. You cannot time them. The only thing you can time is a refinance of your current balance — no cash out, you just want a lower payment. That you can wait on until the number makes sense. Everything else, you can't time. We were hopeful, rates were heading down, I did shows saying it looked like we were getting there — and then the Middle East happened. Nobody expected that, and it changed the trajectory. If the house is what you need and the payment makes sense — you qualify for it, you're comfortable with it — go buy the house, and figure out a lower rate down the road if rates drop. If you would have bought in 2020 through 2025, go look at what you'd have paid then versus what it's worth today. You are hurting yourself by putting yourself on hold. ### In escrow? Lock. Refinancing? Some of this shouldn't wait Anybody mid-transaction who has started a loan and not locked the rate, purchase or refinance: please lock. Please lock, please lock, please lock. Rates are not going to get better over the next two to three weeks. Just lock the rate. Would-be refinancers: the sub-6% February window came and went. I reached out to numerous people who could have been at 5.75 to 5.875%. They believed rates would keep getting better and chose not to move — and their current rates are sitting in the 7.25 to 7.5 range. I've been doing this for over 30 years — since 1995, so call it 31 this year. If I reach out and tell you it's a good time to explore the numbers, please trust me and do it. And for people needing to consolidate debt: a debt-consolidation loan is always going to price higher than a rate-and-term loan, so there is no reason to wait. We do that loan today, get you out of the debt today — and about six months after closing, we refinance you again anyway, at a lower rate, once your FICO score is better and you're not pulling cash out. Don't wait for rates to come down; the rate on a cash-out is going to sting either way. Get done what you need done so you can move on with life, and then we worry about when to lock that next refinance. ### “Marry the house, marry the rate” Sam says: “Date the rate, marry the house.” Yes and no. I would have believed that three or four years ago. Right now, it is marry the house *and* marry the rate. I do not want anybody believing the rate they get today is short-term and that within 12 or even 24 months they'll be out of it. I think we're in more average, realistic rates that are going to be around for quite some time. So marry the house, marry the rate, be comfortable in the payment, know you can afford it — and hey, if rates come down and Debbie reaches out and says we should explore a refinance, please listen to me, jump on it, and we'll go over it together. ### Wrap-up If you want to know when I go live each week, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text per week letting you know we're live in studio. That's also my office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team, and you can book a one-on-one appointment right from my calendar at mortgagemomradio.com. The weekly newsletter goes out every Friday with the average rates and any important mortgage or real estate news — sign up on the website, and if you didn't get last Friday's, check your junk or spam folder and mark it not-junk. I'll be back next Wednesday at 3 PM Pacific. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of July 29, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly - July 24, 2026 URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter-2026-07-24/ Last updated: 2026-07-24T22:16:45.000Z | Mortgage Mom Radio Weekly Week of July 24, 2026 Hey friends — Mortgage Mom here. The 30-year moved up to 6.81% this week. Movement like this is exactly why we keep our eye on the market together. Inside this week's issue I walked through Conforming vs Jumbo on a $900K purchase so you can see the actual monthly payment math side by side. And on the show this week we dug into "Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now" — recap is down below with the full replay link. If you're running numbers on your own situation and want a real answer — not a maybe — text MOM to 844-935-3634 anytime. That's what I'm here for. — Debbie Rates this week ProgramRateAPR 30-Year Fixed 6.81% 6.92% 15-Year Fixed 6.34% 6.45% FHA 30-Year 6.37% 7.27% VA 30-Year 6.39% 6.64% Jumbo 30-Year 6.90% 7.01% 30yr rose 10 bps from 6.71% last week to 6.81%. ![8-week rate trend chart](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b7/3c/b73c5a12-68d0-443d-bb3b-778d657dfe84/content/images/2026/07/rate-chart-2026-07-24.png) 2-week trend, 30-year and 15-year fixed Source: [Freddie Mac PMMS](https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Mortgage News Daily](https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage-rates?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [US 10-Year Treasury](https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/bond/tmubmusd10y?countrycode=bx&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Rates shown are national averages from third-party sources for illustrative purposes only. APR estimates use industry-standard fee uplifts and will vary based on borrower qualification, loan amount, and specific fees. Not a commitment to lend. This week's scenario **Conforming vs Jumbo on a $900K purchase** Buyer near the 2026 conforming limit ($806,500 standard), deciding how much to put down Conventional conforming $6,365 est. monthly PITI Rate / APR6.81% / 6.92% Down (12%)$108,000 Loan amount$792,000 P&I$5,169 Monthly MI$330 Est. tax + ins.$750 + $117 Jumbo loan $6,471 est. monthly PITI Rate / APR6.90% / 7.01% Down (10%)$90,000 Loan amount$810,000 P&I$5,335 Monthly MI$270 Est. tax + ins.$750 + $117 Right at the conforming limit, sometimes it's worth putting more down to keep the loan conforming and access simpler underwriting. Jumbo loans can carry different reserve requirements and stricter guidelines, but the rate spread has narrowed considerably. Which path saves money depends on how much cash you have available and how tight your other qualifications are. For illustrative purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Actual rates, payments, and eligibility depend on full underwriting and will vary based on credit score, debt-to-income, loan-to-value, property type, occupancy, reserves, and specific investor or agency overlays. Rates and terms shown reflect national averages on the date pulled and are subject to change without notice. On the show this week [![Watch the replay](https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/vo8njS74v54/hqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now Full replay linked below — Debbie walks through it all on the air. [Watch the replay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8njS74v54&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Have a real scenario question? Text **MOM** to **844-935-3634**and we'll run the numbers for your actual situation. Debbie Marcoux · NMLS #237926 In case you missed it A few recent shows worth catching up on: [The Biggest Condo Lending Change In Over A Decade!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPazCDwUu%5FM&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [The Fed just flipped the script. Rate Hike on the table?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Vnr2DlR2E&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) [The Biggest Housing Bill in 36 Years, what's in it?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC5VQDj2K%5FI&ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Know someone shopping, refinancing, or on an HOA board?[Forward this newsletter](https://mortgagemomradio.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com#/portal/signup/newsletter) — that's how good info gets around. Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926\. JMJ Financial dba Mortgage Mom Radio, NMLS #167867\. Equal Housing Lender. Licensed in AZ, CA, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, WA. For illustrative and educational purposes only. Not a commitment to lend. Rates, terms, and eligibility subject to underwriting approval and change without notice. | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### How to Buy Your First Home When Mortgage Rates Are at 2026 Highs URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-buy-your-first-home-when-mortgage-rates-are-at-2026-highs/ Last updated: 2026-09-02T00:00:04.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Mortgage Rates Just Hit 2026 Highs — What Happened & What Buyers Do Now” — live show from Wednesday, July 22, 2026 • 42 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Mortgage rates just hit their highest levels of 2026 — Freddie Mac's 30-year at 6.55%, Mortgage News Daily's tracker at 6.75%, the highest in nearly a year. In this episode, Debbie breaks down the three things that pushed rates up, why she believes this is the new normal rather than a blip, and — the part that matters most — the step-by-step game plan that made first-time buyers a full third of June's closings even with affordability slipping for a fifth straight month. ## Key takeaways - **Rates hit 2026 highs:** Freddie Mac's 30-year reached 6.55% (up from 6.49% the week before) and Mortgage News Daily's tracker showed 6.75% — the highest in about 52 weeks. - **Three drivers pushed rates up:** oil jumping from about $68 to $88 a barrel on Middle East tensions, concerns about more Treasury issuance after a tariff-related Supreme Court ruling, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's warning that the FOMC “will not tolerate” persistent inflation ahead of the July 28–29 Fed meeting. - **The bond market broke through its ceiling.** Debbie's read: today's rates are the new floor and the new normal — plan around them instead of waiting, because she doesn't expect meaningful relief in the next 3–6 months. - **Affordability has slipped five straight months — yet 33% of home purchases that closed in June 2026 were first-time buyers.** It's still being done, with a plan. - **The plan starts with credit.** A soft credit check (no hard pull, no automated decision) shows scores, debts, and payment history; most lenders want at least 580 for FHA, and a higher score means a better rate — which is how you fight affordability. - **Budget the whole move, not just the down payment.** Down payment assistance doesn't cover utility deposits, the moving van, boxes, or restocking the fridge and pantry (easily $300–500), and you should still have savings left for surprises after you get the keys. - **“You need a plan to execute a plan.”** Debbie's team puts every buyer on scheduled accountability check-ins — weekly if that's what it takes — because waiting for a better job, more savings, or better credit “is never going to happen” on its own. ## Chapters - 02:24Rates hit their 2026 highs — what today covers - 04:54The numbers: Freddie Mac 6.55%, Mortgage News Daily 6.75% - 06:21Affordability slips a fifth straight month - 08:57Driver #1: oil jumps from $68 to $88 a barrel - 09:58Driver #2: more Treasury issuance; the 10-year at 4.628% - 11:07Driver #3: Warsh's inflation warning and next week's Fed meeting - 13:11The bond market breaks through its ceiling - 15:10Why this is the new normal - 17:1733% of June's buyers were first-timers - 18:28The “great lock-in”: accountability goes viral - 20:18Step 1: credit — the be-all, end-all first step - 21:07Step 2: debt-to-income, income, and down payment - 29:34Down payment assistance — and what it doesn't cover - 34:09The true budget: moving costs nobody plans for - 37:06The accountability train, and wrap-up ## This week's numbers (week of July 22, 2026 — averages, not quotes) - Freddie Mac 30-year fixed: **6.55%**, up from 6.49% the week before — and Debbie's read from live client pricing is a touch higher still - Mortgage News Daily 30-year tracker: **6.75%** — the highest level in nearly a year - 15-year fixed: **5.93%** - FHA about **6.32%**; VA about **6.34%**; jumbo about **6.875%** - 10-year Treasury yield: **4.628%** — the largest two-day jump since July 8 - Oil: from about **$68 to $88** a barrel over roughly two weeks *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Ready to build your own home-buying game plan? Call or text [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/) (soft credit check only), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### Rates just hit their 2026 highs Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom — and I'm sorry I'm a couple of minutes late. We actually started the show, but YouTube was not picking up what we were throwing down, so here we go with a brand-new one. What are we talking about? Interest rates have hit their highs of 2026, and we're at about the highest levels we've had in 52 weeks. Today's show covers what happened, how we got here — and then how we still get first-time buyers and home shoppers into new properties. Because it *is* happening: about 33% of all purchases that closed in June were first-time buyers. So for the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and parents of the younger generation who needs to buy that first home — or if you've never bought and your retirement plan is to move to another state and buy — this is a great episode for you. ### The numbers — and why “average” matters If you've been watching rates hoping for that summer dip, this week did the opposite. Freddie Mac's 30-year hit 6.55%, up from 6.49% last week — and personally, running rates for clients, I'd say we're up a little more than that. The Mortgage News Daily tracker shows 6.75% as of today, the highest level in nearly a year. The 15-year is at 5.93%, FHA is about 6.32%, VA about 6.34%, and jumbo about 6.875%. Now, these are not the rates every single person gets. Your rate is determined by your credit score, the type of property you're buying, your down payment — or if you're refinancing, how much equity you have and whether you're pulling out cash or just refinancing your current balance. These are averages to give you a basis for where we are today. Affordability just slipped for a fifth straight month. Think back to January and February: if you'd worked with me in the past at higher rates, you probably got an email or a text from me saying we should look into a refinance. Many of my clients took advantage, and they're now sitting in the high fives and low sixes instead of the sevens and seven-and-a-halves. The clients who said “we think rates will keep going down, we'll wait a little longer” have missed that opportunity — at least for right now. Do I think it comes back around? I do. Do I think it's in the next three to six months? I don't. I think it will be a bit longer before we see rates come down further. ### What pushed rates up: three drivers Number one: rising fuel prices, tied of course to the Middle East tensions. We've seen oil jump over the last couple of weeks from about $68 to $88 a barrel. Oil and mortgage rates aren't directly correlated, but many times as oil goes up, rates follow — and vice versa. When prices at the pump start easing, that's a good cue to check where mortgage rates are, because there's a good chance they've come down too. Number two: concerns about more Treasury issuance after a tariff-related Supreme Court ruling. More bonds being issued and sold off means the price per bond gets cheaper — they're worth less — and when bonds are worth less, interest rates go up. The 10-year Treasury yield jumped to 4.628% as of yesterday, the largest two-day jump since July 8, and I believe it moved a little more today. Number three: Fed Chair Kevin Warsh coming out and saying the FOMC will not tolerate persistent inflation. A couple of weeks back he very much alluded to the possibility of a rate increase at the next meeting — and that next meeting is next Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon, right before I do my show, we'll find out whether they raise, hold, or cut. There are plenty of economists saying there's absolutely no way they'll increase, and plenty of people gambling that there's a very good chance they will. So next week is going to be a big piece. And remember what I've explained many times: the mortgage market is not directly connected to the Federal Reserve prime rate. Prime drives your credit cards, short-term loans, and home equity lines of credit. Mortgage rates are tied to mortgage bonds, notes, and securities. Indirectly, yes, it all connects — as things move in the economy, mortgage rates move too — but the Fed doesn't set your mortgage rate. ### We broke through the ceiling — this is the new normal We've also pushed through a ceiling in the bond market. If you follow candlesticks at all, you know markets bounce between a ceiling and a floor — rates go up, up, up, hit the barrier, come back down; try again, bounce off again. Well, we have finally pushed through that barrier. When you break through a barrier and create a new floor or ceiling, things can move rapidly and get away from us. Now, I'm not talking about rates jumping a whole point overnight — that didn't happen. We move in increments: we're up probably a quarter, maybe three-eighths of a percent from where we were two weeks ago. But once you break through a barrier, it's really, really difficult to get back on the other side of it. So I believe the rates you see today are our new floor and our new normal — and they could even go a bit higher before things calm down. The best thing you can do is accept that where we are is pretty much the new normal, get right with it, and work on what we do from here: how do we still buy a home, and how do we make affordability a little better? ### 33% of June's buyers were first-timers — the “great lock-in” Believe it or not, 33% of all home purchases that closed in June 2026 — just last month — were first-time buyers. As a mother of Gen Z kids — they're 25 and 21, with girlfriends, about ready to leave the nest — I worry like many others: will my kids have the opportunity to buy a home? It's a valid concern. So how are these first-time buyers making it happen? It starts with taking accountability and control of the plan. There's been a hot trend on Instagram and TikTok, especially since late last year, called *locking in* — the “great lock-in.” Whether it's their health, career, finances, or buying a home, people pick a goal and hold themselves accountable for the daily actions that move it forward. Right now you're seeing a lot of it from young people who want to buy homes — posting every day about what they did to get one step closer to homeownership. Some of them have actually done it: sitting in an empty, vacant house with brand-new keys, proof that they made it. I absolutely love it — I've been talking about this plan since I started this show back in 2016\. And here's the core of it: the creators who succeeded made a plan, and they made it by calling somebody and finding out what they needed to do. ### Step one: credit The very first place to start is credit. That is the ultimate be-all, end-all first step. Start with the loan application at mortgagemomradio.com — it does a *soft* credit check. It does not automatically pull hard credit, and it does not render an automated decision where you get declined before you've even talked to us. It's simply a secure way to get us what we need to see: your monthly debts, your payment history, and your credit scores. Most mortgage lenders want to see a credit score of at least 580 to get into an FHA loan. The higher the score, the better the interest rate — and the better the rate, the more you can afford. That is how we help you with the affordability piece: we get your score as high as possible. The first conversation is about what to pay down for a quick lift in the score, or what to pay down to help you afford more. And if you have no credit at all? We'll talk about how to get credit — where to start, which accounts to open and why — because trying to open new credit from zero can be very intimidating. ### Step two: debt-to-income, income, and the down payment Step two is debt-to-income ratio and income, because that flows into what you should realistically be window-shopping for. We all have the grand plan of the single-family home with the white picket fence, three bedrooms and two baths — but the first step might have to be a condo, a townhome, or a really small two-bedroom house. So we talk about your income, your monthly debts, and your down payment. How much do you have saved? Could a 401(k) help with the down payment? Do we need to look into down payment assistance, and how does that work? And it all loops together: we can qualify you for $400,000 but you'd really like to buy at $500,000? Okay — back to the credit report. If you get X, Y, and Z paid off, you'll qualify for your $500,000\. It all works into one game plan — but we need the application first so we have all the pieces to talk about. Sometimes it's as simple as reviewing the bank statements together and looking at the daily spending: Starbucks, Starbucks, Starbucks, McDonald's, sushi, Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's, Carl's Jr. — the club, the bar on Friday night. We'll talk about where to cut back and how much we expect each week to go toward either a payoff we've assigned or the savings account. ### The true budget — down payment assistance won't cover this Down payment assistance is only going to help with the down payment. Sometimes it partially helps with closing costs, and sometimes we can get you in with nothing out of pocket — assistance for the down and a seller credit for the closing costs. But even then, you still need to budget for the move itself, and a lot of people don't think about that: the deposits to get the utilities turned on, the U-Haul if you don't have a friend with a truck, the boxes and the packing tape — and refilling the refrigerator and pantry. Moms and dads, you know: when you move, half-open and expired stuff gets tossed, and restocking can be $300, $400, $500, sometimes more. So we sit down and build a true budget: how much you need at the moment you're ready to execute the plan and write an offer, and how much we want left in savings just in case — something breaks in the house, or the car surprises you with a repair right after you get the keys. We do not want to set you up to fail. ### The accountability train Reach out however you're comfortable — text us, email us, or put the application in on the website — and we'll get you on the calendar. But here's the piece that makes it work: when you talk to me, or Manny, or Mikey, or Heather, you're going to be held accountable. Every call ends with the next appointment booked, just like the doctor or the dentist, on a time frame based on you. Got a few things to clean up on the credit report? We might set the next call two weeks out, or a month if there's saving to do first. And if you tell us, “I want this, but if I don't have to check in with you every week, I just won't do it” — then we put you on the calendar once a week, every week: did you do what we told you to do? How far did you get? You got that letter we told you to get? Awesome — here's step two. We are going to hold you accountable, get you on the game plan, and get you into a home. And trust me, it is absolutely doable. We know rates are high and home values are high — and we know it's possible anyway, because 33% of June's closings were first-time buyers. If you're waiting to call until you have a better job, more money in the bank, or a better credit score — guess what? It's never going to happen. You need a plan to execute a plan, and if you don't have a plan to execute, you will never get to the finish line. ### Wrap-up So that's today's show in a nutshell: why interest rates are high, why we're planning to be stuck in this higher-rate zone for a while instead of banking on rates coming down soon, and how first-time buyers still get into a home — by creating a plan. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. The weekly newsletter is finally on a regular schedule — my team and I take turns making sure it gets out — and you can sign up on the website, where you can also watch the show live, submit questions for next week's episode, and use the calculators. I'll be back next Wednesday at 3 PM. Talk to you later. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of July 22, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Why Is It So Hard to Get a Mortgage on a Condo? The 2026 Rule Changes, Explained URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-a-mortgage-on-a-condo-the-2026-rule-changes-explained/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:02.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “The Biggest Condo Lending Change In Over A Decade!” — live show from Thursday, July 16, 2026 • 58 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The biggest condo lending rule change in over a decade hits August 3, 2026\. On March 18, Fannie Mae dropped Lender Letter LL-2026-03 — and Freddie Mac followed with a parallel bulletin — rewriting how conventional condo loans get approved: a bigger small-building waiver, new insurance rules and deductible caps, the death of the limited review, a 15% reserve requirement coming in January 2027, and hard consequences for unfinished balcony repairs. Debbie walks through every change, every effective date, and exactly what condo owners, buyers, sellers, agents, and HOA managers should do before it bites. ## Key takeaways - **This is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac only.** Lender Letter LL-2026-03 (March 18, 2026) and Freddie's parallel bulletin mirror each other — there's no “can't go Fannie, let's go Freddie.” FHA and VA guidelines are unchanged, and non-QM can pick up the rest with larger down payments. - **Fannie Mae's “unavailable” (declined) condo list grew roughly 20-fold in four years** — from about 200–300 complexes in 2022 to 5,175 — driven by balcony/critical-repair issues and inadequate insurance, and Debbie expects it to keep growing. - **Good news first:** the full-project-review waiver expands from 4 units to 10, the replacement-cost insurance mandate and inflation guard are gone, and insurer statements now replace the paperwork chase — all of which should lower HOA premiums. - **The insurance catch:** HO6 deductibles are now capped (effectively $2,500), and if the master policy's per-unit deductible is $50,000 or more, buyers must carry an HO6 policy even when the HOA covers walls-in. - **The limited review dies August 3.** Every conventional condo loan — regardless of down payment — gets a full review with a full document stack: HOA cert, CC&Rs, articles of incorporation, current budget, financials no older than 3 months, title, flood cert, and appraisal. - **Reserves jump from 10% to 15% of the HOA budget on January 4, 2027.** Debbie estimates close to 90% of U.S. complexes won't meet it; the only out is a professional reserve study funded at its *highest* recommended level. - **Balcony rules have teeth:** under California's SB 326 (and similar laws in Florida and elsewhere), open critical repairs anywhere in the complex block Fannie/Freddie financing — even if the unit being sold is fine. Sellers and agents: order the HOA docs day one and get the complex approved *before* you accept an offer. ## Chapters - 02:01Who this affects: owners, buyers, agents, HOA managers - 03:37Lender Letter LL-2026-03 — what's changing and when - 07:58The “unavailable” list: 20-fold growth to 5,175 complexes - 10:57Change #1: project-review waiver expands to 10 units - 13:31Change #2: insurance — the replacement-cost mandate is gone - 16:50The catch: HO6 deductibles are capped - 19:01$50,000 master deductibles now force an HO6 policy - 22:52Change #3: the limited review is dead - 24:36The new full-review document stack — and why sellers must start early - 28:38Change #4: reserves jump to 15% on January 4, 2027 - 34:02Banned: reserve accounts that trend toward zero - 35:22The reserve-study escape hatch - 37:13Change #5: SB 326 balcony inspections - 40:38The fixes: critical-repair program, FHA, VA, non-QM - 49:44Mark your calendar: every effective date - 51:13Listener Q&A: rental refinances and the backup lenders ## Questions answered on this show ### “Are the rules stricter when refinancing a rental condo?” No — the rules are exactly the same whether you're refinancing or purchasing. A loan is a loan is a loan, and the same guidelines apply whether the condo is owner-occupied, a second home, or an investment property. ### “Are the backup lenders private lenders?” No. The fallback products Debbie described are non-QM (non-qualified mortgage) loans from big institutional investors who write their own guidelines — and who have worked with Debbie's team to shape the guidelines they'll lend around, which is how the critical-repair program works at 20% down (15% by exception, with a push underway for 10%). It's not a one-on-one private lender: everything closes, statements arrive, and the loan is serviced just like a regular mortgage. ### Buying, selling, or refinancing a condo? Get the complex reviewed first Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### The biggest condo lending change in over a decade Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about condos — I've been promising this for the last couple of weeks. If you own a condominium and have been thinking about selling it, if you're thinking about buying one, if you're a real estate agent who sells condos, or if you're a management company or an HOA property manager, this is definitely information to know. This is the biggest condo lending change in over a decade, and it starts August 3\. We are right around the corner from these changes, and they're going to make a very large impact on which condominium complexes can be lent on and which cannot. We're talking specifically Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac today. VA and FHA have their own guidelines — completely different — and there's always non-QM, non-qualified mortgages, to pick up where Fannie and Freddie would leave you stranded, though those require larger down payments. On March 18, 2026, Fannie Mae dropped Lender Letter LL-2026-03, and Freddie Mac followed with a parallel bulletin. So it's not going to be “hey, we can't go Fannie, let's go Freddie” — they're going to mirror each other. There are a couple of beneficial changes, and then some pretty significant ones that will impact condos and their ability to get financing. ### The “unavailable” list grew 20-fold What's the number-one issue with condominiums right now? If you've been in the condo market at all, you know many complexes are having a very difficult time getting financing. It's very prevalent in California, where I do the majority of my business, and Florida has significant condo issues too — but these changes will affect condominiums across the nation, which is what a lot of people don't realize. Look at this number: Fannie Mae's “unavailable” condo project list grew twenty-fold in four years. Unavailable is basically Fannie's way of saying the complex is declined for financing — and it has jumped since 2022 from roughly 200–300 complexes to 5,175\. Why? Balcony issues and critical repairs, especially in California and Florida, and complexes that haven't carried the right fire or homeowners insurance coverage. That list is going to continue to grow. So we want to get out ahead of this in advance — helping owners, future buyers, and agents get deals closed instead of running into financing issues two or three weeks into a transaction. ### Change #1: the project-review waiver goes to 10 units Small condominium buildings just got easier to finance. It used to be that if a complex was four units or fewer, conventional financing didn't have to go through the full review process — no HOA cert, no budgets, no financials; we just had to verify the complex carried the correct insurance. That waiver has now been expanded up to 10 units, which is fantastic. We're really hoping they re-evaluate and push it to 20 units, but at this point it's 10. One catch: if the complex is already on Fannie Mae's unavailable, do-not-lend list, it is not eligible for the waiver. We'll still have to prove the critical repairs have been fixed, or that the insurance shortfall that got it declined has been corrected — those are noted on Fannie's site. But if it's never been on that list, things just got easier. ### Change #2: insurance — good news first Some of the paperwork is getting loosened up, and some of the deductibles are getting tighter. Good news first: actual cash value coverage is fine now — the replacement-cost mandate is gone. We used to have to go to the master policy's insurance company for a replacement cost estimator proving replacement cost was part of the plan; that's no longer required, which helps complexes reduce premiums. The inflation guard requirement is retired completely — another premium saver. And instead of documents that were irritating the insurance companies, Fannie will now accept an insurer statement confirming the mandated coverages are in place. On the waiver deals — 10 units or fewer — general liability and fidelity insurance are no longer required. For those wondering: fidelity coverage protects homeowners in big complexes if a management company mismanages or steals reserve funds; general liability covers things like a slip-and-fall on the common grounds. Not requiring them on small buildings will help those complexes cut premiums too. ### The insurance catch: deductible caps and the $50,000 trigger Now the catch. Deductibles are capped. Quick primer: the master insurance policy covers the building; an HO6 policy covers the walls-in — your personal belongings, the stove, the appliances. Sometimes the master coverage includes “betterments and improvements,” meaning everything inside, and you don't need your own HO6 — but most HOAs don't include that, so you're required to get your own policy. When you get that HO6 policy now, the maximum deductible is the greater of 5% or $2,500 — honestly, $2,500 is going to be the maximum you can get. We used to use $5,000 or $10,000 deductibles to squeeze the premium down for a buyer trying to qualify; that's gone. In practice it's not a huge deal — most of my clients get $750 deductibles anyway. Here's the bigger deal: a lot of master policies carry a deductible *per unit*. If that per-unit deductible is $50,000 or more, then even if the HOA's policy covers betterments and improvements — which before would have meant no HO6 needed — you are now required to carry an HO6 anyway. The way Fannie and Freddie look at it: if there's a fire and this person loses everything, and the master policy has a $50,000 deductible, do they personally have $50,000 in the bank to cover it? Probably not. The HO6 is there to offset that huge deductible. ### Change #3: the limited review is dead This is where it gets difficult. And again, so nobody gets confused: this is not VA, this is not FHA — this is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, good old-fashioned standard conventional loans. The majority of jumbo and non-conforming lenders will very likely follow suit as well. The limited review used to save our butt. If a client had at least 10% down on a conventional condo purchase, the budget, reserves, and bylaws didn't necessarily have to be provided and reviewed. A limited review was exactly what it sounds like: we got an HOA cert completed, checked the limited items on it, verified the insurance, and we were good to go. That limited review is now dead. Every single deal moving forward, regardless of down payment, gets a complete full review of the complex. This is where the paperwork tsunami starts. Every condo file will now need the following stack: the HOA certification, the CC&Rs, the articles of incorporation, the current year's budget, the financials — no more than three months old, a balance sheet and a P&L — the preliminary title report, the flood certification, and the appraisal. That's a lot of items, and it takes a long time to get there. So if you're selling a condo, do not wait. Open your escrow or title order early and have the seller order the condo document package day one — you're paying for those documents regardless, because whatever buyer comes in, you have to deliver them. Get them to your lender and let us get the complex approved in advance. I love condos, I love doing condo approvals, I love working through issues and finding solutions — bring me the documents. It saves so much time, energy, and wasted cost versus the alternative: a buyer three weeks into escrow, the HOA docs finally arrive, the lender says no-go, the client doesn't have enough down to switch products, the escrow cancels, and the property goes back on the market. And every agent will confirm what happens next — when a home goes pending and comes back active, the first conclusion buyers jump to is “what's wrong with that property?” It resells, but it can take longer the second time around. If it's already on the unavailable list and can't come off yet, we'll at least identify in advance what financing *can* be done and how much down it takes, so you know exactly which offers you can accept. ### Change #4: reserves jump to 15% in January 2027 On top of the full reviews, the reserve requirement is jumping to 15% — a 50% increase. Effective January 4, 2027, the reserve allocation in HOA budgets moves from 10% to 15%. We've already had a hard time with numerous complexes that aren't allocating even 10% — part of why we leaned on limited reviews — and now it's all out in the open on every file. I'm going to go out on a limb and say close to 90% of condominium complexes across the United States are not allocating 15% to reserves. And this has to be planned in advance: the annual budgeting, a reserve study, an HOA meeting with the homeowners, a vote to increase dues — because if more of the monthly fee has to go to reserves, the fee has to go up. We're already in July, and HOA meetings don't happen every month. Some owners will vote no because they don't want their dues to rise, so it might not even pass the first vote. That's why that unavailable list is going to keep climbing: complexes won't figure out they're no longer lendable until it stings. If you own a condo: go to the next HOA meeting. Get in your car and go, and ask — the Mortgage Mom said guidelines are changing. Is our insurance coverage right? Does our budget allocate 15% to reserves? Also banned as of August 3: the accounting sleight of hand where the reserve balance is technically funded but always trending down toward zero. There's no specific dollar amount required in the reserve account, and a big outflow is understandable — balconies, roofs, termites happen. But it cannot keep dropping month after month and never get replenished. That's no longer allowed. The one escape hatch: a professional reserve study. Fannie will allow less than 15% only if the HOA has a reserve study done and is collecting at the very *highest* number that study recommends. When these studies come back, they recommend a range — and the HOA has to fund at the top of it. That's going to be very far and few between. ### Change #5: balcony inspections — SB 326 and its cousins California's SB 326 has to do with balconies — and this isn't only California. Think about the disaster in Florida where the balconies came crashing down; Florida and other states have their own versions of this law. But California is where I close the majority of my loans, so let's use it: any wood-supported elevated element — balcony, deck, walkway, stair, railing — must be inspected at least every nine years by a licensed structural engineer or architect, or the complex loses access to conventional financing. It took effect for pre-2019 buildings with a three-year window that's getting close to up, so almost all of these complexes have had their inspections done by now. When the inspection is done and the report comes back, if units in the complex are called out for critical repairs, we as the lender have to prove those repairs have been completed. I get this question from real estate agents constantly: “but the unit we're selling is done.” It does not matter. It does not matter — you can keep asking me until you're blue in the face. If 10 units in the complex need repairs, we need evidence all 10 have been repaired. Twenty units, fifty units — same answer: repaired by a licensed contractor, and cleared by the engineer or architect who wrote the report. If there's a balcony report with open critical repairs — and almost every complex has a report by now — you are not getting financed with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. ### The fixes: repair programs, FHA/VA, and getting approved in advance We have solutions. We have a critical condo repair program — a non-QM product — that typically requires 20% down; we can get an exception to 15%, and we are currently pushing our investors hard to allow 10%. Who does the requirement hurt? The first-time buyer coming in with 3%, 5%, or 10% down — which is one more reason to get the complex reviewed before you list. Also remember: the insurance updates and the reserve allocation changes haven't touched FHA or VA. A complex that loses Fannie and Freddie may very well qualify for FHA — I think we're going to see a lot more FHA financing in these complexes, and we may need to start getting more complexes FHA- and VA-approved for those first-time buyers. What's important to know is that getting a complex approved FHA or VA is not an easy task. You want a lender who has done it before, knows the paperwork, and can get the package in and out without the complex getting suspended — because once it's suspended, everything slows down. My team and I, through JMJ Financial, have done many FHA and VA complex approvals, and we've turned numerous Fannie/Freddie unavailable complexes back into approved ones. We go to bat, we grab the documentation, and we know what we need. Bottom line for sellers and agents: work with a lender and an agent who really know condos, get the documents ordered up front on day one, and know before you accept an offer exactly what financing works on your unit — because the last thing you want is to accept an offer from a buyer who can't qualify for the only loans available on your property. ### Q&A: refinancing a rental condo Mary asks: *“Are the rules more strict when refinancing a rental unit?”* The rules are exactly the same whether you refinance or purchase. A loan is a loan is a loan, and the same exact guidelines apply — owner-occupied, second home, or investment property. These rules are the rules. ### Q&A: are the backup lenders private lenders? Another question came in: *“The backup lenders — are they private lenders?”* No, they are not private lenders. They're big investors we work with — large mortgage companies offering non-qualified mortgages. They write their own guidelines, and they've worked with us and approved the guidelines we want to underwrite and lend around — which is why we're at 20% down even with critical repairs outstanding, with a 15% exception available and a push for 10% underway. It is not a one-on-one private person. Everything closes the same way, mortgage statements come the same way, you pay online the same way, and the loan is serviced just like a regular mortgage. ### Mark your calendar One more time, let's mark the calendar. As of today: we're already doing the waivers on complexes of 10 units or fewer — no more HOA certs and full doc stacks on those, just insurance — and we're already accepting the loosened insurance requirements. July 1: the deductible caps went into effect, so HO6 deductibles can no longer exceed $2,500\. August 3: the limited review dies, and we're back to a complete full review of every complex — and the trending-to-zero reserve accounting is banned. January 4 of next year: the 15% reserve allocation has to be in the budget — or there needs to be a reserve study in place with the HOA funding at its highest recommended number — or you can say bye-bye to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ### Wrap-up If you want to know when I go live so you don't miss a show, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week with the topic and a link to join. At mortgagemomradio.com you can watch the show live, submit a question for me to answer on next week's episode, search past episodes by topic — 1031 exchanges, using Bitcoin to buy a home, fix-and-flip loans, reverse mortgages, first-time buyer workshops — sign up for the weekly newsletter, and use all the calculators and tools. We're here to get you into the property you need, refinance what you need, and get you out of the debt you need out of — and for real estate agents, we're here to make your life easier and get your deals closed fast. I'll be back next Wednesday at 3 PM. Have a great day. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of July 16, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Is a Fed Rate Hike Coming? Why You Should Lock Your Mortgage Rate Now URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-a-fed-rate-hike-coming-why-you-should-lock-your-mortgage-rate-now/ Last updated: 2026-09-02T00:00:06.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, July 8, 2026: “The Fed just flipped the script. Rate Hike on the table?” • 26 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 For over a year the question has been “when will the Fed cut?” This week it flipped: two of the most senior voices at the Federal Reserve signaled that a rate *hike* is now realistically on the table for the July 29 meeting. In this episode, Debbie walks through what changed — hot inflation, a soft jobs report, and Chair Kevin Warsh's blunt “prices are too high” — what it means for mortgage rates over the next few weeks, and exactly what to do if you're in escrow or have been waiting to refinance. ## Key takeaways - **The script has flipped.** After a year of “when will the Fed cut,” the conversation is now about a possible rate *hike* at the July 29 Fed meeting. Inflation jumped after the conflict in Iran, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said plainly that prices are too high — even with a soft jobs report on the table. - **The projections turned hawkish.** The median path shifted from an expected cut to roughly one quarter-point hike by year-end 2026, with nine out of 19 policymakers seeing at least one hike this year and core PCE forecast at 3.3%. As of July 8, the CME FedWatch tool still showed a 70.1% probability the Fed holds — but the momentum has changed. - **The Fed doesn't set your mortgage rate.** Credit cards and home equity lines track the Fed funds rate; mortgages track mortgage-backed securities and the bond market, which trade on *expectations*. Rates typically move in the weeks before an announcement, not the day of — and sometimes improve slightly once the expected news actually lands. - **Expect rates to grind higher into the meeting.** Debbie's example (an average, not a quote): from roughly 6.5% today, incremental daily worsening of about a quarter to three-eighths over the next couple of weeks — 6.75%, 6.875%, possibly touching 7% by month-end if the hike consensus holds. - **In escrow? Lock your rate today.** There's a very good chance today's rate is better than what will be available in 30 days when you're ready to close. - **If you need the loan, stop waiting.** Whether it's a refinance, debt payoff, or a home equity line — get it started now. You can always refinance down the road if rates fall. - **Waiting for 4% is off the table.** Not this year and realistically probably not next. Barring a COVID-scale catastrophe, the new normal is roughly high-5s to low-7s. ## Chapters - 01:00Today's topic: the Fed flips the script - 03:00What changed: Iran, inflation, and rising prices - 03:50The soft jobs report — why everyone ruled out a hike - 05:00“The bomb dropped yesterday”: inflation first - 06:10Kevin Warsh at the ECB forum: prices are too high - 09:30The July 29 meeting and what markets expect - 10:10Nine of 19 policymakers now project a hike - 11:50The Fed doesn't set mortgage rates - 13:00Mortgage rates trade on expectations - 14:30How much worse rates could get by month-end - 16:00What happens if the hike actually lands - 17:00In escrow? Lock today. Need a loan? Stop waiting - 18:00Waiting for 4% — put it on the back burner - 20:00Next week: big condo changes from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - 21:30Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ### Talk through your own lock-or-float decision Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Today's topic: the Fed flips the script Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. Today we are going to be talking about how the Fed has flipped the script and they are talking about a possible rate hike rather than a rate cut. We're going to look at what two of the top voices — our new chairman, Kevin Warsh, and Governor Chris Waller — have had to say. I'm going to pull up the exact details for you and let you know what is going on, but it is looking like there's a very good chance they might be increasing rates rather than cutting them at the next Fed meeting. ### What changed: Iran, inflation, and a soft jobs report Let's scoot back a little to what has been taking place. Obviously we all know about the conflict in Iran. Our inflation reports have come out most recently inflated. We were actually edging toward where the Fed wanted to be — we were getting closer to that 2% inflation goal — and then the conflict started, and you can feel it in your pockets. You can feel it in the goods you're buying, in the oil you're spending on gas at the station. Inflation is up, and not only did it go up, it went up a lot. With that, everybody started speculating that there really could be a rate hike, but many were on the fence saying, nah, I don't think they really will. Then the unemployment report came out, and the jobs report was quite a bit softer than they would have liked to see. So the people who look at the economy for a living were saying: there's just no chance. The Fed would not do a rate hike, would not bring interest rates higher, not when employment is soft. Go back to Mr. Powell over his years in office — the thing he always quoted in his meetings was that the top interests are the 2% inflation goal and the jobs market. They did not want a soft job market. Well, this last employment report came out and it was a soft job market. Very soft. So we were thinking there's just no way they're going to give us a rate hike. And then the bomb dropped yesterday when the Fed talked. They didn't come right out and say they're going to increase interest rates, but they made it sound very plausible that they would. The reason we believe that is because they said: we understand that employment is softening, but we feel that inflation is something we have to attack first, and it is more important. When you hear those words, it is very difficult to believe they are just going to hold things steady. ### Kevin Warsh at the ECB forum: “prices are too high” Let's get to what Kevin Warsh had to say. I'm going to do some reading, because I want to bring you information that is accurate — and I'm giving credit where credit is due: this is from CNBC. It says Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, in comments Wednesday at the ECB forum on central banking, declined to give any signal as to what the central bank may do at its meeting later this month, but did note that inflation was too elevated. “We are all in the price stability business — that might not be our only business. But if there was a common thing I heard over the last couple of days, it was open-mindedness on these questions of AI, open-mindedness on productivity. But we've all looked around and we've all seen that prices are too high,” Warsh told CNBC's Sara Eisen during the panel in Portugal. The new central bank leader also said the staffing for the five task forces he unveiled last month, to study the various functions of the Fed, will be announced next week. “My hope, my aspiration is that 9 to 12 months from now, we're going to be using new technologies to understand what's happening in the real economy in a contemporaneous, real-time way that positions us as central bankers to make better decisions.” Along with Warsh, the group also featured European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, and Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem. Aside from his post-meeting news conference two weeks ago, this is the first time Warsh has spoken publicly since being confirmed in May. The Fed has been on hold this year with interest rates as policymakers weigh the persistence of inflation against other economic factors. So Warsh notes that the Fed sees prices as too high. What do they do when they feel prices are too high? They raise rates. They want to make lending more difficult, make buying things more difficult, slow the economy down. How do they slow the economy down? They raise interest rates. And on July 1, Warsh vowed to get inflation back to 2% — he said he was encouraged by inflation expectations easing recently, but the current level still isn't good enough. ### The July 29 meeting and what the projections show The next Federal Open Market Committee meeting will be July 29, so we've got about three weeks to wait at this point. According to the CME FedWatch tool, as of July 8 there is a 70.1% probability that the Federal Reserve will maintain rates at the upcoming meeting. So they're saying they think rates are going to stay the same. But there are other places saying they think it is going to go up, and that they are leaning toward that. Updated projections pointed to a more hawkish outlook. The median path shifted from an expected cut to roughly one quarter-point hike by year-end 2026, with nine out of 19 policymakers seeing at least one hike this year. Forecasts also showed slightly slower 2026 GDP growth and higher inflation, including core PCE at 3.3%. ### The Fed doesn't set mortgage rates So what is going to happen if they do a rate hike? A lot of people get really worried that interest rates are going to climb through the rafters. Does that happen? Sometimes it does. Does it happen every time? It doesn't. Back in 2006, 2007, early in my career, I remember quite a few times the rate was actually cut by the Fed — and if you've been around the business a long time, you've seen what happens after these announcements. Many times when they say they are cutting the rate, we don't actually see interest rates go down; we see interest rates go up. We've seen this over and over again. And when they say they believe they're going to give us a rate hike, a lot of times the day of the announcement, interest rates actually get a little bit better. Remember that mortgage interest rates are not tied to the Federal Reserve prime rate like your credit cards or your home equity lines of credit — those short-term loans. Mortgage is tied to mortgage-backed securities, notes, bonds, and the actual market. We work off of expectations. And at this point in time, from July 1 to July 8, there has been an absolute flip in what we believe is going to happen. We have gone from thinking they're going to hold the rate steady — and that if we had a rate hike, maybe it wouldn't happen until the end of the year — to believing we're going to see a rate hike at the next Fed meeting, which is July 29. ### What that means for rates between now and month-end Mortgage is all anticipation. If we are expecting rates to drop, we will typically see that performing in the market before the announcement — traders are basically pregaming the show, giving us those rate cuts in advance of the actual announcement being made. So what is happening today? Interest rates went through the roof today. It started last week, when things were uncomfortable with the inflation report and then the jobs report, and then yesterday afternoon and today things went off the rails a bit, because everybody believes there's going to be a rate hike. Realistically, between now and the end of this month, if the general consensus is still that rates are going up, we're going to see our rate sheets change on a daily basis. They're going to get a little bit worse — not a lot worse every single day, but incremental movements that add up over a couple of weeks, probably by a quarter to maybe three-eighths in interest rate. If our average interest rate today is 6.5% — this is an example, not a rate quote — then two or three weeks from now we could be 6.75%, we could be 6.875%, we might even touch that 7% mark. Then if they come out and say yes, we are going to increase interest rates — because what was believed to happen is what happened — there's actually a good chance we'll see interest rates get just a little bit better. Don't set false expectations: it's not that we'd go from 7% to 6.75% overnight because they made the announcement we were expecting. But it slows that train down, stops it, and levels things off. We might sit around 7% for a little bit, and then slowly, over a couple of weeks, maybe fall back into that 6.875%, 6.75% range. ### Lock or wait: Debbie's advice For over a year, the whole audience has heard “when will the Fed cut?” And this week, two of the most senior voices on the FOMC used blunt language to say the opposite is now realistic. So: should I lock, or should I wait? If you have a loan in process right now, lock your rate. There is a very, very good chance that where interest rates are today will be better than they will be in 30 days when you are ready to close your loan. Lock your rate. If you are thinking about doing a loan and you are in need of it — you need to refinance, you need to pay off debt, you need that home equity line of credit — but you were hoping to wait it out for better rates: stop waiting. Call and get it started. Do not wait any longer. You always have the opportunity to refinance down the road when interest rates fall further. But the chances of rates being better in 30 days than they are today are slim. And again — I don't have a crystal ball. This is my opinion, from 30 years of being in this business and watching how the market works. If your goal has been “I'm not moving until interest rates are back to 4%” — go ahead and put all of that on the back burner. You are not getting there. Not anytime this year, and realistically probably not next year. If you've been waiting to buy but you can understand that this is the new normal, then understand that this is the new normal and get out there and get things started. The whole wait-watch-and-see is out the door at this point. Interest rates are where they are. They're here to stay for quite some time. We are not going to jump back down to the low 3s and high 2s unless there is a major catastrophe like what we experienced with COVID. Average rates right now are going to hover somewhere between the high 5s and high 6s to low 7s. That is just what it is. But if you're in process, get yourself locked in today. Please. If you are just entering escrow on a house, call your lender and get locked in today. If you need to pull cash out or do home improvements and you've been needing that refinance, please get that started today — we can always refinance it down the road. ### Next week: big condo changes — and wrap-up I did promise last week that I was going to talk about condominiums. There are very big changes coming to condominiums, and that was actually going to be my topic today, but I felt this was bigger news — we saw a very quick jump in the market, and I wanted to make sure that anybody out there who needs a rate locked in understood what was going on. If you are a real estate agent selling condominiums, a condominium homeowner, someone who manages an HOA or is the president of an HOA, it would be very good for you to understand the changes coming from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is going to be a big change to the condo market that could very easily disqualify many complexes from being able to get financing. I will do that show next week, right here again at 3 p.m., streaming on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. You can text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — to get the link when I go live, and that's also the number to call my office if you'd like to speak with me or anybody on my team. We just launched a brand new website at mortgagemomradio.com: there are calculators for debt-to-income ratios and refinances, you can watch the show from the site, sign up for texting, find realtor referrals, and ask me a question that I'll read out loud and answer on next week's show. I gave you the update on what the heck is happening with the Federal Reserve — probably bad news, but realistically there's a good chance we're going to see a rate hike at the next meeting. Let's hope I am absolutely wrong. Let's hope everything I am reading is wrong, that they take other factors into consideration and choose not to do it. That would be the best outcome, and that is what we hope for. But it is good for you to know that this is on the table. I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your Wednesday, and I will be back here again next Wednesday at 3 p.m. We'll talk to you all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of July 8, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### What the New Housing Bill Means for Home Buyers, Sellers, and Owners URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-the-new-housing-bill-means-for-home-buyers-sellers-and-owners/ Last updated: 2026-09-02T00:00:06.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, July 1, 2026: “The Biggest Housing Bill in 36 Years, what's in it?” • 45 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The 21st Century Road to Housing Act has passed both chambers of Congress with strong bipartisan margins and is awaiting the president's signature. In this episode, Debbie breaks down the three pieces that actually touch your wallet: why mortgages under $100,000 are nearly impossible to get today and how the bill unlocks them, the new standardized process for challenging a low appraisal, and the 350-home cap on corporate landlords. Then she turns to the Fed, where nine policymakers now project a rate *hike* — and what that means if you've been waiting to buy or refinance. ## Key takeaways - **The bill is real and nearly law.** The 21st Century Road to Housing Act passed both chambers with strong bipartisan margins and awaits the president's signature — he has 10 days from passage, minus Sundays, to sign. - **Small mortgages get unlocked.** Today, fixed costs (appraisal, credit report, title, escrow) push the APR on loans around $100,000 or less past federal limits, so lenders effectively can't make them. The bill aims to open up that starter-home and small-loan market — which also matters for downsizers who only need a small mortgage on top of a big down payment. - **One standard appraisal appeal.** A reconsideration of value (challenging a low appraisal) currently works differently for conventional, FHA, and VA loans, and every lender has its own forms. The bill creates one set process so borrowers know exactly what's required to contest a low value. - **Corporate landlords get capped at 350 single-family homes.** Anti-evasion rules count properties toward the cap when an entity holds more than a 25% equity or voting stake in another owner, alone or in concert — so spinning up new LLCs doesn't reset the count. Debbie's take: not as strict as she'd hoped (it was negotiated down to pass), but a real step toward putting inventory back in reach of regular buyers. - **The Fed has flipped.** At the June 17 meeting the Fed held rates at 3.5–3.75% on a 12–0 vote and removed forward guidance — and the dot plot showed nine of 18 members now projecting a rate hike before year-end, a complete reversal from March's cut projection. On June 25, PCE inflation came in at 4.1% year-over-year, the highest since 2023. - **Get comfortable with mid-6s.** The average conventional rate was about 6.5% as of June 25 (averages, not quotes); government loans like FHA and VA run a bit lower. Don't buy more than you can afford on the assumption that a quick refinance will bail you out — budget for today's rate and be pleasantly surprised if it drops. ## Chapters - 02:00Today's topic: the new housing bill - 04:30The 21st Century Road to Housing Act: where it stands - 05:40Why loans under $100,000 are nearly impossible today - 08:00The downsizer example: when you only need a small loan - 09:20Reconsideration of value: fighting a low appraisal now - 12:00VA's Tidewater process vs. everyone else's patchwork - 13:50One standardized appraisal appeal for every loan type - 16:20The corporate landlord cap: 350 single-family homes - 18:00How the bill blocks the new-LLC loophole - 21:20Why the bipartisan vote itself is a win - 26:00Listener question: condo review changes (next week's show) - 29:00The Fed flips: nine members now project a hike - 31:30June 17 hold, the dot plot, and 4.1% PCE inflation - 33:00What it means for your rate strategy - 39:00Q&A: are high condo HOA fees worth it? - 42:30Wrap-up and next week's condo show ## Questions answered on this show ### “Are high condo HOA fees worth it — wouldn't that money go further on a bigger mortgage?” Less than you'd think. HOA dues usually aren't money for nothing — they typically cover water, trash, homeowners insurance, and maintenance like roof and balcony repairs, and some buyers genuinely prefer not maintaining a house and yard. And the math surprises people: in a scenario Debbie ran for a client (from memory, so don't hold her to the exact figures), a buyer qualified for a $600,000 condo with a $500/month HOA. Dropping that $500 HOA only raised his single-family purchasing power to about $675,000 — roughly $75,000 more, which doesn't buy much more house. The condo was in his price range and got him into the market as an owner. Condos fit some situations and not others; it depends on your own budget and lifestyle. ### “What about the upcoming changes to condo reviews?” Big enough to be a whole show — and it will be next week's. Guideline changes are coming that will change how condo lending works and could make some complexes non-warrantable, meaning financing there becomes very difficult. If you own a condo, are thinking of selling one, or are an agent who sells them, catch that episode. ### Talk through what these changes mean for your own plans Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Welcome and today's topic Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we are streaming on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. I have actually never streamed to all four at the same time, so bear with me a little as I try to watch the comments in all the different feeds. This is an interactive show — please put your questions into the comments, and I will read them out loud and answer them for you. The best shows are the ones where I'm answering your questions. Today we are talking about that new housing bill: what exactly is it, what is inside of it, and what does it mean to you? I've been doing this for over 30 years, and my goal is to keep you informed — to be your place to get your information on the Fed, the economy, the real estate world, home prices, and interest rates. I went out of my way to make notes today because I wanted to hit all the pieces that mean something to you, so if it looks like I'm reading a little, bear with me. There was a lot to go through, but I'm going to keep it in simple terms. ### The 21st Century Road to Housing Act: where it stands I'm sure you've all heard about it — it's a big thing. It's called the 21st Century Road to Housing Act: what's in it, and what it means for buyers, sellers, and owners. This is actually driving the majority of people's searches today. The bill has passed both chambers with strong bipartisan margins, and it's currently awaiting signature from the president. He has 10 days from the day it passed, minus Sundays, to get it signed — so we're hoping to see it signed very soon. ### What's in it for buyers: unlocking small loans One of the things I saw that I thought was very important: right now, when you call a lender looking for a loan of around $100,000, it is very difficult for a lender to offer you a mortgage for anything less than that. The reason is APR guidelines. Many closing costs are exactly the same no matter what house you buy or what the sales price is — no matter who you are, your appraisal costs the same, your credit report costs the same, and then there are title costs and escrow costs. On a small loan, those flat fees are a much higher percentage of the loan amount, which pushes the APR too high and puts us outside federal regulation on how much we can charge to do a loan. It virtually makes doing that loan impossible when the loan amount is $100,000 or below — even $150,000 loans can start to get very difficult. So the bill is trying to unlock that starter-home, low-cost market by making it easier for lenders to offer those lower loan balances. If you're in California you might be thinking, what in the world can I buy for $100,000? But think of it this way — we get this call all the time. Say you're selling your home. You've owned it for years, the kids have gone off to college, you've got a huge amount of equity, and you're ready to downsize and retire. You find that $600,000 property, you've got about $500,000 coming out of your sale to put down, and all you need is a $100,000 loan. This is going to help exactly that situation — and I'll be honest with you, I haven't done a loan under $100,000 in a really long time, because of how difficult the APR rules make it. ### What's in it for homeowners: one standard reconsideration of value Number two is the reconsideration of value. I even had to look it up quickly, because I thought — why is this in the bill? We do reconsiderations of value all the time. So let's talk about what that is, and then what's going to be different once this bill gets signed. Say you're refinancing or buying. No matter what mortgage you're doing, you need an appraisal — unless you get really lucky with an appraisal waiver, which does not happen very often. The appraisal comes in lower than you expected: lower than the sales price, or lower than the value you feel your house is worth. Now it affects how much loan you can get, because the home is no longer worth what everybody anticipated at the beginning of the transaction. In that situation, you'd come to me and say, “I really think my house is worth more,” and I'd talk with you about what other homes have closed, probably call real estate agents I know who handle your market and ask them to pull listings so we can find comps that might help us argue with the appraiser about getting that value increased. That goes for purchase or refinance — we already do this process right now. So what's different? Currently there is a different standard and a different process depending on the lender and the loan type — it's different for conventional with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, different for FHA, and certainly different for VA. The bill makes it one set process regardless of the type of loan, so it's more straightforward and the borrower knows exactly what's required to request a review of the value and submit the documentation to get that appraisal changed. For example, on a VA purchase or refinance, if the appraisal is going to come in lower than expected, the appraiser reaches out to us first — it's called Tidewater — and says: I don't think I can bring your value in; do you have some comps you can provide before I finalize it? That VA process is awesome, and we don't get it with other loan products. What's not awesome is that once the VA appraiser has submitted the appraisal, it's very difficult to get the value overturned — you're dealing with the VA directly, and most of the time they're not keen on changing values. With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, every single lending company I've ever worked for — and I've worked for banks like Wells Fargo and several mortgage companies, including JMJ Financial, who we're with right now and love — has its own form that has to be completed by the loan officer, then the data goes internally up to the appraiser, who looks at it and responds. Just the fact that the forms and the process are different everywhere creates a different outcome every time. Making it one flat, above-board process where you understand what's required is going to be very helpful — especially for purchases, but also for refinances, where you're often trying to pull cash out and a low appraisal can make it really hard to get the loan done. ### The corporate landlord cap Now this was a big one that a lot of people have talked about, and I think it's a big win — though I wish the number were smaller, and I'll tell you about that. This is the corporate landlord piece. A hot topic for many people is the fact that giant corporate companies own tons and tons of single-family rental homes, and these properties get snatched up very quickly, especially in the lower price ranges where the market is most competitive. Part of this bill tries to stop that so there are more homes available for first-time buyers and for individuals like you and me. The bill restricts firms from owning more than 350 single-family homes and from acquiring more — they can't hold more than 350 in their entire portfolio. My first question, because I can be a little cynical: what stops these big companies from just diversifying — opening a new LLC and starting a whole new portfolio of another 350 homes? Here's the explanation I found, and I liked it, so I'll read it: to prevent corporations from bypassing the 350-home cap by opening new subsidiaries, the act restricts ownership “alone or in concert with other entities” and relies on strict direct-or-indirect investment control rules. There are equity and control triggers: if an entity holds more than a 25% equity stake or voting interest in another owner — unless it's defined as a passive investor — those properties count toward the controlling entity's limit. It gets a lot more specific from there, but the general overview: if I own 25% or more of a company, I can't go open another company and put another 350 homes in it. Now, that doesn't necessarily stop a big pool of people each owning 1 or 2% of many, many companies — so I do think this will have to get dialed in further over time. I also read that the cap was originally smaller, and raising it was one of the things negotiated to get the bill passed with bipartisanship. But I'll take the win. They're finally trying to do something to slow these corporations down from buying up all this inventory. How does it help you? More properties on the market, and more opportunity to find a home before it gets snatched up by a huge corporation paying all cash while you had no chance to get your offer accepted because you were getting financing. The last piece: I think the bipartisanship itself was a really big win. The fact that we could get common sense out of both sides of the Senate and the House to come together on a bill like this shows there's a chance the two parties could start working together for the benefit of Americans. Instead of stopping things from passing, it seemed like everybody was on board with something that was going to help people. In a nutshell, those were the most important pieces. It's obviously a very big bill and I would be talking forever if I took you through the entire thing, but these are the pieces I thought you should know about and how they benefit you once this gets signed and put into place. ### Listener question: condo review changes I have a question from Amy — I told you at the beginning of the show that Amy is my processor, so if you've worked with me recently on a loan, you've probably worked with her, and she's amazing. She asks: *“This may be a whole show topic — what do you think about the upcoming changes for condo reviews?”* That is going to be an entire show topic, and a really great one — I'd be happy to make it next week's show. If you're a borrower who owns a condominium, you should jump on next week's show for sure, because this is going to change how condo lending happens and could make a pretty big impact on the condo market. If you're a real estate agent who sells condos, absolutely jump on as well. There are some big guideline changes coming, and some things that are going to make some complexes non-warrantable, where lending is going to become very difficult to get. Thank you for bringing that up, Amy — that will be next week's show. ### The Fed: nine members now project a hike Let's jump into the Fed, because I have a lot of people who ask me all the time: are interest rates going to come down? I have clients who three or four months ago could have locked in a lower rate than what they have on their loan. They decided not to — got a little greedy, thought rates would keep getting better, wanted to wait a little longer — and they've now missed the boat. And we've got people who have been sitting on the fence for the last three or four years, not buying because they've been waiting for rates to come back down to that sub-4% level. Before I even jump into the details: that sub-4 level is not going to happen in the near future. The rates we have today are here to stay in this range, and there is a very good chance they are going to get worse. So let me start with a headline, because these are headlines all over the place: the Warsh Fed just flipped the script — nine members now project a rate hike, not a cut. As of last year, and the year before that, we all felt we were going to keep seeing rate cuts come, and we did see some. Nobody believed we'd see hikes. For all of 2026 the expectation was maybe two rate cuts, with more when we got into 2027\. Now nine members under the new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh — and it's so hard for me to get used to saying Warsh instead of Powell — are saying they expect a rate hike, not a cut. To give you some context, that's nine of the 18 people who sit on the committee — 50% right now saying we're probably going to see a hike. On June 17, the Fed had its last meeting. They decided to leave rates steady — watch and see — but they were choosy with their words: if things get worse as we're expecting them to, things could change. Then on June 25, PCE came in at 4.1% year-over-year — the highest inflation reading we have had since 2023\. Think about all the work we've all put in — the higher costs on everything because interest rates were higher — trying to get inflation down to that 2% level. We were in the 3s, even the high 2s: literally 3.1, 3.2, 2.9, depending on who you asked. We were getting there. Now all of a sudden we are back at 4.1 as of June 25\. Energy prices from the overseas conflict — let's just call it Iran — are the main driver of inflation going from where we were to where we are today. So we've gone from expecting rate cuts to not expecting cuts and possibly expecting a rate hike. Here's the fuller picture from my notes: the new Fed chair took over and immediately held rates at 3.5–3.75% on a 12–0 vote. The FOMC statement was stripped down to 130 words, all forward guidance removed, and the dot plot revealed nine of 18 members now project a rate hike before year-end — a complete reversal from March's cut projection. Then the June 25 PCE reading hit 4.1% year-over-year, the highest in three years. And Bankrate found 40% of consumers still expect rates to drop this year. They're not. I'm just going to come right out and tell you: in my opinion as the Mortgage Mom — no crystal ball, I cannot predict the future — from what I am seeing and reading, I am not anticipating a big rate drop this year. ### What it means for your rate strategy So what does this mean for you? If you were waiting to buy or refinance hoping for a big rate drop, that is totally out the door. That is not happening. As of June 25, the average interest rate on a conventional loan — and I'm not going to get into everything that changes your rate; we all know loan-to-value, credit score, property type, investment versus owner-occupied, single-family versus condo all matter, so this is not a rate quote and not the rate you get if you call my office — was about 6.5%. Some websites showed me 6.49%, some 6.54%. Call it six and a half on average. As of today we're still hovering in that range; it hasn't moved a lot since that inflation reading. The government loans — the VAs and FHAs — run a little lower than conventional, maybe 6.25 to 6.5, again depending on your credit score. So get comfortable, get cozy, get happy with interest rates in the mid-6s. That number is not moving, and if anything, we might get a rate hike before year-end and it could go up. If you have been thinking about buying a home: buy a home. Just make sure you're buying a home you can afford. These are the new average rates — this is our new life, and it's been here for three years. It was actually worse in 2023, when we were in the 8s. A lot of you called then and said, no way am I buying at eight and a quarter. The people who did buy three years ago? They're happy. They've got equity, we've already refinanced them, they're around six and a half now, and they've already saved money on their monthly payment. The bottom line: these are the new rates. You've got to get comfortable with them, buy within your affordability, and buy what you can handle. Don't buy something assuming rates are going to fall right away and you'll quickly refinance and drop the payment — stretching beyond what you're comfortable with because you think it's a short period before the rate cuts come. Do not expect that. Do not anticipate that. Budget for where rates are today, expect them to stay there, and be pleasantly surprised when they go down. ### Q&A: are high condo HOA fees worth it? Michelle jumps on with a question before we shut down: *“I never like the huge condo fees. How can people not afford larger mortgages, yet they are willing to pay such additional high fees monthly but owe nothing more in return?”* That's a great question. In all honesty, the HOA dues are high, but most of the time they're covering water, trash, homeowners insurance, and maintenance — things like roof repairs and balcony repairs. Number one, some people just prefer a condo for the ease of not having to maintain a home and a backyard and be responsible for the many things that go wrong that the complex covers with that HOA fee. Number two, the HOA fee has to be quite significantly high before it actually translates into much more buying power. I'll give you an example — and don't quote me on this, because I ran this number about a month and a half ago and I'm going off memory. I ran this scenario for a client: he was looking at condominiums around $600,000 with a $500-a-month HOA, and he qualified for $600,000 with that HOA. Then he asked, how much single-family home could I buy without the $500-a-month HOA dues? It only changed the sales price to about $675,000\. He was only able to go up $75,000 in price from condo to single-family. Think about that: $500 a month in HOA is about $75,000 in loan amount, and you don't get a whole lot more house for an extra $75,000\. It really didn't benefit him to look at single-family homes — the condominiums were in his price range, and buying one got him into a property, made him a homeowner, and got him into the market. There are upsides and downsides to condominiums; it's a fit for some and not for others, depending on your own personal situation. ### Wrap-up Before that, a couple of things. I am working on a revamp of my website — the new site should be fully up and running within the next two to three weeks. When it comes, you'll be able to watch the show live on it, run your calculators — your DTI calculators — sign up for newsletters, and do all kinds of things. The current site at mortgagemomradio.com is there and functioning in the meantime; it's just the same website I've had for the last seven or eight years, and it's time for a revamp. If you want to jump into that condo show next week — which I think was a great idea from Amy — text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634\. That's 844-WE-LEND-4\. You'll get a text with the link when I go live and what the show is about, so you can decide whether to jump on, and you'll never miss a show. That's also the number to call if you'd like to speak with me or my team. Thank you everybody for watching and joining. I'm learning the four-stream setup — I'm so sorry, TikTok, if you jumped on with questions I didn't see; by next week I'll be able to see all the questions from everywhere in one place. If you have friends or family, are a real estate agent, or you've been thinking about buying or selling a condo, next week's show will be a very big one to tune into. I think I've decided 3 p.m. is the good time, so I'll be back again next week at 3 p.m. Pacific. If that changes, I'll let you know in advance. We'll talk to you all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of July 1, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Coming soon URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/coming-soon/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:41:25.000Z This is mortgagemomradio, a brand new site by Deborah Marcoux that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can [subscribe](#/portal/) in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published! ### I’m Back! Market Updates and New Loan Programs Available URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/i-m-back-market-updates-and-new-loan-programs-available/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:49.000Z **Listen · 0:38:32** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/6-24-2026.mp3?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Today I discussed new programs such as Jumbo with only 10% down, construction and fix and flip loans for investors. Would you like to ask questions while I'm live on air? Subscribe now to receive a link to join each week. Text LIVE to 844-935-3634 Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, NMLS ID 237926\. Also licensed in, AZ-0941504, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, HI-237926, ID-MLO-2080237926, IL-031.0058339, NV-57237, NC-I-210940, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/154118579/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Should You Sell Your California Rental? 1031 Exchanges and Where Investors Are Finding Cash Flow URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-sell-your-california-rental-1031-exchanges-and-where-investors-are-finding-cash-flow/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:03.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, February 18, 2026: “Investment Property Cash Flow” • 21 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 California landlords are increasingly asking Debbie the same two questions: should I sell my rental here, and if I do, where does the money go next? In this episode she walks through why tenant-friendly California laws are pushing investors to look elsewhere, how a 1031 exchange really works (it's not what most people think), and the college-town rental strategy — renting by the room near campuses like ASU in Tempe — that has been producing the best cash flow she's seen lately. ## Key takeaways - **California's rules are heavily weighted toward the tenant.** Statewide rent caps (the lower of 10% or 5% plus local CPI), just-cause eviction requirements, a 21-day security-deposit deadline, and new 2026 laws (AB 628 and SB 610) mandating working refrigerators, stoves, and rent refunds during mandatory disaster evacuations. Selling to an owner-occupant buyer can also mean paying your tenant relocation money. - **A 1031 exchange matches the sales price, not the loan balance.** If you sell for $1 million, you must buy $1 million of replacement property to defer the capital gains tax — but it can be split across two or three properties, not just one. - **One rental can become two or three.** Clients netting $400,000–$600,000 from a California sale are spreading it across multiple down payments to hit the required total — and turning one property's rent into several monthly income streams. - **The money has moved: Texas (2018–2022), then Nevada, now Arizona.** Over the last 12–18 months Debbie's clients have concentrated on Arizona purchases near college campuses, such as ASU in Tempe. - **The college-town math (examples, not quotes):** a roughly $600,000 house with 25% down carries a payment around $3,200 including taxes and insurance. Rented furnished by the room at about $1,000 per room, a four- or five-bedroom home brings in $4,000–$5,000 a month — roughly $1,500 a month of positive cash flow per property. - **Property taxes change the picture state by state.** Arizona's are significantly lower than California's — and California's are significantly lower than Texas's. Run the full payment, not just the price. - **Do the homework before you commit.** Debbie is not a real estate attorney — verify landlord-tenant rules for any state you're considering, and she can refer you to the 1031 exchange companies her clients have used. ## Chapters - 02:00Today's topic: investment properties and 1031 exchanges - 03:00Why landlords are rethinking California rentals - 04:00What California tenant law requires — including the new 2026 rules - 06:00States investors are moving to instead - 07:00The $900,000 problem: California's entry price - 09:00How a 1031 exchange really works: like-for-like on price - 10:00One sale, two or three replacement properties - 11:00Where the money went: Texas, then Nevada, now Arizona - 13:00Property taxes state by state - 14:00Rent-by-the-room: the college-campus cash flow numbers - 16:00Can California still make sense? - 18:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ### Thinking about your first rental — or moving one out of state? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Today's topic: investment properties and 1031 exchanges Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. Today I'd like to talk about investment properties. I've had quite a few clients recently reaching out about possibly selling the investment property they have in California — or maybe they're a first-time investor trying to figure out where they should buy their next property. So I want to talk about the 1031 exchange, where many of my clients have been choosing to move their money and repurchase investments, in what states and why, and what is actually giving us the best cash flow. If you have questions, as always, I welcome you to put them into the chat and ask away. Even if it has nothing to do with today's topic, that's absolutely okay — this is a very open show, and I'm here to pass along any education or information that may be beneficial to you. ### Why landlords are rethinking California rentals Let's first talk about why people would choose not to buy an investment property in California, or want to sell the one they have and move it elsewhere. As I'm sure most of you have heard, the tenant and landlord laws in California can be very strict, and they are very heavily weighted toward the tenant more than the landlord. I did a quick Google search just to show you what comes up. All I typed was “tenant laws California,” and the AI overview said: California tenants have robust protections including statewide rent caps — the lower of 10% or 5% plus local CPI — just-cause eviction requirements, and a 21-day deadline for security deposit returns. Landlords must maintain habitable premises, and new 2026 laws, AB 628 and SB 610, mandate working refrigerators, stoves, and rent refunds during mandatory disaster-related evacuations. So there is a lot that is very heavily weighted toward the tenant. For example, if you wanted to sell your rental property, there is a very good chance you are going to be giving your tenant a good amount of money to relocate if the person buying the unit is planning to live in it. I'm not going to get too far into the law on all of those rental guidelines — that is something you really should talk with a real estate attorney about — but I am sure it's something you've heard about, or experienced, if you own rental properties in California. There are many states out there with more favorable guidelines and fewer restrictions than California. I've had many clients purchase rental properties in states such as Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. Again, you need to do the research — I am not a real estate attorney and can't tell you which location is best — but there are quite a few with more favorable rules for a landlord. ### The $900,000 problem — and how a 1031 exchange really works So where are my clients going, and how are they doing it without ending up with a huge tax burden when they sell? Let's talk about the 1031 exchange first. California is through the roof right now on property value. I would say the average-priced home I'm helping clients with throughout most of Southern California is about $900,000\. That's sad and great all at the same time. If you bought your home five-plus years ago, you've got a bunch of equity built up — California properties do hold their value, and they've been appreciating. But if you're trying to enter the market as an investor at a $900,000 average price for a single-family home, that can be very difficult. And this goes for duplexes, triplexes, and four-units too — I'm just referencing a single-family price range. Say you have a property you're thinking about selling. You bought it for $450,000 or $500,000, maybe lived in it at the beginning, turned it into a rental, and went and bought yourself another home. What do you do about the equity that, if you sell, you're going to get taxed on? This is an investment property that should be on your tax returns, that you've been taking depreciation on every year. That is where a 1031 exchange comes in. A lot of people misunderstand how an exchange works. They think: I bought the home for $500,000, so I need to buy another property for $500,000 — or I only have a loan of $500,000, so I just need another loan for $500,000\. That's not how it works. Whatever you *sell* the property for is what you have to match in a like-for-like exchange. If you sell for $900,000, you need to buy for $900,000. Clients get a little nervous there — “I don't know if I want to buy something that expensive.” But you are not limited to one purchase to fill that goal. Say you sell the property for $1 million to keep it a round number, you owe $500,000, and — keeping things very simple, setting fees aside — you walk away with $500,000\. You sold for a million, so you need to go buy one, two, or three properties that together equal $1 million. I've got a good amount of clients doing just that right now: they're making $400,000 to $600,000 on these investments, and they're turning around and buying two and three more properties to fulfill the total sales price required so they don't get taxed on that money as capital gains. Instead of one investment property, they now have two or three making them money every month. 1031 exchanges are absolutely amazing, and we've worked with some incredible 1031 exchange companies over the years. If you want to get very specific on the guidelines, the rules, and the costs, reach out and I can put you in touch with somebody — more than one, actually, so you can find who you're most comfortable with. ### Where the money went: Texas, then Nevada, now Arizona So where are people going? Everything in the United States is expensive, but California is one of the highest markets there is. For a very long time — I'd say during the years 2018 to 2022 — I was seeing a lot of money being put into Texas. Then that changed a bit and I saw a lot of money going into Nevada. Now, over the last 12 to 18 months, I have seen quite a few purchases going into Arizona — specifically near college campuses, such as ASU in Tempe. Quite a few people have done the same thing in Texas near college campuses. You have to select the area you want your investment in, but that has actually been the very best cash flow we've seen most recently. ### The rent-by-the-room numbers To give you an example: say you buy a property for $600,000 and put 25% down. Your mortgage payment is going to be roughly in the range of $3,200-ish. I say “ish” because interest rates change, homeowners insurance quotes change, and property taxes change depending on where you're looking. In Arizona, property taxes are significantly less expensive than California — and California's, in turn, are significantly less expensive than Texas's. Here's what my clients are doing. They sold for a million dollars, cashed out $500,000, and they're putting 25% down on purchases around $600,000 — getting two, if not three, properties depending on how far we can stretch the proceeds into the down payments. Those mortgage payments — somewhere between $3,000 and $3,600 — are very well offset, because around those college campuses the homes rent fully furnished, one bedroom at a time. You've got students renting the rooms, with their parents on the lease making the payments, at somewhere around $1,000 a month per room. For a $600,000 to $650,000 purchase in Tempe, you could buy a four- or five-bedroom property. Five bedrooms at $1,000 a month is $5,000 in rents — and I'm giving you very conservative numbers here. Against a payment of $3,000 to $3,600, that's about $1,500 a month in return after the mortgage, property taxes, and insurance. Two properties doing that, and you're bringing home about $3,000 a month. This strategy has been around a long time — it's been a strategic investment many people have made over time. But the area, the state, and where the campus is located determine the prices. If you tried to buy around a Harvard or a Stanford, those homes are going to be significantly more expensive and not really something you could cash flow from. If you look hard, though, you can find not only a state with better tenant laws, but an opportunity to multiply what you have today. If you've got one rental property now, there's a very good chance you could end up with two or three. ### Can California still make sense? If you've never bought a rental and you're looking to jump into the market, I would highly suggest you look into all of the rental rules and restrictions for landlords and tenants before you decide California is where you want to buy. Now, there can be some really great investment opportunities in California — I'm not telling you to disregard it absolutely. But with the new laws coming into place in 2026, it is getting more and more difficult to sell when you're ready, to give tenants notice to move without paying relocation money, and events like the fires we had a little over a year ago can be very devastating for a landlord. Definitely do your homework and figure out where you want to be, whether it's your first investment or you're moving investments out. I'm happy to share any knowledge I have, and if you'd like the information for the 1031 exchange companies we've worked with, I'll give you two or three places to call. ### Wrap-up I don't see any questions coming in on today's show, so I'm going to wrap up this episode. I would absolutely love to help you guys — go to my website, mortgagemomradio.com. If you like that I bring you different topics every week and you'd like to get on live and ask your questions, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4, and it's also my office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team. We can help with your purchase, your sale, your refinance, your home equity line of credit, reverse mortgage, hard money, construction — you name it. Talk to you all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 18, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Will the Fed Still Cut Rates in 2026? What the Strong January Jobs Report Means for Your Mortgage URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-the-fed-still-cut-rates-in-2026-what-the-strong-january-jobs-report-means-for-your-mortgage/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:04.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, February 11, 2026: “February 11, 2026 Jobs Report! Will Future Rate Cuts Stall?” • 25 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 If you've been holding off on a refinance waiting for the next Fed rate cut, this episode is the reality check. The January jobs report landed far stronger than expected — roughly double the forecast — and with it, the market's hopes for a rate cut before midyear largely evaporated. Debbie breaks down the numbers, reads what Fed officials are actually saying, and explains why waiting for a cut that isn't coming can cost you five or six more months of an inflated payment. ## Key takeaways - **The January jobs report was a bubble-burster.** About 130,000 jobs were created — essentially double expectations — and private payrolls added roughly 172,000, almost three times the forecast, offset by about 42,000 government jobs cut. Unemployment inched down to 4.3% and labor-force participation edged up. - **Strong jobs = no pressure on the Fed to cut.** The Fed cut three times last fall to protect a slipping labor market. With that risk gone and inflation running closer to 3% than the 2% goal, policymakers can hold higher for longer — the report likely cements a hold, with no cut expected before midyear. - **Mortgage pricing worsened the same day.** By the time Debbie filmed, mortgage-bond pricing had given up about 13 basis points beyond the morning's dip — a reminder that mortgage rates move on expectations, in hours, not at Fed meetings. - **If your rate is above 6.75%, run the refinance math now.** As of the show, scenario pricing ranged roughly 5.75%–6.25% (week of February 11, 2026 — averages, not quotes). A full point of improvement on a larger balance is a significant monthly saving; on a $200,000–$300,000 loan it may not pencil — it's worth a consult either way. - **Rate windows close fast.** The last quick rate drop lasted about four or five business days — and it took seven months for rates to return to those levels. You cannot time this market. - **Fed voices are leaning hawkish.** Kansas City's Jeff Schmid sees a somewhat restrictive stance as appropriate; Cleveland's Beth Hammack says the Fed “could be on hold for quite some time”; Dallas's Lorie Logan says downside job-market risks have meaningfully dissipated. - **Debbie's prediction (not a crystal ball):** a first cut in June or July at the earliest — but more honestly, she doesn't expect a move until September or early in the fourth quarter. Friday's CPI report is the next number that could shift the picture. ## Chapters - 01:00Today's topic: the February 11 jobs report - 02:00The clients who waited to refinance above 7% - 03:00Why a strong jobs report burst the bubble - 05:00The daily market briefing Debbie subscribes to - 06:00Above 6.75%? You should be exploring a refinance - 09:00The report in detail: 130k jobs, double expectations - 10:00Private payrolls up 172k; the 10-year under 4.20 - 12:00Pricing worsened 13 basis points as the day went on - 13:00The last rate window lasted five days — and took 7 months to return - 14:00Yahoo Finance: report “pours cold water” on early cuts - 16:00Why the Fed cut last fall — and why it can stop now - 17:00What Schmid, Hammack, and Logan are signaling - 19:00The Mortgage Mom's prediction: September, maybe Q4 - 20:00The incoming Fed chair won't change the math - 21:00Stop waiting: what a consultation covers - 22:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ### Find out if your refinance pencils out Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Today's topic: the jobs report Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we are going to be talking about the jobs report that came out. Going back to previous episodes, I talked about how we were anticipating interest rates to continue to go down — possibly at a very, very slow pace, coming down the escalator — and that where interest rates were a week or two ago were the very best interest rates that we've had. Many clients have thought the best thing to do is just hold — wait, don't refinance, don't pull the trigger to reduce their interest rate. Many of them are at rates above 7% — 7¼, 7½, even 7¾ — and they've chosen to ignore that quick downturn we had and wait longer, expecting rates to come down further. I mentioned in last week's show that there was no way to know for sure whether rates would keep going down, how quickly they'd fall if they did, and that there was a very good chance the rates we were seeing were the best we're going to have for quite some time. Well, today was a big burst to our bubble — exactly the point I'd made: we just don't know. Nobody can put out a call that says interest rates will keep going down. Nobody knows anything for certain. ### Why a strong jobs report changes everything Today, February 11, 2026, the jobs report came out better than expected — very, very strong. If you follow me and you've seen my shows after Federal Reserve meetings, where I've literally read their announcements and statements, you know they keep saying the goal is maximum employment and lower inflation, trying to get down to that 2% level. The Fed believes the way to get inflation down is to keep interest rates higher for longer. At the most recent Federal Reserve meeting they held steady, but there was a lot of anticipation that they would cut rates again at the next meeting — and many were expecting a very poor jobs report today. Instead, we've got great news in the jobs category: more people gaining employment, more people earning money. That means the Fed doesn't have to feel pressured into cutting rates sooner than they'd like to keep the economy out of a tailspin. Because the jobs report is so strong, they can choose to continue holding higher for longer. ### The morning briefing: the numbers behind the headline I subscribe to a service as a loan officer — the Mortgage Market Guide — that sends videos every day, sometimes twice a day, keeping me abreast of what's happening with the 10-year notes and all the moving pieces, so I can stay on top of interest rates for my clients as we talk daily about whether to lock, wait, or hold. This morning's briefing laid it out clearly, so let me summarize what it covered. It was a good report — with a caveat: there was a backward revision, and the revision removed more jobs than were created last year. But stocks, oil, and rates all moved higher in response to a number that beat expectations — and notably, the market moved *higher* on good news, which is normal behavior, instead of selling off on fears the Fed won't cut. The headline showed about 130,000 jobs created, essentially double expectations. It gets better: private payrolls actually added about 172,000 jobs, almost three times expectations, and because the size of government shrank, about 42,000 government jobs came out — that's how you get to 130,000\. On top of that, earnings were better than expected and people entered the labor pool — participation rose. So the January number was good, and that's why stocks moved higher. For loan pipelines, the guidance was to keep locking loans closing soon and watch the 10-year note, which was still below 4.20 — with the next big test being Friday's CPI report. That video came out about 7 a.m. Pacific. Since then, as the day has gone on, we've continued to lose ground in the market — and I'm talking about what directly affects mortgage rates, not where you might invest your money. We're down about 13 basis points as of me filming this show, and the expectation is that it won't come back unless the CPI report comes in off-expectations one way or the other. ### If you've been waiting, hear this If you've been thinking, “I'm just going to wait and hope interest rates get better” — you might be waiting for quite some time. As I mentioned last week, the last time we got a nice quick rate drop, it lasted about four or five business days, and it took us *seven months* to hit those same levels again. The point of this show is understanding what changes interest rates — that's the education — but also that waiting doesn't necessarily benefit you. Interest rates are like the roulette table: are you going to let it ride, or spin again? You cannot time the market, and when you think you've got it right, history proves you wrong. Here's my practical guidance: if you have an interest rate above 6¾%, you really should be looking at a refinance right now. Depending on the scenario — and you learned last week how the scenario changes the rate you get — you could be as low as 5¾%, or around 6¼%. A one-point difference in rate can make a very significant monthly payment adjustment. Now, for some clients it doesn't do enough, and I'm honest with them when we talk through the numbers: if you've got a $200,000 or $300,000 loan and we're saving you 1%, your monthly savings won't be as large as for somebody with a $500,000, $600,000, or $700,000 loan. It's specific to you. But you should at least be exploring it, because there is no evidence that we'll see rates come down further over the next five to six months — and that's five to six more months of paying at these higher inflated rates. ### What the Fed watchers are saying Let me walk you through a Yahoo Finance article that came out this morning — credit where credit is due, it was written by senior reporter Jennifer Schonberger and published at 9:51 a.m. Pacific. It says a stronger-than-expected jobs report for January is likely to cement the Federal Reserve holding interest rates steady for a while. The report “pours cold water on the idea the Fed could cut rates again before midyear and will fuel internal debate as to how restrictive policy is and how much slack there is in the labor market,” according to Evercore ISI's head of economics and central banking, Krishna Guha. The economy added 130,000 jobs in January, about double what economists anticipated, while the unemployment rate inched down to 4.3% and labor-force participation edged up. President Trump called the report far better than expected and posted that the US should be paying much less on its bonds — calling for the lowest interest rates and citing a potential trillion dollars a year in interest savings. With the rate cuts last fall, many Fed officials feel enough has been done for now to support a job market that looked to be slipping last year — and the January report likely reinforces the expectation that they've done enough, while concerns about inflation linger. That's what I was saying earlier: the Fed felt forced to cut sooner than they wanted, out of fear the labor market was being hurt by holding rates high — but their concern was that cutting would send inflation right back up and undo three years of hard work. Today's report says there is no concern in the labor market. And remember, everything works off expectations: with this information, markets now expect no cut until midyear, maybe later. The article continues: Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid said that with the cumulative rate cuts since 2024, the benchmark policy rate is no longer restraining the economy — and with inflation running closer to 3% than 2%, he sees it as appropriate to maintain a somewhat restrictive policy stance, because further cuts risk letting high inflation persist even longer. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, a new voting member of the FOMC, said she believes growth will pick up this year thanks to recent cuts and fiscal support — and based on her view that inflation is still too high, the Fed “could be on hold for quite some time.” And Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said the downside risks to the job market have meaningfully dissipated, and that the three cuts made last year to guard against deterioration have pushed up risks for inflation. ### The Mortgage Mom's prediction There is a very good chance we've seen the rate cuts we are going to see for a while. If I'm giving you my prediction — the Mortgage Mom's take — the very first rate cut we might possibly see could be in June or July. But I honestly think there's a very good chance we won't see something happen until September, or early fourth quarter. That's my prediction; I could be absolutely inaccurate, and something could change tomorrow — the CPI report could move things — but I honestly don't believe it will. If you've been watching me for any amount of time, go back two or three years: I kept saying I didn't think we'd see rate cuts until late 2024, and you could have put money on me. Last week everybody was excited about the incoming Fed chairman, who has said he really agrees with rate cuts — and that was the driving factor behind “maybe it's a good idea to wait to refinance.” This report blows holes in that. However much he likes the idea of cutting rates, he still has to look at what is best for the economy and the consumer — and getting inflation down is what's best for the American people. It would not be to his benefit to start cutting rates if it would put us in harm's way. Again, nobody has a crystal ball. All we can do is watch and see what the next Fed statement says. But if your original thought process was “I'll wait a little longer for rates to come down,” just know there's a good chance you could be waiting quite some time. It really might be worth giving me a call — go to my website, set up an appointment, let's do a consultation. I don't bite, I promise, and I don't hound you: I give you the information and let you come back when you're ready. What would it cost? How much would the monthly payment go down? How soon could you refinance again if rates fall further? Let's go over all of it and see if this benefits you. ### Wrap-up I don't see any questions on today's show — this was more of an educational one — but if you'd like to get on live and ask questions, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634\. That's 844-WE-LEND-4, and you can also call that number to reach me directly at my office. You can go to mortgagemomradio.com and listen to the podcast there, or on iTunes, Spotify — pretty much anywhere you like to listen. I jumped on a little early today because of a 2:00 meeting, but I'm typically live right at 1 p.m. Pacific, and I'll be back here next Wednesday on YouTube. Talk to you all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 11, 2026, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Hearing that interest rates have dropped? What rate would you get today? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/hearing-that-interest-rates-have-dropped-what-rate-would-you-get-today/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:50.000Z **Listen · 1:09:45** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/2026-02-04%5F13-59-38.mp3?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Hearing that interest rates have fallen? Would you like to know what your interest rate would be today? Send me an email with your scenario! All interest rates quoted are subject to change until locked in and conditional upon underwritten loan approval. Get a text message when I go live with a link to join. Text "LIVE" to 844-935-3634. Support the stream: [https://streamlabs.com/mortgagemomradio1](https://streamlabs.com/mortgagemomradio1?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, NMLS ID 237926\. Also licensed in, AZ-0941504, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, HI-237926, ID-MLO-2080237926, IL-031.0058339, NV-57237, NC-I-210940, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/152008766/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### What Is a Portable Mortgage? And Is a 50-Year Mortgage a Good Idea? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-portable-mortgage-and-is-a-50-year-mortgage-a-good-idea/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:05.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Friday, November 21, 2025: “50YR Terms and Portable Mortgages – What are they talking about?” • 56 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Two ideas took over mortgage headlines this fall: the 50-year mortgage and the portable mortgage. Neither one actually exists in the US today — and that's the first thing to understand. Back from a six-week health break, Debbie runs the real numbers on what a 50-year term would save (less than you think), explains who it would genuinely hurt, and walks through how mortgage portability works in Canada and the UK — who it would help here, what would actually transfer, and why the fine print matters more than the headline. ## Key takeaways - **Neither product is available today.** The 50-year term and the portable mortgage are ideas being discussed by people in government — nothing has been approved, no terms exist, and US mortgage guidelines would need CFPB qualified-mortgage approval (and Fannie/Freddie buy-in) first. - **The 50-year savings are smaller than the hype.** Debbie's example (not a quote): $600,000 purchase, 20% down, 6.5% — about $3,034/month principal and interest on a 30-year versus about $2,706 on a 50-year. Roughly $300 a month, in exchange for 20 more years of interest that can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. - **And a real 50-year would price higher.** Longer terms carry higher rates — if the 30-year were 6.5%, expect a 50-year around 6.75%–6.875%, shrinking that $300 savings further. The extra qualifying power ($300/month is only about $50,000–$60,000 of purchase price) is modest. - **Most people only ever pay the minimum.** After 30 years of originating loans, Debbie's blunt take: the best intentions to "pay extra" rarely survive real life — which is why a 50-year term is dangerous for the standard first-time buyer, and why she agrees with the critics. - **If you never plan to pay it off, there's already a better tool.** An interest-only loan produces a similar or larger payment reduction for the investor-minded borrower — without waiting for a product that doesn't exist. - **Portability would help the rate-locked, not first-time buyers.** It would let owners with sub-5% loans (mostly 2020–2022 vintage) carry their rate to a new home — but only the *current balance* ports. The difference means cash, a second loan, or a blended rate; you must fully requalify; and it would likely run through your servicer on assumption-style timelines (45–120 days). - **Market context from the week:** rates improved into the recent Fed cut, then gave back about a quarter percent after it; a December cut looks likely as of air date. After the month-long government shutdown, this is the heaviest data week of Debbie's career — and the National Association of Realtors is forecasting transactions up 14% in 2026. ## Chapters - 01:00Back after six weeks: a health update - 03:00The new email newsletter, every 7–10 days - 05:00Since the last show: the Fed cut, then rates gave it back - 07:00The lesson: lock the window when it opens - 08:00Why everyone is bashing the 50-year mortgage - 10:00The math: 30-year vs 50-year payment - 12:00Interest-only: the tool for the never-pay-off borrower - 14:00Portable mortgages: who would actually benefit - 16:00Q&A: extra payments, and qualifying power - 19:00Why a 50-year would carry a higher rate anyway - 20:00Who decides: CFPB, lawmakers, and qualified mortgages - 23:00Porting would work like assuming a loan — slowly - 24:00Q&A: do you lose equity on a 50-year? - 31:00What a portable mortgage is — and what would transfer - 34:00Requalifying, blended rates, and the fine print - 46:00Market week: shutdown backlog, NAR's 2026 forecast, wrap-up ## Questions answered on this show ### “Does making extra payments when you can actually help?” Absolutely — on every kind of loan. Whether it's a 30-year, a 20, a 15, or a hypothetical 50-year, adding even $100 or $200 to your payment each month pays the balance down faster and cuts the total interest you pay. Debbie always recommends it. The honest catch, after 30 years of originating: most people intend to pay extra and life gets in the way — the dog gets sick the same month you finally saved a little. That's exactly why regulators are wary of stretching terms to 50 years. ### “How much more would we qualify for with a 50-year loan?” Less than you'd hope. In the show's example ($600,000 purchase, 20% down, 6.5%), the 50-year saves about $300 a month — and $300 of payment translates to only about $50,000–$60,000 more in purchase price, so $600,000 of buying power becomes maybe $650,000–$660,000\. And realistically the 50-year wouldn't be offered at the same rate: a longer term means a higher rate — think 6.75%–6.875% against a 6.5% 30-year — so the true savings, and the true qualifying bump, would be even smaller. ### “On a 50-year, wouldn't you lose all of your equity?” You don't *lose* equity — you just barely build it. A 50-year is still a principal-and-interest payment, not negative amortization: each payment might knock $100 or so off the balance, so you're inching forward, not going backward. It behaves a lot like paying interest-only — the balance essentially sits still. If property values decline, you could end up underwater, but that risk exists with any loan; if values appreciate, you still gain equity as an owner. The real cost is the interest: paying only the minimum over 50 years can nearly double what you pay against the same balance. ### “Looking at the bigger picture, would a 50-year loan still be better than paying rent?” Yes — and that's the whole reason the idea exists: affordability, getting renters into ownership. Even with a slow-amortizing loan, you're an owner: you gain from appreciation, you get the mortgage-interest and property-tax deductions, and you have pride of ownership — paint the walls, add solar, make it yours. But weigh the trade honestly: about $300 a month in savings against what can be hundreds of thousands (depending on loan size) in additional interest if you only ever pay the minimum. Debbie's happy to run the exact 30-vs-50 interest comparison for anyone curious. ### Talk through what these headlines mean for your move Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Back after six weeks Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. I have not been on for about six weeks, and I want to explain why. I've been dealing with skin cancer. I've got a spot on my forehead they're going to cut out on December 9, two new biopsies healing under band-aids, a spot that was cut out and got infected, and biopsies on my shoulder and back — seven biopsy results I'm still waiting on. I've been very lucky: everything so far has been basal cell or squamous cell — no melanoma, none of the dangerous ones. Am I going to be fine? I am absolutely going to be fine. I'm just frustrated and over the bandages. But bear with me: I'm going to do these shows live as often as I possibly can, and after the December 9 surgery you probably won't see me for two or three weeks while I heal. Because so much information is coming at us fast — like these portable mortgages and 50-year terms people have been talking about — I've started a new email newsletter, going out about once every 7 to 10 days, so I can keep you abreast of market changes even when I can't come to you live. If you don't already get emails from me, text my office at 844-935-3634 with your first and last name and email address, or email debbie@mortgagemomradio.com, and I'll add you to the distribution. ### Catching up: the Fed cut, then rates gave it back A lot has happened in six weeks. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates. You've heard me say it before: when we know a rate cut is coming, mortgage rate sheets typically improve *before* the Federal Reserve makes the announcement — and that's exactly what happened. We saw rates get phenomenally better all the way up until the day of the announcement. The day of the announcement, and every day after, rates actually went the wrong direction. So we are lower right now than we were this time last year, and lower than six or eight weeks ago — but we are *higher* today than the day before the Fed announced the cut. I'd say we've given back about a quarter of a percent since then. I have a lot of clients who could have started an FHA streamline refinance, chose not to, figured things would keep improving after the cut — and it just didn't happen. So when I tell you rates are the lowest they've been, that's your window: get something locked in. The good news: as of today it's looking very positive that at the next Fed meeting in December — I believe the first week or so of December — we're going to get another rate cut. It's still too soon for that expectation to work its way into our rate sheets, but that will be coming over the next week or two. Stay in contact, get the newsletters, watch the show. ### Why everyone is bashing the 50-year mortgage Let's start with the 50-year term. There are two sides of this equation. The positive: it would make monthly payments lower, making things more affordable for somebody who wants to buy but needs the payment lower while rates are still high. The negative: it's a terrible idea if your goal is to actually get the property paid off. Many first-time buyers are in their mid-30s and early 40s — and I can't tell you how many clients I've worked with in their late 50s and early 60s buying their first home. Now they're signing up for a 50-year mortgage? Think about 50 years from today. Let me give you an idea of the difference in monthly payment — is the savings substantial enough to justify putting people at risk of signing up for a mortgage they may never pay off? I ran a quick calculation on a $600,000 purchase: 20% down, 6.5% interest rate — standard terms, and I'm not quoting rates here, just showing differences. Principal and interest on the 30-year term: about $3,034 a month. Change it to a 50-year term and it goes down to about $2,706. So: is $300 a month a big enough savings to justify the risk — and the amount of additional interest you'd pay if you never paid more than the minimum due, because you're financing over an additional 20 years? I absolutely don't think so. I can see why so many people went up in arms over this. On this one, I have to agree: a 50-year term is not something we should be considering for the standard first-time buyer who's scraping the money together and will only ever be able to make the minimum payment. Now — if you're the person who says, “I just want in for the least amount of money every month, I'm never paying this mortgage off, that's not my financial plan, I'd rather invest my money elsewhere” — you are a different kind of borrower, and you should be looking at interest-only financing. An interest-only loan is going to be a very similar savings, if not larger, than the difference between a 30-year and a 50-year term. If you'd like to understand interest-only options, remember I'm a real person with an office: call me, email me, or book a phone consultation through the website. ### Q&A: extra payments and qualifying power Tiffany asks: *“What if you make extra payments when you can — would that help?”* Absolutely, on every single kind of loan — 30-year, 15, 20, or a 50 if they ever roll one out. Whenever you can make an additional payment, or add $100 or $200 to what you pay each month, it pays the balance down quicker and you pay less in interest. I always recommend it. But I'll be honest with you, having originated loans for 30 years: most people pay the minimum payment due, no matter how hard they try. It's like the car lot — you take the lowest payment to have something to fall back on and tell yourself you'll pay extra, and then something always comes up. You finally get a little extra in the bank and the dog gets sick. That's why regulators are being so hard on the idea of a 50-year term. Mary asks: *“How much more would we qualify for with a 50-year loan?”* Great question — it depends on the loan size and the rate, because the monthly savings versus the 30-year is what determines the extra qualifying power. In my example, the difference was about $300 a month. And by the way — the longer the term, the higher the interest rate. The chances of being offered the same rate on a 50 as on a 30 are slim to none; if the 30-year were at 6.5%, the 50 would probably be 6.75% to 6.875%, so in reality it wouldn't even be a $300 savings. As a general idea, $300 a month is usually about $50,000 to $60,000 of purchase price — so if you qualified at $600,000, you might now qualify around $650,000 or $660,000\. Not a huge difference, and I don't know that it justifies the sheer interest you'd pay only ever making the minimum. And to Mary's follow-up on the rate: think of how a 15-year note prices below a 30-year — a 50 would price above the 30 the same way. One more thing on why you don't see 50-year notes today: our mortgage guidelines go through regulation. We are governed by the CFPB, and they would have to determine that this is a qualified mortgage for borrowers to obtain. People can get upset and post on social media all they want, but at the end of the day it comes down to the lawmakers and whether they approve it. ### Q&A: do you lose your equity on a 50-year? A viewer comments: *“Keep in mind, everyone — on a 50-year you will probably lose all of your equity.”* I have to disagree a little bit. You don't lose your equity — you just pay the balance down very, very slowly. It is still a principal-and-interest payment; it is not negative amortization. You're not going backwards on what you owe — every payment, maybe $100 goes toward the balance. It's very similar to basically paying interest-only: you're keeping your balance right there, barely moving. If property values decline and your balance doesn't move, you could lose equity — but that would happen with any type of loan. If property values increase, you still gain equity, and you're still a homeowner. So there are positives and negatives, but you are not going to lose equity because of the term itself; you're just not gaining much from principal paydown. Tiffany follows up: *“Looking at the bigger picture, would a 50-year loan still be better than paying rent?”* Yes — 100%. The whole reason these ideas have come about is affordability: lower the payment, get more people out of renting and into homes. Now they're gaining equity in something that's appreciating, even if the payment barely pays the balance down. They've got the interest deduction, the property-tax deduction, and pride of ownership — they can paint walls, put up solar panels, make it theirs. But when you look at the actual savings — $300 a month on a $600,000 purchase, maybe $50,000–$60,000 more buying power — against nearly doubling the interest paid if you only make minimum payments, you're talking about hundreds of thousands, depending on loan size, in overall interest difference. The idea was to get more people into housing; I just think the repercussions of the product wouldn't offset the benefit. If anybody wants the exact 30-versus-50 interest comparison, text, email, or call me and I'll happily run the numbers. ### Portable mortgages: what they are Now, the thing I think might actually come to fruition: portable mortgages. To make it really simple: say you have a mortgage under 6% — realistically, probably 5¼% or below. There are so many people who have not sold, not moved, not bought something new; they've put their plans on hold because the mortgage on their current home is sub-4%, in the 3s — some people got into the 2s, 2¾, 2.99, on shorter 15- and 20-year terms. If you're one of those people feeling stuck — “I don't want to buy something else because I'll lose this rate” — that's where a portable mortgage, should they decide to make one available, would be very beneficial. Here's the definition, and I'll read it because it's the easiest way to explain: a portable mortgage is a home loan feature that allows a homeowner to transfer their existing mortgage — including the remaining interest rate and terms — from their current home to a new property. That's different from standard US practice, where the mortgage is paid off when the home is sold and the next purchase requires a new loan at current market rates. Now let me point out something important. It sounds fabulous that you could take your 3%, 4%, or 5% note to a new property. But when you took that loan, I was originating — and if your loan is under 5%, 95% of you took it in 2020, 2021, or 2022\. Property values have gone up significantly since. Yes, you'll sell your home for more than you owe and walk away with equity. But if this option ever arrives, you would only be able to transfer the *current balance* on your loan. If your balance is $400,000 and the next house costs more, you have to come up with the entire difference — in cash, or through whatever second-loan structure they allow. ### How porting would actually work Portable mortgages are currently rare in the United States, because our housing finance system is built around 15- and 30-year fixed-rate mortgages that are bundled into mortgage-backed securities. You've heard me talk about where mortgage rates come from — your mortgages sit inside these securities that investors buy, and whether they feel those are a good or bad deal on a given day moves our rates. That bundling makes portability difficult to implement. Portable mortgages *are* common in countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, which typically have shorter fixed-rate periods of two to five years — more like adjustable-rate mortgages. How it works where it exists: same-lender porting — you usually have to stay with your current lender. And requalification — the borrower must still requalify based on current income, debt, and credit. So this is not a solve for “I qualified three years ago, then I lost my job, my credit fell, I filed bankruptcy.” You are still going to requalify. On price differences: if the new home is more expensive, the existing low-rate mortgage is ported and a second loan is taken out for the difference, likely at the current higher market rate — and the two rates are often blended into one overall rate. Remember, there are no US rules yet; this is how it works in Canada and the UK. Maybe here they'd let you put a home equity line behind the ported balance. Or maybe the lender holding your note says: you're short $200,000, we'll blend your old rate with today's rate — and your new note is at 4½% instead of the 3% you had. We don't know yet. It's all speculative. If the new home is cheaper, the write-ups mention the balance being reduced with a possible prepayment penalty on the unused portion — but I don't see how that applies here. Since the Dodd-Frank reforms, it is not legal to put a prepayment penalty on any owner-occupied mortgage in the United States — it doesn't matter if it's subprime or hard money. Prepayment penalties exist on investment properties and second homes, usually running six months to about three years — the longest I've ever written in my 30-year career was three years — and most sub-market notes were written more than three years ago anyway. So I'm not expecting that to matter much. What I do expect: this would change the whole dynamics of the mortgage lending industry. If you want to port, you're probably working with your current servicer — calling the 800 number on your statement, not somebody like me who can move fast. It's going to be very similar to assuming a VA or FHA loan today: the buyer can't just call a loan officer who gets things done quickly; you're tied to the servicing lender's timeline, which can run anywhere from 45 to 120 days. Slower escrows, harder on real estate agents. But will it open up more people to transact, transfer homes, and get more real estate movement? Absolutely it will. It might be mandated for all servicers, or left up to each one — if your lender is unwilling to do it, you might not be eligible. There is a lot of information still to come. One honest caveat: it may not address core affordability for renters and first-time buyers. What it addresses is the person who already owns and has frozen in place — the family that bought a two-bedroom, had two kids, and would normally move up to a three- or four-bedroom but instead is adding rooms onto the current house; the empty-nesters ready to retire out to the desert in something smaller who aren't moving. We're not seeing any of that normal progression-of-life movement right now. Portability would bring a lot of it back — but it absolutely does not help the first-time buyer get into the market. ### This week's market: the data flood after the shutdown A couple of quick market notes. With the government having been shut down for an entire month, all the reports those mortgage-bond investors trade on — unemployment, inflation, everything we've talked about on this show — were delayed. We went a month without any of them. So this is a very packed week: reports Monday, Tuesday, today, and a big one tomorrow — the October unemployment report, due weeks ago — that could move rates either direction. This is the heaviest data week I've seen in my entire career, and things are volatile: rates are moving up and down. If you need help navigating it, I'm here. Also from this week's newsletter: the National Association of Realtors' 2026 forecast is very positive — they're expecting a 14% year-over-year increase in real estate transactions in 2026\. More transactions typically means a better economy. I also sent out the National Association of Home Builders' latest read, another great indicator of market trends. ### Wrap-up If you'd like the newsletter every 7 to 10 days, text your name and email to 844-935-3634 or email debbie@mortgagemomradio.com. To get a text every time I go live, text the word LIVE to that same number — 844-WE-LEND-4\. At mortgagemomradio.com you can book a one-on-one, do your application, and run the calculators; when you call the office, 99% of the time I'm the one who answers, and we return every call. Next Wednesday is the day before Thanksgiving — and the last day of November to close any purchase transaction. If there's important news that can't be skipped, I'll jump on and do a show; otherwise I'll take that day to get people closed and get my family ready, and I'll be back the week after Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving, and I'll see you all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of November 21, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Can You Get a Mortgage Without Tax Returns? No-Ratio, Bank Statement, DSCR, and Construction Loans Explained URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-mortgage-without-tax-returns-no-ratio-bank-statement-dscr-and-construction-loans-explained/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:05.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, September 24, 2025: “Loan Programs You Didn't Know Existed!” • 49 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Self-employed and writing everything off? Paid in crypto? Moving states before you've found the new job? There's a loan for that — several, actually. In this episode Debbie tours the programs most borrowers have never heard of: the no-ratio loan (no income documentation at all, even on a primary residence), bank statement loans for the self-employed, DSCR loans that qualify on the property's rent instead of your paycheck, and construction and renovation financing that beats hard money on both rate and leverage. For each one: who it's for, what it takes to qualify, and what it honestly costs. ## Key takeaways - **No-ratio loans: no income docs, period — on a primary residence.** No W-2s, no pay stubs, no tax returns, not even an employer name on the application. Qualify with 720+ credit and 20% down, or 680+ and 25% down, plus six months of reserves (660 possible by exception, expect \~30% down and 12 months reserves). Loan amounts to $2 million. The price of no verification: Debbie's sample quote was 8.875% (680 score, 25% down — week of September 24, 2025, an example, not a quote). - **Bank statement loans are the self-employed workhorse.** 12 or 24 months of business or personal statements; lenders typically count 50% of income deposits (up to \~70% with a CPA letter documenting low overhead). Minimum one year self-employed — two-plus years prices better — and down payments start at 10%. Rates ran roughly 6.875%–7.75% depending on credit, down payment, and occupancy (same as-of caveat). - **DSCR loans qualify the property, not you** — investment properties only. The rents are measured against the full payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, HOA). The property does *not* have to fully cash-flow to qualify; short rents just mean a higher rate. Figure 20% down minimum and a 700+ credit score (680 by one-off exception). - **Airbnb/VRBO income only counts with a paper trail.** With 12 months of short-term-rental history from the seller, that higher income can qualify the deal (and you may get the place furnished with cleaners and management in place). No history? The appraiser's long-term rent comps set the number. - **Construction and renovation money exists beyond hard money.** Debbie's programs are business-purpose (build/renovate to flip or rent, including rescuing a half-finished build): no income docs, 720+ credit, reserves to carry payments during the build — and up to about 80% of total project cost, versus hard money's 50–60% loan-to-value at 10.5%–12%. For primary-residence construction, she refers borrowers out (US Bank has a strong program). - **Every one of these works for refinances too** — including cash-out on a primary residence through the no-ratio program when W-2s or tax returns won't get you there. - **Buying rather than refinancing? Ask about the 2-1 buydown** — no first-time-buyer requirement, available on primary, second homes, and investments: two years of stepped-down rates before settling at the note rate. ## Chapters - 02:00The 2-1 buydown, updated to current levels - 03:00Today's menu: the programs nobody knows about - 05:00No-ratio loans: no income docs on a primary residence - 08:00Who it's for: the Bitcoin client, the state-to-state movers - 09:00Credit, down payment, and reserve requirements - 11:00What it costs — and why risk sets the rate - 13:00Q&A: a 15-year refinance rate check - 15:00Bank statement loans for the self-employed - 16:0012 vs 24 months of statements - 18:00Which deposits count: the 50% / 70% rule - 20:00Q&A: how long you must be self-employed - 22:00Bank statement vs no-ratio: rates compared - 25:00DSCR loans: qualifying on the property's rent - 28:00Airbnb/VRBO income vs long-term rents - 37:00Construction and renovation: beating hard money - 41:00Reserves, exceptions, licensing, and wrap-up ## Questions answered on this show ### “Do you have to be a first-time buyer for the 2-1 buydown?” No. There's no first-time-buyer requirement at all — you can use a 2-1 buydown on a primary residence, a second or vacation home, or an investment property. It's a purchase tool: the first year prices two points below the note rate, the second year one point below, then years three through thirty run at the note rate. ### “What's the rate on a 15-year term with 20% down?” It depends on the whole scenario — a purchase, a rate-and-term refinance, and a cash-out each price differently, and credit score moves the number. As a reference point from a few days before the show: a 15-year rate-and-term refinance at around a 700 credit score was pricing roughly 5.5%–5.625% (as of late September 2025 — an example, not a quote). For your exact scenario, Debbie will run it with you one-on-one. ### “How long do you have to be self-employed to qualify for a bank statement loan?” One year minimum — some lenders will close with just 12 months of self-employment, and Debbie's team has done it. Expect a slightly higher rate than a borrower with two-plus years of history; risk always prices in. If you own multiple businesses, each business whose income you want counted needs at least 12 months of operation, verified through its bank statements and your CPA — income from a younger company can't be used. ### “How would I qualify for an investment property that was never a rental?” The appraisal answers it. Every loan gets an appraisal, and on an investment purchase the appraiser also researches comparable rents — based on long-term, 12-month leases — and that market rent is what the DSCR analysis uses. Planning short-term rental income instead? It only counts if the property has an actual 12-month operating history; otherwise you're qualified on the long-term comps, and the Airbnb upside is yours to prove after closing. ### “How much in reserves do I need for a no-ratio or DSCR loan?” Six months of the full monthly payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, plus HOA dues if any) for both, in liquid funds beyond your down payment and closing costs. On the no-ratio program that applies at 720/20% down or 680/25% down; drop below 680 and the exception desk will want more like 12 months. On DSCR, six months is the floor — showing 12 or 24 months of reserves can unlock a better rate with certain investors, so more reserves can literally buy a lower rate. ### Find the program that fits how you actually earn Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### First, a correction on the 2-1 buydown numbers Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. This is an interactive show — put your questions into the feed and I'll read them out loud and answer them for you. The commercial that ran before the show talks about the 2-1 buydown program, and it really is a fabulous program for somebody purchasing a home — but that recording is from May of 2024, so the rates in it are stale. Where it says 7%, 6%, 5%, today we're truly talking more like 6½%, 5½%, 4½%. The structure is the same: your first year prices two points below the note rate, year two one point below, and years three through thirty at the note rate. If you're purchasing and want to know how to take advantage of a 2-1 buydown, call me and let's talk it through. Today we're talking about loan programs a lot of people don't know exist: no-ratio loans, construction loans — both ground-up and renovation — and debt service ratio loans. There are all kinds of programs for the standard buyer who wants to put little money down — down payment assistance, 3% down, 5% down — and we talk about those frequently. Today is the out-of-the-box stuff. Mary asks whether you have to be a first-time buyer for that buydown loan: no, you do not. You can get the same program on an investment property, a second home or vacation property, or a primary residence — no first-time-buyer requirement at all. ### No-ratio loans: no income documentation on a primary residence Let's start with the no-ratio loan — a no-income-qualifying loan for a primary residence. Not very many lenders can offer this program. And understand the contrast with hard money: you *can't* get hard money on a primary residence — hard money is business-purpose only, for investment properties, fix-and-flips, that world. Hard money also comes with much lower loan-to-values: on a $500,000 purchase you're probably putting down somewhere around 30%, and for construction projects more like 40%–60% down. On the no-ratio program, think about what the investor is taking on. They are not checking your W-2\. They're not looking at pay stubs, not looking at tax returns if you're self-employed, not verifying where you work — we don't even put the name of your employer on the loan application, and no phone call is made to confirm you're employed. That is a lot of risk, and with risk comes a higher interest rate. Somebody willing to give you money without verifying any information is going to charge you more for it. It just happens. But it is a way into a property. Right now I've got a client who is a perfect candidate: he's into Bitcoin, makes his money in Bitcoin, and puts everything he makes right back into Bitcoin except small amounts for bills. No tax returns showing capital gains, no tax returns showing income — there's no way for us to verify income. Perfect candidate. Another one: people leaving their state — most of them California — who want to sell, pack the truck, go get settled, buy the house, and *then* find the job. No employment to verify yet? Perfect candidate. What it takes: a 720 or better credit score with 20% down, or a 680 or better with 25% down — each with at least six months of reserves. They can do a 660, but only on exception — there's no written guideline, and the ones I've seen come back wanting around 30% down and bigger reserves. Reserves means the total monthly payment — principal and interest, property taxes, homeowners insurance, and HOA dues if they exist. If the payment is $5,000, six months is $30,000 of liquid money on top of your down payment and closing costs. The interest rate I ran yesterday with a 680 credit score and 25% down on this program was 8.875%. Yes, that's expensive — you're going to pay for this program, because the investor wants more return for the risk. But compare it to the alternative people reach for: hard money averages 10½%–12% with bigger down payments, can't touch a primary residence, and is business-purpose only. This program is for an owner-occupied property and goes up to a $2 million loan amount. You bring the down payment, closing costs, reserves, and credit — and nothing else gets verified. Pretty good, if you ask me. Michelle asks what the rate is on a 15-year term with 20% down — on a purchase, owner-occupied, with full documentation. Everybody gets a different rate: a refinance prices differently from a purchase, and a cash-out differently from a rate-and-term. I can tell you it's in the fives — I ran a 15-year rate-and-term refinance a couple of days ago around a 700 credit score and it was about 5½% to 5.625%. Michelle, text or email me after the show and we'll run your exact scenario together. That goes for anybody: text me, email me, call me, and I'll tell you exactly where you'd be. ### Bank statement loans: made for the self-employed Bank statement loans are fabulous, and they are made for the self-employed borrower — if you're not self-employed, you don't qualify for one. We look at your business bank statements or your personal ones, depending on how your business runs: some people have a C corp or an S corp, others an LLC, and some are sole proprietors filing a Schedule C out of a personal account. We'll look at anywhere from 12 to 24 months of statements. Why one over the other? The look-back runs from the application date, not January to January — it's September 24, so 12 months means August 2024 through August 2025\. If your business hit a rut at the start of that window but was prosperous before and has recovered since, we'd want 24 months to get the better average. How the income works: we count deposits that are income-generated. If you're a contractor who bought supplies at Home Depot, did the job, and returned the extras, the refund deposit doesn't count — but the full job deposit does, including what the client reimbursed you for supplies. One-off deposits — a tax refund, anything that isn't income — don't count. Then we take the qualifying deposits and give you 50% of them. That's the standard. Some industries get more: somebody in marketing sitting behind a desk with very little overhead can get 70% of deposits, based on a letter from their CPA stating the overhead is only around 30%. It depends on who you are and what you do — but it's very simple, and it's really good for the self-employed borrower who writes off as much as possible and can't qualify off tax returns. Why Not asks how long you need to have been self-employed: some lenders allow 12 months, and we have closed those loans. You'll get a slightly higher rate than somebody with two or more years — risk again — but one year is the minimum. And if you have a couple of businesses — we love you, you're an entrepreneur — each business has to have been operating at least a year, verified through its statements and your CPA; income from one that's younger than 12 months can't be used. On pricing, bank statement loans are far cheaper than no-ratio: instead of 8.875%, you're looking at roughly 6.875% up to about 7½% on a primary residence — 6.875% being high credit score with 25% down, around 7½% with 10% down, maybe 7¾% with 10% down and a 680 score. Investment property adds more: about 7½%–7¾% with the minimum 20% down, improving to around 7¼% with 25% or more down. Credit score, down payment, time in business, occupancy, property type — single family, condo, 2-to-4 unit — all move the number. Down payments on the bank statement program start at 10%; the no-ratio program starts at 20%. ### DSCR loans: qualify on the property's rent, not your income Now the debt service coverage ratio loan — DSCR. This is for somebody who can't qualify with bank statements, W-2s, or pay stubs — and it is for an *investment property only*. Not a primary residence, not a second home. What we're looking at is the income the property can achieve as a rental: what are common rents for the area, and what will the property bring in monthly against the principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and HOA? Here's the misconception: a lot of people believe the property has to rent for enough to cover the whole payment or it won't qualify. Not true. If the rents come up short, you can still get the loan — the interest rate is just going to be significantly higher, because now we're not verifying your income *and* the property's rents won't carry the nut. But the programs exist. Don't assume it can't be done because the rents aren't there. On requirements: single-family investment DSCR starts at 20% down, with credit scores of 700 or above. At 680 I might have an investor or two who would consider it on exception, but it's a one-off — call me and I'll make calls. ### Airbnb and VRBO income vs long-term rents Now, short-term rental income — because I hear it constantly: “Yeah, but Deb, I'm going to Airbnb this thing. A long-term tenant pays $3,000 a month; short-term I'll make five or six.” And there's a good chance you might. First, a reality check from my clients who've done it: several ran Airbnbs and VRBOs and switched back to traditional 12-month rentals — the weekend damage, the bachelor and bachelorette parties, the turnover work got to be too much, while a long-term renter treats the place like home. But the short-term income potential is real. Here's how underwriting sees it. If the property you're buying has a history as a short-term rental — the seller has been running it on Airbnb or VRBO — and we can get a report of the last 12 months of income, we can average it and use that higher number to qualify, which gets you better terms and a lower rate because the income covers the payment. If there's no history, there is nothing for the underwriter to verify, and they will not let you use projected short-term income; we use the average long-term rent the appraiser reports for that market. So if you're shopping specifically for a short-term rental, try to buy one that's already operating as one. You get the income history for qualifying — and for your own diligence. You can probably negotiate to buy it furnished. And the seller likely has the cleaning company and management already set up, so you step into a streamlined operation. Can you buy a property that's never been a short-term rental and build it from scratch? Gosh darn it, yes you can — somebody had to be first. I'm just telling you the easier path. Blanca asks how you'd qualify for an investment property that was *not* a rental: the appraisal covers it. We do an appraisal on every property we lend on, and for an investment purchase we ask the appraiser to research the average rental income for that property — comps based on long-term, 12-month rentals — and that's the number we use. And note: I've been saying purchase, purchase, purchase this whole show, but everything here works for refinances too. Investment property refinance? DSCR or bank statement product. Need cash out of your primary residence but the W-2s and tax returns won't qualify you? The no-ratio program can be the way to get you the cash you need. ### Construction and renovation: what exists beyond hard money Last but not least: construction and renovation. You were mid-renovation and ran out of funds. You want to buy a lot and build. These programs exist. The full construction product I have is for an investment property or a fix-and-flip — build it or renovate it, then flip it, rent it, or sell it as a spec home. It is *not* for a primary residence. For primary-residence construction, talk to your contractor about who they've worked through — I have sent numerous people to US Bank, which has a great construction program for the person who's going to build it and live in it. For the business-purpose programs: no W-2s, no tax returns, no income documentation at all. Their biggest concern is reserves — enough money in the bank to carry the payments while the project is being built — and credit, 720 and above. You could pick up something somebody else started — framed and abandoned when the builder ran out of money — buy it, finish it, flip it or rent it. And the leverage is the point: if your land costs $100,000 and the build costs $400,000 — $500,000 all-in — hard money at 50%–60% loan-to-value gives you maybe $250,000–$300,000\. This program goes up to about 80% of your total project cost. A lot of people don't know it exists, and it's a better option than hard money. One more from the feed — reserves for no-ratio and DSCR: six months for the no-ratio at 680/25% down or 720/20% down; below 680 on exception, expect them to want more like 12 months. On DSCR, a minimum of six months — and if you've got 12 or 24 months of reserves, one investor may price you better than another that only requires six. I've got probably ten investors doing DSCR, two doing no-ratio, and about fifteen doing bank statement loans. If I can't underwrite it in-house, I'm still going to try to find a home for you — and if you don't fit the parameters I've given, reach out anyway. Maybe we improve the credit score first; maybe your industry gets you 70% of deposits instead of 50%. You have to start with a road map, and once you know what you need, it's much easier to execute. On states: I'm personally licensed in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington — and the company I work for is licensed in many others, so I can refer you to a loan officer in my company family, or elsewhere, if you're looking in a state I can't cover. ### Wrap-up We're at about 46 minutes, so I'm going to stop it there — this was a great show, and I appreciate all the questions. If you're thinking about buying, selling, refinancing, a reverse mortgage, a home equity line of credit, hard money — whatever it is — think Mortgage Mom Radio. Call 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4; go to mortgagemomradio.com; or email debbie@mortgagemomradio.com. It is always me who responds — and if it's one of the girls from my team, everything still comes through me and I see everything. If you want to know when I go live without depending on YouTube notifications, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634\. I'll be back right here at 1:00 p.m. Pacific next Wednesday. Talk to you all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 24, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### The Fed Cut Rates 0.25% — Will Mortgage Rates Drop Now? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-cut-rates-0-25-will-mortgage-rates-drop-now/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:07.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Fed Cut Rates 0.25% – How are the markets reacting to the decision?” • Live show from Wednesday, September 17, 2025 • 44 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate by a quarter point today — the first cut of 2025 — and mortgage rates barely flinched. On this episode, recorded about an hour after the announcement, Debbie reads the Fed's full statement on air, explains why the cut was already built into mortgage rate sheets weeks ago, shares what Jerome Powell said about the housing shortage, and answers a listener question most borrowers get wrong: how often can you actually refinance? ## Key takeaways - **The Fed cut a quarter point, to a target range of 4–4.25%.** The committee is signaling at least two more cuts this year, with a possibility of three — Debbie's read is two. - **Powell said it himself: the Fed has no control over mortgage rates.** Cuts “work their way into” rate sheets over time — and this one was priced in weeks in advance, which is why the last three weeks of rate gains simply held steady today. - **One dissent:** one committee member voted against the action, preferring a half-point cut. Debbie would have liked the half point too — “rip off the band-aid” — but understands why the Fed moves in slow increments. - **The dual mandate is now a 50/50 concern.** Inflation used to weigh heaviest; the Fed now says jobs and inflation worry it equally. The labor market is stagnant — companies are neither hiring nor firing — but unemployment remains low and people are paying their bills. - **No housing crash coming, per Powell:** the U.S. has a housing shortage. Sellers have equity, so they sell before foreclosure, and banks now have loan-modification programs built after 2008\. Default notices are up, but nowhere near Great Recession levels. - **Refinance rule of thumb:** if rates are at least three-quarters of a percent better than your current rate — or you have debt to consolidate or improvements to fund — run the numbers now. Rates should keep improving, and you can refinance again later. - **Ballpark pricing as of today (everyone's rate differs):** conventional purchase around 6.5–6.75%; FHA around 5.625–6%. A 720+ score can lock an FHA or VA purchase near 5.625% at zero points; around a 600 score, the same loan runs closer to 6–6.25%. ## Chapters - 01:00Rate cut day — and three weeks of gains are holding - 04:00Reading the Fed's statement on air - 05:00Jobs and inflation now weigh equally - 08:00The vote — and the dissent for a half-point cut - 09:00“Rip off the band-aid”: Debbie on quarter-point increments - 11:00Should you wait for more cuts? They're already priced in - 12:00Powell on jobs: not hiring, not firing - 13:00Why housing won't crash: shortage, equity, loan mods - 16:00When a refinance makes sense: the ¾-point rule - 20:00How a 2-1 buydown works at today's rates - 23:00Why every borrower gets a different rate - 26:00How far rates have come since May 2024 - 32:00Q&A: how often can you refinance in a year? - 38:00Prepayment penalties on investment properties - 41:00Wrap-up: what next week's show will watch ## Questions answered on this show ### “How often in a year are you able to refinance?” On a primary residence or second home: as often as you want. Federal consumer-protection rules prohibit prepayment penalties on primary-residence mortgages regardless of loan type, so technically you could refinance the day after closing. Investment properties are different — some programs offer a lower rate in exchange for an optional 1-, 2-, or 3-year prepayment penalty, so always ask whether one is attached (Debbie doesn't write them unless a client requests one to buy the rate down). One human note from behind the scenes: loan officers are paid almost entirely on commission, and if a loan pays off before six payments are made, the officer's entire commission on it is clawed back. If rates drop right after you close, call the person who did your loan and give them the chance to do the next one. ## This week's numbers (week of September 17, 2025 — averages, not quotes) - Fed funds target: **4–4.25%** after today's quarter-point cut — the first cut of 2025, with at least two more signaled this year - Conventional 30-year purchase: roughly **6.75%**, possibly as low as **6.5%** - FHA purchase: roughly **5.625–6%** depending on scenario — about **5.625%** at zero points with a 720+ score; closer to **6–6.25%** around a 600 score - 10-year Treasury: holding steady after the announcement — the cut was already built into pricing *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Wondering what today's cut means for your loan? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Rate cut day — and the gains are holding Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom — and that disclaimer just keeps getting longer, because I've added quite a few new states. How exciting — we can help you in many more areas than we used to, so keep reaching out with your questions. I can see Armando's already jumped on and said “exciting news.” It was very exciting news. It was a good day. I have the Fed's statement here, and I watched the entire press conference, so I'm going to dumb it down for you. As I said in my text message, we did get a quarter point lower in rate, which is fantastic. And it was actually very enlightening: somebody asked how the Federal Reserve rate cut was going to affect mortgages, and it was nice to see Jerome Powell get on there and talk about how they have absolutely no control over mortgage rates — the Federal Reserve does not control those — which I've been telling you for quite some time. But the rate cuts do happen to work their way into our mortgage rate sheets. What I took from the press conference: we're going to get at least two more rate cuts this year, with the possibility of maybe three before the end of the year. I'm not feeling the three — I feel like we've got two more to go. But that is all very positive news, and it sent the market running. Our interest-rate gains from the last three weeks are holding steady. I haven't seen anything up to this minute that would indicate rates are going the wrong direction. We're gaining a little bit in basis points, and the 10-year Treasury is holding steady. So for anybody worried that today's announcement was going to make or break these nice rate gains — it did not. I said it on last week's show: everybody was counting on a quarter-point cut, and they'd already built it into the rate sheets. If we got that quarter point, I didn't expect any crazy changes — and that's exactly what's happening. I would have liked a bigger cut, but I'm very happy they cut, because it could have gone very badly had they held steady instead. ### Reading the Fed's statement Let me read the Federal Reserve's announcement for you — and yes, it's going to look like I'm reading, because I am. It says: “Recent indicators suggest that growth of economic activity moderated in the first half of the year. Job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remains low. Inflation has moved up and remains somewhat elevated. The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated. The Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate and judges that downside risks to employment have risen.” That's one thing we'll talk about from the press conference — unemployment has edged up, and job hiring and job firing are remaining the same. Continuing: “In support of its goals, and in light of the shift in the balance of risks, the Committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point, to 4 to 4-1/4 percent. In considering additional adjustments to the target range, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. The Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities. The Committee is strongly committed to supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to its 2 percent objective.” One of the things they talked about in the press conference: before, their strongest objective was inflation. That was the thing they wanted to get down the very most — it weighed the most against concern for the unemployment and jobs numbers. They are now saying jobs and inflation are 50/50 in concern. The statement goes on: “In assessing the appropriate stance of monetary policy, the Committee will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook. The Committee would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge that could impede the attainment of the Committee's goals. The Committee's assessments will take into account a wide range of information, including readings on labor market conditions, inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and financial and international developments.” ### The vote — and the case for a half point I thought it was important to read you who was making the judgment calls. Voting for the action were Chair Jerome Powell, Vice Chair John Williams, and the rest of the committee's voting members. Voting against it was one member who preferred to lower the target range by a half of a percentage point at this meeting — he was a big pusher that a quarter percent was not enough. I would have liked to have seen a half percent too. If we know we're going to lower the rate at least two more times before the end of this year, why go quarter, quarter, quarter? I'm personally a believer in ripping off the band-aid. When they were raising rates over the course of two years — half point, quarter point, three-quarter point, meeting after meeting — it was like, why didn't you just throw us up to the number you wanted, slow us down completely, get us back under control, and then start lowering? Now, I get it. In slow increments, because moving too fast could have completely tanked our economy. But I'm one of those people: if you're going to hurt me, punch me in the arm as hard as you can — just do it once. Either way, the quarter point came. It was what we were expecting, it did not throw the market off, and mortgages are still sitting in the same place with all the gains of the last three weeks intact. ### Should you wait for more cuts? So what does this mean for all of us? What does it mean for rate sheets, for buying a home, for doing a real estate transaction right now? Should you be refinancing? Purchasing? Waiting for them to keep cutting? I've said this before and I'll say it again: when we know a rate cut is coming, well in advance, we build those cuts into our rate sheets ahead of time — the last three weeks are the example. Do I think rates will continue to slowly improve between now and the end of the year? Yes. Do I think we'll see a massive, crazy, super-quick change? No. We're not dropping from six and a half to five and a half within the next three months. But I do see rates continuing to improve over the next three months. So should you wait? No, you shouldn't. ### Powell on jobs and housing: why there's no crash coming When the mortgage-rate and housing-market questions were asked at the press conference, the chairman was very clear. Unemployment right now is still at extremely low levels. The jobs issue is that companies are not firing and they are not hiring — people in their jobs are remaining stagnant. And that's okay, because people aren't losing jobs. They're working, they have income, they're paying their bills, and the economy is staying strong. What happens in a good, strong economy? People continue to buy homes. And the reason prices are so high — straight from the Federal Reserve today, out of Jerome Powell's mouth — we have a shortage of housing. We have a housing crisis. I've been saying this for years on this show: when we don't have enough housing for the number of residents we have, it is very difficult for housing to crash. The other thing is that sellers have equity. Even people who are struggling and behind on payments have equity, so they're not going to just go to foreclosure — they'll sell before they lose the home and take their equity, or go to their bank and work on a modification. One positive that came out of the 2007–2009 housing crisis is that the banks learned how to work with people who were struggling, and built loan-modification programs and policies into their organizations. So even though notice-of-default rates have started to go up — yes, they have — are they anywhere near the numbers we saw during the Great Recession? Not even close. People aren't losing homes right now. We have a housing shortage, period, end of story. With mortgage rates improving — which they have done and will continue to do — housing is going to move to the forefront of people's minds. More people thinking about it means more people acting; more people acting means more transactions. So we're not going to see housing prices take a total crash. What we've seen is housing calm down: a lot of reduced prices, homes taking longer to sell — but not a huge decrease in pricing, and we're not going to see one. Rates coming down will help the housing market. So should you wait to buy? No. Get in before home values start appreciating again — they've been holding stagnant — and before prices start going up further. ### When a refinance makes sense And you should refinance as interest rates continue to come down. If you have a loan and you need debt paid off, home improvements, or a consolidation — if rates are at least three-quarters of a percent better than the rate you have today, you should be looking at refinancing. Even if it's just your current loan. If you're consolidating debt, look at what you're paying in interest overall; take the money, get the debt paid off — because rates will continue to come down, and we'll have the opportunity to refinance that loan again in the very near future. Nicholas jumped on: “Hello, Debbie. Can't wait to call you later and get this refinance of my house going.” Nicholas is a great example. He's got some debt and a very low rate on his current mortgage — but when we put all the numbers together, with a new refinance paying off the debt into one monthly payment, his monthly cash flow is significantly better, and it puts cash in hand today while setting him up to do a lower-rate refinance again in the future. There are many of you in that same situation. ### How a 2-1 buydown works at today's rates I ran an old commercial today on purpose — one I filmed back in May of 2024 — about a program called a 2-1 buydown for buyers. The idea: if the market rate today is 7%, you'd start your first year at 5%, year two at 6%, and years three through thirty at that 7%. It's a way to enter the market with a reduced payment in the early years while you wait for rates to improve enough to refinance. At the time I filmed it, conventional rates were in the sevens and FHA was right around 7%. Today — and again, every single person gets a different rate quote; not one person gets the exact same quote — a conventional loan would be somewhere around 6.75%, possibly as low as 6.5%, and FHA around 5.625% to 6% depending on your scenario. With a 2-1 buydown on a purchase, you'd start 2% below your note rate. Say the average rate across all the programs — FHA, VA, conventional, jumbo, every down payment — is 6.25%. Year one you're at 4.25%. Year two you're at 5.25% — which is realistically about where the market may be in twelve months, and in that second year we most likely have the possibility of refinancing into a 30-year fixed around that level before your buydown steps up. If that works out, you never actually paid today's rate. And if rates go up instead and we're all wrong? You have a 30-year fixed at 6.25% — you knew on day one what the payment would be for years three through thirty, and you're prepared for it. That's the difference from an adjustable-rate mortgage, which can move and bounce after the fixed term. A 2-1 buydown is a great product on conventional, FHA, or VA — and this is for purchases, not refinances. ### Every borrower gets a different rate If your credit score is 800, you'll be quoted a different rate than somebody at 600 — you're a different risk factor. The lower the score, the higher the risk. Example: on an FHA purchase with a 720-or-better credit score, realistically today you can lock a 30-year fixed at zero points — no points paid — around 5.625%. With a 600 score, that same FHA or VA loan is more than likely going to price around 6% to 6.25%. Can I do a loan for somebody with a bankruptcy just two years ago — or one year with extenuating circumstances, if you've rebuilt credit? Yes. Can I do a 580 credit score, even 560, on an FHA purchase or refinance? Yes. But the interest rate is going to reflect the risk. A previous foreclosure, a low score — you'll get a higher rate than somebody with great credit. So as I talk about rates, understand I'm giving you averages, not your quote. And if you hear a number and think “I can totally get better somewhere else” — shop me. I dare you. I'm very aggressive, and I'd love the opportunity to talk numbers with you. ### How far we've come since May 2024 Here's the difference. In May of 2024 I was talking about an FHA rate around 7% — and that was with a great credit score, on a purchase, no cash out. Today I'm talking about 5.625%. That is how much we've improved. Nobody's really noticed, because it's been a slow escalator down for about a year and a half — but it has been getting better, and you've got opportunities today that you didn't have then. You may be thinking: I can't do this, I can't afford it, I can't refinance, rates are too high, I can't get things consolidated. You absolutely can. If you're looking at a pre-approval to purchase, you most likely qualify for more today than you did back then. Get on the phone, start asking, and let's see what we can do for you. And should you be waiting? No. Rates are going to continue to improve, and that's going to spark the market. You don't want to be late — start looking now, before everybody else catches on that things are getting more affordable. Whether you're buying, selling, refinancing, or looking at a reverse mortgage, I have real estate agents I work with all over — throughout Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida — and we'll make sure you're getting credits from our agents toward your closing costs, which helps you get into a home with less money out of pocket. If you need to sell at a discounted fee, we'll help with that too. Mike jumped on and said: “Interest rates go down, prices go up.” Mike, you are absolutely right — and you're in New Jersey, where I'm not licensed, but I could get you a referral to somebody who can help you. Love the comment. ### Q&A: how often can you refinance? A viewer asks: *“How often in a year are you able to refinance?”* Great question, and a lot of people don't know this, so I'm going to spill the tea. If you are buying or refinancing a primary residence, there are rules from the CFPB that say we cannot put a prepayment penalty on a mortgage on your primary residence. It doesn't matter what type of loan — it's not legal to give you a prepayment penalty. That means you could refinance the day after you close on a brand-new loan. Now let me be 100% honest about how this works on my side. I don't make an hourly wage or a salary of any kind — if I don't close a loan, I don't get paid. I'm 100% commission, and that's how nearly all loan officers in mortgage are paid. If you refinance a loan I closed and pay it off before you've made six mortgage payments, the entire commission gets pulled back from me. Your loan application and transaction is probably 60 to 80 hours of work from start to finish behind the scenes — evenings, weekends, holidays. So when you do that refinance, all I'd recommend: remember that the person who did your loan has absolutely zero control over mortgage rates dropping. If they locked you at a great rate at the time, they did a great job for you. If rates drop right after closing, call that person back: “You did a great job for me, but I'm seeing rates dropped again — is there any way we could refinance the loan you just closed?” When people do that for me, I'm honored and beyond grateful — because even if I lose what I earned on the first loan, I have the opportunity to do the second one. Something is better than nothing. So: owner-occupied property, you can refinance as often as you want, no prepayment penalties. If somebody tells you that you can't do it for six months, now you understand why they're telling you that — and it's not true. The rules say you can refinance whenever you want. A second home is just like a primary residence: no prepayment penalties. ### Prepayment penalties on investment properties Investment properties are different. When I set up mortgages, I do not write prepayment penalties — so you'd be able to refinance as many times as you want. But there are many mortgage companies and loan programs that offer a discounted, lower rate if you're willing to take a prepayment penalty on an investment property. You can still refinance whenever you want — but you'll pay that penalty as part of your loan payoff if you refinance before it expires. They come in one-, two-, and three-year increments on the programs I work with. Make sure you're reading the fine print and asking the loan officer whether the mortgage they're setting up has a prepayment penalty. Some clients ask me for one on purpose: “Can you give me a prepayment penalty to lower this rate? I qualify today, I'm going self-employed next year, and it'll take two years of tax returns before I can qualify again.” That's their choice — we talk about it, I quote it, and the client decides. But if you're hearing an interest rate much lower than everyone else's quote on an investment property, ask that question. ### Wrap-up So today was a great day, and a great meeting. Next week we'll talk about what comes of today's rate cuts — do rates get better again for a fourth week in a row, or do we get a little uptick? Markets don't go down, down, down forever; we usually go down, down, down, up. Let's see what we get. I'm here every single Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. Pacific. If you want to know when I go live and don't want to count on YouTube notifications, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4, and it's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team. If you've been thinking about doing something — buying, selling, refinancing, a reverse mortgage, a home equity line of credit — reach out. Happy to run the numbers and determine whether it makes sense or whether you should wait longer. The math doesn't lie: I'll show you how it works out, and then you decide. You're in control. Have a fabulous rest of your week. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 17, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### PPI Went Negative — Should You Lock a Mortgage Rate Before the Fed Meets? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/ppi-went-negative-should-you-lock-a-mortgage-rate-before-the-fed-meets/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:07.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “PPI (Producer Price Index) came in well below expectations showing negative inflation.” • Live show from Wednesday, September 10, 2025 • 17 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Good news and good news: the Producer Price Index came in significantly below expectations this morning — negative producer-side inflation — and the experts now see next week's Fed rate cut as all but certain. In this quick episode, Debbie explains why mortgage rates improve *before* a Fed announcement rather than on the day of it, what tomorrow's CPI report could change, and why the last comparable rate window — October 2024 — lasted barely a week and then took 11 months to come back. ## Key takeaways - **PPI came in significantly below expectations** — showing negative inflation on the producer side. Combined with a worse-than-expected jobs report, the experts' read is “how could they not cut?” at next week's Fed meeting. - **The improvement is already happening.** Rate sheets have been improving for three straight weeks — only one bad day in the stretch — because markets price a cut in ahead of the meeting, not on announcement day. - **Tomorrow's CPI report is the last big test.** Better than expected further cements the cut; hotter than expected could put a pause — or a kibosh — on it. - **Mortgage applications are at their highest level in three weeks**, and mortgage-backed securities are looking more attractive to investors — both of which help push rates the right way. - **Expect sideways movement until the Fed speaks.** Three straight weeks of improvement isn't normal; Debbie expects a quiet stretch until Wednesday. If the Fed surprises and doesn't cut, rates could get worse very quickly. - **The October 2024 lesson:** the last time rates were slightly below today's levels, the window lasted about a week — and 11 months later we still haven't fully returned to it. Get your application in now: you don't have to lock, but a loan can't be locked until the application is complete. ## Chapters - 01:00PPI comes in well below expectations - 01:00Correction: the Fed decision is next Wednesday - 03:00“How could they not cut?” — jobs miss plus producer deflation - 03:00Mortgage applications hit a three-week high - 04:00CPI comes out tomorrow — what it could change - 05:00Three weeks of green candles — and a caution - 06:00If the Fed doesn't cut, rates can turn fast - 07:00Lock or float? Talk to your loan officer daily - 08:00Why an incomplete application can't be locked - 10:00October 2024: a one-week window, then 11 months of waiting - 11:00Debbie's outlook: better rates over the next 24 months - 14:00What to expect over the next seven days - 16:00Wrap-up: next week's live Fed-reaction show ### Want in before the Fed decides? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### PPI comes in well below expectations Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we are talking about good news and good news — we've got good news all around. PPI came in this morning. That is the Producer Price Index, and it came in significantly lower than what we were all expecting to see. What this shows is that we've got negative inflation — we are coming down, and we're coming down fast. As we've talked about in previous shows: the reports create the drama, and the drama creates the rates. Interest rates move based on reports and anticipation — what is the Fed going to do with this new information? Now, I do have to roll something back and apologize for a minute. On last week's show I kept saying the Fed was talking today — I counted the days wrong. The Fed's decision actually comes next Wednesday, and I'll be on at one o'clock that day, about an hour behind the announcement. That gives me enough time to watch the press conference and then bring you how the market is reacting to the news. ### “How could they not cut?” With that PPI coming in better than expected — significantly lower than anticipated — everything has been thrown into a good place. We were already getting improving prices, and the 10-year note was coming down accordingly on the assumption the Fed is going to cut. Today's PPI report has basically cemented that decision — at least that's what the experts believe. Their read is: how could they not cut at this point? We've had a worse-than-expected jobs report, and now a deflation reading on the producer side. So we're seeing a lot of positive: the 10-year note is coming down, and stock futures are looking good. One more thing to mention: mortgage applications are at their highest level of the last three weeks. More people are applying — getting ready to get on the streets and look at homes, or interested in a refinance. When mortgage applications are more abundant, that also plays into the 10-year note: it's more attractive for investors to buy those notes and bonds, and that in itself helps interest rates get better. Right now, mortgage-backed securities are looking like a really safe bet, and more and more attractive to investors. ### CPI comes out tomorrow Now, tomorrow we get CPI — the consumer price index. If that comes in better than expected, it could further cement next week's decision for the Fed to cut. If it comes in higher than anticipated, that could put a slight pause — or maybe a kibosh — on whether we get that rate cut. So tomorrow is another big day with another big report. We've talked about this numerous times on the show: the reports are what drive things, and what move investors to put money into notes, bonds, and mortgage-backed securities — or not to. ### Three weeks of green candles — and a caution One thing I do want to caution you on: we've now had three straight weeks of improving prices. We had one day — one bad red candle — where rates went the other direction, and every other day for three weeks has been holding steady or improving. If you watch the candles on stocks, or on Bitcoin if you follow those guys, you know what I mean. But improving, improving, improving is not really reality — we don't typically see that. We're probably going to see some sidestepping for a little while: one report tomorrow, and then everybody holding their breath waiting for Wednesday. We're expecting the Fed to cut. Interest rates have been improving based on that expectation. If they don't cut, interest rates could get worse — and they could get worse very, very quickly. ### Lock or float? Talk to your loan officer So if you've been out looking at homes, you have a contract, you've got a refinance application in, and you've been waiting to lock hoping for the best rate possible — which, by the way, I don't blame you for; that's how I work — you should be having a conversation with your loan officer. Should we lock to grab the gains we've seen? Should we keep floating and ride this out? It's very possible we sidestep for a while — no movement at all — which is what I'd anticipate between tomorrow and next Wednesday. Next Wednesday could be a huge market mover — or not. If they cut the rate, that's what everybody's expecting, so it's probably not a big mover. We could actually see rates get slightly worse if the cut is smaller than the market expected, or improve a bit more if they cut more than expected. But it's typically not the day of the announcement that moves the market — it's the lead-up and the anticipation. If they don't move the rate at all, though, we could very quickly see things get worse. So stay in touch with your loan officer, talk daily, and make the best decision for you on locking versus riding it out. And if you have an application started but haven't finished your documents, get those in — loans can't be locked until applications are complete. ### The October 2024 lesson You've got seven days to get your application in to be able to take advantage of where rates are today, just in case things go the wrong direction next Wednesday. Now, you might be thinking: she's just fearmongering to get us to do an application. Guys, I have always been truthful and honest with you, so let me take you back to October of 2024. In October 2024, we had about a week — maybe seven days at the very longest — where we could lock people at rates below where we are today. Then it went away. And since that time it's been eleven months, and we have not come back down to those levels. Yes, the news is great. We're moving in the right direction, slowly, and all the information coming through is positive. Do I think we'll continue to get better rates over the next 24 months? I absolutely do. I think many of you will have opportunities to refinance, get cash out, get things consolidated, purchase a home — and then have another opportunity to lower that rate further for a better monthly payment. But if things spike, how long it takes to come back down and reopen that opportunity is a big question mark. There's just no way to know. This time around, we're almost at the levels we hit in October of 2024 — but not quite. I'm still not quoting the rates I could lock back then. So if you want at least the opportunity to take advantage, you need your application started, and we need your electronic consent, so we have what we need to lock that rate if the moment comes. ### The next seven days So here's the shape of it: tomorrow we get one more big report. Then I anticipate — and this is the Mortgage Mom me anticipating — that the 10-year note, bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and stock futures all kind of side-crawl. A pretty dull seven days. Then the Fed comes out and talks, and that could be a very little market mover or a very big one, in either direction. If you've been trying to get a refinance started, this is your seven-day window. I'm putting you on notice: get the application in. We do not have to lock at today's rate — we can go day by day and make the decision as each day comes, trying to get you the lowest rate possible. But remember: the last time we got to rates slightly below today's, it took 11 months to get back. ### Wrap-up Grandma Lisa jumped on — so great to see you — and said she'll finish watching later. You're very welcome. Nice, quick, and easy show today: great news, great news, great news. Next week is the big one — the telltale sign of where we go from here. Make sure you catch next week's show live as we cover what the Fed said and how the market reacts. Text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — to get one text when I go live, and that's also the number to call my office. You can go to mortgagemomradio.com and use the contact form, or email me directly — it's Debbie with two B's and an IE. I'll see you next Wednesday at 1 p.m. right here on YouTube. Have a fabulous rest of your week. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 10, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Cash-Out vs. Rate-and-Term: Which Refinance Are You Actually Getting? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/cash-out-vs-rate-and-term-which-refinance-are-you-actually-getting/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:08.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Do you need to refinance? Let's talk about how it works!” • Live show from Wednesday, September 3, 2025 • 35 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Here's the refinance detail that surprises almost everyone: consolidating your mortgage and a home equity line usually counts as a *cash-out* refinance — even if you never see a dollar — and that classification costs about half a point in rate. With the experts putting 90% odds on a Fed cut next week and mortgage pricing finally punching through an 11-month barrier, Debbie walks through who should refinance now, who should wait, the two-step strategy for HELOC consolidations, and the FHA/VA streamline refinances most borrowers don't know they qualify for. ## Key takeaways - **Experts now put \~90% odds on a Fed rate cut next week.** The JOLTS report showed fewer job openings than expected — hitting one side of the Fed's dual mandate — while the latest inflation reading came in on target and below 3%. - **Mortgage pricing finally blew through its 11-month barrier.** After hovering at the 150 level for a week, pricing jumped 25 basis points to 175 on the JOLTS miss and a Bloomberg piece calling mortgages a strong investment. The expected cut is already being built into rate sheets — by meeting day, the improvement will already have happened. - **Paying off a second mortgage or HELOC is usually a cash-out refinance** — even with no cash in hand — unless the second was taken out when you bought the home (purchase money). Cash-out pricing runs meaningfully higher than rate-and-term. - **How much higher? A real quote from yesterday:** the same client, 80% loan-to-value, 720 credit score, conventional — 7.25% as a cash-out versus 6.75% as a rate-and-term. Half a percent for the classification alone. - **The two-step strategy:** take the cash-out hit now while keeping the payment close to what you already pay — then when rates fall further, your *next* refinance is a cheaper rate-and-term. FHA can be the bridge: Debbie quoted one client 5.625% FHA versus 7.25% conventional for the same cash-out, with a significantly lower payment even including mortgage insurance. - **FHA and VA streamline refinances are the sleeper deal:** no appraisal, no W-2s, no paystubs — just credit, a utility bill, and a current mortgage statement. Last time Debbie priced one, rates were in the low 5s. FHA allows one every 210 days and six payments; VA every 240 days and six payments. - **Sometimes the answer is don't refinance.** One caller's blended rate across her first mortgage and small HELOC was 3.37% — no refi makes sense. Another was three years into a 7-year ARM with a better rate than any 30-year fixed available today. The math doesn't lie; run it before you move. ## Chapters - 01:00Why experts put 90% odds on a cut next week - 03:00The JOLTS report misses expectations - 04:00Inflation on target and under 3% - 05:00Breaking the 11-month pricing barrier — up 25 bps - 07:00The Fed cut is already in the rate sheets - 09:00Who should be thinking about a refinance - 10:00What counts as a “second mortgage” - 11:00Cash-out vs. rate-and-term: the classification rule - 15:00A real quote: 7.25% cash-out vs. 6.75% rate-and-term - 17:00FHA at 5.625% vs. conventional at 7.25% - 18:00The two-step strategy: cash out now, rate-and-term later - 19:00When Debbie says don't refinance - 22:00This isn't COVID: cash out means a higher payment - 25:00FHA & VA streamline refinances, explained - 30:00Getting on the rate-watch list - 31:00Wrap-up: next week's Fed decision show ## Questions answered on this show ### “My HELOC is at an introductory 3.85% until 2027 — should I consolidate now?” No rush at all. When a viewer shared that his home equity line's 3.85% introductory rate doesn't end until 2027 — on top of a decent rate on his first mortgage — Debbie's answer was to “ride the rainbow” through 2026 and see where rates land. The consolidation math only starts to work when the HELOC balance is meaningful *and* its rate is high (many are in the 8–13% range today). Before consolidating anything, she asks the same questions every time: what's the rate and balance on the HELOC, what's the rate and balance on the first, and what does the blended rate work out to? If the blend beats today's quotes, you stay put. ### Not sure if your refinance is cash-out or rate-and-term? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Why the experts see a 90% chance of a cut Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about refinancing, since interest rates are still continuing to come down — which is fabulous. First we'll talk about why the experts are saying we've got a 90% chance of the Fed cutting interest rates, then we'll jump into refinancing — how it works, and how you get the interest rate you get, because those things are very important. Next Wednesday is when the Fed makes its announcement. I'll be doing my show live at 1:00 as always — the decision typically comes out around 11:15 to 11:30 Pacific — so I'll be able to tell you what happened, walk through the press conference, and let you know whether it looks like another cut could follow at the next meeting. So why do the experts think we're going to see the cut? We've talked for years about the Fed's dual mandate — the two big issues that would lean them toward a rate cut. One of them is employment. If employment starts to take a hit, they've vowed to protect it. And this week we got the JOLTS report — basically a jobs report of who's hiring and what openings are available — and it came in lower than expected. Fewer job openings than anticipated. There's mandate number one. The other side is inflation, and inflation is looking better than it was. They still have concerns things could go the other direction with tariffs, but the last inflation report came in right on target and still under 3%, which means we're moving in the right direction. Things are cooling off, and the Fed can't allow them to cool further than necessary, or it could spiral out of control. These are the things the Fed has said it's weighing, and that's what leads the experts to believe we'll see a rate cut next Wednesday. Fingers crossed. ### Breaking the 11-month barrier What's happening in the meantime? As each report comes out, investors move money around; there's reaction, and there's anticipation — and that's what moves rate sheets. As of last week, we had finally broken through an 11-month barrier in mortgage pricing. You heard me talk about it: we barely broke through the 150 level, very softly. We fell back below it briefly, broke back through yesterday — and today we are up 25 basis points, sitting at 175\. We've finally blown past that barrier. Two things did it today: that JOLTS report, and a Bloomberg article about how mortgages are a great investment right now — especially in more volatile times, mortgages are a stable place to put money. I told you we needed to stay above that 150 for at least a couple of days, and we struggled to do it. But today we're really running. (If you want to know what basis points are, go back and watch last week's episode — I give you the definition.) This means our interest rates as of today are still moving downward. Now, remember what we said last week: if the Fed cuts next week, that is not necessarily going to move the needle on *mortgage* rates on the day. It will move rates on home equity lines of credit, credit cards, car loans, student loans — short-term debt. But mortgages are not tied to the Federal Reserve's rate. Sure, it works its way in, but mortgages react to anticipation, reports, and news, just like the stock market. We're already seeing this rate cut built into the rate sheets — we saw it last week, and today put the stamp on it. By next Wednesday, we will have already seen all the improvement we're going to get from this cut. The good news: rates are on their way down. ### Cash-out vs. rate-and-term: the rule that changes your rate With rates coming down, a lot of people are going to be interested in refinancing. So let's talk about who should be looking at one, and why different people get quoted different rates — especially anyone consolidating a first mortgage with a home equity line or home equity loan, which has been the best route for most homeowners to access cash these last three years while keeping a low first-mortgage rate. First, definitions. When I say a “second,” I mean a home equity line of credit or a second mortgage — both are liens tied to your property in second position on title, so we refer to them as second mortgages. When we consolidate a first and a second into one loan, that is considered a **cash-out refinance** — and this is very important — *even if you are not getting cash in hand*. For most loan programs — conventional and VA, and FHA too if you opened the line or took a draw within the last 12 months — paying off a second counts as cash-out, unless that second was purchase money. If you secured both liens when you bought the house, putting them together is a rate-and-term. But if you took the second out later — pulled cash for debt payoff or home improvements — consolidating it is a cash-out. Why does it matter? A cash-out refinance gets a higher interest rate than a rate-and-term. If your balance was $700,000 when you bought and it's $695,000 today and we're just refinancing that balance, that's rate-and-term. If we're paying off a second lien you added after purchase — or you simply want $5,000, $10,000, $90,000, $100,000 in hand — that's cash-out, and it prices higher. ### What that costs in real numbers Yesterday I quoted a client — and again, everybody gets a different rate; this was this client's quote: 80% loan-to-value, 720 credit score, their loan amount, conventional. As a cash-out refinance: 7.25%. If it had been a rate-and-term: 6.75%. Half a percent difference in rate for the classification alone. That is a very big difference. And it moves with the scenario: I have other clients right now quoting conventional rate-and-term refinances at 6.5%, and FHA cash-out refinances at 5.75%. It depends on the loan type, the loan amount, your credit score, your property type — everything. But the cash-out part is a very big deal. For that same client yesterday, I could do an FHA loan at 5.625% instead of 7.25% conventional — and even with FHA's monthly mortgage insurance, the payment was significantly less for the amount of cash he wanted. ### The two-step strategy Here's the strategy. If we can consolidate — or get the cash out and the debt paid off — while keeping your mortgage payment very close to what you pay today, it's worth doing the refinance now, even at the higher cash-out rate. Because when rates drop further — and this will not be the one and only cut; in 2024 we got three cuts, and this would be 2025's first — your *next* loan is a rate-and-term refinance. You've already taken the cash-out hit. So as rates keep falling, you get to take advantage of the cheaper classification: refinance again, potentially back to conventional, drop the mortgage insurance, and lower the payment. Will they cut again at the very next meeting? Maybe not. Could we end up with another one or two cuts this year? We could; we might not. But will we see more rate cuts in 2026? Me personally — Mortgage Mom Radio, my lens, thirty years in this industry — I'd say we will. And as the cuts come, mortgage rates will follow suit. Or take the FHA route one step further: my client could just stay in that FHA loan and do a streamline refinance in six months — FHA and VA rates run much lower, and depending on where rates go, that could be cheaper than refinancing back to conventional. With every client and every scenario, we're determining the cheapest way to get the money or get the refinance done — the best rate, the lowest payment. ### When the answer is: don't Sometimes the math says no. A client reached out last week — we talk all the time — because she's nervous about her adjustable. She's in a seven-year ARM; somebody else gave her the loan. I flat out told her: “You're only three years into your seven-year adjustable. Your rate and payment today are better than what you could get on a 30-year fixed. Do not do this right now.” Another client wanted to consolidate after hearing last week's show. Her HELOC balance wasn't much, her first-mortgage balance was much larger, and her first-mortgage rate was so low that her blended rate across the two loans is 3.37%. It does not make sense for her to refinance right now. It just does not. But for many of you, it does. Many of you have HELOCs of $100,000, $150,000, $200,000 or more. Many of you have rates of 4.5%, 5% — or a 3.75% first with a big HELOC on top. In those situations it may very well be worth putting the two together. There's just no way to know until you reach out and we talk about what you have, what you're looking to do, and what your goal is. Then I'll tell you honestly: yes you should, or no you shouldn't. The numbers do not lie. Armando popped into the chat asking about his own situation — and when he confirmed his HELOC is at an introductory 3.85% that doesn't end until 2027, my answer was: you are good, man. You've got all of 2026 to ride the rainbow and see where rates end up. You are somebody that does not need to hurry right now. Nicholas chimed in at three and a quarter — and that's a fabulous rate on a first mortgage. If you have a high-rate HELOC with a real balance on top of it, though, that's when we want to talk about the cheapest way to get your money out. ### This isn't COVID: cash out means a higher payment One reminder. During the COVID days, rates just kept going down, and we had clients who refinanced numerous times between 2019 and 2022 — pulling cash out every time while lowering the rate, so the payment stayed the same. If you want cash out of your home, you are increasing your balance — and rates are not dropping through the floor like they did then. Money was very close to free during COVID. That is not the time we're in. So if you have a first and a second and two payments, the number-one goal is: can we put them together and keep the total payment the same, or close? Then, if you want extra cash out, what's the cheapest way to do it — rewrite the line of credit, or rewrite everything? But don't think your payment stays flat *and* you get cash in your pocket. That is a very tall task in today's market. ### FHA & VA streamline refinances Now the FHA and VA piece. A lot of my clients purchased homes in 2023, 2024, and this year, when average rates were above 7% — and if you got below 6.75%, you either paid points, the seller paid points, or you did a buydown, which only lasts so long. If you bought between late 2022 and today and you have an FHA or VA loan, we need to be talking right now, because streamline refinances — which are not available on conventional loans — have phenomenal rates. Here's what a streamline takes: we pull your credit report, get a utility bill proving you still live in the property, and a mortgage statement showing you've paid on time. If you're in a condo, we'll get the HOA statement to confirm that number hasn't changed. That's it — no W-2s, no paystubs, no appraisal. The last time I ran a rate on a streamline refinance, we were in the low fives. So if your rate is 6%, 6.25%, 6.5%, 6.75%, or above 7% on an FHA or VA loan, you should be reaching out right now. And you can repeat it: FHA allows a streamline every 210 days with six payments made; VA every 240 days after six payments. So roughly every six payments, you can streamline again — just rewriting your mortgage to a lower rate. This is rate-and-term, not cash-out: we're rewriting the terms of what you have today. ### Getting on the rate watch If you bought a house from late 2022 through 2025 — conventional, FHA, or VA — reach out. We'll determine what rate the refinance needs to hit to make sense for you, and then we put you on watch. As soon as I see rates hit your number, I call you and we get things started. There are so many of you who've worked with me before — come back. And if you didn't work with me but you watch the show: I can help you with your purchase, your refinance, your home equity line. I hope you can feel the sincerity in my heart: your family and your future come first, not my pocketbook. I'm never going to talk you into something that doesn't make sense because it benefits me. I'll show you the numbers, and you drive the decision. ### Wrap-up I'm super excited about next Wednesday at 1:00 — I'll tell you exactly what the Fed said and update you again. This is the third straight show where I've said rates are getting better, which is phenomenal. We've all had bad news for three years; it's about time I'm bringing good news, not just education. Rates coming down makes homes more affordable, there's a bit more inventory sitting out there, sellers aren't selling as fast — so you've got more negotiating power right now. Don't miss next week: if you don't get my text when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4, and it's also the number for my office. Jump on mortgagemomradio.com for the calculators, the contact form, and the podcast if you've missed any shows. Reach out — I want to help you, guide you, and make sure we know exactly what we're waiting for so we can strike at the right time. Have a fabulous rest of your week. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 3, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Rates Broke an 11-Month Barrier — Should You Lock Now or Wait for the Fed? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/rates-broke-an-11-month-barrier-should-you-lock-now-or-wait-for-the-fed/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:09.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “We finally broke an 11-Month Interest Rate Barrier!” • Live show from Wednesday, August 27, 2025 • 25 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 After more than ten months of hitting the same wall, mortgage pricing finally broke through its 11-month barrier today — checked live on air during the show. Debbie explains why the new floor has to hold for a day or two to matter, what Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole speech did to rate sheets, and answers the question she's about to hear on every phone call: if the Fed is going to cut rates in September, shouldn't you wait to lock? (Short answer: no — and she explains exactly why.) ## Key takeaways - **The 11-month barrier finally broke.** Mortgage pricing had been stuck under the 150 level for over ten months; today it pushed through — reading 100.56 live on air, six basis points over the barrier. It has to close and hold there for a day or two to become the new floor. - **The trend is real but gradual:** rates are roughly a quarter percent better than two weeks ago and about an eighth better than last week — an eighth here, an eighth there. - **Jackson Hole moved the market.** Powell's speech last Friday leaned strongly toward a September cut, and that *anticipation* — not the cut itself — is what's already improving rate sheets. - **Don't wait for announcement day to lock.** By the time the Fed actually cuts, the improvement is already in the rate sheets. Cut day itself won't suddenly drop mortgage rates — and if the Fed changes its mind, today's gains could vanish quickly. This could be a short two-week window. - **Start the application, then float.** No mortgage can close in under seven days by law, so there's time to watch the market day by day — and the rate lock is always your call, not your loan officer's. Ask any lender to never lock without talking to you first. - **HELOC consolidation math is getting close:** many post-2022 HELOCs run 8–13%; blended with a 3–4% first mortgage, that's often around 6% — and Debbie quoted a cash-out refinance today (great credit, low loan-to-value) at 6.125% on a 15-year fixed and 6.375% on a 30-year. - **Buyers: get serious now.** Get preapproved, get out looking this weekend, and negotiate — you can't write an offer without a preapproval. ## Chapters - 03:00We finally broke the 11-month barrier - 04:00Checking the pricing live: six basis points over - 05:00Why the new floor has to hold a day or two - 06:00Rates vs. two weeks ago and last week - 07:00What Powell said at Jackson Hole - 08:00The big question: lock now or wait for the Fed? - 09:00Anticipation is already in the rate sheets - 11:00How day-by-day rate watching actually works - 12:00You're in the driver's seat on the rate lock - 14:00What happens if the Fed doesn't cut? - 16:00The phone calls Debbie gets on cut day - 17:00Consolidating a HELOC: the blended-rate math - 18:00Today's quote: 6.125% 15-year, 6.375% 30-year - 19:00A possibly short two-week window - 23:00Buyers: get preapproved and get out there ### Trying to time your rate lock? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### We finally broke the 11-month barrier Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. Last week we had some issues with the chat and the sound going in and out — I think it's all fixed, and Dad already jumped on to say it looks like it is, so we're giving Mikey a big thumbs up for that one. I came on fifteen minutes early today just to make sure everything works. Remember, this is an interactive show: put your questions into the chat and I'll read them out loud and answer them for you. So let's jump in, because today we broke an 11-month barrier. For the last two shows I kept telling you we were at a standstill — we had a high barrier and a low barrier, and we could not break through them in over ten months. Today, at eleven months, we finally broke through the barrier that's been stopping our interest rates from getting to the next level. Now, we didn't break through by much. The 150 level is where we kept hitting our wall and couldn't get into better pricing — and today we broke through it, hitting 153 the last time I checked. Let me actually pull it up live right now… I'm seeing 100.56\. So we are very, very slightly over the barrier we needed to break — six basis points over. And this is still phenomenal news. ### Why the new floor has to hold One day over the barrier by six basis points isn't enough to move our needle significantly. What it does is create a new floor — and we want that new floor. But it's got to hold for at least another day or two before it really becomes the new barrier. We've got to close above that 150 mark today, then hold it another day or two. Then it becomes our new floor, which gives interest rates the opportunity to break out. If you're into crypto or stocks and you watch the people who talk about them, you hear this all the time — breaking through barriers, the highs and lows of the last so many months, levels. That is exactly what interest-rate pricing does too. Are we going to hold? I'll be able to tell you next Wednesday. ### Where rates are versus recent weeks About two weeks ago I told you some good news had come out and rates started improving — and for the last two weeks they've not only held steady, there have been days where they improved a little further. Popped up a little, improved a little further — that's just how it goes. We're looking better today than we've looked in quite some time: better than two weeks ago, better than last Wednesday. Not better by half a percent — but we're getting an eighth here, an eighth there. I'd say we're already about a quarter percent better in rate than two weeks ago, and about an eighth better than a week ago. What we want is for that momentum to keep going — for pricing to hold above that 150 mark and make it the new low that we bounce off of. ### What Powell said at Jackson Hole Why are things continuing to improve? I talked about this last week: the Fed had its Jackson Hole symposium last Friday, and Chairman Jerome Powell was anticipated to speak — which he did — and the question was whether what he said would lead people to believe we'll see a rate cut come September. It did. Bringing it down into a nutshell, without going through the exact words: it was very strongly pushed forward that they are seriously considering cutting the rate in September. So we all want to keep our fingers crossed that the cut comes through. We need things to start changing; we need these rates to keep improving. ### Lock now, or wait for the Fed? Now, here's the big question I'm going to get, over and over, for quite some time: “I need to do a loan right now. Should I lock, or should I wait until the Fed announces they're cutting the rate?” It's a fair question — if you're not in the industry, it's common sense to think that if they're going to cut, you should wait. But the answer is actually no. The way it works — and we've talked about where mortgage rate sheets come from for years — is anticipation. Because of what was said at Jackson Hole, the anticipation right now is that they'll cut in September. The improvement we'd see from that cut is *already being worked into our rate sheets*. That's why we're seeing improvement. That's why we finally pushed past the 11-month barrier today. So if you need to do something, get it done. Don't worry that you're going to miss out on a quarter-point or half-point cut — it's already anticipated and already in the sheets. ### How day-by-day rate watching works That doesn't mean you can't call me, do a loan application, and wait to lock. We may choose to wait. I work with all my clients day by day — honestly, more like hour by hour. We know where the rate is when you take the application. If the market's improving, there's no reason to jump the gun and lock. But nobody has a crystal ball — I can't see tomorrow, and definitely not two weeks out. What I can see is today. So if you called me today and asked whether to lock, I'd tell you no — today the market looks good, we appear to be improving, and hopefully tomorrow's rate sheet is slightly better. Tomorrow we talk again. Now say some big report drops at one in the afternoon and my phone lights up with an alert — because obviously I've signed up for all of them; it's my business. I call you or text you as fast as I can: “It looks like we're starting to slide downhill. I think we should lock now.” And it is 100% up to you. You might say, “Nope, I'm a gambler, let's see what happens” — and I'll say no problem. You are in the driver's seat on a rate lock. Remember that even if you work with another lender: tell them, “Please don't lock my rate without talking to me first.” You are the driver. And keep this in mind: no mortgage loan closes faster than seven days — by law, by disclosure timelines, we cannot close you faster than that. So on a loan we're starting today, we've got time to watch. The minute we see pricing slip is when we'd want to lock. ### What if the Fed doesn't cut? What happens if September comes and the Fed says, “We decided not to cut”? The anticipation of a cut is already built into the rate sheet — so what then? Everything goes berserk. Which direction? There's no way to say. Common sense says rates would shoot right back up, and the barrier we broke today might no longer be our low. But investors could read the decision differently and rates could even improve — or hold exactly the same. There is no way to know how the market will react when the Fed speaks. We've talked about how the inflation reports, the CPI, unemployment, retail spending all get interpreted by the market, and investors move their money on anticipation. That's just what this is. And I'll tell you exactly what happens on cut day: I'm going to get phone call after phone call — “I heard they cut rates! Where are interest rates today? Should we lock in?” Since you're here watching and I'm educating you: understand that that day is not going to move the needle. Whether they cut a quarter, a half, or a full point, that day won't suddenly drop mortgage rates. What drops mortgage rates is anticipation — where investors move their money based on what they believe is coming. ### Consolidating a HELOC: the blended-rate math So should you be waiting? If it were me, I'd be starting the application — assuming you have something you need to do. A cash-out refinance to get debt paid off. A purchase — obviously you need your application going, whether that's a pre-approval or you're already in escrow or under contract. Money for home improvements. Whatever the reason: I would not stop. Do the application, talk with me or one of the girls on my team, and let's talk about the goal. So many clients took home equity lines of credit over the last three years, because that was the cheapest way to get money when your first mortgage was at a very low rate. But a lot of those HELOCs are now in the 8, 9, 10, 11, even 12–13% range. When we take the $100,000 or $200,000 — whatever your number is — on that line and blend it with the low 3–4% rate on your first, you might be sitting at a blended rate of around 6% across all your money. And let me tell you: we are very, very close to 6% right now. I quoted a client today on a cash-out refinance on her primary residence — great credit, low loan-to-value — at 6 and an eighth on a 15-year fixed, and 6 and three-eighths on a 30-year fixed. Those are really good numbers. For many of you with a first at 3 or 4% and a second at 9, 10, or 13%, blending them together comes out to a lower overall rate and monthly savings — not to mention one payment instead of two. We'll go into exactly how you get the rate you get another time, but understand: it depends on your credit, your loan-to-value, your property, your loan size — every scenario is different. ### A possibly short window Depending on what you need the financing for: don't stop, don't wait, and don't wait for the announcement day. If a couple more economic reports come out and the Fed changes its mind and doesn't cut, this could be a very short two-week window to get an application in and a rate locked. So if you've been thinking about doing something — looking at homes, trying to get under contract, getting escrow opened so you can lock, or refinancing for one reason or another — reach out and talk to us. We'll compare options and figure out exactly what rate you need for things to make sense to move forward. And if you're out there looking at a home — gosh, get out there this weekend, for real. Look hard, start negotiating, start writing contracts, get serious. If you haven't been preapproved yet, reach out and get it done — you can't write an offer without a preapproval. You need to know you qualify. That's what my team and I are here for. ### Wrap-up Mary and Lori jumped on — great to see you both — and I'm just happy the chat is working again. If you tried to put a question in and I didn't read it, please email me directly and I'll respond immediately. One housekeeping note: if you got a text from me today on the old “MOM” text list — the one about 4,000 of you joined back in the day — I'm retiring that list. To keep getting the weekly link when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634\. That's 844-WE-LEND-4, and it's also the number to call my office about anything mortgage or real estate. My website is mortgagemomradio.com — don't forget the “radio” — with the contact button, a loan application, the finance calculator, and the podcast version of this show. I'm here every Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. Have a fabulous rest of your week, and I'll talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 27, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Will the Fed Cut Rates in September? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-the-fed-cut-rates-in-september/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:51.000Z **Listen · 0:44:42** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/2025-08-20%5F13-00-20.mp4?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) We'll know more after Friday's Jackson Hole Symposium. Join me live next Wednesday at 1PM on YouTube to stay up to date with Real Estate, Mortgage, and Interest Rate Market! Don't miss a live show. Ask your questions and get your answers. Text "LIVE" to 844-935-3634! 844-935-3634, call us! Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. Also licensed in, AZ-0941504, CA-237926, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, HI-237926, ID-MLO-2080237926, IL-031.0058339, NV-57237, NC-I-210940, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926\. Interest rates and products are subject to change without notice and may or may not be available at the time of loan commitment or lock-in. Borrowers must qualify at closing for all benefits. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/148017506/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Interest rates are falling, will they continue to move lower? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/interest-rates-are-falling-will-they-continue-to-move-lower/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:51.000Z **Listen · 0:44:42** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/interest%5Frates%5Fare%5Ffalling.mp4?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Why are interest rates falling right now? Will they continue? What will it take for the Fed to lower interest rates? 844-935-3634, call us! Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. Also licensed in, AZ-0941504, CA-237926, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, HI-237926, ID-MLO-2080237926, IL-031.0058339, NV-57237, NC-I-210940, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926\. Interest rates and products are subject to change without notice and may or may not be available at the time of loan commitment or lock-in. Borrowers must qualify at closing for all benefits. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/147775160/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Conventional vs FHA – What’s the difference between the two loan programs. URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/conventional-vs-fha-what-s-the-difference-between-the-two-loan-programs/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:52.000Z **Listen · 0:42:18** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/2025-06-11%5F13-29-51.mp4?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Why would a loan officer suggest an FHA or a Conventional loan to you. Learn more in today’s episode. 844-935-3634, call us! Debbie Marcoux – AZ-0941504, CA-237926, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, ID, IL-031.0058339, NC, NV-57237, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926 | JMJ Financial Group NMLS ID #167867 |Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, Licensee Number 01134087\. Interest rates and products are subject to change without notice and may or may not be available at the time of loan commitment or lock-in. Borrowers must qualify at closing for all benefits. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/146192678/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Does the Bank Own Your Home With a Reverse Mortgage? The Biggest Myths, Debunked URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/does-the-bank-own-your-home-with-a-reverse-mortgage-the-biggest-myths-debunked/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:10.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Reverse Mortgage Myth's and Facts!” • Live show from Wednesday, June 4, 2025 • 64 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Most of the pushback against reverse mortgages comes from the children of the people considering one — and most of what they believe about the loan is wrong. In this episode, Debbie works through the biggest reverse mortgage myths one by one: who really owns the home, what heirs actually owe, whether you can be forced out, and how the balance grows when you're not making payments. She also takes live listener questions on mobile homes, COVID forbearance balances, and using a reverse mortgage to buy a home. ## Key takeaways - **The bank does not own your home.** With a reverse mortgage the title stays in your name (or your trust), exactly like a traditional mortgage — the lender only holds a lien against the property. - **Your heirs are never on the hook for more than the home is worth.** Reverse mortgages are non-recourse: if the balance exceeds the value, heirs can buy the home at appraised value, sell it and keep any leftover equity, or simply walk away. They get six months after the borrower passes — and most lenders will grant another six-month extension on request. - **You cannot be forced out** as long as you keep paying property taxes, homeowners insurance, and HOA dues, and keep the home maintained. There is no required monthly payment, and no time limit on how long you can stay. - **No payment means the balance grows.** Interest still accrues every month, so instead of the balance going down like a “forward” mortgage, it goes up — the exact opposite. You can choose to make payments if you want to. - **You don't need to own the home free and clear.** The reverse mortgage can pay off your existing loan and eliminate the monthly payment going forward. Minimum age is 62 for most products, with some available at 55 — and the older you are, the higher the loan-to-value the lender will allow. - **Regular Social Security and Medicare are not affected.** Needs-based programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income can be, because loan proceeds sitting in the bank count as assets — get professional advice before drawing funds if you receive those. - **It only works on your primary residence.** The moment the home stops being owner-occupied, the reverse mortgage has to be refinanced or paid off. You can also use a reverse mortgage to *purchase* a home, not just refinance one. ## Chapters - 01:00Who a reverse mortgage is really for - 05:00Myth: the bank owns your home - 09:00Myth: your heirs are stuck with the debt - 10:30Myth: you'll be forced out of your home - 12:30Do mobile and manufactured homes qualify? - 18:00Myth: nothing left to leave your children - 20:30How the balance actually grows over time - 23:00Myth: you must own your home free and clear - 30:00How your age sets the loan amount - 31:30Myth: you can't sell a home with a reverse mortgage - 33:30Social Security, Medicare, and needs-based benefits - 35:00What a reverse mortgage costs - 37:00Using a reverse mortgage to buy a home - 40:30Q&A: processing time, fees, and set-aside accounts - 45:00Q&A: COVID forbearance balances at payoff - 51:30Owner-occupancy and when the loan comes due ## Questions answered on this show ### “Can you get a reverse mortgage on a mobile home?” Not on a mobile home in a park — that requires true mobile home financing from a mobile home lender, and it isn't considered real property. A *manufactured* home is different: it has gone through the county and city permitting process, received its HUD tags, and been converted to real property. Debbie hasn't run a reverse mortgage on a manufactured home before and committed to researching it for the listener rather than guessing on air. ### “How long does a reverse mortgage take, and are the fees the same as a regular refinance?” A straightforward file — a couple who are cognitively healthy and signing their own documents — closes in about 30 days, the same as a standard mortgage. It takes longer when powers of attorney, trusts, and doctor's letters are involved, such as when family is arranging the loan for a parent who can no longer make decisions. Fees are set by the reverse mortgage lender and tend to run somewhat higher than a traditional loan. You don't need perfect credit, but weaker credit or a spotty tax-and-insurance payment history can trigger a required set-aside account, where part of the proceeds is reserved to pay future property taxes and homeowners insurance. ### “I took a COVID forbearance and now have a second balance on my loan. What happens to it in a reverse mortgage?” During COVID, most servicers didn't modify loans — they took the missed payments and set them aside as a separate balance that comes due at payoff. It's not truly “silent”: when any payoff demand is ordered, that amount gets added to it. A reverse mortgage works exactly like a regular refinance here — the new loan has to be large enough to pay off the full amount owed, forbearance balance included. Nothing gets waived, negotiated, or settled for less. ### “Does a reverse mortgage keep the interest rate from my original loan?” No. A reverse mortgage that pays off your current loan is a refinance: a brand-new loan with a brand-new lender at the interest rates in effect when you apply. If you locked a very low rate years ago, that rate does not carry over. ### “Can the loan include enough to cover my property taxes, insurance, and HOA dues?” Yes, there are ways to structure that. Lenders can establish a set-aside account reserving proceeds for taxes and insurance, and most borrowers simply pull cash out and park it in a savings account earmarked for those bills. The bank won't make the payments for you, but the money can be positioned so it's there when the bills come due. ### “Can someone whose home burned down in the Eaton fire get a reverse mortgage?” Almost certainly not. A reverse mortgage is not a construction or home improvement loan — it has no mechanism to monitor and disburse rebuild funds, and most reverse mortgages run through FHA, which has strict property condition requirements (working systems, sound roof, no broken windows or peeling paint). A home that isn't standing can't meet them. Debbie promised to research it and follow up directly if she's wrong. ### Wondering if a reverse mortgage fits your situation — or a parent's? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Who a reverse mortgage is really for Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about reverse mortgages. If you or your friends or family have been thinking about one, there are a lot of myths out there — and the regulations changed. After our last financial recession, when property values dropped and homes were being foreclosed, the CFPB wrote all kinds of new regulations. That was many years ago, but there are still so many people who don't understand how a reverse mortgage works. I have a lot of clients and friends who've called me and said, “My parents are going to take a reverse mortgage — I don't think they should. I'm really worried about it.” Most of the time, the pushback on this transaction comes from the children or family of the elderly couple looking at the loan — and much of what they believe about a reverse mortgage is simply not accurate. Reverse mortgages can be great for somebody who needs to use their home as their retirement vehicle. I have clients right now who don't have Social Security or a pension — they were self-employed their whole lives and never built that Social Security account, so they receive no retirement at all. But they own their home free and clear. What are their real options? Sure, they could sell, take the cash, buy something smaller, and live on the equity — but they'd also pay a hefty price in capital gains taxes to cash it out completely. A reverse mortgage lets you stay in the home. I've had many clients call and say, “My mother has full-time caregivers and we don't want to put her in a home. She really wants to stay in her property, but the medical expenses are just too much.” In that situation it's a great vehicle for that person to stay where they are and stay comfortable. Now, a reverse mortgage is not for everybody. I can't even count how many loan programs are out there, because everybody's scenario is different — what's good for one person may not be good for another. So let's start by getting rid of the myths. ### Myth: the bank or lender owns your home This is probably the biggest myth I hear, and a lot of people believe it. The bank does not own the home. You own the home — the person taking the loan owns it. Title remains in their name, whether they're in a trust or not. Just like with a traditional mortgage, the lender places a lien against the property. They do not take title. When you pass away, your heirs — through a trust, a will, or probate — still have the opportunity to inherit that home. ### Myth: your heirs will be responsible for repaying the loan This one comes up a lot. Reverse mortgages are **non-recourse** loans. If more is owed than the home is worth at the time of your passing, your children can have an appraisal done, and they will never pay more than the appraised value. You could owe $4 million on a property worth $1 million, and the heirs could purchase it for what it's worth. They can also choose not to purchase it at all and let it go back to the bank. That is their choice — they are not on the hook to make payments or pay off that loan. And it's not overnight. Your heirs have six months to get the property refinanced or sold. If they need longer, they can call the number on the mortgage statement and request an extension — most mortgage companies will grant an additional six months. Not all, but the majority will work with you. ### Myth: you'll be forced out of your home Reverse mortgages — particularly home equity conversion mortgages, called HECMs — are designed to help seniors remain in their homes for as long as they live there. You can't be foreclosed on as long as you fulfill your loan obligations: paying property taxes and insurance and maintaining the property. Now, there are no monthly payments required on a reverse mortgage, so you might wonder how you could default. You are still responsible for property taxes, homeowners insurance, HOA dues if you have them, and upkeep. If the property starts falling apart — it needs a roof, it needs stucco — you're responsible for maintaining it, and letting it go is a way to violate the terms. But keep the home in good shape, insured, and current on taxes, and you will not lose it. It doesn't matter if the real estate market crashes or how much you owe versus what the home is worth. You stay until you pass. A loan officer friend watching the show put it well: a reverse mortgage is one of the sweetest things spouses can do for each other. If one of you passes away, there's no mortgage payment left behind — the survivor doesn't have to sell or move. The reverse mortgage stays in place until both borrowers have passed. Only then does the six-month clock for the heirs start. ### Do mobile and manufactured homes qualify? A viewer asked whether all of this applies to mobile homes. On mobile homes, the answer is no — they don't get the same financing options or loan programs as residential property. A manufactured home is different: it's essentially the same structure, but it has gone through the full permitting process with the county and city, received its HUD tags, and given up its license plates to become real property. In all my years I've never had someone call about a reverse mortgage on a manufactured home, so rather than guess, I'll look it up — email me or contact me through the website and I'll get you the answer. And if the home sits in a park, nine times out of ten it's not a manufactured home — that requires a true mobile home lender, which I am not. ### Myth: you won't have money left to leave your children While interest and fees accrue on a reverse mortgage, your home's value may also appreciate, leaving remaining equity for your heirs. They can repay the loan and keep the home, or sell it and keep the leftover proceeds. Over the last four or five years we've seen an unprecedented amount of appreciation — so someone in a reverse mortgage whose property kept gaining equity year over year wasn't necessarily losing ground even as the balance increased; their equity percentage often stayed very similar. Do I think homes will keep appreciating at that pace? No. Values are leveling off, and in some cases dropping a little. I don't think a major crash is coming — there still isn't enough housing or enough listings for values to collapse — but I do think they needed to level off and come down a bit. If you asked me, I'd expect about a 10 to 15% decrease in home values over the next couple of years, and then I think we're on our way back up again. Nobody has a crystal ball; that's just my opinion. ### How the balance actually grows Most people know the “forward” mortgage: you get a loan, you make a payment, and every payment brings the balance down — heavily weighted toward interest in the early years, just like a car loan. A reverse mortgage is the exact opposite. If you're not making a payment — and you can make payments if you choose — your balance goes up instead of down. There's still an interest rate on the loan. A bank isn't going to hand you four, five, or eight hundred thousand dollars and not charge interest; they just don't collect it monthly. So yes, you'll owe more on the property over time if you never make a payment. But for somebody with no Social Security, pension, or 401(k) who doesn't want to sell and take on capital gains, it's a great vehicle: you eliminate any existing mortgage payment, you can put cash in the bank for living expenses, and you stay in your home. ### Myth: you must own your home free and clear to qualify Absolutely inaccurate. You can get a reverse mortgage even if you owe money today. Say you owe $300,000 and the home is worth $900,000 or a million — the reverse mortgage can pay off your existing loan and set you up with no payment going forward. There may not be enough equity left to pull cash out on top, but eliminating the payment alone changes lives. The only time you'd bring money in is if there isn't enough equity to cover the payoff — if your balance is $400,000 but the maximum loan for your age is $380,000, you'd cover the difference and closing costs. One thing I want to be very clear on: reverse mortgages are typically for people 62 and over. We do have programs for 55 and older. If you're not at least 55, this isn't for you — but it may be exactly right for your parents or grandparents. ### How your age sets the loan amount The loan amounts are based on age. Average life expectancy in the US is about 78 years for men and 81 for women. When the lender decides how much to give you, they're looking at how old you are today and how long they'll likely hold the note while the balance grows. So a 78-year-old can get a higher loan-to-value against the property than somebody who is 55, 60, or 65\. The older you are, the more you can draw. ### Myth: you can't sell a home with a reverse mortgage Yes, you can sell. You own the house — the bank never took title. Say the property is worth a million dollars, you took a $200,000 reverse mortgage a few years ago and now owe $250,000 or $275,000\. You can list the house and sell it. You can also refinance into a regular mortgage, start making payments again, and keep the home. If you decide the reverse mortgage isn't what you thought — the balance is climbing faster than you like — you have options. The difference between the sale price and the payoff is your equity, and you keep it. ### Social Security, Medicare, and needs-based benefits Reverse mortgages generally don't impact your Social Security retirement benefits or Medicare. However, if you receive needs-based programs — Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income — managing the loan proceeds carefully is essential to keep your eligibility. If you pull $500,000 out of your property and it's sitting in your bank account, you suddenly have assets that can disqualify you from needs-based aid. Work with an attorney if that's your situation. Sometimes, too, if the money is available for care, you may not need those programs. But if you're simply retired with Social Security, Medicare, and a pension — nothing changes. ### Myth: reverse mortgages are too expensive There are upfront costs, but on a refinance they can generally be financed into the loan — you're not bringing money in to close, just like a normal refinance. The fees are set by the reverse mortgage lender and can run higher than a traditional mortgage. You don't need perfect credit, which is great — but your credit determines whether the lender requires a set-aside account, where part of the proceeds is put aside to pay property taxes and homeowners insurance because the payment history there hasn't been strong. ### Using a reverse mortgage to buy a home You can also purchase with a reverse mortgage. Say you're retired in a big house the kids have moved out of, and you want a smaller home or a condo with no yard maintenance. You sell, walk away with $700,000 in cash, and you're buying the next place — but you don't want a mortgage payment and you don't want to give up all your cash either. You purchase the next property with a reverse mortgage: bring in the down payment required for your age-based loan-to-value, and finance the rest with no monthly payment. If you're 67 and the program allows 50% loan-to-value on a $300,000 condo — easy studio numbers — you bring in $150,000, they lend $150,000, and you keep the rest of your cash in the bank. You pay your taxes, insurance, and HOA dues, and you have no mortgage payment. Capital gains on the sale is a question for your CPA or tax advisor. ### Q&A: processing time, fees, and set-aside accounts Michelle asks: *“Is the processing time the same between a reverse and a refi? Are the loan fees and commission the same?”* Great question. The timeline depends on the file. If the owner — say a parent or grandparent — is no longer mentally capable of making decisions, and the family is arranging the loan so they can stay home with care instead of going into a facility, now we're talking powers of attorney, trusts, and doctor's letters about whether they can sign their own documents. That can take much longer than a standard closing. But for a couple in their 50s, 60s, or 70s with no cognitive impairment, signing their own paperwork — in a trust or not — it's a normal transaction that can close in about 30 days. The fees are set by the reverse mortgage lender doing the loan and can be more expensive than a traditional mortgage — there's a bigger setup process. And again: credit history matters. If property taxes or insurance haven't been paid on time in the past, part of the proceeds may be required to sit in a set-aside account to cover them going forward. ### Q&A: COVID forbearance balances Nicholas asks about the loan he modified during COVID, with a deferred balance attached to his mortgage. During COVID, servicers handed out forbearances and deferments like candy — if you asked, you got one, whether you needed it or not. When repayment came due, most mortgage companies did not modify the loan, because rates at the time were 3 or 4% and a modification would have meant a higher rate and payment. Instead they took the missed amount — call it $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 — and attached it as a second balance. Your statement looks unchanged, but when a payoff demand is ordered, that amount is added to it. A reverse mortgage orders a payoff demand exactly like a regular refinance, so the new loan has to be big enough to cover the entire amount owed, deferment included. Nothing gets waived or settled for less. Nicholas also asks: *“Is the reverse mortgage at the original rate from when you bought the home, or a new rate?”* Look at it this way: if we're paying off the current loan on your house, you're getting a brand-new loan with a brand-new lender. The product is a reverse mortgage, but it is a refinance — you're subject to current interest rates at the time you apply, not the rate you have today. ### Owner-occupancy and when the loan comes due Unlike traditional mortgages, there's no set term length on a reverse mortgage. It doesn't have to be repaid until the borrowers permanently leave the home. And this part is important: a reverse mortgage is for your **owner-occupied primary residence only**. Live there until you're 120 — as long as you've maintained the property and paid your taxes, insurance, and HOA, they cannot make you repay, sell, or move. But the minute it's no longer your primary residence, you can't keep the loan. It has to be refinanced into a forward product with a monthly payment, or paid off. When you pass, the loan has to be paid off. Your heirs can sell the home, pay off the loan, and keep the difference; they can walk away and let the bank take it; or if it's upside down, they can buy it at appraised value. One more distinction people get tangled up in: if you're still *alive* and your child wants to buy the house from you while you owe more than it's worth, they have to pay off the full loan. The appraised-value option only kicks in after the borrower has passed. Someone asked if there's an age minimum — yes: most reverse mortgages are 62 and older, with some products down to 55\. This is a retirement vehicle, not something for someone still of working age. ### Q&A: what about a home that burned down? Serene asks: *“Can someone whose property burned down in the Eaton fire qualify for a reverse mortgage?”* I'll never claim to know everything, but I'm going to say 99.9% no. Somebody whose home burned down needs the home rebuilt, and a reverse mortgage is not a construction loan or a home improvement loan — it isn't set up to monitor and disburse rebuild funds. Most reverse mortgages are done through an FHA program, and FHA has very specific property guidelines: no busted windows or cracked tiles, working air conditioning, no roof leaks, no termite damage or peeling paint on the eaves. A home that isn't standing can't qualify. If I'm wrong, I'll do the research and reach out to you directly — I have your contact information. ### Wrap-up Reverse mortgages are truly a great retirement vehicle — but they're not for everybody. Just like we have 30-year fixed loans, HELOCs, adjustable-rate mortgages, FHA and VA loans, bank statement loans for the self-employed, and debt-service ratio loans for investors, there's a loan built for each individual situation. If you think this could be right for you or someone you know, reach out and let's see if it makes sense — and if it doesn't, there may be a better option. Go to mortgagemomradio.com and hit the contact button, or call the office. If you want to know when I go live each week, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4, the same number to reach me or the team. I'll be back next Wednesday. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of June 4, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Honoring Memorial Day and the History of the Holiday! URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/honoring-memorial-day-and-the-history-of-the-holiday/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:52.000Z **Listen · 0:42:18** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/2025-05-21%5F12-59-57.mp4?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Did you know that you are supposed to fly your flag at half mass until noon and then raise it until sundown? How did Memorial Day come to be, what are we celebrating, and how is it different than Veteran’s Day. Short history lesson from the Mortgage Mom! 844-935-3634, call us! Debbie Marcoux – AZ-0941504, CA-237926, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, ID, IL-031.0058339, NC, NV-57237, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926 | JMJ Financial Group NMLS ID #167867 |Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, Licensee Number 01134087\. Interest rates and products are subject to change without notice and may or may not be available at the time of loan commitment or lock-in. Borrowers must qualify at closing for all benefits. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/145662216/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### The Fed Meeting 5/7/2025 – Holding Rates Higher For Longer! URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-meeting-5-7-2025-holding-rates-higher-for-longer/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:52.000Z **Listen · 0:42:18** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/2025-05-07%5F14-15-21.mp4?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) The Fed is holding strong with their Higher For Longer stance. When will we finally get that first rate cut in 2025? 844-935-3634, call us! Debbie Marcoux – AZ-0941504, CA-237926, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, ID, IL-031.0058339, NC, NV-57237, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926 | JMJ Financial Group NMLS ID #167867 |Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, Licensee Number 01134087\. Interest rates and products are subject to change without notice and may or may not be available at the time of loan commitment or lock-in. Borrowers must qualify at closing for all benefits. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/145661891/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Will next weeks Fed meeting bring us a quick dip in the rates? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-next-weeks-fed-meeting-bring-us-a-quick-dip-in-the-rates/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:52.000Z **Listen · 0:42:18** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/2025-04-30%5F13-14-26.mp4?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Reading the economic reports this week, GDP was lower than anticipated. It was honestly quite bad, but consumer spending is up, month over month, from February to March 2025\. The Core PCE inflation numbers came in higher than expected, and it is anticipated that the Fed will hold rates steady at next Wednesday’s meeting. But, will we get a quick knee jerk reaction that will give many homeowners and homebuyers an opportunity to lock in an interest rate? 60% of analysts are expecting our first rate cut from the Fed in 2025 to be at their June meeting. Traders and investors will be hanging on to every word that is Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says trying to gauge their next move. I am predicting a good amount of volatility following the meeting. If the market swings in our favor, it could be the best rates that we have seen in 2025. 844-935-3634, call us! Debbie Marcoux – AZ-0941504, CA-237926, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, ID, IL-031.0058339, NC, NV-57237, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926 | JMJ Financial Group NMLS ID #167867 |Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, Licensee Number 01134087\. Interest rates and products are subject to change without notice and may or may not be available at the time of loan commitment or lock-in. Borrowers must qualify at closing for all benefits. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/145069299/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Property Taxes, Supplemental Bills, and Escrow Accounts URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/property-taxes-supplemental-bills-and-escrow-accounts/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:53.000Z **Listen · 0:42:18** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/Mortgage%5FMom%5FLive-Answering%5FYour%5FQuestions%5F.mp4?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) I focused on an issue that has been a major story in the media recently. Homeowners monthly payments are skyrocketing because of their property tax bills. Please understand how it works and what you can do as a homeowner or a new buyer to safeguard yourself from a messy situation later! 844-935-3634, call us! Debbie Marcoux – AZ-0941504, CA-237926, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, ID, IL-031.0058339, NC, NV-57237, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926 | JMJ Financial Group NMLS ID #167867 |Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, Licensee Number 01134087\. Interest rates and products are subject to change without notice and may or may not be available at the time of loan commitment or lock-in. Borrowers must qualify at closing for all benefits. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/144899999/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Stock Market and Mortgage Rates Are Volatile! URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/stock-market-and-mortgage-rates-are-volatile/ Last updated: 2026-06-30T18:51:53.000Z **Listen · 0:43:31** Audio hosted by [Blubrry](https://blubrry.com/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com). [Download MP3 ↗](https://media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/media.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/ins.blubrry.com/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/Mortgage%5FMom%5FLive-Stock%5FMarket%5Fand%5FMortgage%5FRates%5Fare%5FVolatile%5F.mp4?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) Did you miss out on the quick dip in mortgage rates last Friday? Let’s get you ready to take advantage of the next dip. 844-935-3634, call us! Debbie Marcoux – AZ-0941504, CA-237926, Fl-LO76508, GA-69178, ID, IL-031.0058339, NC, NV-57237, OR, TN-184373, TX, WA-MLO-237926 | JMJ Financial Group NMLS ID #167867 |Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, Licensee Number 01134087\. Interest rates and products are subject to change without notice and may or may not be available at the time of loan commitment or lock-in. Borrowers must qualify at closing for all benefits. --- [Listen on the Blubrry network ↗](https://podcast.show/mortgage%5Fmom%5Fradio/episode/144679864/?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mortgage-mom-radio/id1455309244?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2SbAZaXjpchmWN0JUe0Oag?ref=mortgagemomradio.com) ### Will Home Prices Crash When Mortgage Rates Drop? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-home-prices-crash-when-mortgage-rates-drop/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:11.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Are Home Prices Going to Crash?” • Live show from Wednesday, April 16, 2025 • 34 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Scroll TikTok or Instagram long enough and you'll find video after video promising a housing crash the moment mortgage rates drop: locked-in sellers will flood the market with listings, and prices will tumble. Debbie has been through the Northridge quake, the Great Recession, and COVID in 30 years of real estate and lending — and in this episode she takes that theory apart piece by piece: what locked-in sellers will actually do, where inventory really stands, and why the foreclosure wave the crash videos need isn't coming. ## Key takeaways - **The viral crash theory:** when rates fall, everyone who's been sitting on a 2–4% mortgage lists at once, inventory floods the market, and prices collapse. Debbie's answer: more inventory will come — but so will a wave of buyers, and supply and demand will move together. - **Locked-in sellers won't race to the bottom.** These are the same owners who put life on hold to keep a great rate and payment. Many with heavy equity may keep the old home as a rental instead of selling at all — they're not going to get competitive on price unless they have to. - **Inventory is still tight:** about a 60-day supply today, versus 90–120 days in a normal market — and roughly 180 days or more during the 2007–2009 crash. Better than 2020–2022, but nowhere near crash territory. - **The foreclosure wave isn't coming.** Crashing prices need banks listing foreclosures below the last sale. Post-Dodd-Frank, roughly 95% of loans written since 2008 are full-income-documented, and owners with 10–50% equity sell rather than let a bank take the house. - **Demand is a coiled spring.** On April 4 — the best rates since October 2024, conventional in the mid-to-high sixes and government loans in the fives — just two good days produced a jump in pre-approvals, refinance applications, and purchase contracts. Debbie's trigger levels: around 6.5% conventional and 5.75% FHA/VA, demand spikes hard. - **Waiting hasn't paid.** Ask yourself where home values were when you first thought about buying versus today. Buyers in the current lull face less competition and better odds of seller credits than they will once rates drop. - **Her outlook:** appreciation decelerates, values flatten or dip a little in some pockets — but nothing is crashing. ## Chapters - 01:00The crash videos flooding social media - 03:30The theory: rate drops flood the market with listings - 05:00What locked-in sellers will actually do - 08:00Inventory today vs. a normal market vs. 2008 - 09:30Why the foreclosure wave isn't coming - 11:30Q&A: listed since January with no reasonable offers - 14:00What Dodd-Frank changed after the Great Recession - 16:30How borrowers qualify now — even without W-2s - 19:00The spring buying season and the school calendar - 22:00April 4: the best rates since October — and what two days did - 25:00Why waiting hasn't paid off - 28:0030 years of markets: the quake, the recession, COVID - 30:30Before you sell a 3–4% home, consider keeping it ## Questions answered on this show ### “My home has been on the market since January with only two lowball offers. What am I doing wrong?” Debbie's straight answer: if a home has sat since January with only low offers and no follow-up, it may simply be listed too high for today's market, where both prices and rates are at the top. The seller has options — pull it off the market and relist later, hold steady, or talk to the agent about a price reduction. Timing matters too: the spring buying season is just starting. Buyers get pre-approved and start looking in April, go under contract in May, close in June, and the run continues through Labor Day — because the school calendar, plus the holidays and winter weather, drives when families are willing to move. If the goal is a sale now, a price conversation is the honest place to start; if not, the seasonal pickup is arriving. ### Buying, selling, or waiting it out? Talk through your timing Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### The crash videos flooding social media Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about whether I think the housing market is going to crash. Like everybody, I flip through TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube when there's downtime — and I keep coming across video after video claiming the housing market is going to crash. I listen to them, and I want to take what they say into account, but I do not agree at all with their reasoning. This matters because a lot of people are affected by it. There are people who haven't jumped into the housing market yet, under the false impression that if they just wait longer they'll get in at a lower price. And there are homeowners who would really like to sell and move, but have been holding out for rates to drop further. None of the people making these videos are names I recognize or anyone I'd tell you to be listening to — but it's social media, it's out there, and I believe it's genuinely scaring people. ### The theory: rate drops flood the market Here's the argument these videos make. So many people have been waiting to list their homes because they don't want to trade a 3 or 4% interest rate — some of you have a 2% rate — for something like 7%. As rates come down, the theory goes, all of those sellers list at once, the market floods with inventory, and prices fall because it becomes a buyer's market. I can sort of see what they're trying to say. Now let's get into the nitty-gritty of why it doesn't hold up. ### What locked-in sellers will actually do Yes — people who want to downsize because the kids moved out, or upsize because they ran out of space, have put those plans on hold. The normal cyclical movement we'd see year after year — kids graduating, getting married, buying first homes; people retiring and downsizing — hasn't been happening. Everybody's been sitting in a stalemate. But think about what those owners will actually do when rates come down. Many of them have a ton of equity. Realistically, we are probably not coming back to the low fours or high threes anytime in the next four or five years — it would take economic changes beyond our control. When rates stabilize, we're anticipating somewhere between about 4.75% and 5.25% as the new normal. So if you have a home at 3 or 4% with a pile of equity, are you going to sell it — or hang on to it as an investment and go buy something new? A lot of those “pent-up sellers” won't list at all. Some will, of course — at 4.75–5.25%, the math gets forgivable enough that they'll sell and buy again. So we will see more inventory come to market. But when that happens, we'll also see many more buyers come to market. Supply and demand move together. ### Inventory today vs. a normal market vs. 2008 Right now we're very low on supply — better than 2020, 2021, and 2022, but still only at about a 60-day inventory level. A normal market needs more than 90 days; they really like to see about 120 days of inventory. In 2007, 2008, and 2009, during the housing recession, we had inventory around six months — 180 days and sometimes more. We're not going to see that kind of inventory again, for two reasons: falling rates bring more buyers to meet the new listings, and we're not going to see the foreclosures. ### Why the foreclosure wave isn't coming For prices to tumble, you need foreclosures. You need banks pricing foreclosed homes below the last sale in the neighborhood, forcing every other seller to come down to compete — and then things start to cascade. We're not seeing foreclosures come, and we're not seeing default rates increase. Too many homeowners have too much equity. If you're struggling to make your payment, you call your lender for help — and if they can't help, are you going to let the bank foreclose when you have 10, 15, 20, sometimes 40 or 50% equity? No. You're going to sell. ### What Dodd-Frank changed after the Great Recession The foreclosures haven't come back since '07–'08, when the CFPB rolled in and the Dodd-Frank Act was written. The whole point was to give the mortgage and banking industry guidelines for making loans. Here's the simple version of what went wrong back then: anybody with a good credit score could get a mortgage with zero money down and no income verification. People were stating incomes they didn't make, buying homes to flip in a month or two. When everything halted — rates up, buyers gone — the person on the hook couldn't actually afford the payment, and the foreclosures began. Since the industry was regulated, we have been qualifying borrowers to be able to make their payments. There will always be some foreclosures in every market — a job loss, an illness, a couple that needed two incomes — that's par for the course no matter how well we underwrite. But the job market is strong right now, and everyone who has gotten a mortgage in this era has qualified with W-2s, pay stubs, and tax returns. Even self-employed borrowers in the non-QM space show 12 to 24 months of bank statements. Investors using debt-service loans put 25 to 35% down, and we verify that market rents cover the full principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. I'd say about 95% of the loans written since 2008 have been full-income-documented. We are not going to rerun the Great Recession's foreclosure market. ### Q&A: listed since January with no offers William writes: *“I've had my home on the market since January with only two offers, both way low. I countered with no comeback. Viewings have gone up a little — but still no reasonable offers.”* I'm very frank, and I'm not trying to be mean: if your home has been listed since January with only a couple of low offers and nothing since, you very well may just be listed too high for today's market. Rates are high, prices are high, and that combination makes housing genuinely unaffordable for a lot of buyers — which is why closings have been in a lull. Sellers like William, who probably has a great rate on his own mortgage, are in no hurry to drop their price, and that's their right — they can sit and wait. But if the goal really is to get the house sold, talk to your real estate agent about a price reduction. And hold the season in mind. We're just entering the normal buying season: buyers get excited and pre-approved in spring, start looking in April, go under contract in May, deals close in June, and it runs through about Labor Day weekend. Then things slow down — holidays, weather, and above all school. Kids are in class from roughly mid-August to mid-May (or September to June depending on the state), and most families don't want to move mid-year. So: you may be priced a little high, or you may just need to hold steady into the season that's starting now. ### April 4: the best rates since October Last week on Wednesday's show — that was the 9th — I talked about the Friday before, April 4: the best interest rates we had seen since October of 2024\. Thursday was good; Friday was the best; and then we hit resistance and bounced right back up. You can watch the stock market for the pattern — when stocks are doing great, rates get worse; when stocks tumble, rates get better. Here's what matters: from just those two good days — rates down into the mid-to-high sixes for conventional and the fives for government financing, FHA and VA — we saw an uptick in pre-approval applications, refinance applications, and purchase contracts. Two days. So when rates genuinely reach about 6.5% conventional and about 5.75% on government loans and keep falling from there, we are going to see a huge spike in demand. Yes, more inventory is coming — and so is a wave of buyers. ### Why waiting hasn't paid off If you've been wanting to buy and put it on hold: go back to the day you first thought, “I'd love to buy.” Where were home values then? Where are they today? Has waiting done you any justice? Somebody who bought last year took a rate at 7.25 or 7.5% — but their home is worth more today, and they got in before the demand wave. Right now there are fewer buyers in the market, less competition, and better luck getting sellers to help with credits toward closing costs. If you need to buy or need to sell, we are right around the corner from demand and inventory both spiking — and now is a great time to get ahead of the curve. You don't have to take my word for it. Forbes published a piece on housing market predictions for 2025 and when home prices will drop — a money magazine, explaining in more detail than I did why they don't believe a crash is coming either. There will be some pockets around the country that see adjustment, and they expect deceleration: appreciation slowing down, maybe flat, maybe down a little. But a housing crash around the corner? Nothing's crashing. ### Thirty years of markets Read up and come to your own conclusion — but I can tell you where mine comes from. I started selling homes in 1994 and doing mortgages in 2002, and it's 2025\. I lived through the Northridge earthquake in California and watched property values plummet from something completely out of anyone's control. I lived through the Great Recession. I lived through COVID and watched what happens when the Federal Reserve drops rates to zero and leaves them there too long — and what happens when inflation gets out of control, which is where we've been. We're now starting to get inflation back under control. I've been through all the waves, the bumps, and the ups and downs. One more thing for Californians: because of the wildfires, rents are up, and home values have actually spiked in many of those communities — the shortage got worse, not better. The fires did not drop values the way the Northridge quake did. And no one has a crystal ball — another natural disaster nobody can predict could absolutely change my view. But as things stand, I think it's a very good time to buy: a stalemate market, fewer buyers, less competition, and sellers more willing to negotiate. ### Wrap-up If you own a home with a 3 or 4% rate and you're thinking of selling, talk to me first — there may be a better option, like keeping that property as a long-term rental or a short-term vacation rental and starting to build your portfolio. Go to mortgagemomradio.com — don't forget the radio — and schedule an appointment so we can talk about your situation and your timing. I'm here every Wednesday at 1 PM with another hot topic. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your week. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of April 16, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### How Much Does It Cost to Refinance a Mortgage — and When Is It Worth It? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-refinance-a-mortgage-and-when-is-it-worth-it/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:28.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “How Much Does A Refinance Cost?” • Live show from Wednesday, February 26, 2025 • 40 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Rates dropped fast in a week and a half — FHA refinances from about 6.875% to around 6.25%, conventional from roughly 7.5% to about 6.75% — and that puts refinancing back on the table for everyone who bought between 2022 and 2024\. In this episode, Debbie breaks down exactly what a refinance costs: nonrecurring versus recurring closing costs, lender-paid versus borrower-paid deals, how FHA and VA streamlines work, why the “no-cost refinance” ads really mean a slightly higher rate, and the break-even math that decides whether pulling the trigger makes sense. ## Key takeaways - **Rates moved fast.** In about ten days, FHA rate-and-term refinances went from roughly 6.875% to locking around 6.25%, and conventional refinances from about 7.5% to around 6.75% — the closest to October 2024's rally since it ended. - **You can't lock without an application in the pipeline.** Locking versus floating is always the borrower's choice — not the loan officer's — but the choice only exists once your file is in the system. Start the application, name your target rate, and lock the moment it hits. - **The half-percent rule depends on your balance.** A drop of at least 0.5% is the starting point — but on a $200,000–$300,000 loan you may need 0.75% to a full point for the math to work, while on a $450,000-to-$1M California-sized balance, half a percent can mean serious monthly savings (one client in process was set to save $750 a month). - **Streamlines skip the paperwork.** FHA and VA streamline refinances need no appraisal, no W-2s, no pay stubs. The catch: an FHA streamline cannot finance closing costs or grow your balance — which is where lender credits come in. - **“No-cost refinance” decoded:** the lender takes a rebate for selling a rate about a quarter percent above that day's par pricing and uses it to pay your one-time (nonrecurring) costs — escrow, title, credit report, appraisal, underwriting — which average about $4,500–$5,000. - **In a falling-rate market, minimize cost over rate.** Spend $5,500 to save $300 a month and you need 18 months to break even — too long if rates may drop again in six. A near-zero-cost refi leaves you free to refinance again without hesitation. - **Who should call now:** FHA or VA at 6.5% or higher, and any conventional or jumbo loan above 7% — either to lock today or to get on the callback list with a target rate. ## Chapters - 01:00Rates are falling — and oil's strange correlation - 03:00Why nobody can honestly advertise one rate - 04:30Where refinance rates were ten days ago vs. today - 06:00How rate rallies run, stall, and resume - 08:00Float or lock: whose choice it really is - 10:00Who should be refinancing: the 2022–2024 buyers - 11:00The half-percent rule and your loan balance - 13:00FHA and VA streamline refinances explained - 14:30Lender-paid vs. borrower-paid closing costs - 16:30Nonrecurring vs. recurring costs - 18:30Escrow accounts, impounds, and your refund - 20:30The no-skipped-payment FHA streamline workaround - 24:30“No-cost refinance” ads, decoded - 27:00Break-even math in a falling-rate market - 31:00Who should call today — and the rate-watch list - 35:00Do the math yourself with the calculators ## This week's numbers (week of February 26, 2025 — averages, not quotes) - FHA streamline refinance: locking around **6.25%** (about 6.875% ten days earlier) - Conventional rate-and-term refinance: around **6.75%** (about 7.5% ten days earlier) - Average nonrecurring closing costs on a refinance — escrow, title, notary, credit report, appraisal, underwriting and processing combined: **$4,500–$5,000** - Lender-paid (“no-cost”) refinance: expect a rate roughly **a quarter percent above** that day's par pricing in exchange for the lender covering those costs *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find your break-even number before you refinance Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Rates are falling — and oil's strange correlation Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about interest rates — they are coming down, which has been great. I've mentioned before that although they don't directly correlate, interest rates will often move with oil: as the price per barrel drops, many times we see rates come down as well. So this is fabulous news. But we need to talk about refinances and closing costs, because with rates on the downward escalator, a lot of people can benefit from a refinance — and you need to know what it will cost you and when it makes sense to pull the trigger. ### Why nobody can honestly advertise one rate How far have rates come down? We're not quite back to October 2024 — those were by far the best rates we've seen since the Federal Reserve started raising its rate at the end of 2021, through the crazy moves of 2022 and into 2023 — but we are getting very close. First, the disclaimers, because everybody gets a different rate. The property type affects it — single family, townhome, condo, one to four units. Your credit score affects it. Whether you include property taxes and insurance in the monthly payment or pay them separately affects it. Your loan balance, your home's value, your equity or down payment — your loan-to-value — all of it changes the rate. That's why I can't just say “rates are 2.99%, call me today” — and no commercial should be doing that either, because nothing can be guaranteed to anybody. ### Where refinance rates were ten days ago vs. today But to give you an example: go back not to this past Monday but the Monday before. A standard conventional refinance with 20% equity, no cash out, was right around 7.5%. An FHA refinance, same goal, with a credit score of 700 or above, was just below 7% — about 6.875%. As of today, we are locking FHA refinances right around 6.25%, and conventional refinances under 7% — right around 6.75%. That is a huge move in just over a week. ### How rate rallies run, stall, and resume Will it keep dropping? That's the big question. I sure hope so. The market looks like we should see a nice little rally for the next couple of days to a week, and then we'll probably taper off — that's what always happens. We see a run down, it stops, we run back up (never quite as high as where we left off), and then another run downward pushes past the last low. We're in the downward motion right now. Think about the calendar: it's already February 26\. The last time rates were almost this good was early October — November, December, January, and most of February have passed, four months, and we still haven't hit those numbers. I'm confident we'll see them again, probably during this rally. If you've been thinking about refinancing, get the application started so we can hit the lock button when we need to. Ask yourself: do you have time to wait a year? A year and a half? The people who didn't move fast enough in October have been sitting on hold ever since — we have a whole list of clients waiting for those rates to come back. ### Float or lock: whose choice it really is Starting an application does not mean locking a rate. Floating or locking is your choice as the consumer — and I'll be honest, many loan officers will lock you in without ever telling you it was your choice. It is your choice. We can start your application and you can say: “Debbie, if the rate gets to this number, lock me in and let's go” — and that's exactly what I have to do for you. But if there's no application in my system, I cannot lock anything. You have to have an active loan in the pipeline to lock an interest rate. ### Who should be refinancing now Who is this good for right now? Clients who bought or refinanced from mid-2022 through all of 2023 and most of 2024 — everything except that brief October window — are carrying rates well into the sevens. I have clients at 7.875%, 7.75%, 7.5%. If we can get you at least half a percent below what you have today, we want to look at the numbers. I won't guarantee half a percent is enough — it depends on your balance. The lower the balance, the bigger the savings has to be to justify the closing costs. On a $200,000 or $300,000 loan, you may need three-quarters of a point to a full point — if you're at 7.5%, you may need to wait for 6.5% or even 6%. But a lot of you listening are in California, where a balance of $600,000, $700,000, $900,000 is conservative. At those numbers, a half-percent improvement is a very real monthly difference — at 7.25 or 7.5% today with 6.75% available, it's going to be well worth it. ### FHA and VA streamline refinances Let's talk closing costs, starting with FHA — because most people with an FHA mortgage who want a better rate should be looking at an FHA streamline, not a standard refinance, unless they need cash out. The same goes for VA loans: if you have a VA loan at a higher rate, you can streamline it too. With a streamline, the lender doesn't want you borrowing more than your current balance — the goal is to lower your payment without increasing what you owe. There's no appraisal, no W-2s, no pay stubs. But there are still closing costs, and here's the key difference: with a VA streamline you can finance the closing costs into the loan. With an FHA streamline you cannot — they have to be handled another way. ### Lender-paid vs. borrower-paid closing costs Across the board — FHA, VA, conventional, jumbo — there are two ways to structure a refinance: lender-paid closing costs or borrower-paid. When the lender pays your costs, what's actually happening is a rebate: if the going par rate today is, say, 6.5% and I write your loan at 6.75%, the higher rate generates a rebate — call it $4,000\. I don't pocket that money; I apply it to your closing costs. That's how we make FHA streamlines work even though we can't raise your balance to absorb the costs. ### Nonrecurring vs. recurring costs Nonrecurring closing costs are the one-time fees for getting the new loan: appraisal (when one is required), escrow, title insurance, credit report, notary, underwriting and processing. Those are what a lender credit can cover. Recurring costs are different — they're the ongoing costs of owning the home that continue whether you keep your current mortgage or get a new one: property taxes, homeowners insurance, and mortgage interest. If you like your taxes and insurance bundled into one payment — impounded, or escrowed; the words are interchangeable — then every new loan has to establish a fresh impound account. Look at your current mortgage statement: most servicers show your escrow balance, the money you've saved up so the bank can pay the tax bill and the insurance bill when they come due. That account has to be rebuilt with every new loan. ### Escrow accounts, impounds, and your refund On a VA streamline, a conventional, or a jumbo loan, you can finance the new impound account into the loan — or bring it in out of pocket. With an FHA streamline you can't increase the balance, so here's how we handle it. Say you call me on February 26 and we close March 28\. Normally you'd make an April 1 payment. Instead of skipping that payment — which is what people love about refinancing — we have you make your April payment to the escrow or title company handling the closing. That payment amount covers the new impound balance. You still come out ahead, because within 30 days of being paid off, your old servicer — Lakeview, Mr. Cooper, PennyMac, whoever it is — is required by law to refund whatever is sitting in your old escrow account. If your statement shows a $5,000 escrow balance, that check comes back to you. So on a streamline: lender credit covers the one-time costs, you keep making payments without skipping, and you get your old escrow balance refunded. On the loan types that allow financing everything, it comes down to preference. Finance all the costs, take the lowest rate available, skip a payment, and still get the escrow refund; or keep the new balance as close to today's as possible and take a lender credit instead. There are several ways to structure it — the point is to understand what you're choosing. ### “No-cost refinance” ads, decoded Do not get baited. You're about to see mortgage companies jumping out of the woodwork with radio and TV ads shouting “no-cost refinance.” Now you know what that means: a rate roughly a quarter percent higher than that day's par pricing, with the lender using the rebate from the higher rate to pay your closing costs. It's not free — it's a trade. ### Break-even math in a falling-rate market So which way is better? Honest answer: it depends on the environment, and I'd have told you something different two years ago. In a rising-rate environment, you want the very best rate you can get — maybe even paying discount points to buy it down — because you're going to hold that payment for a long time. That's not where we are. We're in a downward trend, which means we could refinance you today and rates could be better again in three or four months — good enough to do it again. So right now, you want to limit what you spend on closing costs, because you need to earn back whatever you spend before the refinance has actually saved you anything. Say you skip the credit, take the lowest rate, and pay $5,500 in nonrecurring costs to save $300 a month: you need 18 months just to break even. We don't want you trapped for 18 months in a falling market. But if the lender pays those one-time costs and the refinance costs you nothing, then when rates drop again in four, five, six months, there's no hesitation — you do it again, and stack another savings on top. What does a refinance actually cost? It varies with the loan size — title insurance is priced on the loan amount, and appraisals cost more for bigger, higher-value homes. But bundling it all together — escrow, title, notary, credit report, appraisal if needed, underwriting and processing — on average you're between $4,500 and $5,000\. If a lender credit can offset that, you break even almost immediately and stay free to move again. ### Who should call today Here's where to start. FHA or VA: if your rate is 6.5% or higher, reach out at least to talk numbers — what rate do you need for it to make sense? — and get on the list for us to call the moment it's there. Conventional or jumbo: if you're above 7%, absolutely reach out today; there's a good chance we could be doing it right now. I have a client in underwriting whose lock we're about a day away from — she's going to save $750 a month. It all depends on your loan amount, your loan type, and your current rate — and that's what we're here to figure out with you. The people who took their time in October, waiting for rates to get even lower, missed four months of savings at $200, $300, $500 a month. ### Do the math yourself If you'd rather explore on your own before making a call — I'm like that too — get the Mortgage Mom Radio tools app. It has the calculators: put in your loan balance, try different rates, add your annual taxes and insurance, and see the monthly payments and the savings. There's an affordability calculator if you've been thinking about buying. Text the words PHONE APP to 844-935-3634 and you'll get a link back to save the app to your phone. ### Wrap-up Do not wait — if a refinance could be good for you, get yourself rolling. Call the office at 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — or go to mortgagemomradio.com, don't forget the radio, and click the appointment button; that books directly onto my calendar and you'll get a call from me personally. If you want to know when I go live each week, text the word LIVE to that same number. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and I'm here every Wednesday. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 26, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### The Fed Paused Rate Cuts — What It Means for Mortgage Rates URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-paused-rate-cuts-what-it-means-for-mortgage-rates/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:28.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Fed Pauses Rate Cuts!” • Live show from Wednesday, January 29, 2025 • 30 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve held rates steady after three straight cuts — and the headlines immediately made it about politics. Debbie watched the entire press conference so you don't have to. In this episode, recorded the day of the Fed meeting, she reads the FOMC statement in full, separates what Chair Powell actually said from what the media wrote about it, and explains the part most people miss: mortgage rates don't follow the Fed funds rate — and they actually *improved* on the day of the pause. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed held its target range at 4.25–4.5%** after three consecutive cuts, calling the labor market solid, inflation “somewhat elevated,” and current policy sufficiently restrictive — and signaled that several meetings could pass before the next cut. March looks unlikely. - **Powell stayed strictly neutral.** Pressed repeatedly about President Trump's demand for immediate rate cuts, tariffs, and deportations, he refused to comment or speculate — “it's not appropriate for me to do so.” Debbie's read: the pause was about a strong economy, not politics, whatever the headlines imply. - **Mortgage rates are not the Fed funds rate.** They trade daily like the stock market, moving with bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and Treasuries. When the Fed cut earlier, mortgage rates shot *up*; on this expected pause, they actually got *better*. - **Rates at the time of the show:** conventional 30-year around 6.875–7%, FHA/VA around 6.5%, and non-QM products (bank statement, DSCR investor loans) from about 7.5% up to 8.5–9% — all depending on credit, property type, and down payment. - **What restarts the cuts:** inflation convincingly heading to the 2% target, consumer spending cooling, or cracks in the job market (unemployment was 4.1%). The Fed's own projection was two cuts in 2025; Debbie's call, for what it's worth: three. - **The rhythm to expect:** mortgage rates run down for a week or two, stall, bounce partway back, hold, then grind lower again. After worsening almost daily since October 2024's lows, they had just turned back down — good news for anyone purchasing or refinancing. ## Chapters - 01:00Flying solo: first show without a producer - 03:00The Fed pauses — what happened today - 04:00The FOMC statement, read in full - 06:00What “sufficiently restrictive” actually means - 07:00Did Trump pressure the Fed? What Powell really said - 09:00Tariffs, immigration, and the no-comment answers - 10:00Headlines vs. the press conference - 13:00No cut in March? Reading between the lines - 16:30Why mortgage rates improved on a no-cut day - 19:30Q&A: what has to happen for rates to fall after March - 22:30Oil, energy prices, and consumer spending - 24:00Q&A: where mortgage rates are right now ## Questions answered on this show ### “What would have to happen after March for interest rates to come down?” The Fed said it expects only two cuts in 2025 and will move only when the data forces it: inflation convincingly cooling toward the 2% target, real trouble in the jobs market, or a faltering economy. Inflation comes down when spending comes down — consumers have been overspending, many tapped out on credit cards, and retailers won't cut prices until people stop buying. Some costs are out of a consumer's control (groceries, gas, power bills), and lower oil prices would help those directly. Debbie's own opinion, having watched this cycle play out before: 2024 delivered three cuts, and she expects 2025 will end up with three as well, not two. ### “What are mortgage rates currently?” On average, about 7% — with the usual caveat that loan type, credit score, down payment, property type, and debt ratios all change the quote. A standard conventional 30-year fixed with a strong down payment was running about 6.875–7%; FHA and VA loans with good credit around 6.5%; and riskier products — bank statement programs, DSCR investor loans, lower credit scores, or recent mortgage lates — starting around 7.5% and ranging up to 8.5–9%. ## This week's numbers (week of January 29, 2025 — averages, not quotes) - Fed funds target range: **4.25–4.5%**, held steady after three straight cuts - Unemployment rate: **4.1%** — a labor market the Fed calls solid - Inflation: still above the Fed's **2%** target - Conventional 30-year fixed: about **6.875–7%** - FHA / VA 30-year fixed: about **6.5%** - Non-QM (bank statement, DSCR investor): about **7.5%**, up to 8.5–9% depending on the file *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Wondering what the Fed's pause means for your loan? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Flying solo Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom — and this is the first show I've ever run entirely by myself. Mikey is here to guide me one last time; he's beginning a new career as an EMT, which I am so proud of him for, but he won't be with me next week, so I've got to learn all of this equipment on my own. New computer, new setup, and me — here we go. If the sound is off, let me know in the chat. ### The Fed pauses — what happened today The Federal Reserve had their meeting today, and they did not cut interest rates — they paused. As a matter of fact, they made it sound like a couple of meetings might go by before we see another cut. Many people are blaming President Trump for the pause, and we're going to talk about that. But first, the source material: I'm going to read you the press release, then tell you what I observed watching the actual press conference, and then we'll look at how the media wrote it up. ### The FOMC statement, read in full From the Federal Reserve's release: recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. The unemployment rate has stabilized at a low level in recent months, and labor market conditions remain solid. Inflation remains somewhat elevated. The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance. The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate. In support of its goals, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25 to 4.5%. In considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. The Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities, agency debt, and agency mortgage-backed securities. It is strongly committed to supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to its 2% objective, and would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge — taking into account labor market conditions, inflation pressures and expectations, and financial and international developments. In plain English: they believe the job market is strong, inflation is still too high, and the economy isn't cooling the way they'd previously anticipated. They consider the current Fed funds rate sufficiently restrictive — meaning it's positioned to keep slowing spending and inflation — and they think the economy is strong enough to handle rates at these levels without another cut. ### Did Trump pressure the Fed? What Powell really said Now, the Trump question. I sat and watched the entire press conference, and many of the questions circled him. The president has said he wants interest rates reduced, basically immediately — we all know how he talks — and the press kept asking whether the Fed would respond to that. The Fed stayed very strong, very neutral, and very tight-lipped: no comment on suggestions from any person of any political party, including the president. This is something I've covered on past shows — including one right before the election on rate environments under different presidents — the Federal Reserve is a neutral entity. It does not take direction from any individual. Do I think there's still some politics in there somewhere? That's human nature. But on paper, in black and white, they are a neutral party making decisions based on what's best for the economy. They came at Chair Powell with questions about tariffs — whether tariffs on goods would increase inflation. Tight-lipped, no answer. They asked about deportations and whether removing workers would strain the job market. Again: no comment, he said, because he can't speak to speculation about things that haven't happened. He did not answer a single hypothetical, and honestly, that's what he should do. ### Headlines vs. the press conference Then you go to Yahoo Finance and the headline reads: “Cautious Fed holds rates steady with Trump unknowns looming over outlook.” What you're seeing in the media is not necessarily what happened in the room. Being fair to Mr. Powell, he did not say a single word suggesting politics drove the decision. What he said was that the economy is strong, unemployment is low at 4.1%, people are still buying goods, and cutting the rate doesn't make sense right now. The article did make one fair point, and I'll read it: “I'm not going to have any response or comment whatsoever on what the president said,” Powell told reporters Wednesday after the Fed held rates steady following three straight cuts. “It's not appropriate for me to do so.” But it was clear from his comments that several unknowns about the new administration's economic policies could affect future Fed policy, forcing the central bank to remain cautious. That part I agree with: the Fed can't make decisions about the future without knowing how the changes being made right now will affect the economy, inflation, and jobs. So form your own opinion about the administration's policies — but what you read and see in the media is not always what was actually said. ### No cut in March? The other thing I took from the press conference: it doesn't look like there's a rate cut coming in March. Now, we've been told before that no cut was coming and then — boom — there was one, and we've been told rates wouldn't rise and they rose anyway. Six weeks is a long time: jobs reports, inflation reports, a lot of moving parts between now and the next meeting. But as of today, March looks like a pause too. At their last meeting they projected only two cuts for 2025\. My own opinion — and I said for a long time that cuts wouldn't start until the fourth quarter of 2024, which is exactly what happened — is that we'll actually see three cuts this year, just like we got three in 2024\. That's just my read, from doing this as long as I have. ### Why mortgage rates improved on a no-cut day Here's the bright light, and I've said this before: mortgage rates have nothing to do with the Federal Reserve's rate directly. Mortgage rates are based on notes, bonds, mortgage-backed securities, Treasuries — we're very much like the stock market, moving up and down daily depending on where money is flowing. Remember when the Fed was cutting and mortgage rates shot through the roof? Doesn't make sense, right? Today is the mirror image: the expectation was no cut, we got no cut, and mortgage rates actually improved. Honestly, since October 2024 — the best rates we'd had in about two and a half to three years — mortgage rates got worse almost daily. But over the last couple of weeks, with the market anticipating this pause, rates have started getting better, and today's announcement helped again. This is the pattern: a nice run down for a week or two, then a stall, then a partial bounce back up — never quite as high as before — then a hold, then slowly down again. Right now we're in the coming-down stretch, which is fabulous news for anybody looking at a mortgage, a refinance, or a purchase. Rates are better today than a week ago, and better than the week before that. ### Q&A: what has to happen for rates to fall after March A viewer asks: *“What should the conditions be after March for interest rates to come down?”* The Fed will cut only when they see either inflation cooling with certainty toward that 2% level, serious unemployment, or genuine trouble in the economy. As long as they believe the economy and the job market can sustain this restrictive funds rate, they'll cut only when absolutely necessary. So very few cuts in 2025 is possible — they say two; I think we'll see three. How does inflation actually come down? Prices of goods and services have to come down, and that happens when spending comes down. Consumers in this country have been spending absolutely crazy amounts of money — that's why so many people are tapped out on credit cards. Some things you can't control: groceries, gas at the pump, your power bill — and we all know the power bills have been insane. A lot of that is oil-driven; if oil production rises the way the administration promises — “drill baby drill” — the per-barrel price should come down, which should bring home energy and pump prices with it. And here's a quirk worth knowing: pull up the old charts, and although they're not directly connected, when oil falls, mortgage rates very often follow. Beyond that, what we can control as consumers is spending: buy what you need, not what you want, or this stays a vicious cycle. ### Q&A: where mortgage rates are right now Another viewer asks what rates are currently. On average, about 7% — but it depends on the loan type, credit score, down payment, and property type; so many things go into a quote that nothing can be promised sight unseen. A standard conventional 30-year fixed with a strong down payment is running about 6.875 to 7%. A government loan — FHA or VA — assuming great credit and clean debt ratios, about 6.5%. Once you get into riskier territory — non-qualified mortgages like bank statement programs, debt-service-coverage investor loans, lower credit scores, or mortgage lates — you're starting around 7.5% and can range up to 8.5 or 9%. ### Wrap-up Today was a show about the Federal Reserve: what was said, what the press conference actually contained, and my opinion of what I read between the lines. The goal of this show is to keep you informed and educate you — that's all I do this for. I think I did pretty darn good running the show myself — you didn't even get any commercials. I'm here every Wednesday at 1 PM Pacific with a new topic. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4, the same number to reach my office — or go to mortgagemomradio.com and send me a message; it comes to me and I will respond. Have a great rest of your day, and I'll talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of January 29, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Lost Your Home in the LA Wildfires? Insurance Claims, FEMA Help, and Your Mortgage URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/lost-your-home-in-the-la-wildfires-insurance-claims-fema-help-and-your-mortgage/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:29.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “CA Wildfire Help and Information!” • Live show from Thursday, January 9, 2025 • 71 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Recorded live while the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires were still burning, this is Debbie's step-by-step guide for anyone who lost a home, has damage, or is evacuated — and for every California homeowner worried their fire insurance won't be renewed. She walks through 211 and immediate relief resources, documenting your losses, insurance claims and the California FAIR Plan, applying with FEMA, what happens to loans in escrow in LA County, and why you must call your mortgage servicer. ## Key takeaways - **Start with 211.** Dialing 211 connects you with shelter placement, including a temporary-housing program through Airbnb. Placements fill up, then reopen as evacuees go home — keep calling every day. Uber and Lyft ran relief ride codes, and Planet Fitness opened its showers. - **Document everything, today.** Make a list of everything you own and what it cost. Pull receipts from your Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot, and other store accounts; walk your house for 15 minutes taking photos of every room; store it all in the cloud. Every homeowner should do this — not just fire victims. - **Get copies of your insurance policies and ask about claim windows.** Some claims can't be filed until the disaster is declared over, and claims have deadlines. If your policy covers rent while you rebuild, that's what keeps you housed — ask the question directly. - **FEMA supplements insurance; it doesn't replace it.** The presidential disaster declaration made LA County eligible. FEMA generally helps with the primary residence only — not second homes or investment properties — and covers what insurance doesn't: rental assistance, lodging reimbursement, repair money, and more. If you had no insurance at all, still apply. - **Loans in escrow in LA County are on hold.** Nothing funds until FEMA declares the disaster over; then the appraiser must re-inspect the property with new photos. Expect roughly a week's delay if your home is undamaged — Debbie still expected her January closings to make it. - **You are not required to rebuild.** You can use an insurance payout to buy elsewhere — but a replacement-cost policy and an actual-cash-value policy pay very differently, so read yours. - **If your policy is dropped, do not go bare.** Start with an insurance broker; if no carrier will write the home, the California FAIR Plan (fire only) plus a companion policy is the fallback. It's expensive — carry it anyway. And your mortgage payment is still due after a fire, so call your servicer and ask about a deferment. ## Chapters - 02:00Who this show is for: loss, damage, evacuation, or a worried policyholder - 04:00Call 211 first: shelter and Airbnb temporary housing - 06:00Relief ride codes, free showers, and other immediate help - 08:00Step one: breathe, then inventory everything you own - 10:00Rebuilding receipts from Amazon, Best Buy, and store accounts - 14:00Get copies of your policies; does yours cover rent? - 16:00California FAIR Plan holders have two policies — find both - 20:00FEMA: who's eligible and what it covers - 27:00Do you have to rebuild? Replacement cost vs. actual cash value - 29:00Q&A: loans in escrow in LA County — the FEMA hold and re-inspection - 36:00Debris removal and cleaning smoke and soot damage - 40:00After fire comes flood: mudslide risk and why to hope for a drizzle - 42:00Q&A: lost income, lost jobs, and disaster assistance - 46:00What insurance cost in 2018 vs. today — and the FAIR Plan, explained - 55:00Your mortgage is still due: call your servicer about a deferment - 65:00The full recovery checklist, step by step ## Questions answered on this show ### “Will the insurance difficulties affect purchases and refinances?” Right now, yes. Debbie had three loans set to close that day — a purchase, a HELOC, and a reverse mortgage, all in LA County — and none can fund while FEMA's disaster declaration covers the county. Once FEMA recognizes the disaster as over, the appraiser must go back out, do a drive-by, and photograph the home to verify there's no damage; then the loan closes. Expect about a week's delay on undamaged properties. New transactions started after the disaster will get fresh appraisals with current photos, so it gets easier from there — but every LA County real estate transaction in process should plan on a hold. ### “Should affected people still go to work? Is there help for lost income?” If you safely can, keep working — staying in your normal rhythm protects your mental footing. Debbie's own loan processor was evacuated with a burned garage and was working from an RV parked in front of her mom's house. If your job itself is gone because of the fires, there are assistance programs for disaster-related job loss — check FEMA, the Disaster Assistance Improvement Program, state and local relief funds, and resource sites like Convoy of Hope. ### “My home is paid off, so no one requires me to carry insurance. Can I buy it now?” If your home is standing and undamaged — absolutely, and you should, even with a high deductible. A paid-off home is a huge asset; uninsured, it's like Bitcoin with a lost password — if it burns, the asset is simply gone. If you were uninsured and your area is federally declared a disaster, still file a FEMA application: FEMA covers eligible losses that insurance doesn't, and with no insurance, that's everything. ### Displaced, in escrow, or just unsure what to do next? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### Who this show is for Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom — and this is take two for today. I apologize to those who joined right at 1:00: I set my text alert to go out at 1:00 a.m. instead of 1:00 p.m., so I stopped the stream and waited for the text to go out at 1:15. Many of you joining today have questions and you're not sure what to do. You may have lost your home in the fire. You may be evacuated with damage that wasn't a total loss. And many of you with no damage at all are asking: what happens when my fire insurance policy comes up for renewal and my carrier drops me, like they've dropped so many others? In one recent year, well over two hundred thousand California policies were cancelled by private carriers, and many of those people never found new fire insurance — and there is fire insurance to be found. So today I want to give you resources, key steps, where to start, and how to move forward. I'll say up front: I am not an insurance agent, so I can't answer questions about your specific policy. But I've been scouring the news and doing research since yesterday, and I have pages of notes for you. This is live and interactive — put your questions in the feed and I'll answer them. ### Immediate help: 211, rides, and showers The single most important starting point: from your cell phone, dial **211**. They help with assistance like finding a place to stay if you've been evacuated or lost your home, including a temporary-housing program through Airbnb. Right before I went live I saw the Airbnb vouchers may have filled up — but call anyway. A lot of evacuees in those placements will go home once they can, and that opens up space. If you're displaced, call 211, see what they tell you, and keep calling every day. If you lost your car or can't reach it, Uber and Lyft have been helping. Uber was covering rides up to $40 with a relief code, and Lyft had its own California fire relief code — check their apps for the current codes. Planet Fitness is offering free access to showers through January 15 at locations that are still open. A Toyota dealership was offering free rental cars. New help is coming out every day — two websites I found genuinely useful were **Convoy of Hope** and **Frontline Wildfire Defense**; both have pages of practical resources. ### Step one: breathe, then document everything If you have damage or a total loss, the very first thing to do sounds silly: sit down and breathe. Collect yourself. Then start making a list of everything that was in your home — every personal belonging — and next to each item, what it cost you. And if you're watching because you're worried about a future cancellation, this part is for you too. Every single homeowner should stop today, take 15 minutes, and walk the house taking pictures: the sofa, the refrigerator, the TVs, the garage, the computers, the bedroom sets, the jewelry box. Keep receipts for anything new you buy. Most of us shop online now — log into your Best Buy account, your Amazon account, Home Depot, Lowe's, Pottery Barn, wherever you've bought things, and start downloading receipts. They go back a long way. Put everything into OneDrive or Dropbox — somewhere in the cloud — so that even if you lost your computer, you'd still have access. Old birthday-party photos can also show what you owned. If you've had a loss, that inventory — what you had, what you paid, and a check mark next to everything destroyed or unsalvageable — is what the insurance companies need to see. ### Your insurance policy: get it, read it, ask about rent Next: reach out to your insurance agent and get a copy of your policy. Read through it, and if you don't understand it, have your agent walk you through it. Understand your deductible. Ask the big question directly: **if I'm displaced, does my policy cover rent somewhere else while I rebuild?** Your mortgage will most likely keep moving forward and you'll most likely keep making payments — we'll come back to that — so rent coverage is what keeps you housed in the meantime. If you have a California FAIR Plan policy, remember that FAIR Plan covers fire and wildfire disaster only — like earthquake coverage, it's a single-peril policy. Your broker should also have set you up with a companion policy that covers everything else a normal homeowners policy would. That means FAIR Plan households have *two* policies — find both, and file both claims where they apply. Your agent can also walk you through how and when to make a claim. This matters: **claims have timelines.** Some claims can't be made until the disaster has been declared over — and yesterday, Wednesday, the president declared a state of emergency, which brings FEMA into the picture. Ask your agent what your windows are, and don't miss them. ### FEMA: who qualifies and what it covers You can't apply for FEMA assistance unless the president has declared your area a disaster — and that's now happened, so everyone in LA County dealing with these fires is eligible to apply. You'll need to be a U.S. citizen, non-citizen national, or qualified non-citizen (the FEMA website defines those), verify your identity, and verify ownership or occupancy. Understand what FEMA is: *FEMA assistance is intended to supplement, not replace*. Your insurance kicks in first; FEMA helps offset what insurance doesn't cover. And FEMA typically helps with your **primary residence only** — if you lost an investment property or a second home, they're generally not going to make up the difference. What can FEMA provide? Rental assistance while you're displaced. Lodging expense reimbursement for hotel or motel stays. Home repair or replacement money, including utilities and residential infrastructure. Accessibility-needs money for survivors with a disability. Personal property assistance. Transportation, medical, dental, and funeral assistance. Temporary housing units when rental assistance isn't available, and hazard mitigation to help rebuild stronger. To calculate and verify losses, a home inspection is required. And for the interviews you've seen of people who had no insurance at all because their carrier dropped them — FEMA is exactly who can still help them. How much, I can't say; I don't work for FEMA. But get the application in, through FEMA's website. The Red Cross and Salvation Army are also there for immediate help. ### Do you have to rebuild? Some homeowners will want to rebuild; others will want to use this as an opportunity to relocate. The short answer: **no, you do not have to rebuild.** You can use your insurance payout to purchase a new home. Weigh the cost of moving against the cost of rebuilding: debris removal, mold mitigation, materials and labor, re-landscaping, ideally to the latest fire codes. If you have a replacement-cost-value policy, those expenses are probably covered. If you have an actual-cash-value policy, cleanup alone may exceed the policy, forcing you to pay out of pocket. This is where your insurance agent earns their keep — know which policy you have before you decide. ### Q&A: escrow and closings in LA County Mary asks: *“Do you think the insurance difficulties will affect future purchases and refinances?”* Right now, yes. I have three loans that were supposed to close today — a home equity line of credit, a purchase, and a reverse mortgage — all in LA County. Because the president has declared a state of emergency and the FEMA map covers all of LA County, I cannot fund a loan there until FEMA declares the disaster over. Once that happens, the appraiser has to go back out to the property — not inside, but a drive-by with photos — to verify there's no damage. If your home lucked out, we fund and close. So if you're in escrow on any real estate transaction — purchase, refinance, HELOC — talk to your loan officer and your agent and expect a delay. Could it be a week? Very possibly. Will these close this month? I absolutely believe so, as long as the winds die down, the fires get put out, and there isn't another wind event — I don't have a crystal ball. Moving forward it gets easier: brand-new transactions will order brand-new appraisals with current photos of the property and the surrounding comparables. As for what this does to home values — there's just no way to know until it's over. ### Debris, soot, and smoke What do you do with fire-damaged items? In many cases materials are too damaged to save. Start by calling whoever handles your trash service and ask how debris removal will work — you still own that land, and you're still the responsible owner. Then work your inventory: everything you own, with a check mark next to what's destroyed. If your home is standing but smoke-damaged, there's a lot you can learn to do: removing soot, ventilating, washing walls, wiping down appliances and electronics with a vinegar solution or an enzymatic smoke cleaner, deep-cleaning the HVAC, washing clothing with vinegar (it may take several cycles), and sending rugs and curtains out for professional cleaning. I saw a news story about the only house still standing in its row on PCH, and I told my son: nobody got lucky in this. The smoke, the water, the smell from every home that burned around it — that owner has enormous work ahead. Frontline Wildfire Defense's site covers this in detail, down to textile cleaning. One more thing: after fire comes flood. I saw people praying for a huge rainstorm — please don't. Fire-hardened soil sheds water almost like ceramic; with the vegetation gone, hillsides erode and slide, streams clog with debris, and drainage systems fail. Pray for a light drizzle and calm winds, not a downpour. ### Q&A: work and lost income Michelle asks: *“Should affected people still go to work? Is there anything that can help with their income?”* If you can safely work, work. I was on the phone today with my loan processor — she's evacuated, there was fire in her garage, everything's covered in soot, no power, contaminated water — and she's working from her RV parked in front of her mom's house. Keeping your normal rhythm keeps your mental stability; it's easy to spiral if you let everything stop. If your job itself is gone because of the fires, there are programs for that too — look at FEMA, the Disaster Assistance Improvement Program, state and local relief funds, and the resource pages at Convoy of Hope. ### What insurance costs now — and the FAIR Plan, explained Let's talk about renewals, because a huge number of Californians have lost coverage since 2018–2019, entire condo complexes included, and it's been getting more expensive every year. In 2018, on a $600,000 purchase, I'd quote homeowners insurance around $1,200 a year — call it $80 to $100 a month. Today, that same buyer, I'm quoting more like $150 a month — an $1,800 to $2,000-a-year policy. And if they're shopping in a known high-fire area, I tell them we need an insurance quote *before* I'll even finish the pre-approval, because the FAIR Plan can change the whole payment. If your carrier drops you, do not go without insurance. Start with an insurance **broker** — a broker shops many companies to see who will take your home. I use one for my clients constantly, and I'm happy to share his name and number; call my office or message me through the website. If no carrier will write the home, the **California FAIR Plan** is the last-resort option. It's expensive — that's why many people who were dropped never replaced their coverage — but the people hosing down uninsured homes on the news are the reason you carry it anyway. If it takes giving up a car payment to afford the premium, do it. What the FAIR Plan actually is: it's not a state agency and not taxpayer-funded. It was established by statute in 1968 as a syndicated fire-insurance pool made up of every insurer licensed to write property casualty business in California. Each member company shares the plan's profits, losses, and expenses in proportion to its market share in the state. Your FAIR Plan policy is written out of that pool. Expect it to work like earthquake insurance: deductibles based on percentages, not a flat $1,000 or $2,000\. If you have a FAIR Plan and you've had a loss, get your hands on that policy, understand your share, then apply to FEMA to help offset what comes out of your pocket. And remember the companion policy — FAIR Plan won't cover the slip-and-fall or the burst pipe; that's what the second policy is for, and it's why we quote both when we pre-approve you. ### Your mortgage after a fire The last step: if you have a mortgage, call your mortgage company. If your house burned down, the mortgage does not go away — you still have to make the payment; the insurance is what's there to offset your losses. But every servicer is different, and just like during COVID, some will offer help. Call the 800 number on your statement, tell them you've had damage or a complete loss, and ask if there's anything they can do temporarily. They may be willing to defer payments for a couple of months while you get settled. I can't promise they will — but it is absolutely worth the phone call. ### The checklist, one more time One: breathe, and get yourself somewhere safe — 211, the Red Cross, a shelter. Two: make the list of everything you own and what it's worth, and dig for receipts through every store account you have. Three: if your home is standing, walk it today and photograph everything — and call your agent about riders for expensive jewelry or art so you're insured accurately. Four: get copies of your policies from your insurance agent, learn your claim timelines, and don't miss your window. Five: file with FEMA. Then re-evaluate from there. If I've done a mortgage for you and I have a copy of your policy, reach out and I'll send it over. If I can help with anything at all, I will research, I will Google, I will try to find answers for you. ### Wrap-up I hope this helped even one person. Call me at 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — or go to mortgagemomradio.com and use the contact button, and I'll send you anything I can find to point you in the right direction. Prayers for less wind, for just a small dusting of rain, and for all of our first responders. I'll be back next week — talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of January 9, 2025, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### The Fed Cut Rates — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Up and the Dow Drop 1,100 Points? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-cut-rates-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-up-and-the-dow-drop-1-100-points/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:14.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “The Fed Dropped Rates / Dow Down 1100PTS” • Live show from Wednesday, December 18, 2024 • 46 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Hours after the Federal Reserve cut its rate a quarter point on December 18, 2024, the Dow dropped more than 1,100 points and mortgage rate sheets got *worse*. Broadcasting the same afternoon, Debbie reads the Fed's statement in full, explains why a rate cut sent mortgage rates up — the Fed signaled only two cuts for 2025 — and gives her own read on what actually happens next for buyers and refinancers. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed cut a quarter point — and mortgage rates went up anyway.** The cut, to a 4.25–4.5% target range, was fully anticipated and already priced into rate sheets. What moved markets was the Fed signaling only **two cuts in 2025**, down from four in its prior forecast. - **The Dow lost 1,123 points (2.58%) to 42,326.87** — its 10th straight losing day, the worst streak since an 11-day slide in 1974, and about 6% off since it first closed above 45,000 on December 4\. The 10-year Treasury crossed above 4.5% after the announcement. - **The Fed funds rate moves credit cards, HELOCs, car loans, and new student loans** — not 30-year mortgages, which track mortgage-backed securities, notes, bonds, and treasuries. The Fed also said it will keep selling mortgage-backed securities off its balance sheet, which works against mortgage rates. - **Something unusual was happening:** normally when stocks sell off, money rotates into bonds and mortgage rates improve. In roughly 30 years in the business, Debbie hadn't seen stocks and rate sheets fall apart together like this. - **Debbie's own call, not the Fed's:** she doesn't buy the two-cut forecast — she expects three to four cuts in 2025, doesn't believe unemployment will come in as rosy as the Fed projects, and thinks rates in December 2025 will be lower than December 2024\. Her trigger number: if mortgage rates reach about 5.875%, expect a wave of listings, sales, and competition. - **Don't try to time this market.** Home prices hadn't come down — just softened, with longer days on market and more seller credits. If you need to buy, refinance, or consolidate debt, get prepared and stay close to your loan officer so you can lock when the window opens. ## Chapters - 02:00Rates worsening, the Dow down 1,100: what today covers - 04:00The Fed's December statement, read in full - 06:00Debbie's read on the press conference: vague and disappointing - 11:00What the Fed funds rate actually touches — and what it doesn't - 12:00Where mortgage rates really come from - 14:00Inside the CNBC report: a 10-day losing streak, worst since 1974 - 16:00Why an anticipated cut was already priced in - 17:00Only two cuts projected for 2025 - 19:00The 10-year crosses 4.5%; the market's verdict - 20:00Debbie calls BS on the Fed's unemployment outlook - 25:00Q&A: stocks fell, the Fed cut — why not house prices? - 28:00Q&A: do mortgage rates follow Fed cuts at all? - 34:00Debbie's 2025 forecast: three to four cuts, better rates by December - 36:00Q&A: will home prices drop as rates drop? - 41:00Q&A: can a locked rate move to a different property? - 44:00Wrap-up: last show of 2024 ## Questions answered on this show ### “Stocks went down and the Fed cut rates — so why didn't mortgage rates and house prices come down?” As of that day: stocks down, the Fed funds rate down a quarter — and mortgage rates up. Home prices hadn't truly dropped either; the market had only softened. Homes were sitting longer, buyers were winning closing-cost credits that were unheard of earlier, and sellers who listed above the last comparable sale were having to come back down to it before getting offers. But with inventory still very low, sellers holding out for their price were still largely getting it. Year over year, rates in December 2024 were still lower than December 2023 — the trend was down, with peaks and valleys, and this week was a peak. ### “Is it true that mortgage rates don't really come down when Fed rates do?” Exactly true. The Fed funds rate directly moves credit cards, HELOCs, new car loans, and new student loans — shorter-term five-, six-, seven-year money. Mortgage rates live in the mortgage-backed securities market. And the Fed said in this very statement that it would keep selling mortgage-backed securities off its balance sheet; selling in bulk means selling at a discount, which pushes mortgage rates the wrong way. If the Fed ever turned around and started *buying* mortgage-backed securities again, that would genuinely help. ### “Will home prices drop as interest rates drop?” Debbie's answer: probably the opposite. December through February is already the softest stretch of the year. Her marker: when rates reach about 5.875%, expect a surge — more listings, more sales, more first-time buyers, more move-up sellers — and inventory isn't deep enough to absorb that demand, so she expects appreciation to pick back up as rates fall. Which makes the window *before* the surge, when you can still negotiate price or closing-cost credits to buy the rate down, the opportunity. ### “I locked 6.5% on a property. Can I pay cash for that house and apply the locked rate to a different property?” No. A rate lock is tied to the borrower *and* the property address — the transaction — not to you alone, so it can't be transferred to a different address; you'd start over and re-lock at today's pricing. And an existing mortgage note works the same way: sell the property and the note gets paid off, not moved. If your locked rate is better than anything quotable today, consider closing that loan with the locked rate and paying cash for the second property instead. ### Get ready before the next Fed move, not after Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was sponsored by Vera Nelson of Hythe Realty, Pasadena.* ### A cut from the Fed — and everything got worse Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking all about the Federal Reserve. They did come out and cut interest rates by a quarter — but now we're seeing massive changes. Mortgage rates are going through the roof: we've already had a worsening-prices rate sheet today, and we'll probably have higher rates again tomorrow. The Dow has dropped by 1,100 points. So we're going to start with the Fed's own announcement, then get into why the Dow is dropping and why mortgage rates are getting worse even though the Federal Reserve rate just went down. ### The Fed's December statement This was released at 2 p.m. Eastern today. It says: recent indicators suggest economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. Labor market conditions have generally eased, and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low. Inflation has made progress toward the committee's 2% objective but remains somewhat elevated. The committee judges the risks to its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance; the outlook is uncertain. In support of its goals, the committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point, to 4¼ to 4½ percent. In considering additional adjustments, the committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. The committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities, agency debt, and agency mortgage-backed securities. Basically, what they're saying is: things are not looking great. I watched a lot of the press conference afterward, and my read on the 2025 outlook was that it was weak. Earlier this year they were telling us how many cuts to expect in 2025, and they made them sound significant. Today they wouldn't commit — not ruling more cuts out, but giving us nothing to hold onto. Vague, and to me, very disappointing. Notice that line about mortgage-backed securities: when the Fed keeps selling MBS off its books, there just isn't the same appetite in that bond market — and that is not good news for mortgages. ### What the Fed funds rate touches — and what it doesn't The federal funds rate is directly connected to credit cards, home equity lines of credit, student loans, car loans — short-term borrowing. With three cuts now behind us, you'll see those rates slowly move down. But home mortgage rates are not tied to the Federal Reserve rate. We're tied to mortgage-backed securities, notes, bonds, treasuries — to where investors are putting their money. When money moves into bonds and longer-term, safer investments, mortgage rates improve. When it pours into stocks, rates climb. That's the general rule — not exactly how it works, but a good way to hold it. Since the election the stock market had been doing great, and our rates had been creeping up alongside it. ### The Dow's historic slide Now to what's happening in the market, and I'll credit CNBC fully for this reporting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank deeper into the history books on Wednesday, posting its 10th straight losing day as a disappointing rate outlook from the Fed rocked the market. The Dow lost 1,123 points — 2.58% — to 42,326.87, its biggest loss since August and its worst losing streak since an 11-day slide in 1974\. The streak began the session after the Dow closed above 45,000 for the first time ever on December 4, and the losses total about 6%. And here's the context: we're at roughly the 11th day of mortgage rates climbing too. Our rate sheets move on *anticipation* — you've heard me use that word for years. The market had been anticipating exactly this small, insignificant quarter-point cut, so it was already built in. What wasn't built in: the Fed indicated it would only cut **twice in 2025**, down from the four cuts in its last forecast. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the cuts already made allow the Fed to be “more cautious.” Treasury yields jumped on that cautious outlook — the 10-year crossed above 4.5% — and, as DoubleLine's CEO put it on CNBC's Closing Bell, the takeaway was that there's not going to be an aggressive cutting cycle, and the market is pretty much in sync with that. Here's what makes no sense to me after roughly 30 years in this industry: typically when stocks fall, our rate sheets improve, because money rotates out of aggressive positions into safer, longer-term investments like mortgage-backed securities. That is not happening right now. Stocks are down *and* rates are getting worse at the same time. It's a very weird moment, and nobody — not even a very good economist — can tell you exactly how it plays out. ### Where I break with the Fed The Fed's projections see unemployment staying low. I'm going to call BS on that. I don't think we'll see lower unemployment in 2025 — I think the unemployment numbers we've been getting haven't been accurate and will need to be revised. And if unemployment starts showing real cracks, everything said today can turn around very quickly. They come out, they make a statement, fear and excitement move the market immediately — then the real numbers arrive and it's a whole different animal. That's why prediction is so hard. The statement also suggested the Fed thinks its rate is “no longer clearly restrictive,” so it's a logical time to pause. In my opinion we are still restrictive, and two cuts in 2025 will not be enough. I can absolutely see why investors were concerned after this meeting. ### Q&A: stocks, rates, and house prices Michelle asks: *“Stocks went down, interest rates down, but consumer and house prices didn't come down — am I right?”* Let's line it up. As of today: stocks down, yes. The Federal Reserve rate down a quarter, yes. Mortgage rates — up. And no, house prices have truly not come down. We've seen softening: homes staying on the market a little longer, buyers getting closing-cost credits where it used to be nearly impossible to get any credit at all, and sellers having to come back to reality. It used to be you could list above the last sale in your tract and probably get it; now those listings sit until the price comes down to the last comparable sale — and then they move. But inventory is still very low, so sellers holding out for their price are still mostly winning. And keep the year-over-year view: rates today are definitely lower than December 2023\. We keep getting peaks and valleys; today is a peak. Michelle also asks: *“Is it true that mortgage rates don't really come down when Fed rates are down?”* Exactly true — the things directly connected to the Fed rate are your credit cards, your HELOC, the rate on a new car loan or student loan. Mortgage rates are part of the mortgage-backed securities market, and with the Fed continuing to sell MBS off its balance sheet — bulk selling at discounted prices — it's not helping our rates at all. If they went into a big buying cycle instead, that would help. ### My 2025 forecast — opinion, clearly labeled Nobody can tell you what's going to happen next year — and if you watch anyone on any platform who claims they can, take what they say, take what someone else says, and land in the middle. But here's my track record and my call: back in 2022 and 2023 I said we wouldn't see the first rate cuts until the end of the third quarter or beginning of the fourth — go back to my old videos — and that's exactly what happened. I don't believe we'll see only two cuts in 2025\. I think we more than likely see three to four, once the data forces their hand. And I believe that in December 2025, rates will be lower than they are today, December 2024\. That is my personal opinion — do not hang your hat on it. Meanwhile: people are not going to lose their homes right now. They've got tons of equity, great interest rates, and monthly payments cheaper than rent. If you need to buy — growing family, empty nest, whatever it is — you cannot really time this market. There are ways to buy the rate down for the first couple of years while this craziness plays out, and then refinance at a lower rate later. We've never been here before — nobody alive has operated through the aftermath of COVID-era zero rates — so get things done based on need, get comfortable, and improve from there as rates come down. ### Q&A: will home prices drop as rates drop? Ynot asks: *“Will home prices drop as interest rates drop?”* I'd actually say no. Right now is the softest point of the market — November through February is always slow; people don't want to move during the holidays. Here's my number: I believe if we see rates get into the high fives — 5.875% — we're going to see a lot more movement. More listings, more sales, more first-time buyers, more people trading up, more people renting one home out to buy the next. And I don't think inventory can handle everyone who jumps in at that point. So as rates come down, I expect home appreciation to pick up, not prices to drop. Which means your best window is now through the next couple of months: a chance at a price reduction or closing-cost credits from the seller, which we can use to dramatically lower your rate and payment. ### Q&A: can a locked rate move to another property? John asks: *“I locked in a rate at 6.5% for a property. Can I pay for this property in cash and apply this rate to a different property?”* That answer is no, in both directions the question could go. If you have an existing mortgage note at 6.5% tied to a property, selling that property pays the note off — it can't be transferred. And if you're under contract with a locked rate, the lock is tied to the borrower *and* the property address — that transaction — not just to you and your social. Start a loan on a new address and you're starting over, re-locking at whatever the market gives you. If you've got the cash and your locked rate beats today's quotes, consider closing the financed loan at the locked rate and paying cash for the other property. ### Wrap-up: last show of 2024 This is my last show of the year — I'll be back the first Wednesday after the first. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4, and it's also the office number if you'd like to talk anything through one-on-one. You can also reach me through the contact button at mortgagemomradio.com. A big shout-out to Vera Nelson, whose commercial ran throughout today's show — she and her team in Pasadena cover a huge stretch of Southern California, from Bakersfield to San Bernardino to Victorville, and I've watched them do a great job for years. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy New Year — goodbye 2024, and fingers crossed we see some greatness with rates in 2025\. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of December 18, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Should You Wait for Lower Mortgage Rates to Buy or Refinance? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-wait-for-lower-mortgage-rates-to-buy-or-refinance/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:15.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Should you wait for lower rates?” • Live show from Wednesday, September 25, 2024 • 41 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 One week after the Fed's half-point cut of September 2024, everyone was asking Debbie the same two questions: did mortgage rates just drop half a percent (no — they actually ticked up), and should I wait — for lower rates, or for the election — before I buy or refinance? Her answer runs on one principle: you act on need, not on timing. She breaks down when a refinance makes sense, why buyers should get in ahead of the herd, and why no election decides your mortgage rate — the Federal Reserve does. ## Key takeaways - **Rates were already way down from the peak.** A year earlier rates were around 7¼–7½% (touching 8% at one point); as of this show the average was about 6¼%, with FHA and VA already in the 5s. - **The Fed's half-point cut did not drop mortgage rates half a point.** The cut was priced in through anticipation; the week after, mortgage rates were actually slightly *higher*. Mortgage rates follow the market — mortgage-backed securities, notes, bonds, treasuries — not the Fed funds rate. - **Refinance on need, not on timing.** If it saves you meaningfully today, do it — you can refinance again. FHA and VA streamlines can be done roughly every six payments (closer to seven months on VA), often with closing costs covered, so there's no reason to keep paying a higher rate while you wait for the bottom. - **Cash-out and rate-and-term price differently.** Debt-consolidation and cash-out refinances cost more, so size them right the first time — and pad any contractor bid, because renovation always grows. Simple rate-and-term drops can often be structured with lender credits so the refinance costs you nothing. - **Buyers: get ahead of the herd.** Mortgage applications jumped 46% after one rate cut. Inventory was still short — roughly 1.8 million U.S. listings versus about 2.4 million pre-pandemic, around a three-month supply — so every future cut brings more competition for the same homes. - **Waiting for the election was pointless.** The Federal Reserve — an independent body, not either party — sets the policy rate based on inflation, employment, and the economy. Where the market is in December, January, or February after a vote looks very much like it does before it. - **A rough rule of thumb Debbie uses:** on a $500,000 30-year loan, a 1% lower rate is about $500 a month — which is why she pushes streamline refinances so hard for FHA/VA borrowers still sitting in the 7s. ## Chapters - 01:00Where rates stand: 6¼% average, FHA/VA in the 5s - 03:00Refinance on need, not on a crystal ball - 04:00Cash-out vs. rate-and-term: why they price differently - 06:00Sizing a renovation cash-out (bids always grow) - 08:00FHA-to-conventional: dropping mortgage insurance and the rate together - 09:00Streamline refinances: every six to seven payments - 10:00“Did rates drop half a percent?” — no, and here's why - 12:00The watch-and-see phase before November and December - 15:00Should buyers wait for lower rates? - 17:00“Marry the house, date the rate” — why Debbie never loved it - 18:00Affordability math: what 1% does to $500,000 - 20:00A 46% jump in applications after one cut - 21:00Inventory check: 1.8 million listings, three-month supply - 22:00Waiting for the election? The Fed doesn't care who wins - 31:00Locked into a 3% rate but drowning in card debt - 34:00Q&A: ducks in a row, or start looking now? ## Questions answered on this show ### “Is it worth waiting until all my ducks are in a row to start looking, or should looking be part of getting my finances figured out?” Do both at once — there's no harm in window shopping. If you're thinking about relocating, researching the where and the what while you save for the down payment is exactly right: where you're looking determines what homes cost, which determines the down payment and income you need, which tells you what you qualify for. It all goes hand in hand, so keep researching on all angles while you get finances ready. ### Find out what your payment looks like at today's rates Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Where rates actually are Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about whether you should wait to buy or refi for interest rates to go lower. We've been on a great path: a year ago rates were about 7¼ to 7½% — they touched 8% at one point — and as of today we're at an average of about 6¼%. Why do I say average? Because it depends on the loan program. Conventional rates run higher than government loans, and FHA and VA rates today are actually in the 5% range. So I'm getting calls every day: should I pull the trigger on a refinance now or wait for lower? Should I buy now, or wait for rates — or wait for the election? Refinance and purchase get slightly different answers, so let's take them in turn. ### Refinance on need A refinance is done based on need. If you have no need — your rate doesn't bother you, you're not bleeding money every month — sit still and let it ride. But if you need debt paid off, or you need to drop your payment to make monthly cash flow comfortable, there is no reason to wait to see if rates go lower. Remember: you can refinance now, and refinance again, and again. The thing to mind is cost. The refinance has to make sense — the monthly savings need to justify it, or it needs to set you up for a cheaper refinance later. Cash-out refinances are simply priced higher; they're more expensive, and it's harder to structure lender credits to cover the closing costs. A simple rate-and-term refinance — nothing but lowering the rate and payment — we can do all day long with credits covering the costs, so it costs you nothing and still drops your payment. When we do go cash-out — debt consolidation, or combining a first and second into one loan — we want to do it once, and size it right. If you're renovating and the contractor's bid says $50,000, I've renovated three of my own homes and I promise you never land at that number. They repaint the kitchen, and now the dining room connected to it needs paint, and then the living room it opens onto. They open walls and find surprises. So we make sure we're pulling enough to actually finish the work — one refinance, one set of closing costs (which can be rolled into the loan; you don't have to come out of pocket). And sometimes the move is a program change: if you're in an FHA loan paying mortgage insurance and you've built a ton of equity, we look at moving you to conventional — still a rate-and-term refinance — removing the mortgage insurance and dropping the rate at the same time. If you're a streamline candidate — FHA or VA, just lowering the rate and payment — remember you can do those after as few as six payments (VA runs a little longer, closer to seven months). If it costs you nothing to do it, why keep paying a higher payment every month? Drop it today, and drop it again in six or seven months if rates keep falling. ### “Did rates drop half a percent last week?” Since the Fed's announcement last week I have gotten call after call — from buyers, from real estate agents, from people mid-transaction — asking the same thing: did interest rates drop by half a percent? **They did not.** Mortgage rates today are actually slightly higher than they were a week ago, when the Fed cut. Why? Because mortgage rates are based on the market and on *anticipation*. Everybody was already pricing in that cut; the rate sheets were hyped up before it landed. We got the cut, and now we're in the watch-and-see phase — a little of the excitement has come off. The Fed said in its press conference that the goal is to cut again in November, again in December, and to keep cutting through 2025 and into 2026\. You'd think rates would be falling on that news — but the market is asking: are we really going to get that November cut? Will inflation turn the wrong way and stop them? Nobody knows, so we watch the reports, week by week, for the five weeks until the next meeting. Meanwhile, keep perspective: rates are still far better than a year ago, six months ago, three months ago, even a month ago. Which brings me back to the rule — you never sit and try to time it. If there's a need and it would significantly help you, you do it, and we look at doing it again if rates tumble further. ### Should buyers wait? Buying a home is personal, and it's driven by need: you've outgrown the place, your landlord is selling, your job is relocating you. So I wouldn't say sit and wait — but I also was never a big advocate of the old “marry the house, date the rate” line from 18 months ago. Dating the rate when the payment puts you in over your head is not something I'll recommend. What I pushed instead were 2-1 buydowns and structures that reduce the rate for the first couple of years at an affordable payment while the market comes back to you — and that's still my philosophy. Here's what's changed: affordability. If you got pre-approved 18 months, a year, even six months ago and didn't like your number, get re-checked, because as rates come down, the same payment buys a higher price. On a $500,000 property, a 1% drop in rate on a 30-year note is about $500 a month. That's also why I've been pushing streamlines so hard — we have so many FHA and VA clients sitting in the sevens who could be in the fives today. And with the national average home sale price around $448,000 last I checked, a $500,000 mortgage is a very standard mortgage these days. Now the competition piece. Get this: since the Fed's half-point cut last week, mortgage loan applications are up **46%**. That's from *one* rate cut. What happens on cut number two and cut number three? Buyers come out of the woodwork — people get up off the couch and out onto the street. I checked listings again today: we're at roughly 1.8 million listings nationwide, still well below the roughly 2.4 million we had in 2019 before the pandemic — about a three-month supply. As rates get lower, that shortage is going to feel really icky again. If you've been telling yourself you really want to buy, bells should be ringing: start before the craziness begins. ### The election is not a rate strategy The other thing I hear every day: “Should I wait for the election? Whoever wins will drop interest rates.” Let me be very clear, without getting political: **the Federal Reserve decides the policy rate, and the Federal Reserve is independent of both parties.** Those 3% rates in 2020 were a direct result of the pandemic — the Fed dropping rates to stave off a massive recession — not of whoever occupied the White House. The Fed cut by half a point last week; that had nothing to do with either party. It says it plans to cut in November and December; that has nothing to do with either party either. Here's the honest connection between your vote and your rate: the Fed reacts to the economy. If inflation stays low and jobs hold up, the cuts continue; if inflation turns, they stop. So vote for whoever you believe is best for the economy — but understand that where we are today and where we'll be in December, January, or February after an election will look very, very similar. It takes a long time to get into trouble and a long time to get out. If you need to buy, my recommendation is to get a jump ahead of all the people who've been waiting and watching — get out in front of them before they're your competition. And one aside from the chat, because I get this a lot: yes, the stimulus-check era put money in nearly everyone's hands, including plenty of people who didn't need it, and that spending fed the inflation we've been fighting since. That's history now — but it's why the Fed has been where it's been. ### Locked into 3% but drowning in debt One more group I need to talk to: clients with a very low rate on their mortgage who are convinced there's no help for them. American credit card debt is at an all-time high. Many of you have a lot of it, and you won't call because you're dead set against losing your 3% first mortgage. Please don't put yourself in that position. There are home equity lines of credit that leave your first mortgage untouched, and full cash-out refinances where the blended math genuinely works — when you compare what you're paying on cards and equity lines against the balances involved, sometimes giving up the low rate is the better move, and sometimes it isn't. Linda from the chat and her husband are a real example: he didn't want to give up their 3.6% first, and it still penciled out better to consolidate the HELOC. We run the numbers, we show you, and the decision is yours — we don't bite, we don't push, and if we have nothing that helps you today, we'll say exactly that and put you on the list to call when rates get there. ### Q&A: ducks in a row? Ynot asks: *“Is it worth waiting until all ducks are in a row to start looking, or should it be an ongoing process — looking for what and where while getting finances figured?”* Keep doing exactly what you're doing. There's never any harm in window shopping. If you're considering relocating to another state, figuring out where while you save your down payment is the right order of operations: where you're looking drives what you'd spend, which drives what you need down and what income qualifies you. It all goes hand in hand — research on all angles, in every direction, while you move through the process. ### Wrap-up If you don't want to miss a live show, get on my weekly list: text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week with the link when I go live. That's also the office number if you want to talk through your own numbers, or use the contact button at mortgagemomradio.com. I'll be back next Wednesday about 1:00\. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 25, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Mortgage Rates Improved Half a Percent in a Week — Should You Buy Before the Fed Cuts? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/mortgage-rates-improved-half-a-percent-in-a-week-should-you-buy-before-the-fed-cuts/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:31.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Retail Sales Disappoint. Mortgage Rates Are Improving!” • Live show from Wednesday, May 15, 2024 • 28 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 April retail sales came in flat, a week after a weaker-than-expected jobs report — and mortgage rates responded by improving about half a percent in roughly a week. In this episode, recorded the day the retail sales report landed, Debbie explains why bad economic news is good news for mortgage rates, why a recession doesn't automatically mean falling home prices, and why the time to get pre-approved is *before* the Fed announces its first cut, not after. ## Key takeaways - **Mortgage rates improved about half a percent in the 6–7 days** before this show — think 7% moving toward 6.5%, though every borrower's rate depends on credit score, property type, and loan program — driven by a weak unemployment report and April retail sales coming in flat against expectations. - **The economy cooling is exactly what the Fed says it needs** before cutting. With two disappointing reports in a row, some economists were already pricing a cut at the next Fed meeting (about four weeks out); Debbie's call was the meeting after that, sooner than her earlier fourth-quarter prediction. - **Get pre-approved before the first cut is announced.** Once the Fed cuts, buyers flood back into a market with very low inventory. A pre-approval stays open as long as documents are refreshed — pay stubs and bank statements are good for 60 days, a credit report for 120 — so starting now doesn't force you to buy tomorrow. - **A recession doesn't automatically drop home prices.** A Bankrate article published two days before the show still projected home values rising 6.4% in 2024 with no decline expected in 2025, because low inventory keeps sellers in control. - **This is not 2008.** That crash was caused by loan programs that let almost anyone qualify. Post-crisis regulation (the CFPB, Dodd-Frank) means today's homeowners had to document income and qualify — and a housing bust doesn't happen while owners can afford their payments and inventory stays scarce. - **Sellers who need their equity for the next purchase become contingent buyers** — the first offers rejected in a multiple-offer situation. Options like a home equity line to pay off maxed-out cards (raising your credit score before you list) can help you buy without selling first. - **Waiting has a long history of backfiring.** Debbie's example: buyers who balked at roughly 7.3% rates in 1971 waited two decades for cheaper money — and home prices had quadrupled by 1991\. Buydowns (2-1, 1-1, 3-1) and seller concessions can lower today's payment while you wait to refinance. ## Chapters - 01:00Mortgage rates are improving — welcome - 02:00Retail sales disappoint: the report that moved rates - 03:00The headlines: consumers are finally pulling back - 05:00CNN: “the backbone of America's economy” stumbles - 06:00When will the Fed cut? Economists start pricing it in - 07:00Why cuts matter: credit cards, car loans, small business - 10:00Half a percent better in a week - 11:00Getting ahead of the market in real time - 13:00How long a pre-approval really lasts - 14:00Recession vs. home prices: what history says - 15:00Bankrate: values still projected up 6.4% in 2024 - 16:00The contingent-buyer trap for sellers - 17:00Low inventory and two years of pent-up demand - 19:00Buy now, refinance later — and buydown programs - 22:00Why 2008 was different - 24:00The 1971 lesson: what waiting cost buyers ### Want to get ahead of the market before the first cut? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Mortgage rates are getting better Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we are talking about mortgage rates — mortgage rates are getting better, and I love to see that. This is an interactive show, so please feel free to put your questions into the feed; I will read them out and answer them for you. Mortgage interest rates are definitely improving, and we are starting to see all of the reports come in that indicate the economy is cooling. Today a huge report came out about retail sales. As I've mentioned in many episodes, the best thing we can do as consumers is stop our unnecessary spending — that sends the biggest ripple effect through the economy, one that cannot be ignored. We have now seen a worse-than-expected unemployment report, and now a worse-than-expected retail sales report, and we're hoping the next inflation report comes in looking better than the last two. These are all signs we're moving in the right direction. The Fed is going to have to think very hard about its next decision. If they keep pushing, they could very quickly drop us into a rough recession — and honestly, my opinion as the Mortgage Mom is that we've been in a recession for quite some time. Inflation and the cost of everything has kept spending *looking* higher than it truly has been. ### The headlines: consumers are pulling back These are the headlines you should be seeing across your Google page today. CNN: “The backbone of America's economy was just dealt a serious blow” — great headline, I love it. Barron's: April retail sales disappoint, consumers are pulling back — thank goodness, bravo to all of you. Yahoo Finance: retail sales flat in April, falling short of Wall Street's expectations. Let me read a quick piece of that CNN article. US consumers could be reaching their breaking point — I believe we already have. After dealing with elevated inflation and the highest interest rates in decades, they're starting to rein in their spending. Retail sales in April were unchanged from March, when spending had increased by a downwardly revised amount, and April's number missed the increase economists had projected. The figures are adjusted for seasonal swings but not inflation. This is all really great news, because we need the economy to cool off. The Fed keeps saying, over and over, that when they see the economy cooling is when they'll highly consider rate cuts. Because of last week's unemployment report and today's retail sales report, many economists are already starting to price in a rate cut at the next Fed meeting — about four weeks from now. I would love to see it. I would love to be wrong — I kept saying I didn't think we'd see the first cut until about September, the last quarter of this year, and I'd be thrilled if it came sooner. It's something we all need. Credit card interest is directly connected to the Federal Reserve prime rate. We all need to refinance those auto loans taken since 2021 when rates started to climb. Many of you are sitting on more credit card debt than ever before, there are more personal loans outstanding than ever, and small businesses are having a very difficult time getting financing to stay open. We are seeing the signs of inflation cooling the economy, which is what the Fed wants — but if they hold rates too high for too long, we could absolutely see a disaster. I have a feeling they'll cut a little sooner than the fourth quarter I was expecting. Maybe not the meeting four weeks from now, but I believe probably the meeting after that. ### Half a percent better in a week We have been on a downward trend in mortgage rates — which is what everybody wants to hear — since the unemployment report came out last week, and rates have continued to get better every single day. Today's retail sales report coming in worse than expected threw a really nice wrench into the rate sheets, in our favor. To give you an example: we've improved by about half a percent over the last six to seven days. Half a percent in interest rate is a lot — if mortgage rates were 7%, now we're talking six and a half. Now, every loan program is different and every person gets a different rate: your credit score, the type of property, the loan program you're using all determine your rate. But we've seen about a half-percent improvement in a week, and from today's report, it doesn't look like that's going to stop anytime soon. ### Get ahead of the market If you're watching me right now, you're getting information in real time. Most people aren't in this industry — you're busy, you're getting kids ready, you're going to work, and you may not hear this news as rapidly as I get it. So I've been saying for a long time: you need to get out ahead of the market. Maybe your plans have been on hold. You want to sell your home, but your current rate and payment are lower than what you'd get on the next house. First-time buyers keep feeling priced out. You've heard loan officers say “buy now and refinance later” and thought, yeah right, I can't afford that payment. But I can tell you very confidently that right now is the time to start that application. Getting pre-approved does not mean you have to buy a home tomorrow. Pre-approvals stay good as long as we keep updating your documents: pay stubs are good for 60 days, bank statements for 60 days, a credit report for 120 days. As long as we refresh documentation as it expires, your application stays open and ready for you to execute immediately when you find the right property. And when rates do come down and the Fed announces that first cut, a ton of people will come to market and get excited. You want to be ahead of that. You do not want to be out trying to get an offer accepted against multiple offers. ### Does a recession mean home prices drop? You keep hearing me say we need the economy to cool, that we're probably already in a recession. So you might be thinking: should I buy right now? Will home prices come down? Should I wait? Here's the thing: not every recession drops home prices. I pulled a Bankrate article published two days before this show, and it said they still anticipate home values will *increase* by 6.4% in 2024, and they do not see a decline coming in 2025\. You can look that article up yourself. The key takeaway: low levels of inventory mean sellers continue to have the upper hand. With very few homes for sale, it is very difficult for home prices to come down. The article also noted that mortgage rates have come down from their peak but are still high, and steep home prices are dissuading would-be buyers — which tells you right now is a good time to start looking, before everybody else comes out of the woodwork. And if rates drop further, that spurs the market for both buyers and sellers. ### The contingent-buyer trap Sellers, you might ask: why are you telling me to sell right now? Because if you're selling a home and you need the equity from that sale to buy the next one, you're going to be a contingent buyer. If you go into escrow and the buyer on your home falls out — they can't get their loan, or an inspection turns up repairs you can't agree on — the house you're buying falls apart too. So in a multiple-offer situation, a seller will accept the non-contingent offer first, from somebody who doesn't need to sell a home to buy theirs. And if you're a low-down-payment buyer — FHA, VA, down payment assistance — you'll also have a harder time winning multiple-offer situations, because sellers gravitate to the strongest offers: non-contingent, larger down payments, or cash. ### Two years of pent-up demand The key issue is inventory. We do not have enough homes to satisfy the number of people who need to buy — and it's not just first-time buyers. I have a client right now in a one-bedroom condo who has had two children since buying it. A one-bedroom condo, with two kids — and they chose not to move because they didn't like where rates were. They're now pre-approved and out looking. This has been happening since 2021: families growing, families shrinking, kids off to college, people wanting to move to Palm Springs or Havasu or Vegas or back to Tennessee or Georgia. All of those plans have been on hold, and all of those people need to act on that cycle of life — along with all the first-time buyers who've been waiting. If you wait for the announcement that the Fed has cut, you'll be competing with all of them at once. Once they cut once, we all know they're going to continue to cut. ### Buy now, refinance later — with help That advice you've heard for two years — buy the house, refinance later — now is a great time to be thinking about that strategy, because we know we're on the downward trend. You could buy something right now and have an opportunity within the next 12 months to refinance into a better payment. And there are always programs: a 2-1 buydown, a 1-1, a 3-1\. If you're buying a home — not just first-time buyers, any buyer — you can negotiate with the seller to get one of these programs paid for, lowering your rate and payment in today's market while you wait for rates to improve, and then take advantage of a refinance. Many of you are carrying heavy credit card debt. If you're a would-be seller whose credit score has taken a hit because your cards are maxed out, consider a home equity line of credit or home equity loan to pay that debt off — you'll see your score come up very quickly — and then put your home on the market. We have lots of ways to help you buy without necessarily selling first, even if you need the equity from your property. Every single person's situation is different, so the best thing you can do is call the office or schedule a consultation on the website, and we'll build the plan around you. ### Why 2008 was different I want to touch on the 2008 recession — trust me, I lived through it, and it was not fun. But the 2008 housing recession was very different: it was a recession *brought on by housing*. The loan programs being offered back then meant basically anybody with a good credit score and a heartbeat could get a loan. Buyers took advantage, loan officers offered it — and you can't hand a salesperson a program and expect them not to sell it. Ultimately it comes down to the banks; those programs should never have been allowed. Since then, the CFPB and the Dodd-Frank Act brought in the regulations that needed to happen. Just about every buyer who owns a home today had to qualify for it — show documentation, put money down or use a down payment assistance program, and prove they could afford the loan. A big housing bust doesn't happen until people who own homes can't afford their payments. They can afford their payments, and we don't have enough inventory. I truly don't believe that even a full-blown recession will bring home prices down this time. ### The 1971 lesson Here's a great takeaway to end on. In 1971, interest rates were about 7.3%, and many home buyers said: we're not going to buy, we'll wait for rates and prices to come down. It wasn't until about 1991 that rates first came down below what they were in 1971 — and by then, home prices had quadrupled. Fact-check me, go look it up — but I hope that drives the point home. ### Wrap-up I hope you guys are ready to get your applications started, get your consultation, and get prepared. Rates are changing, the economy is cooling, we've had two reports pointing the right way, and I think a Fed rate cut this year is absolutely going to happen. I want all of you to have the opportunity to get what you need — so call my office or visit mortgagemomradio.com. I'll be back right here next week, Wednesday at 1 PM Pacific on YouTube. See you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of May 15, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Why Are Mortgage Rates Going Down? The Consumer Debt Signal Behind the Turn URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-mortgage-rates-going-down-the-consumer-debt-signal-behind-the-turn/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:32.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Mortgage Rates Are Improving! Why?” • Live show from Wednesday, May 8, 2024 • 31 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Mortgage rates got better on Friday, then Monday, then Tuesday, then again on Wednesday — even on a Treasury sale day that would normally push them the other way. In this episode, Debbie explains what's actually driving the improvement: the first worse-than-expected jobs report of the cycle, record household debt choking off consumer spending, and a market that's starting to believe the turning point is here. Plus what homeowners drowning in credit card debt can do about it right now. ## Key takeaways - **Rates improved four days running** — Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the day of the show — after the first unemployment report of the cycle came in worse than expected, with fewer jobs created than forecast. Mortgage rates trade on news like stocks do; investors read a cooling job market as a step toward Fed cuts. - **Even a big Treasury sale day didn't push rates back up.** Sales of Treasuries at a discount typically worsen mortgage rates for days; this time rates held their gains — a sign of how strongly the market believes the turn is real. The Fed also said it will slow its balance-sheet runoff starting June 1. - **Household debt is the signal Debbie is watching:** the New York Fed's Q4 2023 report showed total household debt up $212 billion to $17.5 trillion, credit cards up $50 billion to $1.13 trillion, mortgages up $112 billion to $12.25 trillion, auto loans up $12 billion to $1.61 trillion — with delinquency rates rising in every category except deferred student loans. Maxed-out credit means spending slows, which is what cools inflation. - **Debbie's cut call:** not at the next Fed meeting (five weeks out), but very possibly the meeting after that. When the first cut is announced, buyers will flood the market — so get your pre-approval started now; some plans take three to six months to build, others close in a day. - **Homeowners: Americans are sitting on record equity** while carrying record card debt. A home equity line or home equity loan can pay off maxed-out cards without touching your low pandemic-era first-mortgage rate, lift your credit score quickly, and set up a full debt consolidation refinance in roughly 12–18 months when rates improve. - **A personal loan can also consolidate cards**, but usually at a higher rate over a shorter term (five to seven years); a home equity loan lets you pick 10, 15, 20, or 30 years for a lower payment. - **Before a consultation, pull every debt statement** — cards, personal loans, autos, student loans, even the RV — so the team can compute your blended rate and decide which debts are worth paying off and which to leave alone. ## Chapters - 01:00Today's show: rates, debt, and getting ahead - 05:00Why mortgage rates are improving - 06:00The first worse-than-expected jobs report - 07:00Rates trade on news, just like stocks - 08:00The spending slowdown Debbie's been calling for - 10:00NY Fed report: $17.5 trillion in household debt - 11:00Credit cards, autos, and rising delinquencies - 12:00The tipping point — when will the Fed cut? - 13:00Get pre-approved before the rush - 17:00Four straight days of better rate sheets - 18:00Why the Treasury sale day didn't hurt rates - 20:00Record equity, record card debt - 21:00HELOC or home equity loan to clear the cards - 23:00Personal loans vs. equity loans, compared - 25:00What to have ready for a consultation - 27:00Buyers and sellers: don't wait for the cut ### Buried in credit card debt, or waiting to buy? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Today's show Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you what's going on in the market — especially the things driving change in our mortgage and real estate world. The hot topic right now is mortgage rates: they have come down a bit. We covered the Federal Reserve meeting last week, and I said on that show that I felt we were getting to a turning point, even though the Fed didn't come right out and say it. Now we're starting to see more evidence of that turning point, just as I predicted. We're also going to talk about credit card debt and consumer debt — what you should be doing right now to get yourself freed up, especially if you're a homeowner — and about getting ahead of the market: being out looking at homes before a slew of additional buyers gets there first. This is an interactive show, so put your questions into the feed and I'll read them out loud and answer them. ### Why are mortgage rates improving? Last week the Fed met on Wednesday, and at the end of the week our unemployment report came out. It was the first time that report came in worse than expected — fewer jobs created than anticipated on the most recent numbers. That gets the market excited. As I've talked about on recent shows, mortgage rates are tied to the market very much like stocks. Reports and news can spark stocks to rise or fall, and mortgages work exactly the same way. Investors read between the lines of these reports and try to determine what's coming. One thing Fed Chair Powell said in the last Federal Reserve statement is that he's looking for the economy to start cooling — not just spending, but jobs and inflation too. So now that we've finally had a jobs report come in below expectations, many investors are reading it as: if jobs aren't being created as quickly, we're cooling, and there's a good chance the next inflation report improves. As I said last week, I expect the next inflation report to come in level — not worse like the last two — or possibly even a bit better. ### The consumer debt signal Why do I think spending is slowing? Let me show you what I'm reading. We've got a lot more credit card debt than we used to, and as card debt climbs, people start running out of spending limit. With inflation and higher interest rates, the interest on those cards, student loans, and car loans is higher — we're all feeling the pinch. In my opinion, simply being limited in the amount of credit Americans can access is going to slow what people buy. Here's an article I pulled from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Their Q1 2024 household debt and credit report comes out next week, on Tuesday, May 14 — and I expect it to be worse than the last one. The last report, covering Q4 2023, said household debt reached $17.5 trillion, rising $212 billion in the fourth quarter. Credit card balances increased by $50 billion to $1.13 trillion. Mortgage balances rose $112 billion to $12.25 trillion. Auto loan balances rose $12 billion to $1.61 trillion, continuing an upward trajectory seen since 2011\. Delinquency transition rates increased for every debt type except student loans — and student loans haven't fallen into delinquency only because many are still on deferment. When I read reports like this, what it tells me is: our debt as consumers keeps going up, and eventually there just isn't credit available to keep adding to it. Delinquencies rise, and people simply cannot spend the way they were. That brings me to the tipping point I've been talking about. At the next meeting, the Federal Reserve is going to have to look very closely at the economy to decide whether to hold one more time or cut. Some analysts are already betting on a cut at the next meeting. I still don't think we're at cut-time at that meeting, five weeks from now — but I believe we are very, very close, and personally I think it might be the meeting after that. ### Get pre-approved before the rush As soon as the Fed starts cutting, more and more people are going to jump on the opportunity to purchase a home. If buying has been your goal and you've had it on hold, take it off hold right now. A pre-approval can take three, four, six months depending on you — your credit, your income. Many times we're building a plan for success: you do the consultation, complete the application, and we give you the roadmap to get to the point where you can be pre-approved and out looking at property. And sometimes you're pre-approved the same day, within hours, and you never knew you were ready. I've been reading this market for a long time, and I haven't been very far off on the predictions I've given you. I'm telling you we are around the corner from rates starting to be cut — that's my opinion as the Mortgage Mom. Go to mortgagemomradio.com and book yourself a phone consultation right on the website with me, Heidi, Heather, or one of the girls on my team. ### Four straight days of better rates We've seen a nice decrease in rates since that unemployment report, and the gains have continued all week. It's Wednesday: rates got better Friday, better again Monday, again Tuesday, and again today. And today was actually a bond auction sale day. Another thing in the Fed's statement last week: come June 1, they're going to slow the amount of Treasuries they're selling off the balance sheet. Typically, on days when those Treasury sales happen — selling at today's discounted prices — mortgage rates get worse that day and for a couple of days after. Today they did a sale, and our rates didn't budge; they're still quite a bit better than they were last Wednesday before the Fed met. Basically, every indicator that signals a turning point is showing positive. The economy is cooling, spending is slowing, consumer debt is up — the things the Fed wants to see are coming to fruition. What matters now: we need inflation to come down further at the next report, we need unemployment to stay soft, and we need spending to keep slowing. All the signs are there, and being in this industry, that is very exciting: we're almost there, and we're all going to see some relief. ### Record equity, record card debt Americans are sitting on more equity in their homes today than at any time in history. But consumers are choosing not to tap it, because rates are high and nobody wants to refinance away the really low rate they got during the pandemic. So people aren't relieving themselves of their debt — they're just struggling. If you're a homeowner sitting on a lot of equity, this is the time to consider a home equity loan or home equity line of credit to get that debt paid off — without touching your first mortgage. Many of you have maxed-out credit cards and high-rate personal loans. And remember what maxed-out cards do to your credit: if your card limit is $10,000 and your balance is $9,700, your score is much lower than it would be at a low utilization. Get the cards paid off through an equity line or equity loan and that score comes up very quickly. Then, when rates come down — and I think we're talking somewhere in the next 6 to 18 months, probably more like 12 — we can consolidate everything: your low-rate first mortgage plus the equity line or loan, into one new loan with a payment lower than the two payments combined. And of course, it only makes sense if it saves you money over and beyond what the credit card debt is costing you today. That's exactly what we work through in a consultation. ### Personal loans vs. equity loans There are always personal loans as well. A personal loan can consolidate credit card debt, but it will typically carry a much higher interest rate than a home equity line or loan, and a shorter term — usually five or six years, sometimes seven. With a home equity loan, you choose the term: 10, 15, 20, or 30 years, and a longer term can make the monthly payment to clear that debt much lower than a personal loan's. ### What to bring to a consultation When you call the office or schedule an appointment, have the most recent statement pulled for every debt you have: every credit card, personal loans, student loans, car loans — a trailer, an RV, a boat, any debt, period. We'll ask what you owe, the interest rate, and the years remaining, and plug it all into our blended-rate calculator to show you the total interest you're paying monthly and your blended interest rate. From there we start sorting: this one's a great rate with two years left, don't touch it — ooh, this one's 33% with Capital One, that goes. It's a very individualized consultation, and having those statements in hand makes it that much better. ### Buyers and sellers: don't wait for the cut For anybody who hasn't bought yet — low-down-payment borrowers, down payment assistance, vets with zero down who need help with closing costs — right now is your opportunity to negotiate with a seller for those things. As soon as rates start to come down and every home you want has multiple offers, you won't have the leverage to ask for closing costs; sellers will select the strongest offer. Where I believe we should be giving veterans the best opportunity — they deserve it — sellers in a multiple-offer situation look for bigger down payments, all cash, and non-contingent buyers. And if you're going to sell your home to buy the next one, think about listing now rather than waiting: as we talked about in last week's episode, becoming a contingent buyer makes it harder to win against an offer with a big down payment and no contingency. After all these years of giving you advice online, I haven't been wrong about this kind of turn. Get ready, get prepared, get your application started, get your consultation. If you have a bunch of debt, get it consolidated. If you own a home sitting on a ton of equity, do something about it — and do not miss a payment or let your credit score drop. My website is open: book an appointment, and if you don't see a time that works — you need an early morning or later evening — hit “contact us” and it comes directly to me, and I will schedule a time that works for you, as long as it's not 11 PM and I'm in bed. mortgagemomradio.com. I hope I gave you valuable information, and I'll be back right here next week, Wednesday at 1 PM on YouTube. Talk to you guys soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of May 8, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Will the NAR Settlement Lower Home Prices? What Buyers and Sellers Need to Know URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-the-nar-settlement-lower-home-prices-what-buyers-and-sellers-need-to-know/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:10:18.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “NAR Settlement and How it Might Affect Buyers and Sellers!” • Live show from Wednesday, March 27, 2024 • 66 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926, with guest loan officer and licensed real estate agent Heather The NAR settlement dominated the headlines with promises that home prices would fall and commissions would disappear. In this deep-dive episode, Debbie is joined by Heather — a loan officer on her team who is also a licensed real estate agent with a real estate law background and 25 years of selling experience — to explain what the settlement actually changes for buyers and sellers: buyer broker agreements, the end of advertised buyer-agent commissions in the MLS, and the loan-program rules (especially for VA buyers) that decide who can pay what. ## Key takeaways - **What the settlement was about:** sellers sued because they felt they couldn't negotiate the commissions paid to buyers' agents. NAR settled (several large brokerages settled separately), the changes still needed a judge's approval, and the new rules were expected to take effect around July 2024 — though commissions have technically always been negotiable. - **The MLS will no longer display buyer-agent commissions.** Compensation moves into the offer itself: the buyer pays their agent, asks the seller to pay, or they split it — all negotiated in the contract. - **Don't expect home prices to drop.** A seller whose neighbor's home sold for $1 million isn't listing for $975,000 just because they're not paying a buyer's agent. Debbie and Heather expect buyers to offer *more* to have their agent's fee covered — which could push prices up, not down. - **Buyer broker agreements become standard.** Expect to interview and commit to an agent in writing — what they'll do, for how long, and what they're paid — before they show you homes. The buyer now steers which homes make financial sense to see, and both hosts' view is that buyers, not sellers, got the short end of this settlement. - **VA buyers cannot pay a buyer-agent commission.** The contract must be written “seller to pay buyer-agent commission” — not as a credit — so a listing that refuses to pay can effectively shut out a veteran. Agents and lenders have to coordinate before offers are written. - **Seller-credit caps depend on the loan:** FHA allows up to 6% from the seller; conventional with less than 10% down allows just 3% (up to 9% with larger down payments); investment properties are capped at 2% regardless of down payment. Ask for more than your program allows and the deal breaks. - **Call the lender before the realtor.** Pre-approval now decides not just your price range but how commissions and credits can be structured — and knowing your real budget protects you from falling in love with homes you can't buy. ## Chapters - 01:00Meet Heather: lender, agent, real estate law background - 06:00What the NAR lawsuit was actually about - 10:00Settlement status and the July timeline - 11:00Will home prices come down? The $1M example - 16:00How MLS commission-sharing worked — and what goes away - 20:00Buyer broker agreements, explained - 25:00Can you represent yourself? Yes — should you? - 29:00How agents negotiate commissions behind the scenes - 32:00Sellers: offer a commission or shrink your buyer pool? - 35:00Why pre-approval matters more than ever - 37:00VA buyers: who's allowed to pay the commission - 41:00Seller-credit caps: FHA 6%, conventional 3%, investment 2% - 45:00What agents actually do for their money - 53:00Q&A: new construction and builder commissions - 57:00Q&A: agent first or lender first? - 64:00Wrap-up and next week's show ## Questions answered on this show ### “How will the NAR settlement work with new construction?” The builder *is* the seller, and most builders work with real estate agents to bring clients in — Debbie and Heather don't expect that to change; it just won't be advertised in the MLS. Your agent will simply call and ask whether the builder is cooperating with brokers. What matters most: that friendly person in the model home works for the seller. Bring your own representation, because a buyer's agent knows to ask the questions you don't — is there a Mello-Roos assessment, is there an HOA — before you sign. ### “Do I need to have a house in mind before I contact a real estate agent?” No — and your first call shouldn't be the agent at all. Call the lender first. You might qualify for $1 million but only want to spend $700,000; until you know your real budget, an agent can't show you the right homes. Look above your budget and everything in your range disappoints; look below it and you miss the bedrooms and yard you could have afforded. Get the number from the lender, then bring it to your agent. ### Buying or selling under the new commission rules? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, technical difficulties, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Meet Heather **Debbie:** Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today, as promised last week, we're talking about the NAR lawsuit — the National Association of Realtors. What does it mean for you, buyers? What does it mean for you, sellers? Today I have Heather with us. Heather is a licensed loan officer on my team, she's also a licensed real estate agent, and she earned her degree from Southwestern with a focus on real estate law. I felt we couldn't get a better person's opinion: she can look at the lending side and the real estate side, as an agent herself, with the legal education on top. This story is all over the place — agents posting about it, TikToks, articles. I want to take it from a different side: talk to buyers and sellers about what it means to them, and how things are going to change. I've had listeners reach out and say: you're preaching first-time buying, I'm barely scraping together my down payment and closing costs as it is — am I still going to be able to buy if I can't come up with another two and a half or three percent to pay an agent to represent me? And I'm hearing a lot of lashback the other way too: people saying agents get paid too much, I could do this myself, just have an attorney write the contract. So we'll dip a toe into what a real estate agent actually does for you, too. I'm not here to hype this up for views — this is about educating my listeners. ### What the lawsuit was about **Heather:** Basically — I believe it started in the Midwest — there were sellers, and I believe some home buyers, who were upset that they didn't realize commissions were negotiable. And commissions are *always* negotiable: when you list a home and agree to pay, say, 5%, that 5% is negotiable — you could pay 10% or 1% if you wanted. But these clients felt they didn't have the ability to negotiate, so they filed a lawsuit. Time goes by, there's a ruling, and NAR — which oversees pretty much any licensed Realtor whose brokerage chooses to be part of it and use that designation — lost, you could say. There are payouts happening. The gist of what came out of it: number one, commissions are completely negotiable. Number two, everybody in the transaction — agents, brokers, buyers, sellers — should be transparent about how much is being made, and everybody has a say in it. The sellers felt they'd been handed terms and told: you don't have a choice. **Debbie:** So the sellers wanted everybody to understand what's being paid, so negotiations are more fair. **Heather:** Correct. They felt they should be able to negotiate whether they even wanted to pay the buyer's agent — which has always been an option, just not traditional — and how much. And from the buyer's side: what if we don't want you to pay our agent two and a half percent? The whole idea is bringing everybody into the mix, out in the open. **Debbie:** And I wouldn't even call it a win — they settled. **Heather:** Right. NAR came to the table and said, this is what we're willing to do. Some brokerage firms — I know Keller Williams, RE/MAX, and a couple of others — had already settled. It still has to go in front of the judge and be accepted, but it's highly anticipated that it will, and everything we're talking about is supposed to go into effect sometime in July. Each MLS system may take it how they want and move it up before then. ### Will home prices come down? **Debbie:** The first thing I keep hearing in the news — because they love headlines — is that real estate prices are going to come down. That's one of my favorites. **Heather:** Realistically, I would not anticipate that — and I'd love it, especially being in California. Take a round number: a million-dollar home, where the seller would traditionally pay the buyer's agent 2.5% — that's $25,000\. The hope is the seller says: I'm not paying a buyer-agent commission, so I'll list at $975,000\. Never going to happen. If your neighbor's home sold for a million dollars, why would you sell for 975? When seller-paid buyer-agent commissions came into common practice decades ago, the idea was that it helped the buyer finance that cost into the price of the home. They're hoping to rewind that — and human instinct just doesn't work that way. We all believe our million-dollar home is worth two million; we want the most we can get. **Debbie:** And if the seller is unwilling to pay the commission, here's what actually happens: a buyer who really wants the house says, we'll offer you *more* so you can pay our agent. We already see it constantly with closing costs — a buyer offers $510,000 on a $500,000 listing and asks for $10,000 back, which nets the seller their price. I think we'll see a lot of that, and in hindsight I think it ends up driving prices higher, not lower. ### What's leaving the MLS **Debbie:** Right now, agents put a listing into the multiple listing service, and the MLS actually shows how much commission is being offered to the buyer's agent. Really it's the listing agent agreeing with the seller on a total fee, then choosing to share part of it with an agent who brings a buyer. A lot of people didn't understand that's how it worked. **Heather:** Right — in California, the listing agreement's first page has the commission section: the total, and a few paragraphs down, what you're authorized to advertise to the buyer's agent, as a flat fee or a percentage, often split down the middle. That's going away. One of the big rules is that agents can no longer advertise buyer-agent compensation in the MLS at all. (It even shows on Redfin and Zillow today if you scroll far enough.) They want it negotiated in the contract instead: when you make the offer, you either say I'll pay my own buyer-agent commission, or seller, I'm asking you to pay it, or we split it. **Debbie:** Part of the suit was about steering, too — the claim that buyers' agents wouldn't show homes offering lower commissions, steering buyers away, which is absolutely illegal. There were real things this lawsuit was trying to repair. I just feel we've got a bit more damage at this point from what they did do — and a lot of it will be getting used to it, adapting, and working together. ### Buyer broker agreements **Debbie:** So if I'm an agent and I don't know what I'll be paid on a home, I can't work for free — I need something from the buyer. Talk about the buyer broker agreement, because it's been around a long time, but a lot of agents never used it. If I were a broker, I'd require one on every transaction now. **Heather:** It's just like a listing: you don't work a listing until the agreement is signed. Here in California we have the buyer broker agreement — a contract between the buyer's agent and the buyer detailing what I'm going to do for you, the price range I'll show you, how long we'll work together, and what I'll be paid for that service: by the seller, by you, or a combination. Some agents we work with already do them on every client. So before you go out with a Realtor, be sure you're committed — you're signing a contract. And understand it from the agent's side: it's really hard to commit to somebody and not have them commit back. I sold real estate for years — I once spent over two years with a client who never bought a house, through no lack of trying. You write offers, nothing pans out, and you don't make a dime. That happens quite often. Now it's: here's what I'll do for you, here's what I'm paid — and a good agent was always going to show you every house that fit you regardless of the commission on it. **Debbie:** So to boil it down: interview your agents the way you'd interview an attorney. Once you sign, you're saying — whether I pay you or a seller pays you, I'm responsible for X percent. Do your due diligence and pick the team that's best for you. That's number one. Number two: do not panic about signing at 2.5 or 3%. You'll start seeing discount agents come out of the woodwork saying “I'll work for 1%” — trust me, you do not want a discount agent; you want a real person, a full brokerage, working for you. **Heather:** And to be fair — you don't *have* to sign anything, because you don't have to use a Realtor at all. That's part of what the case opened up. If you've bought and sold seven houses and want to represent yourself, by all means. But if you plan on having representation — somebody on your side — anticipate signing a contract. **Debbie:** And here's the part that matters: you can have that conversation with your agent. “I have this much for my down payment and closing costs. If I have to pay you out of pocket, I'm back on the fence saving. So please only show me houses where you can get paid.” Now it's not the Realtor steering the transaction — it's the *buyer* steering it, and that makes sense, because it makes sense to have somebody in your corner. ### Behind the scenes **Debbie:** And let's be honest about the wall they've put up — “nobody can know, show them blind.” Come on. Agents go to board meetings and pitch their listings. They text each other, they call: my buyer cannot pay — would the seller raise the price to cover it? Is the seller offering anything? **Heather:** People don't realize how much of that already goes on. Say Debbie wants to buy a house, she's got $30,000 to work with, and she can't pay a buyer's agent on top. As her agent, I call the listing agent: I have a great client, pre-approved, ready to go, but she's at her max — is the seller willing to contribute? Maybe the seller pays 2.5%. Maybe 1% — then can we raise the price to cover the rest? All of that happens after you've talked it through with your buyer: if the seller won't pay, can you split it? If not, do we increase the price? What would you prefer? It's been working like that for a long time in counters anyway — the settlement just puts it out in the open. ### Sellers: offer a commission or shrink your pool? **Debbie:** Now the seller side. At the listing table you now decide: do I offer to cover the buyer-agent commission or not? It's tempting — pay 3% instead of 6%, keep more money. But remember the conversation we just had: buyers are steering which homes they can afford to look at. Are you willing to shrink the pool of people who can even consider your property? **Heather:** It's going to depend on the home. What buyer does your price point attract? A first-time buyer scraping together every penny, or a luxury buyer who doesn't care? If you're a move-up home or perfect for a first-time buyer, you probably know they'll need your help. Or maybe you need every dollar out of the house for your own next step. You can also refuse outright, or take it offer-by-offer as they come in. Every seller will come at it differently — and honestly, for some buyers it's not that they're *unwilling* to look at your home; if they're short $10,000 they can't get, they're *incapable*, and that's not the house for them. **Debbie:** Nobody should be putting their plans on hold over this, though. If you'd saved your down payment and closing costs, there is a way to work through it. The most important thing in all of it: get pre-approved, and make sure your loan officer and your real estate agent are talking. It's mandatory now. And my opinion? The short end of the stick in this lawsuit went to the buyer. It's not making homes cheaper — sellers aren't selling for less — and buyers are the ones on the hook for commissions unless they buy homes where sellers will help. Sellers, keep that in the back of your mind if you want the most buyers coming through your door. ### VA buyers and the commission rules **Debbie:** Here's why the lender conversation is critical: the loan program determines how much a seller can pay on your behalf — and you can very quickly ask for more than your program allows. Take a veteran buying with zero down, who needs closing costs covered *and* the commission handled. **Heather:** And veterans are not allowed to pay a buyer-agent commission. So the agent has to write the contract differently: it can't be a credit toward costs the buyer then pays — in that verbiage the buyer is still paying. It has to be written *seller to pay buyer-agent commission* of X, with any closing-cost credit separate. There was a lot of talk on the industry calls that lenders would just change their rules and let these costs be financed — and Fannie and Freddie are saying no, we won't, and VA has no plans I'm aware of to change either. So if a house isn't offering the commission and the seller won't pay it, that VA buyer may simply have to go to the house next door. We've just hurt the veterans in this — and you have to know all of it going in. ### Seller-credit caps by loan program **Debbie:** For FHA, the maximum you can receive from a seller is 6%. So if a buyer needs 3% toward closing costs and 3% to cover their buyer-agent commission — a 6% credit — no problem, good to go. But on a conventional loan with 3% or 5% down — anything under 10% down — you cannot get a credit bigger than 3%. With bigger down payments, conventional can go as high as 9%. And on an investment property, no matter how much you put down, you're capped at a 2% credit. This is why the pre-approval and the agent-lender conversation come first: know your budget, show your funds to close, and shop for your agent — interview multiple people if that's you. Buyers, you're going to be signing some contracts; that's what's different. Sellers, understand what limiting the commission does to your buyer pool. ### What agents actually do **Debbie:** Agents have gotten a bad rap all over social media through this, and it's been disgusting. I've been in this industry 30 years — I started as a real estate agent, and I moved to lending when I was pregnant with my oldest, because agents work 24/7, 365\. Nights, weekends, holidays — and during the day too, coordinating with the lender, escrow, title, the termite company, meeting the physical inspector and the appraiser. **Heather:** And the best agents put out fires you never see. The goal is that the transaction feels smooth *to you* — you know what's happening, but you're not carrying the stress of it. **Debbie:** I have a transaction right now where the buyer's agent has had to ask the seller's side — I am not kidding — probably 19 or 20 times for the same document with the seller's signature. I can't clear the loan to close without that fully executed contract, docs are supposed to go out tomorrow, and the buyers have no idea; they're at lunch thinking everything's fine, because their agent is handling it. Buying a home is one of the top three most stressful things in life. Imagine representing yourself: you're at work teaching, and your phone is going off every five seconds — call the seller, did the seller respond, where's the signature? That's what your agent absorbs for you. We're going to do a whole follow-up show on what an agent does for a buyer and for a seller — and what agents really take home, because by the time you average it out, a lot of them are closer to minimum wage than you'd ever believe. ### Q&A: new construction **Debbie:** Priscilla — a great agent out of Texas who we work with all the time — asks: *“I wonder how this will work with new construction?”* My guess: the builder is literally the seller, and most builders just want buyers in the door, so they'll keep offering commissions — they just won't advertise them in the MLS. What do you say, Heather? **Heather:** The majority of new home builders do work with real estate agents to bring clients in, and I don't think that really changes — you'll just call and ask, are you cooperating with brokers, and they'll say yes or no. And it is super important to have representation when you buy new construction: that really nice person meeting you at the model home works for the seller. An agent called me recently about a client looking at new homes in Los Angeles, and I asked — is there a Mello-Roos? Is there an HOA? He didn't know. Those are the questions a buyer's agent knows to ask, and buyers often don't. ### Q&A: agent first, or lender first? **Debbie:** One of our regulars — a first-time buyer working toward his goal — asks: *“Is it necessary to already have a house in mind before you contact a real estate agent?”* No — and honestly, before you contact the real estate agent, you should be contacting the lender. The agents watching have loved everything I've said today, but I won't support agent-first: the lender is your number one phone call. **Heather:** Do both — but the lender very first. What you qualify for may not be what you want to spend: you might qualify for a million and only want to spend $700,000\. As a Realtor, I want to know that when I show you $700,000 homes, you're qualified. The last thing anyone wants is to run out to a gorgeous million-dollar house and then find out. It's like sitting in the Ferrari at the car show and then qualifying for the Honda — it's the disappointment factor, and it's really hard to go back. **Debbie:** Or the reverse — you look at $700,000 homes, get discouraged about the bedrooms and the backyard, and never learn you could have had them at what you actually qualified for. Talk to the lender first, always. ### Wrap-up **Debbie:** We usually keep this to 30 minutes and we're at an hour, because nothing in this topic isn't important. Next week Heather and I are back to go through everything a real estate agent does for a buyer and a seller, what it costs them to do their job, and what they actually earn — before I hear one more person complain that agents make too much money. Ask your questions in the feed and we'll answer what we can. If you want the link when we go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week with the topic and a link to join, no spam. That's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team. We're live every Wednesday at 1 PM Pacific on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Have a fantastic rest of your week and happy Easter — we'll see you next week. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 27, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### The Fed Held Rates Again — So When Will Mortgage Rates Come Down? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-again-so-when-will-mortgage-rates-come-down/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:33.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Fed Meeting March 2024” • Live show from Wednesday, March 20, 2024 • 39 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve wrapped its March 2024 meeting the day of this show and held the Fed funds rate steady at 5.25–5.5% — and mortgage rates actually *improved* on the news. Debbie reads the FOMC statement word for word, shares what she took from Chair Powell's press conference, gives her own timeline for the first cut, and closes with a first look at the NAR settlement making headlines, plus the CalHFA Dream For All lottery opening April 3 for California first-time buyers. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed held its target range at 5.25–5.5%** — no change since the last hike in July 2023 — saying it won't cut until it has “greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.” No surprise: the Fed has said “higher for longer” over and over. - **Cuts are still coming this year.** Debbie's read of the press conference: still two to three — probably three — rate cuts projected for 2024\. About 70% of experts began pricing the first cut at the June meeting; Debbie's own call is the meeting after June (late July/August), and almost certainly by early fourth quarter. - **Mortgage rates improved a little on the very day the Fed didn't cut.** They aren't tied to the Fed funds rate — they trade with mortgage-backed securities, Treasuries, and 10-year notes, reacting to news the way stocks do. Rates peaked in October 2023 and have been easing since. - **Mortgage applications are up significantly** — and at the first announced cut, Debbie expects a rush of buyers *and* more listings, with demand far outrunning new supply. If this is your time to buy, get pre-approved ahead of the curve; if you'll sell to buy, get pre-approved for the next loan *before* you list. - **It isn't everyone's time to buy.** Homeowners with a low rate who'd take on a much bigger payment may be right to stay put — make the decision on your monthly cash flow. Renters are different: rent is 100% interest, building someone else's portfolio, and buydown programs (like a 2-1) can bridge the payment until a refinance. - **California first-time buyers: the CalHFA Dream For All shared-appreciation lottery portal opens April 3.** It's for first-generation first-time buyers, requires a homebuyer workshop and a certificate to enter, and Debbie's team can pre-approve you and walk you through it. - **The NAR settlement, in brief:** sellers sued over how buyer-agent commissions were negotiated; starting around July, sellers decide whether to offer one, and buyers may otherwise pay their own agent. Loan-program rules cap what a seller can cover — the full deep dive came the following week. ## Chapters - 01:00Fed day: what today's show covers - 06:00The FOMC press release, read in full - 08:00Debbie's interpretation of the statement - 10:00Two to three cuts still projected for 2024 - 11:00Why mortgage rates improved on a no-cut day - 12:0070% of experts now point to June — Debbie says later - 16:00What the hold means for you - 17:00Mortgage applications are up — competition is building - 18:00Who should stay put: low-rate homeowners - 19:00Renters: paying 100% interest - 21:00Buydowns and getting ahead of the curve - 22:00CalHFA Dream For All: lottery opens April 3 - 26:00The NAR settlement: don't panic - 31:00Q&A: what is CalHFA? - 34:00What changes in July — and the workarounds - 37:00Wrap-up: next week's NAR deep dive ## Questions answered on this show ### “You mentioned CalHFA — can you explain what that is?” CalHFA is California's state housing finance agency, and it offers down payment assistance programs to home buyers in California (other states have their own programs). Its new Dream For All shared-appreciation program opens its portal April 3 as a lottery: you need to be a first-generation first-time buyer, complete a required homebuyer workshop, and get pre-approved for the certificate that enters you into the lottery. Debbie's team can check whether you qualify under the guidelines and take you through the application one-on-one. ### Want to be ready before the first cut hits? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Fed day Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and every Wednesday at 1:00 Pacific I bring you everything happening in real estate and mortgage. Today was a really big day with our Fed meeting, so we're going to talk about that — I'm going to read you the statement, and we'll talk about what it means for interest rates and how much longer they'll stay high. Then we're going to touch on the NAR settlement — the National Association of Realtors. It's headline news, and I've had many questions from clients asking whether it's being made into a bigger deal than it truly is. This is an interactive show: put your questions into the chat and I'll read them out loud and answer them. I can see comments from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, so pick your platform. ### The FOMC statement, read in full Here's the Federal Reserve press release from 2 PM Eastern today. Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace. Job gains have remained strong, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation has eased over the past year but remains elevated. The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are moving into better balance. The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks. In support of its goals, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5.25 to 5.5%. In considering any adjustments, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. The Committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%. In addition, the Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities, as described in its previously announced plans. The Committee is strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2% objective, and would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge — taking into account labor market conditions, inflation pressures and expectations, and financial and international developments. ### What Debbie took from the press conference That was the statement — and then Chair Jerome Powell always holds a press conference, which I watched. We can all hear the same words and take them different directions, so let me give you my interpretation. The Fed raised the funds rate over and over between 2022 and 2023 — meeting after meeting. The last increase was July 2023, and they've held it steady ever since; today, in March 2024, they held it steady again. That's no surprise to me. Some economists and market players believed we could see the first cut this March, after the Fed spoke in January. I really didn't believe that would happen, and it didn't. The Fed has said over and over that as long as the economy and the job market stay in good shape, their stance is higher for longer. But from the press conference, my take is that we will still see two to three — probably three — rate cuts this year in 2024\. Powell also said he expects some bumps in the road on inflation. We saw great improvement, then things slipped a little backwards, which keeps rates higher for longer — but as of today those bumps are not too concerning, as long as inflation continues to ease by the next meeting. ### Why mortgage rates improved on a no-cut day Here's the part that surprises people: we actually saw interest rates improve a little today. Clients ask — they didn't change rates, so why would mortgage rates get better? Remember, as I've said on many shows: mortgage rates are not directly tied to the Federal Reserve prime rate. They're tied to the market, very much like stocks. News comes out, one stock jumps and another dumps — and mortgage rates behave the same way, because we're tied to mortgage-backed securities, Treasuries, and 10-year notes. It's what's happening in the market that drives rates up or down. Of course, as the Fed funds rate eventually comes down, the money banks lend gets less expensive and that helps drive mortgage rates lower too. But consider: the Fed hasn't cut at all since July, we saw our highest rates of the cycle in October 2023, and rates have been easing ever since. Today the market liked what it heard, and we got a nice little uptick in pricing. The very last article I read before going live — and this all happened within the past couple of hours — said about 70% of experts are now pricing in the first cut at the next meeting in June. I don't know about that. I've been saying for about 18 months that I didn't expect any cuts until the beginning of fourth quarter 2024\. If we get a June cut I'd be thrilled — but the Mortgage Mom is thinking the meeting after June, which would be late July or August, and I'm confident we'll most likely see the first cut by the beginning of the fourth quarter. Either way, the greatest part about today is that we're one step closer: rates didn't go up. ### What this means for you We've been talking about this since late 2023: as rates start to come down, a lot of people who've been on the fence are going to jump into the market. The most recent data this week showed mortgage applications up quite significantly — and more applications means more buyers on the street and more competition for you. Now, I don't believe every single person should be trying to buy a home right now just to get ahead of the market, and I want to drive that point home. There's a right time for every person. If you own a home with a nice low interest rate, and selling to buy the next home would mean a much higher rate and payment, staying put and keeping your goals on hold may be exactly the right financial decision for your monthly cash flow — and some people might want to shoot me for saying that, but I want you making the best decision for *you*. But if you're a renter? You're paying 100% interest. All of your money is going to somebody else, who will use that property for their pocketbook, their retirement, their portfolio — while you likely help maintain it. If you've been thinking “I really want to buy, I just don't like these rates,” understand what happens at the very first announced cut: a massive change in applications and buyers out looking, and yes, more listings too — but not enough to offset the demand. There will be much bigger buyer demand and a lot more competition. So why are you sitting on the fence? We probably have three to four months before that first cut. Call us for a free consultation: how much can you afford, what does the down payment look like, what will the monthly payment be? We could be talking about a 2-1 buydown, getting your starting rate 2% lower to give the market time to adjust at a comfortable payment — and when it does adjust, you refinance into the permanent rate. Talking to us is free, and we don't pull credit for the consultation. And if you're a seller who's been waiting: you also need to get pre-approved, because you can't assume that owning a home today means you'll qualify for the next loan. Get the loan lined up before you list. California buyers: the CalHFA Dream For All portal opens April 3 to be part of that lottery. If you're a first-generation first-time buyer and haven't started the application, you're missing out — more on that below. ### The NAR settlement: first look, don't panic Now, the topic everybody's been calling and emailing about since it hit the headlines Monday: the NAR settlement. I've had first-time buyers say — I barely have my down payment and closing costs scraped together, and now I have to pay a buyer-agent commission too? Am I out of the market? Let me start here: this is a news subject, so it will always be made more exciting and bigger than what it probably turns out to be. Don't get frustrated, and don't feel like anything is going to change about your ability to buy a house. *How* you buy that house is going to change a little bit. A lot of people have rushed out with opinions. I'm not that person — I like to read, explore, and investigate, so the information I bring you is correct and you can trust it. I've already started my research, including notes on every loan program and how much you can ask for from a seller under each. So today is a general overview, and next week we're devoting the entire show to a deep dive — tips for buyers, tips for sellers, and I'm inviting real estate agents on with me. It will come from the lending perspective, since I'm a mortgage loan officer: what you can and can't do. Here's the gist as I read it. The majority of the time, when you list your home, you agree to a commission with the listing agent — call it 6% just for numbers — and the listing agent offers to share part of it, say 3%, with an agent who brings the buyer. It's a shared, split commission. I have seen a buyer pay their own agent's commission, but it's very, very rare. The lawsuit came from sellers who felt they didn't really have the opportunity to negotiate what the buyer's agent was getting paid — and that if they could have, it would have saved them money. That's my interpretation as the Mortgage Mom; others may read it differently. What changes: come July, once the settlement is agreed to, it's left up to the seller to negotiate the commission and to choose whether to offer a buyer-agent commission at all. If they don't offer one, the buyer would have to pay their own agent. But there are going to be ways to work with that — you can still write into a contract that the seller pays the buyer's agent, and there are seller credits whose limits depend on the loan program you choose. Which programs allow what, how much you can ask from a seller, whether a buyer can pay the commission themselves, and how the buyer-agent relationship changes — that's next week's deep dive. ### Q&A: what is CalHFA? A listener asks: *“A bit ago you mentioned CalHFA, I think it was — can you explain what that is?”* Great question. CalHFA is California's housing finance agency, and it offers down payment assistance to many home buyers looking in the state of California — if you're in another state, this particular one isn't for you. They have many programs for first-time buyers, and the new one is called the Dream For All shared appreciation program. The portal opens as a lottery, so you have to hope to be selected. I can give you the nuances of the program, help get you pre-approved, and get you the certificate you need to enter the lottery. There's also a workshop they require first-time buyers to complete to be entered. The best thing you can do is schedule a consultation — call the office or book an appointment on the website — and we'll make sure you qualify under the program guidelines and take you through it one-on-one. ### Wrap-up So: the Fed left rates the same today, they're still planning cuts this year, and we are moving fast through 2024 — blink and we'll be at Thanksgiving. Knowing rates are on their way down, knowing things get crazy at that first cut, and knowing mortgage applications have already ticked up to their highest numbers in quite some time: if you've been thinking about buying or selling and haven't gotten pre-approved, don't wait too long and end up competing against multiple offers. Get ahead of the curve. If you don't want to miss next week's NAR deep dive, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week with the topic and the link to join, no spam. Same number to call the office for a consultation, or book an appointment at mortgagemomradio.com. Join me every Wednesday at 1 PM Pacific, put your questions in the chat, and I'll answer them for you. Have a fabulous rest of your Wednesday, and I'll see you for a real big show next week. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 20, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Who Counts as a First-Time Home Buyer? PMI, Assumable Loans, and More Questions Answered URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/who-counts-as-a-first-time-home-buyer-pmi-assumable-loans-and-more-questions-answered/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:33.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Frequently Asked Questions” • Live show from Wednesday, March 13, 2024 • 37 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The week before this show, Debbie ran a two-and-a-half-hour home buyer workshop — and the questions that came in were too good to leave there. In this episode she answers the ones real buyers are actually asking: who legally counts as a first-time home buyer, how assuming a seller's low-rate mortgage really works, what it takes to get rid of PMI, and who besides a veteran can use a VA loan. ## Key takeaways - **The first-time buyer rule is 3 years, not 5** — and it's about the *title*, not the mortgage. If you haven't been on title to any real property for three years, you're a first-time buyer again. Being on someone's mortgage without being on title doesn't count against you; being added to your parents' title does. - **Assumable loans are real — mostly VA, some FHA.** A standard 30-year fixed conventional loan is not assumable; conventional ARMs are, but only once they're out of the fixed-rate period. And the seller still wants their equity, so plan for the cash (or financing) to bridge the gap between their loan balance and the purchase price. - **Removing conventional PMI means paying the balance down to 78% of the value from when you took the loan.** Your home simply appreciating isn't enough — servicers want to see payments made or documented improvements, not just a hot market. - **Own an FHA home and want an investment property?** Plan on 20% down minimum. Debbie's portfolio alternative: buy a small primary residence at 3.5–5% down, live in it, rent it out, and repeat — low down payments and better rates at every step. - **Self-employed?** Full-documentation loans (FHA, conventional, USDA, jumbo) want two full years of filed tax returns. Alternative-documentation programs can work from about one year in business. - **VA eligibility doesn't automatically pass to a surviving spouse** — in most cases it transfers only when the veteran's death or disability traces back to active-duty deployment. A non-spouse relative *can* co-sign a VA loan, but the zero-down benefit only covers the veteran's half of the purchase price. - **Cash in hand and both a HELOC and credit card debt?** Pay off whichever costs the most — usually the credit cards — and keep the cheaper line of credit in place. ## Chapters - 02:00This week: your questions from the home buyer workshop - 05:30How assuming a seller's mortgage works - 07:45The catch: the seller still wants their equity out - 09:00First-time buyer rules: three years off title, not five - 09:45Buying an investment property when your home is FHA - 10:45Portfolio strategy: buy small, rent it out, repeat - 12:45The proposed first-time buyer tax incentive, explained - 17:00Selling a rental property: one for your CPA - 19:00Getting rid of PMI: the 78% rule - 24:00Q&A: pay off the HELOC or the credit cards? - 26:45Can you pay PMI with a credit card? - 30:30Self-employed: how long before your income counts - 32:30Who besides a veteran can qualify for a VA loan? - 36:00Wrap-up and how to join the next live show ## Questions answered on this show ### “How can someone strategize to get an assumable mortgage — and is it worth it?” If a seller's loan is assumable and carries a 3.5–4% rate, taking it over can be a fantastic deal in today's rate environment. VA loans are the most commonly assumable, some FHA loans qualify, and conventional loans generally only when they're adjustable-rate and already past the fixed period. The catch: the seller still wants their equity, so work with your agent to nail down the loan balance versus the purchase price — and how much cash you'd need to bridge that gap. ### “Is it true that if you haven't purchased a home in five-plus years, you're eligible for first-time buyer benefits?” It's three years, not five — and the test is real-property *ownership*, meaning your name on title. If you've been on a mortgage but never on title, you can still be a first-time buyer. If your parents added you to their title, you own real property and you're not. Sell a home, stay off title for three years, and you're a first-time buyer again. ### “I have an FHA loan on my home. What do I need to buy an investment property?” If you're staying in your current home and buying a pure investment property, plan on at least 20% down. Debbie's alternative for building a portfolio: buy the smallest primary residence that fits your life now — a one- or two-bedroom condo at 3.5–5% down — live in it a year or two, then buy your next primary at a low down payment and rent out the first. Each move keeps you in primary-residence pricing with better rates and less cash down. ### “Can you explain what President Biden proposed for first-time home buyers last week?” Nothing is written or passed yet, so this is Debbie's read of the proposal only: a tax incentive for buying a home — and for current owners, an incentive to sell and move up — intended to get inventory and transactions moving. The savings were described as roughly equivalent to $400 a month at tax time, a figure Debbie questions since everyone's tax bracket, income, and write-offs differ. Watch for actual legislation before counting on any of it. ### “What are the tax implications of selling a rental property to buy a primary residence?” This one goes to your CPA — Debbie is direct that it's outside a lender's lane. What she can outline: the tax you'd owe depends on what you paid for the property, the improvements you can show receipts for, the depreciation you claimed, and the rental income it earned. The person who's been filing your returns is the one to run that math. ### “Is there a way to get rid of PMI on my current home?” On a conventional loan, yes: pay the balance down to 78% of the appraised value *from when you took the loan*. Appreciation alone doesn't do it — servicers will ask what you've paid down or what documented improvements you've made, not just whether the market went up. FHA mortgage insurance (MIP) generally stays, outside the rare 15-year-fixed case. If rates eventually fall to where your current rate sits, a full refinance can be the faster way to shed the mortgage insurance. ### “I have credit card debt and a home equity loan. Should I pay off the cards or the HELOC?” You can generally only hold one second mortgage — a HELOC or a home equity loan — at a time, so getting a bigger one usually means refinancing the second you have: the new loan pays off the old balance and hands you the extra cash for the cards. But if you have cash in hand and can only pay off one debt, pay off whichever carries the higher rate — usually the credit cards — and keep the cheaper equity line in place as it is. ### “Can you pay your PMI with a credit card?” No. Mortgage insurance is set when the loan is made, based on the program and your down payment. FHA's MIP is part of the monthly payment, period. Conventional PMI can be paid monthly, financed into the interest rate, or bought out upfront in cash — though Debbie rarely recommends the higher-rate route once you compare all the options. A credit card is never one of the choices. ### “How long do you have to be in business to use self-employment income?” For the mainstream full-documentation programs — FHA, conventional, USDA, jumbo — two full years of filed tax returns. If you're newer than that, alternative-documentation programs exist, typically from about one year in business; call and build a game plan for which program gets you into a home soonest. ### “Who besides a veteran can qualify for a VA loan as a relative?” A spouse can go on the loan with the veteran and share the full zero-down benefit. A surviving spouse does *not* automatically inherit eligibility — in most cases it transfers only when the veteran's death or disability is tied to active-duty deployment. And yes, a parent or sibling can co-sign a VA loan, but the zero-down feature then applies only to the veteran's half of the purchase price; the co-signer needs a down payment on theirs. ### Have a question of your own? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### This week: your questions, answered Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom — and I believe we actually did it: I think we are live on Facebook, Instagram, *and* YouTube for the first time. If anything isn't working right, put it in the chat and let us know. Once a week, Wednesday at 1 p.m. Pacific, I go live with a real estate and mortgage topic — and this is an interactive show, so put your questions in the chat and I'll read them out loud and answer them. This week is all questions and answers. Last Wednesday I did a home buyer workshop — about 30 people joined on YouTube for two and a half hours, start to finish through the whole purchase process — and I got a lot of great questions. When one person asks a question, that means many of you are wondering the same thing. So today I'm reading those questions back and giving you the answers. ### How assumable mortgages work First question from the workshop: *“How can someone strategize best to get an assumable mortgage — is it worth it?”* Great topic, because sellers right now are advertising in their listings that their loans are assumable. Most assumable loans are VA loans — those are the most common. Some FHA loans can be assumed, and conventional loans can be too, but a conventional loan that's assumable is almost always an adjustable-rate mortgage. A standard 30-year fixed Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan is not assumable. And an ARM has to be out of its fixed-rate term first: if someone signed up for a 5-, 7-, or 10-year ARM, that loan isn't assumable until it's in its adjustment phase, moving up and down each year. Now, say the seller's loan really is assumable and they're offering it. That is a fantastic way to get a mortgage in today's world, because their rate is most likely far below today's — if you can assume a loan at 3.5% or 4%, absolutely do it. But keep one thing in mind: a seller is not going to hand you the keys and walk away. They still want the proceeds and the equity out of their property. So work with your real estate agent to get all the details: what's the loan balance, what's the purchase price, and how much cash do you need to bridge that gap? ### First-time buyer: the three-year rule Number two: *“Is it true that if you haven't purchased a home in five-plus years, you're eligible for first-time home buyer benefits?”* It's actually three years — three years without owning property. And people get confused about what "owning" means. Plenty of people are on someone's *mortgage* but not on the *title* of the home. If you're not on title, you're not an owner of real property — and if that's been the case for three years, you're considered a first-time buyer, whether or not your name was on a mortgage. The flip side: some people are on the title of their parents' home — parents add a child to title so the property passes to them. In that situation you own real property, and even though you never went out and financed a home of your own, you are not a first-time buyer. So: no ownership interest, not on title of any real property for three years — first-time buyer. If you owned a home, sold it, and waited three years, you're a first-time buyer again. And obviously, if you've never owned anything, you're a first-time home buyer. ### Buying an investment property with an FHA loan Number three: *“I have an FHA loan. What are the requirements to purchase a second property as an investment — any low minimum down payment?”* She owns her home with an FHA loan, plans to stay in it, and wants to start building a real estate portfolio. In that situation you need a minimum of 20% down for the investment purchase — there's no low-down-payment investment loan when you're keeping your current home as your primary. But here are the ideas I shared at the workshop. The best thing you can do is buy as small as possible right out of the gate — buy what you need, not what you think your future holds. If you live in a one- or two-bedroom apartment today, go buy a one- or two-bedroom condominium. Live in it a year or two, save for the next down payment. Then make a low-down-payment purchase of a new primary residence — a townhome at 5% or 3.5% down — and rent out the condo. A year or two later, do it again: the two-bedroom single family. That's how you build a portfolio with less money down, better interest rates, and primary-residence loans at every step. ### The proposed first-time buyer tax incentive From the chat: *“Can you explain what Biden addressed about first-time home buyer loans in his address last Thursday?”* Great question — and understand there is absolutely nothing final or in writing yet. I don't know that anything has even been drafted as a bill. So I can only give you what I took from what he said: they're trying to give incentive to first-time buyers, and incentive for current owners to sell and buy larger homes — to get people moving, get more inventory out there, get more transactions happening. The mechanism would be a tax incentive for purchasing a property, and the write-off is supposed to be equivalent to about $400 a month in savings. Honestly, I don't know how that number can be thrown out there — every person has a different tax bracket, different income, different write-offs and expenses. I think it should have been stated as a flat tax credit, the way solar panel incentives work when you file at the end of the year. But that's what I took from it, and again — nothing has actually been written yet, so I can't promise my understanding is the correct one. ### Selling a rental: one for your CPA Next: *“What are the tax implications of selling a rental property to purchase a primary residence?”* I will never step out of place and answer a question I shouldn't. This one truly had to go back to the listener's CPA. I'm not a CPA and I don't do taxes for a living, so I can't tell you your repercussions. What I can explain: the taxes you'd pay on selling a rental are based on what you purchased the property for, how much improvement you put in that you can show receipts for, how much depreciation you claimed over the years, and how much income the property earned while it was a rental. It's a math calculation — not a simple one — and the person to run it is whoever does your tax returns and knows what's been claimed and deducted. If you ask me something I can't answer, I'll always tell you who can. ### Getting rid of PMI Next question: *“Is there a way of removing the PMI on a current home?”* Good one. First, FHA: unless you're in the rare case of a 15-year fixed FHA loan, where the MIP — mortgage insurance premium — can drop off after a specific amount of time, FHA insurance is basically along for the ride. So let's talk conventional, because those are the loans where you really have the opportunity to remove mortgage insurance. A conventional loan with less than 20% down has mortgage insurance, period. There are ways to structure it — you can finance it into the interest rate, or buy it out completely upfront so it's not part of the monthly payment — but it exists, and you deal with it one of those three ways. Why would you want to keep your current loan and just remove the insurance, instead of refinancing? Because if your rate is 3.5% or 4%, you do not want to refinance in today's higher-rate market. You want to keep that low rate, drop the insurance, and save the monthly money. Here's the rule: to remove mortgage insurance from a conventional loan, you have to pay the balance down to **78% of the appraised value from when you took the loan**. Not today's value — the value at origination. That's where people get confused. They call the 800 number on their statement and say "my property has gone up in value, remove my PMI." Some servicers will even order an appraisal — and then come back asking you to show the improvements you made to increase the value. They're looking for money you spent or balance you paid down, not just a market that went up. So make your payments, get that balance to 78% of the original value — 22% equity — and the insurance can come off. Realistically, in today's market, most of you haven't paid down that far yet, so you'll stay with the mortgage insurance for now. When rates eventually come down to about where your current rate is, that's when a full refinance can make more sense — it removes the mortgage insurance without waiting to hit the payoff threshold. ### HELOC or credit cards? From the chat: *“I have some credit card debt and currently have a home equity loan. I want to pay off one but I'm not sure which. My plan is to apply for another home equity loan for a higher amount — do you recommend paying off the credit cards or the HELOC?”* You can generally only have one second mortgage at a time — I don't care whether it's a home equity line of credit or a home equity loan; if it's in second position on title, it's a second mortgage. A few lenders will go into third position, but the majority won't. So if you want a larger second, what you're really doing is a refinance of the second mortgage: the new loan pays off your existing balance and gets you the additional cash to pay off the credit cards. That's absolutely doable, and it usually makes sense because a new home equity line or loan is a much lower rate than what those cards are charging. But if you have the cash in hand to pay one of them off, the answer changes: pay off whichever has the higher interest rate — the one costing you the most, which is usually the credit cards — and keep the line of credit you already have in place. Don't extend the equity loan if cash can do the job. ### Can you pay PMI with a credit card? Also from the chat: *“This may sound naive, but is it possible to pay your PMI insurance with a credit card?”* No. PMI is established at the beginning of the loan — when we take your application we're determining the loan product, how much you're putting down, and what the mortgage insurance will be monthly or what it would cost to buy out. FHA: you can't buy it out; it's paid monthly as part of your mortgage payment. Conventional: it's either part of the monthly payment, bought out upfront, or financed through a slightly higher interest rate — and I don't usually point people to the higher-rate option once we compare everything. Either way, it cannot go on a credit card. ### How long self-employed before the income counts Next, from the workshop: *“How long do you have to be in business to use it as an income source?”* He's newly self-employed with a brand-new business. For the mainstream, full-income-documentation loan types — FHA, conventional, USDA, jumbo — you have to be self-employed a full two years, with two full years of filed tax returns. There are alternative-documentation programs too; typically about one year in business is needed before we can get you into one of those. If you're just getting started, call us and we'll build a game plan for the program that gets you into a home the quickest — two years gets you the full-documentation, low-down-payment, lowest-rate programs. ### VA loans: spouses, surviving spouses, and co-signers Last one: *“Who besides a veteran can qualify for a VA loan as a relative?”* This comes up all the time, from clients and from real estate agents. VA loans are for veterans — if you served, you earned it. If you're married to a veteran, you and your spouse can both go on the loan, qualify together, and use the full zero-down benefit. Where people get confused is surviving spouses. If your spouse was a veteran and passes away, that does *not* automatically give you their eligibility. In most circumstances, the surviving spouse can use the benefit only when the veteran was deemed disabled from active-duty deployment — if they passed during deployment, or came home disabled from that deployment and later passed, the spouse gets the eligibility. It's about what happened during service. And the co-signer question: absolutely, you can get a co-signer on a VA loan — mom, dad, a brother. But it changes the zero-down feature. The veteran gets zero down on their half of the purchase price; the non-spouse co-signer has to come up with a down payment on their half. I absolutely love VA loans — they're my favorite loan to do. If you're a vet and you haven't used your eligibility, what are you waiting for? Give us a call. ### Wrap-up We finally made it onto Instagram today — I've been trying to make that happen for three years — so we're now live on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram every Wednesday at 1 p.m. Pacific. If you want to know when I go live and what we're covering, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week with the topic and the link to join. Same number to call if you have questions or want to get an application started — purchase, refinance, or reverse mortgage. Have a fabulous rest of your week, and I'll talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 13, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Do You Really Need 20% Down to Buy a House? Real Estate Myths Debunked URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/do-you-really-need-20-down-to-buy-a-house-real-estate-myths-debunked/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:34.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Debunking Real Estate Myth's” • Live show from Wednesday, March 6, 2024 • 48 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Do you need 20% down to buy a house? Does getting pre-approved wreck your credit? Should you overprice your listing to “leave room to negotiate”? Debbie came to this show with three pages of things people have told her that are flat-out wrong — and spends the hour taking them apart, one myth at a time, for buyers and sellers alike. ## Key takeaways - **Looking at homes is not step one — the pre-approval is.** Fall in love with a house before you know your numbers and you may find out you can't afford it. Know your price range first, then shop. - **You do not need 20% down.** Conventional primary-residence loans go to 5% down, FHA to 3.5%, USDA and VA to zero — and down payment assistance exists when even the low down payment is out of reach. - **The down payment is not your only upfront cost.** Closing costs (negotiable — a seller can pay them), plus out-of-pocket items paid before closing: the appraisal, the physical inspection, usually a termite inspection, and HOA document fees on condos and townhomes. - **Pre-approval won't wreck your credit.** A mortgage credit report is good for 120 days — one pull can cover pre-approval through closing — and the bureaus give you a 30-day window to rate-shop multiple lenders without stacking inquiry hits. Opening credit cards is what drops scores. - **You don't have to sell your current home before buying the next one.** There are programs that don't count the departing residence's payment against you, and a signed lease with a deposit check can put rental income toward your qualifying ratios. - **Your pre-approval number isn't a ceiling set in stone.** Extra cash down, paying off a car loan, buying out mortgage insurance, or a rate buydown can all move the number — tell your loan officer the price you actually need to hit. - **Sellers: pricing tricks backfire.** Overpricing to leave bargaining room makes the home sit until buyers assume something's wrong; pricing slightly under market can spark the bidding war that ends up higher. And the highest offer is not automatically the best one — the strongest, most closeable offer is. ## Chapters - 04:15Myth: looking at homes is the best first step - 05:30Q&A: can you get a mortgage on leased land? - 07:30Myth: you don't need a real estate agent - 08:30Myth: new construction means no repairs - 10:45Myth: you need 20% down to buy a home - 13:30Myth: the down payment is the only upfront cost - 20:15Myth: getting pre-approved hurts your credit - 25:00Myth: schools don't matter if you don't have kids - 26:00Q&A: the seller didn't disclose defects — now what? - 31:00Myth: you must sell your current home before buying - 32:30Myth: your pre-approval amount is set in stone - 35:15Myth: price high to leave bargaining room - 37:15Myth: a low list price means less money - 39:30Myth: cutting the agent's commission nets you more - 42:00Myth: staging is necessary for a quick sale - 43:30Myth: the highest offer is always the best offer ## Questions answered on this show ### “Are waterfront properties on leased land mortgageable?” Yes — leased land by itself doesn't stop financing. What matters is the property (a mobile home in a park is a different conversation than a real house on leased land) and, critically, **how many years remain on the land lease**: the loan can generally run only to about five years short of the lease expiration, so a lease with 20 years left supports roughly a 15-year loan. Ask about the remaining lease term before falling for the house. ### “What legal recourse do I have if the seller didn't disclose defects? My backyard floods every time it rains.” That's a question for the real estate agent who wrote your contract, not your lender — the contract shows whether you agreed to arbitration, and your agent's job is to walk you through your recourse. If your agent isn't helping, go up to their broker; if your agent *is* the broker-owner, the state's real estate regulator is the next stop. Debbie is careful here: she held a real estate license early in her 30-year career but hasn't for decades, so she gives the roadmap, not legal advice — and it's exactly why she recommends having an agent in your corner even though one isn't technically required. ### Heard something and not sure it's true? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. The captions for this episode begin a couple of minutes into the broadcast. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Debunking real estate myths This is an interactive show — jump in, tell me what you're thinking, and ask your questions; I'll read them out loud and answer them for you. We're working on getting the show streaming on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube all at once, so bear with us today — it's all brand-new technology, and if you can't hear or see something, put it in the chat so we can fix it right away. Today we are debunking real estate myths. I wrote out three pages of things I've heard — things people have actually said to me — that are absolutely inaccurate. We'll go through what people believe, and then what the reality is. And if you've heard something and want to know whether it's true, put it in the chat. ### Myth: looking at homes is the best first step A lot of people believe the best first move is to start touring homes — out on the weekends, walking open houses, seeing what they fall in love with. In reality, that is not your first step. If you want to buy a home, you first need to know what you can afford. You could walk into an open house, fall in love with the home and the neighborhood — and then find out you can't get the loan, or the monthly payment is too high. Shop for the pre-approval first. Call a lender, call Mortgage Mom Radio, get your affordability and your price range done, and *then* get out there and look. ### Q&A: leased land A question came in: *“I've noticed during my search in Parker, Lake Havasu, and Bullhead City that nearly all the waterfront properties are on leased land. Are properties like that mortgageable?”* It depends on the property, but leased land does not by itself mean you can't get a mortgage. What determines the financing is the property — is it a mobile home, what year, is it in a park or on real property? I've seen condominiums in Newport Beach on leased land, and true homes on leased land back where my dad lives in Illinois. We can do leased-land financing. What matters is how many years remain on the land lease: we can only finance to about five years short of the lease expiration, so if there are only 20 years remaining, we can only finance for 15\. Ask that question up front — how many years of the lease are left — and the rest comes down to whether the property itself is lendable. And I love that this question came from my dad; I'm trying so hard to get him to move to the West Coast. ### Myth: you don't need an agent to buy a home Here's the truth: you can buy a home by yourself, and you can sell a home by yourself. A real estate agent is absolutely not required. But I absolutely suggest one. You will do so much better with somebody behind you who knows the contracts, understands what you're signing, knows the inspection periods, what inspections you can do, and who should pay for what. So no, you don't *need* an agent — but you absolutely *should* have one. ### Myth: buying new construction means few repairs Many people think buying brand-new construction shields them from repairs and surprises. Many new homes are built to great standards — there are very good builders out there — but understand that builders move fast; that's how they make their profit, and sometimes things don't get done right. A brand-new home does not mean nothing will go wrong. I've had a brand-new washer and dryer delivered where the dryer didn't work out of the box — the same thing can happen with your water heater or a pipe. Don't buy new construction believing you've escaped maintenance and repairs. ### Myth: you'll need a 20% down payment If you've been watching me since I started this show back in 2016, you know this one already — and yet so many people still believe a 20% down payment is required. It is not. There are many, many loan programs with less than 20% down: zero down for USDA, zero down for veterans with VA financing, and down payment assistance for buyers who can't come up with the 3% or 3.5% programs' minimums. If 20% is what your neighbors or your parents told you to save for, get on the phone with us before you wait any longer — the market and home values keep climbing, and if you're already able to do the transaction, you don't want to miss that appreciation. ### Myth: the down payment is the only upfront cost Your down payment is not your only out-of-pocket expense — even on a zero-down VA loan. First, closing costs: a lot of people have heard of them, but I've had clients get into escrow knowing they needed their 3% or 10% down and nothing about closing costs. Talk to your lender about what to expect — and remember closing costs can be negotiated; you can get the seller to pay them. Then there are the things you pay before the transaction ever closes, outside of down payment and closing costs. The **appraisal**: the bank requires it for financing, the appraiser does the work and delivers the report, and you pay for it out of pocket up front. The **physical inspection**: your due diligence, hiring an inspector who knows real estate transactions to make sure everything works and flag repairs — which then gives you the chance to ask the seller to fix them. You pay that inspector for their time and report. **Termite**: sometimes the seller pays, sometimes the buyer — and I highly recommend getting one; you want to walk in knowing the home is termite-free, because maintaining it is your job from there. There are also deeper inspections — mold, plumbing — typically on the buyer. And if you're buying in an association, especially a condo or townhome, the lender needs documents from the HOA — reserves, budgets, rules, insurance — and the association charges for those copies, paid up front. ### Myth: getting pre-approved will hurt your credit This one is simply wrong. Your mortgage lender can pull your credit one time and have it cover both the pre-approval and the closing — a mortgage credit report is good for 120 days, about four months, and if your loan closes inside that window we never pull it again. One inquiry is not really going to move your score. And here's the part people misunderstand about shopping around: credit reports can't be shared between lenders — each company has to pull its own. But the credit bureaus give you a **30-day shopping window** for mortgage financing. Shop other lenders within that window and the extra pulls show up on the report but don't ding you as additional inquiries. What really drops scores is applying for credit card after credit card — that's opening new credit in lots of places. Shopping one mortgage among a few lenders inside 30 days is not that. So get pre-approved, and if you want a second opinion, get it within the window. ### Myth: schools don't matter if you don't have kids When you're deciding where to buy and you have no kids, it's tempting to think the school district is irrelevant. Schools are near the top of the list for a huge share of buyers — people who have children or plan to. Whether or not kids are ever in your plan, the school district matters to what your home will be worth when you sell — it's part of judging whether the purchase is a good investment. ### Q&A: the seller didn't disclose defects Michelle asks: *“What legal recourse do we have if the seller did not disclose all the defects on the property? I bought the house in December with no rain, and my backyard floods every time it rains.”* Michelle, that goes back to your real estate agent. I was a licensed agent early in my career, but I haven't held that license in about 23 years — I've been in mortgage since 2001 — so I have the general knowledge but I'm not licensed to guide you through it, and I won't answer a question wrong. Your agent can show you in your contract whether you agreed to arbitration, and taking the seller to arbitration may be the path. That's the agent's piece of the puzzle: my job is getting you the money to buy the home; their job is protecting you, writing the contract, and making sure you understand everyone's obligations — which is exactly why I said earlier that you *can* buy without an agent but shouldn't. If you're not getting answers from your agent, remember they hang their license with a broker — call the broker of the agency. And if your agent *is* the broker-owner, you might reach out to the Department of Real Estate. On whether there's a time limit to file — I honestly don't know, and I won't guess; ask a licensed agent that one. ### Myth: you must sell your current home before buying a new one Absolutely not true. We do loans all the time for clients who want to close on the next home first — move out, move in, clean up the old house, and *then* market it for sale. We have loan programs where we don't have to count the mortgage payment on the departing residence against you, and ways to help get some of the cash out of the house to make the new purchase work. And if you want to keep the old home as a rental: market it for rent, sign a lease, get us a deposit check, and we can use that rental income on the departing residence toward your qualifying ratios. That assumes you've saved at least something for the down payment on the next property — but "sell first, always" is a myth, and there are multiple ways around it. ### Myth: your pre-approval amount is the amount, period Clients hear their number and think the only fix is a bigger down payment — "if I qualify for $500,000 and I add $50,000, I can buy at $550,000." It's not dollar-for-dollar: a higher price means higher homeowners insurance, higher mortgage insurance, higher property taxes. What actually works is telling your loan officer the goal. Say you're qualified at $500,000 but everything in the neighborhood you want starts at $600,000 — now we start moving the numbers. Maybe the extra $50,000 gets you into a conventional loan with no mortgage insurance. Maybe it buys out the mortgage insurance entirely, or buys the interest rate down so you qualify for more. Maybe we pay off the $20,000 car loan with its $500 payment and your debt ratios drop. The pre-approval is a purchase price and loan amount we built together — and we can rebuild it. Just call your lender and tell them what you're trying to achieve. ### Myth: set the list price high to leave bargaining room Sellers, don't do this. I have watched people price high "to leave room to negotiate" — and the house sits, and sits, with no buyer engagement because it's overpriced for the market. By the time they take the first price drop, buyers have watched it sit and assume something is wrong with the property — why hasn't it sold? — and that can absolutely kill you in the market. Price the home where it should sell. Know the number you need to net, tell your agent that number, and price it right for the neighborhood. Getting people through the door is everything; a home sitting on the market is you hurting yourself. ### Myth: setting a low price means you'll make less money The flip side, and it's also a myth. Some agents' strategy is to list a bit under the last comparable sale to spark interest — get everyone saying "that's a great deal, let's see it today" — and generate multiple offers. Once you have three and four offers, you have a bidding war, and you may well end up above where the overpriced listing down the street *started*. It depends on your market: if your home sits in the common price range for the neighborhood — where most buyers are looking — this can work very well. A multi-million-dollar property is a different strategy. But don't rule it out; priced right for the area, the overbidding can carry you higher than "leaving room" ever would. ### Myth: negotiate the agent's commission to net more profit It sounds logical — pay the realtor less, keep more. But agents searching listings for their buyers can see what a listing offers, and a listing with a very low commission has a real chance of being shown last, or not at all. Cutting the commission below what's typical can keep suitable buyers from ever walking through your home. And "typical" is local — it differs by city, county, and state — so look at what's common for your area and offer it. Get as many people through the property as you can and take the best offer; that's how you net more. ### Myth: professional staging is necessary for a quick sale Staged properties are really pretty, and some buyers do struggle to picture furniture in a vacant home — I understand why agents like staging, and if the property is vacant it's worth thinking about. But necessary? No. It generally isn't going to change the offer you receive, and it costs money. If you're living in the home: declutter and clean. Fold the blankets, clear the countertops, put the knickknacks and the salt-and-pepper shakers away, vacuum, make it as clean and presentable as it can possibly be — and you will be okay without staging. ### Myth: the highest price is always the best offer This one is for buyers *and* sellers. Sellers with multiple offers: taking the highest number is not automatically the best decision. Sometimes the highest offer isn't the strongest buyer — smaller down payment, stretched qualifying, a pre-qualification instead of a real pre-approval, no proof of assets when you ask to see them. When you sign a contract, what you want most is a sale that *closes* — you're selling because you want your money out, and if their financing falls through, your plans fall through with it. And sometimes the highest offer — even a strong cash one — comes back mid-transaction demanding credits for every repair, using that big number as leverage. So understand who is behind each offer. Make sure your agent has done the diligence — called the loan officers behind each pre-approval letter, talked to the other agents about why the buyers are buying. The buyer whose parents live on the same street is going to do everything possible to close. Pick the contract that's a fair price *and* the one you're most confident will close. Buyers, same lesson in reverse: the highest offer doesn't always win, so don't be shocked if your big number loses to a stronger file — be completely pre-approved, have your bank statement ready to show your assets, and make your offer the one the seller trusts. ### Wrap-up Tonight at 5 p.m. Pacific I'm doing a home buyer workshop right here on YouTube — the whole transaction from beginning to end, fantastic for first-time buyers and a great refresher if you haven't bought in four or five years. And if you want to know when I go live each week, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — for one text a week with the topic and the link to join; it's the same number to call for help with your loan. See you next Wednesday at 1 p.m. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 6, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### How to Buy a House Step by Step: The Complete Home Buyer Workshop URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-buy-a-house-step-by-step-the-complete-home-buyer-workshop/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:27:37.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Mortgage Mom Radio Homebuyer Workshop 2024!” • Live home buyer workshop from Wednesday, March 6, 2024 • 2 hours 8 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 This is Debbie's full home buyer workshop — her first since 2022, and the first one she streamed — taking a buyer from the vocabulary through the loan programs, the pre-approval file, choosing an agent, writing the offer, and the closing table. It ran just over two hours because she stopped after every section to answer questions from the audience live. If you have never bought a house and you want the whole process in one sitting, this is it. ## Key takeaways - **An appraisal is not a home inspection.** The appraiser is assigned at random through a system — you don't get to pick one — and works for the lender, valuing the property. The home inspector is *yours*: you choose them, and they're the one checking the roof, the plumbing, and the attic. An appraiser will flag something blatant (a ceiling stain reads as a possible roof leak) but is not there to inspect. - **Budget about 2% of the sales price for closing costs, on top of your down payment.** On a $500,000 purchase that's roughly $10,000\. Closing costs cannot be financed — but they can be covered by a seller credit you negotiate into the offer, or by a lender credit. The single most common thing Debbie sees in buyers sent to her mid-escrow: they saved the 3.5% and nobody told them about the other 2%. - **The loan program follows you, not the other way around.** FHA is 3.5% down with a 580 minimum score, the same mortgage insurance premium for everyone, and much shorter waiting periods after a bankruptcy, foreclosure, or short sale — she calls it the do-over loan. Conventional starts at 3% down for first-time buyers (5% otherwise), needs 620 minimum but really wants 660–680, and prices its mortgage insurance to *you* — score, down payment, debt ratio, property type — so sometimes it beats FHA and sometimes it doesn't. - **Removing PMI takes principal, not appreciation.** On a conventional loan you request removal once you owe 78% of the *original* value — a higher appraisal today does not do it by itself, and most servicers that entertain a new appraisal also ask what improvements you paid for. On FHA with a minimum down payment, mortgage insurance is for the life of the loan; the only exit is a refinance. - **Buy small, then keep it.** Debbie's ladder: buy the one- or two-bedroom condo that fits you now, live in it, then buy the next place as another owner-occupied purchase and rent the first one out. Every step keeps primary-residence rates and 3–5% down payments, instead of the 20–25% down an investment-property loan demands. - **Contingencies are where you compete, not the price.** Appraisal, loan, and physical inspection contingencies typically run 17–21 days. Shortening them to 7–10 days makes an offer far more attractive without waiving protection — and a 7-day appraisal is genuinely doable, sometimes with a rush fee. The legal floor on any closing is 7 business days from disclosure; 14 days start to finish is realistic when everyone moves. - **Your closing disclosure has a three-business-day fuse.** Loan documents cannot be issued until three business days after you sign the CD. Debbie sends hers about ten days before the closing date — so if you're closing on the 31st and nothing has landed in your inbox by the 24th or 25th, start making phone calls. - **The pre-approval file is deliberately heavy.** One month of pay stubs, two years of W-2s, the final pay stub from each of the last two years, two months of bank statements, driver's license, and for retirement funds the most recent quarterly statement plus the terms and conditions of withdrawal. Self-employed adds two years of returns, business returns if you own 25% or more, and a year-to-date profit and loss. Asking for it all up front is how she keeps underwriting conditions from landing on you in the middle of escrow. ## Chapters - 01:00What this workshop covers, and how to ask questions - 05:00Buzzwords: appraisal vs. inspection, escrow vs. escrows - 13:00Q&A: removing PMI from a loan you already have - 16:00The benefits of home ownership - 22:00Q&A: how assumable mortgages actually work - 25:00Your responsibilities as an owner - 31:00How to decide which loan program fits you - 38:00FHA: 3.5% down, credit tiers, and the do-over loan - 47:00Conventional: 3% down, and mortgage insurance you shop for - 1:01:00VA: zero down, no mortgage insurance, assumable - 1:10:00USDA: rural areas, zero down, income limits - 1:12:00Closing costs: budget 2% of the sales price - 1:21:00Pre-approval: exactly which documents you need - 1:28:00Choosing a real estate agent who works for you - 1:36:00Writing the offer: earnest money and contingencies - 1:46:00In escrow: disclosures, and the three-day closing rule ## Questions answered at this workshop ### “Is there a way to get rid of PMI on a home I already own — and doesn't that take forever?” On a conventional loan, yes: once you've paid the balance down to 78% of the original value — the purchase price, or the appraisal if it was a refinance — you can ask the servicer to remove the mortgage insurance, and in that case a new appraisal usually isn't required. What does *not* work is pointing at appreciation. Some servicers will look at a new appraisal, but nearly every one Debbie has dealt with then asks what improvements you made and what you spent, because they want to see money went in. Paying down to that mark on minimum payments can take years, so if your value has climbed significantly, a full refinance with a new appraisal is usually the faster route. On FHA, mortgage insurance runs for the life of the loan except in a narrow case requiring a large down payment and a 15-year term — so for a 3.5%-down FHA buyer, the only way out is to refinance. ### “How do you strategize to get an assumable mortgage — and is it worth it?” Worth it when you can find one, because you inherit the seller's rate. VA loans are assumable, but many veterans won't do it: letting a buyer take over the loan keeps their entitlement tied up, so they can't turn around and use their VA benefit on the next house. On the conventional side, a 30-year fixed is not assumable and doesn't even have the language in the paperwork — the assumable ones are typically adjustable-rate mortgages. And the part people miss: you still have to cover the seller's equity. If they bought in 2020 or 2021, the home is worth considerably more than the loan balance, and you bridge that gap in cash. Assuming a loan is not walking in for free. ### “How soon after closing can I refinance to take advantage of a lower rate?” There are no prepayment penalties allowed on an owner-occupied mortgage — any program, VA, USDA, jumbo, conventional, even an alternative-documentation loan. Technically you could close today and apply tomorrow. The limit is economic, not legal: refinances are never free. When rates fall you'll hear “no-fee refi” advertised everywhere, and the fees are simply built into the rate instead of the paperwork. Refinance when the savings clear the cost, not the moment you can. (Prepayment penalties do exist on some investment-property and non-qualified mortgage products.) ### “I have an FHA loan. What do I need to buy a second property as an investment?” Investment purchases require a minimum of 20% down, and most products want 25% — at 20% the rate is significantly worse. Which is exactly why Debbie steers people the other direction: instead of buying investment property, buy your next home as an owner-occupied purchase at 3–5% down, move into it, and rent out the one you're leaving. Do that a few times and you've built a portfolio at primary-residence rates and primary-residence down payments. The intent has to be genuine — you move in and stay until you're ready for the next one, not a month. ### “Is it true that if you haven't bought a home in five or more years, you count as a first-time buyer again?” It's three years, not five. If you have not been on the title of a property for at least three years, you're considered a first-time home buyer again — which matters because that's the gate on 3%-down conventional programs and most down payment assistance. ### “I'm starting a business. How long do I have to be self-employed before that income counts?” For the full-documentation programs covered in this workshop — FHA, conventional, VA, USDA — you need two years of filed self-employed tax returns before that income can be used to qualify. There are alternative-documentation options, like a bank statement loan that calculates income from deposits over the last 12 to 24 months, and Debbie has access to versions advertised at 10% down. She won't put anyone in those: the rates are ugly enough that realistically you want 20% down before an alternative-doc loan makes sense. ### “My employer will forgive my student loans eventually. Should I wait to buy until that debt is gone?” If you can qualify today, with those payments in your debt ratio, for a home that genuinely works for you — buy it. Debbie is not telling anyone to buy a shoebox; she's saying that if what you qualify for now is sufficient, waiting costs you appreciation you can't get back. Then when the loans are forgiven and your monthly cash flow opens up, that money goes to savings for the next place. If the student loan payment is what's keeping you from qualifying for something that actually fits your family, that's the case for waiting until it's resolved. ### “Is it smarter to pay a little extra every month, or one extra payment a year — or to invest the money instead?” Extra monthly and one extra payment a year are mathematically the same thing; both accelerate the loan and cut total interest. The old rule of thumb she's heard throughout her career is that one extra payment a year takes roughly eight years off a 30-year note — the exact number depends on your balance and rate, and she'll run the amortization for you. Whether to do it at all is a genuine preference: some people want the house paid off by retirement more than anything, others would rather put the money where they believe it earns more. Debbie won't tell you which is right — that's your financial strategy, not a mortgage question. ### “Who besides the veteran can qualify for a VA loan — can a relative use it?” No. The veteran qualifies, and if they're married, the veteran and their spouse can be on the loan together. The only case where VA eligibility passes to someone else is a surviving spouse, and only where the veteran was deemed fully disabled from something that happened while serving. It doesn't transfer to a relative, and it doesn't transfer just because someone passed away. ### “Can closing costs be paid by a family member as a gift?” Yes. On a primary residence or a second home, gift funds can cover the down payment and the closing costs — not a problem. Investment property is the exception; gifts don't work there. ### “Do I really have to prove where my savings came from?” Yes, for any deposit worth 50% or more of your monthly income. If you earn $10,000 a month and a $5,000 deposit shows up on the statement, you'll be asked to source it — a bill of sale and a copy of the check for the car you sold, that kind of thing. And cash in a safe at home cannot simply be walked into the bank once you're under contract: if the deposit appears on the statements and you can't source it, that money can't be used. If you're planning to buy in a few months, get it deposited well before the statements matter. ### “What is Mello-Roos?” A way of financing the improvements a new area needs — schools, streets, street lights — charged as an additional tax folded into your property taxes. You see it most often on new construction in previously undeveloped areas. California property taxes typically run about 1.25% of the sales price; Debbie has seen new-construction areas where Mello-Roos pushed that to about 2.25%. That's a large difference in the monthly payment, and because you qualify on the total payment, it's a large difference in how much house you qualify for. If you don't want to pay it, tell your agent to only show you properties without it. ### “Can you refer me to a home inspector in California?” Honestly, no — and she explains why. The lender orders the appraisal; the home inspection sits with you and your real estate agent, who meets the inspector at the property and tracks the contingency deadline. Your agent is the right person to ask for that referral. Real estate agent referrals are a different story: Debbie works in many states and is glad to hand you off to someone she's closed deals with, and gets nothing in return for it. ### Ready to start — or just want to know what you'd qualify for? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Repeated housekeeping has been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. The workshop had an audio dropout over the first slide, which Debbie recaps live at the start of this transcript.* ### Welcome, and how this workshop runs Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and this evening we are doing the home buyer workshop. I want to invite all of you to put your questions into the chat — I'll read them out loud and answer them. One note: you can't post in the chat unless you're subscribed to the channel, so subscribe to Mortgage Mom Radio if you haven't. This is going to be a longer workshop, because we're taking you from start to finish through the process. I pre-recorded the slides on purpose. My last workshop ran about three and a half hours because questions came in while I was presenting, and nobody wants to sit on YouTube for three hours. So the slides are tight and direct, and I come back live after every single one to answer whatever you've put in the feed. Keep them coming — the more questions I get, the more information I deliver. ### The phone app, and why online calculators mislead you I'm sorry about the audio on that first slide — here's what you missed. When you're at an open house, or scrolling Zillow or Redfin, the payment calculators on those sites are not giving you the whole payment. They're not calculating conventional mortgage insurance, or the FHA mortgage insurance premium, or the VA funding fee that gets financed in if you're not a disabled veteran, or the USDA financing fee. Our app does, along with taxes and insurance. Text us and you'll get a link back; click it, save it to your home screen, and it's there as the Mortgage Mom Radio app — calculators, the ability to apply, contact us, call us, watch YouTube. And if you don't know what to enter for taxes, insurance, or the interest rate, use the “email Debbie” button in the app and I'll give you the numbers to plug in. ### Real estate buzzwords There are so many words in this transaction that it can feel like someone is speaking a different language to you. I won't define all of them out loud — this workshop lives on YouTube, so you can pause on the slides and read the full list — but let me hit the ones that confuse people most. **Appraisal versus physical inspection.** These are not the same thing. The appraisal is ordered by your lender through a system that randomly assigns the appraiser — we don't get to pick, and you can't shop for your own to save money. The appraiser is evaluating value, because the bank wants to know it isn't lending you more than the home is worth. Your physical inspection is yours: you choose the inspector or contractor, and they look the house over — the roof, the appliances, plumbing leaks, mold up in an attic. Home inspectors aren't required to carry a license; it's good if they do. An appraiser will note something blatant — stains on a ceiling become “appears to be an active or prior leak, recommend a roof certification” — but that's flagging, not inspecting. **Escrow, and then escrows.** Same word, two completely different meanings. An escrow company is a neutral third party that takes direction from everyone in the transaction — buyer, seller, both agents — and makes sure things happen the way the contract says. Most of the West Coast is escrow country: California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas. Some states are attorney states — Illinois, for example — where buyer and seller each have an attorney instead. There are also title states where the title company handles everything; a title company issues title insurance in any of those setups, and can also act as the escrow party. Then there are *escrows* or *impounds* in your mortgage payment: the portion covering your property taxes and homeowners insurance. Loan officers tend to say impounds; your mortgage statement will usually say escrows. **Mortgage insurance.** Completely separate from homeowners insurance. Homeowners insurance is your fire insurance, plus earthquake or flood coverage if you need it. Mortgage insurance compensates the *lender* if you stop paying and go to foreclosure, and it's required on any loan with less than 20% down — and on FHA even with a large down payment. FHA calls it a mortgage insurance premium; most other loans call it PMI. A few more you'll hear as abbreviations: HOA for homeowners association, LO for loan officer, LE for the loan estimate you'll receive, LTV for loan to value. And the *prelim* — short for preliminary title report — which pulls everything recorded against the property: the seller's mortgage, a home equity line behind it, a mechanic's lien from an unpaid bill, an IRS lien. Your lender requires all of those to be satisfied so title is free and clear before closing. ### Q&A: getting rid of PMI Laura asks whether there's a way to remove PMI on a home she already owns. It depends on the loan. On a conventional loan, once you've paid the balance down so you have 22% equity — you owe 78% of what the property was worth at the time of that transaction — you can request that the lender remove the mortgage insurance and keep the loan you have. Here's what trips people up: it isn't about appreciation. Almost everyone's home has gone up in value, even with rates high — there are pockets that have seen declines, but for the most part values rose. You can't simply be worth more. You have to have paid the balance down to that 78% mark measured from the original sales price, or the original appraisal if it was a refinance. Michelle follows up: doesn't that take a long time, and don't you have to pay for another appraisal? It's actually the servicer — the company collecting your payment — that sets the requirements. If you've genuinely paid the balance down to the 22% equity mark, they don't have to order a new appraisal. Some servicers will allow a new appraisal to be used instead, but nearly every one I've dealt with then asks whether you've made improvements and what you spent, because they want to see that money went into the property to make it worth more. And yes, on minimum payments it can take a very long time. If your property has appreciated significantly, you're better off doing a full refinance with a new appraisal and removing the mortgage insurance that way. On an FHA loan, mortgage insurance is for the life of the loan. There are very few exceptions, and they require both a substantial down payment and a 15-year term — which is not what someone getting in at 3.5% down is doing. So on FHA you refinance to remove it. ### The benefits of home ownership Why own? First, building wealth. A lot of people lived through 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, when values massively declined, and it left a mark. Remember the market is cyclical: values go up, they come down, they go up again — and they always end up higher than they landed last time. Each peak is higher than the peak before. Real estate is a long-term investment, and if that's the mindset you hold, the dips don't frighten you. Second, tax savings. You can write off the mortgage interest you pay and your property taxes — your 1098 at the end of the year shows both — and as of right now, under the current administration, mortgage insurance is deductible too if you don't have 20% equity. Third, security. Nobody leaves a note on your door with a 30-day notice. Nobody decides to sell out from under you while your kids are in a school district. As long as you make your payment, this is yours. Fourth, pride of ownership. You replant the yard, paint the walls, change the flooring, put an anchor in a wall — things you couldn't do as a tenant. And fifth, credit. If you've never had a mortgage, adding one to your credit report and paying it on time month after month will lift your scores. ### Q&A: assumable mortgages Rolando asks how to strategize toward an assumable mortgage, and whether it's worth it. Assumables are fabulous in a market like this one, where rates are higher than they were. If a seller's mortgage is assumable under their original paperwork, you can step into their loan at their interest rate — imagine taking over three and a half or 4% when today's rates are in the sixes. Not every mortgage is assumable. VA loans are. So if you're buying from a veteran who used their eligibility on that house, you could assume the loan if they're willing — and a lot of them aren't, because letting you take it over doesn't free up their eligibility to go finance the next home with VA. On the conventional side, a 30-year fixed Fannie Mae loan is not assumable; the language isn't even in the paperwork. The conventional loans that are assumable are typically adjustable-rate mortgages. And here's the piece people miss. You will almost certainly need cash for the seller. If they bought in 2020 or 2021, the property is worth more today than their loan balance — they are not going to hand you the loan and walk away from their equity. You have to bridge that gap in cash. Unless you find a corner of the country where values slipped, assuming a loan is not a free walk-in. ### Q&A: tax implications of selling a rental to buy a primary Chad asks about the tax implications of selling a rental property to purchase a primary residence. That one belongs to your CPA, not to me. It depends on how long you've owned it, how much depreciation you've taken, what you put into the property, and what income you earned on it. Your CPA has filed those returns and knows all of it — it's a math calculation, not a quick answer, and I'm not a CPA. ### Q&A: how soon can you refinance? Chad also asks how soon after closing you can refinance to take advantage of a lower rate. There are no prepayment penalties on any owner-occupied mortgage product — VA, USDA, jumbo, conventional, even alternative-documentation loans like a bank statement product. So technically you could close and apply again the next day. That doesn't mean you should refinance a hundred times. Refinances are not free. When rates come down you'll hear a lot of “no-fee refi” advertising — there are always fees; they're either loaded into the interest rate or they're on the paperwork. We don't refinance unless you're saving more than it costs you. (Some investment-property and non-qualified mortgage products can carry prepayment penalties, but not owner-occupied.) ### Responsibilities of ownership — #adulting Now the other side of the ledger. You have to make your mortgage payment on time. Most landlords don't report rent to the credit bureaus, so a late rent payment doesn't show up. A mortgage payment 30 days or more late hits your credit report immediately, and one 30-day late can drop a score by 80 points or more. You're responsible for the property taxes and the insurance. Most of my clients, especially first-time buyers, impound them — taxes and insurance collected inside the monthly payment. If you have 10% down or more on a conventional or jumbo loan you can choose to pay them separately; FHA and VA require impounds regardless of down payment. But if you pay them yourself and you miss them, you can lose the property. And if an insurance policy lapses and the home burns down, you own a mortgage and no house. Repairs and maintenance are yours now. There's no landlord to call about the refrigerator or a broken pipe, so keep a separate account for the unexpected. And if there are HOA dues, stay current: a homeowners association can foreclose on you. ### Choosing a loan program We're covering FHA, conventional, VA and USDA today. Jumbo and bank statement loans are real options — if you're buying above county loan limits, or you're self-employed and can't show returns — but those are a one-on-one conversation, not a workshop topic. Which program fits you depends on your credit score, how much you have for a down payment, what type of property you're buying, where it is, and whether it's a primary residence or an investment. FHA allows a lower credit score than conventional. VA requires that you're a veteran, and gives you zero down. There are conventional loans at 3% down and FHA at 3.5%, which is exactly where people ask me which one they want — and the answer comes out of your situation. ### FHA FHA is 3.5% down. Loan limits in high-cost areas go up to $1,149,825, and the limit varies county by county — Ventura County in California isn't the top number, but it's well above the roughly $644,000 you'd see in Riverside or San Bernardino, which aren't high-cost areas. In a high-cost county that means a sales price around $1.2 million with only 3.5% down. You can also refinance with FHA, which a lot of people don't know, with cash out to 80% of value. The monthly mortgage insurance premiums are good — they were lowered in 2022 and are now genuinely competitive with conventional — and on average FHA interest rates run lower than conventional. FHA is especially good if your credit score is lower. The rate is roughly the same for all FHA borrowers until you drop below 620; below that it climbs. We can do a loan as low as 550, but the rate gets really ugly, so 580 and above is the range I put on the slide. It improves at 600, again at 620, again at 640, and from 640 up everyone gets essentially the same rate. Everyone also gets the same mortgage insurance premium, which is different from conventional and makes FHA's mortgage insurance more predictable. I call FHA the do-over loan, because the credit guidelines are more lenient — collections, a prior bankruptcy, a foreclosure, a short sale. The waiting periods are much shorter than conventional. With a Chapter 13, where your debt is reorganized and you're making payments, if we can show 12 months of on-time payments and the court gives permission, you can buy or refinance while still in the bankruptcy. With a Chapter 7, if there were extenuating circumstances you can finance one year from the discharge date, and if it was financial mismanagement, two years. One myth to kill: FHA is not only for first-time buyers. Anyone can use it. You generally can't hold two FHA loans at once, though there are exceptions to that too. ### Conventional Conventional, conforming, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac — all the same thing. FHA is a government program; this isn't, so the guidelines are different. Minimum down payment is 3%, and most of the 3%-down programs are first-time buyer programs. There are one or two that don't require first-timer status but don't allow you to currently hold financed real estate. If you've owned before, conventional usually wants 5% down. Unlike FHA, conventional mortgage insurance is priced to you — it works more like shopping for car insurance. The premium depends on your debt-to-income ratio, credit score, down payment, and property type: condo, single family, two-unit, three- or four-unit. With a 740 score, 10% down, a low debt ratio, a single family home, and more than one borrower on the application, that premium can come in cheaper than FHA. Plenty of other times FHA still wins. That's the conversation we have with you. Conventional shines on condos, because the complex doesn't have to be FHA-approved. It also allows a first-and-second combination — 10% down, an 80% first, and a 10% second to avoid mortgage insurance. That was very popular ten to fifteen years ago and less so now, because rate sheets price in an increase when you introduce a second lien, and one 90% loan with mortgage insurance usually beats two loans. Where it still earns its keep is bridging into a jumbo price range when you don't have the 20% a jumbo would demand. High-cost conventional limits also reach $1,149,825 in places like Los Angeles County, Orange County, and parts of Hawaii, and every county has its own number. Above the standard conforming limit for your county you need 5% down, not 3% — but the guidelines are still more lenient than a jumbo loan: lower credit scores allowed, and lower or no reserves. Minimum credit score is 620, but the rate at 620 is really ugly. I want conventional buyers at 660 minimum, and 680 is a better place to be. From there it improves in 20-point increments: 680, 700, 720 and so on each price differently. One more conventional option: you can have less than 20% down and still avoid a monthly mortgage insurance payment by buying the mortgage insurance out up front. If a client has 15% saved and can't quite reach 20%, sometimes the lowest total monthly payment comes from putting 10% down and using part of the remaining 5% to buy the mortgage insurance out. Everyone is different — there's no universal right answer, which is why we ask what you're buying, where, how many units, your score, your income, and your cash. ### Q&A: buying an investment property when you already own Lauren has an FHA loan and asks what it takes to buy a second property as an investment, and whether there's a low down payment option. Investment property purchase loans require a minimum of 20% down, and most products out there are 25% down. We have some at 20%, but the interest rate is significantly higher than at 25%. So here's what I actually suggest, and it's the opposite of what most people do. Don't buy a home, settle in, and then start acquiring investment properties. If you're a first-time buyer, buy something that works for you *today* — not the house you'll need as a family in five years. If you live in a one- or two-bedroom apartment, buy a one- or two-bedroom condominium. Then when you're ready to move up, do another owner-occupied purchase, hold the first one and rent it out. Condo, then a two- or three-bedroom townhome, then a two-bedroom single family, then a three-bedroom single family. Every rung is a primary-residence purchase with a primary-residence rate and a 3–5% down payment, instead of the big down payment an investment loan demands. Don't take that out of context. When you do a primary-residence purchase you're stating your intent to occupy. I'm not saying buy one, stay a month, and go buy another. Move in, live in it, and buy the next one when you're genuinely ready — maybe a year later. ### Q&A: first-time buyer status, and self-employment income Someone asks whether not buying for five or more years makes you a first-time buyer again. It's three years — if you have not been on the title of a home for at least three years, you're considered a first-time buyer. The same person asks how long you must be in business before self-employment income counts. For the full-documentation programs we're discussing — FHA, conventional, USDA, VA — you provide two years of tax returns, so until you've filed two years of self-employed taxes, that income can't be used to qualify. There are alternative-documentation programs, like a bank statement loan where we calculate income from the deposits going into the account. Some are advertised at 10% down and I have access to them, but the rates are so ugly I'd never put you in one. Realistically you want 20% down for an alternative-doc loan to make sense. ### Q&A: student loans and waiting Ally works for a public institution that will eventually forgive her student loans, and asks whether it's wise to buy before that debt is resolved. If you can afford, with those payments in place, to buy something that genuinely works for you — do it. I'm not telling you to buy a shoebox; I'm telling you that if what you qualify for now is sufficient, get it. When the loans are forgiven and your monthly cash flow grows, that same money goes into savings for the next place. If those payments mean you can't qualify for what your family actually needs, then yes, wait until they're paid off so you can qualify for more. And I'll say this plainly: property values are not dropping. Everyone expected a recession — I thought rates that high would make it impossible to hold values up. What actually happened is that everyone who bought or refinanced in 2020 and 2021 has a rate so low there's no reason to sell. The normal turnover — retirees downsizing, couples trading the condo for a house before a baby — simply stopped, because the payment on a smaller house would be higher at today's rates. Very few listings meant no depreciation; we've actually seen appreciation in a market that would normally have softened. Rates have already dropped nicely since December, and dropped again yesterday and today. As they fall further, all those people who put plans on hold get ready at once — more inventory, but a lot more buyers and a lot more competition. Better to buy what you can now, reap the appreciation, refinance into a better payment when rates come down, and go buy another. ### VA loans VA is by far my favorite loan program, and we do a lot of it. Before the bullet points, one thing: work with someone who has done VA before. If you're a veteran, make sure your lender understands VA loans, and make sure your real estate agent does too. There are elements that have to be written into the contract differently, and if you have an agent you love who's never done a VA deal, have them call us and we'll walk them through it. Sellers: if a VA buyer makes an offer, look at it seriously. Agents get spooked by zero down and assume the appraisal will be harder. In reality the guidelines across almost every program have converged, and the VA appraiser's health-and-safety standards are not meaningfully different from FHA or conventional. Zero down payment. A much higher debt-to-income ratio is allowed, which makes approval easier. No mortgage insurance at all, which makes it more affordable monthly. Rates are much lower than conventional or jumbo. There are no VA loan limits — I've done $2 million VA loans with zero down. Refinancing to a better rate needs no appraisal and no W-2s or tax returns; we verify employment, and it's fast and inexpensive. Closing costs are reduced — we cut lender fees for veterans, because you served. And VA loans are assumable, which we're seeing a lot of right now: a veteran selling a house they bought at a rate in the threes or fours can offer that financing to their buyer. Cash-out refinancing is allowed to 100% of value under VA's own guideline, but the lenders offering VA financing mostly cap it at 90% because they're not comfortable with the risk. We may be able to find a lender who'll go to 100%; plan on about 90%. ### USDA I forgot to upload the USDA slide, so here it is live. USDA is a rural loan. To find out whether a property or an area qualifies, check the USDA website or call us and we'll look it up — and there are far more eligible areas than people expect, so just ask. Zero down payment. The household income limits are quite generous, and the limit depends on how many people live in the home. Beyond household size, income, location, and your credit score, there's nothing else gating it: you didn't have to serve anywhere, and you don't have to be a first-time buyer. But you cannot own other real property. If you own a home, you're not USDA eligible. USDA also has one benefit no other program has: if the appraised value comes in higher than the negotiated sales price, the difference can be used toward your closing costs. Negotiate $400,000, appraise at $402,000, and that $2,000 can help cover closing costs. It's the only loan program that allows it. ### Closing costs Normally in a workshop I put a closing cost estimate on the screen and go line by line. I'm not doing it here, because this is streaming to people in every state, and costs genuinely change by state, county and city — escrow state, title state, attorney state, transfer taxes in some places and not others. I don't want to give anyone inaccurate information. What I will do, free, is take you through an estimate one-on-one. Book a consultation on the website; we'll call you, then schedule a second call where we prepare the estimate, email it to you, and go through it line by line while you have it on your screen. Nothing we do costs you money. We don't get paid unless you close a loan with us. Here's the part I need you to hear. You do not just need your down payment. I get clients sent to me after escrow is already open who were pre-approved elsewhere and thought their 3%, 3.5%, or 5% was all they needed — or who assumed down payment assistance covered everything. On average, expect an additional 2% of the sales price in closing costs. On a $500,000 purchase, that's $10,000. If you don't have that extra 2%, you can negotiate for the seller to pay your closing costs as part of your offer. They don't have to pay all of it — you might land at half a percent, or 1%, or 2%, and sometimes you can get a credit of 3 or 4%. Your lender can also give you a credit. What you cannot do is finance them. The only exception is that USDA appraisal overage I just mentioned. Closing costs are real, they have to be paid, and there is no way around them — but there are several ways to get them covered. ### Q&A: business use, and gift funds A viewer asks whether you can buy a home for business use and also live in it. Yes, if the property is categorized as mixed use — typically the business below and living quarters above. In that case you can get residential financing. If you're buying an ordinary single family home and running your business from a bedroom or a computer, that's just your primary residence, no issue. If you want something genuinely commercial, like a warehouse, that's commercial financing and I don't do it — we're residential only, up to four units. Five units or more is commercial even if you plan to live in one of them, with an entirely different set of guidelines, credit scores and down payments. You can only be good at so many things; I specialize in residential. Laura asks whether closing costs can be paid by a family member as a gift. Yes. On a primary residence or a second home, a gift can help with down payment and closing costs. Not on an investment property. ### Getting pre-approved: what we need from you What we need depends on how you're paid. And to be clear about a common confusion: if you own the company and pay yourself a W-2, you are still self-employed, not a wage earner. If you're a wage earner: one month of pay stubs, two years of W-2s, and the final pay stub you received in each of the last two years. Not the January stub covering December — the last one you actually cashed in that year, because it shows me overtime, commissions, bonuses, vacation and sick pay. Right now that means the final 2022 stub and the final 2023 stub. If you're self-employed and we're doing a full-documentation loan: the last two years of self-employed tax returns. If you're an S corp, a C corp, or an LLC and own more than 25%, we also need the business returns; if you own less as a partner, we take your K-1s on top of your personal returns. And we need a profit and loss — all of 2023, plus year-to-date through today. It's March, so many of you haven't filed yet, and that's fine. Everyone, wage earner or self-employed, provides a copy of their driver's license and their two most recent months of bank statements for the accounts funding the down payment and closing costs. If you're using retirement funds for the down payment or for reserves, we need the most recent quarterly statement — most retirement accounts print quarterly, not monthly — plus the terms and conditions of withdrawal, because having a retirement account doesn't always mean you can access the money. Michelle asks whether it's true you have to prove where your savings came from and that they've been there two months. Yes. We have to source every deposit that's 50% or more of your monthly income. If you make $10,000 a month and there's a $5,000 deposit on the statement, you'll be asked where it came from — a bill of sale and a copy of the check for the car you sold, that sort of thing. And if you have cash at home and want to use it for a down payment, you cannot just walk it into the bank once we're looking. If we see the deposits and you can't source them, that money can't be used. Plan ahead and get it deposited before the statements matter. ### Choosing your real estate agent You're pre-approved, you know your maximum budget, you know what you need for down payment and closing costs, and whether you'll need to negotiate a credit. Now comes the most important piece of your success: your agent. Have your own representation. Buyers often believe they'll get a better deal working with the listing agent, and it has worked out plenty of times — I won't say it can't. But an agent's first responsibility is to whoever they signed a contract with first. If that's the seller, you're the second piece. You don't want to be the side piece; you want to be the most important piece. If you walk into an open house without your agent, that's fine — just make sure the listing agent knows you're working with someone. Same at a new construction site: when you sign in to tour the models, write down your agent's name and number. A lot of buyers don't realize they can bring an agent to a builder at all. Look for an agent with a vested interest in you. What matters isn't the maximum you were pre-approved for — it's that they're talking to you about a monthly payment that's comfortable and showing you homes inside that comfort level. Do you need a particular school district? Do you want to avoid an HOA, or Mello-Roos? How many bedrooms and bathrooms actually matter? Do you need a seller credit written into the offer? They should be an expert in your market: aware of HOA dues, of a condo complex in litigation, of a complex that isn't FHA-approved when you're an FHA buyer, of a building with insurance problems. The worst outcome is spending a Saturday touring, falling in love with a property, and then finding out from me that it's outside your budget, or has Mello-Roos we never discussed, or sits in a complex we can't finance. If you'd like a referral, we work with agents across many states and are glad to hand you off to someone we trust — we get nothing in return for it. When your lender and your agent work as a team, everything goes better. ### Q&A: what is Mello-Roos? Mello-Roos is a way of financing the improvements an area needs — schools, streets, street lights — and you see it most often on new construction in a previously undeveloped area. It's an additional tax added into your property taxes. In California, property taxes generally run about 1.25% of the sales price, and I've seen new-construction areas where Mello-Roos took that to roughly 2.25%. That's a big difference in the monthly payment, and because you qualify on the total payment against your income, it's a big difference in how much home you qualify for. If you don't want to pay it, tell your agent to only show you properties without it. ### Writing the offer You got pre-approved, you found your agent, you toured homes, you fell in love. Now the offer. **Earnest money deposit.** This tells the seller you mean it, and the money is refundable to you if things don't go the way they should — that's what the contingencies protect. The amount is negotiable. Agents often write 3% as a standard number, but say you're a veteran getting in with zero down and a seller credit for closing costs, with no money out of pocket at all — you might negotiate $1,000\. The seller doesn't have to accept it, but it's a negotiation. Other buyers prefer a flat $5,000 or $10,000, or don't mind 3% because they're putting 10 or 20% down and want the seller comfortable. In a multiple-offer situation, a bigger deposit signals you're serious. **Appraisal contingency.** Typically 17 to 21 days in most contracts, which gives you time to order the appraisal, get the appraiser out, and get the report back. If it comes in low you can back out with your deposit or renegotiate. To compete, some buyers waive it entirely — meaning they'll pay the difference in cash, because the bank won't lend more than the home is worth. I'd rather you shorten it than waive it. If your area's average is 17 to 21 days, ask me for the fastest we can do; seven days is very doable, and we've done three and five. You may pay a rush fee to the appraiser, and it's a real competitive edge. **Loan contingency.** Also usually 17 to 21 days. It protects you: if you're not approved and can't close, you get your deposit back. Waiving it means the seller keeps your money if the loan falls through. A buyer with a low debt ratio, a complete pre-approval, and verified down payment funds sometimes waives it — but you don't have to. Tell the seller you'll remove it in seven days instead. Their home is only off the market seven days if something goes wrong, which is nearly as attractive and far safer for you. **Physical inspection contingency.** Same 17-to-21-day norm, often shortened to 7 to 10 days. Before you commit to a number, start calling inspectors to see who can actually get on your calendar and turn a report around. **Termite.** Sometimes you require the seller to provide the report; sometimes you ask for time to order it yourself and pay for it. Another negotiating piece to discuss with your agent before writing. **The closing date.** Also negotiable. The fastest a loan can legally close is seven business days from the date the file is disclosed. I've done it twice in my career, and it required every single party — buyer, seller, escrow, title — to be on their A game and turn documents around in seconds. Ten days is unrealistic. Fourteen days start to finish is genuinely doable and we've done a lot of them: appraisal back in seven, loan approved in seven, closing table at fourteen. ### In escrow Offer accepted. Typically within one to three days you're wiring your earnest money to the closing company — escrow, title, or attorney depending on your state. Use a wire. No cash; you cannot drop cash at the closing agent. A cashier's check can be used but it's harder to source and often gets held. Your closing agent will send wire instructions, and you either set it up through online banking or walk into a branch. At the same time you're calling your lender to say you're ready. We get disclosures out, order the appraisal, and collect the last pieces — updated bank statements and pay stubs if the pre-approval was a few weeks or months ago — same day if you can move that fast, so the file goes to an underwriter and your loan contingency gets handled. You're ordering the physical inspection with your agent, and the termite report if that's on you. About those initial disclosures: they go out first, and I can't order your appraisal or submit your file to underwriting until they're signed. They are *initial* — they don't lock you into anything. They're for you to review and tell me what's wrong: a Social Security number transposed, a previous address entered incorrectly, a misspelling, the wrong employer, a job you changed and forgot to mention. The numbers are my best estimate: the interest rate we anticipate, what I expect you'll owe at closing, and an estimated monthly payment using an average homeowners insurance figure, since you haven't shopped a policy yet. Signing them states your intent to proceed. This is also when we talk about locking your interest rate. I did a whole show on locking a couple of weeks back — it's in the live playlist here on YouTube, so go watch that one rather than have me spend the time tonight. Escrow is where it gets busy and where the stress starts, which is exactly why I ask for so much up front. When your file goes to underwriting it comes back with conditions, and I don't want you handling a list of 30 items while you're also meeting a physical inspector and negotiating repairs. I'd rather do the due diligence early, get an approval back with four easy conditions, clear them, and tell your agent you can remove the loan contingency. It will feel like a lot for a pre-approval. That's the point. ### Closing your loan The appraisal came in, the loan is approved, the inspection was clean or the seller handled repairs. Now you get your closing disclosure — the CD. Those first disclosures were estimates; this one is the final terms: sales price, down payment, interest rate, total monthly payment, the real homeowners insurance from the binding policy I ordered off your quote, the real property taxes from the title company, and every title, escrow, or attorney fee. This is what allows us to get you to the table. Review it. If anything is different from what you expected — especially if you're being asked to bring in $3,000 more than you were shown — do not sign it. Call your loan officer. With a good loan officer this shouldn't happen; if something changed during the loan, they should have told you as it happened. You and your loan officer should be thick as thieves through a transaction, and your CD should never be a surprise. Once you sign it, we cannot issue your loan documents for three business days. So if your closing date is March 31st and your CD hasn't reached your inbox by roughly the 24th or 25th, you are not closing on time — pick up the phone and find out what's going on. I try to send closing disclosures about ten days before the closing date, so there's time to review, ask questions, sign, get closing documents to the closing agent, schedule your signing, and get your final funds wired in. This is why seven business days is a floor: I disclose, you sign, then the CD, then three more business days. Don't sign it just to move things along — catch a number you disagree with before loan documents go out, not at the signing table. ### Q&A: home inspector referrals Someone asks whether I can refer home inspectors in California. Honestly, no. I order your appraisal; your real estate agent is responsible for making sure the home inspection happens inside the contingency window, and they're the one meeting you and the inspector at the property. Your agent is the right person to ask. You can also search for one yourself, and a licensed contractor in the family could likely do a solid job. Since I'm not out there meeting inspectors, I don't keep a running list. ### Wrap-up That's the workshop, start to finish. My goal in marketing isn't to throw out interest rates and claim to be the lowest so your phone rings. It's to educate you, work with you, and hope you feel comfortable enough with me and my team to want to work with us. We don't make money without you. Book a one-on-one consultation on the website, mortgagemomradio.com — there's an appointment button — or call the office at 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. You can email or text us too; whatever's easiest. The podcast, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are all there as well. And to know when the weekly show goes live, text the word LIVE to that same number. I'll be live again next Wednesday right here on YouTube. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 6, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Should You Buy a Home Now or Wait for Interest Rates to Come Down? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-buy-a-home-now-or-wait-for-interest-rates-to-come-down/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:35.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Should you wait to buy/refi until the interest rates come down” • Live show from Wednesday, February 28, 2024 • 44 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Prices are high, rates are high — so shouldn't you just wait until next year? In this interactive episode, Debbie takes that question head-on with her live audience: who genuinely can wait, why the buy-now-refinance-later crowd has history on its side, what a refinance actually costs, and the blended-rate math for tapping equity without giving up a 3.5% first mortgage. ## Key takeaways - **Selling one home to buy another? You're a wash** — your home appreciates alongside the one you'd buy, so timing matters far less. That's also exactly why inventory is so low: nobody without a life reason (relocation, growing family, divorce, inheritance) has any urgency to sell. - **First-time buyers and portfolio builders: Debbie's call is buy now, refinance later.** Look at what you could have paid in 2021 versus today — waiting hasn't produced cheaper homes, and most of the country is still appreciating year over year despite the higher rates. - **When rates finally drop, the sidelined buyers all come back at once** — multiple offers, waived contingencies, 2020–21-style overbidding, and fast appreciation. Buying at today's rate and refinancing into the lower one skips that fight. Debbie's read: those ready, willing, and able before summer 2024 will be sitting in a very good position come 2025. - **Where rates stood at air time:** government loans (FHA/VA) in the high 6s — roughly 6.5–7%, averaging about 6.75% — and conventional around 7.5%, varying with credit score, property type, and down payment. - **A refinance's hard costs run about $3,500–$5,000** depending on your state, loan size, and property — and they can be financed into the loan. The test isn't “is this my forever home”; it's whether the monthly savings outrun the cost within the time you'll keep the loan (a $5,000 cost at $250/month saved breaks even in about three years). - **Need cash but sitting on a 3.5% first mortgage? Compare blended rates.** A small cash need against a big low-rate balance favors a HELOC or home equity loan even near 10%; a cash need close to the size of your remaining balance can make one new first mortgage at 7–7.5% the cheaper package. - **Pull up your actual credit card rates before deciding** — cards people think are at 13–16% are coming in at the high 20s and even 30s, which changes the consolidation math fast. ## Chapters - 03:15Today's question: buy or refi now, or wait for rates? - 08:15Where rates are right now: FHA/VA vs conventional - 09:30The audience votes: buy now, refinance later - 10:15Selling to buy? Why you're a wash either way - 11:30Why inventory is so low — and prices keep rising - 13:30Buying without selling: what waiting since 2021 cost - 19:00“I'll just wait until next year” — Debbie pushes back - 20:30What happens when rates drop and everyone floods back - 24:30Licensed in 11 states — and the no-pressure consultation - 29:00What a refinance really costs - 32:00The break-even math, not the “forever home” test - 33:30Down payment assistance programs, explained - 36:00Refinancing today at 7% when you have 3.5%? The blended-rate math - 40:00Credit cards in the high 20s and 30s - 41:30Wrap-up and the March 6 home buyer workshop ## Questions answered on this show ### “I want to buy a home, but I think I'll just wait until next year — rates and prices make it too hard.” Debbie disagrees — respectfully. The majority of would-be first-time buyers are making exactly this bet, and no reputable analyst she's read is forecasting home values to drop; most expect them to keep rising. When rates do come down, all of those waiting buyers hit the market at once, and that's when multiple offers and overbidding drive prices up fast, like 2020–21\. Her counter: figure out what you *can* buy right now — even a condo instead of the three-bed single family — because any property builds equity you can later sell or rent your way up from. And to the follow-up about stagnant wages making the payment hard: that's what a phone consultation is for — it's not an application and nobody pulls your credit just to talk through what's possible. ### “Doesn't it depend on whether the house is your forever home? Refinancing is expensive.” Half right. A refinance's one-time hard costs run about $3,500–$5,000 depending on your state, the loan size, and the property — so it's not free, but it's not prohibitive either, and the fees can be financed into the loan so nothing comes out of pocket. The real test isn't forever-home status: it's break-even. If the refi costs $5,000 and saves $250 a month, you break even around three years — sell before that and it cost you money; keep the loan four or five years and the savings run well past the cost. Match the refinance to how long you'll actually hold the property and the loan. ### “What are the homeowner assistance programs?” Down payment assistance programs exist statewide, citywide, and nationally, generally aimed at first-time buyers in lower income brackets, and they help cover the money needed for the down payment. Which ones you'd be eligible for depends on where you're buying, your credit score, and your income — a consultation question first, then a pre-approval application once a program looks like a fit. (And yes — Debbie is licensed in 11 states, including Washington, where this questioner was asking from.) ## This week's numbers (week of February 28, 2024 — averages, not quotes) - Government 30-year (FHA/VA): roughly **6.5–7%**, averaging about **6.75%**, depending on points and seller credits - Conventional 30-year (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac): about **7.5%** - Typical refinance hard costs: **$3,500–$5,000**, varying by state, loan size, and property type — financeable into the loan - Credit card APRs Debbie is seeing on client statements: **high 20s to 30s** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Run your own buy-now-or-wait numbers Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Today's question — and a housekeeping note Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom — it's Wednesday, it's 1 p.m., and we are live on YouTube and Facebook. I can see questions from both platforms, so put yours in the feed. Quick announcement: I've retired the old text-message keyword MOM and replaced it with LIVE. Here's why. People get excited about buying or refinancing, opt in, get the deal done — and then understandably lose interest for a few years, and we ended up sending 4,000 texts to 3,800 people who had no intention of joining. So we're starting the list fresh: text LIVE to 844-935-3634 and you'll get one text a week with the topic and the link to join. Today's show is interactive on purpose: should you buy now, refinance now, or wait for interest rates to come down? There's good reasoning on both sides, and I want your opinions in the feed — then I'll tell you where I stand. ### Where rates are right now Let's set the table. Rates are definitely higher than they've been in many years. On a government loan — FHA or VA — you're looking at rates in the high sixes, somewhere between 6.5% and 7% depending on whether you pay points or get seller credits to buy the rate down; I'm seeing about 6.75% on average. On a conventional loan — Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac — you're in the ballpark of 7.5%, a little lower or higher depending on your credit score, the property type, and your down payment. That's our starting point for this conversation. The opinions are rolling in: Heather says don't wait — buy now and refinance later. Armando agrees. And Janice says it depends on whether the house is your forever home, because refinancing is expensive. I love all of these, and we're going to work through each one. ### If you're selling to buy: you're a wash Start with the homeowner who put their plans on hold: "my rate is low, my payment is low, if I sell and buy at these rates my payment jumps — I'll wait." Think back to when you first had that thought. If it was when rates started climbing in 2021, look at what your home was worth then versus now. For somebody selling one home and buying another, you're basically a wash: your home went up in value, and so did the one you want to buy. There's no rush either direction — and that's exactly why inventory is as low as it is. Nobody sells right now without a life reason: a relocation, a baby on the way, inheriting a parent to care for, a divorce. Those things can't wait for a market; everything else can. And because inventory is that low, even with rates high we are still seeing appreciation — month over month and year over year across the majority of the country, with only certain pockets seeing any depreciation. Waiting has not produced cheaper houses. So if you're a seller-buyer: do it when the time is right for your life. Buy today and you pay a higher rate but a lower price than later; buy later and your sale price is higher too. A wash. ### If you're buying without selling: the math is different Now take the younger buyer in a condo — just married, baby on the way, wants to keep the condo as a rental and buy something bigger. Or the first-time buyer with nothing to sell. If you started thinking about this in 2021 and put it on hold, go look at what you could have bought that property for two or three years ago. Today it's a lot higher. And when rates come down and the market takes off, it will be higher still — because of everybody who's been sitting and waiting. For you, my opinion is Heather's and Armando's: do it now, and refinance when rates come down to push the payment lower. If it becomes a rental, you're renting into a strong rent market too. That's my honest read for the first-time buyer and the portfolio builder. ### “I'll just wait until next year” A comment from the feed: *“I want to buy a home but I think I'll just wait — next year. It's not easy with rates and prices.”* That is what a lot of people believe, and it's what the majority of would-be first-time buyers are doing: prices are high, rates are high, wait for 2025\. But consider this. Everybody who's waiting is planning the same move you are. And of the analysts and market-readers I follow, I have not read one reputable forecast calling for home values to plummet — most believe values keep rising. So picture 2025: rates come down, and every one of those on-hold buyers floods back at once. Were you trying to buy in 2020 and 2021? There wasn't enough inventory, there were more buyers than sellers, and getting an offer accepted practically required a huge down payment or all cash, waiving your appraisal contingency — agreeing to bring cash for any gap between the appraisal and your price — even skipping the physical inspection. That is what the majority of analysts expect again when rates drop: multiple offers, overbidding, and very fast appreciation, like we saw in 2020 and 2021. So I'm going to disagree with you, respectfully — you're not wrong about how hard today feels, but here's the other side of the coin. The question isn't "should I wait?" It's "can I buy now?" Do you have the credit? Is there a down payment assistance program that fits? What can you afford at today's rates and prices? Maybe it's not the three-bedroom, two-bath single family — but can we get you into *a* property? Even a condo goes up in value, and that equity becomes the ticket to the single family later, whether you sell it or rent it out. He also asked whether we help people in Washington state — we absolutely do. I'm licensed in 11 states, mostly the West Coast plus several across the Midwest, South, and East: Washington, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, and more. And it never hurts to call. A consultation is a conversation, not a loan application — nobody's pulling your credit just to talk through what you could buy, what payments would look like, and whether now works for you. I truly believe the people who are ready, willing, and able to move in 2024 — before the summer months hit — are going to be sitting in a very good position come 2025. ### What a refinance really costs Janice's point deserves its own segment: is refinancing expensive? Here's the honest answer. The hard costs — the one-time fees — depend on your state (escrow state versus attorney state), what title and appraisal run in your area, and the size of the loan and value of the home. A big estate costs more to appraise than an average single family; an investment property or a three-to-four-unit building with rental income costs a bit more too. On average you're looking at about **$3,500 to $5,000** in hard costs. So Janice is right that it's not super cheap — and Heather's right that it's not super expensive, because the cost is weighed against the monthly savings and the savings over the life of the loan. And as Michael from the feed confirmed from his own refi: the fees can be financed into the loan, so you don't have to pay them cash out of pocket. The real test isn't whether it's your forever home. It's the break-even. Say the refinance costs $5,000 and saves you $250 a month — round numbers, I'm in the studio without a calculator — that's about three years to break even. Selling in under three years? Keep the loan you have; the refi would cost you money. Staying four or five years or longer? You're saving money past the break-even, whether the home eventually becomes a rental or gets sold. Match the refinance to your time frame in the property, and it doesn't matter what label the house carries. ### Down payment assistance From the feed: *“What are the homeowner assistance programs?”* There are down payment assistance programs statewide, citywide, and some that work across the nation, generally for first-time buyers in lower income brackets, helping with the money needed for the down payment. Which programs fit depends on where you're buying, plus your credit score and income — so it starts as a consultation question, and if it sounds right, we move to the pre-approval application to confirm you qualify and see every option on the table. ### Refinancing today when your rate is 3.5%: the blended-rate math Now the refinance side of today's question. If your current rate is significantly lower than today's, there's no reason to refinance — full stop. So who's even considering it? Someone who needs cash: to pay off debt, to do improvements, to build an ADU, to put a down payment on another property. Whether that refinance makes sense comes down to your balance versus your cash need. Two scenarios. You owe $150,000 on a home worth $700,000–$800,000 and you want $150,000–$250,000 out: a second mortgage at a rate approaching 10% on a balance that size makes no sense — your blended rate across the 3.5% first and the 10% second would be *higher* than one new first mortgage at 7–7.5%. Roll it together. Opposite case: you owe $500,000 at 3.5% and need $100,000: $100,000 at 10% stacked on $500,000 at 3.5% beats $650,000 at 7.5% by a mile. Keep the first, take the second. What we look for is your cheapest option, period. It's not "we need loans this month, let's talk this guy into a refinance" — it's doing right by the client so they're a client forever. Rates will drop again, and whoever refinances for cash today can refinance again later to bring the payment down, same as a buyer. One more thing on the debt side: if the reason is credit card debt — and we see clients with $100,000 across cards and personal loans — pull up your actual card terms before you assume anything. Cards people believed were at 13% or 16% are coming in at the high 20s and even the 30s. At those rates, the consolidation math moves fast, and sometimes even the full new first mortgage wins. We'll run the numbers and show you your cheapest path. ### Wrap-up If you've been thinking about buying at all — this year or next — jump on my free home buyer workshop this coming Wednesday, March 6th at 5 p.m. Pacific, right here on YouTube: the whole process start to finish, the lingo, the pre-approval, which loan fits you. Text RSVP to 844-935-3634 for the link. And to know when the weekly show goes live, text the word LIVE to that same number — 844-WE-LEND-4 — which is also the office line if you want to talk with me or the team. Have a fabulous rest of your week, and I'll be back next Wednesday at 1 p.m. Pacific on YouTube and Facebook. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 28, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Should You Find Out What You Qualify For Before You're Ready to Buy? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-find-out-what-you-qualify-for-before-youre-ready-to-buy/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:27:38.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Homebuyer Workshop March 6th 2024!” • Live show from Wednesday, February 21, 2024 • 32 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Most people who want to buy a home put it off because they assume they don't qualify — wrong credit, not enough saved, not the right time. In this short show, Debbie previews the free home buyer workshop she ran on March 6, 2024, and answers the question a listener asked live: is it worth finding out what you qualify for when you're nowhere near ready to pull the trigger? Her answer is yes, and the reason is more practical than you'd expect. ## Key takeaways - **Find out what you qualify for before you think you're ready.** People perpetually postpone because they believe their credit isn't good enough or they don't have a down payment — and they never test the belief. If you don't know your number, you can't even window shop usefully, and most buyers window shop for two to three months (sometimes years) before they're genuinely ready. - **A consultation is not an application.** Nobody pulls your credit and you don't send documents. It's an adult conversation about how you're paid, what your monthly debts are, and roughly where your credit score sits — most people already know, because their credit card app tells them every month. Debbie runs the numbers by hand and tells you the ballpark. It isn't a pre-approval letter, but it tells you whether you're shopping at the right price point. - **FHA does not require rental history for most borrowers.** It becomes relevant only in a manual underwrite — a low score plus high debt ratios, where the automated system won't approve and the underwriter needs compensating factors. Debbie estimates roughly one in 50 to 75 of the FHA loans she does is a manual underwrite. - **Four to five open trade lines beats one big credit card.** Several smaller cards reporting positively every month, with balances as close to zero as possible, does more for your score than a single large account. - **Buying a home is ranked with divorce and death** as one of the three most stressful things people go through — which is why the workshop exists. Understanding the vocabulary before someone uses it on you is most of what brings the anxiety down. - **It is often easier to qualify for a mortgage than for an RV, a boat, or a personal loan.** The assumption that a mortgage is the hardest credit to get is backwards more often than not. ## Chapters - 01:00The first home buyer workshop since 2022 - 02:00Why a Wednesday evening instead of a weekend - 04:00Why home buying ranks with the most stressful life events - 05:00Loan programs, down payments, and credit scores - 06:00Credit repair, and being ready before it's your turn - 11:00Q&A: worth finding out what you qualify for early? - 13:00Why you can't window shop without a number - 14:00What a free consultation actually involves - 16:00Q&A: FHA and rent history when buying grandma's house - 19:00Q&A: one big credit card or several smaller ones? - 23:00The workshop agenda: buzzwords through funding - 27:00Why the loan is the hardest part of the transaction - 29:00How to RSVP, or book a one-on-one instead ## Questions answered on this show ### “Is it a good idea to see how much I qualify for even though I'm not ready to pull the trigger?” That's one of the very first steps, and Debbie's answer is an unqualified yes. Most people who aren't ready are not ready *because* they don't know what they qualify for — they believe in their hearts that their credit isn't good enough or they don't have enough saved, and they keep putting it off. Often there's a solution to the “because,” and they never find out. Practically: if you don't know your number, you can't watch listings on Redfin or Zillow with any purpose, and buyers typically window shop two to three months before they're genuinely ready — some for years. Knowing what the monthly payment would be, whether it's affordable, and whether anything needs to change today to make tomorrow possible is the whole point of starting early. ### “My fiancé is buying his grandmother's house. He qualifies on income and credit but has no rent history — is he a good candidate for FHA?” Yes. FHA does not require rental history for the majority of borrowers. It only comes up in a manual underwrite — where the credit score is low and the debt-to-income ratios are pushing the limits, the automated system won't issue an approval, and the underwriter needs compensating factors. In that narrow case, showing a consistent history of housing payments helps. Debbie estimates about one in every 50 to 75 FHA loans she does is a manual underwrite; in every other case, proving you've made rent payments isn't a guideline at all. Since he has the income and the credit, she doubts it will be needed. Buying from a family member does introduce other considerations — the purchase price against the property's value, and whether FHA or conventional is the better fit — but rent history isn't the obstacle. ### “For my credit score and the lowest interest rate, is it better to have several credit cards or just one — all at zero balance and paid off monthly?” Several smaller cards. You want four to five open trade lines reporting, and you want the balances as low as possible, with zero being ideal. One large card doesn't give the bureaus the same picture — multiple accounts reporting positively month after month is what builds the score. ### Find out what you'd qualify for — before you're ready Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### The first workshop since 2022 Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about my upcoming home buyer workshop — who it's good for and what you'll get out of it. The last workshop I did was in 2022\. I did one in person in June, was supposed to do another in August, got sick, and never got around to rescheduling it. So here we are in 2024 and I haven't done one in two years. We're fixing that. I'm also changing the format. I've tried Saturdays during the day, Saturday mornings, Sunday mornings — I have never done a weekday evening. Everyone is busy on a weekend: errands, the kids' activities, weddings, trips. Who wants to stop and learn how to buy a house? So let's try a Wednesday, in the evening. Not too late, because this is also a podcast and a YouTube show and people across the country tune in. We're starting at 5 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday, March 6th. If you've been thinking about buying a home this year, next year, or even in 2026, it is worth your time. You do it from the comfort of your own home, watching on YouTube, and you can be interactive with me exactly like you can during the weekly show — ask your questions right in the feed and I'll answer them. I'll be in no rush. We're going to take our time and work through all of the things you need for this to go well. ### Why the workshop exists I've been doing home buyer workshops since 2015, usually a couple a year. 2020 obviously took them away, and streaming wasn't something I'd thought about then. So we're making this a new habit — online, from your kitchen. Make dinner, do laundry, help with homework, put one earbud in and follow along. Here's why it matters. They say buying a home is one of the three most stressful things in life — it ranks right up there with divorce and death. So we want to bring that anxiety level down. We want to walk you through the process, and we want you to understand what people are saying to you. Sometimes the words sound alien. You don't understand the lingo, which makes you confused, and then you don't understand what someone meant when they were talking about escrow — wait, I have to send money to an escrow company, but you're also talking about escrows in my mortgage payment? We'll cover all of that, and get you up to date on the words that matter, which makes everything easier as you move through the process. We'll also talk about what kinds of loans are available, how much money you need down, and what credit score gets you into a home. A lot of the time, someone who wants to be a buyer doesn't realize there's an opportunity there — that a loan program exists that would work for them. Believe it or not, most of the time it is easier to qualify for a mortgage than for an RV, a boat, or even a personal loan. So we'll go through what those opportunities are, and what people mean when they say FHA or conventional, so you can tell whether now is your time. And we'll spend some time on credit repair, because maybe now *isn't* your time — you know your score doesn't fall inside the guidelines. We'll cover the tips to get you moving in the right direction. The goal is that you get prepared, you get ready, and when it's your time to execute it's a little easier, a little less stressful. You get to strike when you're ready. ### Q&A: should you find out what you qualify for early? Christopher asks: *“Would it be a good idea to see how much I qualify for even though I'm not necessarily ready to pull the trigger?”* That is actually one of the very first steps — because a lot of people aren't ready to pull the trigger precisely because they don't know what they qualify for. They just keep putting it off and putting it off, truly believing in their hearts that they're not ready, that they don't qualify, that their credit isn't good enough, that they don't have enough for a down payment. Two weeks ago I did a whole show on down payment assistance; there are lots of programs, many for lower credit scores, many for first-time buyers, many to help with the cash you need to close. Most of the time what people get hung up on is “I'm not ready because” — and they don't realize there might be a solution to the “because.” There's a practical side too. If you don't know what you qualify for, your eyes aren't open. You're not learning the market, you're not watching listings come through on Redfin and Zillow. You are going to window shop for at least two to three months before you're really ready to get out there — and sometimes people window shop for years. But if you don't have an idea of what you're window shopping for, or whether it's even a possibility, it's very difficult to want to take the next step. So yes, 100%. Find out what you qualify for. What would those monthly payments be? Is that affordable to you? Is there anything you need to do differently today to make tomorrow happen? That is really, really important, and it's absolutely worth a phone call. ### What a consultation actually is Calling and getting a consult does not mean we need a full-blown application, that we have to pull your credit report, or that you need to send me every document under the sun. We can have an adult conversation: what do you do for a living, how are you paid, are you salary or hourly, what are your monthly debts — car payment, student loans, credit cards — and what do you think your credit score is? Most people know their score. Most credit cards show it every time you log in to pay the bill, and they'll notify you that it went up four points this month or down four points this month. So people usually have a good idea. All of that is enough for us to have an adult conversation and, doing the numbers by hand, tell you roughly what I'd anticipate you qualifying for. It's obviously not enough for me to issue a pre-approval letter or send you out making offers with a real estate agent. But it tells you whether you're in the ballpark, and whether you're searching online at the right numbers. Anyone like Christopher — thinking about buying, not quite ready — should be at this workshop. It never hurts to have more information, a better understanding of the process, how it works, what you need, what credit scores matter. ### Q&A: FHA and rent history Helen asks: *“My fiancé is buying his grandma's house and qualifies with income and credit, but he has no rent history. Is he a good candidate for an FHA loan?”* Great question. FHA does not require that you have any kind of rental history — sometimes it does, and everyone's situation is a little different. For example: if his credit score were really low and the debt-to-income ratios were pushing the limits, we might have to do what's called a manual underwrite, where the automated system doesn't give us an approval and we need compensating factors for the underwriter. In that situation — pushing the envelope in every direction — we may want to verify rental history showing consistent monthly housing payments. But for the majority of clients getting an FHA loan, I'd say one out of every 50 to 75 FHA loans I do is a manual underwrite. In every other case, proving you've made rent payments is not one of the guidelines. Since you said he has the income and the credit, I highly doubt it would be necessary, and yes, FHA would be a great fit. How much he's paying for the property versus what it's worth all factors in, and there are things to discuss when you're buying from a family member — including whether conventional might be better. But rent history is not a requirement for the majority of FHA loan programs. ### Q&A: one credit card or several? Vern asks: *“Is it better or worse to have multiple credit cards versus only one, all with zero balance and paid off monthly, in regard to credit score and getting the lowest possible interest rate?”* That one's easy. You want between four and five different trade lines on your credit report, and you want those trade lines carrying as low a balance as possible — zero being the very best. So between one big card and four or five smaller ones, four or five smaller separate cards is actually better, because you want multiple trade lines reporting positively every month, over and over again. ### What we'll cover at the workshop The workshop streams live here on YouTube, and on Facebook if that's where you prefer to watch. Here's the agenda. The words you need, so the lingo is easier and you understand what someone is telling you. Closing costs — what they are, why you're being charged them, and how much to set aside, because they're paid on top of your down payment. FHA, conventional, VA and USDA, and what you need to qualify for each. Down payment assistance: how it works, what you need to qualify, and whether you should even use it if you've already saved a nest egg — that answer genuinely varies, so we'll get into it. Then getting pre-approved: the difference between a pre-approval and a pre-qualification, what you need to do to get pre-approved, how long a pre-approval stays good, and how often your credit gets pulled. If you've been shopping for 30 days without finding anything, do we need to pull your credit again? The quick answer is no — we'll talk about how long a credit report is good for so you know when it's time. We'll cover locking in your interest rate. Signing disclosures — what they are, what they look like (a big, humongous legal-looking stack), how many you'll receive, how many times you'll sign, and which one matters most. Ordering your appraisal. Final loan approval, and the difference between the up-front approval and the final one. Removing contingencies from the contract — a question I get constantly. I can't tell you yes or no; that's your choice. What I can do is explain what a contingency means and where you are in the process, so you decide with your eyes open. Then signing your loan documents, funding, and closing. If we have time at the end, I'll get into how to start preparing for the pre-approval and how to find the right real estate agent. That part is hit or miss, because what I really want to hit is the hardest part of the transaction. Think about it: looking at houses is fun. It's exciting. You're out in the summer grabbing ice cream between showings, eating McDonald's in the car. The most overwhelming piece of that is deciding which one you like best. Then you're negotiating the contract, which can get frustrating. And after that comes the loan — and you are not buying that house and not getting the keys unless the loan goes through and gets done correctly. The stress really starts the day escrow opens, and that's the piece we want you comfortable with. ### Wrap-up I want everyone listening who doesn't own a home today, and would love to own one tomorrow or next year, to be part of this. It's free. It costs you nothing but a couple of hours while you cook dinner, fold laundry, or do homework with the kids — an earbud in your ear and your phone streaming next to you. To get the link to join, text RSVP — uppercase or lowercase, doesn't matter — to 844-935-3634\. That's 844-WE-LEND-4\. You'll get the YouTube link straight to your text messages when we start; no Zoom link, no computer needed. If you're not sure it went through, just call my office — same phone number. And if you'd rather not wait for the workshop and want a personal one-on-one consultation and to get your pre-approval started, that's absolutely fine too. Call the office, or go to mortgagemomradio.com and book an appointment right on the website. If you're listening on Saturday, you're hearing a repeat of what we do live on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. Pacific. We film it on YouTube, you get to ask questions, and then the audio goes to radio. Subscribe to the Mortgage Mom Radio channel and click the notification bell so you know when I go live. I'll see you next week. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 21, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### When Should You Lock In Your Mortgage Rate? Rate Locks Explained URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/when-should-you-lock-in-your-mortgage-rate-rate-locks-explained/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:35.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Locking In Your Interest Rate” • Live show from Wednesday, February 14, 2024 • 45 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 A rate quote isn't a rate — not until it's locked. On this Valentine's Day show, with an inflation report having just pushed rates back up, Debbie explains exactly how rate locks work: when you can lock, how the 15-, 30-, 60-, and 90-day terms price, what floating really means, what an extension costs if you miss your closing date, and why nobody — not even a good loan officer — can tell you what rates will do beyond a day or two. ## Key takeaways - **A lock is a lock — in both directions.** Once you say yes and the button is pushed, rates rising can't hurt you and rates falling won't help you. The question to answer isn't “where are rates going?” but “am I comfortable with this payment, and would I be upset by a small move either way?” - **You can lock as soon as a property address is identified** — an accepted offer on a purchase, or the property you've chosen on a refinance. Lock-and-shop programs exist for buyers still hunting, but they cost a non-refundable upfront fee, and Debbie doesn't recommend paying it in this market. - **Match the lock to the escrow.** Typical terms are 15, 30, 60, or 90 days (some banks offer 120 and extended new-construction locks); the longer the term, the slightly higher the rate, with 15-day locks pricing best. A 30-day lock on a 45-day escrow is a problem — that deal needs the 60. - **Rate sheets come out around 7 a.m. Pacific and can reprice mid-day** — two, three times, and once in Debbie's 30-year career, four. Your loan officer has zero control over that; nobody can honestly advise you more than a day or two out, so a floating borrower needs to check in daily. - **Floating is a choice, not a default** — and your paperwork tells you which you're doing: the Loan Estimate says “rate locked: yes/no” with the expiration date. If you're not locked, a data release (CPI, unemployment, Fed remarks) can move your quote before you ever hear about it. - **Blowing past the lock costs real money:** an extension runs about 0.02% of the loan amount per day — roughly $100 a day on a $500,000 loan. An expired lock does *not* reset you to current market pricing, better or worse; you extend to closing. - **If the market truly collapses after you lock** — think three-eighths of a percent or more, not a quarter — most lenders' lock desks will renegotiate the rate so you're not closing far above market. Small dips don't qualify. ## Chapters - 02:00Today's topic: rate locks, start to finish - 06:45The Fed backdrop: “higher for longer,” and her forecast - 08:45Yesterday's inflation report pushed rates back up - 11:15What actually drives mortgage rates - 12:00Where rates are now vs the October peak - 15:15What a rate lock is - 17:00When you can lock: the property address - 18:0015-, 30-, 60-, 90-day locks — choosing the term - 19:45Locked is locked — both directions - 23:15Rate sheets, mid-day reprices, and who controls them - 28:00Lock-and-shop programs: what they cost - 30:45Q&A: what time do rates come out each day? - 35:00Check your Loan Estimate: locked, or floating? - 38:00Missed your closing date? What an extension costs - 41:30Rate renegotiation when the market drops big - 43:00Wrap-up ## Questions answered on this show ### “What time of day do interest rates come out — and do they stay the same all day?” Most lenders release their first rate sheet around 7 a.m. Pacific, each on its own schedule — and no, it doesn't necessarily hold all day. When the market slides hard either way, lenders “reprice”: loan officers get a notice — reprice for the worse, or improving prices — and a new sheet replaces the old one, as many times as the lender sees fit. As a mortgage bank with lines of credit to many investors (household names among them), Debbie's shop can place a loan wherever the borrower fits best — but every one of those investors reprices on its own clock, which is why a floating borrower needs a loan officer who flags tomorrow's data releases today. ## This week's numbers (week of February 14, 2024 — averages, not quotes) - Government 30-year (FHA/VA): **mid-to-low 6s** — government products pricing below conventional - Conventional 30-year (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac): **low 7s** - October 2023 peak, for contrast: quotes as high as **\~8–8.5%** - The February 13 inflation report moved pricing up roughly **a quarter point** in a day - Rate lock extensions: about **0.02% of the loan amount per day** (≈$100/day on a $500,000 loan) *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Talk through your own lock-or-float decision Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Happy Valentine's Day — and today's topic Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom — and it's a good day: the camera's working, the sound is working, and I want to wish everybody a very Happy Valentine's Day, including my Go Country listeners catching the show Saturday morning. Today we're talking rate locks. Should you lock in your rate? What does locking even mean? What happens if you're locked and rates get better — or you're not locked and rates go up? Is right now a time I'd suggest locking? And can you lock before you even have a property address, for the buyer out there actively making offers? We're covering all of it, and this is an interactive show — put any question in the feed and I'll read it out loud and answer it. ### The backdrop: “higher for longer,” and where we stand Some context first. Two years ago the Federal Reserve told us they'd keep raising rates until inflation started coming down, then hold — “higher for longer,” with no actual time frame attached. Rates started easing in December on favorable news, and again in January when the inflation numbers looked better, and people got excited about cuts at the next Fed meeting. I have no crystal ball — nobody does — but I said on this show back around July of last year that I didn't expect rate cuts until July at the earliest, more likely the fourth quarter of 2024\. That is still my opinion. And here's why the topic matters today: we just got an inflation report yesterday showing inflation up from the month before, people are panicking a little, and rates popped back up. The good news: we're still down significantly from the highs of October, and I don't think we'll see those highs again — at least not between 2024 and 2025\. Back in October rates were literally in the 8% range; I was quoting as high as about 8.5%. Now we're in the low sevens on conventional, and the government products — FHA and VA — are in the mid-to-low sixes, which is phenomenal. It's making homes more affordable, opening up price ranges, and bringing some refinances back into play: if you added a home equity line or loan on top of a low first-mortgage rate, your blended rate is probably sitting around 5–5.5%, and we're getting close to where consolidating could soon make sense. But we are volatile. One day the news is spectacular and rates swing down fast; the next day a report like yesterday's lands and we jump roughly a quarter point. The rate quoted at your pre-approval can be different by the time you're ready to lock — for better or for worse. Which is exactly why you need to understand rate locks. ### What a rate lock is When you start a mortgage application — purchase or refinance — your loan officer prices your particular scenario off a rate sheet. Everybody gets a different rate; you'll never hear me throw a number out in a commercial, because your rate depends on what you're buying or refinancing, the down payment, whether it's a single family, condo, or 2–4 units, whether it's your primary residence, vacation home, or an investment, your debt-to-income ratio, and your credit score. All of it goes into your quote. Once you have the property address — on a purchase, your offer is accepted and escrow is opening; on a refinance, you've decided which property you're financing — you have the opportunity to lock that rate. Locking means: *I'm happy with this rate and this payment. I don't want to lose it. If rates go down further, fine — I just don't want it to go up.* We push the button, and you are locked. If rates rise: you're locked at the quoted rate. If rates fall: you're locked at the quoted rate. Both directions. Your rate is set by the rate sheet in force at the time and date the button is pushed, for the rest of your transaction. ### Choosing the lock term You choose a time frame: the standard offerings are 30, 60, or 90 days, some banks go longer, and there's also a 15-day lock. The longer the lock, the slightly higher the rate — so the 15-day gives you the best pricing, and 30 beats 60 beats 90. Why take a longer one? Because the lock has to reach your closing. Maybe the seller needs 60 or 70 days before they can move; maybe you're buying a new build that delivers in 60–90 days — you lock to match. And the 15-day is for the sprint: say the only way to get the offer accepted was a quick close — today's February 14th, and the seller doesn't want to make another mortgage payment, so the goal is closing by the end of the month. Two weeks — the 15-day lock fits, with a bit better pricing than the 30. The point: make sure you're locked for the right amount of time. A typical purchase contract is written for a 30-day close, and until your loan officer sees the contract, that's what they'll assume — so if you negotiated a 45- or 60-day escrow, say so. A 30-day lock on a 45-day escrow is a problem; that deal needs the 60. ### Rate sheets, reprices, and who controls them Understand where quotes come from. Rate sheets for mortgages come out once a day — sometimes twice, sometimes three times. In my 30 years I have seen four rate sheets in one day exactly once, but it can happen. When the market is sliding hard one way or the other, lenders reprice: we get a notification — reprice for the worse, or improving prices — and there's a brand-new sheet to work from. Your loan officer has absolutely no control over any of that. Not over when a new sheet drops, not over getting you into last hour's pricing. I want you to hear that clearly: every loan officer in this country has zero control over rate sheets. What a good one *does* control is communication — telling you what's happening, what's driving rates, and what's on tomorrow's calendar. And nobody — no loan officer, not even a financial adviser — can honestly tell you what rates will do across your 30-day escrow. The best anyone can offer is a view a day or two out: “we got some basis points back this morning, so I'd expect tomorrow's sheet to look similar.” If you want to float a day, float a day — and reconnect tomorrow, and the next day. It's a day-by-day decision. Anyone who says “you've got 30 days, rates are generally heading down, just float until the end and don't worry about it” — that is not a good idea, period, end of story. You check in every day, you know what data is being released — unemployment reports, CPI, the Fed speaking — and you decide, each day, lock or float. So are you a gambler? Are you the one at the craps table letting your winnings ride, or do you take the win and walk? That's genuinely the decision. Ask your loan officer the two questions that matter: if the rate improved an eighth or a quarter after I locked, how much payment did I give up? And if I float and it goes the other way an eighth or a quarter, where's my payment then? When the payment makes sense and you'd hate to lose it — lock. It's 100% your choice, and it should be an informed one. ### Lock-and-shop: locking before you have an address Can you lock while you're still shopping, before you've committed to a home? There are lock-and-shop programs that hold a rate for an extended period — three, five, six months, sometimes longer — but they cost non-refundable money up front for that security blanket. Do I suggest one in today's market? I don't. The time for those was mid-2022 into early 2023, when the Fed was telling us plainly that rates were going up and up until inflation broke — I talked about them then, and I wish more people had taken me up on it. I don't believe we're facing that kind of runaway move now, so I wouldn't pay for the protection today. But the option exists, and you can always ask. ### Q&A: what time do rates come out? Michelle asks: *“What time of day does the interest rate come out, and does it stay the same for the whole day?”* Great question. Typically about 7 a.m. Pacific for the first sheets of the day — though every lender has its own set release time. And no, it doesn't necessarily hold all day; a lender can reprice as many times as it sees fit when the market moves. Here's how it works on our side. We're a mortgage bank — not a retail bank with checking and savings accounts, but a lender with lines of credit across many investors, including some of the biggest names in the business. That means we can place your loan wherever your scenario fits best — and each of those investors publishes its own rate sheet on its own schedule, repricing on its own clock. Which brings me back to communication: your loan officer should be telling you the day before, “tomorrow there's an unemployment report; we're expecting rates to improve — but if it comes out *not as expected*, they'll typically reverse.” You know the report is coming, you know it can move rates either way, and you make the call: lock ahead of it, or gamble and wait. If your loan officer never has that conversation, you're at work, living your life, with no clue you just lost an eighth or a quarter on a rate you were never actually locked into. ### Check your paperwork: locked or floating? Many clients don't even know their rate isn't locked — because many loan officers never explain that it's the borrower's choice. The disclosures you sign at the start of the transaction will tell you. On your Loan Estimate there's a line: **rate locked — yes or no**, with the date you're locked through. Look at it. If they locked you for 30 days but you agreed to a 45-day escrow, your lock doesn't reach your closing — that's a problem you want caught early, not at the closing table. Floating means you move with the market: rates get better, you get better; rates get worse, you get worse. Fine — as long as you *chose* it. ### If you miss your lock: extensions What happens if you lock for 15 or 30 or 90 days and the closing slips — a loan hiccup, a new build that isn't ready, a seller who needs another week or two? Your lock is due to expire March 1st and you now need until the 5th, or the 10th. There is a cost to extend: figure about 0.02% of your loan amount per day — on a $500,000 loan, roughly $100 a day. That adds up fast across a lot of days, which is again why we lock for the right term in the first place. Extended locks for new construction — nine, ten months out — exist too, at an upfront cost; ask about them if you're buying a build. And no — when a lock expires you do *not* go back to the drawing board at that day's pricing. Think about why: if rates rose since you locked, you'd be thrown back to a worse market; and if rates fell, the lock desk isn't letting you expire your way into a free better rate. Either way, the answer is the same: you extend the lock out until the loan funds and closes. ### Rate renegotiation on a big drop One exception worth knowing: if there's a huge drop in the market during your lock — and I mean a significant one, really about three-eighths of a percent or more, not an eighth or a quarter — most institutions' lock desks will do a rate renegotiation. We do it at ours. We're not going to make you close at something far above the market at closing time; the renegotiation makes you whole. That's fairly standard across the industry, though each lender writes its own lock and pricing policies. But it takes a big move — don't count on it for the small stuff. ### Wrap-up That's everything about locking in your interest rate: you are the boss, you choose when to lock — not the loan officer — and if you float, make sure they're communicating with you daily. One housekeeping note: I'm retiring the weekly text alerts in a couple of weeks, so to know when I go live, subscribe to the Mortgage Mom Radio YouTube channel and click the notification bell — and give the show a thumbs up if it helped; it genuinely matters for getting these videos in front of more people. The office is still one call or text away at 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. I'll be here again next Wednesday at 1 p.m. Pacific. Enjoy Presidents' Day on Monday, Happy Valentine's Day, and I'll talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 14, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### How to Raise Your Credit Score Before You Buy a Home URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-raise-your-credit-score-before-you-buy-a-home/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:27:38.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “New Year – New Credit! Achieve Your Goals!” • Live show from Wednesday, January 24, 2024 • 54 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926, with credit expert George Hartmann A higher credit score means a better interest rate, more loan programs, and lower down payment options — which makes credit the cheapest lever a future home buyer has. Debbie brings back credit expert George Hartmann, who she's worked with for over a decade, for five concrete rules on building and repairing a score, plus the debt-relief programs he says are quietly wrecking people who thought they were fixing things. ## Key takeaways - **On-time payments are the whole foundation.** A 30-day late costs you somewhere between 60 and 100 points, takes a full 24 months to recover from, and is one of the hardest items to get removed — George's own late payment, triggered by a forgotten $6 card fee, took him 17 months to clear. Paying at 29 days costs a fee, not a credit hit; past 30 days is the cliff. Put everything on autopay. - **Keep three to five open trade lines, all under 20% of the limit.** Revolving balances are 30–35% of your score, and scores start dropping as soon as a card crosses 20% of its limit. Be careful with small-limit cards while rebuilding — a single Costco run can max out a $300 card. - **Becoming an authorized user is the fastest legitimate shortcut.** Someone adds you to an established card — George was added to two ten-year-old cards with $10,000 limits and zero balances — and that history lands on your report. His score went up nearly 100 points. - **Multiple mortgage inquiries inside 30 days count as one hit.** Only the first lender's pull moves your score, so calling a second lender does not cost you a second time. Debbie's caution: aim to finish inside two to three weeks rather than testing the 30-day edge. This grouping applies to same-type shopping — mortgage or auto — not to applying at multiple credit card issuers. - **The score you see is not the score a lender sees.** Consumer sites like Credit Karma and experian.com run a generous algorithm — George puts the gap at 20 to 50 points — and every sector scores you differently. Apply for a credit card in the morning, a car at lunch, and a mortgage at dinner, and all three scores will be different, because each algorithm weighs risk for that sector. - **Never pay a derogatory account before it's verified.** Dispute for accuracy first, because the bureaus carry an enormous number of errors. Once verified, most collections settle for roughly 50 cents on the dollar — and a collection is often easier to negotiate off a report than a charge-off still sitting with the original lender. You don't need to pay anyone to do that negotiating. - **Debt relief is not debt consolidation, and the difference is brutal.** A loan you take out to pay cards off is a loan you're repaying responsibly. A “debt relief” or consumer credit counseling program tells you to stop paying, banks your monthly payment in an account with your name on it, and lets your cards roll 30, 60, 90, 120 days to charge-off while it negotiates. Debbie has seen clients go from a 660–670 score into the 450s and 520s — then face three to six months of clean payments before anyone looks at them and two full years before the lates stop counting. - **Medical collections under $500 no longer report at all** — and if one is on your report anyway, it can usually be removed. ## Chapters - 01:00Why credit is the January topic, and who George is - 06:00Medical collections under $500 no longer report - 07:00On-time payments, and what a 30-day late really costs - 09:00Q&A: a personal loan to pay off cards before buying - 13:00Why scores usually spike after the cards hit zero - 15:00The trap: running the cards straight back up - 18:00Q&A: hard inquiries vs. soft inquiries - 25:00Rule one: on-time payments - 27:00Rule two: balances, and the 20% line - 28:00The authorized user strategy - 29:00Rule three: how many hard pulls you can afford - 31:00Shopping lenders: the 30-day inquiry window - 34:00Rule four: why every score you see is different - 38:00Rule five: dispute before you settle - 41:00Debt relief programs and the hole they dig - 50:00George's RV story: what 80 points is worth ## Questions answered on this show ### “Will getting a personal loan to pay off my credit cards affect me getting a home loan in the next six months?” Not by itself. What matters for qualifying is the monthly payment on that new personal loan, because it goes into your debt-to-income ratio — and most of the time the personal loan payment lands close to the combined minimum payments you were already making on the cards, so it rarely makes or breaks anything. Debbie's advice is to have the consultation *before* you do it: a phone conversation about your income, those card minimums, and the proposed loan payment is enough to work the ratio by hand both ways and see which is better. George's view on the credit side: because a personal loan stretches over a longer term, the payment is usually lower than the sum of the card payments, and you'll pay far less interest. Since revolving balances are 30–35% of your score, moving those balances to zero is the sweet spot. Expect a small dip for about 30 days — the inquiry and the new account report before the paid-off cards do — and then scores typically jump. Debbie sees the same pattern when clients use a home equity loan or line to clear debt. The condition on all of it: this only works if the cards go in a drawer. If you clear them and run them back up, you now owe the cards *and* the loan, and you're in a worse cycle than you started in. ### “What are soft credit checks, what are they looking for, and do they really affect your score?” Soft pulls don't affect your score and don't show up when another lender runs your report. They're what consumer sites like experian.com and Credit Karma use when you check your own scores, and what a lender uses for those “see what you're eligible for with no impact” offers — effectively a pre-qualification off a quick score from the bureau. George's rule of thumb for telling them apart: if you are going to receive something tangible from them running your credit, it's a hard pull. Hard inquiries take a few points each time, and fewer is better over time. And the catch on those soft-inquiry offers: if you accept what they offer you, they will still run a hard inquiry before approving the loan or the product. The soft pull only decides what to offer. ### Find out what your credit score can actually buy Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. This episode was recorded with a remote guest and had intermittent video issues, which Debbie references on air.* ### Why credit, and why now Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today I have George Hartmann with me. George is a credit repair expert — and an expert in all things credit — and since it's 2024 we thought: new year, new credit. Let's talk about the tips and tricks that improve your score. The higher the credit score, the better the interest rate, the more loan programs it opens up to you, and the lower the down payment options available. Credit is just that important. George came to me and said, want to do a credit show again? And I thought yes — because we have been busier in the last 30 to 45 days than we were in all of 2023\. People are revisiting the idea of buying, refinancing, getting debt paid off, pulling cash out of their homes. If that's a 2024 goal, now is the time to get credit under control. George, we've been working together for over a decade. Anything new from the credit bureaus this year? Nothing major, he says. Since the medical collections change came through, everything is fairly status quo. What has changed is who's calling him: clients with no negative credit at all who don't *understand* their credit, and are paying him purely for the education, because nobody teaches this and nobody is teaching their kids. On medical collections: the threshold is $500\. Anything $500 or less will not go on your credit report as a collection, and if one is on there anyway, it can typically be removed. Nothing is ever easy to remove — but those are coming off. ### On-time payments, and the 30-day cliff George: once you've got your credit mastered, there are really only a couple of things to know, and the key component of a long-term high score — the kind that gets you back into the 800s — is a history of on-time payments. And on-time means anything up to 29 days late. At 29 days you'll pay the fee, but it won't show up on your credit report. You don't want that habit, but that's the line. Cross 30 days and it can cost you 60 to 100 points. It affects you for 24 months — that's how long it takes to recover the score fully — and in almost a dozen years of doing this, it's one of the hardest reversals to get. His own example: after rebuilding his credit into the 730s, he forgot a $6 monthly fee on a card he was keeping open and took a 30-day late for it. Not a purchase. Not a balance. Six dollars. It would have aged off in 24 months; it took him 17 months of work to get it removed. ### Q&A: a personal loan to clear credit cards Annette asks: *“Will getting a personal loan to pay off credit card debts affect me getting a home loan within the next six months?”* Debbie: it won't stop you. What we have to account for is the monthly payment on the new personal loan, because that goes into your debt-to-income ratio. But most of the time the minimum monthly payments you're already making on those cards add up to about what the personal loan payment will be, so it probably isn't going to make or break a big difference. This is exactly why, if you're thinking about buying this year, I want you reaching out for a consultation right away. Not to start a pre-approval, not to pull credit, not to gather documents — just a phone conversation. What's your income? What are those card minimums? What would the personal loan payment be? We do the numbers by hand and determine whether the debt-to-income ratio is better with the loan or without it. George: the credit side depends. He's not a fan of debt consolidation as a practice — but that's a different thing, and we come back to it later in the show. On an actual personal loan: because of the longer term, the payment usually ends up lower than all the separate card payments combined, and you'll pay a lot less interest. The loan reports as a new account and the payment goes into your DTI, so as long as that doesn't hurt qualifying, it's a good move. And the balances matter enormously. Credit cards and revolving debt management equal 30 to 35% of your credit score. When those balances come off, you might see a small drop first from the inquiry and the new account — but cards at zero balance is the sweet spot: you save the most money and you maximize your scores. Debbie: what we typically see is the score jump quite significantly. Same thing when someone uses a home equity line or a home equity loan to pay debts off — scores spike. There's usually a small dip for about 30 days, because your report was pulled to approve the loan and it takes that long for the paid-off cards to reflect. Then they climb. ### The trap George wants you to hear Debbie: what George said matters, so let me drive it home. It is not a good habit to take a personal loan to pay off cards if you're going to turn around and use all those cards again and bring them right back up. Then you owe more and more, you have an outstanding loan *and* the cards, and it's a vicious cycle. If that's you, maybe you just need to manage what you've got and work hard to pay it down. When you do take the loan, the mindset has to be: all of my extra money goes toward this loan, and the cards go in the drawer. I keep one card I use when I'm out, because I've noticed that every time I use a debit card — gas station, grocery store, Target — someone seems to steal the number. So I use a credit card for safety and pay it off at the end of every month, and the rest sit unused. George: credit cards are one of those things you have to trick yourself on. He's disciplined himself to the point where zero balances are an addiction. When a card hits $500 he sends a payment no matter where he is in the cycle, because $500 is a number he's used to — it's been a car payment, an RV payment, a rent payment. At $800 he gets squeamish. And here's what happens to most of us at $1,000: Friday comes, you had a rough week, you and your spouse go out to dinner on the card, money's a little tight so groceries go on it too, we'll pay it next week — and then you turn around and there's five grand on it. ### Q&A: hard inquiries and soft inquiries Michael asks: *“Soft credit checks — what are those all about, what are they looking for, and do they really have an impact on your credit score?”* George: there are hard and soft inquiries, and inquiries are one of the five sections of your report that affect your credit. Hard inquiries take a few points each time, and the fewer you have the better your credit does over time. Soft pulls are the online ones — experian.com, Credit Karma, where you the consumer are checking your own scores, or where an insurer runs one. The easiest way to tell which you're dealing with: if you're going to receive something tangible from them running your credit, it's typically a hard pull. Debbie: when a company says “soft inquiry to find out what you're qualified for,” that's essentially a pre-qualification — they pull a quick score from the bureau and decide what to offer you. That doesn't change your score and won't show up on the report other lenders pull. You might see it if you have a monitoring service, and it'll be labeled. But if you move forward with what they offer you, they still have to run a hard inquiry before approving it. ### George's five rules I asked George to write these down before the show so I could read them to you — and so my radio listeners get all five even in a 30-minute cut. **One: on-time payments.** On-time payments are crucial to building a strong credit profile. A 30-day late payment hurts your scores by 60 to 80 points, takes a full 24 months to recover, and is an exceedingly difficult removal. Never make a payment past 30 days from the due date. George: to build to 750, 800, and hold it, they're looking for that history. Late here and there and paying the fee is survivable. Past 30 days is a tough removal, a 24-month recovery, and even longer before you see the really high scores. Put them on autopay as much as you can and don't miss them. **Two: revolving accounts and balances.** Credit card balances equate to 35% of your credit scores. Any balance over 20% of the limit starts to lower the scores. Having three to five open credit lines is ideal. George: three to five accounts, all under 20% of their limits. As soon as you go over 20%, scores start to plummet. Be very careful with small-limit cards while you're rebuilding — a $300 or $500 card can be maxed out in one shopping trip. And his tip for getting to three to five if you don't have them: become an authorized user. A husband adding his wife to a card, or in George's case, a friend who added him to two cards he'd held for ten years, both with $10,000 limits and zero balances. That history landed on George's report and his scores went up almost 100 points. Debbie: we love authorized users. We talk about it constantly during consultations when we're looking at whether a score can reach the next loan program. If you don't have much credit and want to know more about it, call the office. **Three: inquiries.** Consumer credit reports like experian.com and Credit Karma are considered soft credit pulls. If you are applying to acquire anything tangible, that would normally be a hard credit pull. Hard credit pulls lower your scores. George: they don't give you a lot — three to five hard inquiries a year is about where they're at. And nobody reads the fine print, especially on a car: the application says they will shop you for the best rate. If you walk in with an 800 score you get A-plus paper, they run it once, and you're done. If you're at 650 or 680, they'll go to their prime lender, and if that doesn't take, the next one, and the next — they might run it ten times before someone buys the loan. Debbie: for your protection, multiple inquiries within a 30-day period for the same type of purchase count as a single hit. This comes up constantly — someone talked to another lender, had their credit pulled, then their agent sends them to us, and they panic about a second pull. Yes, you'll see the other lender's inquiry on the report, and mine, and lenders can see who pulled it. But the actual hit to the score happens with the first lender. You can be pulled multiple times inside that window as long as you're shopping mortgage against mortgage. I tell people to finish inside two to three weeks rather than testing 31 days, because a fresh inquiry after the window drops the score again. The same grouping applies to auto loans. Credit cards are a different story — George has seen each card application count as its own hit, because they're separate entities even though you're applying for the same kind of product. So don't apply for multiple credit cards at once. **Four: credit scores.** The algorithm is different for each sector in calculating credit worthiness and risk — consumer, auto, mortgage, solar and so on. George: it's one of the most asked and most confusing questions, and he's been doing this 12 years after ten years in mortgages. The consumer scores — Credit Karma, experian.com, the identity services — are generous, and he'd put the gap at 20 to 50 points. The underlying credit is the same; what differs is the algorithm. Another reason scores differ: some creditors only report to one or two of the three bureaus, so the three reports aren't identical. And the simplest way to explain it: apply for a credit card in the morning, a car at lunch and a mortgage at dinner, and every score will be different, because each is risk-based for that sector. Debbie: so the score you see when you log into your Capital One, Discover or American Express account is not the score you'll see when you apply for a mortgage, or a card, or a car loan. I get this all the time — we pull a report, the score is different from what someone is used to seeing, and they get upset. I don't get to decide what your score is. If I did, everyone would have an 850 and we'd give everyone a loan. **Five: derogatory credit.** All derogatory credit can and should be disputed for accuracy before settling any accounts. Verified debts can typically be settled for approximately 50%. George: about 98% of the time, his clients' derogatory credit is genuinely theirs — mistakes we made, or just life happening. That was him in 2007; by 2009 his credit was in the garbage and he had to start from scratch. What he was taught then: never pay something until it's verified, because there are so many mistakes on the bureaus and you don't want to pay something that isn't correct. Once verified, a debt sits in one of two stages — a charge-off with the original lender, or, if it ages long enough, a collection. Counterintuitively, collections can often be negotiated and removed faster and more easily than a charge-off still with the original lender. Most verified items settle for about 50 cents on the dollar, and they do need to be settled to move your credit forward. You don't need to pay anyone to do those negotiations — he gives clients the information and works through it with them. ### Debt relief is not debt consolidation Debbie: I want to go back to Annette's question, because we started to roll into debt consolidation and I need to separate two things. Taking out a loan to pay off what you owe, and then making payments on that loan — taking full responsibility for every dollar you used and paying it back — is not what I'm about to describe. What I'm describing is what companies advertise as debt relief, or sometimes consumer credit counseling, and sometimes as debt consolidation with no loan involved. If nobody is pulling your credit to give you a loan, you are not looking at a debt consolidation loan. You're looking at something completely different. We've had quite a few clients recently who signed up for this. Things have been expensive, inflation has been high, gas has been astronomical, and a lot of people have leaned on credit cards and lived paycheck to paycheck. So more people went to these programs thinking it was the solution — and they are an absolute mess right now. George: most of these people's debts aren't even late yet — some are still making payments and still have good credit. Those companies typically advise you to stop making your payments. So immediately you have late payments on your report, then a charge-off, and eventually they settle the debt for less than you owe, which reports as a settled charge-off. It's something you could do on your own, with the same negative marks, without paying them. Debbie: here's what I hate about it. You sign up, you make a monthly payment to this company, and you think you're making a loan payment toward your debts. In reality they're collecting that money and putting it into an account with your name on it — it's your money — and they are not paying a single debt. So all of your cards go 30 days, 60, 90, 120, charge-off. George: and the hit is so extreme at 30 days that 60 and 90 roll about the same. It stays there until you catch up and start to recover. Debbie: so now you've got multiple accounts with multiple lates. Someone who was at 660 or 670 — typical for a person who's maxed out on their limits but has always paid on time — is suddenly in the 450s, 500s, 520s. Night and day. And even if you settle everything at 50 cents on the dollar and technically got a deal, how long does it take to dig out? You have to build new credit and make payments on time for how long, George? George: they look for three to six months minimum of current on-time payments, sometimes up to a year. And two years before those late payments stop affecting you at all. Debbie: so it's two years, plus rebuilding, plus keeping accounts open and paid on time. It can literally be years before your score returns to where it was before you stopped paying. There are people who are so tapped out that it genuinely is the only option, and I'm not looking down on anyone for taking it — but George is telling you that you can do it yourself without paying a company, and if you can avoid the scenario at all, avoid it. Before you stop making payments, before you let your report go, before you start thinking about bankruptcy — call us. If you're a homeowner, the odds you have equity right now are very, very good. If your income is documentable, your credit is clean, and the income supports it, a home equity line, a home equity loan, or a full refinance to pay debt off is a great opportunity. I can't promise a loan for everyone — if income can't be verified, or the debt is beyond what the income supports, that's a different story. But at least talk to us. And if we can't do it, call George and see what he thinks before you start letting things go. ### George's RV story George's closing example, on what knowing your own credit is worth. After years of rebuilding into the 790s, he went to buy an RV. Normally you walk onto the lot, find something, and say run my credit. But he knew he had put $298 on a $300 credit card — and the bureaus were reading that single card as 98% utilization, even though he had plenty of others. It dropped him to 711 from the high 700s. So he asked the dealer to quote him at his current score. At 711: 10% down, 5.4% interest. He said no problem, I'll call you in ten days when that card posts at zero. Ten days later the score came back 791, and the dealer offered him money back and a rate of 2.49% — A-plus paper, no argument, no negotiating. He put the difference at roughly $10,000 out of pocket, before you even count what 2.49% instead of 5.4% saves over a 15-year loan. Now imagine that on every transaction across your lifetime. ### Wrap-up George Hartmann's site is creditrepairin30.com — the 30 is the numeral. He offers a complimentary consultation with a full analysis of your credit report before you commit to anything, so you know exactly where you stand and which direction to go. He read his direct line out on air as well for the radio audience. Thank you, George. And thank you all for listening. We'll be back next Wednesday right here on YouTube at 1 p.m. Pacific — that's when we go live. To get the link so you don't miss it, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. If you're ready to start 2024 with a purchase or a refinance, go to mortgagemomradio.com; it's the same number to reach the office. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of January 24, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### California Homeowners Insurance Crisis: What To Do If Your Policy Is Dropped URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/california-homeowners-insurance-crisis-what-to-do-if-your-policy-is-dropped/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:27:39.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “CA Homeowners Insurance in Crisis!” • Live show from Wednesday, January 17, 2024 • 43 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Major carriers have stopped writing new policies in California, premiums are climbing steeply, and some condominium associations have lost coverage entirely — which means lenders can't finance units in those complexes at all. Debbie walks through what caused the crisis, what the California FAIR Plan actually covers, the five things to do if you get a non-renewal letter, and why insurance now has to be shopped *before* you write an offer instead of estimated at the end. ## Key takeaways - **This is a lending problem, not just an insurance problem.** No policy, no loan. Debbie's office is having a hard time getting coverage for properties already in escrow, and some California condominium complexes have lost their association's insurance — which means nobody can get financing in that complex, so owners there struggle to sell. - **The big carriers stepped back in 2023.** State Farm stopped selling new policies as of May 26, 2023; Allstate as of June 2023; Farmers limited new home policies as of July 2023 while honoring what it had already written; another carrier began dropping Bay Area policies as of August 2023\. Some companies said they'd honor existing policies; others cancelled. - **Debbie has doubled the insurance line in her payment quotes.** On a $600,000–$700,000 home she used to estimate roughly $65–$70 a month around 2015–2017, about $80 a month through 2018–2020, and by 2024 she's estimating about $120 a month. That's the same house. - **The numbers behind the retreat.** Wildfires burned 10 million acres and destroyed 39,000 California homes over five years. California insurers paid a record $15.4 billion in losses in 2017 and $13.6 billion in 2018 — annual losses had never once topped $5 billion before 2017 and haven't since 2018\. After two straight years of paying $1.85 in losses for every $1 of premium, the Department of Insurance approved 71 rate increase requests from 50 companies in 2019. - **The FAIR Plan is not a homeowners policy.** It's the state's insurer of last resort and it covers only a few perils — essentially the wildfire risk private carriers won't take. It doesn't cover liability, water damage, or theft, so your belongings, a burst pipe, and a slip-and-fall are all uncovered. You need a second wraparound policy — a difference in conditions, or DIC, policy — on top of it, and the whole package usually costs more than a standard policy would have. - **Shop the insurance before you write the offer.** Which county, which city, which neighborhood — are you in a fire zone, and what will a policy actually cost there? Insurance used to be a back-burner estimate. Now it belongs in the pre-approval conversation, because it determines the price range you should be shopping in. - **Your fixed-rate payment can still go up, and that's not the lender.** Principal and interest never change on a fixed loan. Property taxes and homeowners insurance can change whenever the county or the carrier says so — and if they're impounded into your monthly payment, your payment changes with them. - **Ask your carrier what would let you keep the policy.** A non-renewal letter isn't always final. Fire-resistant roofing, defensible space, and other mitigation work can persuade an insurer to keep writing you — and can earn premium discounts through programs like Wildfire Prepared Home from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, or if you're in a Firewise community. ## Chapters - 01:00Why insurance became a lending problem - 02:00Condo complexes losing coverage, and what it does to a sale - 03:00The headlines: premiums doubling, a 20% State Farm increase - 09:00Wildfires: 10 million acres, 39,000 homes, five years - 11:00Which carriers stopped writing, and when - 12:00Q&A: is California expensive enough to leave over? - 13:00What Debbie now budgets for insurance in a quote - 17:00Why insurers had to raise prices: the 2017–2018 losses - 19:00Q&A: why a fixed-rate payment went up anyway - 21:00Q&A: how is the foreclosure market? - 23:00The 2019 tipping point, and the FAIR Plan - 25:00What the FAIR Plan covers — and what it doesn't - 27:00Shop the insurance before you write the offer - 34:00Five things to do if you're dropped or repriced - 39:00Excess and surplus carriers, and why she'd avoid them ## Questions answered on this show ### “I've never bought a home and I'm looking at another state — is California insurance a reason to leave?” Not on its own, and Debbie has the data from working both markets. Plenty of people did leave California during the pandemic, Texas being one of the biggest destinations. But she's licensed in both and does a lot of Texas lending, and Texas homeowners insurance was historically *more* expensive than California's — they're now running about the same. So the policies aren't so incomprehensible that you can't buy or can't stay. What everybody does need is to be prepared for what the number will actually be, and to find that out before they're committed. ### “You told me my payment wouldn't change — why did my mortgage payment go up?” Because two of the four pieces aren't fixed. Your payment is principal and interest — the part that pays down what you borrowed — plus, for about 95% of the loans Debbie writes, your property taxes and homeowners insurance collected into an escrow (or impound) account and paid out when those bills come due. On a fixed-rate loan of any term, the principal and interest payment never moves for the life of the loan. But if the county raises your property taxes or your carrier raises your premium, the amount collected each month has to rise with it. It isn't the mortgage company changing your rate or your balance; it's the two line items nobody controls. ### “How is the foreclosure market right now?” Very stable and very slow — off topic from insurance, but Debbie takes it anyway. The majority of homeowners have substantial equity, so losing a home to foreclosure rarely makes sense even for someone who's fallen behind. Even once a notice of default is filed with the county, you still have roughly 90 days to list the property, sell it, and pay the loan off. Why sit on a house with equity and let the bank take it, when you can sell and keep your cash? Her forecast: no event on the horizon that would bring a wave of foreclosures to market. That doesn't mean it couldn't change — it means nothing currently points that way. ### Buying in California? Get the insurance quote before the offer Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Debbie reads at length from a PolicyGenius explainer by Pat Howard, credited on air, and from a news report on the California FAIR Plan.* ### Why we're talking about insurance Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about homeowners insurance in California. If you're not in California and you're not just curious, this one may not be for you — but it affects current homeowners and future buyers alike, because if you don't have homeowners insurance, you can't get a loan. This has been building for months. On the lending side we're having a hard time getting insurance policies for properties that are in escrow trying to close, and the premiums are significantly higher than they used to be. Some condominium complexes in California have lost their insurance entirely, which means we cannot do lending in that complex — so if you're a seller with a condo and your association has lost its coverage, you're going to have a really hard time selling. So: what can you do to find a policy? Did you get that letter in the mail? Why are people losing their policies? Did your premium go up, and is there anything you can do about it? ### The headlines A few articles I pulled. Money, November 1, 2023: premiums to double for some California homeowners amid insurance crisis. ABC7 News, January 3, 2024: State Farm home insurance to increase in California by an average of 20%. And the one I want to work through with you, because they explained it better than anyone — a PolicyGenius piece by Pat Howard called “California home insurance crisis explained.” It covers what happened, why it's going on, and what your resources are. If you own a home in California and you're insured by State Farm or Allstate, those are two of the carriers that chose to stop writing policies in the state. Some said they'd honor the policies already written; others said they're cancelling and won't hold them any longer. ### The wildfire numbers It comes down to wildfires and the weather. Wildfires have burned 10 million acres of forest and destroyed 39,000 homes in California over the last five years — a glimpse of how dire the state's climate crisis has become. And at exactly the moment it's more vital than ever for homeowners to have adequate coverage, many carriers have decided not to insure homes in certain parts of the state, and others have left the home insurance market altogether. Shopping through an independent agent or broker is often your best bet, but several companies have stopped writing new business in California until market conditions improve. A rundown of who and when: one carrier began dropping policies in the Bay Area as of August 2023\. Farmers Insurance limited new home policies as of July 2023 — sticking with what it had already written but not writing new ones. Allstate stopped selling new policies as of June 2023\. State Farm stopped as of May 26, 2023\. When names that size step out of a state, it takes an enormous amount of resource off the table for buyers and homeowners trying to find coverage. ### Q&A: should you leave the state over this? Willie says he's never bought a house before, has no idea where to start, and is looking to buy in another state. A lot of people have left California, and for lots of reasons — things have gotten so expensive, and this is one more. But before everyone decides California is horrendous: plenty of people fled during the pandemic, with Texas one of the biggest destinations, and I can tell you, being licensed in both and doing a lot of loans in Texas, that Texas homeowners insurance was actually quite a bit more expensive than California's. They're now running about the same. So it isn't that policies are so incomprehensible you can't buy a home, or can't keep the one you live in, or have to flee to another state. It's that everybody needs to be prepared for what that number is going to be. ### What I now put in a payment quote Here's how much it's moved. When I put together a monthly payment quote for a client on, say, a $600,000 or $700,000 sales price, I used to estimate about $65 or $70 a month for homeowners insurance — that would take us back to roughly 2015, 2016, maybe 2017\. Through 2018, 2019 and 2020, that number went from $65 to about $80 a month. Today, in 2024, I'd assume more like $120 a month. I have personally doubled the number I use when quoting a client a monthly payment for the same sales price. Inflation moves everything, but there's a specific reason behind this one. With the wildfires we've had, the insurance companies are losing an enormous amount of money paying out on policies they never anticipated. That's why you have insurance, and it's why your lender requires it. But carriers also have budgets and have to be profitable, and what they were paying out went through the roof to the point that they weren't profitable in any way — losing money hand over fist. So they had to bring prices up. If you're a homeowner and you haven't received your renewal notice yet, be ready. You may well see a significant increase. Get ahead of it and start shopping. Insurance brokers are a great place to start — when we're helping a client secure a policy we don't go to one place, we go to several to find the best coverage at the best price. We're happy to give you names of brokers we use. Start researching prices now, so that when the renewal or the cancellation letter arrives, you already know where to go. ### Why the increases came when they did Back to the article. Insurance companies need to remain profitable enough to comply with state law and pay the claims of their existing customers, and that has become increasingly difficult in recent years due to wildfire losses and other factors — that's a PolicyGenius property and casualty strategy manager quoted in the piece. Here's the scale. California insurers paid a record $15.4 billion in losses in 2017 and $13.6 billion in 2018, from by far the two most destructive wildfire seasons in state history. For context: annual losses never once eclipsed $5 billion before 2017, and have not exceeded that amount since 2018\. After two straight years of insurers paying $1.85 in losses for every $1 of premium, the California Department of Insurance approved 71 rate increase requests from 50 different companies in 2019. Which explains the timing. When I was quoting clients in 2016, 2017, 2018 and even 2019, I was still using the same number — because carriers have to get approval to increase their rates. We didn't see those increases hit until after that. ### Q&A: why did my payment go up? So many of my clients have called and said: why did my monthly payment go up? You put me in a fixed rate loan. You told me my payment wasn't going to change. Let me explain it properly. Your payment includes principal and interest — what you owe monthly to pay down the balance you borrowed. On top of that, for I'd say 95% of the loans we write, the payment also includes your property taxes and your homeowners insurance. Instead of writing one big check for the insurance policy when it comes due, or scrambling when the tax bill lands, we take the money every month and put it into an escrow account, and those bills get paid out of it. You're budgeting on a monthly basis for things that have to be paid. On a fixed rate loan — 10, 15, 20, 30 years, whatever the term — the principal and interest payment will never move. It's fixed for the life of the loan and it will never change. But your property taxes can be increased by the county, and your homeowners insurance can be increased by your carrier, and those change the total monthly payment. It is not the mortgage company willy-nilly changing your payment or your interest rate or your balance. It's the pieces we don't control. ### Q&A: the foreclosure market Nunes Investments asks how the foreclosure market is doing — off topic, but I love it, because you guide where the show goes. Right now it's still very stable. We're not seeing a lot of foreclosures hit the market. The majority of homeowners have a lot of equity in their properties, so for someone to lose a home to foreclosure wouldn't make sense — even if they're having a hard time making payments and getting behind, even once you start seeing notices of default filed with the counties. At the point of a notice of default you still have another 90 days to get the home listed, sold, and the loan paid off. Why sit on a home and let it go to foreclosure when you have equity? You're far better off selling and taking your cash. So the foreclosure market is very slow and very steady, and the forecast is still slim. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen — it means we're not currently forecasting an event that brings a wave of foreclosures to market. ### The tipping point, and the FAIR Plan The crisis reached its tipping point in 2019\. That year more than 230,000 policies weren't renewed by insurance companies, up 42% from 2018 — and new policies written under the California FAIR Plan, the state-mandated program designed as a last-resort option for homeowners who can't find coverage on the private market, increased by 29%. So let me explain what the FAIR Plan is, because I think it matters and because if you're buying a house and find out you'll need one, you want to stop and shop that insurance before you decide to continue on with the purchase. Here's how a news explainer put it, and it's the clearest version I've read: The California FAIR Plan is offered to homeowners who can't find any other insurance, often because their home is in a wildfire-prone area. Known as the insurer of last resort, it is becoming tens of thousands of homeowners' *only* resort. It covers only a few perils, so homeowners need to buy an additional policy for other coverage. It also usually costs more than insurance bought on the private market — and for many, the price was about to go up starting with those renewing in December, possibly by as much as double. Let me unpack “only a few perils.” The FAIR Plan is for a home the private sector believes is in a fire zone with a high chance of going up in smoke. The private market says we've had so many losses we can't afford to cover that anymore. The FAIR Plan says fine, we'll cover it — and nothing else. So all of the things a normal homeowners policy handles — slips and falls, a pipe breaking, a flood inside your house, your personal belongings, your wedding rings, the pictures on the walls, your artwork — are not necessarily covered. Which means you have to buy the FAIR Plan *and* a second policy that wraps around it to cover everything else. It has been getting harder and more expensive for a couple of years, but we're now truly feeling it. As that article said: if your policy hadn't come up for renewal as of December of 2023, expect a fairly large increase at renewal this year. We have clients out searching for homes, entering escrow, under contract, trying to find insurance — and it is definitely more expensive than it would have been six months, a year, two years, three years ago. ### Insurance belongs in the pre-approval conversation now This is why I want to talk about insurance up front. If we're working on your pre-approval: where are you looking to buy? What area, what county, what city — give me a specific neighborhood. Let's look it up and figure out whether you're in a fire zone, what kind of insurance will be needed, and let's get an idea of a quote from an agent *before* writing the offer on the home. You want to know you're good to go before you commit. Insurance used to be casual, on the back burner — we'd estimate the insurance, estimate the taxes, get pretty close to what you'd see once you were in the transaction. Now it's something we explore and take care of with you up front, because it determines the price range you should actually be shopping in. So we're going to do that digging for you. ### Five things to do if you're dropped, repriced, or can't find coverage **One: contact your insurer if your policy is cancelled or non-renewed.** If you get a notice that your policy won't be renewed, contact your agent and ask whether there are specific property upgrades or steps you can take to mitigate your home's risk and keep the policy. A lot of people don't know that's possible — even in a fire area, a carrier may be willing to keep writing you if you make certain improvements, like fire-resistant roofing or work around the property that protects it. You'd need to get very specific with your agent about which improvements would do it. It's worth the effort, because if you end up on the FAIR Plan instead, it gets significantly more expensive. **Two: take steps to fireproof your home.** Reducing wildfire risk makes your property more attractive to insurers and can earn premium discounts. Programs like the Wildfire Prepared Home initiative, offered through the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, and Department of Insurance fireproofing designations both apply if you install fire-resistant roofing or create defensible space around your home. You may also be eligible for additional discounts if you're in a Firewise community. You can look up whether your neighborhood is one — those communities go above and beyond, with more than just fire hydrants down every street; if you're up against a hill they may have installed sprinkler systems to keep the foliage green rather than dry. **Three: contact a local agent.** Many insurance companies in California have restricted which agents can sell their policies, so contact a local agent familiar with California's insurance landscape. If you're having trouble finding an agent licensed to sell anything other than the FAIR Plan, the Department of Insurance has a home insurance finder tool that gives you a list of agents in your area and the companies they represent — search for the California home insurance finder tool, enter your state and city, and it will list them. And as I said earlier: if you want the name and number of a good insurance broker, we're happy to refer you. We use several, and we dig around ourselves for clients in process to get better coverage at a lower price. **Four: contact the California FAIR Plan.** It's the state's program of last resort, providing coverage to homeowners denied coverage on the voluntary market. If you can't find coverage because of wildfire risk or other factors, it's a suitable short-term option — but keep in mind FAIR Plans are often significantly pricier and more limited, generally with no coverage for liability, water damage or theft. To fill that gap you'll want a difference in conditions, or DIC, policy: the wraparound we talked about. **Five: consider an excess and surplus carrier.** An E&S carrier specializes in insuring high-risk properties considered too risky for traditional insurers. Keep in mind these policies are not backed by the California Insurance Guarantee Association — which means if your house is destroyed and the insurer doesn't have the funds to pay your claim, you could be left footing the bill yourself. You can find a list of E&S brokers on the Surplus Line Association of California website. I would not suggest the E&S route. If you already own the home, have no intention of selling, your policy was dropped, you can't find private coverage, and the FAIR Plan is so expensive you'd basically lose the house paying for it — then E&S is one more option to look into. Something is better than nothing. But that's the order. ### Wrap-up About 75% of my listeners are in California, so I wanted to make sure we addressed this — we have quite a few loans in progress, purchases and refinances, where insurance is becoming a problem, and we're rolling up our sleeves to get the best quotes we can for those clients. We'll do the same for you. Things are starting to move, by the way: we've taken in more phone calls and more loan applications over the last couple of weeks than we did in most of 2023\. You want to get out ahead of the herd — start with the pre-approval now so your chances of buying successfully in 2024 are good. You can reach us at 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4, seven days a week — and if we miss you, leave a message; the voicemail says two hours but you'll usually hear back within 15 or 20 minutes. That same number takes texts. At mortgagemomradio.com you can book an appointment or email me directly. And if you're listening on radio Saturday and want to watch me record it live, text the word MOM to that same number and you'll get one text a week with the topic and a link to join — no spam, no selling your information, just the notification. I'll see you next Wednesday, right about 1 p.m. Pacific. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of January 17, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### How to Get a Mortgage Rate Below 5% in 2024: Seller-Paid Buydowns Explained URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-get-a-mortgage-rate-below-5-in-2024-seller-paid-buydowns-explained/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:23:49.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Mortgage Rates below 5%, is that possible in today's market? YES!” • Live show from Wednesday, January 10, 2024 • 41 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 A rate below 5% in January 2024 sounds impossible — but Debbie walks through three loans sitting in her pipeline that day and shows exactly how the buyers got there. The tool is a seller-paid temporary buydown, and it is not the same thing as paying points. She breaks down real numbers on a conventional purchase, an FHA purchase, and a VA purchase: what the buydown costs, how big a credit you have to negotiate from the seller, and what each year's payment actually looks like. ## Key takeaways - **A temporary buydown is not the same as paying points.** Points buy the rate down permanently and you pay for them. A temporary buydown drops your rate for the first one, two, or three years only — and as a buyer *you cannot pay for it yourself*. It has to be negotiated as a credit from the seller. - **Conventional example, live in escrow that week:** a $690,000 Los Angeles County purchase with 3% down, base rate **6.625%**. A one-year buydown to 5.625% would have cost about **$4,899**. The agent negotiated roughly **$19,000** in seller credit instead, which paid for a two-year buydown (about $14,500) and left about $4,000 toward closing costs. - **What that did to the payment:** full payment with taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance was **$4,986**. Year one at 4.625% is **$4,191** — a **$795** monthly saving. Year two at 5.625% is **$4,579**. Year three onward it settles at 6.625% on a plain 30-year fixed. - **FHA allows the largest seller credit, so it allows a three-year buydown.** On a $650,000 FHA purchase with 3.5% down and a base rate of 6.25%, the buydown starts year one at **3.25%**, then 4.25%, then 5.25%, before settling at 6.25% — a first-year payment of about **$3,795** versus $4,928, a saving of roughly **$1,132 a month**. - **VA gets a two-year buydown with nothing down.** Same $650,000 price, zero down payment, base 6.25%: year one at 4.25% is about **$3,900**, year two **$4,366**, then **$4,779** for the rest of the term — roughly $200 a month less than the FHA version at the same price, because VA carries no monthly mortgage insurance. Every one of these is still a plain 30-year fixed — no adjustable, no balloon, no prepayment penalty. - **Low down payments are not just for first-time buyers.** Conventional at 3% down, FHA at 3.5% down, VA at zero down — all available on a primary residence whether or not you have owned before. - **Debbie's reason to move now:** negotiating room exists today. Appraisal contingencies, inspections, repair requests and seller credits are all normal in this market. When rates fall further and the sidelined buyers come back, that leverage goes away. ## Chapters - 01:00Welcome — what the Mortgage Mom team does - 02:00Why so many buyers put homeownership on hold - 03:00Where Debbie expects rates to go in 2024 and 2025 - 06:00Buydowns vs. paying points — the difference - 09:00Scenario 1: a $690,000 conventional purchase, 3% down - 11:00Low down payments without being a first-time buyer - 12:00The one-year buydown: 6.625% to 5.625% for $4,899 - 15:00The two-year buydown and a $19,000 seller credit - 18:00What the monthly payments actually look like - 20:00Getting in before the sidelined buyers come back - 26:00FHA allows a bigger credit — and a three-year buydown - 27:00Scenario 2: $650,000 FHA, 3.5% down, starting at 3.25% - 31:00The FHA payment breakdown, year by year - 32:00Scenario 3: VA with zero down and a two-year buydown - 34:00Why nobody should talk you out of your VA benefit - 37:00The calculators app and wrap-up ## This week's numbers (week of January 10, 2024 — averages, not quotes) - Conventional 30-year fixed base rate quoted on air: **6.625%** ($690,000 purchase, 3% down, Los Angeles County community lending program) - FHA 30-year fixed base rate quoted on air: **6.25%** ($650,000 purchase, 3.5% down) - VA 30-year fixed base rate quoted on air: **6.25%** ($650,000 purchase, zero down) - Where the same conventional loan would have priced before the December rally: **7.625%** to nearly **8%** - Two-year buydown cost on the conventional example: about **$14,500**; one-year buydown, **$4,899** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find out what a seller-paid buydown would do to your payment Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Taking the home-buying goal off hold Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you the information you need to know about all things real estate and mortgage. My office primarily focuses on the mortgage side — we're doing loans, helping people get into homes, refinance their properties, get their home equity lines of credit, get into a reverse mortgage if that's what you're looking to do in retirement. That's what we do. One of the women on my team is also a real estate agent, and I started my career as a real estate agent, so we have a lot of knowledge in the office to help you with buying, selling, and financing. Today's show is focused on what you can do to buy right now. We have so many clients who have put their dreams of homeownership on hold because they're concerned about where interest rates are and what that monthly payment looks like. There's just no way they feel they can afford to buy, so they're waiting for rates to come down further. All of the buzz in the industry is that rates are coming down, and we've already started to see it — truly since about the beginning of December. I don't have a crystal ball and nobody in this industry does, so I can never give you a 100% guarantee that it continues. But it's what we're seeing, and we're anticipating rates continue to come down through 2024, probably slowly. I think once we get to about the third or fourth quarter of this year, that's when things start to come down a little quicker. And from there into 2025, I think we start seeing everyday mortgages back in those normal ranges of about 5%. Remember that everybody got so used to the threes and the fours, and that's what you expect normal to be. In reality, that was a very short blip in time. It was not anticipated, nobody saw it coming, and it was due to a pandemic. There would have to be something massive to recreate that. So start to readjust your head to what a normal interest rate actually is — a really good interest rate is going to be somewhere between five and 6%. ### Buydowns vs. paying points So how do we help the buyers who have been putting it off get off the fence? We've got options. I've talked about buydowns before, but I've never really given you a real understanding of exactly how it works — what do you need, what do you need the seller to do. So I pulled some scenarios from loans we actually have in the pipeline right now, in process. These are live deals today. People get very confused between a buydown and paying points. Doesn't it all mean you're just buying down your interest rate? It's a little different. When you pay points, that's you buying the rate down permanently, out of your own money. A temporary buydown reduces your rate for the first year, or the first two years, or on FHA the first three — and as the buyer, you can't pay for it yourself. The seller has to pay for it. So when you write an offer, you need to make sure your real estate agent is helping you write the contract in a way that gets you a credit from the seller to apply toward that buydown. One thing I do have to say: everyone has a slightly different credit score, down payment, property type, loan size and debt-to-income ratio. Please take these numbers not as a guarantee of what I can absolutely give you, but as a basis for understanding what's possible in today's market. ### Scenario one: a conventional purchase at $690,000 This is one we have in the pipeline right now. The clients got their offer accepted over the weekend, we opened escrow on Monday, and we got their rate locked, so this is a true deal in the system today. Purchase price is $690,000 and they're putting 3% down. They're buying in Los Angeles County, in one of the cities where we have access to a community lending program — one of the good things that came out of 2023, which I talked about on last week's episode. That's not a program for a borrower with low income; this borrower has very good income. It's about buying in an area designated as lower to moderate income, and it gets them a slightly better interest rate. I want you to hear this: 3% down. The low down payment options are there. Conventional, FHA, VA — all of these get you in the door with a low down payment, and you do not necessarily have to be a first-time buyer to get 3% or 3.5% down. A lot of people think, well, I'm not a first-time buyer, so I need 20% down. That is absolutely not the case. Their starting base interest rate is 6.625%, which honestly is fabulous. Before rates started coming back down, that rate would have been a minimum of 7.625%, if not very close to 8%. So we've already seen a big decline. But they wanted a lower payment, and to get there we needed a lower rate. So — the buydown. If they're at 6.625%, a one-year buydown puts them at 5.625% for the first year. Why is that great? Because rates are moving the right direction. It gives them a year at that lower payment, and a year from now, when we're anticipating rates in the fives, they can refinance into that rate on a full 30-year fixed. Worst case, if rates haven't fallen or they've gone up, they're still on a 30-year fixed and the rate simply goes to 6.625% after the first year and stays there. It is a 30-year fixed loan. The one-year buydown in this scenario would have cost $4,899\. Under five grand. It is very easy and very common to negotiate a seller paying $5,000 in costs — that's by no means out of the picture. There's no prepayment penalty, they can refinance at any time. But their agent was actually able to negotiate about a $19,000 credit from the seller. That let them buy the rate down for two years instead of one. So year one their rate is 4.625%, year two is 5.625%, and then year three and the remaining 27 years are at 6.625%. They didn't feel like they needed that 4.625% — where they really want to be is around the mid fives — but this gives the market two years to get there before they have to refinance. They didn't know if rates would arrive within 12 months, and they wanted the longer runway at the lower payment. The two-year buydown cost about $14,500\. They used the seller's credit for it, so it didn't come out of their pocket, and when they eventually refinance they won't feel like they threw their own money away. They also had about $4,000 of that credit left to apply to their standard closing costs. Even when your down payment is 3%, your closing costs are around 2%, so that helps bridge the gap and gets them in the door with less cash. ### What it does to the payment Let's talk monthly payments, and I'm giving you the whole payment — principal, interest, taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance, not just principal and interest. If you have less than 20% down, you have mortgage insurance too, and I want you to hear real numbers. At 6.625% right out of the gate, that payment is $4,986 a month. For the first year at 4.625%, they pay $4,191 — a $795 saving every month, almost $800 for the first 12 months. The second year the payment goes to $4,579, still about a $400 monthly saving. Then in year three they arrive at $4,986. The whole goal is that the elevator is moving down. Before they hit that final fixed rate in year three, they have the opportunity to refinance and lower the payment for good. That is how you get a buyer into a home today at an affordable payment, with an interest rate you were hoping for, in sub-6% territory. And remember, even 6.625% is phenomenal compared to two or three months ago. We've seen major improvements. It also gets you out looking now, while you can still negotiate — keep your appraisal contingency intact, do your home inspection, ask for repairs. Those are normal in a standard market, which is what you have the opportunity to work in today. When rates come down even a little further, that's probably not going to be the case. So many people have been waiting that it's going to be nuts, like 2020 and 2021, and much harder to get an offer accepted. ### Scenario two: FHA and the three-year buydown On FHA you're allowed a much bigger credit from the seller toward closing costs than you can get on a conventional loan or even a VA loan. Because of that, an FHA buyer has the opportunity to do a three-year buydown. I ran this one today off a $650,000 sales price with 3.5% down on an FHA loan, and the starting base rate was 6.25%. With the maximum credit you could get from a seller, that 6.25% could start the very first year at 3.25%. Second year 4.25%, third year 5.25%, and then it settles at 6.25% in year four. I had to rethink that one for a second myself — it's such a low rate I didn't believe it. How much buydown you need really comes down to you. Where is the comfortable monthly payment? Do you think you'll have the chance to refinance into a comfortable permanent rate within 12 months, or do you feel like you need longer for the numbers to play out? I don't necessarily think the three-year buydown is absolutely necessary — but if you can get the seller to pay for it, why not? Here's the payment picture on that FHA scenario. The full payment including principal, interest, taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance in that first year at 3.25% is approximately $3,795, a saving of $1,132 per month. Second year, $4,151, a saving of $776 a month. Third year, $4,529, a saving of $398\. And then in year four, worst case scenario where rates never got better, you're at 6.25% and the payment is $4,928 for the remaining term. It is still a 30-year fixed rate. It is not an adjustable. There are no balloon payments. You simply end up at today's market rate eventually. It's a really good way to get into a payment that's comfortable for you, and it gives the market time to settle so you can refinance and lock in a lower payment for the long term. ### Scenario three: VA with zero down Now to all my vets. Just like FHA and conventional, you have the opportunity to get the seller to buy your rate down. On VA we can do a two-year buydown — not a three-year like FHA. I pulled this today as well: $650,000 sales price, zero down, and the rate today was 6.25%. VA requires no money down and there's no monthly mortgage insurance. Year one at 4.25% makes that payment about $3,900, a saving of $800 a month. Year two, $4,366, a $412 saving. And years three through 30, $4,779. This is also a great chance to point out a difference. I have a lot of people call me and say, I have VA eligibility, but a lender told me it was better to go conventional. In all the years I've been doing this, I have never understood why anyone would tell someone not to use their VA benefit. Same $650,000 price: zero down on VA versus 3.5% down on FHA, and the monthly payment difference is about $200 a month, because there's no monthly mortgage insurance on the VA loan. VA loans do have to be written correctly — they're a little trickier. We do them every day and they're by far my favorite loan program to write. Many credit unions and banks don't offer government financing like FHA or VA at all, so it may simply be that the person you're talking to doesn't have the product. If you've earned that benefit, always ask to see the difference between conventional, FHA and VA so you can decide which is right for you. ### Wrap-up We've got a couple of loans in the pipeline right now doing exactly this. It's helping buyers get into homes they didn't think they could. They were on hold, on hold, on hold. We talked to their realtor and said, I know it's hard to ask a seller to pay costs, but if you can get this negotiated, we can get them into something comfortable and they can buy today. It worked. They went out, they looked at homes, they negotiated it, they're in escrow now, and 30 days from now they'll be homeowners. I also want to mention my tools app, because I haven't talked about it in a long time. It has the calculators — you can run a payment for FHA, VA or conventional, for a purchase or a refinance, and you can plug in 4.25%, 5.25%, 6.25% yourself and see the difference. If you're considering a 3-2-1, 2-1 or one-year buydown, it lets you find your own sweet spot. Text the words “phone app” to the same number and you'll get a link to save to your home screen. There are payment calculators on mortgagemomradio.com as well, though the app is where you can choose the loan type. If you want to get interactive, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week when I go live. It's the same number to call my office and talk with me or one of my girls. You can also book a phone appointment on the calendar at mortgagemomradio.com, including weekends, and if no time works you can email me straight from the site. I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your week. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of January 10, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Will Mortgage Rates Drop in 2024? What 2023 Changed for Home Buyers URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-mortgage-rates-drop-in-2024-what-2023-changed-for-home-buyers/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:23:50.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “What's To Come In 2024” • Live show from Wednesday, January 3, 2024 • 44 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The first show of 2024\. Debbie looks back at what she calls the hardest year on record for first-time buyers — and at the genuinely useful things that came out of it: new community lending programs, lender-paid buydowns, a wave of new home equity products, and a December rate rally strong enough to lift application volume in the slowest month of the year. Then she gives her own forecast for where rates go next, and what to do about it six months before you are ready to buy. ## Key takeaways - **2023 set a record nobody wanted:** high rates plus higher home values made the barrier to homeownership the highest on record for first-time buyers. The response was that banks were pushed to expand lending in areas designated lower and moderate income, which produced new community lending programs with reduced mortgage insurance and better pricing than a standard conventional loan. - **Lender-paid temporary buydowns are new.** Until now, only a seller could pay for a temporary buydown — a buyer never could. Debbie's shop can now offer a lender-paid buydown on the community program, so a buyer who can't negotiate a seller credit still has a path to a lower first-year payment. - **December was a genuine rally.** Rates were, in Debbie's words, horrible from August through November, and premium was so thin that anyone without perfect credit or a conforming loan amount got hammered. Then rates dropped back to the lows last seen in July, and application volume rose in December — normally one of the worst months of the year. - **Debbie's 2024 call:** rates can fall as fast as they rose in 2022 and 2023, and the fives are realistic — but it all depends on the outlook for Fed cuts. The Fed had held at three straight meetings and signalled it anticipated cutting at least twice in 2024\. Her warning: when that announcement lands, everyone who parked their plans comes back at once, and getting an offer accepted gets hard. - **The blended-rate refinance is the 2024 opportunity.** If you took a home equity loan or line at 8–12% on top of a 3% first mortgage, blending them puts you around 6.5–7%. Once first-mortgage rates reach the mid-to-high fives, rolling both into one loan can mean less interest and a lower total payment. - **Shared equity agreements are the one thing Debbie won't write.** No monthly payment is the only advantage. You're giving up a percentage of your home's equity, so with double-digit appreciation you pay back far more than you borrowed. - **Start six months before you want to pull the trigger.** Know your credit, your down payment, your closing costs, and the exact rate you need for the payment you want — so when the market hits it, all you have to say is “let's go.” ## Chapters - 01:00Welcome to 2024 — the first show of the year - 06:00Recapping 2023: the hardest year on record for first-time buyers - 07:00The new community lending programs that came out of it - 09:00What's changing on those programs in 2024 - 10:00Temporary buydowns — and the new lender-paid version - 12:00Home equity loan vs. home equity line of credit - 15:00Why 2023 became the year of home equity borrowing - 19:00Rates were the story of 2023 — and the December rally - 21:00The forecast: rates in the fives if the Fed cuts - 22:00Three straight Fed pauses and “higher for longer” - 25:00Q&A: blending a 3% first mortgage with a 10% equity line - 27:00Q&A: what are interest rates right now? - 30:00Q&A: how much equity can you actually pull out? - 32:00Shared equity agreements — why Debbie doesn't write them - 35:00The Fannie Mae credit-score pricing story everyone got wrong - 39:00Start six months before you're ready ## Questions answered on this show ### “What is the current interest rate?” It depends on the loan program, your credit score, and the property type — investment versus primary residence — so there's a lot that goes into it. But as a general rule of thumb: right before rates started coming down in December, the average was around 8.25% to 8.5%. It was ugly. Today Debbie is quoting people in the high sixes. She ran a refinance the day before this show for a borrower coming out of a hard money loan at around 11%, with a credit score that isn't the best, at 6.5% on a 30-year fixed. Rates came down, and they came down a lot. ### “How much money can I actually get out of my home?” As an average, most of the time you can borrow up to 90% of your home's value, counting all loans against it. Some of the banks Debbie works with will go higher. Simple example: a home worth $1,000,000 at 90% combined loan-to-value means total loans of $900,000\. If your first mortgage is $500,000, you could take up to $400,000 in cash out using a second mortgage. Credit scores and property type both come into play, so the real answer depends on your scenario. ### “My first mortgage is at 3%. Why would I ever combine it with anything?” Because the blend is what matters, not the 3%. If you owe $400,000 at 3% and you also carry a home equity loan or line of $150,000 or $200,000 at 9, 10, 11 or 12%, your true blended cost is probably around 6.5% or 7%. So when first-mortgage rates get into the mid fives to low sixes, rolling both into a single loan can mean less interest paid and a lower total monthly payment. The right move is to know your target number in advance — call, get on the list, and get contacted when the market reaches the rate that makes it worth doing for you. ## This week's numbers (week of January 3, 2024 — averages, not quotes) - Average rate right before the December rally: about **8.25%–8.5%** - What Debbie was quoting the week of this show: **high sixes** on a typical scenario - Same-week 30-year fixed refinance quoted on air for a borrower with less-than-perfect credit: **6.5%** - Typical home equity loan and line rates carried by 2022–2023 borrowers: **8% to 12%** - Maximum combined loan-to-value on a typical home equity loan: about **90%** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Get your 2024 plan on paper before the market moves Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### The first show of the year Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and it is 2024\. This is the very first show I'm doing in January of 24 and it feels great to be here. I'm excited for 2024, I'm excited for what is to come. I thought it would be a great show to recap what we saw take place in 23 — some of the hurdles we had to go through, some of the benefits that came out of those hurdles — and then what we can expect moving forward. I do want to apologize to everybody, since we have not been on. We went dark for the week of Christmas and New Year's, and I forgot to reactivate our text campaign, so that will go out shortly. Moving forward I promise to keep it active and the text will go out the minute we start. ### What actually got better in 2023 Every week our secondary desk — that's our lock desk, our pricing desk — keeps us up to date on what announcements are coming, what we can expect from rates, whether we should be locking or floating. The email that came in this week made a lot of great points, so I'm going to walk through it with you. It said the high rates combined with even higher home values made the barrier to homeownership the highest on record for first-time home buyers. Almost every bank was mandated to increase homeownership in areas deemed lower and middle income neighborhoods. The result was several new programs designed to help build up those communities with new homeowners — and we have access to them here. That's the first thing. It was very, very difficult this year for a first-time buyer to jump in with two feet. It was the worst year on record in that regard. Things were expensive, home prices were high, rates were high, and it made it virtually impossible for somebody to buy their first home. But that pushed the banks to introduce new programs to give us the opportunity to get first-time buyers in the door. One of the programs brings the mortgage insurance premium down to a lower level, and it also helps with pricing, so your interest rate is a little better than what you'd get on a normal conventional loan. It's really aimed at making that payment more affordable for a first-time buyer. If you've been thinking about buying and you didn't think it was possible, call the office — there really could be a program that came out of 2023 that moves you forward in 2024. And there are updates coming. One of the programs should soon allow an even lower mortgage insurance rate. The other should soon allow lender grants to be used alongside it. We've also been working on a lender grant, and we currently have a lender-paid temporary buydown available on one of them, which makes it even more attractive. ### What a temporary buydown is, and what changed A temporary buydown is usually paid for by the seller. A buyer cannot pay for it on their own, and up until now, neither could the lender. Here's how it works. Say the rate is 7% today — and this is an example, I am not quoting a rate. The seller pays for the buydown, negotiated in your contract, and it brings your rate down for the first year. A one-year buydown at 7% takes you to 6% for that first year, making your payment lower. There's also a 2-1 buydown, which buys the rate down 2% in the first year: instead of 7%, you're at 5%, then 6% in the second year, then 7% in the third. Knowing rates are on their way down, this is a great way to bridge the gap. Get the seller to buy your rate down so you can afford the payment today, and you've got a year or two to refinance into permanent savings. What's new is the lender-paid version. We couldn't do that before. Now, as the lender, we can offer to buy that rate down for you for the first year if you can't get the seller to do it. That is a fabulous thing to come out of a really hard year. ### Home equity loan vs. home equity line A home equity loan, to keep it simple, is a principal and interest payment based on a term — very similar to your mortgage payment, a car payment, or a personal loan. They take the whole balance, amortize it over the term you choose, and that's your monthly payment, at a fixed rate. I love that option for somebody who doesn't have the cash to pay it back in big chunks. If you're consolidating debt, it's a great option. A home equity line of credit is basically a credit card. It's a line you can draw on, you make an interest-only monthly payment, and it's typically open for about 10 years before it has to be paid in full. The rate is adjustable. If you flip homes and you need cash to buy a property in shambles that can't get financing, a line is great — buy it cash, renovate, sell, pay the line back off. But if you carry a balance for a long period and the rate keeps climbing while your payment isn't paying it off, you're on the same treadmill as your credit card. So is it good for debt consolidation? I don't personally think so. ### Why 2023 became the year of home equity borrowing Because rates were so high, we saw a massive resurgence in home equity lines and loans. Almost everyone who owns a home has seen their property go up in value — not every pocket of the country, but the majority of homeowners have seen record appreciation over the last four or five years and are sitting on significant equity. Normally, someone who needs cash to pay off debt, put a kid through college, do renovations or buy another property would refinance the whole loan, take the cash, and lower their rate at the same time. In 2023 that just wasn't an opportunity. So they went to home equity lines and loans instead. That started at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022, and 2023 was the year of it. The good news is that it brought a lot of new product. For a long time these weren't a big thing — a straight 30-year fixed refinance was how people got cash. Now there are more lenders offering them and more guidelines, including for harder-to-document self-employed income. If you need $75,000 or $100,000 for debt or home improvements, there's a lot of opportunity available now that didn't exist before. And that continues until first-mortgage rates come down further. ### Rates: the story of 2023, and the December turn Rates were really the story of 2023\. They were horrible from August through November, and the lack of premium hurt any borrower who had anything other than perfect credit and a conforming loan amount. If you didn't have perfect credit, or a nice down payment, or you were going jumbo or into high-balance pricing, the rate was astronomical. It put a lot of buyers' hopes of owning a home on hold. Then the recent rally made it a December to remember, as rates dropped to the lows seen in July — and with them, premium came back to help facilitate loans for borrowers with less than perfect credit or jumbo-sized loans. We actually saw more loan applications in December. A normal December is usually one of our worst months of the year for application volume, and instead the numbers ticked up. Here's the forecast, and I agree with it completely: I expect rates to continue to go lower in 24\. As quickly as they went up in 22 and 23, they can go that quickly back down. I could see rates in the fives, but it will all depend on the outlook for Fed rate cuts. As soon as it becomes clear that they are ready to cut, watch out. We don't know when the Fed says it's time. We know that for the last three meetings in a row they held rates steady — no increase, no decrease — and gave us all that talk about higher for longer. There's a big question mark about what higher for longer actually means. Three meetings? Six? Nine? But they also said they anticipated cutting rates at least twice in 2024\. Obviously the Fed can change its mind, but many times they do stick to the plans they make public statements about. So I really do believe we're going to see at least those two cuts, and when we do, rates come down and come down fairly quickly. That's going to put a lot of people back out on the street looking at homes, which makes it very difficult to get an offer accepted if you've got a lot of competition. So how do you make sure you're one of the people who accomplishes their goal in 24? Call the office and get started. Do your application. Know what you qualify for, what your payments would be, what your options are. When the home you want comes on the market, you need to be able to strike fast. ### The refinance opportunity nobody is thinking about yet It's also going to give a lot of people the chance to refinance. Of everyone who took a home equity line or loan over the last two years, many of you are sitting at 10%, some 12%, some 8 or 9%. That's much higher-cost money. People say, Debbie, why would I roll those into one? My first mortgage is at 3%. Well — if your rate is 3% on a $400,000 first mortgage and you have a line or loan for $150,000 or $200,000 at 9, 10, 11, 12%, blending that money together puts you at roughly six and a half or 7% already. So when first-mortgage rates get into the low sixes, high fives, mid fives, combining it all into one is probably less interest paid and a lower total monthly payment. Start reaching out now if that's on your mind. There's no risk in calling and no risk in applying. First, we'll tell you whether today makes sense. If it doesn't, you go on a list and we call you when your day arrives. If you don't know what number you should be waiting for, and nobody is watching out for you, you'll miss your window. ### What Debbie won't write: shared equity agreements Not everything that came back in 2023 was good. Alongside home equity lines and loans, shared equity agreements had a resurgence. People wanted to tap equity but weren't comfortable taking on any new monthly payment. I don't write them and I'm not a fan. The one positive is that there's no monthly payment to get the money out. But you're giving up a percentage of the equity in your home. It isn't a normal note where you borrow an amount at a rate with a set payment. As your property appreciates, the amount you owe back when you sell or refinance goes up with it. You're essentially giving somebody partial ownership. If you give up 20% or 30% and your home goes up $50,000, $75,000, $100,000 — and we've seen double-digit appreciation — you're paying back a whole lot more than you ever borrowed. There is a borrower for every type of loan, and there's probably someone that product fits. But before you do one, call and see whether there's a better option for you. ### The credit-score pricing story everyone got wrong The biggest story of 2023 was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac changing the pricing adjustments on borrowers with good credit scores. Everybody was up in arms about it. First, what an LLPA is: a loan-level price adjuster. When I tell you your rate depends on the property type, that's an adjuster. Your credit score, good or bad, is an adjuster. Your loan-to-value — how much you're putting down or how much equity you have — is an adjuster. Whether it's a purchase, a rate-and-term refinance or a cash-out refinance is an adjuster. All of those are LLPAs. What actually happened was that adjusters were removed for first-time buyers within certain income limits. So if your income wasn't fabulous and your credit wasn't fabulous, you weren't getting hit as hard for the high debt ratio or the lower score — while somebody with great credit, a big down payment and low debt ratios still did great. At least, that's what everybody thought. Certain news organizations seized the opportunity to criticize the administration, because it appeared that good-credit borrowers were subsidizing riskier borrowers. In truth, the changes had little to no impact on the state of lending in 2023\. But there was one important takeaway: the FHFA ended up with egg on its face, and I doubt we'll see anything dramatic in 24 on pricing changes unless it's a positive change for mostly everyone. They didn't make things worse for someone with great credit and a large down payment — they left that as it was. They tried to make things a little better for someone struggling on credit or income, to help more people become homeowners. It backlashed on them. So we're probably not going to see a major change like that again, because nobody's looking for the bad publicity. ### Start six months early So: 23 was rough. There were resurgences in home equity lines and loans and in shared equity agreements. Digging deeper for first-time buyers in low- to moderate-income areas brought us new loan programs. Rates are starting to come down, applications are starting, and people are getting excited for 2024\. We saw a big change in rates just through the month of December — so imagine what happens when the Fed actually announces the first cut. If your goal this year is to get your debt under control, buy a property, buy a second or third property, do home improvements, or sell and buy another home — do not wait. The one piece of mom advice I can give you is to start the process six months before you're ready to pull the trigger. Know what credit score you're working with, what rate you need to hit the payment you want, how much you need for a down payment, what closing costs look like, and what your options are today. You can log into an application and stop and start it as many times as you want. It could take you three months to finish it, because we're all busy. There is absolutely no rush. But making that first phone call is the step in the right direction. Don't be behind the herd. I've been talking about temporary buydowns since 2021, and now suddenly everybody's talking about them. Know in advance what you need. If I told you the rate you needed for a comfortable payment was 5% and we're at 5.25%, start looking now, because it's around the corner. Have your application ready so the minute you see the house you want, or the rate hits your number, all you have to send is: let's go, get me locked. I'll be back next Wednesday at 1 Pacific on YouTube with everything going on in the mortgage and real estate world. Text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — to get one text a week when I go live. It's the same number for the office. Happy New Year, everybody. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of January 3, 2024, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Fed Holds Rates Again: New 2024 Loan Limits and 5% Down on 2-4 Unit Homes URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/fed-holds-rates-again-new-2024-loan-limits-and-5-down-on-2-4-unit-homes/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:23:51.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Fed announced today they are holding rates again” • Live show from Wednesday, December 13, 2023 • 60 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Fed met the morning of this show and held rates for the third straight meeting — and mortgage rates had already fallen almost a full point over the preceding six weeks. Debbie covers what the hold actually signals, then spends the hour on the practical news: Fannie Mae's new 5% down program for 2–4 unit homes, the 2024 conforming loan limit increases, a program most people have never heard of for buying a home for a disabled child or an elderly parent, and her pro tips for buying and selling in the year ahead. ## Key takeaways - **Third straight hold, and no hike since July 2023.** The Fed left rates unchanged, which is what nearly everyone expected, and kept the language flexible enough to reserve the right to raise again. Debbie's read: it feels like they're done, and now we work through “higher for longer” while inflation heads toward the 2% target. - **Rates already moved without the Fed.** Mortgage rates fell almost a full percentage point over six weeks — from the mid-to-low eights down into the low sevens and even the high sixes on some scenarios. Refinance applications jumped **19%** and purchase applications **4%**. - **New: 5% down on a 2–4 unit home you live in.** A duplex used to require 15% down even as a primary residence, and a 3–4 unit required 25%. Now it's 5% down if you occupy one unit. Three conditions: 12 months of documented on-time rent (cash rent won't work), rental income from the units you don't occupy can offset the payment but can't exceed it, and you need six months of full payment in reserves after down payment and closing costs. - **2024 loan limits went up.** The national conforming limit rose from $726,200 to **$766,550**. In high-cost counties like Los Angeles and Orange, the one-unit limit is about **$1,149,000**. Multi-unit limits in those counties run higher still — roughly **$1.472 million** for two units, **$1.779 million** for three, and **$2.211 million** for four. Pair the four-unit limit with 5% down and the math gets interesting. - **Veterans can buy up to four units with zero down.** Reserves are required, and if you've never been a landlord you'll need a signed property management contract — but it doesn't disqualify you. - **Buyer pro tips:** consider a lower-priced market if you can work remotely or transfer; bring your expectations down and buy the condo or townhome rather than staying on the shelf; get fully prepared so you can act fast; and know your real payment including taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance — not the principal-and-interest number a listing calculator shows you. - **Seller pro tips:** work with an experienced local agent and price it right, do the cleanup and decluttering before listing, invest in the online curb appeal including a video tour and a 3D floor plan, and offer to buy the buyer's rate down instead of cutting your price. ## Chapters - 01:00Welcome and how to join the show live - 03:00The Fed holds rates again — what today's decision means - 05:00Rates have fallen almost a full point in six weeks - 06:00Refinance applications up 19%, purchases up 4% - 11:00Q&A: loans for a disabled child or an elderly parent - 15:00Fannie Mae's new 5% down on 2–4 unit homes - 17:00Rent history, rental income and six months of reserves - 21:00Q&A: is this available in Washington state? - 24:00Q&A: can a veteran buy multi-unit properties? - 26:00The new 2024 conforming loan limits - 27:00High-cost county limits and multi-unit limits - 31:00Q&A: are there grants that work with these programs? - 33:00Four pro tips for buying in 2024 - 43:00Home equity loan or refinance? The blended rate - 45:00Five pro tips for selling in 2024 - 55:00Q&A: does a buydown help a buyer qualify for more? ## Questions answered on this show ### “Are there loan programs for families with special needs — a disabled child or elderly parents?” Yes, and most people have never heard of it. If you have a disabled child or elderly parents, you can buy a second property and finance it as a *primary residence* — which normally wouldn't be allowed — with as little as 5% down through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, instead of the 20–25% an investment property would require. It applies to any documented disability, autism included, where there's paperwork such as Social Security or state benefits. For elderly parents, the test is different: they can have pension, retirement and Social Security income, but we have to show their income isn't enough for them to qualify for financing on their own. The same program works for a refinance, so if you already bought a home for a parent or child at investment-property rates and terms, you may be able to refinance it at primary-residence pricing. ### “Is the 5% down program available in Washington state?” Yes. Both the 5% down 2–4 unit program and the disabled-child/elderly-parent program are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs, which means they're available in all 50 states. Debbie's office is licensed in California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee and several more, so they can help directly in Washington. If you're in a state they aren't licensed in, they'll try to refer you to someone who is, or show you the best way to search. ### “Can veterans buy multi-unit properties?” Yes — and Debbie calls VA the best program in lending. A veteran can buy up to four units with zero down. The stipulations: reserves are required, the same way they are on the Fannie Mae program, and if you haven't been a landlord before you'll need to sign a contract with a property management company to handle the units. Not having landlord experience doesn't opt you out of the program. ### “Are there grants that work with these programs?” There's no single yes or no, because every state, city and county has its own grants and down payment assistance programs. They can generally be combined with the loan programs discussed here — the question is whether the right program exists where you're buying. Call with the city, county and state you're shopping in and the office will look up what's available in that specific area. ### “Does buying the rate down let a buyer qualify for more house?” No — not with a temporary buydown. Lenders still have to qualify you at the full note rate. If the rate is 6.875% and the seller buys it down to 4.875% for year one and 5.875% for year two, you're still qualified at 6.875%. What it changes is what a buyer is *willing* to do. Plenty of people say they can't do $500,000 at 6.875%, but when the first two years come in at 4.875% and 5.875% — with worst case being the 6.875% they were already qualified for — they say yes. That's what brings buyers back to a price range. ## This week's numbers (week of December 13, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Fed funds target: **unchanged** for the third consecutive meeting; no increase since July 2023 - Mortgage rates over the prior six weeks: down **almost a full percentage point**, from the mid-to-low eights into the low sevens and high sixes on some scenarios - Mortgage applications: refinances **+19%**, purchases **+4%** - 2024 national conforming loan limit: **$766,550**, up from $726,200 - 2024 high-cost one-unit limit (Los Angeles, Orange County): about **$1,149,000** - 2024 high-cost multi-unit limits: about **$1.472M** (2 units), **$1.779M** (3 units), **$2.211M** (4 units) - Average 30-year mortgage rate over the last three decades, for context: about **7%** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### See what the new limits and the 5% down program mean for you Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### The Fed holds again Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you everything going on with all things real estate and mortgage — what's happening with interest rates, what's happening with the Federal Reserve, what we see coming. Today was a big day. The Federal Reserve had another meeting and came out and said they are going to hold rates once again. They did not increase and they did not decrease, which is what most experts in the field were expecting. Everybody, for the last six weeks since the last meeting, anticipated another hold. They continue to say they'll hold rates higher for longer in order to keep working on inflation and get it down to the 2% range they're targeting. It was great news that they didn't increase. They did leave some movement in the language — they're reserving the right to keep rates where they are or, if required, do another increase. But it's not looking that way at this point. It feels as though they're done, we've hit the maximum they're going to push us to, and now we just have to get through higher for longer. They have not increased rates since July of this year, and July of 2023 gave us the highest rates we have seen. The nice part is they're holding steady and the clock on higher for longer has already started. We're anticipating a couple of rate decreases in 2024, which is phenomenal. One thing we've already seen is the rapid decline. Rates have started to fall — we've come down almost an entire point. We were, believe it or not, in the mid eights and low eights for quite some time, and we're now in the low sevens and even the higher 6% ranges on some scenarios. That's coming back to a normal peace of mind. We all know the average rate over the last 30 years has actually been about 7%. We just got so comfortable with the twos and threes, and from about 2010 to 2019 we were mostly in the fours and fives. That's what our generation has seen historically, so a six starts to feel like hope. A lot of people have jumped into starting applications for refinances, and even purchase applications have increased. We've seen a 19% jump in mortgage applications for refinances and a 4% jump in applications for purchases. That gives us a lot of hope that 24 is going to be a much better year than 2023 was. ### Buying a home for a disabled child or an elderly parent A question came in during the break: are there any loans specific to special needs families? Yes — this is one of those programs that isn't a big article in the news, so a lot of people forget it's available. If you have a disabled child, or elderly parents, you can purchase a second property and have it treated as a primary residence. Say you live in your home and the neighbor's house comes up for sale, and you're thinking your disabled child really needs space of their own — some independence, but close to you. Or you have elderly parents, same street, same neighborhood, a mile away. Normally, owning a home and then buying a second property as an additional primary residence wouldn't be allowable. With this, it is. You can buy that home with a minimum down payment of 5% through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, instead of having to come up with 20 or 25% down to purchase it as an investment property. The follow-up question was whether that includes autism. If your child is considered disabled — and there's paperwork for that — it doesn't matter what the reason is. It could be autism, it could be Down syndrome, it could be an accident that left them wheelchair bound. If there's Social Security or some sort of state-provided benefit we can document, that's generally going to be enough. On elderly parents, let me push on that a little. This is for parents who can still take care of themselves but don't have the financial means to qualify to buy their own property. We're going to ask for copies of their income to see that they don't have enough — they can have a pension, they can have Social Security, they can have all of those things, but what we're looking for is that they can't get the financing on their own. That's what qualifies you to do the financing for them and get them into those lower rates and lower down payments. You can use the same program for a refinance too. If you bought a property for a parent or child as an investment home and took a much higher rate than you would have on a primary, call us — we can refinance it at primary residence guidelines, with primary residence pricing and down payments. ### Fannie Mae's new 5% down on 2–4 units This one I think is phenomenal. Previously, a two-unit property — even as a primary residence, even a duplex you were going to live in — required 15% down. A three- or four-unit primary residence required 25% down. You can now get in with 5% down. So if you want to buy a two-to-four unit property, live in one unit and rent the others out, 5% down is now on the table. Here's what you need to know. First, if you haven't previously owned a home and there's no mortgage on your credit report for us to verify payment history, we need proof that you've made your rent on time for the last 12 months. Whether you pay by app or write a check, we need to verify those payments. If you pay cash for rent, you're not going to qualify for this program — you have to be able to prove the ability to pay. Second, we can use rental income from the units you would not be living in to help you qualify. We won't count income on the unit you occupy. We also can't give you more income than the total monthly payment on the property — but we can offset the debt with the additional rents, which helps you buy into a bigger price range. That matters, because two-to-four unit properties are typically more expensive than a single family home or condo. Third, you need reserves. We look at the total monthly payment for the property — principal, interest, taxes and insurance, the entire nut. Say it's $4,000 a month. After you've paid your down payment and covered your closing costs, you need an additional six months of that payment sitting in an account. A lot of people get confused by reserves and think we're going to do something with the money, put it aside, hold it for ransom. We're not. We just have to verify that at the time of closing, those funds are available in some account — even a retirement account you have the ability to tap into. But you do have to have them. That program opens up a lot of people who could start looking at units, whether it's a first purchase or you're in a condo today and you're ready to buy a duplex. ### Where these programs are available A question came in from someone in Washington state. Both the 5% down unit program and the disabled child and elderly parent program are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs, which means they're available across the nation, in all 50 states. And we are licensed in Washington, so we'd love to help you there. Good time to remind everybody that we're licensed in quite a few states. This show is on YouTube, which people watch in many different places, and it's a podcast you can find wherever you find podcasts. We tried to get as many licenses as we could — California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee and more. If you call and it's a state we can't help in, we'll at least try to refer you to someone there or give you the best way to search. ### Veterans and multi-unit properties Another question: can veterans buy multi-units? Vets have a really great program — I say the best program in lending, and they have absolutely earned and deserve it. You can buy units as a vet with zero down, all the way up to four units. There are stipulations. They do need reserves, just like I talked about with the Fannie Mae program. And they need a history of being a landlord — if they haven't been one before, it doesn't opt them out, but they do have to sign up with a property management company to handle the units once they close and move in. We need to see that management contract. But zero down for up to four units is fabulous. ### The new 2024 loan limits The national loan limit was $726,200\. It has now been raised to $766,550, and that's for almost all areas across the United States. They're in effect right now — we can already lock those loans. Some areas have higher limits because they're considered high cost. Los Angeles County is high cost, Orange County is high cost, and those go all the way up to about $1,149,000\. Remember, that's the *loan* limit, not the purchase price. If you're buying with 5% down in Los Angeles or Orange County, you can go to a higher sales price on top of that limit. So you can get into a home worth almost a million two with 5% down. Units are really interesting, because units get higher loan limits than a single family home or condo. In Los Angeles or Orange County, a two-unit property can go to a loan amount of about $1.472 million. A three-unit limit is about $1.779 million, and four units about $2.211 million. Think about that: a $2.2 million loan amount on a four-unit, with 5% down on top of it. Remember, the 5% down program has to be owner occupied. It's not for someone who wants to buy a four-unit purely as an investment. It's for someone who wants to live in one unit and rent out the others. So: the Fed is leaving rates alone, rates have come down almost a full percent over the last six weeks, and refinance applications are up. If you're thinking, who would be refinancing right now — you're probably also someone who's been thinking you need to refinance. Call us and we'll help you determine whether now is a good time or whether you should wait for rates to reach a certain level. ### Grants and down payment assistance Another question: are there grants that work with these programs? I can't give you a straight yes or no, because every single state, city and county has different grants and down payment assistance programs. Every state has some sort of housing program, cities have housing programs, counties have housing programs. They can be combined — it's a matter of whether the right one exists where you're buying. Call the office, tell us where you're looking, and we'll look up your area, your city, your county and your state to see what's available to you. ### Four pro tips for buying in 2024 **One: consider a lower-priced market if you can switch jobs or work remotely.** A lot of people have been moving since the pandemic to areas where things are less expensive. If you can work remotely and you'd love a single family home but your area is just too expensive, start exploring where you could move and find that home in a price range that makes the payment affordable. I have a lot of clients who did job transfers to less expensive areas and got exactly what they wanted. **Two — and this goes with it: bring your expectations down.** Prices have held steady even with rates going through the roof. Rates are starting to come back down, and realistically home values are probably going to continue to rise. Think about it this way: if you wanted to buy two years ago and told yourself you'd wait for rates to come down, you put yourself up on a shelf. Had you bought two years ago, you'd have more equity today, because the home is worth more than it was. As rates come down, more buyers come to market, there's more competition, and that pushes values up further. So don't stay on the shelf. Bring your expectation down. Maybe you can't get the three- or four-bedroom single family home — find a condo. Get homeownership. When rates come down further, you refinance that condo, drop the payment, maybe put a renter in it, and then go buy the single family home. Now you've started a real estate portfolio. And don't worry about using up some first-time buyer benefit. The Fannie Mae 5% down program is not limited to first-time buyers. FHA at 3.5% down is not a first-time buyer program. A lot of people worry they'll burn their one low-down-payment option on something they didn't want and then need 20% down for the next one. That's absolutely not true. We have low down payment programs as long as it's owner occupied. **Three: get all your ducks in a row in advance so you can act fast.** Review your financial situation, gather your documents, shop multiple lenders, strengthen your credit score. As rates come down — and they've already come down almost a whole percent — more people get excited, more people come to market, and there's more competition for the properties that are available. If you're not pre-approved, if you haven't talked to a loan officer, if you don't know how much you qualify for or how much cash you need, you'll watch the property come up and you won't be ready to make an offer. **Four: check prices and listings constantly.** Once you know your price range, be Johnny on the spot. Find a great real estate agent and get on their drip campaign so you get an email every time a new home hits the market. Set up your saved searches on Redfin and Realtor.com. Sometimes a for-sale-by-owner shows up on Zillow that won't be in the MLS for your agent to send you, so have everything everywhere. The faster you know something is available, the faster you can see it, and the more chance you have of getting your offer accepted. **And know your real monthly payment** — complete with taxes and insurance — and how it fits your budget. This is my 30th year in the business coming into 2024, and one of my biggest recurring problems is buyers who fall in love with a property after running a payment on a listing site's calculator. What they ran was principal and interest. They didn't run principal, interest, taxes and insurance, and if they had less than 20% down they had no idea what mortgage insurance was or that it belonged in the number. Know the actual payment so you're budgeting appropriately. ### Home equity loan or refinance? Look at the blended rate A follower asked whether a home equity loan is better than a refinance. It truly depends — on your blended rate. If your current mortgage balance is $400,000 at 3% and you need $50,000 or $100,000 to pay off debt, the rate on a second mortgage is going to be significantly higher, especially in today's environment. But the majority of what you owe is at 3%. Blend 3% on $400,000 with 10% on $50,000 or $100,000 and it's much, much cheaper to keep those loans separate. Now say you want a big home improvement project that costs about $300,000, and you have that same $400,000 balance at 3%. That's almost the same amount of money at each rate. Blend 3% and 10% on roughly equal balances and the effective rate is higher than if you just did a straight full refinance. So it depends on your scenario, and it's exactly the kind of math to run with us. ### Five pro tips for selling in 2024 **One: work with a real estate agent and get your pricing right.** A lot of realtors are calling this a tornado market — one home on the street sells fast and easy, and the next one sits and sits. The biggest reason for that difference is pricing. Work with someone experienced who knows your area, ideally someone who farms your neighborhood. Don't shoot for the moon and don't try to be the highest sale that's ever happened in your neighborhood. Be realistic: what sold most recently, how does it compare in size and upgrades? Priced correctly, you get more buyers excited, more offers written, and then you have multiple offers and a bidding war. **Two: get your home in shape to sell.** A lot of people skip the cleanup effort. Something as simple as a fresh coat of paint inside makes the property show so much nicer. And declutter — get everything off the kitchen counters except the coffee maker and the toaster. I know you love your beautiful towels and your trinkets, and I'm sure it's gorgeous, but that's not what sells. Make the space look clean and open. Rent a storage unit if you have to, box things up, clean out the garage. **Three: set up your home's online curb appeal.** Most realtors have a good photographer they bring in when they take a listing. In today's world, probably 90% of buyers are surfing Realtor.com, Redfin, Zillow and Trulia looking at photos, and sometimes the pictures don't do the home justice. Make sure the photos are genuinely good. **Four: include a video tour and a 3D floor plan.** When you look at photos online, you're doing your best to piece together the flow of a house, and it's hard to understand what's where. So many people decide yes or no — whether they'll even get in the car to see it — based on how it looks online. An interactive floor plan solves that. **Five: offer an incentive to buy the buyer's rate down.** If your home is sitting, or you want it sold quickly, be the seller who puts it in the listing: willing to help the buyer buy down their interest rate. That gets buyers excited. We have programs like a two-year buydown, and knowing rates are already starting to come down, that gets a buyer into a payment today that they might not otherwise be able to secure for another year or two. Most economists believe we'll see rates coming down in 24 and 25, hitting their lowest levels in 26 — we don't have a crystal ball and that could change, but over the next two to three years we should see rates come down. One of my listeners made a great point on this: buying the buyer's rate down rather than reducing the price means the seller comes out ahead in the long run, because the home records at the higher sale price. I agree. Getting the price you want helps keep the market stable, it helps the next seller, and it keeps your neighborhood's values up — while still giving the buyer the incentive they need to afford the payment today. Someone also asked whether buying the rate down lets a buyer qualify for more. It doesn't — not on a temporary buydown. We have to qualify them at the higher number. Say rates today are 6.875%. The seller buys it down to 4.875% for year one and 5.875% for year two, and it returns to 6.875% in year three. We still qualify them at 6.875%. But what it does do is change what people are willing to accept. I have a lot of buyers who say $500,000 is where they want to be, and at 6.875% they say nope, can't afford it. Then we say, how about $500,000 at 4.875%, and 5.875% a year from now, and worst case you refinance before year three — and they say wait a minute, I can do that. That's what gets more people looking in that range. ### Wrap-up Looking forward to 2024, I'm very excited. A lot of people can put refinances back on their radar. A lot of people need to put home buying back on their radar. And that in turn gives sellers who were holding out — who didn't want to give up their rate for a much higher one — the opportunity to list, because buydown incentives let them sell and then go buy something else. This is my last show of the year. Next Wednesday is the 20th, so close to Christmas that I don't think anybody cares about real estate or mortgage, and the week after that is the week before New Year's. So I'll be back the first Wednesday of January, and I think buydowns will be a great topic to start with. I want to remind everybody that we live off doing transactions. This show doesn't make me money — it actually costs me money — but I love doing it, because I want to bring you the information and the education, and I love seeing people become homeowners or add their second, third and fourth properties. If you're in the market to buy, sell or refinance, we want to be your first phone call. Text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week when I go live. Same number for the office, or head over to mortgagemomradio.com. Happy holidays, everybody. I'll see you in 2024\. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of December 13, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Mortgage Rates Are Falling: Should You Buy Now or Wait for 2024? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/mortgage-rates-are-falling-should-you-buy-now-or-wait-for-2024/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:11:30.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Interest Rates Are Falling!” • Live show from Wednesday, December 6, 2023 • 48 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 After 20 straight months of climbing, mortgage rates fell for five consecutive weeks heading into December 2023 — and Debbie ran fresh pricing the day of this show to prove it: a conventional quote back under 7% for the first time in months. With 85% of first-time buyers saying they'd put their plans on hold, she makes the case for getting ahead of the herd before rate cuts bring the competition back, answers a rapid-fire round of HELOC and home-equity questions, and previews Fannie Mae's new 5% down program for 2–4 unit homes. ## Key takeaways - **The turn was real:** after the Fed's 20 months of hikes and two straight meetings of pauses, the Freddie Mac 30-year average fell for a fifth consecutive week to 7.22% — down from the October high around 7.75% — and Debbie's own same-day pricing showed a conventional quote at 6.875% with about a point. - **85% of first-time buyers put their goal on hold.** Purchase applications rose for a fifth straight week as rates fell — Debbie's warning: get out ahead of that herd before everyone comes off the sidelines chasing the same short inventory. - **Nobody credible was forecasting 3% again.** The expert consensus Debbie tracks pointed to rates eventually settling in the high 4s to low 5s — and the sub-3% owners who will never sell are exactly what kept inventory low and home values appreciating even at 7%+ rates. - **Second mortgages price higher than firsts** — HELOCs and home equity loans were averaging around 10% (some under, some 13–14%) depending on credit, equity, occupancy, and property type. The blended-rate math is what decides between keeping a 3% first with a 10% second versus a full refinance. - **A zero-balance HELOC helps your credit,** not hurts it — open availability with nothing owed lowers your debt ratio. But interest-only lines are a treadmill for debt consolidation; a fixed principal-and-interest home equity loan pays the balance down. - **New for buyers of 2–4 unit homes:** Fannie Mae's just-released 5% down owner-occupied program (previously 15% for a duplex, 25% for 3–4 units), plus annual conventional and FHA loan-limit increases — in high-cost areas like LA County, FHA's 3.5% down now reaches loan amounts well over $1 million. - **Buy what you can afford today** — the market is almost impossible to time; the best time is when you find a home that meets your family's needs at a payment you can carry, then refinance when rates drop. ## Chapters - 01:00Twenty months of hikes, two pauses, five weeks of relief - 03:0085% of first-time buyers are on hold — that's the opportunity - 08:00Q&A: refinancing an investment property bought with hard money - 10:00Q&A: HELOC rates vs. first-mortgage rates, and the blended-rate math - 13:00Q&A: what a HELOC really costs, even with great credit - 16:00The Forbes piece: when will home prices be affordable again? - 18:00Freddie Mac at 7.22% — fifth straight weekly decline - 19:00Debbie's same-day rate check: conventional back under 7% - 21:00Q&A: does a zero-balance HELOC hurt your credit? - 23:00Q&A: interest-only — flipper's tool or debt treadmill? - 26:00Q&A: a HELOC and a home equity loan on the same house? - 31:00Purchase applications up five weeks running — beat the herd - 32:00Q&A: will we ever see 3% rates again? - 36:00Fannie Mae's new 5% down for 2–4 units; loan limits rise - 40:00Q&A: borrowing more than you need “just in case” - 42:00Q&A: is being house poor always a mistake? ## Questions answered on this show ### “I bought a single-family investment house with a hard money loan. How do I refinance it?” Get that refinanced — a hard money loan is probably sitting around the 10% range, and a normal investment-property refinance can definitely beat it. Know your current rate and balance, and know your property type: a one-unit house or condo prices differently from a 2–4 unit, and that drives the rate you can get. And since the best rates go to the highest credit scores, keep card balances low now so your score is at its peak when it's time to lock. ### “Is the rate on a home equity line higher or lower than a mortgage rate?” Higher. HELOCs and home equity loans are both second mortgages, and seconds always carry higher rates than a new first mortgage. But that's exactly why they can still be the right tool: if you're sitting on a $500,000 first at 3% and need $100,000, blending 3% on $500,000 with even 10% on $100,000 beats refinancing the whole balance at today's first-mortgage rates. Flip the proportions — a $500,000 first but you need $400,000 — and a full refinance likely wins, because the first-mortgage rate is lower than any second's. ### “With great credit, what are the rates for equity lines?” On average, around 10% — some under, some as high as 13–14%. Credit score is only one input: how much equity remains matters enormously (borrowing $100,000 against a home worth $1 million with $500,000 owed prices far better than borrowing to 90% of value), along with occupancy (primary, second home, investment) and property type (1–4 units). ### “Does a home equity line of credit look negative to creditors even if the balance is zero?” No — the opposite. A HELOC behaves like a credit card on your report: a $50,000 or $100,000 line with nothing owed keeps your debt ratio (owed versus available) low, which actually improves your score. If you draw on it, you'll owe an interest-only minimum payment on the balance, but an untouched line costs nothing and helps. ### “If it's an interest-only payment, then it's no good… is it?” It depends on who you are and what the money is for. Using a line for a quick flip — buy the fixer for cash, renovate, sell, pay the line off, repeat — interest-only is exactly the right tool. Using all $50,000 of a line for debt consolidation with no means to pay it back quickly puts you on the same treadmill as your credit card, since the minimum payment never touches principal — there, a fixed-rate home equity *loan* with a principal-and-interest payment is the better fit. Same caution on interest-only first mortgages: plan to move in three years, life happens, you're still there at year seven when the fixed period ends, and the payment nearly doubles. ### “Can I have both a home equity loan and a line of credit on the same house if it has enough equity?” Possible, but hard. Both are second mortgages, and holding one of each puts a lender into *third* position behind your first and second. In a foreclosure, the first gets paid before the second and the second before the third — and the deeper the position, the likelier a lender recovers little or nothing. That risk is why seconds price above firsts, thirds price above seconds, and why most lenders simply won't write third position at all. Some will; they're just difficult to find. ### “What's the likelihood of interest rates ever dropping back to 3% or under?” Barring another pandemic-scale shock, Debbie doesn't expect sub-3% again in our lifetimes — those rates existed because the Fed went to the floor in an emergency. What most experts she follows were anticipating instead: an eventual settle into the very high 4s to low 5s as the average mortgage rate. That's the planning number to use for a future payment. And the people who did lock 2.99% in 2021? They're never letting those homes go — which is precisely what kept inventory low, values appreciating, and this high-rate market from turning into a housing bust. ### “Is it wise to get a larger loan than I need, just in case — and pay it off sooner with the unused money?” It depends entirely on what the money is for — IRS debt, monthly debts, or a renovation — and how fast you can pay it back; that conversation decides loan versus line and the right size. One rule Debbie gives everyone on renovation money: take the contractor's bid and add 20%. The moment walls open, or the freshly painted kitchen makes the living room look tired, the project grows. ### “Is being house poor so bad when all you want to do is be in your house?” It's personal — and Debbie answers from her own life. Her youngest son is autistic; the family works from home, homeschools, brings therapies to the house, and rarely goes out. For them, a bigger mortgage payment made sense: the house is their everything, and the restaurant-and-outings budget most families carry simply doesn't exist for them. Affordability and comfort are individual decisions — so stop polling the neighbors and co-workers, and walk your actual scenario through with a professional. ## This week's numbers (week of December 6, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Freddie Mac 30-year fixed average: **7.22%** for the week ending November 30 — down seven basis points, the fifth consecutive weekly decline - October 2023 national average high for a conventional 30-year: about **7.75%** - Debbie's same-day pricing check — conventional, primary residence, good credit, roughly one point: **6.875%**; FHA about **6.5%**; VA about **6.5%** - Home equity lines and loans: averaging around **10%**, ranging from under 10% up to 13–14% by credit, equity, occupancy, and property type *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Rates just moved — find out what that does to your payment Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### The turn in rates Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you what's going on in housing, real estate, and mortgage. It has been a whirlwind since 2022: the Federal Reserve raised rates over 20 months, up and up and up — and for the last two meetings they have *not* increased, which is fabulous. Now, all of a sudden, we're starting to see interest rates come down. Today we're going to get you a good thumb on the market: where rates are, and what we expect in 2024 — is this the time to get yourself ready, pre-approved, ready to strike while the iron is hot when you find the right home? Here's the headline: for five consecutive weeks, interest rates have come down. And 85% of first-time home buyers have said they've put their home-buying goal on hold. If you're one of that 85%, I want you out ahead of everybody else, so that when things get crazy you've already got the house. ### Q&A: the hard money refinance Raul says he needs to refinance his second, investment house — and we're going to see a lot of that now. A lot of people purchased since 2022, when rates were significantly higher than where they are today and where they're heading. My best suggestion, Raul: stay active and stay watching — know your rate, know what you owe, and know your property type, because a single-family house, a condo, and a 2-to-4-unit all price differently on an investment refinance. Later he adds that it's a single-family home purchased with a hard money loan — then we have definitely got to get you refinanced, because that hard money loan is probably in the 10% range and we can do better on a normal investment refinance. And for everyone who bought while rates were elevated: the very best rates go to the very highest credit scores. Keep those credit card balances low now, so when the right time comes you can obtain the best rate available. ### Q&A: seconds, firsts, and the blended rate Michelle asks whether the rate on a home equity line is higher or lower than a mortgage rate. A home equity line of credit and a home equity loan are two different things, but both are second mortgages — separate from your first — and both carry a higher rate than a new first mortgage would. They're still a great idea for somebody with a large balance locked at a very low rate: if you have a $500,000 mortgage at 3% and want $100,000 out, the blend of 3% on $500,000 and even 10% on $100,000 is better than refinancing everything. But if you need $400,000 against that $500,000 first, now we're probably talking about a full refinance, because the first-mortgage rate is lower than any second's. Sam asks what equity lines cost with great credit. On average I've been seeing home equity lines and loans around 10% — some under, some as high as 13 or 14% — and credit score is only part of it. How much equity stays in the home matters: owe $500,000 on a million-dollar home and take a $100,000 line, and you're still leaving 40% equity — you'll price far better than someone borrowing to 90% of value, even at the same score. Occupancy and property type factor in too. ### Where rates are: the Forbes piece and my own rate sheet Now to the heart of today's show. I pulled a brand-new Forbes article — published December 1, so as current as it gets — called “When Will Home Prices Be Affordable Again?”, written by Robin Rothstein and Caroline Basile and edited by Chris Jennings; full credit to them, and I'd encourage you to read it. It opens: hopeful home buyers are getting an early holiday gift — declining mortgage rates. Since hitting a 2023 high in late October, the average 30-year fixed has receded by over half a percent. Keep that half a percent in perspective. We didn't fall from 3% to 7.75% overnight — the national average for a conventional loan hit about 7.75% in October after 20 consecutive months of climbing — and we won't fall back overnight either. It's going to be gradual. But we're not hoping for the light at the end of the tunnel anymore; we're seeing it, and I can't tell you how exciting that is. The numbers: the average 30-year fixed slid seven basis points to **7.22%** in the week ending November 30 — the fifth consecutive week of decreases, according to Freddie Mac. (A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.) And because that data ends in November, I ran rates myself today, Wednesday, to bring you current: a primary-residence single-family home, good credit score, buying the rate down with about one point — we were at **6.875%** conventional. Under 7%. That is a humongous change. FHA was quoting around 6.5% with that same point, and VA about 6.5% as well. Every person's scenario is different — credit score, property, down payment, occupancy — so these aren't the rates *you* will get; they're the beat of the market. But here's why it matters already: if your first mortgage is in the fives and you also carry a home equity line or loan in the tens, it might already be time to consolidate into one payment — and then refinance that one loan even lower as we move through 2024. ### Q&A: HELOC mechanics Michelle asks whether a home equity line looks negative to creditors even at a zero balance. No — think of it like a credit card. A line that's open and unused keeps your debt ratio low: a $50,000 or $100,000 line with nothing owed actually improves your credit score by quite a bit. Use it, and you'll owe an interest-only minimum on the balance — but the open availability itself is a positive. She follows up: if it's interest-only, then it's no good, is it? It depends on you. If you're taking a $50,000 line and you're going to use all of it to pay off debt or remodel, with no means to pay it back quickly, an interest-only minimum that never pays the balance down is not what I'd recommend — get a home equity *loan* with a principal-and-interest payment, like your house or your car, where every payment moves the balance. If the line is a safety net, or you're flipping — buy the fixer with the line, renovate, sell, pay it off, keep the access for the next one — interest-only is exactly right. Sam adds that sometimes interest-only makes better sense if you're staying seven years or more — and it truly does depend. A lot of interest-only firsts are adjustable: people buy planning to move in two or three years, life happens, they're still there when the five- or seven-year fixed period ends, the payment goes principal-and-interest and nearly doubles, and the home they thought they were leaving is suddenly unaffordable. Most people don't stay 30 years — but plenty stay 7, 10, 12, so be careful how short a runway you set up. Can you have both a HELOC loan and a line on the same house if there's enough equity? Most lenders treat each as a second mortgage, and one of each means somebody is in third position. The deeper you sit on title behind first position, the harder it is to recoup your money if the property forecloses — the first gets paid, then the second, and if there's nothing left, the third may get nothing at all. That's why a second prices above a first and a third above a second, and why most lenders won't write thirds. Some will — it's doable — but it is very hard to find. ### Get ahead of the herd I've been saying it week after week: be ready to strike while the iron is hot. You do not want to be shopping when all 85% of those sidelined first-time buyers decide at the same moment that rates are good enough, all chasing the same inventory, offers flying, prices jumping. And it's starting: with rates falling five straight weeks, **purchase applications have now increased for the fifth straight week** too. People are starting to feel it — that gut feeling that it's time. ### Q&A: will we see 3% again? Michael asks: what's the likelihood of rates ever dropping back to 3% or under? Barring something drastic — another pandemic-scale national disaster that forces the Fed to the floor — I don't think we see 3% again in our lifetimes. What most of the experts I read are anticipating is that we eventually settle into the very high 4s to low 5s as the average mortgage rate. I think we will see those numbers again, and they're good planning numbers for what a payment might look like. My crystal ball is broken like everyone else's — but that's the honest picture. Michael was fortunate enough to refinance at 2.99% in 2021 — and he's exactly why this market held. People with sub-3% rates are not selling, which keeps inventory low, which keeps home values up. Even with mortgage rates the highest we've seen in a very long time, we've watched homes *appreciate* — where historically, rates like these came with a housing bust. All those locked-in low rates have helped hold the housing economy steady. ### New Fannie Mae program and higher loan limits Quick preview of something we'll detail next week, because I love it: Fannie Mae just rolled out a **5% down payment program for owner-occupied 2-to-4-unit properties**. Until now, buying a duplex to live in one unit and rent the other took 15% down, and a 3-to-4-unit took 25% down. Now it's 5%. If you've wanted to house-hack a duplex or fourplex and the down payment was the wall — that wall just came down. Conventional loan limits also got their annual increase, which helps you into those 3-and-4-unit properties without jumping to jumbo pricing, and FHA raised its loan amounts too: in a high-cost area like LA County, you can now get an FHA mortgage with 3.5% down at loan amounts well over a million dollars. We'll break down the specifics next week. ### Buy what you can afford — the Forbes bottom line The Forbes piece walks through the 2024 questions — will the market crash, will foreclosures rise, should I wait — and lands where I always land. Buying a house is a highly personal decision; a home is the largest single purchase most people make. Trying to predict next year is probably not the best home-buying strategy, because housing is almost impossible to time. The best time for a buyer is when you find the home you like, that meets your family's current and foreseeable needs, that you can afford. Don't bite off more than you can chew on the theory that the future will rescue you — buy what you can afford today, and then the future holds only more: rates will drop, you'll refinance, the payment comes down, and the equity builds. You reap those rewards down the road. ### Q&A: sizing the loan, and the house-poor question Michelle asks whether it's wise to take a larger loan than she needs, just in case — and pay it off sooner with whatever goes unused. We need to talk about what the money is for: IRS debt, rehabbing the house, monthly debts? And how fast can you realistically pay it back? That's what determines the right product and the right size. On home improvements, here's my standing rule: whatever the contractor's bid says, add 20%. The minute they open walls there are repairs you didn't count on, and the minute the kitchen is repainted, the living room next to it looks old and dirty and you're painting that too. Serena asks: is house poor so bad when all you want to do is be in your house? I'll give you a twist on this one from my own life. My youngest son is autistic. We don't go anywhere — we live in our home. I work from home, we run our businesses from home, we're homeschooling, his therapies come to the house; we put him in the stroller and take walks, and a couple of times each summer we manage the boat, which is why we moved closer to the lake. So for me, it was okay to carry a bigger mortgage payment: the home is our everything, and the restaurants, movies, and outings an average family budgets for just aren't part of our monthly spending. It's hard — and it has changed our family absolutely for the better; he is a gift. The point for you: what's affordable and comfortable is a personal decision built on your actual life. Stop listening to the neighbors, your friends, your co-workers — people who aren't in the business. Sit down with professionals, walk through your scenario, and decide what's comfortable for *you*. ### Wrap-up Rates are coming down, applications are picking up — if buying in 2024 is your goal, now is the time to get moving, and if you took a high-rate mortgage over the last year or so, get on our list so we can call you the moment rates hit your number. I'll be back next week to dig into that Fannie Mae 2-to-4-unit program and the new loan limits — then I'm dark for the last two weeks of December for the holidays, back the first Wednesday of January. To catch the shows live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week with the link when I go live. Talk to you all soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of December 6, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Housing Market Predictions for 2024: Will Home Prices or Mortgage Rates Come Down? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/housing-market-predictions-for-2024-will-home-prices-or-mortgage-rates-come-down/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:23:52.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Housing Predictions for 2024!” • Live show from Wednesday, November 29, 2023 • 40 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 If you've been sitting on the sidelines waiting for home prices to fall, this is the show that tells you what the forecasters actually expect. Debbie reads through two 2024 housing outlooks — one from HousingWire and one from Bankrate — side by side, translating each one as she goes: where rates settle, whether inventory improves, whether prices drop, and whether next year is a buyer's or a seller's market. Then she gives her own take, and it isn't the one the fence-sitters are hoping for. ## Key takeaways - **Rates come down, but not to pandemic levels.** HousingWire's call is that mortgage rates — which hit a more than two-decade high in the fourth quarter of 2023 — begin falling in 2024 and settle between **6% and 6.5%**. Bankrate's forecasters agree rates stay above 6%. - **Prices are not expected to drop.** NAR's chief economist Lawrence Yun predicts home prices *rise* about **3–4%** in 2024\. September 2023's median existing home price of **$394,300** was only about $20,000 short of the highest monthly price NAR has ever recorded. - **The one scenario where prices dip is narrow and short.** If sellers come back to the market before first-time buyers do, there could be a modest national price dip early in 2024 — but it would be shallow and short-lived, because inventory stays historically low. The markets most at risk are the least affordable, including many major coastal ones. - **Volume, not value, is what collapsed.** 2023 home sales were on track for the lowest level since 2010\. Existing home sales in September 2023 ran at an annual pace of **3.96 million**, a **15.4%** drop year over year, against a typical year of about 5.2 million. Yun expected sales to rise as much as **15%** in 2024. - **Inventory stays tight.** September inventory was **1.13 million** existing homes, down 8.1% year over year — a **3.4-month supply** against the five to six months a balanced market needs. Yun's line is that the market could easily absorb a doubling of inventory. - **The demographics are the real story.** The oldest millennials are in their early 40s and the average first-time buyer is now **36**, the highest on record. If millennials owned at the same rate Gen X did at the same age, there would be **740,000 more homeowners** — pent-up demand waiting on rates and inventory. Meanwhile boomers are staying put, holding sub-3% mortgages with nothing to downsize into. - **Debbie's own take:** rates start moving down meaningfully by mid-2024 and keep sliding gradually, so it stays a seller's market and gets harder, not easier, to get an offer accepted. Her advice is to get pre-approved now and be ready to strike, rather than waiting for a price drop that the forecasters aren't calling for. ## Chapters - 01:00What this show covers: predictions for 2024 - 03:00Two forecasts, side by side: HousingWire and Bankrate - 06:00HousingWire: the lowest sales volume since 2010 - 07:00Where rates settle — 6% to 6.5%, not pandemic levels - 08:00The chicken-and-egg question on prices - 09:00Millennials and 740,000 missing homeowners - 10:00Why boomers staying put keeps inventory tight - 12:00Q&A: best advice for young Southern California buyers - 20:00Bankrate: what happens to the housing market in 2024 - 22:00Sales volume down 15.4% year over year - 23:00Forecasters expect sales up as much as 15% - 24:00Will inventory increase? 3.4 months of supply - 26:00Will home prices go down? A 3–4% rise is the call - 30:00Buyer's market or seller's market in 2024? - 34:00The Mortgage Mom take: rates down by mid-2024 - 36:00If you bought in 2023, watch for your refinance number ## Questions answered on this show ### “What's your best advice for a young first-time buyer trying to purchase in 2024 in Southern California?” Be ready. Have the pre-approval done, know today's numbers, and stay tight with your loan officer so you have a beat on rates. Debbie's office has people reaching out after a year away, and the pre-approval they ran back then isn't close to where things sit now. Get the pre-approval rolling, get fresh documents in, and know your cash to close and your real monthly payment. Then have the conversation about what you qualify for at each rate level — at 7.5% you might qualify for $500,000, and at 6.5% that number is different. As rates fall you can afford more house, but so can everyone else. Debbie believes by the middle of 2024 it gets very busy again, more sellers list because a 6% rate is palatable when 8% wasn't, and it becomes 100% a seller's market — which makes it harder to negotiate and harder to get an offer accepted. So get prepared now, and be ready to strike when the iron is hot. ## This week's numbers (week of November 29, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - What Debbie was quoting about 30 days before this show: **8% to 8.25%** on many scenarios - What she was quoting the week of this show: **mid sevens**, with some loans in the low sevens - Forecast range for where 30-year rates settle in 2024: **6% to 6.5%** - Median existing home price, September 2023: **$394,300** (about $20,000 below the record monthly high) - Existing home sales pace, September 2023: **3.96 million** annualized, down **15.4%** year over year - Existing homes for sale, September 2023: **1.13 million**, down 8.1% year over year — a **3.4-month supply** - Forecast home price change for 2024: **up 3–4%** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Get pre-approved now so you're ready when rates move Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### What we're covering today Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about housing predictions for 2024\. Can you believe it? Thanksgiving has come and gone, we're moving into the holiday season, and then it's 2024\. We have about 32 days left in the year. So what's going to happen next year? What are the experts calling for? Are you somebody who's been on the fence, waiting to buy, feeling priced out? Are home prices going to come down in 2024? Are interest rates going to come down? Is it going to be a buyer's market or a seller's market? We're hitting all of those topics today. I pulled up two articles, because I like giving you the information I'm reading so you can decipher it the same way I would. Does what they're saying make sense? Do you agree with them? One is from HousingWire and the other is from Bankrate — both very reputable places for information. We'll compare them, and then I'll give you the Mortgage Mom take. ### HousingWire's 2024 outlook Here's what HousingWire says. In a typical year there are about 5.2 million sales of existing homes nationally, and home prices rise by about 4% year over year. But it's been a long time since we've seen typical. The number of home sales in 2023 will likely be at its lowest level since 2010, and while sales activity will pick up in 2024, transactions will still be below average. There is a lot of uncertainty in the economy and the housing market, but there are at least a few things we can count on. Mortgage rates, which reached a more than two-decade high in the fourth quarter of 2023, will begin to come down in 2024 — but they are not coming down to pandemic levels. We are in a new era for mortgage rates, where prospective home buyers should expect rates to settle between 6% and 6.5% next year. Consumers will reset their expectations, and as rates move lower there will be more home buyers and more sellers in the market. Predicting where home prices are going will become a game of which came first, the chicken or the egg. If sellers are enticed into the market before first-time buyers get back in, we could see home prices dip early in 24 at a national level. If there are price drops they will be modest and short-lived, simply because inventory will still be very low by historic standards. The markets with the greatest risk of price corrections are the country's least affordable, including many major coastal markets. If buyers come back before sellers, we are in for a competitive market with prices rising. Prospective first-time buyers may continue to sit out the for-sale market in early 24, as there are more deals in the rental market — record levels of new apartment construction have led to rent declines and concessions, making it more attractive to rent than buy in some places. However, the desire for homeownership is very strong. The underlying demographic fundamentals indicate strong demand and low inventory in 2024 and through the rest of the decade. Through the rest of the decade — listen to that. We're talking all the way to 2030. The oldest millennials are now in their early 40s, but the age of a first-time home buyer, 36, is the highest on record, and homeownership rates for this cohort are significantly lower than for prior generations. If millennials were homeowners at the same rate that Gen Xers or young boomers were at the same age, there would be 740,000 more homeowners in the US. That is a significant amount of pent-up demand, some of which is waiting for a drop in rates and more inventory. While inventory will increase somewhat next year, supply will still be low, largely due to the other big demographic cohort affecting the market: boomers are staying in their homes longer. Sub-3% mortgage rates and a lack of homes to downsize into have contributed to the slower pace of listing activity. These demographic factors are the primary reason home prices will remain firm and will grow in most markets in 2024. There are potential wild cards to consider — another strain of the coronavirus is always a threat lurking in the corner, and God we hope not; geopolitical risks and economic recession could amplify consumer anxiety and lead to less home buying and selling activity. And while presidential elections don't tend to have an outsized impact on the housing market in most cycles, it could be a different story if there's further deterioration in the political landscape. That's where they leave it. They don't really give you their opinion. What they do say is that if first-time buyers come to market before the sellers finally get sick of waiting, prices go up further and it gets more difficult to buy. If sellers come out of the woodwork first because they're tired of waiting, ready to move, ready to downsize, then we get more inventory and a quick dip in 24 — but not a substantial dip and nothing that lasts long. A very small window where you might get more inventory to choose from and a little more negotiating room. ### Bankrate's 2024 outlook They didn't really give their opinion, which is why I went to what Bankrate thought. I think they get more detailed, more into the guts of it. Their article is called Housing Market Predictions 2024, published around November 14th or 15th, so a week or two ago. I'm giving Bankrate total credit for this — this is their content, not mine. What will happen to the housing market in 2024? Rates roughly doubled in 2022, thanks in part to the Federal Reserve's war on inflation, and have stayed high since. While the Fed does not directly set mortgage rates, mortgage lenders take cues from them, and mortgage rates climbed in tandem with the Fed's long string of rate hikes. Will housing sales decline? While home prices have certainly held firm this year, the volume of home sales has softened considerably. Existing home sales in September 2023 declined to an annual pace of 3.96 million according to NAR data, which represents a 15.4% drop year over year. Before I keep going, I want to be very clear: they're not talking about home values dropping. They're talking about the actual number of homes that sold and closed. We're down on the amount of sales. Home prices have remained elevated. However, these trends may pivot in 2024 if mortgage rates dip. HousingWire thinks they'll come down, and the Mortgage Mom thinks they'll come down as well — keep that in the back of your head. Retreating mortgage rates will bring more buyers and sellers to the market and get Americans moving again, says NAR — the National Association of Realtors — chief economist Lawrence Yun. At a NAR conference in November, Yun predicted that sales will rise by as much as 15% next year. So in 2024 we really could get back to somewhat more decent transaction levels after dropping 15.4%. Housing sales are expected to increase a bit from this year, says Chen Zhao, who leads the economics team at Redfin. However, she qualifies: we are not expecting sales to increase dramatically, as rates are likely to remain above 6%. So again, HousingWire said 6 to 6.5%, and this article agrees — rates come down a bit in 24. Lower mortgage rates would help spur home sales activity, which are expected to increase in 24 compared to 23, says Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. Declining mortgage rates will drive more sellers to trade their existing home and help add much-needed inventory to the market, leading to more transactions. ### Will inventory increase? Speaking of much-needed inventory: housing supply has been very low throughout 2023\. The overall number of existing homes on the market as of September sat at 1.13 million units, an 8.1% decline since last year. That figure represents only a 3.4-month supply, far short of the five to six months usually needed for a balanced market. There are simply not enough homes for sale. Lawrence Yun says the market can easily absorb a doubling of inventory. So even if a lot of sellers finally come back and say okay, it's time — once I sell I have to go get myself another mortgage, and I'm willing to trade my 3% for a 6%, but I wasn't willing to trade 3% for 8% — we'll see more homes come to market and it gets a little easier to find one. But we're still not at the levels we need for a balanced market. A balanced market means it's not a seller's market and not a buyer's market. It's a level playing field. For inventory levels to improve significantly there would need to be either a surge of homeowners listing their existing properties or a huge amount of new construction hitting the market, and both seem relatively unlikely. Yun does foresee some increase for 24: there will be more home construction, and more existing homeowners will be willing to sell and give up their low mortgage rates. ### Will home prices go down? Housing prices have been on fire lately, culminating in historic highs. September's median of $394,300 was only $20,000 short of the highest monthly home price NAR has ever recorded. So will home prices drop in 24? Probably not, says Yun. Home prices will rise around 3 to 4%, he predicts. So he's predicting appreciation in 2024. Prices are intricately connected with housing inventory as well, notes Zhao. Sellers are likely to remain reluctant to give up their low interest rate for a much higher one, so inventory will remain constrained, she says. As more time passes, more homeowners may be forced to sell due to life events, so inventory may rise from the current anemic levels, but it's unlikely to increase much. That means prices are unlikely to fall on a year-over-year basis unless demand falters. So are we going to see home prices come down in 24? Again, HousingWire says only if the sellers all decide to come out at the exact same time and give us an abundance of inventory. That's probably not going to happen, because they're all waiting for rates to come down first, and it needs to be a palatable rate. Could it happen? Yes. And if it does, HousingWire says we get a small window at the beginning of 24 where values might come down, but it's short-lived and it's not a dramatic amount of depreciation. ### Buyer's market or seller's market? This is what a lot of you want to know, especially if you're a first-time buyer who's been waiting for rates or prices to come down while sellers seem to get everything they want. It is a seller's market right now, because inventory is low. There aren't enough homes for sale, so when a really nice property comes on the market — and nice means it's in the right price range for a lot of people, or it's fully remodeled so you don't have to walk in and do it yourself — it sells and the seller gets everything they want. Here's what Bankrate says. In today's market, tight inventory gives sellers the upper hand. There are more buyers than there are homes available, so each home that comes on the market becomes more of a hot commodity than it might if there were more options. Without a significant uptick in inventory, the seller's market seems unlikely to change next year. And their bottom line on the 24 housing market: the combination of high mortgage rates, steep home prices and low inventory levels are lining up to make the 24 housing market a challenging one for both buyers and sellers. But if rates cool in 24 as some experts predict, then market activity should heat up in response. The complexities of the current conditions mean that now, more than ever, it's smart to lean on the guidance of an experienced local real estate agent — whether as a buyer or a seller, let a pro lead the way. ### The Mortgage Mom take Nobody has a crystal ball. You have to take what you hear from this person, that person, this article, that article, and then decide what your own opinion is. There's no way for me to know what's happening inside those Federal Reserve meetings or inside the Treasury. But I can take everything I've read and watched and learned and come to an educated opinion about what I think happens. I think we start to see interest rates come down around mid-2024\. And I don't think — we've *already* started to see rates come down. I want to ring a bell on that. About 30 days ago I was quoting rates in the eights, 8.25% easily, on many loan applications. We are now in the mid sevens. That is a huge drop, very quickly. I can't see us jumping back up. Could it happen? Absolutely. But my opinion is we're slowly going down the elevator — a very gradual decline in mortgage rates. I've been saying it for the last year: as soon as rates start coming down, there will be a buzz throughout the market. It's a game of telephone. One person finds out rates are in the low sevens, they tell their neighbor, the neighbor tells the next neighbor, and that's how things get busy again. So if you've been on the fence, if you haven't gotten pre-approved, if you've just been waiting — I would personally not count on home values coming down, and I wouldn't count on rates being dramatically lower immediately. But as soon as rates are lower, and I think we're closer than we are further, we'll see that pickup in the market, which makes it more difficult to get the home you want and to negotiate on the property. So get yourself prepared right now. Get yourself in financial shape to make that purchase if that's your goal for 2024. And for those of you who already bought in 2023 and ended up with a higher rate: keep your thumb on the market. Follow along, know where rates are, and know the general movement, because there is going to be a really good time to start that refinance and get the payment down. If you've thought about downsizing, about renovations, or you need cash to pay off debt, right now is a good time to reach out and find out what it would look like if rates came down another percent — so that when you hear that number, you know it's time to pick up the phone. But if you're trying to purchase and you wait until everyone else is already out there doing it, you're going to pay a higher price and you're going to have a hard time getting an offer accepted. I do believe 2024 is going to be a significantly better year than 23\. More units sold, more transactions, rates a little better, things a little more affordable. I think some of the boomers get to do the downsizing and the moves they've been sitting on. Do I think it's going to be fabulous? I think it's still going to be a little rough, still slower than a typical average market. But so much better than 23 — and I think it just keeps improving into 25 and 26. If you want to join me live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. You'll get one text a week letting you know I'm live, with a link straight to the channel so you can ask questions during the show. It's the same number to call the office, whether you want a pre-approval, a refinance, debt consolidation or a reverse mortgage. I'll be back next Wednesday at one o'clock Pacific on YouTube. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of November 29, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### How to Cook a Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey: Oven, Roaster, or Deep Fryer URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-cook-a-juicy-thanksgiving-turkey-oven-roaster-or-deep-fryer/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:24:21.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Happy Thanksgiving!! Let's talk cooking TURKEY and the best methods.” • Live show from Wednesday, November 15, 2023 • 39 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Once a year Debbie takes the mortgage hat off. This is the annual Thanksgiving show — no rates, no guidelines, no real estate. Just turkey: how she cooks hers (breast-side down, wrapped tight, low and slow), what went wrong in her electric-roaster test run the Friday before, what the recipe sites say about brining and deep frying, and the tips her listeners sent in live. If you came here for mortgage advice, come back next week. If you came here because your bird was dry last year, keep reading. ## Key takeaways - **Debbie's method: breast-side down, low and slow.** She stuffs the bird, seasons simply — water, salt, pepper, a little garlic powder — wraps it as tightly in foil as she can, and roasts at **325°F** for hours. The foil comes off only at the end, when she starts basting and takes the oven up to **400–425°F** to brown the skin. - **Pull it at 165°F, not 180°F.** The turkey keeps cooking after it leaves the oven. Take it out at about **165°F in the thickest part of the breast** (**180°F** if you're reading the deepest part of the thigh) and let it rest **30 minutes** — it will come up to a safe temperature on the counter. Cook it to 180°F *inside* the oven and, in Debbie's words, you'd better hope your gravy is good. - **Use a probe thermometer, and put it in the right place.** She uses Bluetooth smart probes so she can watch the temperature without opening the oven, and she does not trust the pop-up button that comes in the bird — those stick and never pop. Her whole roaster test run went sideways for exactly one reason: the probe wasn't in the thickest part of the breast. - **Stuff the bird the morning of — never overnight.** Stuffing left sitting in the turkey's juices overnight is a food-safety problem. Make the stuffing the night before, stuff in the morning. A stuffed bird runs roughly **15 minutes per pound**, and the stuffing itself has to reach **165°F** before it's safe — it heats slowest because it's deepest inside the bird. - **Electric roaster: sear high first, then leave the lid alone.** The recipe she read out says preheat the roaster to its highest setting, roast **30 minutes hot** to brown the skin, then drop to **325°F**. Every time you lift the lid you lose heat and add cooking time — roaster ovens don't hold heat the way a conventional oven does. Debbie's mistake was starting low and planning to cook all day. - **Deep frying: measure the oil with water first.** Put the turkey in the empty pot, add water until it just covers the bird and sits at least **4–5 inches below the rim**, then pull the bird out — that water line is your oil line. Lower the bird in at **250°F**, bring the oil to **350°F** and hold it there, pull the bird at about **151°F** in the breast, and rest it 30 minutes to carry over to roughly **161°F**. - **The listener tips that got Debbie's attention:** oven roasting bags (juicier and a little faster), softened herb butter worked *under* the skin rather than on top, brining in a cooler overnight, and propane-fired infrared fryers that cook outside with no oil at all. ## Chapters - 01:00Why this week is a turkey show and not a mortgage show - 04:00Debbie's stuffing: made the night before, in the bird the next morning - 05:00Breast-side down, wrapped in foil, oven at 325°F - 06:00Browning at the end — and why 180°F in the oven ruins a bird - 10:00Listener tips: oven bags, herb butter under the skin, infrared fryers - 13:00What brining actually is, and the butter-under-the-skin trick - 15:00Two turkeys this year: the family Thanksgiving Debbie hosts - 17:00Moving to a smaller kitchen — why she bought a countertop roaster - 22:00Minutes per pound vs. a thermometer, and picking a probe - 25:00The test-run disaster: the probe was in the wrong spot - 27:00Temperature targets for breast, thigh, and stuffing - 29:00The electric roaster recipe, read out step by step - 32:00Deep-fried turkey: the brine, the oil, the temperatures - 36:00The water trick for measuring how much oil you need - 38:00Going dark for the holiday — back in two weeks ### Back to mortgages next week Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### A turkey show, not a mortgage show Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you up-to-date information about the real estate and mortgage world — what's happening with CPI, what's happening with inflation, what the Fed is doing, whether rates are coming down, whether you should buy a home now. But guess what: it's almost Thanksgiving, and I'm not going to be on radio next week. I go dark on holiday weeks. So I thought, what fun to actually have a Thanksgiving show and *not* talk about real estate and *not* talk about mortgages. I want to talk about turkey. I want to talk about cooking those turkeys, and how you make the best turkey possible. There are so many ways to do it — the oven, an electric roaster on your countertop, or deep fried. So we're going to talk about some great tips and tricks, and I want you all to get interactive: tell me how *you* do your turkey. Do you do yours breast-side up? Do you wrap it in foil? Do you put the oven on bake or on roast? Is there a certain spice you like? Do you cook it at a different temperature than what the recipe says? That's what I want to hear. ### How Debbie cooks her turkey Let me start with this: Thanksgiving, for me, is bigger than Christmas. I love Christmas, but Christmas for my family is waking up, opening gifts, doing a brunch, and then relaxing the rest of the day. Thanksgiving is my big thing. I start cooking on Wednesday in order to deliver dinner by Thursday at 3:00, so I'm literally working a straight 24 hours to put that meal on the table. I make my stuffing the night before. I use the neck and the heart and all that good stuff and boil it all up really well, and we either toast bread and rip it into pieces or buy the cubed croutons. We make the stuffing the night before — and then we stuff the turkey *the next morning*. Don't stuff it overnight. That's a really bad no-no. You're going to end up with salmonella or something sitting in those juices, and all of it gets absorbed by your stuffing. Stuff your bird the next morning. Then I season it the way I want to season it: water, salt, pepper, a little bit of garlic powder. It doesn't need a lot, in my opinion. And I cook mine *breast-side down*, because as it cooks, all of those juices drain down into the breast instead of away from it. I wrap that turkey as tight as I can possibly get it in foil, and I leave the foil on through the majority of the cooking. I set my oven really low — 325°F — and we go for hours. I do use a thermometer — an electric one that connects to my phone by Bluetooth, so I can keep watching the temperature of the bird. When it gets to the point that it's ready to start browning, that's when I open up the foil, start basting, and turn the oven up to about 400 or 425 to make sure I get it nice and browned. ### The mistake almost everyone makes Here's the one tip I'd give you: the turkey continues to cook once you take it out of the oven. A big mistake a lot of people make is pulling that turkey when the temperature hits 165, 170, even 175 — and then there's what I read online, that you want the internal temperature of the breast to get to 180\. If you cook that thing to 180 inside your oven, it is going to be the driest turkey you have ever eaten, and I really hope your gravy's good. So watch it, and pull the turkey when it hits about 165 in the breast. Then let her sit for about 30 minutes. She will keep cooking, and that temperature will come up to where it needs to be to be safe to eat. That's how I do it. It comes out juicy, it comes out buttery, the whole family loves it, and it really does turn into a great meal. ### Listener tips: bags, butter, and infrared fryers The chat had better ideas than mine on a few things. Cheryl says she puts her turkey in a bag — my aunt does that too, and it does come out very tender and very juicy. Heather says she puts hers in a turkey bag with everything thrown in, including the butter and the salt and pepper, and pops it in the oven; she finds it cooks a little faster and comes out super juicy. I might have to check into these turkey bags, because it's sounding like that's a good way to go. The worst thing in the world is a dry turkey. Nobody wants a dry turkey. Heather also says she sometimes loosens the skin over the breast and slides some fresh herbs under it. That's a great idea. I do that with chicken — rosemary and butter right under the skin on bone-in, skin-on pieces — and I don't know why I've never thought to do it with a turkey. I usually put the butter *on top* of the skin. I'm going to try it. Heidi says they have an infrared fryer they've used for years for the turkey. She tells me you cook it outside, it hooks up to a propane tank, it's oil-less, and it comes out super juicy. That's almost certainly what my cousin is bringing this year — he said he'd bring his deep fryer, then told me it's oil-less and runs on propane and goes outside. So we're cooking two turkeys this year, and I'll report back on whose came out juicier. My dad jumped on to say I should try a turducken from the Cajun store. Dad, I love you very much, but a turducken is an acquired taste. You're talking about a turkey, a chicken, and a duck, and that is not my idea of Thanksgiving. I know a lot of people love them and I know they sell like hotcakes, but I'm going to say no. This is Thanksgiving. It's turkey. ### What brining actually means I've never brined a turkey. I've heard a lot of people talk about it, so I wanted to learn what it is and why people say it comes out juicier. The recipe I pulled up says: start by brining the turkey — that means soaking it in salt water overnight in the fridge, generally using a brining bag, and you can add a few flavors to the brine if you want. Once the turkey is drained of the brine and ready for the next step, rub really soft butter generously *under the skin*. Herbs and spices can be added to that butter for extra deliciousness. So Heather was onto something. And then this one said exactly what I already do: when your turkey is ready to go in the oven, place it upside down in the tray, breast-side down on a roasting rack for the first hour or so of roasting, which essentially allows it to baste itself. That's probably why mine comes out juicy even though I'm not doing all the other fancy stuff. When you see a turkey come out of the oven in a movie, it's that big gorgeous breast facing up with no foil on it. Mine goes in the other way around. Heather also mentioned a friend who brines a turkey every year in an ice chest overnight, and says it's really good. ### A big family Thanksgiving, and a smaller kitchen I host my whole family every year. It's a big, big event. We make our bread from scratch, our potatoes from scratch, our stuffing from scratch, our pies and our cookies from scratch. We do not buy anything pre-made, and that is why it's my favorite holiday of the year. This year a couple of extra people said they're coming, and I told my cousin: I can't get two turkeys cooked in my kitchen, could you bring your deep fryer? He said yes. Everybody in the family has their job. Mine is the cookies, the cherry pie, the banana cream pie, the stuffing, the turkey, and the sides — the potatoes, the veggies, the cranberry. My sister does the apple pie and the bread, and honestly we could skip the rest of the meal and eat nothing but her bread. In the chat, Carrie says her husband always does the turkey and the stuffing and she's in charge of the rest, and she isn't sure who has the better deal. Carrie, if he's doing the stuffing and the turkey, he's doing more — that's my job, and I'm in the kitchen way more than anybody else. This year I moved into a new house — we talked about that on the show a couple of months ago — and my kitchen is nowhere near as big as it used to be. I don't have my double wall ovens anymore, just one normal oven. That's fine if all I'm doing is cooking the turkey, but I'm baking bread, baking pies, making the sides. I need a lot of things to go in that oven. So this year I bought an electric roaster for the countertop to free up the space, and I did a test run last Friday. ### Minutes per pound, or a thermometer? When that turkey is stuffed, it's about 15 minutes per pound — so a 20-pound bird is a good long time. But it really does depend on your temperature, which is why I like a thermometer better than the per-pound math. I just ordered brand-new smart thermometers because my old ones kept losing their Bluetooth connection whenever I walked away from the kitchen, which is annoying when the bird is in the oven all day and you've got other things to get done. The new ones have a much longer range, and I tried them out on the test run. Knowing the internal temperature makes a huge difference. If the turkey is cooking too fast, you can turn the oven down; too slow, you can turn it up. And remember, those pop-up buttons that come in the turkey get stuck all the time and never pop, so you can end up overcooking the whole bird waiting on one. Don't rely on it. ### The test-run disaster Let me tell you about my horror story, because I'm glad I did a run-through. The worst thing in the world, for me at least, is having a house full of 18 to 20 people ready to eat and pulling out a turkey that looks like the one from *Christmas Vacation*. Where did I go wrong? Number one: I just got done telling you how great the thermometer is, and I put the thermometer in the wrong place. So it thought the turkey was cooking faster than it actually was. When it hit my target temperature, I opened the lid and the turkey wasn't brown yet. So I put it in a roasting pan, put it in the oven on roast to brown her up — which worked great, she looked beautiful. But I had also already pulled all the juices out of the bottom of the roaster pan, because I thought I was done, and I'd started my gravy. Then I pulled that turkey out of the oven, saw where my thermometer was sitting, and it dawned on me: that probe was definitely not in the thickest part of the breast. So back into the roaster she went — with the juices gone, after letting all the steam out, after being browned. It came out tasty, and we ate turkey all weekend, because why would you have turkey in the refrigerator and not eat it. But it was not as juicy as I could have gotten it. The other thing: I read the instruction manual, and it told me to put the bird in breast-side up. Against my better judgment I did that. So for Thanksgiving she's going in breast-side down, completely stuffed, with the thermometer in the right place, and I'm not opening that thing until it's actually time. If she's not brown enough at the end, I'll put her in the oven just to brown the skin and make her pretty. Just don't make the mistake I made. Place those probes correctly. Into the breast, you want at least 165\. Into the deepest part of the thigh, you want 180\. And if you stuff your turkey like I do, the stuffing also has to reach 165 — and it cooks a lot slower than the rest of the bird, because it's all the way inside. If your breast hits 165 and your stuffing is at 155, remember that it keeps cooking during those 30 minutes of rest, and that will bring your stuffing up to temperature along with everything else. ### The electric roaster recipe, step by step Here's what the roaster recipe I found says to do. Take the insert pan out of the roaster and preheat the roaster to its highest setting — on mine that's 450, but use 500 if yours will go that high. Do not wash the turkey; the USDA says washing it can spread salmonella. Sprinkle salt in the cavity. Stuff if desired, but don't pre-stuff your turkey — mix and stuff immediately before roasting. Tossing in a few pieces of cut fruit or herbs isn't considered stuffing; stuffing means filling the cavity with about three-quarters of a cup per pound of turkey. Rub the entire bird with olive oil or butter, and season it however you like — the recipe says poultry seasoning, then a good sprinkle of seasoning salt and black pepper. I don't usually use poultry seasoning. I like salt, pepper, a little garlic powder, and butter. I'm not one to go crazy with flavors in my turkey. I like a good buttery, salty turkey. It also says to use a wired thermometer so you can watch the temperature without lifting the lid — again, put it in the bird where it's supposed to go. Put the rack into the insert pan, handles up, not tucked under the bird. Roast at the high setting for 30 minutes; the butter, oil, seasonings, and searing time will make the skin beautifully brown. After 30 minutes, turn the temperature down to 325\. The turkey will self-baste if you do not lift the lid — you don't have to baste every 20 minutes the way you do in a conventional oven. And this is the part I got wrong: do not lift the lid during cooking. Lifting the lid increases cooking time, because roaster ovens lose their heat unlike regular ovens. The recipe also pushes back on the idea that a roaster just steams the bird — it says the turkey comes out moist and properly roasted, similar to the roasted chickens you buy at the supermarket. I put mine in at a low temperature planning to cook her all day, and that was the mistake. This year I'm following these steps. ### Deep-fried turkey, done safely I would really like to try a deep-fried turkey eventually. I've eaten it and it is absolutely wonderful, but I've never done it, so I pulled up notes on the safest way — this is the version with oil. First, the brine: put hot water, kosher salt, and brown sugar into a five-gallon upright drink cooler and stir until the salt and sugar dissolve completely. Add ice and stir until the mixture is cool. Gently lower the turkey in, and if necessary weigh it down so it's fully immersed. Cover it and set it in a cool, dry place for 8 to 16 hours. Then remove the turkey from the brine, rinse, pat dry, and let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before cooking. That brine sounds tasty, though brown sugar makes me think of a honey-baked ham — then again, we buy honey turkey at the deli counter, so it could be quite good. Then the oil: put it into a 28- to 30-quart pot and set it over high heat on an outside propane burner with a sturdy structure. Bring the oil to 250°F. Once it's at 250, slowly lower the bird in and bring the temperature up to 350°F, then adjust the heat to hold it at 350 for the rest of the cooking time. Once the breast reaches 151°F, gently remove it from the oil and let it rest a minimum of 30 minutes before carving — carryover cooking brings it to about 161°F while it rests. I would never have thought to put the bird in at 250 and let the oil climb to 350 — I'd have assumed you get the oil to 350 first and then drop it in. Good to know. Here's the tip I really liked, and the reason I wanted to share this one. To figure out the correct amount of oil: put the turkey into the pot you'll be frying in, add water until it barely covers the top of the bird and is at least 4 to 5 inches below the top of the pot. That's the amount of oil you'll use. So you do a trial run with water, pull the turkey out, and now you have a baseline for exactly where to fill your oil to. What I still want to know from the deep-fry veterans: how do you actually know when the breast is at 151 degrees? Do those fryers have a probe that stays in the bird? If I put one of my Bluetooth smart thermometers in that turkey and dropped it into hot oil, I'd probably destroy it. Are you pulling the bird out, sticking a thermometer in, checking, and pushing it back down into the oil? I can be a little clumsy, and I can absolutely see myself tipping the pot over and sending oil everywhere. So if you know, tell me — I'd want that answer before I try it. ### Wrap-up That's the show. If you're watching this later and you have suggestions, put them in the comments — your recipes, what you season with, and especially how you monitor the temperature of your bird when you're deep frying outside. Let people read them. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — one text a week with the topic and a link to join, no spam. That's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team. At mortgagemomradio.com you'll find the calculators, the weekly newsletter, the podcast archive, and a way to submit questions for the next live show. I'm not here next week — I go dark for the holiday — so I won't see you for two weeks. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving. This is my favorite holiday of the season and I am getting the party started the second we stop this show. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of November 15, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Why Did Mortgage Rates Just Drop? And Why That Makes Buying Harder URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-did-mortgage-rates-just-drop-and-why-that-makes-buying-harder/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:24:22.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Interest Rates Dropped, Why?” • Live show from Wednesday, November 8, 2023 • 43 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Mortgage rates just fell about half a point in four or five business days — the first real relief in a long time. Debbie walks through the two things that caused it: the Fed holding rates steady the week before, and a jobs report that finally came in weak. Then she makes the argument she'd been making all year, and that most buyers get backwards: every 1% that rates fall brings roughly three to four million more buyers back into competition for the same short supply of homes. Falling rates don't make buying easier. They make it harder. Plus a full round of listener questions on down payments, pools, repiping, and consolidating a first mortgage with a HELOC. ## Key takeaways - **Two things moved rates.** The Fed met the previous Wednesday and held rates steady, after having signaled at the meeting before that one more hike was likely before year-end — and the last actual hike was back in July 2023\. Then the jobs report came in well below expectations, which told investors the hikes were finally slowing employment. Markets read both as “the Fed is probably done,” and rates rallied. - **The size of the move:** the national conforming 30-year average had been sitting near **7.875%** and dropped roughly **half a percent** in about four or five business days, to somewhere around **7.25–7.375%** — without a single Fed rate cut. - **Every 1% drop in rates brings roughly 3 to 4 million more buyers into competition.** Debbie read that line out from a loan officer she respects and spent the show driving it home: as rates fall, more people qualify, more people move into your price range, and inventory does not grow to match. Getting pre-approved and out ahead of the herd is the whole strategy. - **What good buyers are getting right now, and won't get later:** seller credits toward closing costs and rate buydowns, price reductions, and room to negotiate. Debbie says those started showing up in the previous four to six weeks — the direct opposite of a multiple-offer market. - **How much down payment do you need?** Work backwards from the monthly payment you're comfortable with and the price range you're shopping. FHA is 3.5% down, conventional on a primary residence is 5% down, VA is zero down for veterans, and down payment assistance can get to 0–1% down — though DPA is harder to qualify for, carries higher rates, and reduces how much home you can buy. You do not need 20%. - **If you took a HELOC in the last two years, start paying attention.** Home equity lines are adjustable, and every Fed hike pushed those payments up, while an interest-only payment never touches the balance. When rates come down far enough, consolidating the first mortgage and the second into one fixed loan is the move — and that window is what Debbie is watching for. - **A pool typically appraises at about $25,000–$40,000 of added value** against an otherwise matching home in the neighborhood — not dollar for dollar on what you spend, and an elaborate pool can run six figures. Debbie's advice: build one because your family will use it, the way you'd buy a boat or an RV, not as an investment. ## Chapters - 01:00Rates dropped this week — and why the show is early today - 05:00Reason one: the Fed held steady, and July was the last hike - 06:00Reason two: the jobs report finally came in weak - 09:00Why relief on rates gets people off the sidelines - 10:00What buyers are winning right now: credits, buydowns, price cuts - 12:00Every 1% drop brings 3–4 million more buyers into competition - 13:00Get pre-approved and get out ahead of the herd - 15:00Q&A: how much down payment do you actually need? - 22:00Two years of hikes pushed people into seconds instead of refinancing - 24:00Why HELOC holders should be watching rates closely right now - 25:00Q&A: does a pool add value to your home? - 29:00Q&A: merging a 3% first and a 3.85% equity line into one loan - 31:00Q&A: does repiping the house add resale value? - 36:00Q&A: any crystal ball on getting back below 5%? - 38:00Where the national average sits after this week's drop - 40:00Wrap-up: what happens when the news spreads ## Questions answered on this show ### “What is a good number for a down payment?” There isn't a single number — you work backwards. Start with the monthly payment you're genuinely comfortable with, and the price of the kind of home you want in the area you want it: a one-bedroom condo to get started, or the three-bedroom two-bath single family. From those two numbers Debbie can tell you what down payment gets you there. The programs go a lot lower than people think: FHA at 3.5% down, conventional on a primary residence at 5% down, VA at zero down for veterans, and down payment assistance that can get you in with 0–1%. Her caution on assistance programs: they're hard to qualify for, the interest rates are higher, and you qualify for less home — so putting a little of your own skin in the game often gets you a better deal. And forget the advice from parents and neighbors that you need 20% down. You don't. What matters is that you qualify for the home *and* can genuinely make the monthly payment. ### “We're thinking about putting in a pool — will it hurt or help our property value?” It helps, but not dollar for dollar. Across the appraisals Debbie has seen over her career, a pool on a home that's otherwise a model match to a neighbor's — same floor plan, same square footage, no pool — typically comes in around **$25,000 to $40,000** of added value. You can put a basic pool and spa in for around $40,000; start adding waterfalls, rock structures, and a grotto and you're talking $100,000 or more. So your home will be worth more than the neighbor's, but you won't get back what you spend. Her real advice: treat a pool like a boat or an RV. Buy it because your family will actually use it and because of the memories you'll build around it, not because it's an investment. ### “My first is at 3% and my equity line is fixed at 3.85% for four more years. I want to merge them into one fixed loan — should I wait for lower rates?” Yes, and you're in an unusually good spot in the meantime. An equity line with a fixed introductory rate that doesn't adjust until year four or five is not a common product — you got it very early in the hiking cycle, and nobody is being offered starter rates like that today, because the Fed has raised so many times since. So there's no urgency. Keep making the payments and watch for the point where a refinance consolidates the first and the second into one fixed loan at a rate that beats your blended cost. That's the moment to execute, and it's what Debbie says she'll be calling out on the show as rates improve. ### “We're repiping the gas lines through the whole house with a lifetime warranty — will that add value when we sell?” Probably not extra *appraised* value on its own, but a real edge with buyers. Debbie is careful here: she held a real estate license before moving fully into lending in 2002 and no longer holds an active one, so she frames this as her experience and points the caller to a licensed agent on her team for a definitive answer. Her take: if your home and your neighbor's home are model matches on the market at the same time and yours has been repiped, a buyer walking through both is going to lean heavily toward the one where that work is already done. And in practice, repiping tears up walls, which leads to repainting, which leads to floors — and a home that's been renovated along the way genuinely can be worth more. ### “I bought a year ago at a 30-year fixed 6%. Any crystal ball on when we get below 5% again?” No crystal ball — if she had one she wouldn't be doing the show. Her honest read: the Fed will probably signal its first cut around the middle of next year, in one of the summer meetings, and once that downward move starts she does think 5% rates are reachable again. Timing? Maybe another 12 months, maybe 18\. And she wants two things understood. First, rates in the 2s, 3s, and 4s were unprecedented — nothing like them in her 30 years in the business — so don't anchor on them. Second, if you already locked 6% a year ago, you're in great shape: keep the loan, keep making the payments, and be ready to move when the refinance window opens. ## This week's numbers (week of November 8, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - National conforming 30-year fixed average: roughly **7.25–7.375%**, down about **half a percent** in four or five business days from about **7.875%** - Fed funds rate: **unchanged** at the meeting the previous Wednesday, the second hold in a row; the last hike was **July 2023** - Debbie's own forecast: a first Fed cut signaled around **mid-2024**, with 5% mortgage rates possible **12 to 18 months out** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Get pre-approved before the competition comes back Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Rates dropped this week — here's why Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you everything that's up to date and happening in the mortgage and real estate world. This past week we've actually seen a really nice drop in interest rates, so we're going to talk about why — and about what it means for you. I also found some great information that drives home a point I've been making week after week: things are going to get kind of crazy when those rates come down a little further. Rates really started dropping last Thursday and Friday, and so far this week — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday — they've been holding very strong. So why did we see that drop? Number one: last Wednesday the Fed had their meeting. At the meeting before that one, they had said they planned to increase rates at least one more time before the end of the year. Then at this last meeting they said they were going to hold rates where they are for now, and that they may possibly be done — they may not do any more hikes. That got the market rolling. Everybody got excited, thinking we might be done, and that “higher for longer” would have started back in July of this year. July 2023 is the last time the Fed increased rates. So we might already be on our way through higher-for-longer, which means there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Then, to throw fuel on the fire, Friday's jobs report came in well below what was expected — fewer jobs created than anticipated, more unemployment. That makes investors and analysts say the Fed can't raise rates again, they really have to be done, because now we're finally seeing the effects in the labor market. The Fed said at the very beginning that the hikes were going to slow everything down, including job creation. But it didn't happen — they kept hiking and hiking and jobs kept staying strong, which gave a false sense that they could keep going to get inflation under control. Now we're finally seeing what they've done show up in the jobs numbers. So a lot of people feel the Fed is done, higher-for-longer started in July, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Rates came down on that. ### Why falling rates make it harder to buy, not easier I've talked a lot on this show about what happens once rates start coming down. People hear that rates are improving. They start to feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel — like if they buy something today or refinance today, there will eventually be an opportunity to refinance again and drop that payment. It sparks interest. It gets people riled up. And when that happens we start to see more and more people out on the streets getting pre-approved and looking at homes. It gets crazier as far as competition goes: writing offers, trying to get offers accepted. Right now, over roughly the last four to six weeks, we've seen our buyers writing offers and getting credits from the seller to help buy down the rate, to pay some of the closing costs. We've seen room to negotiate on price, and we've seen price reductions. And now, all of a sudden, a rate rally. I want to give full credit here to a loan officer and branch manager I've known for a very long time — he was my manager years ago, he's at a very respected national mortgage company, and I've never once seen him put out false information or push someone into something because it benefited him. He posted this a couple of days ago and he couldn't have said it better: *“Last week we saw a huge improvement for mortgage interest rates. Reach out to see if we can help you with either a purchase or refinance. For those of you looking to purchase, keep in mind that every 1% drop in rates, there will be roughly 3 to 4 million more people in competition on the buyer side. As rates drop, that means more buyers fighting over the same limited housing inventory.”* He is 100% correct, and we've said it numerous times before. As rates drop, how much of a loan you can qualify for goes up. You qualify for more, more people get into a higher price range, more people land in the same range you've been sitting on the fence about — and the competition grows because more people are out doing it. So get ahead of the competition. If you've been thinking about buying, get the pre-approval done. That is very important. Once the multiple offers and the craziness start, it becomes very difficult to get an offer accepted unless you're an all-cash buyer, or you have perfect credit and a large enough down payment that it doesn't matter if the appraisal comes in low, because you can bridge the gap between the appraised value and the over-list offer it took to beat everyone else. Get out in front of the herd. ### Q&A: how much down payment do you need? Brooke asks: *“What is a good number as far as a down payment?”* Great question, and one people haven't asked in a while. The down payment you need is really determined by the monthly payment you're comfortable with and the sales price you're hoping to buy in. So: where are you located, what area do you want to buy in, what kind of home do you want — a condominium to get started, a little one-bedroom, or are you hoping for the single-family three-bedroom, two-bath American dream? What does that cost in your neighborhood? And what's the monthly payment you can afford? From there we can determine how much down payment you'll need to get into that home. We've got tons of loan programs. There's down payment assistance, which can get you in with zero down or 1% down. If you're a veteran, you can get in with zero down. And if you don't use down payment assistance — and let's face it, assistance is hard to get and hard to qualify for, the interest rates are higher, and you don't qualify for as much in sales price — then when you can put a little of your own skin in the game, three and a half percent down for an FHA loan or 5% down for a conventional loan gets you in. A lot of people hear their parents, their neighbors, their friends, their grandparents say you have to have 20% down or you shouldn't buy that home. We can get you in with a lot less money down. It's also very important to know that you're qualifying for that home and that you can make that monthly payment. ### Two years of hikes pushed people into seconds — and now what? Think about the last couple of years. Rates started climbing in 2021, and in 2022 the Federal Reserve just started pumping it — three-quarters of a point every six weeks, over and over. So for the last two years or so, anybody who wanted to pull cash out of their house — to pay off debt, do home improvements, pay for a kid's college, pay the IRS — mostly didn't do a full refinance the way people used to. They went the home equity line or home equity loan route instead. So now you have two separate monthly payments: the first mortgage you didn't want to touch because the rate was so low, and a second loan at a considerably higher rate. If that's your situation, that may still have been the right call, and for someone needing cash today it may still be the right route rather than a full refinance. But right now is the time to perk your ears up. As you hear rates coming down, this is going to become the opportunity to refinance and consolidate that first and second into one loan — a better rate overall, a better monthly payment, better cash flow. Remember that home equity lines of credit are adjustable. Every time the Federal Reserve raised, that line went up, and up, and up. I know you feel it — you've seen the payment change. And every payment you make isn't paying the balance down, because the payment is interest only. Eventually we've got to get you into a principal-and-interest payment that actually pays the balance down and improves your cash flow. So start tuning in, because your chance to execute is right around the corner and you want to be able to take advantage of it. ### Q&A: does a pool add value? Ashley writes in from the Las Vegas area: *“We're thinking of putting in a pool but worried it won't do much for our property value down the line. Any advice?”* Fabulous question, and I love that it isn't today's topic — ask anything you want, because I guarantee somebody else is wondering the same thing. Putting in a pool does help your value. It doesn't help dollar for dollar, and it depends on what kind of pool: are you including a spa, a big waterfall, a rock structure with a grotto, or is it a basic pool and spa? In all the years I've been doing this, on the majority of appraisals I see, when one home has a pool and another home in the neighborhood is the same model match — same floor plan, same square footage — without one, we usually see about $25,000 to $40,000 in value for that pool. You can actually put a pool in for $40,000, but it's going to be pretty basic; the more elaborate pools can run $100,000\. So you won't get dollar for dollar, but your home will be worth more than the neighbor's house without one. Here's the Mom advice, though. A pool is personal. If you and your family love it and you're truly going to use it, you'll get value out of it — and the memories in that backyard don't carry a price tag. Choosing to build one should be like choosing to buy a boat or an RV: those things don't hold their value and they depreciate, and you're not buying them as an investment. You're buying them for what your family gets out of them. Then, on top of that, yes, you will get some value in the house. ### Q&A: consolidating a 3% first with a 3.85% equity line Armando asks: *“First loan is at 3% and my second, a home equity line, is at 3.85% for the next four years, but I need to merge those into one fixed loan — hoping for lower rates soon.”* You got a fabulous deal. You have a fixed rate on that line of credit for a set number of years before they can adjust it on you — somewhere around the fourth or fifth year — and that's not a common home equity line. Those exist, and I believe you got yours through a credit union, but you took that line very early on as rates first started to climb. You're a year or two into it already. Those would not be starter rates today; even at the same institution, a new line would start much higher now, because the Federal Reserve has raised so many times since. But yes, you're absolutely right that you'll want that consolidated when you can. All you have to do is keep listening — I'm going to let everybody know when rates come down far enough that the refinance makes sense. ### Q&A: does repiping add resale value? Angel asks: *“We're repiping the gas lines throughout the entire house, which will have a lifetime warranty. Will this add value once we sell?”* First, a disclaimer: I'm not a real estate agent any longer. My license is no longer active. I was an agent in the past, and I've been 100% lending since 2002. My answer: you're probably not going to get added appraised value — your home isn't going to be worth more than your neighbor's on paper. But say your house and your neighbor's house are both on the market, model matches, same square footage, same layout, and yours has been repiped and theirs hasn't. There's a very good chance a buyer walking through both leans heavily toward the one where the work is already done, because it's something they don't have to do. And you might get more value than you think, because we all know how it goes: you repipe the house, they tear up some of the walls, you decide to repaint, then the floors happen, and the next thing you know you've renovated the home and you've got a beautiful finished property. In *that* situation, yes, your home could be worth quite a bit more. If we're talking just the gas lines or the water lines by themselves, you're getting an edge over the other property on the market rather than a higher appraisal. Because I'm no longer licensed on the real estate side, I want to be very clear that I'm not the right person to give you the definitive answer. Call my office and ask for the agent on my team who holds both a real estate license and a mortgage loan officer license — she's held her real estate license since the mid-90s, she doesn't ever do both sides for the same client, and she can confirm this for you properly. ### Q&A: any crystal ball on 5% rates? Vern asks: *“I got into my new home about a year ago on a fixed 30-year at 6%. Any crystal ball predictions on how long it will take, if ever, to get below 5% again? I'm in Washington.”* Good reminder that I'm licensed in 11 states — the whole West Coast plus a number of others — so wherever you're watching from, reach out and we'll tell you if we can help. On the crystal ball: I wish I had one, because I wouldn't be doing the show, I'd already be rich. But putting on my Mortgage Mom hat — I think the Federal Reserve is going to say for the very first time that they're willing to reduce rates around the middle of next year, in one of the summer meetings. Once they start that downward move, I do think it's possible to see 5% rates again. A lot of people got very spoiled by rates in the twos, threes, and fours. Those were unprecedented. We have never had rates like that in the history of mortgage financing, at least not in the 30 years I've been in this business. So I do think we'll absolutely see the 5s again. How long will it take? Maybe another 12 months, maybe 18. And look at what's happened along the way. The national conforming average was sitting at 7.875%, and in the last four or five business days it's dropped by about half a percent, so we're somewhere around 7.25 or 7.375 now. It can change quite quickly — and that's without any reduction in the Fed funds rate at all. When they do start cutting, I think we're going to see some pretty dramatic changes quickly. Vern, if you're at 6% because you locked a year ago, you're in great shape. Keep it, keep making your payments, keep doing what you're doing, and stay tuned so you know when it's time to start that refinance. ### Wrap-up Interest rates dropped fast. And as soon as people start hearing that rates are dropping — and the loan officer whose post I read is far from the only one out there saying it — the news is going to spread like wildfire. Everybody who's been on hold, everybody who's been waiting to get started, waiting to get pre-approved, waiting to jump back into the market, is going to start stirring. Inventory is still very low, so there's going to be a lot more competition. Half a percent in the last four business days already means we've sparked a million to a million and a half people into thinking about getting pre-approved, and as rates keep dropping there will be more and more. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — one text a week with the topic and a link to join, no spam. That's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team; we answer seven days a week, and if we can't pick up, leave a message in the general box and whoever is on call that weekend will call you back. At mortgagemomradio.com you'll find the calculators, the weekly newsletter, the podcast archive, and a way to submit questions for the next live show. I'll be back next Wednesday. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of November 8, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Is a Free Refinance Later Really Free? Buy Now, Refinance Later Explained URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-a-free-refinance-later-really-free-buy-now-refinance-later-explained/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:24:23.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Is your lender promising a free refi when interest rates drop?” • Live show from Wednesday, November 1, 2023 • 43 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 With the 30-year fixed sitting near 7.79%, lenders started advertising a deal: buy now at today's rate, and when rates fall we'll refinance you for free. Debbie works through an *Entrepreneur* piece on the offer line by line and answers the only question that matters — who is actually paying those costs. Her verdict: a refinance is never free. The fee either gets rolled into your loan balance or gets bought with a higher interest rate. And there are three ways the promise can quietly evaporate before you ever get to use it. Also on this show: the Fed's second straight hold, whether to buy points now, and a full explanation of escrow impound accounts. ## Key takeaways - **“Free” refinance costs don't disappear — they move.** No title company insures a property for nothing and no appraiser works for nothing. A lender covering your costs is doing one of two things: rolling the fees into your loan balance, or giving you a higher rate than the best one available so the rebate pays the fees. Both are you paying, just not at the closing table. - **Know what a refinance really costs.** The **$2,375** average figure quoted in the article covers one-time costs — lender, underwriting, appraisal, processing, doc drawing, escrow, title. It leaves out the recurring costs that come with any loan: prepaid interest at closing, and setting up your property tax and homeowners insurance escrows. In practice Debbie says a real refinance runs **$4,000 to $6,000** before any discount points. - **The offers come with expiration dates.** If the deal requires you to refinance within 6, 12, or 18 months and rates haven't come down by then, the promise expires worthless — and you may have committed to that lender for the purchase on the strength of a package deal instead of shopping for the best rate available. - **You still have to qualify for the free refinance.** Free doesn't mean automatic. If your credit deteriorates between now and then — a pipe bursts and goes on a credit card, someone gets sick, a payment gets missed — you can't refinance at all, at any price. - **If values drop, the refinance may be impossible.** Put 5% or 10% down, have values fall 10% — not an abnormal market swing — and you won't have the equity a refinance requires, no matter what rates do. The HARP program rescued underwater borrowers after 2008, but nothing like it exists today, and you cannot plan around a program that doesn't exist. - **Debbie's rule for buying in a high-rate market:** buy the payment you can carry assuming it never changes, because it might not. Never buy something that's too much today on the theory that you'll refinance out of it later. - **What to do instead:** take the best rate available today with no strings, from a lender you trust and can work with, and then shop the refinance separately, on its own merits, whenever the time actually comes. ## Chapters - 01:00Today's topic: lenders promising a free refi later - 04:00The Fed holds rates steady for the second meeting in a row - 06:00Why mortgage rates aren't tied to the Fed funds rate - 08:00The article behind the show, and what the offer looks like - 10:00The 30-year fixed at 7.79%, and how the deal is structured - 11:00One-time refinance costs vs. recurring costs - 14:00Who's really paying: rolled into the loan, or bought with a higher rate - 16:00Expiration dates: what if rates don't come down in time? - 20:00If values fall, you may not be able to refinance at all - 21:00HARP after 2008 — and why you can't count on a rescue program - 23:00Q&A: buy down the rate now, or wait to refinance? - 28:00Q&A: if I wait for lower rates, will prices go up? - 30:00A $25,000 seller credit — what buyers can negotiate right now - 32:00Shop the lender now, shop the refinance later - 33:00You still have to qualify: what happens if life happens - 35:00Q&A: why do some people dislike escrow impound accounts? ## Questions answered on this show ### “Should I buy down my rate when I purchase, or wait and refinance later?” Knowing we're likely to see lower rates within a year or so, Debbie says she probably wouldn't spend her own cash on discount points right now — money spent buying the rate down is money you lose if you refinance in a couple of years. The exception is real and important: if the buydown makes a big enough difference to your cash flow and to what you can actually afford, it's worth considering. And if you can negotiate the *seller* to pay for it out of their proceeds, that's a different conversation entirely — the rate comes down, the payment gets more affordable, and it didn't come out of your pocket. It's case by case, but the order of preference is clear: seller's money first, your money second. ### “If I wait to buy until rates come down, will prices go up because inventory is so low?” Very likely, yes. Debbie's view: when rates fall far enough to make buying meaningfully more affordable, everyone who's been waiting jumps in at once. If inventory levels stay where they are — nowhere near enough homes for sale — it turns into the chaos of 2020 and 2021\. If inventory picks up alongside the rate drop, it'll be busy but maybe not that crazy. Either way, the negotiating leverage buyers have right now goes away. She had a purchase go into escrow that morning where the buyer negotiated a **$25,000 credit** toward closing costs, enough to buy the rate down *and* cover the rest of the costs. In 2020 and 2021 buyers were overpaying, getting no credits, and waiving appraisal and inspection contingencies. Her caveat is firm, though: if you can't afford the payment right now, you have no business purchasing. The advantage only counts if the monthly payment already fits. ### “My property taxes are included in my monthly payment and it works for me — why do other people dislike that?” Because of a misunderstanding about what the bank does with the money. The belief is that your escrow (or impound) account — $500 a month, then $1,000, then $1,500 sitting there — is money the bank is investing or earning interest on, money you could be investing yourself. That's not what happens. A bank is not allowed to hold your escrow in an interest-bearing account. It's a separate account tied to your loan number, the money sits there, and it earns the lender nothing. It's there to make your life easier. So it comes down to how you get paid. If you're commissioned or you get a big annual bonus, paying the tax and insurance bills yourself in lump sums can work well. If you're salaried or hourly with steady month-to-month income, getting a large tax bill in the mail and having to write that check is no fun. Debbie prefers impounds herself: you make one payment, principal, interest, taxes, and insurance are all covered, and when the bills come due there's nothing to worry about. ## This week's numbers (week of November 1, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - 30-year fixed conventional average: **7.79%** per Freddie Mac — the high point of the cycle - Fed funds rate: **unchanged**, the second consecutive hold; next meeting mid-December - Average refinance closing costs in 2021: **$2,375**, as reported by the *Wall Street Journal* — one-time costs only - Debbie's real-world refinance cost: **$4,000–$6,000** including recurring escrow and prepaid interest, with no discount points *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Get a straight answer on what your loan actually costs Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### The Fed holds again Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. Today we're going to talk about the many lenders out there promising to give you a free refinance once rates drop, if you'll purchase now while rates are still high. They're trying to get your business today rather than have you wait — close the deal now, and they'll refinance you at no fee down the road once rates are better. So: how does it work, what does a refinance actually cost, how could they be offering this for free, and what are the best ways to choose a lender today and again when you go to refinance later? First, though, the Fed made their big announcement today, and for the second time in a row they are holding rates steady. I watched the press conference. It still sounds very much up in the air. Two meetings ago the chairman said they were going to raise rates one more time before the end of the year, and now they've held them steady twice. The next meeting isn't until the middle of December, so we'll see whether they follow through with one more hike or whether — fingers crossed — we're done and rates don't move any further. The release itself said the same thing we've been hearing: employment is resilient, the economy is resilient, inflation is coming down but not to the levels they're hoping for yet, so they're going to keep rates higher than any of us want to see until inflation gets back down to their 2% target. In a nutshell, things are holding steady for the next six weeks. We're not going to see a big rate move up or down. Obviously rates still move daily. And I'll say this quickly again, because it matters: mortgage rates are not 100% tied to the Federal Reserve prime rate. They move with the markets, like stocks and bonds do — with the Treasuries, with mortgage-backed securities, with who's buying and who's selling and where investors are putting their money. That's what actually moves our mortgage rates. Our rate sheets change every single day, but for the most part we should stay in the same general area at least until the next Fed meeting. ### The offer: buy now, refinance later at no cost Here's what brought this to my attention. One of the women on my team sent me an article — we're all reading these every day, keeping up with the market. This one ran in *Entrepreneur* magazine, published just yesterday, and it's the exact conversation we have inside our own walls constantly. So let's walk through it, paragraph by paragraph, and I'll add what I need you to know. The headline question is: some lenders are offering “buy now, refinance later” at no cost — but is there a catch? Soaring mortgage rates have priced buyers out of the market, and some experts are saying buy now and refinance later. Is it really that easy? The article says mortgage rates have soared over the past year and now stand at 7.79% for a 30-year fixed per Freddie Mac. That is about the average rate right now on a 30-year fixed. As always, the kind of loan you get, your down payment or the equity you have for a refinance, your credit score, and the type of property all determine your actual rate — but on average today, a 30-year fixed conventional loan is 7.79%. Amid those rates, many would-be buyers have been priced out, and the housing market has cooled from the competitive market we saw through much of 2021 and 2022\. So now lenders have a proposition for people deterred by nearly 8% rates: buy the house now and refinance later at no cost. Typically under one of these deals, buyers are given the option to refinance if rates decrease without bearing a significant portion of the closing costs, which averaged $2,375 in 2021 according to the *Wall Street Journal*. ### What a refinance actually costs Let me break that number down, because I want you all in the know. Refinance cost, when they talk about it that way, means the one-time cost incurred to do the loan: the lender fee, underwriting, the appraisal, processing. It does not account for impounding your property taxes and insurance — having to collect those escrow payments up front — and it doesn't account for the interest collected at closing to carry you through the month before you skip a payment. There are recurring closing costs that aren't in that $2,375. In reality, an actual refinance will typically run you somewhere in the range of **$4,000 to $6,000**, depending on your loan size, your property value, your property tax bill, and your homeowners insurance bill — and that's if you're not paying discount points to buy the rate down. So keep that in mind. You might think, gosh, my refinance cost me $6,000\. Go back and look at the one-time costs versus the recurring ones. You always have property taxes. You always have homeowners insurance. Those have to be collected at the end of a loan to set up the impound account on the new one. ### Nobody works for free The article continues: the specifics of the deal vary, as some lenders with the buy-now-refinance-later option cover all closing costs, while others may only waive their own fees or roll the costs into the loan. So let's talk about that. We just went through the one-time costs: an appraisal fee, an underwriting fee, a processing fee, a doc drawing fee, the escrow fee, the title fee. Then you have the recurring costs. Some of these lenders are saying they'll cover all closing costs. Others are saying they'll only waive their own fees. The first question is whether the lender you're going back to — because they promised you the free refinance — actually has the best rates when you get there. They can tell you they'll cover every single dollar, work with me today, and when rates come down I'll take care of you. But what does that really mean? You don't know what their rate will be versus somebody else's at that time. Are they the most competitive lender? Are they giving you a higher rate so they can earn a rebate to pay those closing costs? Let me just tell you: closing costs do not go away. They are never free. There is not a single title insurance company that isn't going to charge for the policy they issue on your property. There is not a single appraiser who will drive out to the home, appraise it, and not send a bill. Nobody does anything for free. So how does a lender pay those fees if they're not charging you a dime? Either they roll the fees into the loan — so you're not paying cash out of pocket, but your loan balance goes up, which is not really a free refinance — or they give you a higher interest rate than the lowest one available in the market so they can collect a rebate and pay those costs on your behalf. Is it ever truly free? No. It's not. ### The expiration date problem The article quotes a financial professional in Atlanta saying that while the offer may seem enticing, there are caveats — nothing is free. Some of the offers have time restraints and short expiration dates, resulting in no real savings, because failing to refinance within the time frame means missing out on the deal and potentially paying full closing costs out of pocket. So a lender says: I'll do your loan today, and I'll do a free refinance as long as you complete it within the next 6 months, or 12, or 18\. But how do we truly know? I said at the top of the show that the Federal Reserve is leaving rates unchanged and believes it will have to keep rates high for a substantial amount of time to get inflation under control. What is a substantial amount of time? I would love to see rates start coming down by the third quarter of next year, with all of us on a path to better payments. Is that what's going to happen? Nobody truly knows. If you don't refinance in the window they gave you, because rates haven't come down, you lose the opportunity — and you may have agreed to use them for the purchase in the first place thinking the package deal made it a better deal, when in reality you could have shopped a little further and gotten a better rate from a lender who wasn't offering you a package. Investopedia is quoted making the same point: if the lender's credits expire after a year or two, they lose their value if rates don't decrease in that period. An analyst from Bankrate, quoted in the same piece, says that instead of taking the free-refinance deal now, taking the lowest rate available without strings attached and later searching for the most competitive refinancing deal may actually yield more savings down the line. And a fellow at the Urban Institute adds that a buy-now-refinance-later deal doesn't necessarily mean a buyer will be *eligible* to cash in on the offer by the time they're ready: if credit deteriorates or the property's value significantly drops, you may not be able to refinance at all. ### The equity trap, and why HARP isn't coming to save you Let's talk about that, because I've said it before and I want to drive it home. When you buy something, buy something you can afford — a monthly situation you can carry for the long term. When rates drop, obviously we want to get you a better deal, a lower payment, better cash flow. That's the name of the game. But the most important thing you can do is get into something you can afford *assuming it can't change and won't change*, and that you're stuck with it. Is that a payment you can handle? Here's why. Say you purchase with 5%, 10%, or 15% down, and property values drop by 10% — not an abnormal fluctuation. Values go up, values come down, and they usually come back higher than where they left off. But if they drop 10% and you put 5% or 10% down, you won't have the equity needed to do the refinance. Which means even though rates have dropped, you can't refinance. You are stuck in the payment you have. We got really lucky during the Great Recession. In 2009 the government introduced a program called HARP, a refinance where we could take somebody who was upside down on value — we didn't care what the property was worth, we didn't care how much they owed — and refinance the loan, drop the rate, and get that borrower into better terms. But we'd all have to sit and hope a program like that gets reintroduced. It is not here right now. We can't count on something that doesn't exist. So please don't purchase something today thinking “yes, it's too much for me, but I'm going to refinance later when rates drop.” What I want to hear is: “I don't love the payment, but I can afford it, I can afford it for a long time, and if it never changes that's okay, because I love this house and this is where I want to be.” Then when rates come down, we make it better. ### Q&A: buy down the rate now, or wait? Heather asks: *“Would you recommend buying down your rate now when you buy? Is it worth it, or should you wait to refinance?”* Great question. If I were buying a home right now, knowing we're eventually going to see lower rates — probably a year out or so, and nobody has that crystal ball — I don't know that I'd invest in buying points down at this point. However, if it makes a big difference in your cash flow and in what you can afford, it's definitely something to consider. And if it's something you can get the seller to pay out of their cash proceeds — if you can negotiate credits toward closing — that could absolutely bring the rate down and make the payment more affordable for now, without cash out of your own pocket that you'd throw away if you refinance in a couple of years. Buying points is great sometimes, but we have to look at the whole picture for each individual situation. ### Q&A: if I wait for rates to drop, will prices go up? Heather also asks: *“Do you think if I wait to buy until rates come down that prices may go up? I'm hearing that once rates start coming down, prices will go up due to low inventory.”* We've talked about this before, and I do believe that when rates come down to a point that makes buying way more affordable, everybody who has been waiting jumps on the bandwagon and starts trying to buy. What inventory levels will be at that point, who's to say. If inventory stays where it is now — nowhere near enough homes for sale — it is going to turn into utter chaos like 2020 and 2021. So if you can afford a monthly payment right now, right now is a great time to buy, because the competition is far less than what I assume we'll see in the future. I also think it's important for people to hear me say the other half: if you can't afford to purchase, you have no business purchasing. We want everybody who signs on the dotted line and agrees to repay a monthly payment to be able to afford it. That's very important. But if you can afford it, and the payment fits your monthly expenses, then right now is a fabulous time to buy. Much less competition, and a lot easier to negotiate. We just had a purchase go into escrow this morning where the buyer negotiated a $25,000 credit from the seller toward closing costs. That lets me buy their rate down a bit and cover some of the remaining costs. We would never have seen a credit like that in 2020 or 2021 — people were overpaying for the home, getting no credits toward closing, and weren't even allowed an appraisal contingency to make sure the home was worth what they were paying. No inspection contingencies either. It was an absolute mess. If inventory stays where it is and rates drop, we go right back to that. If inventory picks up too, I still think we're going to be very busy, but maybe not as crazy. Either way, right now is a fabulous time to negotiate with a seller. ### Shop the lender now, shop the refinance later Back to the article: it notes that some lenders may also use unclear terms in the agreement that could result in hidden fees or costs rolled into the loan, affecting long-term interest payments. So you've got all these different people saying the same thing: don't pick a lender based on the package deal for later. Shop for the right lender. Work with somebody you're comfortable with. Get the deal you're looking for. And when it's the right time to refinance down the road, that's when you start your search again — who's got the best rates now, who's got the best closing costs now. Do your research and pick based on today's scenario. And there's one more failure mode. Even if they *are* offering you a free refinance later, you still have to qualify for it. What if something happens between now and then? You bought the home, a pipe breaks, you open a new credit card to pay the plumber to repipe the house. Life happens. Something you could never have foreseen comes up as an expense you didn't plan for. Somebody ends up in the hospital, somebody gets sick. Now your credit score has dropped, your debt balances are higher, maybe you missed a payment. If you can't credit-qualify for the refinance, you can't get the refinance. Just because it's free doesn't mean you don't have to qualify for it. So do your homework. Research the lender you want to work with. Who's honest? Whose relationship do you like? Who's giving you the information you need through the process? Who's actually competitive on rate? Don't worry about later. Make sure you're qualifying for what you can afford, buying what you can afford, and anticipating making that payment for the whole time you stay in the property. And when rates drop — which they eventually will, though nobody can say when — then we go ahead and get you a better rate, a better payment, and more cash flow. ### Q&A: why do some people dislike escrow impound accounts? Michael says his property taxes are included in his monthly payment and it works well for him, but other people he's spoken to don't like that idea, and he wants to know why. A lot of people do it that way, and I think it's a fabulous way to go. Nobody likes to be surprised by a tax bill — some states and counties bill twice a year, some three or four times, some once a year, but either way it shows up in the mail and suddenly you have to write a big check. When it's included in the monthly payment, it's part of the balance you've already budgeted for, and when the bill is due the mortgage company pays it for you. Many people include their homeowners insurance the same way, and that policy is due once a year, so when the bill arrives they don't have to think about it at all. As for why some people don't like it: I think there's a belief that the bank is taking that money and making something on it. Your taxes are, let's say, $500 a month. The bank takes it, sets it aside, next month there's $1,000 in there, then $1,500 — and in their mind the bank is earning interest on it or investing it. They feel that if they controlled that money, they'd be the ones earning on it. A bank is not allowed to put your escrow money into an interest-bearing account. Escrow accounts and impound accounts are the same thing, and it is a separate account set up for your loan, under your loan number, for you. The money goes in, it sits, it doesn't earn interest, and it isn't making the bank any money. It's truly just making your life easier. Maybe way back in the day banks could gamble a little with that money, but with all the rules and restrictions that have come out since, including the CFPB, that's not something banks are allowed to do. So choose what works for you. If you're a commissioned employee getting big commissions monthly or quarterly, or an annual bonus, it may be easier for you to make the principal-and-interest payment and pay the big bills when the bonus lands. That works for some borrowers. If you're salaried or hourly, with stable month-to-month income and no bonuses, it is absolutely not fun to get the property tax bill in the mail and have to write that check. I personally like it impounded. You make that payment every month knowing you've covered your entire house bill — principal, interest, taxes, and insurance — and when the bills come due, you have nothing to worry about. ### Wrap-up That's the show for this week. One thing before I go: a listener asked a while back for a show on lis pendens, and I don't know that I can fill 30 minutes on it, but I'll bring it up next week and explain what it is and how it works, because it's a great topic. And if any of you have a subject you'd like me to cover, go to mortgagemomradio.com and click contact — it emails me directly. My goal is to bring you the information you're actually looking for. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — one text a week with the topic and a link to join, no spam. That's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team. At mortgagemomradio.com you'll find the calculators, the weekly newsletter, the podcast archive, and a way to submit questions for the next live show. I'll be back next Wednesday. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of November 1, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### 5% Down on a 2-4 Unit Property: Fannie Mae's New Rules for Owner-Occupants URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/5-down-on-a-2-4-unit-property-fannie-maes-new-rules-for-owner-occupants/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:24:23.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Big Change! 5% down on 2-4 Unit Property” • Live show from Wednesday, October 25, 2023 • 31 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Three guideline changes in one show, and the first one is a big deal for anyone who has ever thought about living in one unit and renting out the rest. Starting November 18, 2023, Fannie Mae allows **5% down on an owner-occupied 2-4 unit property** — down from 15% on a duplex and 25% on a triplex or fourplex — with no requirement that the rents cover the whole mortgage payment. Debbie also covers FHA's updated rules letting rental income from an ADU count toward qualifying, and a long-standing Fannie Mae option almost nobody talks about: buying a home for a disabled adult child or an elderly parent at primary-residence terms. ## Key takeaways - **Fannie Mae drops the down payment on owner-occupied 2-4 units to 5%, effective November 18, 2023.** The maximum loan-to-value (and combined loan-to-value, if there's a second) goes to **95%** on 2-4 unit principal residences. The old requirement was 15% down on a duplex and 25% down on a 3-4 unit. - **This is for owner-occupants only.** You live in one of the units. Investors still need 25% down on a 2-4 unit property. - **The big advantage over FHA: no cash-flow test.** FHA has always allowed low down payments on 2-4 units, but it requires the property to carry itself — the rents have to cover principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. With home prices and rates where they are, that test has become very hard to pass. Conventional doesn't have it, which is why this change opens the door for buyers FHA was shutting out. - **Bigger properties get bigger loan limits.** The conforming limit rises with unit count, so a fourplex is not automatically out of reach. In a standard-cost area for 2023 the baseline limits were **$726,200** for one unit, **$929,850** for two, **$1,123,900** for three, and **$1,396,800** for four. High-cost counties like Los Angeles and Orange run higher. - **FHA now lets ADU rental income help you qualify.** If the property has an accessory dwelling unit — a detached guest house, or a converted garage — you can now count roughly **50% to 75%** of the rent toward your debt-to-income ratio. A detached unit counts at the higher end than an attached one, and prior landlord experience helps too. Before this, none of it counted. - **You can buy a home for a disabled adult child or an elderly parent on primary-residence terms.** Not a second home at 10% down, not an investment property at 20% down — Fannie Mae treats it as a primary residence, which means as little as **5% down** and primary-residence pricing, even though you live somewhere else and already have your own mortgage. There's no distance limit; the house next door to you counts. You do have to qualify for both housing payments on your own income. - **Why the parent and disabled-child rule exists:** for people whose income — Social Security, a pension, or none at all — won't support their own mortgage, but who need their own space. It has been on the books a very long time and almost nobody talks about it. ## Chapters - 01:00Three guideline changes on today's show - 04:00The old rules: 15% down on a duplex, 25% on a 3-4 unit - 05:00Why FHA was the only low-down-payment option — and its catch - 06:00Fannie Mae's change: 5% down on owner-occupied 2-4 units - 07:00Reading the guideline: 95% LTV and CLTV from November 18 - 09:00Loan limits rise with the number of units - 13:00Why the FHA cash-flow test has become so hard to pass - 14:00What an ADU is, and why the rent never counted before - 16:00FHA's new ADU rental income rules: 50% to 75% usable - 20:00The option nobody talks about: buying for family - 24:00Buying a home for a disabled adult child at 5% down - 26:00Buying a home for elderly parents, with no distance limit - 28:00What you still have to qualify for — and how to reach the team ### Run the numbers on a 2-4 unit with 5% down Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### What's on today's show Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and I'm always trying to bring you more information, updated information — what's going on in mortgage and real estate, where the market is headed, what's happening with rates. Today I have updated guidelines that are very exciting. We're going to talk about 2-4 unit properties and how Fannie Mae is doing their part to make property more affordable for first-time home buyers. We're also going to talk about FHA's changes to rental income guidelines for ADUs. And then I want to remind everybody about an option available with Fannie Mae for purchasing a property for adult disabled children, or for elderly parents who can't qualify for a property on their own. ### The old rules on 2-4 units Previously, you had to have a minimum down payment on a 2-4 unit property even if it was owner-occupied of 15% down. And it didn't stop there: 15% down was for a duplex, a two-unit property. It was actually *25% down* for a three- to four-unit property. So if you're a first-time buyer and your thought was, hey, it would be a great idea to buy a three- or four-unit, live in one of the units, and collect rent on the others to subsidize my mortgage — first property, subsidizing rents, rental income, being an investor all at the same time — that's a great thought process. But the only opportunity you had was with FHA. Now, FHA is fantastic. You can get into a 2-4 unit property with as little as three and a half percent down. FHA is fabulous. But they have a guideline that says the property needs to be able to carry itself. What does that mean? It means the rents that come in on that property need to be sufficient to cover the entire mortgage payment: the property taxes, the homeowners insurance, the principal, the interest, the whole ball of wax. Conventional is nice because they don't require that. You don't have to worry about that cash flow test the way you do with FHA. But conventional had those bigger down payment requirements. That's what just changed. ### Fannie Mae's change: 5% down, effective November 18 Fannie Mae is coming out and saying they're trying to make it more affordable for home buyers to jump into the market. So beginning on November 18, they are rolling out the new program where you can get into a 2-4 unit property with as little as **5% down**. Hear me out on this, because it matters: 5% down is for *owner-occupied*. That is not for an investor. Investors, you're still going to need 25% down on those 2-4 unit properties. But if you're an owner-occupant — your goal is to purchase, rent out the other units, and live in one of them — you will be able to get in with as little as 5% down, and not have to worry about that cash flow issue you'd run into with FHA being the only low-down-payment option. I pulled the guidelines, and here's roughly what they say. On November 18, with the update to Desktop Underwriter — that's the computer system we run the loan application through to get the approval — they're making two changes to underwriting policy in support of their mission to facilitate equitable and sustainable access to homeownership and quality affordable rental housing across America. First, they are increasing the maximum allowable loan-to-value, and the combined loan-to-value if there's a first and a second, to **95% on 2-4 unit principal residences**. ### Loan limits go up with the unit count You might be thinking: when I get into a three- or four-unit property, those buildings are going to be so much more expensive. Maybe I can't get the financing. Maybe I'll be capped out on what Fannie Mae will lend me. So remember that the maximum loan limit for a one-unit property increases for two units, gets bigger for three units, and gets bigger again for four units. The number of units you're purchasing gives you a different maximum loan amount through Fannie Mae financing. If you are in a standard area — not high cost, so not Los Angeles County or Orange County, but plenty of the places you're watching and listening from — the limits are: - One unit: **$726,200** - Two units: **$929,850** - Three units: **$1,123,900** - Four units: **$1,396,800** Remember, these are the *loan* limits, not purchase price limits. You just have to come up with that minimum 5% down at whatever sales price you're purchasing at, or put more money down to get the loan size down to the limit. I love that they changed this. I know there are many of you who wanted to go down that road, thought it would be a great option, and then found out it wasn't obtainable because you didn't have 25% down for a three- to four-unit property. This is definitely going to open up the opportunity for many more buyers to start looking at something they can live in and rent out the other units. ### Why the FHA cash-flow test has gotten so hard With prices of homes having gone up and rates having gone up, that FHA requirement that the property carry itself has become really, really difficult. You might still feel like it's a great opportunity to purchase a three- or four-unit — that your piece of the mortgage payment after what the other tenants cover would be a little bit more, but it's still a fabulous investment, which it is. But you can't qualify, because you don't have the down payment and the rents you're going to bring in aren't enough to carry the entire mortgage payment. All of a sudden FHA is out, and low down payments are out. So this new Fannie Mae 5% down is your option. It's a great option, and we absolutely love it. ### FHA and ADU rental income FHA also came out with updated guidelines — this one landed a couple of months back at least, but I haven't touched on it here in a while, so I want to bring it to your attention. What is an ADU? An accessory dwelling unit. It could be a standalone unit like a guest house in the backyard. It could be a converted garage — work you did, or work somebody before you did — that is now an ADU. Here's what used to happen. If you lived in the property, converted your garage, and were renting it out for, say, $2,000 a month, and you came to do a refinance, we could not use that rental income to help your debt-to-income ratio. Same on a purchase: if the property had a guest house you planned to rent out, or already had a tenant in it, or the garage conversion was set up and ready to go — we could not use that rental income to help your debt ratios. FHA has changed that guideline. They will now allow us to use rental income you would receive, or that the property is already receiving, to help you qualify. That's fabulous news. If your goal is to find a property with a tenant to help offset some of your mortgage, and you're focused on finding one with an ADU, you're probably going to end up at a higher sales price than an equivalent property without one — let's face it, the ADU adds value and makes it more expensive. But even at a higher price, the rental income can reduce what you're actually putting out every month, and now it helps you qualify for that higher price too. We can't use all of it. Not 100% of the rental income. It depends on the type of unit: if it's *detached*, we can use a higher percentage than if it's *attached* — a converted garage attached to the dwelling gets a lower percentage of the total monthly rent. And if you have a history of being a landlord, we can use a little more than if you've never been one. Either way, somewhere between **50% and 75%** of the rents that could be received, or are being received, is what we can use to help you qualify. That's a really big deal, and a fabulous change. ### Buying a home for a disabled adult child or an elderly parent The last thing I want to talk about isn't new at all. It's been around a very long time, it's still allowed, but almost nobody talks about it — and I think it's really important for everybody to know. If you have a disabled child, an adult disabled child, who needs to get out and be on their own but isn't in a financial position to qualify to purchase their own home — or if you have elderly parents who need their own place and their own space but don't qualify for a mortgage — there's a way to do that. And you don't have to put down the extra money a second home or investment property requires. To be clear, we're talking single-unit properties here: a condominium, a townhome, a single family home. Not 2-4 units. Normally on an investment property you'd need a minimum of 20% down, and on a second home or vacation property you'd need 10% down. With this rule, where you've got an adult disabled child — someone who has been medically deemed disabled — maybe they're ready to have their own place and a little bit of freedom. I'm a mom of a child with autism. He's seven, he's non-verbal, we're not potty trained, we don't brush our own teeth, we don't clothe ourselves. We've got a lot of work ahead with my little guy. But I can see a day in the future when he's an adult and he's ready for some independence, maybe with a coach living with him. He's the perfect example of a disabled child that you'd want to get his own little condo or townhome, so he has his own place — and I don't necessarily want to have to put 10% or 20% down to buy it, because I'm the one footing the bill and making the payments. In that situation, if he were an adult, I would be able to buy him a place just like a primary residence. I could get a Fannie Mae loan with as little as 5% down, and primary-residence interest rates. Everything about the program would be based on primary-residence guidelines — better rates, lower down payment — even though I live somewhere else and already have my own mortgage payment. You can also do this for elderly parents. If you're trying to get them closer to you so you can take care of them, stop by more often, make sure they're taking their meds — but they're not ready to live with you and you're not ready to have them live with you, because everybody wants their independence — you could buy the house right next door. There's no limitation on how far away the property has to be. It's not a second home for you and it's not an investment property for you. It's a property you're purchasing for your parents. Maybe they have Social Security, maybe they have a pension, but the income isn't enough for them to qualify for financing on their own. You have that same opportunity: as little as 5% down, primary-residence rates, and you help them find that property and get closer to you. The one thing you do have to do is qualify for the debt. You need to be able to carry your own mortgage payment and this new housing expense — your income has to support both. But as long as you can qualify, that opportunity exists. ### Wrap-up This has been around a very, very long time and it just hasn't been a big subject — I haven't talked about it here in probably three or four years. So I wanted to make sure everybody knows it's out there. If you've been thinking about doing something for an elderly parent or a disabled child and you thought you needed a big down payment, now you're hearing from the Mortgage Mom that you don't. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — one text a week with the topic and a link to join, no spam. That's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team; we answer seven days a week, and if we can't pick up, leave your name and number in the general box and we'll call you back. At mortgagemomradio.com you'll find the calculators, the weekly newsletter, the podcast archive, and you can book a phone appointment right on the site — pick a day and a time that works for you, and if you need early morning or late evening, we have team members in different time zones to cover it. I'll be back next Wednesday at 1 p.m. Pacific. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of October 25, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### What Is a Zombie Mortgage? How an Old Second Lien Comes Back URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-zombie-mortgage-how-an-old-second-lien-comes-back/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:29:26.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “What is a Zombie Mortgage? Should you be concerned as a homeowner?” • Live show from Wednesday, October 18, 2023 • 30 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 A second mortgage you were told was charged off. A bankruptcy you thought wiped it out. A loan modification you assumed covered both loans. Years of silence — and then a debt collector calls, because your home now has equity worth chasing. That's a zombie mortgage, and it's a real enough problem that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a definition for it. In this Halloween-timed episode, Debbie explains where these liens came from, who is most at risk, how to find out whether one is sitting on your title, and the single most important thing not to do if a collector contacts you. ## Key takeaways - **A zombie mortgage is a real, defined thing.** The CFPB describes zombie mortgages as mortgage debts consumers thought were forgiven or satisfied long ago that still exist — often written off by the lender and sold for pennies on the dollar to debt collectors, or simply gone quiet, with statements and communication stopping altogether. Years later a collector reaches out. - **They almost all trace back to the 80/20 loans of roughly 2001–2007.** Buyers got a first mortgage covering 80% and a second covering 20% to reach 100% financing. When values fell in 2008–2010 and adjustable and interest-only payments reset upward, many people stopped paying the second. The second-lien holders didn't foreclose, because a foreclosure pays the first mortgage first and there was nothing left for them — so the liens just sat. - **Two situations catch people completely off guard.** A loan modification during the crisis usually modified *only the first mortgage* — a first and a second are two separate sets of loan documents, two separate liens, two separate everything. And a bankruptcy doesn't release the lien unless your attorney filed the specific paperwork with the court to do it. - **The reason they're back is equity.** Those liens have been sitting for years accruing interest and fees. Now that homeowners have significant equity, the collectors who bought that debt have a reason to come collect — and the debt may have been resold many times, so the company contacting you is probably not the one you originally signed with. - **Do not make a payment before you get advice.** Statutes of limitation vary by state (Debbie looked up Arizona right before the show and found six years). If you're past your state's limit, making any payment of any size can restart the clock. Call the CFPB, a real estate attorney, or someone who can help — before you agree to any new payment arrangement. - **The CFPB complaint portal has a foreclosure flag.** When you file a complaint on their website there's a flag you can check when the issue involves foreclosure or pre-foreclosure, so your request gets prioritized. That matters, because some of these are moving to pre-foreclosure even when the debt is past the statute of limitations. - **You can find out in advance.** A title search will show what liens are actually recorded against your property. If you had a second mortgage and you don't know whether it was paid off, charged off, or is still recorded, that's a phone call, not a mystery you have to live with. ## Chapters - 01:00Welcome — why zombie mortgages, and why now - 03:00The news story that prompted the topic - 04:00The CFPB's actual definition of a zombie mortgage - 06:00Where they came from: 80/20 loans and 100% financing, 2001–2007 - 07:002008–2010: values drop, adjustable and interest-only payments reset - 09:00The loan modification trap — it only covered the first mortgage - 11:00Why second liens are riskier, and why they never foreclosed - 12:00Interest and fees piling up quietly — and why equity brought them back - 13:00How to check: pull a title search on your own property - 15:00Statutes of limitation vary by state — look yours up - 16:00The lien stays until the lender removes it - 17:00Filing with the CFPB and the foreclosure priority flag - 18:00The bankruptcy trap: a discharge is not a lien release - 20:00The one thing not to do: never make a payment first - 21:00Why people feel cornered into selling — and how to avoid it - 24:00Wrap-up: the tools app and how to join the live show ### Not sure what's actually recorded against your home? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4) and we'll pull the property profile and title search for you, [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Why we're talking about zombie mortgages Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom — and I'm sorry, everyone, this is take three, so hopefully the third time is the charm on getting our sound and video working. You get to watch me do this over and over until I get it right, which you only see if you join us live. Today we're talking about zombie mortgages. Halloween is around the corner, and my mother-in-law sent me an article a couple of days ago about a couple dealing with a zombie mortgage coming back to haunt them. So I figured: Halloween, zombies, zombie mortgages — what better topic? What is it? Do you need to worry about it? Are you a homeowner who had a second mortgage that at some point you thought was discharged, or thought was charged off? Then this is a great topic for you. In that article, a couple had a second lien on their home at one point. They thought it got charged off — they were even told by one of the companies holding the debt that it was charged off and they no longer owed it. And then it came back to haunt them. ### What the CFPB says a zombie mortgage is Believe it or not, “zombie mortgage” is a real thing with a real definition. I pulled it from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's website — they're the ones who govern our lending laws and rules and make sure we're all doing everything the right way. Here's what they say. Zombie mortgages are mortgage debts that consumers thought were forgiven or satisfied long ago, but that still exist. The debts may have been written off by the lender and sold for pennies on the dollar to debt collectors. Alternatively, the mortgage company may have simply gone silent and stopped sending statements or communicating with the borrower altogether. Years later, a debt collector reaches out to collect on the debt. Because these mortgages are reappearing after being considered dead or gone for so long, they're sometimes called zombie second mortgages. Before the Great Recession in 2008, mortgage lenders sometimes sold borrowers two mortgages for the same property instead of one — for example, a primary mortgage covering 80% of the loan and a second mortgage covering the remaining 20%. As the Great Recession hit and the economy shrank, people had trouble making mortgage payments. Many borrowers got loan modifications or declared bankruptcy. Some lenders ceased to exist and sold off their loans, while others wrote off the second mortgages, not expecting to be paid because of falling home prices. Some borrowers no longer received mortgage statements on their second mortgages — in fact, many heard nothing about their second mortgage for more than ten years. Now, years later, debt collectors are pursuing borrowers on these smaller second mortgages. As property values rise, the debt collectors who bought these are looking to collect. I think they did a great job explaining it. But let's go back through that history the way they did. ### Where these liens came from Many, many borrowers — especially through 2001 to 2007 — got an 80% first mortgage and a 20% second mortgage to get into a home with 100% financing. They owed 100% of what they paid for the house. Then in 2008, 2009, 2010, property values swiftly declined. Your home was no longer worth what it had been, especially if you bought between 2005 and 2007 — you owed more on the house than it was worth. Even if you'd put a significant down payment down, you barely had enough equity to cover the mortgage, so you lost the money you put in. And a lot of those mortgages were adjustable-rate or interest-only. If you bought in 2005, your rate started adjusting around 2010\. If you bought in 2001, it started adjusting in 2007 or 2008\. Interest rates went up significantly in 2007 and 2008\. They came down a bit in 2009, but we really didn't start to see genuinely good rates until about 2010 or 2011\. So during exactly those years, those adjustable payments went up, and it was difficult for a lot of borrowers to make payments — especially on two loans instead of one. So many people just stopped paying the second mortgage. ### The loan modification trap We run across this all the time on applications. A lot of borrowers did loan modifications during those years. They couldn't refinance — they owed more than the house was worth — so they reached out to their mortgage company for a modification. In their mind, the same loan officer and the same mortgage company had done their purchase and given them 100% financing. Even though they signed two separate mortgages, it *felt* like one mortgage. So they called the 800 number on the statement, the company servicing their loan, and got a loan modification done. What they didn't realize is that the modification was for the first mortgage. It was not the second. A first and a second are completely separate. Two separate sets of loan documents, two separate liens, two separate everything. So people thought they had it all put together, corrected, taken care of, that they were making good on their debt — and they didn't realize the second mortgage was still out there. Still owed. Still a lien. Still due. Other clients knew it was there, stopped paying, and didn't get much hassle — no foreclosure notices, no pre-foreclosure notices. They got a stack of bills saying it was past due, then something saying “charged off,” and figured it was gone. ### Why the second-lien holders stayed quiet This is why we talk about the position of home equity lines and home equity loans. The first mortgage takes the cake — they're number one on the lien and they get paid off first. The second mortgage is lien number two, and they only get paid if there's money left after the first is satisfied. That's why home equity lines and loans carry higher interest rates: they come in second place. So during the years when values dropped and people were upside down and foreclosing or modifying, a lot of those second mortgages didn't get paid. They stayed on the books, and the second-mortgage companies did not come after their money — because if they started foreclosure proceedings, the first mortgage gets paid off first and there'd be nothing left for them. So all of those second mortgages have been sitting there, festering, for all these years. And what are they doing while they sit? Building interest, building fees, building all kinds of things on a debt you owed and don't even realize is there. But now that there's so much equity out there, all of a sudden these companies are coming back to collect. It might not be the original company you signed with. Remember, when any debt goes bad — a medical collection, a credit card, a personal loan — it can be sold, and it can be sold over and over again to different collection companies. A lot of these have been sitting, and now that people have equity you're seeing these debt collection companies come out of the woodwork. ### How to find out whether one is on your title If you had a second mortgage and you don't know whether it was paid off, whether it was charged off, whether it still exists, whether it's a lien on your title report — you can always call us. We'd be happy to do the research, tell you what we see on your property profile, pull a title search and let you know if there's anything there. Then you can get proactive about taking care of it. ### Statutes of limitation — and the lien that outlasts them Statutes of limitation vary by state, so look up what it is where you live. I looked up Arizona very quickly right before we started and it was six years. Part of what's happening is that these debts are well past that — and they're still coming back. What makes it difficult is that it's still a lien filed against the property, and the lien stays there until it's removed. In order for it to be removed, the lender has to remove it. So if you find that you've got a second lien tied to your property that's older than your state's statute of limitations, the first thing to do is reach out to the CFPB — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. On their website there's a place to file a claim, and when you're filing there's a flag you can check when it has to do with foreclosure or pre-foreclosure, so they can prioritize your request. That was one of the most helpful things I read and I wanted to make sure everyone knows it. ### The bankruptcy trap A lot of people had bankruptcies back then. We all went through hell and back during those years, and many people thought their second mortgage was removed in the bankruptcy. If your bankruptcy attorney did not get the lien released — and there are specific forms that have to be filed with the court to do that — then that lien could still be sitting there. That loan never comes out of the bankruptcy. It could be five years, it could be ten years; the loan is still part of that bankruptcy, which means they cannot collect on it. So you may have heard nothing for years. You could have filed ten or fifteen years ago and think that equity line is gone — and then you go to refinance or to sell, and the lien is still there. To close, to pass clear title to the next buyer, or to get a new title insurance policy on a refinance, that lien has to be paid off. So if you had a bankruptcy during those years and you've never checked — maybe you had no reason to refinance through 2020 and 2021 — reach out. Let's pull it up and see what liens are there. If it does still exist, it could be too late to do much; I'm not a bankruptcy attorney and I don't know the limitations on those timelines. But you may want to go back to that bankruptcy attorney and ask whether there's anything they can do to get the lien removed. We've run into this quite a few times, where people thought it was gone and it wasn't. One difference worth knowing: in a bankruptcy the lien generally isn't going to get sold and resold. It's just going to sit there for a very long time, until you go to sell the home and suddenly have to pay off something you didn't know existed. For the debts that simply went bad and were never paid, those do get resold over and over to different collection agencies buying bad debt and hoping to collect something. ### The one thing not to do This is the most important thing I read and I want to pass it along. If you're past your state's statute of limitations, the last thing you want to do is make a payment of any kind toward that debt. The minute you make a payment, your statute of limitations starts over again. So if you find there's a lien against the property, or somebody comes to collect on a debt you didn't realize still existed — the first thing to do is reach out to somebody. Reach out to the CFPB. Reach out to a real estate attorney. Reach out to someone who can help you. Do not go into some sort of new monthly payment arrangement. It could end up being something you have to do — I'm not telling you never to make payments. I'm telling you to protect yourself. Make some phone calls and talk to some people before you get yourself into a new payment arrangement or make any payment at all, because you'll be starting yourself all over again. I don't personally know the exact steps to fight it, but I do know it's very hard, and that these are popping up. People are finding that even past the statute of limitations, pre-foreclosure is getting started and the home could get sold out from under them. They didn't even know the debt was still there, and they feel cornered — like they have to list the home and sell it so they don't end up with a foreclosure on their record and lose the equity they still have. So protect yourselves. If you don't know whether something exists, if this story sounds familiar — you had a second mortgage, you thought it went away, you filed bankruptcy and thought that took care of it — reach out. Let us do some research, pull up what we can see from a title search, and give you that information. If a lien does need to be paid off, we can help from there, whether that's a new refinance or renegotiating with the collection company. We want to make sure you're taking the right steps forward. ### Wrap-up Before I close: it's been a while since I mentioned the Mortgage Mom Radio tools app. This is different from our loan application app in the Apple Store and Google Play. The tools app is for when you're not quite ready to apply — it runs VA, FHA and conventional payments, calculates mortgage insurance, property taxes and homeowners insurance, and has an affordability calculator where you enter your debts and monthly income to get an idea of what you'd qualify for. There's an “email Debbie” button right in it, so if you don't know what to plug in for property taxes or insurance, email me and I'll give you the average numbers to use. To get it, text the two words PHONE APP — that's it, just “phone” space “app” — to 844-935-3634\. If you send anything else you won't get the automated reply. To know when I go live and be part of the show, text the word MOM to that same number, 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. One text a week with the topic and a link to join, and the same number reaches our office. You can also go to mortgagemomradio.com — don't forget the “radio” — to book an appointment or send me a message directly. We have team members across time zones, so if you need early mornings, evenings, or weekends, tell us and we'll work with you. That wraps up our zombie conversation for the month of October. I'll be back next week, right here, Wednesday at one o'clock on YouTube. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of October 18, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Buy Now or Wait for Rates to Drop? Why Dave Ramsey Says Buy URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/buy-now-or-wait-for-rates-to-drop-why-dave-ramsey-says-buy/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:29:27.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Dave Ramsey Says Now Is The Time To Buy!” • Live show from Wednesday, October 11, 2023 • 31 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Dave Ramsey made headlines saying now is the time to buy a house — at a moment when mortgage rates had just hit a 23-year high. In this episode, Debbie reads through TheStreet's write-up of his position, explains which parts she agrees with as a lender and which conditions have to be met first, and walks through why fewer buyers in the market is the quiet advantage nobody talks about. She closes with the week's market news: money moving into bonds, rates improving mid-week, and Fed minutes released that morning hinting the hiking cycle may be over. ## Key takeaways - **Ramsey's position, as reported:** if your finances are in order, a relatively high interest rate shouldn't be the thing that stops you. In his words, quoted by TheStreet: “If later the interest rates come back down, you're not stuck — just refinance and dump the old mortgage.” - **His conditions matter as much as his conclusion.** Ramsey's advice comes with prerequisites: pay off consumer debt first — credit cards, student loans, a car payment — and have a fully funded emergency fund covering three to six months of your normal expenses. Debbie agrees with both, and adds the homeowner's reason: an air conditioner or a roof will eventually fail, and that's not the moment to discover you have no reserves. - **Buy a payment you're comfortable with today.** Debbie's version of the same idea: a refinance later is the upside, not the plan. The payment has to work at today's rate, month after month, while you wait for the market to turn. - **Fewer buyers is the real advantage right now.** With rates high, fewer people are making offers — so there's room to negotiate on price and to ask a seller to cover closing costs. Both get much harder once competition returns. - **Low down payments lose bidding wars.** VA at zero down, FHA at 3.5%, conventional at 5%, down payment assistance — all excellent products, but in a multiple-offer situation a seller picks the offer they believe will actually close, which usually means the bigger down payment or the cash buyer. A quiet market is when a lower-down-payment buyer competes best. - **When rates fall, everyone comes back at once.** Debbie's own opinion, stated as opinion: the sidelined buyers and the move-up and downsizing sellers all return together, and it gets crowded fast. Her rough timeline was three to six months before things really start to heat up. - **Where the market stood that week:** the Fed's benchmark rate at 5.25–5.5%, mortgage rates at a 23-year high, and application activity at its lowest level since the mid-1990s. The Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders had sent a joint open letter asking the Fed to firmly announce no further hikes. ## Chapters - 00:00Welcome — today's topic is Dave Ramsey saying now is the time to buy - 02:00Why there was no text alert this week - 04:00The article: why Dave Ramsey says now is the time to buy a house - 06:00Everybody sitting on the fence — and what happens when they move - 09:00“Just refinance and dump the old mortgage” - 10:00Ramsey's conditions: consumer debt paid off, 3–6 months of reserves - 12:00Higher rates, fewer buyers, less competition on your offer - 13:00Why a low down payment loses in a multiple-offer market - 15:00Asking the seller for closing costs is easier in a quiet market - 16:00Market update: money moving into bonds, rates improving this week - 20:00Fed minutes released today: they may be done hiking - 23:00Housing associations tell the Fed rates are too high - 26:0029 years in the business — what Debbie expects next - 27:00What to do now: get pre-approved, know your payment 1% and 2% lower - 28:00Wrap-up and how to join the live show ### Find out what your payment actually looks like — today, and 1% lower Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Today's topic: Dave Ramsey says now is the time to buy Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and today — as I promised last week — we're going to talk about Dave Ramsey coming out and saying that now is a good time to buy. This show is interactive, so you're welcome to put your questions right into the feed and I'll read them out loud and answer them. One housekeeping note: you didn't get a text message from me today letting you know I was going live. We had a little commotion here at the house right before I was supposed to go on — a neighbor accidentally crashed a car into the power pole in our front yard, and I wasn't sure whether I'd have power. So I turned the notifications off. I didn't want to send out a link for a show that might not happen. Normally you'll get one text a week with the topic and the link to join. ### The article: why Dave Ramsey says now is the time to buy a house I pulled an article from TheStreet, published October 2nd, called “Why Dave Ramsey says now is the time to buy a house.” I don't want to take credit for any of this writing — I just want to bring it to you, because it says a lot of what I've been saying on this show for the past year. Here's the setup. So many people right now are sitting on the fence. The normal cycles — buying, selling, upsizing, downsizing — aren't happening. Everybody's staying put, because rates are high and it would cost more per month to move than to stay. You're retiring and the kids are gone and you don't need the big house or the maintenance. You're in a condo with a baby on the way and you need more room. You've never bought at all and you feel like you just need to wait. Those are real, normal life circumstances, and a lot of people have them on hold. Now here's what the article says. Many potential home buyers have been patiently watching the market and interest rates, waiting for the right time to buy. Dave Ramsey believes that if an individual or household has a few key financial considerations in place, relatively high interest rates ought not to be of big concern. “If later the interest rates come back down, you're not stuck,” he has said, according to TheStreet — “just refinance and dump the old mortgage.” We have said that numerous times: when rates come down you can refinance into a better monthly payment and pay less interest. But notice the front half of his sentence. The financial considerations have to be in place first. ### Ramsey's conditions: debt paid off, reserves funded When the Fed raises interest rates, mortgage rates almost always go up too — that's from Ramsey Solutions' own website, quoted in the piece. And a mortgage lender won't lend you as much, since higher rates increase your debt-to-income ratio. That means less buying power when you're shopping, and higher monthly payments. So whether to buy depends on your situation relative to your other debt. Ramsey believes that if you have consumer debt — a credit card balance, student loans, a car payment — you should focus on paying that off before you buy a house. And you should push buying down the road if you don't have a fully funded emergency fund worth three to six months of your typical expenses. I agree with that. I think that's phenomenal advice. Things come up. You might lose a job. Something needs to be repaired — an air conditioning unit goes out, a roof needs work. You're the homeowner now; those responsibilities are yours. You need at least three to six months set aside in reserves so that if something happens, you can take care of it and not default on your loan. The article continues: if you have to make payments on debt in addition to your house payment, you'll feel like you're drowning. Not only that, it'll be hard to find room in your budget for other important financial goals, like investing for retirement or saving for your kids' college. But if a potential buyer does have cash set aside for emergencies and is debt-free, Ramsey says it's a great time to buy. ### Less competition is the buyer's advantage Here's the part I want to expand on. Because rates are high right now, fewer people are buying — which means you won't have as much competition when you make offers. Let me get into that in more detail. If you're a buyer — first-time or repeat — with a lower down payment, using down payment assistance, or you're a veteran using your VA loan with zero down, or FHA at three and a half percent, or conventional at 5% down, those are fabulous loan products. But when you go in to make an offer and there are other offers at the same time, you are at the bottom of the totem pole. The seller looks at multiple offers and chooses the one they believe in their heart is going to close. They don't want to go through the transaction more than once. They don't want the deal to fall apart and go back on the market and do the showings and the open houses all over again. So if you have a lower down payment and somebody else comes in with a higher down payment or all cash, the chances of that offer being chosen over yours are very high. When there's less competition and you're the only person writing an offer on somebody's home, it's much easier for that seller to negotiate and accept your contract. There are other things that go with a crazy market too — overbidding, appraisal contingencies getting waived so you can't lean on the property appraising at value. But that's the main point: if you're buying with a lower down payment, or you need the seller to pay some closing costs to get you into the home, those things are easier in today's market than they will be in the future. The article closes on the same note. It's never a popular move in real estate when the Federal Reserve decides to raise interest rates, but Ramsey says it's not the end of the world. This is still a great time to buy a house — you just might pay a little more than you would have a few months ago. It's also a good time to sell. And if you already have a fixed-rate mortgage locked in, you're in good shape too. Don't listen to the doom and gloom all over the internet and the news; owning a home is still more than possible and you still control your financial future. That drove home everything we've been saying on this show about getting ahead of the game before the herd gets started. Once we start hearing that rates are going to come down, a ton of people come out of the woodwork to start shopping, and you don't want to be caught up in that. Get something locked in now; the opportunity to refinance later is absolutely there. They cannot keep interest rates as high as they have been forever. ### Market update: bonds, the war, and this week's rates We've had quite a roller coaster. It's only Wednesday, and since Monday we've been watching the bond market, US Treasuries, and everything else that moves our mortgage rates. As I've mentioned in previous shows, mortgage rates are not directly connected to the Federal Reserve prime rate. They're connected to things like Treasuries and mortgage-backed bonds. They do tend to move with the Fed — when the Fed goes up, most of the time we see rates increase — but what's really driving it is those Treasury yields: are people buying into bonds, are they selling their bonds, what are they doing? Right now, with the tragedy in Israel and the war they're now fighting, a lot of people are nervous and unsure how this affects things. Investors have started buying bonds and Treasuries instead of more volatile stocks. So this week — and it's only Wednesday — yesterday and today we've actually seen mortgage rates start to improve. ### The Fed minutes came out today I also saw that the Federal Reserve released their minutes — where are they right now, what are they thinking about the next meeting. At the last meeting they announced they were holding steady but expected at least one more increase this year. That's what we've all been prepared for. But those minutes came out and it actually looks like they might be done. They may not move that rate any higher. At the first signal that rate increases might be finished, we know there's a light at the end of the tunnel for rates to eventually come down. Now remember: just because they hold steady doesn't mean rates fall overnight. It means they hold there for a while to keep working on inflation, and then they start to bring rates down. But at that first glimpse of “we're done,” people start to feel like they can do this — I can get out there, I can start looking, I can buy, and I can refinance down the road. I'm not going to be trapped in a horrible interest rate for the next three years. Nobody knows for sure. We have to wait for the next meeting to see what they really say. But according to the minutes that came out today, it looks like we might be done, and I think that's really good news. ### Housing associations tell the Fed rates are too high I got another article by email from SoFi that tied right into this. It's called “Interest rates are too high, housing associations tell Fed.” Home buyers are in a pinch: costs are notably high and inventory is notably low. Now America's major housing associations are pointing at the Federal Reserve and calling for action. The Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders penned an open letter to the Fed pleading for it to reconsider its interest rate policy. The Fed slashed rates to near zero when the pandemic ground the economy to a halt, then hiked to prevent overheating and get pandemic-era inflation under control. The Fed's benchmark rate currently sits in the range of 5.25% to 5.5%. But the letter emphasizes growing nervousness about the fallout of high rates: mortgage rates have reached a 23-year high, while application activity has hit its lowest level since the mid-1990s. The letter asks the Fed to firmly announce no further rate hikes, and to ensure a hands-off approach on its mortgage-backed securities holdings, at least until the housing market sits on a solid foundation again. The message may be intended for the central bank, but it's a welcome signal to home buyers struggling with a tough market too: you are not alone in your frustration. ### What I think happens next You're probably not watching the financial news the way I do. Everybody has a different job. Where I don't know many things about other industries, this is the industry I know — I've been working in it for the last 29 years. I started in 1994, so I'll probably have to start saying 30 soon. From that history, I can tell you the market is going to start to pick up. Is that happening tomorrow, or next month? No. I think we have a good solid three, maybe even six months before things really start to change and heat up. It takes a while for information to get out there, for it to catch on, for somebody to decide to buy a house and then tell a friend who tells somebody else. That takes a long time to move people. So I'm doing my part and giving you the information. If you've been on the fence, if you've been feeling like you needed to put it on hold until things improve — I would get started today. I'd get your pre-approval going. If you have a house to sell, contact your realtor and find out what it's worth and how much equity you can move over to the next home. Find out how much house you can buy and what that monthly payment looks like. And get the education from your loan officer on what that payment would look like if the rate were 1% lower, or 2% lower. This is my personal opinion — I'm the Mortgage Mom, this is what I think is going to happen, and nobody has a crystal ball. But when rates start to come down, I think we see a very crazy market and a big uptick in purchases, with a lot of people coming off the fence at once. ### Wrap-up If you want to know when I go live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. One text a week with the topic and a link to join, and it's the same number to call the office. You can also go to mortgagemomradio.com — don't forget the “radio,” because mortgage.com is not me. I'll be back again next Wednesday right around one, and hopefully next week there's no neighbor's car in the front yard and the power stays on. Talk to you soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of October 11, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### The Fed Held Rates Steady — So When Will Mortgage Rates Actually Come Down? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-held-rates-steady-so-when-will-mortgage-rates-actually-come-down/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:33:49.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, September 20, 2023 • 71 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve left the federal funds rate unchanged at its September 20, 2023 meeting — and for the first time in a long while, it published a real projection of where rates go next. Debbie reads Chair Powell's opening statement in full, translates the dot-plot numbers into plain English, and then answers the question everyone actually cares about: if cuts are coming, when should you start getting ready, and how long will you be making the payment you sign up for today? ## Key takeaways - **Rates held, but the Fed still signaled one more hike.** The target range stayed at **5.25–5.50%**. The committee's median projection put the federal funds rate at **5.6% at the end of 2023** — which means one more quarter-point increase before year end. - **The projections point to cuts in 2024 and more in 2025.** Median federal funds rate: **5.1% at the end of 2024** and **3.9% at the end of 2025**. Compared with the June projections, the end-of-year number was unrevised but the next two years moved up by half a percentage point — higher for longer. - **Every Fed move takes about nine months to show up in the economy.** That came straight out of the press conference, and it's why Debbie doesn't expect early-2024 cuts. Her read: the first real cuts land in the **third or fourth quarter of 2024**. - **The moment cuts start, the market stampedes.** Millions of homeowners sitting on 2% and 3% rates finally list, but far more buyers come off the sidelines at the same time. More inventory, much more demand, more multiple offers — and prices push back up. Buying *before* that is the advantage. - **Do the calendar math before you count on a refinance.** Start a pre-approval today, allow a month or two to find a home and 30 days to close, and your first payment is March 1, 2024\. Debbie doesn't expect a full percentage point of improvement — her threshold for a refinance being worth the cost — until roughly **mid-2025**. That's 13 to 14 payments at the rate you signed up for. - **“Marry the house, date the rate” only works if the payment is affordable now.** Debbie's hardest line of the show: do not stretch into a payment you can't carry, on the assumption a refinance rescues you in six months. It won't be six months. - **If your lease ends in May, start your pre-approval in January.** Working backwards from a move-out date is the whole game plan — and as of this show, that's only three months away. ## Chapters - 02:00What today's show covers: the Fed's decision and your timing - 08:00Chair Powell's opening statement, read in full - 11:00Where inflation actually stands: PCE and core PCE - 14:00The dot plot: 5.6% this year, 5.1% in 2024, 3.9% in 2025 - 18:00Q&A: how are VA rates right now? - 27:00Why the nine-month lag matters more than the headline - 29:00Debbie's forecast: one more hike, then cuts late in 2024 - 34:00Q&A: isn't inventory the real problem, not rates? - 37:00Lower rates release inventory — and unleash far more demand - 40:00Get in before the first rate cut, not after - 44:00The trouble with “buy now, refinance later” - 50:00Q&A: what about new construction? - 56:00When is a refinance actually worth the cost? - 59:00The real timeline: pre-approval in September, first payment in March - 66:00Q&A: will my property taxes be reassessed after I buy? - 68:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ## Questions answered on this show ### “How are VA rates right now?” VA rates are consistently the lowest of any loan program on the market, and Debbie's view is that a VA loan is simply the best mortgage available to anyone who earned it. Zero down payment. A seller can be negotiated into paying all of your closing costs, and in the right deal can even pay off some of your debts to help you qualify. What she won't do is put a rate number on the air: every borrower gets a different rate depending on down payment, credit score, and whether the property is a single-family home, a condo, a duplex, or a three-to-four unit. The rate you're quoted is built from your specific file, not from a headline. ### “Lower rates would be good, but isn't inventory the bigger problem?” They're the same problem. Inventory is at the lowest level Debbie has seen, and the reason is rates: homeowners holding mortgages in the 2s and 3s won't trade them for today's rates, so the normal life-stage moves — upsizing, downsizing, stepping from a single-family rental into a two-to-four unit — simply aren't happening. That lock-in is what's keeping prices elevated even through rate increases. Rates have to come down to release inventory. The catch is that the same drop releases a much larger wave of buyers, so supply improves and competition gets worse at the same time. ### “What about new construction?” New construction has been carrying the market precisely because resale inventory is so thin, and Debbie likes it — new everything, and you pick your finishes. Two cautions. First, the reports out that week showed *fewer permits* being pulled by builders for future construction, so the gap new homes have been filling may narrow again nine to twelve months out. Second, budget honestly: landscaping, a backyard, window coverings and other basics are often not included, and they're paid out of pocket after closing. For a first-time buyer scraping together closing costs, paying slightly more for a resale home where those things already exist — and financing them as part of the purchase — can be the cheaper path in practice. ### “My property will be reassessed after I buy — will that blow up my payment?” It shouldn't, if the loan is set up correctly from the start. A supplemental tax bill is normal after a purchase, and a well-structured impound account collects more than the seller's old tax bill precisely because the reassessment is coming. When the supplemental bill arrives, you can forward it to your lender to pay out of the excess already sitting in escrow. Where borrowers get hurt is with lenders who set the account up off the seller's numbers — the escrow runs negative, the payment jumps, and the supplemental bill lands on top. It's an avoidable problem, and it's avoided at origination. ### Build your game plan before the market moves Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### What today's show covers Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about the Fed meeting — the fact that they did not change interest rates, that they held them steady at today's meeting. I'm actually going to read you the statement released by the Federal Reserve, because I do not want to misconstrue anything. I want you to hear it the way it was put out there, and then we're going to talk about it. They also gave us projections for what they're anticipating for 2024 and 2025\. So then we're going to get into: have you been sitting on the fence? Have you been waiting to get pre-approved? Have you been waiting to sell your home and buy another because you don't want to jump into the higher interest rates we have in today's market? When should you start thinking about doing that? What's the right timing? And news alert — it is already September the 20th. You wouldn't think about it, but tax returns are right around the corner, so this is a great time to start thinking about your 2024 plans. This is an interactive show. I want you to ask your questions, tell me you're here, say hi. The best questions I get are the ones from my listeners, because then I know I'm answering things people actually want to hear. ### Chair Powell's opening statement *Debbie read the Federal Reserve chair's opening statement from the September 20, 2023 press conference on the air. Her summary of it follows; the commentary in brackets is hers.* The committee remains focused on its dual mandate: maximum employment and stable prices. Since early last year the FOMC has significantly tightened the stance of monetary policy — they have raised the policy interest rate by five and a quarter percentage points and continued to reduce their securities holdings at a brisk pace. \[Yeah — like sixteen times, right?\] They have covered a lot of ground, and the full effects of that tightening have yet to be felt. Today they decided to leave the policy interest rate unchanged and to continue reducing securities holdings. Looking ahead, they are in a position to proceed carefully in determining the extent of additional policy firming that may be appropriate. On the economy: recent indicators suggest activity has been expanding at a solid pace, and growth in real GDP this year has come in above expectations. Activity in the housing sector has picked up somewhat, though it remains well below levels of a year ago, largely reflecting higher mortgage rates. \[You all have got to just stop spending.\] In the summary of economic projections, participants revised up their assessments of real GDP growth, with the median for this year now at **2.1%** and the median for next year at **1.5%**. The labor market remains tight, but supply and demand are coming into better balance. Over the past three months payroll job gains averaged **150,000 per month** — a strong pace, but well below what we saw earlier in the year. The unemployment rate ticked up in August but remains low at **3.8%**, and the median projection has it rising to **4.1%** over the next two years. \[So they are expecting unemployment to get a little bit worse because of everything they've done.\] On inflation: it remains well above the longer-run goal of 2%. They estimate PCE prices rose **3.4%** over the twelve months ending in August, and core PCE — excluding food and energy — rose **3.9%**. Inflation has moderated somewhat since the middle of last year and longer-term expectations appear well anchored. Nevertheless, the process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2% has a long way to go. \[And yeah — a long way to go. We don't like to hear that.\] The median projection for total PCE inflation is **3.3% this year**, falling to **2.5% next year** and reaching **2% in 2026**. They see the current stance of policy as restrictive, putting downward pressure on economic activity, hiring and inflation. \[So they are trying to get you to stop buying as much, stop consuming, stop hiring as many people. It seems strange that that's supposed to help with inflation — but think about it. If people can't go out and readily buy anything at any price someone asks, prices start to come down. How does that happen? People have to have less money in their pocket. They're pinching us. They're pinching us on purpose. That's my interpretation.\] In light of how far they have come, the committee decided at today's meeting to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at **5.25–5.50%**. ### The projections: 5.6%, then 5.1%, then 3.9% Here's the part we're going to build the rest of the show on. In the summary of economic projections, the median participant projects the appropriate level of the federal funds rate will be **5.6% at the end of this year**. So they're saying we are going to increase rates at least one more time. Then **5.1% at the end of 2024**. If we go from 5.6 to 5.1, that looks like two decreases in 2024\. And **3.9% at the end of 2025** — so it actually looks like 2025 is where we see the majority of the cutting. Compared with the June projections, the median is unrevised for the end of this year but has moved up by half a percentage point for each of the next two years. And they were clear: these projections are not a committee decision or a plan. If the economy does not evolve as projected, the path adjusts. They will keep making decisions meeting by meeting. ### Q&A: how are VA rates right now? Sam asks: *“How are your VA rates currently, for my heroes?”* Our VA rates are great. In my opinion, VA loans are by far the very best mortgage loan available today. If you're a vet, you earned it — you served, you were honorably discharged. Zero down payment. You can get a seller to pay all of your closing costs if that's something you're able to negotiate. You can get a seller to pay off some of your debts to help you qualify, if that's something you're able to negotiate. And VA interest rates are better than any other loan program out there. What I won't do is throw a specific rate out on the show, because every single person gets a different interest rate. Different down payment, different credit score, a different kind of property — a single-family home versus a condo versus a duplex versus a three- or four-unit. All of the circumstances surrounding your purchase are what set your rate. ### The nine-month lag One thing that came up in the questions afterward that I think is really important for you to hear: every time the Fed makes a change, we don't typically see the impact of that change for **nine months**. So at this meeting they held rates steady — no further increase — because they've done a lot of increases over the last sixteen months, and it's been insane. Five and a quarter points from where we were. That is a substantial change, and it was very, very quick. Right now we're paused and they're going to see what happens, because it takes time for the effects to take place in the economy. However, they're saying they still plan to increase interest rates at least one more time, by another quarter point, before the end of this year. That could be at the next meeting in November — most likely November. There's one more meeting in December. Remember they meet about every six weeks: September 20th, then early November, then mid-December. My guess is we see that bump in November. ### Debbie's forecast: don't expect early-2024 cuts Then they're talking about holding steady and waiting the nine months to see how the changes have affected the economy. Is inflation coming down? Is it doing what it was supposed to do? For 2024 they're talking about two rate cuts. I would love to be the super-positive person right now and say: cool, everybody who bought a house this year and at the end of last year gets to refinance at the beginning of 2024\. Realistically, that's probably not what's happening. My opinion — and this is Debbie Marcoux the Mortgage Mom, from what I watch and read, my interpretation — we're probably going to see mid-to-end of year before the real cuts start. If we're still going to increase one more time in 2023 and we're already at the end of the year, I don't foresee them changing rates in early 2024\. I do think second half, even third quarter into fourth quarter, is where we start to see the cutting begin. And that is what's going to mobilize the troops who want to buy homes. I don't have a crystal ball. I'm not a financial advisor. I'm giving you what I've seen over 29 years of doing this and where my head is. ### Q&A: isn't inventory the real problem? Josie says: *“Lower interest rates will be good, but inventory I believe is needed more than lower rates.”* I agree that inventory is an absolute disaster right now — we've got the lowest inventory levels I believe we've ever had. There is just nothing for sale, which is making it difficult for home prices to come down. It's keeping prices elevated. If anything, we've seen continued appreciation in home values rather than declines, even with interest rate increases. But the two go hand in hand. People are not selling their homes right now because they have interest rates that are sub-3%, or at minimum sub-4%. There are many, many people out there with rates in the 2s and mid-3s, and they are not willing to give those up to go purchase — even though they've outgrown the home they're in, even though maybe it's time to downsize out of the big house. People make moves throughout life, but they're not making them now, because giving up the rate means a much higher rate and a much higher payment on the next house. That's why inventory is so low. So we actually need interest rates to come down to create more inventory. That's what gets people back into their normal cycles — upsizing, downsizing, the investor who wants to move from a single-family rental into a two-to-four-unit property but can't make the rents cover the mortgage at today's rates. ### More inventory, much more demand More inventory sounds fabulous. More to choose from, prices might stabilize or even come down. But think about this for a minute: how many people are on hold right now? Earlier in the show someone said he feels priced out — that buying a house is unobtainable. A lot of people feel that way, and they're waiting for rates to come down before they start looking. And there are a lot of people, as I mentioned, with great rates and great payments whose house is just too small or too big, or who want an investment property but can't make the rent cover the payment. They're all on hold. So as rates come down we'll see more inventory — but we're going to see a massive increase in demand, and there still will not be enough inventory to cover it. There is a shortage of housing, period, end of story. There simply isn't enough housing for the number of people we have in the U.S. So we're going to see a much tighter, harder market: more competition, more multiple offers, harder to get an offer accepted. And keep in mind what heavy demand with not enough inventory did in 2020 and 2021: values went up. So even if rates come down, if prices rise with them, mortgage payments end up relative to where they'd be today at today's prices and today's rates. ### Get in before the first cut I'm sure you've heard every loan officer and every real estate agent say “buy now, refinance later” — marry the house, date the rate. I agree with that to an extent. If you are ready to buy, now would be the time, versus six months from now. The gentleman earlier who said things were unobtainable just signed a lease that's up in May. I'd tell you he is actually on a perfect timeframe to execute in May. Because if we start to see rates come down toward the end of 2024, you want to be in something *before* those first cuts happen. The first sign of cuts is when every single person out there gets excited, gets pre-approved, and jumps back into the market. If your lease is up in May, you should be getting pre-approved in **January**. Think about the calendar: it's September 20th. It takes a couple of months to get pre-approved, find a property, get an offer accepted, get into escrow, go 30 days through closing. To be closed by the time your lease ends in May, you really need to start in January. That means you've got October, November and December — three months — to get the game plan together. Reach out and find out: is your credit where it needs to be? Do you have the down payment you need? There are VA loans with zero down, FHA loans with 3.5% down, conventional loans with 5% down, self-employed borrower programs for people without traditional tax returns. Do you have money saved? If not, let's talk about down payment assistance, or whether you can pull from a 401(k) or IRA. Do you own a home now? How much equity do you have, and where do you want to go? I want you to hear what's possible *for you* — not for your neighbor, not Mom's opinion, not Dad's opinion. If you don't know, you'll never execute the plan. ### The trouble with “buy now, refinance later” Here's where I want to circle back. Loan officers and agents have been saying “marry the house, date the rate” for a year and a half now, under the impression that rates would go high and then come right back down, and a refinance would be waiting to drop the payment. I have watched many buyers jump into mortgages at payments much higher than they're comfortable with, expecting to refinance within six months, or eight, or at the outside a year. It was never going to be a year. The Fed literally said each change takes about nine months to show its effects on the economy. They've been raising rates for sixteen months — it started in 2022 and we're almost at the end of 2023\. This was never going to be short and fast. So no matter what, if you can purchase now it is best for you on the price of the property. But we have to make sure you're budgeting appropriately and getting into a payment you can afford — one that is sustainable for you until a time when you could actually refinance. ### Q&A: what about new construction? Josie asks: *“How about new construction?”* New construction has been off the hook, and it's directly because resale inventory is so low — people are flocking to new homes. But the latest reports came out earlier this week, and it looks like there have been *fewer permits pulled* by new home builders for future building. Still a steady pace, but definitely fewer than before. Builders are pulling permits now for what they'll build next year, so we might actually be a little short on new construction nine to twelve months from now. Really, new construction or resale, it doesn't matter what you purchase — it's the fact that you purchase. I love new construction. I think it's awesome to walk into a brand-new home that's yours and pick your colors and pick your everything. What can be difficult is coming up with the additional money for landscaping and window treatments if the builder isn't including them. That's harder on a first-time buyer with limited funds who is barely scraping together closing costs. Sometimes we can get into new construction for less than a comparable resale home — but there's no backyard, no pool, no window coverings, a lot that isn't done yet. Paying a little more for a resale home where you can finance all of that as part of the purchase, instead of paying out of pocket after closing, can be very helpful. New construction has been a great source of extra inventory this past year. Just plan the true, full cost of it. ### When is a refinance actually worth it? In 2025 they're talking about continuing to cut through the year, ending in 2026\. Rate cuts come in quarter-point increments — and we all know the federal funds rate is not directly connected to mortgage rates, I've talked about that on numerous shows, but they do correlate and they do move together. So here's an easy way to think about it. Say an interest rate today is 7%. I'm not quoting you — I'm giving you a number to follow. Say that by December 31, 2024 they've reduced the federal funds rate by half a point. Realistically, a mortgage rate that started at 7% might be somewhere in the ballpark of 6.5% or 6.25% by the end of 2024\. If you purchased at 7% and rates are at 6.5% or 6.25%, that may not be a big enough change to make the refinance worth it. Because there is a cost to a refinance. You're going to hear a million people say “buy from me today and I'll do your refinance at no cost later.” There is always a cost. You might not see it in the paperwork — you'll see it in the interest rate. Or you'll see a better interest rate and you'll see the cost on the paperwork. But nobody is doing it for free, and please take that from me. What we want is for the reduction in your monthly payment to more than offset that cost. We don't want to refinance too fast or too soon. If they continue cutting through 2025, my best guess — again, no crystal ball, not a financial advisor, just 29 years of this — is that by **mid-2025** mortgage rates are down by about a full percentage point. If today's rate is 7%, mid-2025 is somewhere around 6%. Dropping a full point is absolutely the time to do that refinance. ### The real timeline, start to finish So what does that mean? It is September 20, 2023 today. If you call my office today to start your pre-approval, how long that takes depends on you — however fast you get me what I need is however fast I can move. Sometimes I get them done in a day; sometimes it takes weeks. Let's say seven days. You do the application online, you go to work, you come home, the next day you upload some documents, but you can't find the W-2, so the day after that you find it and upload it. Now it's September 27th — beginning of October, you're ready to look. It takes a month or two to find the right property for you and your family, so now it's end of November, beginning of December. Now you're in a 30-day escrow, so you're not closing until end of January. Close any day in January and your first mortgage payment is due **March 1, 2024**. And we're talking about realistically having the ability to refinance in June of 2025\. So you need to be sure that for that period — the next 13 to 14 months — the house you're buying and the payment you're committing to is one you're fully comfortable making. That is the most important piece of this whole thing, and it's what drives me crazy about the “buy now, refinance later” excitement. People bite off more than they can chew, expecting smooth sailing in six months. But go back to the other half of it: if the first cuts start in the third or fourth quarter of 2024, that starts the stampede of buyers and sellers. If you have the ability to purchase something before that, you'll definitely want to do it — into something affordable for you now, and refinance it for an even better payment later. ### Self-employed? You have five months Timing is now. You've got to get ahead of the herd, because once people hear about that very first rate reduction — which is closer than you think — they're going. And if you're self-employed and you're not sure what to do about your tax returns to get ready for a pre-approval: it's September 20th. You'll be filing come February. October, November, December, January, February — five months. Five months to get prepared, to know exactly what the game plan is and what you need to do to qualify for a full-documentation loan. There's so much to keep in mind right now, but execution now is really the best timing. Definitely get started right after the first of the year if you want to beat the craziness. ### Q&A: property tax reassessment after you buy Sam raises a good point: *buyers must realize the property will be reassessed after they buy, so they should set aside the money they're saving during those first months.* Yes, they're going to get reassessed and get a supplemental tax bill. But we usually do a really good job, when doing the mortgage, of setting it up from the beginning so we're collecting enough taxes for that reassessment. They shouldn't end up in too bad a shape. They might get a small bill, and they can send that supplemental tax bill to the lender to have the lender pay it, because there should be excess funds in the escrow account — we set it up correctly. There are a lot of lenders who don't set it up correctly, and those borrowers end up negative in the escrow account, their payment goes up, *and* they have a supplemental tax bill. It's all about getting it set up accurately from the beginning: collecting more than what's needed based on the seller's tax bill, so that once the reassessment and supplemental bill arrive, there's more than enough sitting there. ### Wrap-up I hope I brought you the information you were looking for and gave you some good timing. I see a light at the end of the tunnel and I'm excited — now is the time to get started and get prepared. If you're in a lease ending in May, the longest you could possibly wait to get pre-approved is January. How do you reach me? Call 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. Same number to text the word LIVE and get one message a week letting you know I've gone live, so you can jump on YouTube and get interactive with us. Head over to mortgagemomradio.com — don't forget the “radio” — for the calculators, the newsletter and a way to send me your questions. I'm off next Wednesday with the family, but I'll be back the week after. Have a fabulous rest of your week. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 20, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Inflation Rose for a Second Straight Month — What That Means for Mortgage Rates URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/inflation-rose-for-a-second-straight-month-what-that-means-for-mortgage-rates/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:33:50.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, September 13, 2023 • 50 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The August Consumer Price Index landed the morning of this show, six days before the Fed's September meeting — and inflation went *up* for the second month in a row. Debbie walks through the actual numbers, why gasoline did most of the damage, what the forecasters disagree about, and the thing most people still get wrong: the Fed does not set your mortgage rate, and the day after a Fed decision mortgage rates barely move at all. ## Key takeaways - **Headline inflation went the wrong way twice in a row.** Consumer prices rose **3.7%** year over year in August, up from **3.2%** in July. Month over month prices rose **0.6%** after a 0.2% rise in July — the biggest monthly jump in more than a year, and the second straight bump after twelve consecutive declines in annual inflation. - **Gasoline was the chief culprit — and core inflation is the number the Fed actually watches.** Core prices, which strip out volatile food and energy, rose **0.3%** on the month against an expected 0.2%. But the annual core rate still improved to **4.3%** from 4.7% in July, the smallest gain since September 2021. - **The forecasters flatly disagreed.** Barclays expected one more quarter-point hike before year end. Nationwide's chief economist read the report as not enough to change a hold at the September meeting, but possibly enough to justify a November hike. Pantheon Macroeconomics and Capital Economics thought softening rent and a slowing job market would leave the Fed to stand pat for the rest of the year. - **The Fed does not set your mortgage rate.** Credit cards, home equity lines and car loans are tied directly to the federal funds rate — which is why minimum payments have climbed even on balances you haven't added to. Mortgage rates behave more like the stock market: they move on anticipation, on where investors are putting money, on who is buying or selling mortgage-backed securities. - **The proof is in the day-after numbers.** Mortgage rates rose just **0.03%** the day after July's quarter-point hike, *fell* **0.04%** after May's hike, and edged down **0.02%** after June's pause. Nothing like the quarter point people brace for. - **Social Security's 2024 cost-of-living adjustment was projected at 3.2%**, revised up from 3.0% after this report — better than the 2.6% average of the past two decades, far below this year's 8.7%. - **When rates finally fall, buying gets harder, not easier.** Millions of people are sitting on the fence with the same plan. Lower rates release inventory but unleash far more demand: multiple offers, overbidding, and prices that keep climbing. Get pre-approved and get off the fence before that starts. ## Chapters - 02:00Today's inflation report, six days before the Fed meets - 06:00When the September FOMC meeting is and what's expected - 09:00Inflation rose for a second straight month - 11:00The August CPI numbers: 3.7% annual, 0.6% monthly - 12:00What “core inflation” means and why the Fed watches it - 14:00Why the last stretch down to 2% is the hard part - 19:00Will the Fed hike in September? The forecasters split - 21:00Social Security's 2024 cost-of-living adjustment - 23:00Is a recession still coming? It depends where you live - 29:00Debbie's own timeline: about 15 months to real relief - 32:00What the mortgage industry expects from this meeting - 35:00What the Fed rate actually controls — and what it doesn't - 37:00How mortgage rates really reacted to the last three Fed meetings - 40:00Advice for buyers still waiting on the sidelines - 43:00What you can do as a consumer to help bring inflation down - 46:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ## The August inflation report by the numbers (week of September 13, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Consumer Price Index, annual: **3.7%** in August, up from 3.2% in July — a second straight increase after twelve consecutive declines - Consumer Price Index, monthly: **+0.6%**, following +0.2% in July — the biggest monthly jump in more than a year - Core CPI (excluding food and energy): **+0.3%** monthly against an expected 0.2%; annual rate **4.3%**, down from 4.7% and the smallest gain since September 2021 - Peak of this cycle: **9.1%** in June 2022, a four-decade high; down to 3.0% by June 2023 before turning back up - Rent: up **7.9%** over the past year, with increases now starting to cool - Federal funds rate: raised by **5.25 percentage points** over the previous 16 months — the most aggressive inflation-fighting campaign in four decades - Freddie Mac 30-year fixed average, first eight months of 2023: a range of **6.09% to 7.23%** - Projected 2024 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment: **3.2%**, revised up from 3.0% *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Get your pre-approval done before the market turns Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### An inflation report, six days before the Fed meets Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I am Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and we have a lot going on in the field of finance today. An inflation report came out this morning, ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting where they will decide whether to increase interest rates again — and by how much, if they do. What does that inflation report mean to us? How will it affect us? Should we expect mortgage rates to keep going up depending on what the Fed does? We're going to talk about all of that today. This is an interactive show, so please put your questions in. I'll read them out loud and answer them. The very best shows I have are the ones where I get to answer your questions, because if you have that question, there's a very good chance somebody else has that exact same question. ### When the Fed meets, and what's expected Let me start with an article from Investopedia — I want to give credit where it's due, I'm not trying to take anyone's information, I'm referencing things that are important to understand. It's called “Next Fed Meeting: When It Is in September and What to Expect.” The next Federal Open Market Committee meeting will be held September 19th and 20th, 2023\. The FOMC is the monetary policy making body of the Federal Reserve system, and it holds eight regularly scheduled meetings during the year, plus others when necessary. So by next Wednesday, by the time I get on at 1 p.m. Pacific, we will know whether the Fed has increased rates by another quarter point, a half point, or decided to hold steady. Market expectations for the September meeting are mixed. Some analysts believe the Fed will continue hiking after a hawkish pause in June, saying that even though inflation has moderated it remains a concern. Others think the Fed may put things on hold and see the state of the economy, given the risks of bank failures, a tepid stock market, and global economic instability. Overall the consensus is that the Fed will impose one additional 25 basis point — a quarter point — rate hike before the end of the year. However, the Fed chair has said no decisions about the future have been made and the Fed will take it meeting by meeting. That leaves everybody hanging, right? It doesn't really give you an understanding of what's driving those decisions, or what the increases mean for you. So let's dig in. ### Inflation rose for a second straight month Here's the big thing today. The general overview is that inflation increased from July to August — and remember, July inflation had already increased from June. So we're going in the wrong direction right now, which puts a lot of pressure on the Fed next week. I'm going to read from the USA Today article that came out today, September 13, 2023, in their economy section: “Inflation rises for second straight month in August on higher gas costs.” The first thing that came to mind when I saw that was driving down the street about a week before the Labor Day weekend, looking at gas prices, and saying to my son, “Wow, prices are really up on gas.” In my head I wasn't too surprised — holiday weekend. But as I kept reading, it wasn't just the holiday. There are things going on with OPEC. The article says inflation accelerated a second month in August on a spike in gasoline prices, and an underlying measure of household expenses rose more than anticipated, highlighting that the Federal Reserve's battle to tame consumer prices may not be over. Goods such as used cars and furniture kept drifting down in price, partly offsetting a climb in rent, travel and other services. Consumer prices overall rose **3.7%** from a year earlier, up from **3.2%** in July, according to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index. That's the second straight bump after twelve consecutive declines in annual inflation. We were all starting to get excited — we were seeing inflation come down, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And here we are, second month in a row going up. On a monthly basis prices increased **0.6%**. That followed a 0.2% rise in July and marked the biggest jump in more than a year. The chief culprit was a surge in gas costs. ### What core inflation is Core inflation is another term you're going to hear people throw around. Inflation is inflation, right? So what's core inflation? Core prices exclude volatile food and energy items, and the Fed watches those more closely. Core prices are still elevated and rose **0.3%** — economists expected a repeat of the prior month's 0.2% advance. But the rise still moderated the annual increase to **4.3%**, down from 4.7% in July, and the smallest gain since September 2021. As Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics, put it in the article: the inflation genie is not yet back in the bottle. It's not over yet. We're going the wrong direction and they've got to curb it. Some things are getting better. We are seeing prices on food come down at the grocery store — eggs hit that crazy place where you had to take out a loan to buy a carton, and they've come down a bit, settling a little higher than pre-pandemic but coming down. I've read quite a few articles saying rent is starting to cool as well. Rental prices went up **7.9%** over the past year, and they're starting to see that come down and cool off. A lot of the push in the current report is really from gas. ### Why the last stretch is the hard part Annual inflation has slowed notably after hitting a 40-year high of **9.1%** in June 2022, but lowering it the rest of the way to the Fed's 2% target is expected to pose a thornier challenge. Goods prices have fallen as pandemic-related supply chain bottlenecks dissipated, but the cost of services — car repairs, recreation — has leaped, chiefly because of increasing employee wages. So it's getting really expensive to go on vacation, and we're all choosing to do staycations. Gas is expensive, so flights get more expensive. We're going to see sectors take a major hit because people aren't going to do those things. Hopefully that starts bringing inflation back down. ### Will the Fed hike in September? Here's what USA Today reported today. Barclays expects the Fed to raise its key interest rate once more this year, by a quarter percentage point, after lifting it by five and a quarter points over the last 16 months — the most aggressive inflation-fighting campaign in four decades. Nationwide's chief economist said today's report isn't enough to convince the Fed to veer from its plan to hold rates steady at next week's meeting, but it could help persuade officials to hike again in November, depending on how inflation and the job market evolve. Others say the Fed is done. Forecasters at Pantheon Macroeconomics and Capital Economics believe softer rent increases and a slowing economy and job market in the coming months will lead the Fed to stand pat the rest of the year. Consumers, meanwhile, are still struggling with high prices. Although wage growth recently started outpacing inflation, many Americans say they aren't feeling the benefits. So nobody's going to answer our question. We have to wait and see what they do next Wednesday. But this gives you a good idea of what they're looking at in the financial markets when they decide. ### Social Security's 2024 cost-of-living adjustment I want to bring this one up because it might give some people a little relief. If you're on Social Security, COLA is the cost-of-living adjustment. Social Security recipients can expect their cost-of-living adjustment to jump **3.2%** next year, according to a new forecast made in the wake of today's report — up from the previous estimate of 3.0%. So when you get that award letter at the end of this year telling you what your payments will be in 2024, expect roughly that. While inflation has ticked up each of the last two months and is higher than the Fed's 2% target, the rate of price increases has generally been dipping over the last year, which is why the benefits adjustment is slight. Still, 3.2% would be higher than the **2.6%** average seen over the past two decades, though much lower than the four-decade-high **8.7%** adjustment this year. As a seniors' policy analyst quoted in the piece put it, the harsh reality is that the amount COLA increases benefits in most years is meager at best. ### Is a recession still coming? There's a good chance not — but the odds are greater in some parts of the country than others. The likelihood of the U.S. experiencing a recession by the middle of next year has significantly lessened recently, as economic and job growth have remained strong and inflation has eased. Some regions are more vulnerable to a downturn than others. I've talked about that on previous shows. It really does depend on what pocket of the country you live in. For a minute there, a lot of people migrated to Texas — from California and from many other states. Then part of that labor force that had been approved to work remotely started getting called back to the office, and some people got over country living once things were back in action and that drive into town started to matter again. For a small minute we saw some Texas cities start to see prices decline. That seems to have begun reversing. But the majority of analysts out there right now are saying we're not seeing signs of a recession. Could one happen? Sure. Could something happen tomorrow that we don't foresee — something like a pandemic — that changes or reverses the trajectory? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, it's not looking like we're going to see that recession. ### Debbie's own timeline This is a mortgage and real estate show. We can't wait for interest rates to come back down. I said on a show about six or seven weeks ago that I felt we had about 12 to 18 months — my guess as the Mortgage Mom was about 16 months. That was a month and a half ago, so let's call it a flat **15 months**. I personally think that in about 15 months, which would be the end of 2024, we start seeing things in much better shape, with rates coming down to a much more appropriate level. Which, by the way — interest rates where they are today are actually still lower than the national average over the last 40 years. I read that in an article earlier today. But we've all gotten used to a certain interest rate, and we all like the monthly payment at the lower rate. It makes housing a lot more affordable when rates come down. It really will happen, I promise. The question is how long it stays high, and that's determined by how long it takes to get inflation back down. And when we're going the opposite direction, folks, it's not good. ### What the mortgage industry expects This next piece is from The Mortgage Reports, also published today, September 13th. It's a website I go to frequently and get a lot of data from, and I want to give them the credit. The Federal Reserve will hold its next Open Market Committee meeting on September 19th and 20th, and with it comes the question of another rate hike. The annualized inflation rate hovers around 3%, but the central bank wants it settled near 2% in the long term. Despite the gradual decrease, inflation has proved stickier than expected. At the previous meeting the Fed decided to raise rates and said it would adjust its policies as necessary. As the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, Lorie Logan, put it: while it's impossible to know how many more hikes are in store for 2023, there is work left to do — “I'm not yet convinced that we've extinguished excess inflation.” The national inflation rate declined for twelve straight months, from June 2022's 41-year high of 9.1% to 3.0% in June 2023, before inching up to 3.2% in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that time the Fed adjusted its tightening: the funds rate went from hikes of 50 and 75 basis points — a half point and three quarters of a point — down to 25 basis points in February, March, May and July, while it skipped a hike altogether in June. Their call: while the Fed could always change course, many experts anticipate the FOMC won't hike at its September meeting. So The Mortgage Reports thinks they hold steady. USA Today is pretty sure they'll increase. You get to make that call — we should all put some money on it and see what happens. Interest rates trended up through the first eight months of 2023, with the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage ranging from **6.09% to 7.23%**, according to Freddie Mac. Although the annualized pace of inflation is falling, it's still above the Fed's goal, so more hikes and tightening could continue until inflation is brought down to a normalized level. Rates are notoriously difficult to predict, but typically rise in response to Fed tightening. ### What the Fed rate actually controls Here's the piece I've said numerous times on this show: mortgage rates are not directly connected to the Federal Reserve prime rate. There are things that *are* directly connected. Your credit cards — you've probably seen minimum monthly payments go up even though your balance hasn't increased. Even if you haven't spent a single dollar and you're struggling to make the minimum on the balance you've got, that minimum has gone up from where it was a year ago. Pull an old statement, or log in and compare your minimum payment in July of 2022 to July of 2023\. Your credit cards feel it. Home equity lines of credit, directly connected. Short-term loans, directly connected — if you've financed a new car recently, you've seen rates significantly higher than pre-pandemic and even pandemic times. Mortgage rates are not directly connected. Mortgage rates are more like the stock market. It depends on what somebody comes out and says, what big news happened, what triggers a sell-off, what triggers buying. That's what determines where mortgage rates go. The Mortgage Reports puts it well: the Federal Reserve doesn't determine mortgage rates — instead, rates are intrinsically tied to the Fed's actions. The Fed funds rate is the amount banks pay to borrow money from each other overnight, and an increase signals higher inflation and economic expansion. Mortgage rates typically rise in response to growth in the Fed funds rate. ### How mortgage rates actually reacted to the last three meetings How mortgage rates respond in the immediate aftermath of Fed meetings has been a mixed bag over the last year. Most recently, they rose **three basis points** — 0.03% — the day following July's 25 basis point hike. They *declined* **four basis points**, 0.04%, after May's 25-point hike. And they inched down **two basis points**, 0.02%, following June's paused hike. Think about what that does to your assumptions. They pause, and in your head people jump off the sidelines because things are getting better, so rates should come down — and we saw a very, very minimal change. They hike a quarter point in May and July and in your head you're thinking, I was getting pre-approved and told the rate would be 7%, now I'm looking at 7.25% — and it moved two, three, four hundredths of a percent. Everything with mortgage rates is based on anticipation. It's based on what's being talked about, and where people are putting their money. Are investors buying mortgage-backed securities? Is the government buying them, or selling them off? Does someone want a solid, safe investment and put money into treasuries and bonds? Or is the stock market on fire, and they want something aggressive, so they're pulling money out of the safe bets? Mortgage rates aren't directly tied to the Fed, but we obviously feel what happens — the banks are getting the money at a certain level, and if they're being charged more, they turn around and charge you more. It all correlates. It just isn't directly connected. ### Advice for buyers on the sidelines If you've thought about purchasing a home, you've been sitting on the sidelines, you were waiting for the crash, waiting for property values to drop, waiting for interest rates to come down — all you've done is watch property values increase and rates go higher, and everything get less affordable. Here's what The Mortgage Reports says, and this isn't coming from the Mortgage Mom, even though I've said it a thousand times: bringing and keeping inflation down continues to prove difficult, and mortgage rates remain high. While rates could grow at any point, they're still below average historically. Even if you missed out on the rock-bottom rates of the last couple of years, you can always refinance once they eventually hit a down cycle. It's also important to note that many people build wealth through home equity. And I can tell you right now: when mortgage rates do start coming down, we will see more inventory, we will see more sellers willing to sell and buy again — and with that inventory is going to come a frenzy of people looking. It's going to be very difficult to get into a property. Multiple offers. Overbidding. You've seen it in the past, so I'm not lying about what can happen. There are so many people sitting on the fence right now who aren't pulling the trigger because they're waiting for rates to come down. You are one of millions and millions of people with that same mindset. When rates do come back down it is going to be a frenzy, and prices will not have come down — they'll escalate, and escalate faster once you've got that many people out on the street looking. So if you're ready to buy a house, get off the fence, get yourself pre-approved, and start looking. ### What you can do as a consumer I promised we'd talk about what you can do to help curb inflation, because we all need to work together to get it down — it helps your credit cards, your home equity line, your car loan, your student loans, your mortgage, just about everything you use to live your life. The job market is strong. Unemployment is low. We're seeing pay increases to keep up with cost of living. Inflation was out of control in 2022, so many of you got pinched, and you're probably still feeling it, because it takes time to make up what you lost during the crazy high gas prices, crazy high utility costs, crazy high groceries. It was nuts in the second half of 2022 and even early 2023. So what can you do? Save. Stop the excess spending. Fewer restaurant meals, fewer expensive vacations, fewer airline tickets, fewer cross-country road trips burning an absurd amount of fuel. Anything you can do to put money in the bank. Christmas is coming — I know it's crazy to bring that up, but it's already September. Walk into a store today and you'll see pumpkins, in two weeks Thanksgiving, and probably within three weeks you'll start seeing Christmas ornaments. Make it a cheaper Christmas. If they see employment is good and people are getting pay increases, they're going to project a strong holiday buying season. We need those projections to come out differently than they expect. So if there's a brand-new pair of shoes you want, a hat you need, a jacket you've got to have, a game console your kids want — that's where we can all buckle down. That's the only real recommendation I can give as a consumer — and I should say recommendation, not advice, because I am not a financial advisor. But cut down how many times you go out to eat during the week. Cut down the runs to Starbucks. Cut down on vacations. Slow your spending down. ### Wrap-up So let's see what happens next Wednesday, September 20th. I'll be here, and we'll have an announcement about 30 minutes before I come on live — did they raise it, did they not, and if they raised it, by how much. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. One text a week with the topic and a link to join, no spam and no other calls. That's also the office number if you'd like to talk to me or one of the girls and dig in deeper on home buying, refinancing, or whatever kind of financing you need. And you can always go to mortgagemomradio.com. Have a fabulous rest of your week — I'll be back here in seven days, right around 1 p.m. Pacific. Talk to y'all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 13, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### How to Improve Your Credit Score Before You Apply for a Mortgage URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-improve-your-credit-score-before-you-apply-for-a-mortgage/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:33:50.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, September 6, 2023 • 61 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 • With guest George Hartmann, Credit Repair in 30 Nobody teaches you credit. You learn it by making mistakes on it — and then you pay for those mistakes on every car loan, credit card and mortgage for years afterward. Debbie brings credit repair specialist George Hartmann on to take apart the myths (starting with the one about leaving a balance on your card), explain what actually moves a score, and lay out what a 567 versus a 740 costs you on a real mortgage. ## Key takeaways - **The “leave a small balance on your card” advice is a myth — and it costs you twice.** Nobody can say where it came from. Think about who benefits: millions of customers carrying a $10 or $20 balance instead of zero adds up to a lot of interest. Pay cards in full, and pay them off **45 days before** you let a lender pull your credit. - **Your statement balance is what gets reported, not what you owe today.** Whatever shows on the statement date is the number that lands on your credit report. Call your card company, find out your statement date, and pay the card off about a week before it — that's what makes the report show zero and the score move. - **George's own proof:** shopping an RV at a **711** score, he was quoted **5.49%** with 10% down on a roughly $90,000 vehicle. He told them not to pull his credit, waited ten days for a $298 payment on a $300 card to post, and his score jumped to **791**. Same dealer, same day, new pull: **2.99%** and his deposit back. - **The authorized user strategy is the fastest legitimate shortcut to credit history.** Have someone you trust add you to an old card with a low balance and a high limit — age of history is one of the biggest pieces of the score, and they're looking for eight to ten years. Debbie's team has re-pulled 30 days later and seen up to a **100-point** difference. The risk cuts both ways: if that person runs up the card or pays late, it hits your report too. - **One 30-day late costs 60 to 80 points and takes two years to recover from.** A $6 fee and a $6,000 house payment hit exactly the same. And “30 days late” means 30 days past the due date — not the grace-period late fee. Don't call on day 30 to pay; it won't post in time. - **Charge-offs and collections are not the same problem.** Original creditors will usually settle around 50 cents on the dollar but rarely give a deletion letter. Collection companies, since roughly 2020, commonly settle for about half *and* issue a deletion letter, so the account comes off as if it never existed. Zero-balance items have a removal rate above 60%. Verify a debt before you settle it — there are mistakes in these files. - **750+ is the target, and it's reachable in about 24 months.** On a conventional loan, **740 and above all get the same rate**, and pricing worsens in 20-point steps below that. On a jumbo it starts higher, at 780\. Debbie's real client at a 567 score got an FHA loan in the mid 8s — at 660 that same loan would have been in the low 7s. - **Debt settlement companies wreck the score they're supposed to be protecting.** They hold your payments in an escrow account while your accounts run 30, 60, 90, 120 days late, waiting for the creditor to get desperate enough to negotiate. The debts do get settled — and you come out the other side with a score in the high 400s. ## Chapters - 01:00Why nobody understands their own credit - 04:00The RV story: 711 to 791 in ten days - 09:00Myth: you should leave a balance on your card - 12:00The authorized user strategy, and its risks - 15:00Credit mix: how many cards do you actually need? - 19:00What a “30-day late” really means - 24:00Inside a one-year credit coaching program - 31:00Why the credit score still decides your loan - 34:00Charge-offs, collections, and deletion letters - 38:00Does old debt really fall off after seven years? - 40:00How mortgage lenders treat collections vs charge-offs - 43:00Q&A: what credit score should I actually be aiming for? - 44:00Score tiers: what 740, 700 and 567 cost you - 51:00The truth about consumer credit counseling - 56:00Is it ever time for bankruptcy? - 60:00Wrap-up ## Questions answered on this show ### “Realistically, what credit score should I be aiming for? What's a healthy range?” **750 or better.** Once you're at a solid 750 with no late payments in the last two years and collections settled, there isn't a lot of difference in the programs or rates available to you — car, mortgage, or the top-tier credit cards. Anything above that is gravy. Debbie's lending view lines up: on a conventional loan everyone at **740 and above gets the same interest rate**, and pricing steps worse in roughly 20-point increments below it — 720, 700, 680, 660, 640\. Jumbo loans, which a lot of Southern California buyers need because of price, start their best pricing higher, around **780**, then step down at 760 and 740\. Note that a perfect file rarely hits 850 in real life; even excellent borrowers with mortgages are usually in the 800 range at best. ## What your score costs you (week of September 6, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Conventional loans: **740 and above** all price the same; rates step up in roughly 20-point increments below that — 720, 700, 680, 660, 640 - Jumbo loans: best pricing starts around **780**, then steps at 760 and 740 - Real client, FHA at a **567** score: rate in the **mid 8s**. The same borrower at a **660** score would have been in the **low 7s** — around 7.25% - A single 30-day late payment: **60 to 80 points**, and roughly **two years** to recover - Zero-balance charge-offs and collections: better than a **60%** removal rate - Typical settlement on a verified debt: around **50 cents on the dollar** - Bankruptcy waiting periods in lending: minimum **3 years**, sometimes 4; up to **7 years** for some jumbo programs, and some portfolio lenders decline a borrower who has ever filed *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find out what your score is actually costing you Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Guest: George Hartmann of Credit Repair in 30.* ### Why nobody understands their own credit **Debbie:** Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I am Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you something different about all things real estate and mortgage. We haven't done this topic in quite some time, and I'm so happy he's here — I've got George Hartmann with Credit Repair in 30. We talked briefly by email a couple of days ago. I asked whether there's anything new going on with credit that we need to be aware of, and you said nothing has really changed since 2020 — people just don't understand how important their credit is. Elaborate on that. Why is it so important to know your score, what's on the report, how many accounts you have, your balances, your credit mix, whether you're short in an area? **George:** It's something none of us are taught. Everyone has to learn credit through wisdom, and unfortunately a lot of that means mistakes. It takes me all the way back to my first credit card. I was in Florida, twenty-four hundred dollar limit, and by the end of the day — with my own calculations in my head about how quickly I could pay it off — I had new tires and rims on my car. True story. I figured on my salary, a couple hundred dollars a month, I'd pay it off within a year. That credit card went on for five or six years. The truck was long gone and I was still paying on the tires and rims, because I was never taught how to calculate what interest actually does. So my credit always seemed to be average — 650 to a little over 700, right in the middle. Which means on every car and every mortgage and everything I did over my lifetime, I was not in control of what rate I was going to get. I've been fixing credit for over ten years now. I came out of the mortgage business — that's how Debbie and I know each other — and I started the company because I had my own issues to fix and couldn't find anyone who could get my clients all the way to a close. ### The RV story: 711 to 791 in ten days **George:** Here's what it looks like on the other side. I bought an RV a few years ago, in full control of my report and knowing exactly what was happening in every portion of it, especially the credit cards. I knew I had a high balance on one card. So I told the RV company: do not run my credit. I am in charge of my credit, and I will tell you when you can run it, because there's a new balance about to hit my report that is going to gain me points. For today, just quote me a rate based on a 711. They quoted me 10% down on about a $90,000 vehicle — so nine thousand dollars — at **5.49%**. They waited ten days. My $298 payment on a $300 card posted. My score jumped to **791**. I called them back and said, okay, you can run my credit today. They ran it, called me back, and asked whether I'd like my $500 deposit back — and my interest rate was **2.99%**. Would I like to come pick up the vehicle? There was no argument. They just had to give me the best they had. That's what we're talking about: never having to cross your fingers wondering if you'll qualify for something. What would you pay for a college education on the number one financial tool you possess? **Debbie:** It's one of the most important things, and I don't understand why they don't teach it in school. They don't teach you to balance a checkbook, they don't teach you to file a tax return, and they don't teach you about your credit. ### Myth: paying your statement balance builds your score **Debbie:** I get clients who call and say their credit should be great, because they use the card every month and pay it off. But what they're doing is using the card, waiting for the statement, and *then* paying the balance — and they've been told that improves the report. In reality, what matters is the limit of the card, the fact that you've used it, and the current balance as of the statement date. When that statement comes out and you get that email saying your new statement is available — whatever the balance is on that day is the balance that ends up on the credit report. So you want that balance paid off *before* the statement comes out. That's what updates the report to zero and brings the score up. Exactly like George's $298 payment that took him from 711 to 791. ### Myth: leave a balance on the card **George:** Leaving balances on credit cards is a very common one, and no one seems to know where they got that advice. As long as you're active with the card, you're fine — and you can call your credit card company. They are your friend, they'll answer questions. Ask them how often you need to use it, whether there's any liability in keeping it at zero. Now, we're talking about A-plus cards with no monthly fee. If it's a newer card you're establishing and paying a monthly fee on, you can generally leave it at zero all the time, because they're not going to cancel a customer who's paying them a fee. Here's the question I ask people: if you had millions of customers who carried a zero balance versus a ten or twenty dollar balance, what kind of money are we talking about in interest? That's where the myth comes from. So check with your credit card company, find out the statement date, and pay your card in full about a week before that statement comes out. And especially if you're about to get a loan — pay your credit cards off **45 days before** you go see your lender or let them run your credit. If you want to save money and maximize your score, pay those things off. Understand that about **30% of your credit score** comes from your management of credit cards. Three to five revolving accounts is what they're looking for. ### The authorized user strategy **George:** One of the biggest parts of a credit score is long-term history — I'm talking eight to ten years. So one of the practices we use, and it's a suggestion, is the authorized user strategy. Someone — a spouse, a partner, a friend — adds you to their account, and it shows up on your credit report. This is my own story. I had rebuilt with two small accounts, a $300 card and an $800 card. The negative side was that they were new accounts with small limits — no history, just new. So I called a friend in Florida and asked him to add me as an authorized user on a couple of his cards. The thing to understand is that *you* are the one at risk. If he runs up his balance or makes a late payment, that goes on my credit. So it needs to be someone you trust, someone whose credit is important to them too. I always say grandma, grandpa, mom, dad — somebody with a card being used for what cards are supposed to be used for, mainly emergencies, and paid off every month. **Debbie:** It surely does work. I put both of my kids on a couple of my credit cards as authorized users. I've got a boat, cars, a home — everything running — and they have higher credit scores than I do, because those cards I've had for years immediately gave them ten, fifteen years of credit history. They're 18 and 20 and 22 years old. We use it often. When a client calls who's borderline on being able to get financed, we'll ask whether a family member or a really good friend can add them to a card. And we're very specific: it has to be an account they've had for at least a couple of years, with a low balance and a high credit limit, because those pieces combined are what triggers the difference in the score. They get added, we wait 30 days, we pull credit again — and sometimes we'll see a **hundred point** difference. That's a giant difference in what loan we can get them, what rate, what program, how much money down. ### Credit mix and the ceiling on your score **Debbie:** What about mix? I get people asking how many cards they should have, whether they need a personal loan, whether they should have a store card. **George:** For me personally, I don't have a mortgage on my credit anymore, which is a possible 50 points. So realistically the maximum I can achieve is around 800 — 850 being the theoretical max. Mine bounces a little over 800 now, and honestly a lot of that is just time. In the credit game, time is sometimes the only thing that's going to build those scores. My goal for every client is **750 plus**, and there is no doubt in my mind, based on hundreds of customers doing exactly what we instruct, that they can get to 750 in a **24-month** period. ### The two disciplines **George:** If your credit is a hundred percent in order and rounded out, there are only two disciplines you need. The first: never make a payment late. It's one of the most difficult things to get removed. It hurts you by **60 to 80 points** and it takes **two years** to recover from one late payment. And it doesn't matter if it's a six-dollar monthly fee or a six-thousand-dollar house payment — it hits you the same. I missed a six dollar monthly fee on a credit card. I fought that and fought that. It was *their* fee, I hadn't charged anything, and they would not remove it. I had to wait the full two years. That was one of my setbacks four years into my own repair process — and I do this for a living. ### What a 30-day late actually is **Debbie:** Explain what a 30-day late is, because we get that call often. We have people who think they missed a payment and expect their report to be horrible — we pull it and there's nothing there, their credit is great, no problem getting a loan. And we see it go the other way too. **George:** The amazing thing is how little people know about their own report, when all of that information is available to them. A 30-day late is from the due date to 30 days past it. Here's where the discipline comes in, and this was an error I made too many times: my payment was due on the 10th, but payday was the 15th. I had a grace period — due on the 2nd, late on the 12th. I can pay a fee, ten or fifteen dollars, for being late. That doesn't hurt me from a credit standpoint *unless* I go a full 30 days. And let me tell you, it's 30 days. Call on the 30th day and try to make the payment — it's automated, and it goes 30 days late. It's very rare that I see those reversed or removed. So set up autopay, or stay on top of your bills. **Debbie:** Same with a mortgage. If your payment is due September 1st and you pay on September 15th, you get a late fee, but you're not reported to the credit bureaus until you haven't paid and it's October 1st. You have to go a full 30 days from the actual due date. But drive home what George said: you can't call on that 30th day and pay, because it won't post right away. It'll end up posting at 31 days and you still get hit with the 30-day late. One thing people don't realize: you can call and, with a lot of auto loans and credit cards, have your due date changed. You might pay a couple of extra days of interest, but you can move it so it works with your pay schedule. ### Inside a one-year credit program **Debbie:** Talk about your program — how it works, what it costs, what you can get removed. What I love about working with you is that you're educating people, not just cleaning it up and sending them right back into the same place. **George:** I've found that keeping it simple matters. People think it's complicated. It's really only about half a dozen things you need to understand. It's a one-year program. And it isn't just for someone at the bottom of the barrel — I took on two clients yesterday with 711 and 718 scores. A married couple, 27 years old, having their first child. They said, we can qualify for a home right now, we could get a car right now, but we'd be paying higher rates — it's worth it to us to get educated. They'd pay that for four sessions at a college, and mine is a one-year program. It's **$399** for an individual and **$600** for a couple. We have a 15-minute consultation on the phone, then I text you three steps — it takes about ten minutes to set up a profile, give me access to analyze your credit, and get started. From then on, every **40 days for a year**, you get a full analysis, coaching and instructions on exactly what to do to raise your score based on what's on your credit as of that day. Anybody can get a free analysis from us. We never move forward and charge someone unless we know we can help them. **Debbie:** I love the coaching aspect. If I know I have a phone conversation with you every 40 days, now I'm holding myself accountable, because you're going to see what I've been doing. **George:** We deal directly with the bureaus on the negative items. The things we might ask you to do, based on the analysis, are: lower credit card balances over a period of time; open a new account — or specifically *don't* open a new account, because the inquiry and the new account will both lower your score, and in this particular case what we need is an authorized user instead. Authorized users are temporary. We use them only long enough for me to get you to the point where I can tell you to open a new account. It's baby steps. Honestly, I'm only on the phone with a client two or three times — the rest is email and instructions. I call this qualify or quit. Either my clients quit the program, or they qualify, they go on to 750 and beyond, and then they pass that information to their siblings and their children so they don't make the same mistakes. ### Why the score still decides the loan **Debbie:** There was a huge blow-up about a year ago when they came out and said people with lower down payments and lower scores were going to get better financing. At the end of the day it isn't true. Did something change in our price sheet? Yes. Did it accommodate borrowers with a slightly lower score? Yes, it did. But you are still in far better shape on rate, program, and required down payment when your score is as high as it can be. It goes across the board: better credit cards, better rates on those cards, higher limits. Recreational loans — RVs, boats — are difficult to get, and you get much better options the higher your score is. Your credit is everything. ### Charge-offs, collections and deletion letters **George:** The biggest thing after the homework is charge-offs, and especially charge-offs with balances. If there's a charge-off with a **zero** balance, there's a **60% or higher** chance of removal. If there's a balance and the debt truly belongs to you, we can dispute it — but we have to play devil's advocate, because if they verify it, that's where the coaching matters. One of mine was an $8,000 Visa. It came back verified. I was able to work with them: they had an amount they wanted, I had an amount I could give, and typically it's around **50%** that they'll settle for. So it's a matter of settling — but I say don't settle a debt until you verify it, because there could be mistakes in there and you never know. The other one, and again this is my own story: debt on your report that doesn't belong to you. I had a $328 account from a company I had never done business with in my life. I fought it for two or three years, and in the end I had to call and pay about $150 to settle it and get a removal letter from the collection company. The only person hurt that whole time was me, in the name of the principle that it wasn't mine. So sometimes my advice for cleaning up fastest is that you may have to pay something that doesn't belong to you, because you can't get anywhere with the bureaus. **Debbie:** We pull credit constantly and we see a charge-off with, say, a $3,000 balance, and the client asks whether they need to pay it — it's nine years old, shouldn't it drop off? **George:** Two scenarios. When an account goes late it usually runs 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 days, then charges off — which means the original creditor still holds the debt but has written it off. Say it's a $5,000 card. The fastest way anyone recovers from a credit challenge is to get it settled and closed as quickly as possible. The problem is that while it's still with the original creditor, they'll typically settle for around 50 cents on the dollar, but we haven't gotten them to offer *deletion letters* based on the settlement. So it goes to zero, it goes to closed, and now you're in recovery mode. If the debt sits long enough it goes to a collection company — and there, especially since about 2020, we've seen collection companies allow settlement for about 50 cents on the dollar *and* offer a deletion letter. It's as if they never had the account in the first place. So my advice: if you have collections, get them verified first, then get them settled as quickly as possible, whether they're in charge-off or collection status. ### Does old debt really fall off? **Debbie:** We get clients with a charge-off that's seven or eight years old who don't want to pay it, because they've been told it'll fall off in x amount of time. I get a little queasy hearing that, because we've seen that account get resold to a new collector and suddenly it's brand new again. When it's that old, what really happens? **George:** There is not somebody at the bureau watching the clock on your particular report to make sure something gets removed at seven years. You have to be proactive. Charge-offs and collections are typically seven years; a foreclosure or a repo is ten. I have people who are in year six, a year away, who work with me anyway because they don't want year seven to go by without being proactive. You want the proper letter to go out, to the proper place, so it does get removed in the proper timeframe. I had to change my mindset. I had challenges, but I got back on my feet, and basically everything I was responsible for buying, I got at 50% off. That's how I had to treat it. I couldn't just let it go away. Debbie, I do have people call and say, I've got $27,000 in credit card debt and I need you to make it go away. That's not reality. That's not credit repair — that's Harry Potter stuff. There's a process. There's no magic. **Debbie:** On the lending side, if somebody has an open collection or open charge-off, it generally needs to be handled through the close of the loan. It's a little different with mortgages: if it's an open *collection* and the aggregate is more than **$1,000** total — whether that's one collection or several — we're going to require it be paid off. When it's a *charge-off*, we don't require it to be paid off. ### Getting a single late payment removed **Debbie:** What about a 30- or 60-day late? Are those relatively easy to get off, or a coin flip? **George:** If you have a 30-day late, my suggestion is to call your creditor first and ask for a grace — do you have a one-time courtesy, I've never been late before. You probably have a 50-50 chance of removal on a single 30-day late. They're getting harder and harder. If you've had more than one in the last two years, or even more than one in the history of the account, the chances of removing it through the bureaus are slim — we almost never see it. Which is why you just make your payments on time, so you don't have to fight that two-year recovery. On the removals we do get: zero-balance collections have a much higher removal rate, and time is your friend — the older the item, the easier it is to drop off. With a zero balance, they're not sitting there wanting to validate, because you've already cost them money, so a lot of times those fall off simply because the dispute doesn't get answered. Occasionally you'll get a major bank account that for some reason doesn't get validated. I always send a disclaimer with that: wait for two or three credit reports before we raise the flag or pop the champagne. ### The truth about consumer credit counseling **Debbie:** We get calls from clients who signed themselves up for a consumer credit counseling program — make us a monthly payment, we'll get your debts paid off, you won't pay any more interest. By the time they get to us their credit report is an absolute disaster. But for someone who genuinely can't come up with the money to pay debts off, that program looks like their only opportunity. What's your take? **George:** It's a difficult one, because everyone is a little different. But think it through the life of an account. If you let that account go and you're paying less money to *someone else* for the debts of another company, it's almost double-compounded — they're going to buy your debt just like a collection company does, and they're going to charge your debt off. So you end up with a charge-off on your credit anyway. And even payment plans are tough, because the score doesn't change. **Debbie:** Here's what we're seeing. People sign up because they can make the minimum payments but can't get ahead of them, and they see no way out. So they take what's advertised: make us one payment a month, we'll cut the balances down, we'll get rid of the interest. But it isn't debt consolidation — you're not getting a personal loan to pay the cards off and making one payment. What happens is you pay them, and pay them, and they hold your money in an escrow or savings account. They are *not* making payments. So every month your report takes a 30-day late, then 60, then 90, then 120\. They're waiting for the credit card company to get into enough of a pickle that it will negotiate. Then they settle, and yes, the debt does get paid off and the account does get closed. But if you had three or four or five cards running that cycle, by the time you're done you have a credit score in the high 400s. It's pretty bad. **George:** The other option is the one I chose: leave them be. I wasn't going to be able to make the payment, so I stopped — but I knew that six months from then I might have the opportunity to settle for 50 cents on the dollar. So I started saving the money I would have been paying that company toward the settlement. Look at the timing: charge-off in six months, collection after that, and in a year I could settle for half *and* get a removal letter, versus a one- or two-year payment program with a debt consolidation company. **Debbie:** But you were fully aware and prepared for your score to tank. **George:** A hundred percent. It was already tanked. It doesn't take much more after your first few 30- and 60-day lates — it tanks and goes to one spot. And while that's happening you can be working the other areas of your report, the credit cards, the good stuff, so that a year or two down the road those items are a thing of the past. ### Is it ever time for bankruptcy? **Debbie:** Last one, and it's a doozy. Have you ever looked at someone's credit report and said it's time for bankruptcy? **George:** No. And the reason is the recovery. I've been down that road myself — it was so long ago I don't remember exactly when, for something like eighteen thousand dollars, and I felt like there was no way out. If I'd had the other approach, if someone had told me I'd need about seven grand a year from now and helped me put a plan together to get it, it would have been a lot easier. The recovery time from a bankruptcy is the hardest part. **Debbie:** If you had $18,000 in debt and you stopped paying and put a couple hundred bucks a month aside, your credit is going to get destroyed because you didn't make the payments — but then you settle for half of what you owed and you can start to rebuild. Whereas in lending, after a bankruptcy you're looking at a minimum of three years, sometimes four. If you need a jumbo loan on a higher-priced home, sometimes seven years. And we have some jumbo and portfolio lenders that won't do a loan for you if you have *ever* had a bankruptcy in your lifetime. So I see a much longer recovery from bankruptcy than from someone who just let the credit report go and had a pile of collections. But it does require being able to save the money to settle those debts. If there is absolutely no way to put money aside to settle any of it, then at that point bankruptcy is probably the way to go — a Chapter 7 clears the debt, you're not going to owe it. But the recovery period is brutal, and it's long. ### Wrap-up **Debbie:** George, thank you so much — we'll have you back, because this was great. If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week with the topic and a link to join. That's the same number to call the office. And you can always find us at mortgagemomradio.com. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 6, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Can You Get a Home Loan With a 550 Credit Score or No Tax Returns? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-home-loan-with-a-550-credit-score-or-no-tax-returns/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:36:39.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Alternative Loan Options” • Live show from Wednesday, August 23, 2023 • 52 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Most people who assume they can't get a mortgage never actually ask. In this episode Debbie walks through the loan programs built for the borrowers standard underwriting turns away — low credit scores, self-employed borrowers who write everything off, investors with no rental history, and buyers with money in the bank but income that won't document. FHA down to a 550 score, 1099 and bank statement loans, asset qualifier loans, debt service ratio loans for rentals, and hard money, plus the reserve requirements nobody warns you about. ## Key takeaways - **FHA can go down to a 550 credit score** with the right lender. Every lender sets its own floor — some stop at 600, some at 620 or 640 — so a decline is often that lender's overlay, not FHA's rule. Debbie had a file in process at the time with a **567 score**. - **Medical collections wreck scores but barely matter in mortgage underwriting.** Plenty of borrowers who have paid every card, car and mortgage on time still see a low score because of medical collections — and still get approved. - **VA also reaches down near 550** for eligible veterans, at zero down. FHA is 3.5% down. Both are full-documentation loans: W-2s and pay stubs, or tax returns if you're self-employed. A low score does not excuse you from proving income. - **Self-employed and writing everything off?** Four alternatives to tax returns: a **1099-only** program, a CPA-prepared P&L, a **bank statement** program qualifying on business and personal deposits, and an **asset qualifier** that uses your savings and investment accounts instead of income. - **Buying a rental with no rental history?** A **debt service ratio (DSCR)** loan qualifies the property, not you — the appraiser sets market rent, and if the rent covers the full payment the deal works. You normally need to own a primary residence first, though an existing rental portfolio can substitute. - **Reserves are the requirement people don't see coming.** Nearly every alternative-documentation program wants **six months** of the full payment — principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA — documented at closing, plus roughly **two more months for each additional property you own**. You keep the money; you just have to show it. - **Down payments start around 15% on some bank statement products, but 20% prices better**, and many of these programs open up at a 660 score rather than the 700 or 740 people assume. A "no" from one lender is a portfolio limitation — Debbie's client with one year of self-employment was told no elsewhere and was in escrow on her first home. ## Chapters - 01:00What today's show covers: low scores and hard-to-document income - 04:00FHA down to a 550 credit score - 05:00Medical collections, and a 567-score file in process - 08:00VA loans and low credit scores - 09:00Low score, large down payment: where hard money fits - 11:00Credit counseling and the plan to refinance out - 16:00Why a good borrower can still have a low score - 19:00Self-employed option 1: the 1099 program - 20:00Option 2: bank statement loans - 21:00Option 3: the asset qualifier loan - 25:00Option 4: debt service ratio (DSCR) loans for investors - 34:00Reserves: six months, plus two per additional property - 37:00Down payments as low as 15% — and what 20% buys you - 40:00Told no somewhere else: one year self-employed, now in escrow - 44:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ### Find out which program you actually qualify for Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, licensing recitations, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### What we're covering today Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about alternative loan options. What does that mean? If you're a lower credit score borrower and you're having a hard time getting approved — or if you're having issues verifying your income — what other loan programs or opportunities exist for you? We're going into those today. The first thing we're going to start with is low credit scores. I believe there are a lot of people who don't think they can get financing because they're scared, or because their credit score is lower than what they believe is required. I love that word *believe*, because a lot of people make the assumption that they can't do something — that they can't get a loan, that their credit won't qualify, that their income won't qualify — and they never actually pick up the phone, call us, and find out what their options are. ### FHA down to a 550 credit score I want to bring you FHA as the number one option. FHA loans are fabulous because they allow credit scores as low as 550 — at least that's what I can do with the lenders I work with. We have multiple lenders and they all have their own guidelines. Some of them won't work with you unless your credit score is over 600\. Some won't until you're at 620 or maybe 640\. But we have lenders that will go down to a 550, which is allowing people to get into homeownership and purchase a home. Let me preemptively say that a recent foreclosure, massive late payments, or collection accounts could still disqualify you even if the lender allows your score. But we have many clients with medical collections, and medical collections in mortgage are pretty much ignored — they don't matter to us. They will absolutely bring your credit score down, though. So you may have made all of your credit card payments, your car loans, even your current mortgage on time, and still feel like you can't get a loan. FHA might be a fabulous option for you. We have one in process right now where the borrower has a 567 credit score. The automated underwriting system ultimately gives us the approval, yes or no. That doesn't mean everybody with a 567 gets approved — but her situation allowed for it. How much money you have down, your debt-to-income ratio, the type of property you're buying, all of those factors go into that system and it gives us an answer. So I don't want anybody with a lower credit score to be deterred from trying to become a homeowner. ### VA loans and low scores What else allows lower credit scores? VA. If you're a veteran with eligibility to purchase a home, that will let you into the lower credit score realm as well. Everybody is a little different and your actual application goes through the system for a yes or no, but we have lenders in the VA loan type that will allow credit scores down to that 550 mark. Those are probably the two best scenarios for our listeners. VA and FHA do require that you can income qualify — you have to show us W-2s and pay stubs, or tax returns if you're self-employed. They are low down payment loans: as little as 3.5% down with FHA, or zero down with VA. But they are full income documentation loan types. I'm not telling you that you can have a 560 credit score and not have to prove your income. That is absolutely not the case, and I want you to hear that loud and clear. ### Low score, big down payment: hard money Let's say your credit score isn't fabulous — maybe you're in the low 500s — but you have a good chunk of money in the bank and could make a large down payment. Don't let people tell you no. When we talk with you, we're going to consult you about your credit: what can you do, what's the game plan to correct the report and get the score up? We'll do credit counseling with you so you have the tools you need. But there are also options like hard money, where you can still get a loan to purchase a home if you have a large down payment and can't show income. It's really about the property and the amount you're putting down. The individual investor looks at the property and at your down payment, and that determines whether they want to lend. Your income isn't necessarily a factor and your credit isn't necessarily a factor. Keep in mind that this is a very risky loan for the investor, which means they want a much higher interest rate than you'd get if you were fully documenting. So the credit counseling matters enormously — we create the roadmap so we can refinance you out of that hard money loan as quickly as possible. Six months to twelve months is the best timeframe to target. It gets you in, it creates the homeownership, and then we work the plan. For some people we work the plan first; for others, they need to get into that property now. Hard money is also great when you're buying a fixer-upper that won't qualify for standard conventional financing — the roof leaks and you can see it, there are cracks in the slab, there's mold that needs remediation. Those are great loans for contractors, or somebody doing a quick fix and flip. But if you're an everyday buyer who wants to buy a fixer and fix it up yourself, hard money probably isn't the answer. We have renovation-style loans that might be. We'd want to talk about the plan: are you hiring a contractor, or doing the work yourself? ### Why a good borrower can still have a low score What are some other reasons your credit score might be low? Maybe you're newer to credit. If you recently opened a card or two, you haven't established much history, and those first cards start with very low limits — a $100 limit, a $200 limit, $500 if you're lucky. As we all know, you can go to the grocery store and spend the entire amount, or half of it. As balances climb toward the top of your limit, your credit score plummets, and quickly. So there are reasons you might have a lower score even though you're a very viable borrower with good income who pays bills on time. The higher the credit score, the better the interest rate we can offer, so it's important that we try to get that score up while we're working on the pre-approval. We'll give you the goals and the tips of what to do so that hopefully by the time you're fully pre-approved and you've found a property, the score has actually improved. And even if we can't get you there, there are options. ### Self-employed: 1099, bank statement, and asset qualifier loans Now let's talk about self-employed borrowers. There are a lot of self-employed people who don't believe they can get financing. They're writing off a lot of income on their tax returns, so they aren't showing the full extent of what they earn, and that makes it very difficult on loan programs where you have to show two years of returns. We have a **1099 loan program**, which is pretty cool: we take the 1099s you earned and use those to verify income rather than the full tax return. That might perk up some of the real estate agents we work with. We have **bank statement** products, where we qualify you on the deposits coming into your business and personal accounts. Depending on whether you're a sole proprietor, an S corp, an LLC or a C corp, we look at business and personal statements, figure out what you're depositing monthly and what your expenses are, and determine income that way. We also have an **asset qualifier** program, and that one is really cool. You do not have to be self-employed for it — you can be employed, you can be unemployed, it doesn't matter. We qualify you based on the assets you have saved. We have clients with a decent amount of money in investment accounts whose whole approach is making their money work for them, and kudos to you for that, but it can make qualifying for new financing difficult. The asset qualifier solves that. I hope you're hearing what I'm saying over and over: there is a program for just about every person. When you tell yourself "I can't get a loan right now," that may not be accurate. You have to pick up the phone and tell us your situation — what's going on, where your credit is, how much down payment you want to make, what you have in the bank, what your reserves are. That's what lets us determine the best program for you. Along with that comes some counseling. If we get you into a loan that doesn't have the best pricing — maybe it has a high interest rate — we want a game plan to get you out of it. Everybody has a different page in their book. It might be time for you to buy, but everything else isn't quite falling into place. So we figure out how to get you in, and then how to make it better and how fast. If you're self-employed, we'll talk about where you expect your income to be next year, whether your 2023 returns will look better than 2022 did. We want those conversations so that we're not setting you up for failure. ### Debt service ratio loans for investors The next one is a debt service ratio loan — many people call it a DSCR. This is for when you're buying an investment property and your income isn't enough to qualify for a second mortgage, or you've never been an investor so there's no rental history for us to use to offset the debt. What we're doing is calculating the ratio between the rent the property can bring in and the new mortgage payment. If the property can carry itself, that's what we want — and if it carries itself and more, you get better pricing and better rates. If the whole payment, principal and interest and taxes and insurance, can be covered by the rent that property is capable of receiving, then on that basis alone you could qualify to buy it. That's a great option for employed and self-employed borrowers alike. One thing to keep in mind: you do have to have a primary residence. I've seen very few exceptions. The usual exception is somebody who rents where they live, or who is married and living in a home their spouse owns, but who already has a history of being an investor with other rental properties in a portfolio — even just one other property. In that case we can make the exception. Most of the time, though, they want you to own your primary first, and then this would be for your first investment purchase, or a second or third. ### Reserves, down payments, and credit score minimums A couple of things people ask about. Most of the alternative-documentation programs — not FHA and VA, those are different, those are the low-credit-score options we covered at the beginning — the ones where you qualify on your 1099s, on a P&L from your CPA, on your bank statements, all of those are going to need at least **six months of reserves**. What are reserves? Take the total monthly payment for the property you're buying: principal, interest, taxes, homeowners insurance, and HOA dues if there are any. Combine all of it. That's your complete monthly payment. Multiply it by six. You need that amount in reserves somewhere available. We're not taking the money from you and we're not locking it up through the loan program. You just have to document at approval and closing that after your down payment and your closing costs you still have that much left over. If you own other properties — say you have one, two or three already in your portfolio — you need an additional two months of reserves for each of those. Three more properties means another six months, which puts you at twelve. That's a general overview; every program has slightly different guidelines, but it touches the basics on most of them. Many of these programs are available at a 660 credit score, so you don't necessarily need a 700 or a 740\. Obviously the higher the score, the better the rate, and the higher the score the less money down may be required. As scores get lower they require a larger down payment. Down payments go as low as 15% on some of the bank statement products, although rates are better with at least 20% down. Just like your credit score: the bigger the down payment, the better the rate. ### When another lender says no I want to point out something. We have a client in process right now buying her first property. She's been self-employed for one year. Her tax returns aren't enough to qualify her, but she has the down payment and a good credit score, and we were able to get her into a program that works — one year of tax returns, or one year of bank statements. She was told no by another lender. That doesn't mean those lenders are doing anything harmful or on purpose. They may not have the programs available to them. If I worked at one of the larger banks and had only that bank's portfolio to work from, I might have to tell you no too — no, I don't have a program for you, you'll have to wait until you file that second year of returns. We have loan programs in many different arenas, so there's a good chance we might be able to tell you yes even when somebody else told you no. That's exactly what happened with her. She heard the show, thought she'd call anyway, and we spent a couple of months getting her documentation together and submitting to a few different banks to find where her puzzle piece fit. Now she's in escrow buying her first property and she is ecstatic. So when other people tell you no, don't take it as the final answer. We're going to be straightforward with you. We're straight shooters. We're going to tell you what we know and whether there's opportunity there. We may need you to apply before we can give you a solid yes or no, but we are not going to drag you through the trenches if there's no possibility — we'll talk through a game plan to get you to the point where we can. And if the opportunity is there, we'll explain what it looks like: how much you might need down, what kind of rate would be appropriate for that loan type, what the monthly payment would look like. Then you decide. ### Wrap-up I hope this was helpful and that it reached somebody who didn't think they could do something before, and now they can. We're here to educate and to get you to that next step. If you want to know when I go live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or one of the girls on my team. At mortgagemomradio.com you'll find the calculators, the tools, and a way to book a free phone consultation. I do the show live every Wednesday right between 1:00 and 1:15, and I'll be back next Wednesday. Have a fabulous rest of your week. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 23, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Should You Sell Right Now? What Your Home Equity Is Actually Worth URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-sell-right-now-what-your-home-equity-is-actually-worth/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:33:51.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, August 16, 2023 • 55 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Most homeowners who want to move aren't stuck on the house — they're stuck on the rate they'd give up. This show is for them. Debbie walks through the equity data (nearly seven in ten American homeowners are mortgage-free or halfway there), explains why a sale releases far more of your equity than a cash-out refinance ever will, and tells the story of her own move: sold in one day, multiple offers, debt paid off, and a mortgage payment that landed roughly where it started. ## Key takeaways - **American homeowners are sitting on a tremendous amount of equity.** **68.7%** have either paid off their mortgage entirely or hold at least 50% equity. Nearly **half** of all mortgaged properties are formally “equity rich” — loan balances no more than half the home's value — and that share rose in **45 of the 50 states** in the second quarter. - **Selling releases 100% of your equity. A cash-out refinance never does.** There's always a cap on how much a lender will let you take out. When you sell, you get all of it, minus closing and seller costs — which is usually far less than what the cash-out limit would have held back. - **The move that actually works is equity plus debt payoff.** Take part of the equity for a larger down payment, use another part to clear credit cards, car loans, personal loans, student loans, IRS debt. Even if the new mortgage payment is higher, wiping out every other monthly obligation usually leaves you in a better cash-flow position than you were in before. - **Debbie did it herself, weeks before this show.** She sold, bought, cashed out equity, paid off a pile of debt, put a substantial down payment on the new home — and her mortgage is roughly what it was before. Her house was on the market **one day**, got multiple offers, and sold at full asking, significantly above the last comparable sale in the neighborhood. - **Selling into this inventory shortage is the whole advantage.** Supply is down roughly **10%** from the same week a year earlier, and a year earlier was already low — roughly half the inventory of a normal market. Buyer traffic is still strong. When rates eventually fall, listings flood back and your home competes with all of them. - **Home values turned back up.** The nationwide median home value rose **10%** in the second quarter to an all-time high of **$350,000**, after falling 7% over the prior three quarters. The correction people were waiting for came in at about 10%, and it's already reversing. - **Very few people are underwater.** Just **2.8%** of mortgaged homes — one in 36 — were seriously underwater, the lowest since at least 2019\. Nothing like 2008. - **Don't buy on the assumption of a rescue refinance.** Debbie's own read is that rates may not reach a level worth refinancing into until the **end of 2024 or early 2025**. Buy a payment you can carry now; treat the refinance as upside, not as the plan. ## Chapters - 01:00Today's topic: what your equity can actually do - 06:00Why homeowners who want to move are staying put - 07:00What equity is, and how fast it grew - 08:00Half the inventory of a normal housing market - 18:0068.7% of homeowners are mortgage-free or halfway there - 19:00Why selling releases more equity than a cash-out refinance - 20:00Three ways sellers are using their equity - 23:00Is now the right time to sell? - 24:00Debbie's own move: one day on the market - 28:00Q&A: what are mortgage rates right now? - 32:00Q&A: why doesn't good credit qualify me for down payment assistance? - 37:00The equity report: 49% equity rich, 45 of 50 states improving - 43:00Who should stay put — and who shouldn't - 44:00Buyers: what waiting has already cost you - 46:00When a refinance might actually be worth it - 48:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ## Questions answered on this show ### “What are current mortgage interest rates?” The honest answer is a range, not a number, and here's why Debbie won't advertise one: every loan type, every credit score, every down payment, and every property type — single family, condo, manufactured, two-to-four unit — prices differently. Quoting 3.99% in a commercial and then telling you it's actually seven isn't marketing she's willing to do. The range as of this show runs from about **6.5% to as high as 8.5% or 9%**. FHA and VA, being government programs, typically price below conventional — in the **high 6s**. A jumbo loan, above the county loan limits, runs around **7% to 7.5%**. A self-employed borrower qualifying on bank statement deposits rather than tax returns is around **8.5%**. An investor buying a rental with no income documentation, qualified purely on whether the rents cover the mortgage, lands in the **9%** range. Call with your actual scenario — score, down payment, property type, how you document income — and you'll get a realistic number to plug into the calculators. ### “Why is it that the better my credit, the less assistance I get? I'm a first-time buyer and I don't qualify for down payment assistance.” It has nothing to do with credit. A higher score gets you a better rate and *more* programs, not fewer. What disqualifies most people from down payment assistance is **income**. Those programs are written for low-to-moderate income earners who can't realistically save a down payment and closing costs, so they carry income limits. Two things worth knowing. First, there are first-time buyer loans with low down payments that have no income test at all — those are a different thing from down payment assistance. Second, while the *majority* of down payment assistance programs have income limits, some do not. Which programs you can reach depends on the state, county and city you're buying in, and there are many programs from many different entities, not one national one. It's worth a conversation to find the one you actually fit. ## The market by the numbers (week of August 16, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Homeowners who are mortgage-free or hold at least 50% equity: **68.7%** - Mortgaged properties classified equity rich in Q2 2023: **49%**, up from 47% in Q1 — the highest in at least four years, improving in **45 of 50 states** - Seriously underwater (balances at least 25% above value): **2.8%**, or one in 36 — down from 3.0% the prior quarter and 2.9% a year earlier, and the lowest since at least 2019 - Nationwide median home value: up **10%** in Q2 to an all-time high of **$350,000**, after a 7% drop over the prior three quarters - For-sale inventory: down roughly **10%** from the same week a year earlier — roughly half a normal market's supply - Conventional and government rate range: **6.5%** to **9%** depending on program, score, down payment and property type - FHA and VA: **high 6s** • Jumbo: **7–7.5%** • Bank statement (self-employed): **\~8.5%** • Investor, rents-only qualifying: **\~9%** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find out what your equity could actually do Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Today's topic: your equity Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I am Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you a new topic about everything real estate and mortgage. Today I'm talking to my homeowners. We're going to talk about equity — what you can do with it and what it means for you. Home values are up, and they're once again on the rise. Should you be buying right now in this market? Should you be holding out? What's going on with the market, how many listings are out there, how are our inventory levels? We're going to go through all of that. This is an interactive show. If you want to participate, put your questions right into the stream on YouTube or Facebook — I'll read them out loud and answer them. ### Why homeowners who want to move are staying put Here's how the article I sent out to my newsletter subscribers this week opens: if you're a homeowner, you might be torn on whether or not to sell your house right now. Maybe that's because you don't want to take on a higher mortgage rate on your next home. We've talked about that, and it's real. Many homeowners in today's market would love to sell and buy something new, but they're holding out because they don't like what the rate would be on the new purchase and they don't like where the new monthly payment would land. If that's your biggest hurdle, understanding your equity may be exactly what you need to feel more comfortable making your move. ### What equity is, and how fast it grew Equity is the current value of your home minus what you owe on the loan. Recently that equity has been growing far faster than you may expect. Over the last few years home prices rose dramatically and gave your equity a very quick, very big boost. While the market has started to normalize, there's still an imbalance between the number of homes available for sale and the number of buyers looking to buy. It's because homes are in such high demand that prices are back on the rise today. That's why we're doing this show. Home prices are back on the rise. They are not slowing down. We had a minute there where things came down and we saw some price decreases — about a 10% correction — and now prices are going up again. We're seeing multiple offers again, and that's because of the imbalance of homes available on the market. ### Half the inventory of a normal housing market So I pulled a second article. It's titled “There's Only Half the Inventory of a Normal Housing Market Today.” Wondering if it still makes sense to sell your house right now? The short answer is yes — especially when you consider how few homes there are for sale. You may have heard inventory is low, but you may not fully realize just how low, or why that's a perk when you go to sell. Compared to the same week last year, supply is down roughly **10%**. And it was already considered low at that time. In 2019 we had a lower inventory level, but that was the closest to normal we'd had. In 2020 inventory dropped a little lower, then started to improve as interest rates fell very low and more people made the moves they wanted. In 2022 inventory was low and we were all complaining there wasn't enough. And now in 2023 inventory is even lower. ### Buyer traffic is still strong Here's a third one, because it's nice to hear this in multiple places rather than from one person. Home buyers are still more active than usual. Even though the housing market is no longer experiencing the frenzy that was so characteristic of the last couple of years, that doesn't mean today's market is at a standstill. Buyer traffic is still strong. The ShowingTime Showing Index measures how much buyers are touring homes. You can't see the graph I'm looking at, but there's clear seasonality in real estate: in normal years, buyer activity peaked in the first half of each year during the spring home buying season and slowed as the year came to a close. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, that trend was disrupted as the market responded to the uncertainty. From there we entered what the piece calls the unicorn years of housing — record low mortgage rates and sky-high buyer demand. Similar seasonal patterns still existed, just at much higher levels. Now look at 2023\. Traffic is down from the previous month and lower than the peaks of the unicorn years, but what's happening isn't a steep drop-off in demand. It's a slow return toward normal seasonality. So: far less inventory, still real buyer demand, your home holding a lot of equity, and property values on the rise. What can you do with that equity? ### 68.7% of homeowners are mortgage-free or halfway there Back to the first article. Americans are sitting on tremendous equity: **68.7%** have paid off their mortgage or have at least **50%** equity. Think about how much your home has increased in value. If you've got 50% equity sitting in that home, that's quite a bit — and nearly seven in ten Americans have at least that. You need to learn how to leverage it. Many of you have called with credit card debt, personal loans, car loans, student loans coming back into repayment, taxes owed to the IRS. You're looking for a way to take care of all of it, but you don't want to give up the mortgage you have. You like your rate, you don't want to refinance, you don't want to pull cash out. ### Why selling releases more equity than a cash-out refinance Here's a piece people miss. When you do a cash-out refinance, you can *never* get 100% of the equity out of your home — you're limited by how much we're allowed to lend against the property. If you sell that property, you get 100% of the equity you have available, minus your closing costs and seller's fees. That's a lot less than what the cash-out limit would have held back. ### Three ways sellers are using their equity Once you sell, you can use your equity for your next purchase. It could be some, if not all, of what you'll need for the next down payment. It may even be enough to allow a considerably larger down payment, so you don't have to finance as much. And if you've been in your current house for years, you may have built up enough to pay all cash — in which case you don't have to worry about today's mortgage rates at all. I see all three. We have a lot of people moving to another state, to lower-cost areas, selling and paying all cash with no financing whatsoever. We have others putting far more money down than they thought they'd be able to, which keeps their monthly payment quite similar to what they're already used to even with elevated rates — and when rates do come down, they have the opportunity to refinance and drop that payment further. And we have many people taking a significant portion of the equity for the down payment and using another portion to pay off debt. They're getting rid of the recurring monthly burden they couldn't clear because they didn't have the cash. Once those debts are paid off, the relief in monthly cash flow is such that the increased payment on the new mortgage is *still* lower than everything combined today: the old mortgage plus the car payments plus the student loans plus the credit cards plus the personal loans plus the IRS. Even if your mortgage payment goes up, you're very likely in a much better monthly cash flow position. ### Is now the right time to sell? Right now the market has very little inventory — the lowest levels I've seen in many, many years. We have more buyer demand than we have homes on the market. Many homes are going over asking with multiple offers, again, even with elevated interest rates. So if you're a seller who wants to list right now, the opportunity to sell quickly, at a fantastic price, and cash out that home is an amazing one. As rates start to come back down and more people feel it's time to sell, buy, move and get a better rate, more properties come to market — which means far more competition for your listing than you'd have today. ### Debbie's own move Being completely transparent with all of you: I just did this. I sold my home, we bought another home, I cashed out equity, I paid off a bunch of debt, I put a really nice-sized down payment on the new property — and my mortgage is still roughly the same as it was previously. It worked out fantastically. I was on the market for **one day** and I got multiple offers, and I sold my home at the full value I was asking, which was significantly more than what the last home in the neighborhood sold for. We literally moved a month ago and sold the home two months ago. I can talk to you about articles, but as somebody who just went through it: that's the experience I had. I'm feeling a lot less pressure. I'm a lot more relaxed. I'm smiling again. Getting that monkey off your back, getting those debts paid and being able to move forward and start fresh — it was a great opportunity, and one I think a lot of you aren't considering. ### Q&A: what are mortgage rates right now? Diosa asks: *“What are the current mortgage interest rates?”* Fabulous question, and one I get every day — but it's very difficult to answer, because every loan type, every borrower with a different credit score, every borrower with a different down payment, every property type — single family, manufactured, condominium, two, three or four unit — gets a different rate. That's why you'll never hear me run a commercial that says “call now, 3.99%” and then you call and find out rates are seven. Every person's rate is individual to that person, and there's just no way to market something that doesn't apply to everybody. I don't feel right about it. But rates today range anywhere from about **6.5%** up as high as **8.5% or 9%**. That 9% end is somebody not showing typical conventional paperwork — an investor buying a rental who can't or won't show tax returns, where we're qualifying solely on the property itself and whether the rents cover the mortgage. If you're self-employed on a bank statement loan, qualifying on deposits rather than tax returns, you could be around **8.5%**. FHA and VA are government programs and typically yield a lower rate than conventional — those are in the **high 6s** right now. A jumbo loan, above the county loan limits for the area, could be around **7% to 7.5%**. If you want to run numbers yourself, use the calculators on the website or the tools app. Email, text or call us with your scenario — what you think your credit score is, how much you have for a down payment, whether you can qualify with pay stubs and W-2s or you're self-employed — and we'll give you a good average rate to plug in. ### Q&A: down payment assistance and credit Diosa also asks: *“Why is it that the better the credit, the less assistance? I'm a first-time home buyer and don't qualify for the home buyer assistance. It's frustrating.”* It has nothing to do with your credit. The higher your credit score, the better you do on rate, and the more loan programs are available to you. Your credit is not what's disqualifying you from down payment assistance. There are first-time buyer loans with low down payments that have nothing to do with income. But *down payment assistance* programs are pretty restrictive on how much you can earn. They're looking for the low-to-moderate income earner who doesn't have the opportunity to make enough money to save what they'd need for a down payment and closing costs, and they're trying to help that person get into homeownership. I know that sounds terrible, and I agree — I'm just relaying how it works and their reasoning behind it. Even at moderate to higher income it can be very difficult to save a down payment and closing costs, and we understand that. So here's the important part: the *majority* of down payment assistance programs have income limits, but there are programs that do not. Which ones you can use depends on the county, the city and the state you're buying in. There isn't one program out there — there are numerous programs from many different entities. We just need to talk through your scenario to figure out which one works for you. Keep the questions coming. Every time I answer a question for you, I'm answering it for many. ### The equity report Here's another article, from July 27th of this year: “Equity Improves for U.S. Homeowners as Housing Market Boom Shows Signs of Revival.” ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property and real estate data, released its second quarter 2023 U.S. Home Equity and Underwater Report, which shows that **49%** of mortgaged residential properties in the United States were considered equity rich in the second quarter — meaning the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than half of their estimated market values. That ties back to what I said earlier about 68.7% of homeowners either having the mortgage completely paid off or holding at least 50% equity. The portion of mortgaged homes that were equity rich increased from **47%** in the first quarter of 2023 to the highest point in at least four years, with home prices rebounding across the U.S. The level of equity-rich mortgage payers went up from the first quarter to the second quarter in **45 of the nation's 50 states**. So there will be some pockets that aren't seeing the same appreciation, and some pockets actually seeing declines — it truly depends on the state, the county, the city you're looking in. You might be seeing a different story than what I'm describing. But 45 of 50 states are seeing home prices rebound. The gains followed two straight quarterly drop-offs — that's the roughly 10% correction I mentioned — caused by a temporary slowdown that had threatened to end a decade-long run of price and equity growth. The second quarter upturn marked another sign of how the market shift has helped homeowners, as home seller profits also spiked. ### Only 2.8% are seriously underwater The report also shows that less than 3% of mortgaged homes in the U.S. — one in 36 — were considered seriously underwater in the second quarter of 2023\. That means a combined estimated balance of loans secured by the property of at least 25% *more* than the property's estimated value. So there are still people out there upside down in their home, but that number is very, very small compared to what we saw in 2007, 2008, 2009 during that meltdown. Just **2.8%** of mortgaged homes were seriously underwater in the second quarter, also the lowest point since at least 2019 — down from 3.0% in the prior quarter and 2.9% in the second quarter of 2022. As ATTOM's chief executive, Rob Barber, put it: equity levels were high even during the recent downturn and now they're going back up and better than ever. It's well worth noting that the market remains in flux and the recent improvement could easily be temporary. Lots of changing forces are at work affecting whether boom times are really back, especially amid a recent increase in mortgage rates. But with the 2023 peak buying season still underway, homeowners can reasonably expect their household balance sheets to grow a bit more in the near future. Nationwide, the median home value shot up **10%** in the second quarter to yet another all-time high of **$350,000**, after dropping 7% over the prior three quarters. ### Who should stay put — and who shouldn't You're hearing solid data, over and over: we're on the rebound, home values are going up again, supply is very short, demand is real, and homeowners have a ton of equity. That's a fantastic opportunity to sell and cash out. And as that article said, we don't know what tomorrow brings. Things can shift in a heartbeat. If property values decline, your equity declines, and the amount of cash you could take out of your property is less. So right now is a good time to strike if you've been thinking about selling and sitting on the fence. Here's the honest other side. If you're a homeowner with a super low interest rate, no debt, and no rush to move — by all means stay put. Stick it out. See where the market goes. If you sell today and take a new mortgage at a higher rate, maybe that doesn't make sense for you. But for many of you it absolutely does, and striking while the iron is hot is the best time to do it. What we need to talk about is your specific math: how much equity you have, what price home you'd be moving into, how much of that equity you'd put down, whether your new mortgage balance would actually drop below what you owe today. Can you take some of the equity and pay off debt, get that relief, then use the rest for the down payment and closing costs? Do you end up in a better monthly cash flow position? Because that's what it's all about. We all earn money, we all make payments to live, and the goal is getting cash flow to the lowest level we can. ### Buyers: what waiting has cost you Buyers, many of you have been on the fence a long time, waiting for the market to drop out from under itself and for property values to come crashing down. At this point it doesn't appear that's going to happen. We saw the slowdown, we saw values start to come down, and now we're seeing the rebound. So take a minute. If you had bought a home when you first started thinking about buying — what were home values at that point? What could you have bought that home for? What is that home worth today, and what will you pay for it now? Putting that goal on hold has cost you how much? How much longer are you going to hold out before you're completely priced out and never become a homeowner? ### When a refinance might actually be worth it I want to circle back to rates. I'm not going to tell you they're coming down by the end of this year. I'm not going to tell you they're coming down in 2024. My personal opinion — the Mortgage Mom, from doing this as many years as I have, watching the articles week in and week out, watching the stock market and mortgage-backed securities and everything unfolding globally — I don't know that we'll see rates at a place that would be worth refinancing a mortgage you took today until maybe the end of 2024, maybe even the beginning of 2025\. I could be absolutely wrong. Two weeks ago on the show I said 14 to 18 months, which is about the same window. So the most important thing to factor in right now: sellers, if you sell, make sure you're in a position to afford the payment you'd be taking on today. Buyers, especially first-time buyers, take a payment you can afford monthly — not one that depends on rates coming down and a refinance making you comfortable. Get comfortable now. Then when rates come down, you refinance, you get an even lower payment, and you benefit even more. ### The referral network One more thing worth knowing. We have a network of real estate agents we've worked with for many years, in many states. If you're a seller looking to sell or a buyer looking to buy, we can refer you to one of them. **We do not take a referral fee in any way.** These are people we trust to work hard for you and do the job right. All of the agents on our panel have offered discounts to sellers and buyers — help with closing costs, with the seller's cost of selling, with commission fees. Many will give a credit that goes directly back to the buyer through the closing of the loan toward closing costs, which can be significant savings if you have enough for the down payment but not the closing costs. And if you're doing two transactions, a discount on the commission for the sale plus a credit toward closing costs on the purchase is huge. ### Wrap-up If you want to know when I go live so you can jump on and ask questions, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week. Same number to call the office, and you can book a free phone consultation right on the website at mortgagemomradio.com. You need a plan. You need to know the numbers and what you're looking at before you can execute anything. With no plan comes no movement — you'll never execute, you'll never finish, and the goal will never be obtained. I'll be back next Wednesday with a whole other topic. Last week we talked about 1031 exchanges and DSTs, for saving on the tax implications of selling an investment property when you're not quite ready to buy another one — if you've never heard of that, go back and watch the show on YouTube or listen by podcast. Have a fabulous rest of your week, and I'll see you Wednesday. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 16, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### What Is a DST? Using a 1031 Exchange to Stop Being a Landlord URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-is-a-dst-using-a-1031-exchange-to-stop-being-a-landlord/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:36:41.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “1031 Exchange into a DST! Hands off Passive Income!” • Live show from Wednesday, August 9, 2023 • 46 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 You're done being a landlord, but you don't want the capital gains bill that comes with selling. That's the problem a Delaware Statutory Trust is built for. Debbie is joined by Jamie Furlong, managing partner at Legacy Investments and Real Estate, and real estate broker Danielle Whitney Moore of Keller Williams, to explain what a DST actually is, how it satisfies a 1031 exchange, what it pays, and the two limitations that disqualify most people who ask about it. ## Key takeaways - **A DST is fractional ownership of real property, classified as a security.** The Delaware Statutory Trust holds deed and title; you buy a "beneficial interest." It's a real building with a real address — self-storage, medical office, apartments, student housing — not a virtual asset. And that ownership **satisfies a 1031 exchange**, so the tax stays deferred. - **A 1031 makes you replace the debt, not just the equity** — the piece sellers miss most often. Danielle's example: net $1.3 million and pay off $500,000 of debt, and the replacement has to be $1.8 million or more. A DST can assign debt to you, so you don't have to qualify for a new loan or bring in extra cash. - **You have to be an accredited investor:** a net worth over $1 million outside your primary residence, or income of $200,000 single / $300,000 married. Minimum investments generally run **$50,000 to $100,000**. - **It is illiquid and you do not control the exit.** Plan on a hold of **4 to 10 years**; the historical average across hundreds of DSTs is roughly 4 to 7\. Interests are legally transferable to another accredited investor, but there's no ready market and no set price. This is not a parking spot for money you'll need in three years. - **Income at the time of the show:** Jamie's clients across a diversified mix of DST properties were commonly achieving about **4% net cash-on-cash** on their equity — sometimes a riskier property type yielding five blended against a lower-risk one yielding three and a half. That is modeled *after* expenses and maintenance, and DSTs fund reserve accounts so a roof or thirty water heaters don't come out of your cash flow. - **You can split the exchange.** Buy a traditional replacement property through your agent and put the leftover proceeds into a DST to defer the rest. Or deliberately take some cash out of the exchange, pay tax on that slice, and keep the liquidity cushion you'll need over the next ten years. - **Do not confuse the primary residence exclusion with a 1031.** If you've lived in your home two of the last five years, $250,000 of gain is excluded if you're single and $500,000 if you're married. That has nothing to do with a 1031 exchange on an investment property — Danielle says sellers mix these up constantly. ## Chapters - 00:00Meet the guests: a securities-licensed advisor and a broker - 03:00A real closing: four sellers, three different exit routes - 04:00The rule sellers miss: you have to replace the debt too - 07:00What a Delaware Statutory Trust actually is - 09:00How beneficial interest satisfies the exchange - 11:00Splitting an exchange between a property and a DST - 13:00Hold period: 4 to 10 years, and you don't call the exit - 16:00Accredited investor rules, and selling your interest - 21:00Planning the next ten years before you list - 24:00Q&A: who's who in a DST transaction - 25:00Q&A: how many sponsors are out there - 29:00Exchanging across state lines - 35:00What a DST actually pays - 39:00The $250K/$500K home sale exclusion is not a 1031 - 40:00Where to find the guests, and Debbie's portfolio advice ## Questions answered on this show ### “Who is actually who in a DST transaction — is the real estate agent the one investing my money?” No, and it's an easy thing to get tangled. The real estate agent — Danielle, in this case — is the one selling your property, or selling you a replacement property, and helping with the 1031 exchange as the agent in the transaction. The securities-licensed professional — Jamie — is the one who handles the DST side: representing you as the investor, vetting the trusts and the companies that assemble them, and helping you purchase the beneficial interest. Debbie, as the lender, sits outside that triangle entirely; her role starts if you need financing on a traditional replacement property instead. ### “How many DST sponsors does an advisor work with?” Roughly 50 companies in the country offer DST investments — "sponsor" is the term for the company that assembles the trust. Not all of them clear a broker-dealer's due diligence, and Jamie's firm runs a specific vetting funnel at the company, personal and broker-dealer level. Over the course of a year that leaves up to about 30 sponsors she'd actually work with, and potentially hundreds of individual DSTs available on a rolling basis. Her point: the goal isn't the biggest possible menu, it's enough quality inventory to match a client's needs — they deliberately don't work with every sponsor. ### Thinking about selling an investment property? Talk through the financing side before you list. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, licensing recitations, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Guests: Jamie Furlong, managing partner, Legacy Investments and Real Estate; Danielle Whitney Moore, real estate broker, Keller Williams.* ### Meet the guests **Debbie:** Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about DSTs. Many of you have probably never heard of that before. I've got Danielle Whitney Moore with us from Keller Williams, and Jamie Furlong. Jamie, I'll let you say where you're from and what you do, since you've never been on the show before. **Jamie:** Thank you for having me. I'm Jamie Furlong, managing partner of Legacy Investments and Real Estate. Like you, Debbie, and Danielle, I'm a real estate professional, but I'm licensed very differently — I hold securities licenses, which puts me in the realm of wealth managers and financial planners. What I want to talk about today is thinking long-term about your real estate investments, and how to pivot and adjust using 1031 exchanges throughout your investing career. The Delaware Statutory Trust, or DST for short, may be a tool your clients and audience leverage at some point, and I want to make sure they know how to use it and when. ### A real closing, and the rule sellers miss **Debbie:** There are a lot of people who own investment properties and are at the point where they're ready to sell — they're kind of over it — but they're concerned about what they'd owe in taxes if they don't replace the property with a 1031 exchange. Danielle, you just closed a transaction where a client went the DST route. **Danielle:** The recent transaction I closed had four different sellers — an aunt and uncle, a niece and a nephew — and they all wanted to go different directions with their financial future. Two of them did a standard 1031 exchange and bought other investment properties. One went the DST route, which is a lot more hands-off, and you get the option to invest in something big like a medical office or student housing that you normally wouldn't be able to access. And it's completely managed for you. The thing a lot of people are unaware of is that when you do a 1031 exchange, *you also have to replace the debt you paid off*. Say your net proceeds on a property are $1.3 million and you also paid off $500,000 of debt in that transaction. Your next transaction has to be $1.8 million or above to replace that debt. Sometimes people aren't in a position where they want to get financing again, and they don't want to bring in an extra $500,000 in cash — that was exactly my client's situation. With a DST you have the option to invest in one that will assign debt to you as part of the trust, so you're not taking out an additional note or bringing extra cash, and you're still deferring the capital gains. **Debbie:** And with rates higher than they've been in a very long time, there are a lot of people who want to sell an investment property but don't feel like buying a new one would give them the same return — the cash flow might not cover the new payment on a like-for-like property. That's why I liked this topic. There are also a lot of baby boomers holding a lot of real estate who don't want to stay hands-on maintaining it and collecting rent, but don't want to get stuck with the tax burden either. ### What a DST actually is **Jamie:** The Delaware Statutory Trust is classified by regulators as a security, primarily because it's a passive investment. Like buying stock in a company, that stock entitles you to certain benefits, but you're not the decision maker — you're not in the boardroom calling the shots. DSTs create a similar buy-in opportunity. We're talking about real property, bricks and sticks with a physical address, deeded and titled — but the deed and title are in the name of the trust. That entity provides some protection to the investors and removes any management obligation from them. There's a long suitability process to determine whether this kind of investing is right for you. Once that's determined, I can show you an inventory of DST properties I think might fit — a self-storage building, a medical office, an apartment complex, whatever makes sense based on where we are in the market. When you buy into one of these, you receive what we call a beneficial interest, and that ownership satisfies your 1031 exchange. That's really important. When you sell your rental and reinvest in a DST, taxes can be deferred. And that ownership entitles you to the benefits you're used to: monthly income — there are tenants, there are leases, people are paying rent; bills get paid, debt service gets paid if there's a mortgage, and net proceeds are distributed to the owners. Other potential benefits include tax write-offs and a depreciation allocation depending on your basis. When the property eventually sells, net proceeds are distributed based on percentage ownership. So it looks and feels a lot like what our clients are used to as real estate investors. The key difference is that they're passive. All management and decision-making is handled by the trustee, also referred to as the sponsor. Our clients go on vacation and hang out with their grandchildren instead of fixing toilets and taking calls from tenants. **Jamie:** And you don't have to invest *only* in a DST as part of your exchange. If we find a replacement property that's less than what you need to spend to defer your taxes, you can take those extra funds and invest the rest into a DST — do both as part of the same exchange. **Danielle:** Most DSTs have a minimum somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000\. So if your client has a couple hundred thousand left over, this lets them defer the tax and invest in two things at once. **Debbie:** I like it because somebody who's just done taking care of a property but doesn't want to be hammered with the tax liability still owns property. It's just a percentage of the property. You're still an owner, you're still getting your share of the monthly income, you're still getting the same benefits — but you're completely hands-off. You're receiving a check every month for your portion. ### Hold period: this is not a parking spot **Debbie:** This is not just a place to park your money. How long is somebody's money in if they buy into this? **Jamie:** That's a really important consideration, and it includes hold period and illiquidity. By its very nature, real estate is a long-term, relatively illiquid investment. If you want your money out, it requires that you sell the property. DSTs are the same way — and that decision to sell is not made by you. You do not call me a month later, a week later, two years later and say you want out. To be a suitable investor in a DST, you need to be comfortable with an investment period that could be **4 to 10 years**. Looking back at how long hundreds of these have been held, the historical average is about 4 to 7 years. So we're really going to talk about liquidity — your budget, your balance sheet, your net worth — and whether this kind of long-term hold fits your lifestyle and your investment goals. **Debbie:** Is it possible to sell the share you bought in? Say it's a medical building and the majority owners aren't ready to sell — they may never sell. Can somebody put their share up for sale? **Jamie:** The ownership is legally transferable. But we should introduce the phrase *accredited investor* — that's a suitability requirement for investing in DSTs. It means a net worth of a million dollars outside of your primary residence, or income of $200,000 if you're single, $300,000 if you're married. So if you're invested in a DST and you find someone else who's an accredited investor and wants to buy your ownership, that is fine, and the players in the space can help with the paperwork. Here's what we don't know: who's going to buy it, and what price they'll pay you. And there are a lot of limitations on who can help you find a buyer because of securities laws. But yes, it's transferable if you find someone interested and you agree on a price. **Debbie:** So if I say I'd like to put $100,000 into a DST but I really only want to be in for three or four years, do you have that information? **Jamie:** That's a question you could ask about any kind of real estate investing. If you're buying a rental in Southern California and Danielle asks how long you think you'll hold it — real estate investment decisions shouldn't be emotional, they should be results-driven. The general business plan for a DST is to sell when it's profitable. Nobody has a crystal ball. What we *can* control are things like rent growth, pushing revenue and managing expenses, which increases net operating income and drives value at sale. What we can't control are interest rates, unemployment, recessions — the larger market considerations that affect timing. So it would only be speculation to tell you how long an investment period might be. It'll be as short or as long as it needs to be to drive a meaningful total return. **Debbie:** So this is not the option for somebody who says, in four years I plan to retire and I want that cash back to use another way. This has to be money where you accept that it is not liquid and you do not know when you're getting it back. **Jamie:** Here's how I'd handle that. We all appreciate when clients come to us *in advance* of making big changes, because that's when we can really help. What I'd love is for the property owner to have a call with all of us and for us to ask: what do the next ten years look like? What are your goals? When are you retiring? When do you need liquidity? Because when we know that, we can potentially say — now's a great time to list, Danielle gets you a great sales price, you do a 1031 and defer the taxes, and because you want to be passive, DSTs might be a good replacement property. But since you mentioned needing cash, why not take some cash out of your exchange now? It'll be exposed to taxes, but far less than a full sale would be. Have that cash cushion, and then decide whether you're comfortable with the remaining equity going into real property with an indeterminate hold period. **Danielle:** And maybe you put part of it into traditional real estate, but a townhouse or condo that's far less hands-on than the eight-unit building you had — you're relying on the HOA for gardening and exterior maintenance. We have clients doing that: part into a condo they can sell in four years to pull money back out, and the rest into a DST to defer the taxes. ### A real building, not crypto **Danielle:** With crypto and all the confusing things out there right now — a DST is an actual building you're investing in, with an address. You're a percentage owner in that building. It's like going out to buy 123 Main Street, except you may only own 5% of 123 Main Street. **Debbie:** Jamie, you work with properties across the US. It doesn't have to be a property in California. **Jamie:** The 1031 tax code lets an exchanger who owns investment property in the US exchange it for investment property anywhere in the US. You can cross state lines. And there are limitations to investing in California, including price — California real estate can be cost prohibitive, while there are great markets across the country you might want to tap into. With the lower access point of a DST, this frees the investor up to reach markets and property types they aren't experts in. You don't have to be the expert on an industrial building in Houston or an apartment building in Colorado — the sponsor is, and they put together a due diligence package, what we call a private placement memorandum, with all the information about that property and market. **Debbie:** So the investor gets to see the numbers — the rents that came in, the expenses, the full prospectus — before putting money in. Nothing's guaranteed, but you can see past performance. **Jamie:** You can. We live in the world of big data, and the sponsor companies pay for and have access to a lot of it, which goes into the offering materials including the appraisal. It's super important to look at those numbers, because think about the motivation: the sponsor is trying to sell you something. They're going to put together a package that looks shiny and good. It's so important to dig into the numbers and the details, and that's a big part of my job representing the investor — what are we really working with behind these beautiful pictures of a gorgeous apartment building? Depending on your level of expertise you can get pretty deep with the data; there's really no limit to what you can pick apart when deciding if a property is the right fit. ### What a DST pays **Debbie:** Let's talk about returns. What can you expect from buying into a DST? **Jamie:** It might not surprise you that one of the first questions people ask is how much money they're going to make. The good news is we have a lot of information to set expectations around income potential, and we absolutely want to do that — especially for the older investor living on a fixed income. Different returns are available at different risk levels and in different property types. In DSTs you have access to a lot of commercial property types: hotels, student housing, seniors housing, apartments. There isn't anything special about DSTs when it comes to yield, except that the sponsor might have negotiated a great purchase price, and sponsors tend to be very good at management and maximizing rents and lowering expenses. Otherwise the yields should be similar to the broader market. One benefit of DST income is that we're modeling a *net* cash-on-cash return — the bottom line for the investor after expenses and after maintenance. That's a big one. When you own real estate yourself and the water heater goes out or you need a new roof or you have a vacancy, that hits your bottom line hard. DSTs have reserve accounts to handle those repairs, funded a little each month, so when you need to replace thirty water heaters it comes from the reserve, not from cash flow. Cash flow tends to be more consistent because of that planning. Right now, a lot of my clients in a diversified mix of DST properties are able to yield **4% net on their equity** or more. A lot is changing with pricing and interest rates, so yields are changing on a daily basis — the true answer would be revealed at the time you actually have an exchange and we look at the inventory then. But that's an appropriate reference point for where we're at in the market. **Debbie:** So 4%, 4.5%, somewhere in there is about average. **Jamie:** Sure — and maybe that's an exchanger in a riskier investment type yielding five, plus a lower-risk property type yielding three and a half, and the blended yield gets you that four. Or they stay middle of the road across the different properties they pick and land right around four. ### The home sale exclusion is not a 1031 **Danielle:** I get this question all the time. Sellers are confused between the $250,000 to $500,000 capital gains exclusion and a 1031 exchange. I had a seller tell me last week they were going to take all the proceeds from their primary residence, put it into the next one, and not owe tax. Here's the distinction. If you sell your *primary residence* and you've lived there two out of the last five years, $250,000 of your gain is exempt from capital gains tax if you're single, $500,000 if you're married. That is completely separate from what we're talking about today, which is an *investment property* that is not your primary residence — you sell it and defer all the tax by going into a 1031 exchange, investing all of that money plus whatever debt you had on the property you sold. People are constantly confused about when they would owe capital gains, and it's very different from a primary residence to another primary residence. ### Wrap-up **Danielle:** I'm Danielle Whitney Moore, a real estate broker. My team is Team Whitney — teamwhitney.com. We handle mainly the Los Angeles area; my office is in Rancho Palos Verdes, so Long Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, San Pedro is our primary market, but we just finished a transaction in Big Bear and I was out in San Bernardino yesterday. I do have a team, so we can go farther to serve people if necessary. **Jamie:** Jamie Furlong, managing partner at Legacy Investments and Real Estate — legacyire.com. Physically located in Sacramento with a colleague in San Diego, but we have clients all over the country. Last week I was at a tax conference on a panel of CPAs talking about estate planning, and the moderator said, "All of my clients made their wealth in real estate. How do we address estate planning and real estate investing?" That's what our company is designed to help you start thinking about. For a lot of investors, later in life being passive sounds pretty nice. Earlier in life, you call Danielle — Danielle's going to help you get rich. We strive to help with capital preservation and the potential for consistent income. It really is about laying out all the options, making a long-term plan, and having the right people on your team. **Debbie:** I say it week after week: the most important thing you can do for your retirement is to get into real estate and start building your portfolio. Buy one, don't sell it, rent it out, buy another one. You need that real estate for retirement in the future. And this is proof of it — eventually you start to sell that portfolio and move into DSTs where somebody else takes care of it for you. If anybody has questions, you can call the Mortgage Mom any time at 844-935-3634\. Ladies, thank you so much for your time today. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 9, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. Delaware Statutory Trusts are securities and were discussed on this episode by a guest holding securities licenses. Nothing on this page is an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security. DST investments carry material risks including illiquidity, loss of principal, general market conditions, interest rate risk and financing risk, up to and including loss of the entire invested amount. Consult your own tax, legal and securities professionals before investing. ### The Fed Raised Rates Again — So Why Didn't Mortgage Rates Move? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-rates-again-so-why-didnt-mortgage-rates-move/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:36:42.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Fed Raised Rates” • Live show from Thursday, August 3, 2023 • 58 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve raised the Fed funds rate a quarter point to the highest level in 22 years — and mortgage rates barely twitched. Debbie explains why that happened, what the Fed said it will be watching before September, and the part that matters most if you're shopping right now: budget the payment you're signing for, not the payment you're hoping to refinance into. Plus when a rate-and-term refinance actually pencils, and what it really costs. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed hiked a quarter point to 5.25–5.50%, the highest in 22 years, and mortgage rates were essentially unchanged.** Two reasons: the hike was fully expected and already priced in, and mortgage rates track mortgage-backed securities, not the Fed funds rate. - **What the Fed *does* move directly:** HELOCs, home equity loans, credit cards and car loans. That's why buying out a partner with an equity line at that moment meant double-digit rates, while a first mortgage did not. - **Powell named exactly what he's watching before September:** two jobs reports, two CPI inflation reports, and one employment cost index. Debbie's call: one more hike in September, then a long hold — possibly 15 to 18 months. For reference, in the 2018 cycle the Fed cut seven months after the last hike, and mortgage rates improved steadily during that stretch. - **Core inflation was running 4.6% against a 2% target,** and the Fed's own forecast didn't have it reaching goal until 2025\. That's what "higher for longer" actually means. - **Rates were around 7% to 7.25%,** and points or seller-paid concessions could get you into the high sixes. Historically that's close to the 30-year average, not a crisis rate — it only feels extreme because money was cheap for so long. - **Do not buy a payment you can only afford if you refinance by Christmas.** Debbie's rule on this show: budget that payment for **24 months**. If we can refinance you in twelve, fantastic — but sign up for something you can carry. - **The recession everyone was promised never showed up.** One reputable publication called a 100% chance of recession in 2023; instead the economy was growing near 2% with unemployment at 3.6%. Home values dropped about 10% from mid-2022 through the first quarter of 2023 and had already started climbing again. ## Chapters - 01:00Back after two weeks off — and the Fed moved - 03:00Reading the week's mortgage market update - 04:00The hike: 5.25–5.50%, highest in 22 years - 05:00What Powell said he'll watch before September - 07:00Why they'll hold rates rather than cut quickly - 11:00Why mortgage rates didn't move on the announcement - 16:00Where rates are: 7% to 7.25%, and buying them down - 22:00Historically normal rates, and the plan that goes wrong - 23:00Budget the payment for 24 months - 26:00When a rate-and-term refinance is worth doing - 28:00What a refinance actually costs, and "no fee" explained - 33:00Is now a good time to buy? - 36:00Buy, refinance, rent it out, buy again - 43:00Q&A: how long a pre-approval lasts, and does it travel? - 47:00Q&A: buying out a partner without losing a 3% rate - 52:00Blended rate: when a 7% refinance beats a 2.5% first ## Questions answered on this show ### “Is now a good time to buy?” Yes. Inventory is low, rates are up, and there are far fewer buyers in the market — but a well-priced home still draws competition. The moment rates come down, everyone who has been sitting on the sidelines floods back in and it turns into what we saw in 2020, with values climbing again. Buy at today's prices, refinance when rates fall, and you're better off than the buyer who waited. It's a particularly good window for a first-time buyer who needs a seller willing to accept FHA financing, a lower down payment, or a slightly longer escrow — those things get much harder to negotiate when the market is hot. ### “How long is my loan application good for, and is it only good for one area?” Your application lasts as long as your documents do, and each document has its own clock: credit report 120 days, bank statements 60 days, pay stubs 30 days. Keep feeding us updated documents and your pre-approval technically never expires. What changes it is a change in *you* — a new job, a lower score, a car loan that added a payment. On location: it depends on your job. If you work from home, or you're a firefighter, railroad worker or dock worker with steady time on and time off, it doesn't matter where you buy — Debbie has had firefighters stationed in Los Angeles buy primary residences in Texas. If you're a teacher moving from California to Arizona or Nevada, we need the transfer already lined up: an offer letter showing where you're going and what you'll earn. If you want to move first and find the job after, there are loans for that too, but they require a much larger down payment. ### “I own half a rental at under 3%. My partner wants to sell me his half and I want to keep that rate. What are my options?” There's no way to increase the loan you already have and keep its terms, so the only way to keep the 3% is to keep that exact mortgage — which means either buying your partner out in cash, or taking a second: a home equity line or home equity loan. Those are tied to the Fed funds rate, so at the time of this show they were in the double digits. Then run the blended rate. If you owe $200,000 at 3% and need another $200,000 to buy him out, blend 3% against a double-digit second across the full $400,000 — a complete refinance at 7% may genuinely cost less, cash flow better, and pay less total interest than keeping them separate. If you owe $200,000 at 3% and only need $50,000 or $60,000, the equity loan wins even at a high rate, because the blended rate stays low. It comes down to the actual numbers, which is exactly what the blended rate calculator is for. ## The numbers behind this episode (week of August 3, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Fed funds target: raised a quarter point to **5.25–5.50%** — the highest level in 22 years - 30-year mortgage rates: roughly **7% to 7.25%**, with the high sixes reachable by paying points or using seller concessions - Core inflation (the Fed's preferred gauge): **4.6%**, against a **2%** target - Unemployment: **3.6%**; economy growing near **2%** - Home values: down about **10%** from mid-2022 through the first quarter of 2023, already recovering - Median sale price for context: about **$450,000** nationally, about **$700,000** in Southern California - Home equity lines and home equity loans: **double digits**, because they track the Fed funds rate directly *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Run your own numbers before you decide Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or use the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/) — including the blended rate calculator. Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, sponsor messages, licensing recitations, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### What happened while I was away Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom. I've taken the last two weeks off because I've been moving — we had to pull the whole studio down and set it back up — and I'm finally back in the saddle. So what happened during the move? The Fed had another meeting and decided to increase interest rates again by a quarter of a percent. Today we're going to talk about what that means for you, what it's done to mortgage rates, what we're looking at long term, when we start to see them bring rates down, and what's happening with the economy and with jobs. ### Reading the week's market update I'm going to read you the weekly newsletter I get. It keeps me up to date, and it explains what to expect going forward. "This past week home loan rates were unchanged despite the Fed raising rates to the highest levels in 22 years. On Wednesday the Federal Reserve raised the Fed funds rate to a range of 5.25% to 5.50%, and this move was widely expected." Everybody expected it. Last time I did a show about the Fed, I told you they had *not* hiked, but that we expected them to at the next meeting — and here it is, they did it. "Fed Chair Powell also shared that if the data comes in strong over the next two months, they will raise rates again in September." So we're probably looking at another hike. "What data was the Fed talking about? Mr. Powell was specific: two jobs and CPI inflation reports and one employment cost index garner most of their attention before the Fed meets again in September." "One of the main reasons interest rates remain high and the Fed has continued to raise is the underlying resilience of the economy. Many economists, market watchers and central bankers were calling for a recession by the middle of this year — in fact one reputable publication back in November said there was a 100% chance of a recession in 2023\. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the economy is currently growing near 2% and unemployment is at 3.6%, which are not conditions that lead to a recession." So many of you have been sitting on the fence waiting for the ball to drop. We talked about that on the last show too. It didn't happen, it hasn't happened, and at this point they don't see it happening. "At the very least we should be prepared for the Fed to hold the Fed funds rate at current levels for quite a bit longer." I've said that in previous episodes as well — when they get to the point where they feel inflation is under control, we are not going to see them immediately start cutting. They're going to hold, and hold for quite some time. "The Federal Reserve wants to see inflation come down to 2%. The Fed's favorite gauge of inflation is currently running at 4.6%, so there is a lot of wood to chop. In fact the Fed's forecast calls for core inflation to reach its goal in the year 2025\. So when we hear 'higher for longer,' that's what we mean. For reference, in the last rate hiking cycle back in 2018, the Fed cut rates seven months after the last hike — and during that same time home loan rates steadily improved. Bottom line: the Federal Reserve may very well be done hiking rates; however, long-term rates may likely edge lower slowly. Why? The economy is slowing slowly, unemployment is rising slowly, and inflation is coming down slowly." I thought that was a great piece to read because it really explains where we're at. Jobs are slowing, inflation is improving, everything is moving slowly — but what they're doing is working. ### Why mortgage rates didn't move One thing worth going back to: why didn't mortgage rates really change after the announcement? We've talked about this in previous shows and I'm going to say it again. Mortgages are not tied directly to the Federal Reserve prime rate. Home equity lines of credit, home equity loans, credit cards, short-term debt like car loans — those *are* tied to it, so when it moves, they move. Mortgage rates are more like the stock market. They're tied to mortgage-backed securities, so they move depending on where investors are putting their money — whether they're going somewhere aggressive, or somewhere safer like a mortgage bond or a 30-year note. And because of that, everything runs on anticipation, just like the stock market. If investors think a company is going to do fabulously, they buy as many shares as they can; if they think it's going off a ledge, they pull out and move to the next thing. Mortgage-backed securities work the same way. The anticipation six weeks ago, when the Fed held steady, was that they'd raise a quarter point at the next meeting. Everybody anticipated it, everybody expected it, and that's exactly what happened — so there was no turmoil in the market to move rates. Mortgage rates have stayed quite flat. There will be announcements that could shake things up: unemployment data coming, CPI inflation data coming. Rates could go down, they could go up. But they've pretty much leveled off and found a sweet spot where I think they'll stay for some time. ### Where rates are, and what "high" actually means Right now we're hovering around the 7% range, seven and a quarter. You can bring that down if you want to pay points and buy the rate down, or if you're purchasing and you ask the seller to help with closing costs so you can buy the rate down — you can definitely get into the high sixes. It's very doable. I know those rates sound high. But they're actually very good. They're very average, very normal if you look over history — they're close to the average of what we've seen over the last 30 years. It only sounds extreme because rates were low for so long. ### Budget the payment for 24 months We've had quite a few clients through the office over the last month or so who plan to buy today at this rate, accept a payment higher than they wanted, and count on rates coming down before the end of the year so they can refinance right away into something lower. I have to stop those clients. What you're signing on the dotted line for has to be something you can afford for at least the next year to year and a half. You heard in the piece I read that they don't expect inflation numbers to be where they need to be until 2025 — and they don't say *when* in 2025\. January? June? December? We're in August of 2023, so even reaching January 2025 is 17 months out before they'd be in a position to start bringing rates down. I do think we'll see one more hike, probably in September, and then I think they hold steady — and like 2018, when it was seven months, this could run 15 to 18 months or longer. It depends on the economy: whether we keep growing, whether we add jobs, whether unemployment stays stable. If something changes dramatically we might see them cut sooner. But it is better to anticipate that the payment you're getting into is one you can handle for a good period of time. Budget for it for **24 months**. If we can refinance you in twelve, fantastic. But know that this is a payment you're going to be making for a while. A lot of people are hearing that things are getting better and assuming we'll see it turn by the end of the year. I just don't think mortgage rates are going to come down fast. It's going to be very slow. When we know the Fed is holding and done hiking, that's when rates start to come down — slowly. ### When a refinance actually makes sense There are plenty of reasons to refinance: paying off debt, consolidating a home equity line into a first mortgage, doing home improvements. Those three have nothing to do with what I'm talking about today — they can make sense at any point. What I'm talking about is a *rate-and-term* refinance, where you take the balance you have and rewrite the note to lower the rate and save money monthly. So when is the right time? Generally not until the rate has dropped at least a half percent below what you have today. It depends on your balance. If you have a million, a million and a half, two million dollar mortgage, a quarter point reduction might be worth it, because the monthly savings on that balance doesn't require as big a drop. But at an average loan amount — $500,000, $700,000, $800,000, and the average sale price is about $450,000 nationally and about $700,000 in Southern California — you really need about a half percent for it to make sense against the cost. Which brings up what a refinance costs. When rates start to come down you're going to hear a lot of companies advertising no-fee refinances. Every refinance has a cost. In a no-fee refinance, they give you a higher rate than the lowest available, and use the rebate they earn on that higher rate to pay the costs. Or you take the lowest rate and pay the costs yourself — and those don't have to come out of pocket, you can roll them into the new loan. Either way, make sure the rate and payment drop enough that you recoup the cost within about two to three years, 24 to 36 months. Every payment after that is savings. If rates come down slowly and it takes 12 to 15 months to reach a level that makes refinancing beneficial, I just want the expectations set properly. Don't get into something you can't afford. ### Is it a good time to buy? At the beginning of the show I read that very reliable sources said there was a 100% chance of recession in 2023\. If I were a first-time buyer who'd never owned a home and I heard that, I'd have parked myself on the sidelines waiting for the volcano to erupt, waiting for values to drop so I could strike at the right time. Unfortunately that never came to play. The economy stayed resilient even through the rate hikes. Unemployment stayed resilient. New jobs stayed resilient. Inflation is coming down even with the hikes. I have no crystal ball and I can't tell you anything as absolute fact, but it does not appear that's going to happen. Home values did lose about 10% between the middle of 2022 and the end of the first quarter of 2023 — and they've already started going back up. Call any real estate agent you know and ask how their searches are going with new buyers. There are multiple offers on properties. Values have stayed high depending on location and price range. A single family home in Los Angeles County in the $600,000 to $700,000 range is very hard to find, and when one comes on the market it gets swarmed, with people overbidding, because there isn't enough inventory and there are buyers who need to buy. So don't sit on the sidelines. Get prepared, get your pre-approval done, buy something affordable, and in the future we refinance and get you into a lower payment. Here's a great goal: buy something you can afford now; when rates come down, refinance and lower the payment; put a renter in that property so it cash flows; and go buy another one that's a little bigger, because you'll afford a higher sale price at the same monthly payment. Now you've started building your portfolio. I've been saying week after week that it is never a bad time to buy — there is just a bad time to sell. Even if you buy today and the value drops, if you budgeted for the payment, that's okay. Values always come back, they always return to where they stopped the time before, and they always exceed it. That's how history has circulated. And when values drop, that's when you buy *another* property at a lower price and a lower rate, move into the nicer home, and put a tenant in the one you're living in now. Many economists say what we saw in values dropping is what we're going to get — that we won't see a further drop. That's all speculation; nobody knows 100%. I'm giving you the information I read. ### When a 7% refinance beats a 2.5% first mortgage I have commercials running on the radio saying that if you're a homeowner in debt, struggling with payments, or needing cash out to pay things off, there could be options — and I'm getting calls from people confused about what that means, so let me explain it properly. Say you have credit card debt of $30,000, $40,000, $50,000\. I've had clients call with $100,000 in credit card debt. Look at the rates on those cards — they are very possibly well above 20%: 23%, 26%, 29%, 32%. We've seen it all come through the office. Then say you also have a personal loan, because a lot of people take one to pay off their cards. Personal loans are short — three, four, five years — so the monthly payment is significantly higher than the card minimums were. In your mind it makes sense: I'm paying everything off and I'll only owe this for three years. But that payment often isn't actually affordable, because the card minimums weren't affordable either. So you start using the cards again, and now you have card debt *and* the personal loan. Some of you also have an equity line you took for an ADU or a kitchen remodel, because you didn't want to refinance and lose a 2.5% first mortgage. Now blend all of it — the equity line rate, the credit card rates, the personal loan rate, against that low first mortgage. Many of the clients calling us are at a blended rate of seven and a half, eight, nine percent. So when we look at a refinance that pays everything off, yes, the rate is higher than what you have today, and I know that hurts. But the total monthly outlay decreases: the new mortgage payment is lower than everything you were paying separately, and the blended rate you were actually paying was higher than the new one. If that's your position, at least find out. We give you the information, we show you the math, and you make the decision. We're not going to hound you afterward. ### Wrap-up Call the office at 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — or go to mortgagemomradio.com to send an email or book a free phone consultation right on the calendar. You'll talk to me, Carrie, Heather or Heidi, and it's just a conversation: where's your credit, do you have money saved, what's your income, how are you paid. Nothing intimidating. To watch live and ask questions in real time, text the word MOM to that same number and you'll get one link a week. We stream to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitch at the same time. I do the show live on Wednesdays at one o'clock — today is Thursday because I'm a day off after a two-week move. I'll be back next Wednesday at one o'clock doing it all over again about something new. Have a fantastic rest of your week. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 3, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Is the Housing Market About to Crash — or Are You Just Waiting for Nothing? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/is-the-housing-market-about-to-crash-or-are-you-just-waiting-for-nothing/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:59:20.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, June 21, 2023 • 56 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 One week after the Federal Reserve paused rate hikes for the first time in ten straight meetings, Debbie walks through the question filling up her voicemail: is the housing market about to crash, and should you keep waiting? She reads the actual forecasts — Elon Musk on one side, Fannie Mae and the National Association of Realtors on the other — then turns to the number nobody wants to talk about: record credit card debt, and what homeowners with equity can actually do about it. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed paused — but signaled two more hikes.** After raising the prime rate by a full 5% across ten consecutive meetings, the Fed held steady on June 14\. Officials indicated a likely quarter-point increase at the next meeting and possibly another after that. Debbie's own take: she'd rather they had ripped the Band-Aid off and done a half point at once. - **Rates improved slightly *because* the hike didn't happen.** The quarter point everyone expected had already been priced into lender rate sheets before the meeting. When it didn't come, rate sheets improved a little — small, but real. - **The crash forecasts don't agree with each other.** Elon Musk publicly predicted home values would follow commercial real estate down. The National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Home Builders, Redfin and Zillow economists all expect a modest correction instead. Fannie Mae's forecast at the time: about a **1.2% decline in 2023 and 2.2% in 2024**. - **Today's homeowners are not 2008's homeowners.** Per a Redfin study Debbie cited, **82.4%** of current homeowners with a mortgage are locked in below 5%, with strong credit and heavy equity — which is why economists expect a correction, not a foreclosure wave. - **Credit card debt hit a record.** Total U.S. card balances sat near **$986 billion**, and roughly **35%** of American adults were carrying card debt. Because card and HELOC rates are tied to the Fed funds rate, every hike raises the interest on balances you already owe — with no special notice required. - **Run your blended rate before you decide a refinance is crazy.** A 4% first mortgage next to a 12.5% HELOC and 21–29% credit cards can blend out to roughly 7% — right around where Debbie was locking refinances at the time. The mortgage payment may go up while your *total* monthly outflow goes down. - **If you truly believe values will fall, that's an argument to act now, not later.** Equity is what makes a consolidation possible. If values drop first, the equity you would have used to get out of debt isn't there any more. ## Chapters - 01:00What today's show covers - 06:30What the Fed actually did on June 14 - 08:00Two more hikes signaled — and why rates improved anyway - 12:30Bankrate: “Is the housing market about to crash?” - 14:30Elon Musk's prediction vs. the housing economists - 17:50Fannie Mae's forecast: 1.2% down in 2023, 2.2% in 2024 - 18:30What that means if you're a buyer sitting on the fence - 23:20Debbie's opinion: why not just rip the Band-Aid off? - 26:00Record credit card debt and what rate hikes do to your balance - 30:40Homeowners: the HELOC you took instead of refinancing - 33:30Running the blended rate — and the math that decides it - 42:20Q&A: I did a HELOC and I'm building an ADU — what now? - 46:20Forbes: will the housing market crash in 2023? - 52:20What a 10% drop actually looks like in Los Angeles County - 54:20Wrap-up and the Fourth of July break ## Questions answered on this show ### “I took a HELOC and I'm building an ADU right now — what should I do when it's finished?” Wait until the build is done, then get the numbers run. ADUs almost never come in at the estimate — a build quoted at $100,000 comes in at $130,000, and the extra $30,000 usually lands on credit cards. Once the project is complete and you know the final HELOC balance and any card debt that came with it, that's the moment to look at consolidating everything into one fixed payment, because the HELOC rate is adjustable and moves with every Fed hike. It may turn out that what you have is already the right structure — and if so, that's the answer you'll get. ## This week's numbers (week of June 21, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Fed funds target: **5–5.25%** after the June 14 pause — the first hold in 10 consecutive meetings, following a full **5%** of increases - Fannie Mae home price forecast: **−1.2% in 2023**, **−2.2% in 2024** - Case-Shiller national home price index: **+1.3%** month over month for March before seasonal adjustment, **+0.4%** after — the second straight monthly increase following seven straight declines - Regional split: Southeast **+5.4%** year over year, West **−6.2%**; Seattle **−12.4%** and San Francisco **−11.2%** at the bottom - Share of mortgaged homeowners with a rate below 5%: **82.4%** (Redfin) - Total U.S. credit card balances: about **$986 billion**; roughly **35%** of adults carry card debt, and only about **54%** of cardholders pay in full each month - Refinance rates Debbie was locking at the time: **just under 7%**, with **6.75%** and **6.5%** quoted as the going range *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find out what your blended rate actually is Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### What the Fed did — and what they signaled next Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about the Federal Reserve: what they did last week, how that's changed things this week, and what it means for you. Jerome Powell was talking again today. We'll also get into consumer debt, because credit card balances are at levels we haven't seen in a very long time. I have to apologize for last week — I wasn't well enough to go live, and radio ran a replay of the week before. That's the case for opting in to the text list: if you'd been on it, you'd have known there was no live show instead of sitting there waiting for one that never came. So, what went down. The Fed decided to pause the rate hikes. For weeks we'd been talking about what they might do, and the anticipation was a quarter-point increase — which had *already* been built into the rate sheets we were quoting clients. Then they came out and said: we're going to pause. We've done it 10 times in a row, we've raised the prime rate by a full five percent over those 10 meetings, and we're going to let that settle into the economy before we decide anything else. Reading into what they said, and watching Powell, what most financial experts expect is another quarter point at the next meeting, and they've even indicated another quarter after that. Now, what they say they'll do and what actually happens can change completely inside six weeks. But as of today, that's the expectation. The nice part is that since last Wednesday, rates actually improved a little — because that quarter point everyone had priced in didn't come to pass. It wasn't huge. But we'll take any downturn we can get. One thing to keep in mind about the timing: those meetings are six weeks apart, not monthly. Ten meetings in a row is a very long stretch, and five percent in that span is very, very fast. My own opinion? I don't know why they paused. If they expect another quarter in six weeks and another quarter six weeks after that, why not rip the Band-Aid off, give us the half point, and hold? But there are much smarter people than the Mortgage Mom making that call, and I'd guess they need to test the water and let the dust settle before they commit. ### Is the housing market about to crash? The question that's been top of mind for everyone: are we in a recession, is one coming, and when it comes, do home values drop? I pulled a few articles so I'm giving you real information and not just my gut. The first is from Bankrate, published June 16, called “Is the housing market about to crash? Here's what experts say.” As of April 2023, home prices had declined year over year for three consecutive months, with February's drop the first in nearly 11 years. The National Association of Realtors reported median prices in spring 2022 topped $400,000 for the first time ever — and even after the recent retreat, prices are up by more than $100,000 since the pandemic began in March 2020\. Bidding wars have largely faded, inventory is loosening, the frothiness is gone. Then you get the opinions. Elon Musk tweeted that commercial real estate is melting down fast and home values are next. After the June 14 meeting, Powell told reporters he's watching housing closely — housing is very interest-rate sensitive and one of the first places either helped by low rates or held back by high ones. On the other side: Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, says the market is clearly turning, but housing economists and analysts expect any correction to be modest. Rob Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, sums up the consensus: “We're thinking this is going to be a moderate downturn.” Why not a repeat of 2008? Because homeowners' personal balance sheets are far stronger than they were 15 years ago. The typical homeowner with a mortgage has excellent credit, a large amount of equity, and a fixed rate locked in well below five percent — a Redfin study puts that at 82.4% of all current homeowners. And Fannie Mae came out with a forecast of about a 1.2% decline in home prices in 2023, and 2.2% in 2024\. So you've got Elon Musk saying the floor falls out, and you've got Fannie Mae, NAR, Redfin, Zillow and the home builders saying percentage points. Everybody has a different economist doing different research trying to pinpoint the same thing. ### What that means if you're a buyer If Fannie Mae is right, and most of the chief economists are right, and we're talking about percentage-point declines — then sitting on hold isn't doing you any justice. You're setting aside the opportunity to own a home, to have the vehicle that returns equity to you. It's a savings account: you make a payment every month, your balance drops, and your value — even if it dips — eventually goes back up. That's the normal cycle. So if it's your time to buy and your family needs a home and you find the one that works, it does not make sense to sit on the fence. That's my opinion as the Mortgage Mom. If you believe Elon Musk instead — and I'm not saying he's wrong, he's a very smart guy — then that's the hat you hang it on and you wait. It depends on you, your family, and who you believe. At the end of the day there's never a bad time to buy a home. There's really only a bad time to *sell*. If you buy and values drop, you don't sell. You hold. You stay where you are. If we hit a recession, rates have to come down to give everyone relief — and you refinance and make the payment better on a property you already own, which eventually goes back up in value anyway. And there were articles I read on Forbes saying values have already started ticking back up: from June 2022 to June 2023 a 1.7% decline, with prices now rising again. So some people think the decline we were going to get has already happened. ### Record credit card debt Now the part I want to focus on, because it's high-topic right now: credit card debt. Many households are feeling the repercussions of the rate hikes. Cards got more expensive, minimum payments went up, and the cost of utilities, groceries and gas pushed people onto those cards to cover expenses — which only exacerbates the problem. From a Business Insider piece dated June 20, reporting on a creditcards.com study released that Tuesday: according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, total credit card balances stayed around a record $986 billion between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023\. A January Bankrate survey found 35% of American adults carry some form of credit card debt. Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, who led the study, said just 54% of cardholders pay their bills in full every month, and that card debt is often several multiples higher than other forms of debt — and unlike a home or an education, it builds no value. Relief isn't coming soon. The FOMC held rates steady in June, pausing after 10 consecutive increases in 15 months, leaving the target between 5 and 5.25% — but projected two more quarter-point hikes before the end of the year. After the May hike, major lenders including Chase and Bank of America began raising card rates in June, and Rossman expects that to continue. Here's the part people miss: future increases hit *existing* balances as well as new purchases. When the underlying index changes, card companies don't have to give you special notice. Whatever you owe on that card when rates go up, that balance immediately costs you more — and the same is true of home equity lines of credit. ### Homeowners: the HELOC you took instead of refinancing If you're a homeowner, the double-digit appreciation of the last few years means you have equity to do something with. And remember, HELOC rates are adjustable too, and they move immediately when the Fed moves. A lot of you took an equity line specifically because you didn't want to touch your first mortgage. You were going to buy another property with it. Or do home improvements. Or pay off cards — and refinance it all later when rates came down. You're one of the people in that article with a rate under five percent, and you weren't going to give it up. Now the equity line payment is up, the interest on it is making the balance grow, the credit cards aren't getting paid down because you're making minimums, and you're still using the cards to cover the month. That's when you need to sit down with someone and go through all of it. And I want the people listening who *aren't* homeowners to hear this: if you owned a home, you'd have an escape route. Homeowners do have options — an equity line, a fixed-rate second, or a full refinance. Many of you are stubborn about it: “But my rate is four percent.” Okay. If your rate is 4% and your credit cards are at 21, 25, 29 percent and you're carrying ten or twenty thousand, or you've got a $150,000 equity line at 12 or 12.5 percent — when you calculate the *blended* rate across all of it, you're probably somewhere around seven percent. And seven percent is about what a new refinance would be, possibly lower. We've been locking people just under seven; 6.75 and 6.5 have been the going range. Over 30 years, with the debt paid off. Your mortgage payment may go up, but your total monthly outflow cash-flows you better. I'm not a financial advisor — I have to say that — but that's the Mortgage Mom education of the day. The math doesn't lie. We're not here to push you in a direction that doesn't make sense. Look at the math and decide. One more thing people are advised to do: open a new card with a 0% balance transfer. Fine in theory. But if you're maxed out, your score has already dropped — not because you missed payments, but because your balances are at your limits — and that makes qualifying for the transfer much harder. And student loans. Many of you haven't made a payment in years because they were deferred. Those payments are coming due again, and if you haven't budgeted for them it's going to hurt. That's another debt worth looking at in a consolidation. Same with personal loans — if you took one to pay off credit cards, look at what that rate actually is. I'd guess 12 to 15 percent, over about five years, and that payment can be extraordinary. Which sends you back to the cards to survive. Let's look at the whole picture: personal loans, cards, student loans, equity lines. ### For the pessimists One last thing for homeowners, and I want it in the back of your head. Say you're a pessimist. You think the recession is around the corner and property values are going through the floor. Rates are expected to hold for a while — the most recent data I've read says they pause by the end of this year and hold through 2024, with real relief more likely in 2025\. That can change any day. But if rates aren't coming down soon enough to refinance your way out, and you're swimming in debt, and you believe values are going to fall — your property value today is higher than it has ever been. If values drop, you don't have the equity to pull out cash to pay off debt. You don't have it to improve your home. You don't have it at all. So if that's genuinely what you believe, that's an argument for consolidating now, while the equity exists, getting your life breathing a little easier, and refinancing again in a year and a half if that's what it takes. For the record, that's not my opinion on the matter. I don't believe we're going to see things fall through the floor. But a lot of you do, and I think it's important to address every thought process in the room. ### Q&A: I did a HELOC and I'm building an ADU Rochelle says she did a HELOC and is building an ADU now, and that this session has been valuable. That's great. When the ADU is done, you probably do want to look at getting that HELOC consolidated, depending on how much you had to draw — ADUs are not cheap. And here's what happens a lot: you think the build will cost $100,000, you get into it, and it ends up at $130,000\. You don't have the extra $30,000, so it goes on the credit cards. So when the build is finished, call us and let's see what we can do. And maybe the answer is that things are exactly where they should be — that's exactly what we'd tell you. ### Forbes: will the housing market crash in 2023? Last article, from Forbes Advisor, June 15: “Housing market predictions for 2023 — when will home prices be affordable again?” Due in part to the ongoing inventory crunch keeping prices elevated, many economists predict the market corrects from the double-digit jumps of the past few years rather than crashes. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index posted a month-over-month national price growth reading of 1.3% for March before seasonal adjustment, 0.4% after — the second consecutive month of modest national increases following seven straight decreases. Experts consider that an indicator that home price declines are now a thing of the past. Which is rather different from what Elon Musk thought. Two months of increasing prices do not make a definitive recovery, but as Craig J. Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, put it in the report, March's results suggest the decline that began in June 2022 may have come to an end — while current mortgage rates and the possibility of economic weakness remain a headwind for at least the next several months. Whether prices rise or fall depends heavily on where you're looking. Southeast metros like Miami, Tampa and Charlotte saw year-over-year gains of 4.7% to 7.7%. Cities that had the biggest pandemic booms — Austin, Boise, Salt Lake City, and the West Coast — are the ones coming down. As Lazzara said, the farther west you look the weaker prices are, with Seattle at −12.4% and San Francisco at −11.2% at the bottom, while the Southeast's 5.4% gain remains the country's strongest region. Despite those declines, experts point out that today's homeowners stand on much more secure footing than those coming out of 2008, with most borrowers holding positive equity — which makes a crash unlikely. As Zillow economist Nicole Bachaud put it, homeowner equity is at the highest level it's been in decades. Will there be a lot of foreclosures in 2023? Basically no — because people have equity. Why would you let a home go? On timing: buying a house in any market is a highly personal decision, and trying to predict the year is not a home-buying strategy. Buyers sitting on the sidelines in anticipation of lower prices tomorrow may end up disappointed, says Neda Navab, president of the U.S. region at Compass. And as a senior macro economist at Zillow Home Loans put it, the housing market is almost impossible to time — the best time for prospective buyers is when they find a home they like, that meets their family's current and foreseeable needs, and that they can afford. ### What a 10% drop actually looks like So home buyers: get off the fence and start looking. I don't believe we see a crazy crash. If we see values drop, I think it's modest — percentage points. One, two, three, five, even ten percent. Ten percent sounds like a lot. But in Southern California, in Los Angeles County, where the median single-family value is around $700,000 to $750,000, ten percent is $70,000 to $75,000\. That is not something to freak out about. It is not something that would make you walk away from your home or end up in foreclosure. You own a home. You have stability. Over time it always goes back up, and you're gaining equity simply by owning something. And homeowners — if you're swimming in debt, if you're not sure a refinance is the right direction but you'd like to find out, you need to get off the fence too. You have a lot of equity. And if you're one of the people who believes a crash is near, then you especially need to make decisions about that debt sooner rather than later. ### Wrap-up My office is always open. You can call, email through the website, or send a text with your name asking us to call you — if we're on another line, leave a message and we'll call back within an hour or two. If you want to know when I go live so you can ask questions during the show, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week. And at mortgagemomradio.com you'll find the calculators and a way to book a free phone consultation. Heads up: we will not be here next week because of the holiday. I hope you all enjoy your Fourth of July — if I had it my way I'd be out boating in Havasu; my son is going without me. I'll be back the Wednesday after that. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of June 21, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Should You Refinance If It Means Giving Up a 3% Mortgage Rate? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-refinance-if-it-means-giving-up-a-3-mortgage-rate/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:59:21.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, June 7, 2023 • 54 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 If you have a 3.75% mortgage, a maxed-out credit card at 29% and a home equity line at 11%, the rate on your first mortgage is the *least* important number in your life — and it's the only one you're looking at. Debbie devotes this entire show to that trap, walking through four real refinance scenarios, including three loans in process at the time, and showing what a blended-rate calculation actually reveals about what you're paying. ## Key takeaways - **The number that matters is your blended rate, not your mortgage rate.** Add up every debt — mortgage, HELOC, cards, personal loans, student loans — and calculate the weighted average you're actually paying. Debbie's clients at the time were blending out at 7.0% to 9.7% even with first mortgages in the 3s. - **Card rates are higher than you think.** Debbie pulled up her own Capital One account on air — excellent credit, no lates, no collections, roughly a decade of history — and the rate on a carried balance was **29-point-something percent**. She had never looked before. - **Scenario 1 (averages):** a $500,000 mortgage at 3.75%, a $150,000 HELOC and $25,000 in cards ran **$3,995/month** before taxes and insurance. Consolidated into one new loan at **7%**: **$3,196** — roughly **$800 a month** saved. - **Scenario 2 (in process):** $118,000 first at 3.75%, two personal loans, $31,200 in cards and a $12,500 COVID-era loan modification second. Blended rate: **9.69%**. New loan at **7.125%** dropped payments from **$3,101 to $1,913**, cleared the modification second, and put **$41,000 cash in hand**. - **Scenario 3 (in process):** $500,000 first at 5.625%, $23,568 in cards, a $33,000 student loan. Blended rate **7.49%**; new loan locked at **7%**, payments from **$5,015 to $4,140** — about **$900 a month**. - **Scenario 4 (in process):** seller-carried financing at 5.5% coming due, plus an $80,000 HELOC at 11.5%. Blended rate **7.01%**, new loan quoted at **7.125%** — payment up about **$23 a month**. Not a savings play: it retires the seller note and converts an adjustable line into a fixed payment that can't move with the next hike. - **A refinance is not permanent.** Rates come down eventually. Consolidating at 7% today doesn't stop you refinancing again later — it just stops the bleeding now. ## Chapters - 01:20What today's show is about - 05:20Why refinance is back on the table - 12:40What average household credit card debt actually looks like - 14:20What a blended rate calculator does - 15:40Debbie checks her own credit card rate on air - 17:40Why maxed-out cards block the 0% balance transfer plan - 20:20Scenario 1: the averages — $500k first, $150k HELOC, $25k cards - 27:00Scenario 2: the COVID loan modification second - 30:40Blended rate 9.69% against a 3.75% first mortgage - 37:00Scenario 3: student loan and cards, $900 a month back - 40:20Scenario 4: seller financing coming due plus an 11.5% HELOC - 43:50Q&A: what credit score do you need to refinance? - 46:50Student loans are coming off deferment — budget now - 47:40Q&A: is a mortgage recast a good way to lower a payment? - 50:20Why homeowners got no attention for two years - 52:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ## Questions answered on this show ### “What credit score do you need for a debt-consolidation refinance?” There isn't one number, because there isn't one program. A refinance can be FHA, VA, conventional through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or jumbo, and which one fits depends on your balance, your score, your total debt, and what the home is worth. Debbie noted programs existed at the time for scores as low as 580, with far better pricing available at high scores with substantial equity. If you're a veteran with entitlement available, that's the first call to make — VA cash-out pricing was excellent, and while VA guidelines allow up to 100% financing, most lenders in practice were writing to about 90% of value. The real answer: there is no way to know what your savings could be without someone running your actual numbers. ### “Is a mortgage recast a good way to lower my monthly payment?” It can be — but it solves a different problem. A recast means making a one-time principal reduction and asking your servicer to recalculate the payment on the lower balance, keeping your existing rate. Call the toll-free number on your mortgage statement and ask whether your loan is eligible for a one-time principal balance reduction with a recast; some loans allow it and some don't, and Debbie's understanding is that VA and FHA loans generally are not eligible. But a recast requires a large lump sum you already have. If you had $100,000 sitting in the bank, you wouldn't be listening to a show about refinancing out of debt — so a recast doesn't help with the debt problem. It helps someone with cash on hand who wants a lower payment without giving up a low rate. ### Find out what your blended rate actually is Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4) with your mortgage statement and any card, HELOC, student loan or personal loan statements handy, [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Why refinance, and why now Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. The Federal Reserve is the big topic next Wednesday — they're making another announcement, and I'll be on right after to tell you what took place. Today, though, is about refinancing. I'm excited about one thing first: today is the first day we've figured out how to simulcast to Instagram, so we're live on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. I'm not sure yet whether I can see Instagram comments on my screen, so bear with us. I have not talked about refinance in a very long time. Rates are higher than they were, a lot of people have very low rates on their homes and aren't interested, and we went through a big cycle of home equity lines instead. I've been talking purchase, purchase, purchase — because it really is a good market to be buying in — but I have to help my homeowners too. Two weeks ago a viewer asked whether this was a good time to refinance. I said yes, promised to come back to it, and ran out of time. So this entire show is that answer. And I want to give the disclaimer up front, because I'm going to be reading numbers: every single person's scenario is different. Different balances, different debts, different rates on cards, mortgages and equity lines. I'm not guaranteeing you these rates or these savings. I'm giving you scenarios that may look enough like yours that it's worth picking up the phone. ### What people are actually carrying The other thing that pushed me toward this show is that we've taken quite a few refinance applications recently from homeowners in a pickle. So I went looking for data. I couldn't find published 2023 numbers, but for 2022 the average household carried about $7,900 in credit card debt — nationally, not just California. The number that stopped me: *one in five people had more than $20,000 in card debt.* And that was 2022, before another year of inflation. When clients call, we run what's called a blended rate calculator. You give us the balances, the interest rates and the minimum payments on everything you owe, and we calculate the overall rate you're actually paying across all of your debt combined. Personal loans have been averaging 12 to 15 percent across my desk. Then I did something I'd never done: I pulled up my own credit card. Capital One, excellent credit, no lates, no bankruptcies, no collections, an account I've had roughly nine or ten years. If I carried a balance on that card, my rate was 29-point-something percent. Almost thirty percent. I about fell out of my chair. So put that together. One in five people carrying over $20,000\. Card rates in the high twenties. That's why the blended rates I've been running for clients keep landing where they land. A viewer said she thought the average card rate was 24.99%. It varies — but mine, with excellent credit and no balance carried, is at thirty. They've moved a lot with this many hikes this fast, and people are shocked when they actually log in and look. One more thing on that. The standard advice is to open a card with a 0% balance transfer and move the money. Fine — if you can qualify. But if your cards are maxed at their limits, your score has already dropped, purely on utilization, and that great introductory offer gets much harder to execute. ### Scenario 1: built from averages This first one isn't a client, it's a composite from real averages. One in five people had over $20,000 in cards as of 2022, so I used $25,000 assuming it's grown. The average equity line we've written over the last year and a half was $150,000\. And the average loan balance for a homeowner in Los Angeles County was about $571,000, so I used a $500,000 first mortgage at 3.75% — a really good rate on a decent-sized balance. On the equity line I was deliberately conservative. Most of the lines we've written were around 10%, some as high as 12%. I looked up the national average for a brand-new HELOC today — credit unions, big banks, the cheapest I could find — and it was 8.5%. What we actually see, based on credit score and combined loan-to-value, is normally 10 to 12\. And I used 29% on the cards. Total monthly for that household — the $500,000 mortgage payment, the equity line, and the minimum card payment — is $3,995, not including taxes and insurance, which don't go away. Consolidate all of it into one new refinance at 7% and the payment is $3,196. Call it $4,000 down to $3,200\. You're saving eight hundred dollars a month by moving from 3.75% to 7%. When things are tight, $800 a month is the utilities. It's the kids' activities you didn't know how you were going to pay for. ### Scenario 2: the COVID loan modification This one is a real file in our system right now. The client owes $118,000 on their first mortgage, also at 3.75%. They have a personal loan for $22,875, a second personal loan for $19,500, and $31,200 in credit card debt. Taking the minimum payments straight off their credit report, their total monthly outflow today is $3,101. Here's what makes this one worth hearing. During COVID, mortgage companies offered forbearance — some just sent a letter, some made you call. When you started paying again, many of them sent a loan modification to sign, and a lot of you now have a *second loan* sitting behind your mortgage. This client owes another $12,500 from that modification. They're not making a payment on it, so it isn't in the $3,101. We're consolidating everything: the $118,000, the $22,875, the $19,500, the $31,200, and the $12,500 modification balance — and they want $41,000 cash in hand for improvements. So the balance goes up significantly, and the rate goes from 3.75% to 7.125%. Their new payment is $1,913 a month instead of $3,101. They save almost $1,100 a month, take $41,000 in cash, and the modification second is gone. And when we ran their blended rate off the actual statements — even with that 3.75% first — they were paying 9.69% across everything. Walking away from 3.75% felt impossible to them. They're going to 7.125%, and it is a much better position. ### Scenario 3: cards and a student loan Another live file. Current mortgage $500,000 — that number keeps coming up in Southern California — at 5.625%. She owes $23,568 on credit cards and has a $33,000 student loan. Her total monthly across all three is $5,015. Her blended rate, even with that large balance at 5.625%, is 7.49%, because the cards are so high and the student loan isn't cheap either. We're consolidating all three. The new rate we have her locked at is 7%, and her new payment is $4,140 instead of $5,015 — about $900 a month. And yes, seven percent isn't fun. It's a number you think is ugly. I got into this business in '94 and into mortgage in '01 — seven percent, eight percent, eight and three quarters, I know you've heard it and I know you don't care. But rates will come back down, and this same person gets to refinance again when they do. Whatever we drop that payment to then, she's saving even more. ### Scenario 4: seller financing coming due The last one I like because it isn't a savings story. This client's current mortgage is owner-carried — the seller financed the purchase — at 5.5%, with a balance of $237,000\. But the seller only agreed to carry it for a couple of years and wants to be paid off. They also have an $80,000 equity line at 11.5% that they used to remodel the kitchen. Their total out of pocket today is $2,113 a month, and their blended rate is 7.01%. The new refinance is quoted at 7.125% — barely above their blended rate — and the new payment is $2,136\. They're going *up* about $23 a month. Basically apples to apples. What they get: the seller gets paid off, which they have no choice about, and the equity line is no longer adjustable. So when the Fed meets next week and raises again, and again after that, their payment doesn't move. ### Q&A: what credit score do you need? Nicholas asks what a good credit score is for a refinance like this. There are many programs, not one. We can refinance with FHA, VA, conventional through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or jumbo financing. It depends on what you owe, your credit score, how much debt you're paying off, and what your home is worth. Are you a veteran with entitlement? Because if you have a VA loan available to you and you're in debt, you should be dialing our number — those rates are excellent and the cash-out goes to a high loan-to-value. VA guidelines allow up to 100% financing; there just aren't many lenders that will write it that high, so about 90% of value is the average we see. On a million-dollar home, that's a $900,000 cash-out if you qualify. We have programs where the score can be as low as 580, and we have much better programs and pricing when you have a lot of equity and a high score. But there's no way to know what your savings would be without calling. ### Student loans are about to restart A reminder, and I know it's mom scolding. Student loans have been in deferment for almost three years. Those payments are coming due, and if you haven't budgeted for them because you're not used to making them, buckle down and start working them into your monthly cash flow now. They can also go into a consolidation. ### Q&A: what about a recast? Michael asks whether a mortgage recast is a helpful tool to get a lower monthly payment. A lot of people don't know what a recast is, and some lenders don't allow it — my understanding is VA and FHA loans generally aren't eligible. Say you have a $500,000 balance and you come into an extra $100,000\. You call the toll-free number on your mortgage statement, get servicing on the line, and ask: can I make a one-time principal balance reduction, and will you recast the loan — recalculate my payment on the lower balance? Some loans allow it, others don't. Obviously, if someone had an extra $100,000 sitting in an account, they wouldn't be listening to a show about refinancing out of debt. So a recast doesn't help on the debt side. But if you have cash in the bank, you want a lower payment, and you don't want to lose the low rate you have — it's absolutely worth the phone call. Those are the words to use. ### Why homeowners have been ignored We've talked a lot about purchasing, about second homes, about investments, and almost nothing about refinance — partly because for a long time people didn't want to hear it. You get blinders on: I have a low rate, I'm not touching it, end of conversation. But we're at a point where one in five people carry over $20,000 in card debt, and that includes homeowners. And the amount of equity homeowners have right now is unprecedented — values really did go up through the pandemic years. If you bought in 2019, 2020 or 2021, you have equity, and you may be able to leverage it, if you can get past being stubborn about a number written on your mortgage statement. Whatever you decide, we're going to show you the math and you're going to make the decision. If the best plan is to do absolutely nothing, that's the answer we'll give you. I won't have anyone on my team who works any other way. ### Wrap-up When you call, have your statements ready — mortgage, credit cards, equity line, student loans, car, anything you might want to consolidate. That lets us run the blended rate, put the numbers together and email them to you so you and whoever else makes decisions with you can look at them properly. If you want to know when I go live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. Just the word MOM; you'll get one link a week, no spam. That's also the office number. Or head to mortgagemomradio.com — don't forget the “radio” — where you can book a free phone consultation, use the calculators, and email me directly. Those emails come to me. I'll be back next Wednesday. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of June 7, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Why Do Mortgage Rates Change So Fast? Inside the Rate Roller Coaster URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-do-mortgage-rates-change-so-fast-inside-the-rate-roller-coaster/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:59:22.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, May 31, 2023 • 54 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Mortgage rates spiked hard one week and dropped sharply the next, and almost nobody watching could say why. Debbie takes it apart: the debt ceiling standoff, Fed officials talking publicly ahead of the June meeting, and the way lenders price an expected hike into rate sheets *before* it happens. Along the way, the practical version — a half-point move in rate changed one client's payment by $210 a month. ## Key takeaways - **Rate sheets price in what the market expects, not what has happened.** When analysts shifted from “the Fed is done” to “the Fed hikes in June,” lenders built that quarter point in immediately. That's what spiked rates the week before Memorial Day — no Fed meeting required. - **The debt ceiling standoff was moving your mortgage rate.** With no resolution, the one-month Treasury bill spiked to **5.6%** from about 4% a few weeks earlier, pushing the 10-year yield and mortgage rates to two-month highs. When a deal advanced over the weekend, rates improved again. - **Half a point of rate is real money.** Same purchase, same down payment: **$3,900/month at 6.5%** versus **$4,110 at 7%**. That's why a pre-approval you got two months ago may no longer describe what you can buy. - **Debbie's call at the time:** one more quarter-point hike in June, then a long hold. No cuts in 2023\. Some analysts were forecasting as many as seven cuts in 2024, which she thought was overzealous. - **Values didn't crash because sellers didn't sell.** Owners sitting on 2.5–4% rates won't list, which keeps inventory scarce and prices firm. When rates fall, both buyers *and* sellers return — and Debbie's expectation was renewed bidding, not a flood of discounted listings. - **A fixed-rate mortgage is the cleanest hedge against inflation you can buy.** Rents move with inflation; a fixed payment doesn't. One survey Debbie cited had **73%** of property managers planning rent increases over the following two years. - **The debt math beats the rate math.** A client refinancing out of a 3% first mortgage into roughly 7.25% still came out **$1,500 a month** ahead after paying off everything else. A guest agent on the show described a client going from 4% to about 7% and saving **$900 a month**. ## Chapters - 01:20What today's show covers: the rate roller coaster - 06:00The debt ceiling and the one-month Treasury spike - 07:40Why rates jumped the week before Memorial Day - 09:20How anticipation gets built into a rate sheet - 11:40The weekend deal — and rates improving again - 16:20Cleveland Fed's Loretta Mester: “no compelling reason to pause” - 18:40No cuts in 2023 — and the 2024 forecasts - 22:40Reading the bond market note: resistance levels and locking - 28:20Owning a home as protection against inflation - 32:40Why values haven't fallen: nobody is selling - 35:40Debbie's forecast: one more hike, then a long hold - 38:20Homeowners: the debt math beats the rate math - 42:40Q&A: which sources does Debbie actually read? - 43:40Q&A: what do you tell someone afraid to talk to a lender? - 51:40A real agent calls in: 4% to 7%, saving $900 a month - 53:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ## Questions answered on this show ### “Which articles and sources do you actually use for rate information?” Three, named on air. The inflation-and-homeownership piece came from Keeping Current Matters (keepingcurrentmatters.com). The bond market and debt ceiling commentary came from Tabrasa, also known as Mortgage Market Guide, which is the service Debbie follows for rate movement. The Fed official's comments came from Reuters. As she put it: not Fox News, not the New York Times — the places the financial data actually comes from. ### “I'm a realtor. What do you tell clients who are skeptical about talking to a lender?” Be honest that the skepticism is earned. Plenty of loan officers take the application, run the numbers, send back “congratulations, you're approved for $500,000, your payment is $4,500, let me know when you find a house” — and never educate anyone. A real consultation starts before the application: what are you seeing on Redfin or realtor.com, what price range gets you something you'd actually be happy with, is it a condo (so we need HOA dues in the payment) or single family, what do you have for a down payment, and what monthly payment are you genuinely comfortable with? Debbie described running exactly that call earlier the same day. The client wanted to stay near $3,500 a month; the FHA payment at that day's rates on the price range they needed came out around $3,950\. Her response was to *not* take an application and not pull credit until the client had decided whether that number was livable — because buyers have to be able to carry the payment for a long time, and “we'll refinance later” is a hope, not a plan. After talking through the tax treatment of property taxes, mortgage interest and mortgage insurance, the client concluded the higher payment worked and moved forward. And when someone isn't ready, the answer isn't “no, try later” — it's a written path: save this much, pay this down, work on this part of your credit. ## This week's numbers (week of May 31, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Fed funds target: **5–5.25%** after 10 straight increases; next meeting June 13–14 - One-month Treasury bill: spiked to **5.6%**, up from about **4%** a few weeks earlier, on debt ceiling risk - 10-year Treasury yield: fallen to **3.65%** as the debt deal advanced - Payment example, same purchase and down payment: **$3,900/month at 6.5%** vs. **$4,110/month at 7%** - FHA payment example on a $500,000 purchase with 3.5% down at that day's rates: about **$3,950/month** - Job openings (JOLTS): **10.10 million** on the last day of April, up from 9.745 million - Refinance rate on a live consolidation file: **\~7.25%** replacing a 3% first mortgage, still **$1,500/month** better after paying off all other debt *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Get a pre-approval that keeps up with the market Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Why a half point matters more than you think Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. Interest rates have been up, down, up, down — and today we're talking about what's sparking all of it, what I'm reading and watching, and what I think we see in the coming months and into 2024. If you are out there looking at homes, writing offers, hoping to get one accepted, it is very important that you and your lender are close friends — that you check in every couple of days to see whether rates have moved. Here's why. Earlier today I ran a payment for a new client wanting to get pre-approved. At 6.5%, for their sales price and down payment, the payment was $3,900 a month. At 7%, the same purchase was $4,110\. The rate changes the payment, it changes how much you qualify for, and it changes whether the property is affordable for you. The last thing you want is to get pre-approved, look for two months, fall in love, get an offer accepted, call your lender back and find out the payment isn't doable any more. ### The debt ceiling, the Treasury bill, and the spike So what happened. This came from the service I follow for rate movement, sent out last Friday — today is Wednesday, and if you're hearing this on the radio Saturday you're a couple of days behind. This was right before Memorial weekend. “Debt ceiling fallout: as of this writing there has been no resolution to the debt ceiling debate where Congress and the White House agree on a plan to lift our spending limit. In the absence of lifting our debt ceiling there is a risk of debt default and/or a credit downgrade. Any of those scenarios would be very disruptive to the financial markets and our overall economy. We are already seeing upward pressure on rates due to the lack of resolution. The one-month Treasury bill spiked to 5.6%, up from 4% just a few weeks ago. This dramatic spike has also placed upward pressure on the 10-year yield and mortgage rates — the former hit two-month highs on Thursday.” So a couple of weeks ago I was on here telling you we were at the lowest levels we'd seen since about October 2022\. A week and a half later, we're back at high rates. Two things did it. First, the Fed. At the last meeting, most analysts felt that was the end of the hikes. I told you at the time I didn't think we were done — I thought we'd see another quarter point in the middle of June. Then last week the jobs and inflation numbers came out, and analysts flipped: now they think the Fed hikes at the next meeting, June 13th and 14th, exactly two weeks from today. And as I've explained before, it's all about anticipation. If the market expects a quarter point, lenders build that quarter point into the rate sheets *before* the announcement. That's what happened last week. Second, the debt ceiling. If they don't raise it, the United States — one of the strongest currencies in the world, held to a top standard — gets downgraded. Stock markets fall significantly. I read one estimate that a failure to resolve it could wipe out ten trillion dollars of homeowner net worth through a stock market plunge of 45%. That's not a prediction that it happens; that's analysts working through what-ifs. Everything in the market — stocks, crypto, mortgage rates — runs on what-ifs and assumptions. Then over the weekend, on Saturday, they announced an agreement, and it went to the House to vote on. And all of a sudden this week rates are improving again. It has been an absolute roller coaster. ### What Fed officials were saying Some of the Federal Reserve members started making public statements, and that's part of what set off last week's increases. Here's a Reuters piece from May 31 — I finally figured out that today is May 31st. “Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland president Loretta Mester says no compelling reason to wait to implement another interest rate hike, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. 'I don't really see a compelling reason to pause,' Mester told the Financial Times in an interview. 'I would see more of a compelling case for bringing the rates up and then holding for a while until you get less uncertain about where the economy is going.'” Her comments came after some Fed policymakers hinted they may support a pause in June to assess the impact of tightening so far. Ten straight hikes have brought the U.S. policy rate to a 5 to 5.25% range. Mester also said the debt ceiling deal brokered by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could relieve a big piece of uncertainty about the economy — and the legislation passed an important hurdle late Tuesday, advancing to the full House for a vote expected Wednesday. So there's one policymaker saying she'd vote for another quarter point rather than pausing. Nobody is talking cuts yet. Most of what I've read says no rate cuts at all in 2023\. If they raise another quarter in June and then hold in August, they most likely hold through the rest of 2023 — no more hikes, but no cuts either. The cuts show up in the 2024 forecasts, and that may not mean early 2024; it could be the middle or the third quarter. Some analysts are calling for seven cuts in 2024\. That would be fabulous. I think seven is a little overzealous. But the bottom line is we're almost there. ### Why rates improved this week Here's the other note I read, and it explains the relief: “Signs that global inflation is cooling, disappointing growth out of China and falling stocks are all giving the bond markets a boost as the market awaits a signed debt deal from Congress. After yesterday's headlines that inflation eased in Spain, this morning Germany is reporting that inflation dipped to its lowest level in more than a year, while India also said inflation was cooling. The Fed's Bowman said the housing market rebound could impact the inflation fight, but she also noted that the decline in rents should appear in future inflation prints. Mortgage bonds are higher while the 10-year yield has fallen to 3.65%.” The JOLTS report showed 10.10 million jobs available on the last day of April, up from 9.745 million. Technically, the Fannie Mae 30-year 5.5% coupon has risen above its first resistance level and has its sights on the next. “This appears to be a classic reversal higher on the heels of the debt ceiling optimism, but a lot still has to go right before we can get overly bullish. Remember the Treasury coffers are depleted and it may have to raise cash to fund the debt deal by offering more government securities, and at the same time the Fed is not buying bonds and banks are possibly buying less if at all. Continue to lock where you can, but for those files closing outside of a 30-day window consider floating. Watch closely with us as we wait to see if bonds can bust through nearby technical hurdles.” What that's telling you: we hit a high last week, then the debt deal drove stocks down, which pushed money into the bond market, which brought our rates down. We broke through one of the technical resistance points, which usually becomes the new plateau, and they're hoping we break the next one. So expect volatility over the next couple of months. The Fed wants to hike, the government has been fighting over the debt ceiling, inflation is coming down — we're being pulled in several directions at once. If you're shopping for a home, check in with your loan officer every three or four days to confirm your pre-approval still means the same payment and the same price. If you're refinancing, get the application started and talk daily about when to lock. ### The best hedge against inflation you can buy Before the break I said we'd talk about the easiest way to fight inflation. I did a consultation today with someone worried that if they buy and rates go up, their payment could change. It is so important to understand what a fixed rate actually gives you. From the article: “Owning a home helps protect against inflation. You're probably feeling the impact of high inflation every day as prices have gone up on groceries, gas and more. If you're a renter, you're likely experiencing it a lot as your rent continues to rise. Not only will buying today help you begin to build equity, a fixed-rate mortgage can stabilize your monthly housing costs. Unlike rents, which tend to rise with time, a fixed-rate mortgage payment is predictable over the life of the mortgage, typically 15 or 30 years. When the cost of most everything else is rising, keeping your housing payment stable is especially important.” Rents move alongside inflation. When your lease comes up for renewal, your property manager may raise your payment to offset it — and according to one recent survey, 73% of property managers planned to raise rent over the following two years. Having your largest monthly expense stay stable in a time of economic uncertainty is a major perk of ownership. If you keep renting, you don't have that protection. ### Why values haven't fallen Everyone expected property values to plummet when rates went up. They haven't. In some areas they're still increasing; in others we've seen a slight decline of a couple of percent. Nothing spectacular. So anyone who bought kept their equity, got a rate at or below where the market is today, and has a stable payment and a place nobody can make them leave. Why haven't values dropped? There aren't enough homes for sale. Why aren't people selling? Because they have a 3% rate, or 2.5%, or 4%, and if they sold and bought something else their payment would go up. So they stay put, and that keeps values high. When rates do drop, a $700,000 or $800,000 property becomes more affordable, and you get a wave of renters becoming buyers *and* a wave of sellers who've been waiting to make the normal move — people stay in a home three, four, five, maybe seven years and then trade up or downsize. That natural evolution is paused right now. When it restarts, you'll see more inventory, but you'll also see a lot more buyers. I don't think we get flooded with listings to the point that values fall. I think the market gets buzzing, and equity starts building again. So my best guess, and I don't have a crystal ball: a hike in June, then we hold, and hold for a while. They're going to make sure inflation gets back to where it needs to be before they start cutting, and then they'll cut every meeting or every couple of meetings. But when those rates start coming down, the market is going to buzz — applications, buying, bidding wars, all of it. In my opinion, we'll see what we saw in 2020 and 2021. ### Homeowners: the debt math beats the rate math I haven't given homeowners much attention, honestly because refinances are slow — most of you have very good rates. The majority of people looking at a refinance now aren't doing it for a better rate on the mortgage; they're doing it because they've accumulated debt they need to pay off and they have equity in the home. And you've probably accumulated more than you realize, because when the prime rate moved, your card rates moved. You're paying more interest every month, which grows the balance even when you make the minimum. We have a lot of clients inquiring and then choosing not to move forward, because the mortgage payment would go up. But two things. One: you can always refinance again when rates come down. Two: have you actually written down every monthly debt you have and what it costs you? We took a refinance application last week that's in process now. The client is giving up a 3% rate on their mortgage and going to about 7.25%, based on their credit score, the loan-to-value and how much cash they're pulling out. Think about that — 3% to 7.25%. Yet when we wrote out all of their monthly debts and everything they're paying off, even with the mortgage payment going up, they save $1,500 a month out of pocket. Every person's math is different. I just want the sentence “I can't refinance, I'd lose my rate” out of your head long enough to ask what the student loan costs you, what the personal loan costs you, what the card minimum costs you, what the car costs you. Many homeowners have enough equity to pay those off. And the equity lines a lot of you took specifically to avoid touching your mortgage — those payments are up and the interest is up. Six or seven percent on a new mortgage is a whole lot lower than what's sitting on those cards. A real estate agent watching, Heather, put it well: it's an excellent time to get qualified and see where you are on purchasing power — and if changes are needed to get you there, find that out now, so when you're ready you're not waiting on an approval. As long as we keep the credit and income documents updated as time goes on, a pre-approval stays active. ### Q&A: what sources do you use? Giselle asks if I'll share the articles and websites I referred to. The homeownership-and-inflation piece is from Keeping Current Matters — keepingcurrentmatters.com. The debt ceiling and bond market commentary is from Tabrasa, also known as Mortgage Market Guide. And the Fed comments came from Reuters. I'm not pulling from Fox News or the New York Times; I go to the places the financial data actually comes from. ### Q&A: clients who are skeptical about lenders Giselle also asks, as a realtor, what tips I have for clients who are skeptical about talking to a lender. Honestly? There are a lot of loan officers who come across like the used car guy — a little pushy, a little sleazy. And there are a lot who don't take their time and don't educate. Someone calls, says they'd like to get pre-approved, and gets: fill out this application. They run the numbers, send them back, and say congratulations, you qualify for $500,000, your payment will be $4,500 a month, let me know when you find a property. No conversation. No important questions asked first. I did a consultation on the phone today and my questions started somewhere else. You want to get pre-approved, that's fantastic — but you've been window shopping, I guarantee you're on realtor.com or Redfin. What are you seeing? What price range do you need to be in to find something you'd be happy buying? They said $500,000; they can't find anything below that. Is that a single family or a condo — because I need to know whether HOA dues go into the payment. Single family, in that area, in that price. Great. Now, down payment: do you have it saved, do you need assistance, what's available? They had $20,000\. So realistically we're looking at an FHA loan at 3.5% down, you'll be short on closing costs, and you should talk to your agent about whether this market allows negotiating a closing cost credit — but let's assume they can, and your $20,000 gets you into the $500,000. Now, what monthly payment were you looking for? They said about $3,500\. I ran the FHA payment at today's rates and it came out around $3,950\. And I told them: I don't want you to do an application with me. I don't want to pull your credit and take you down that path if $3,950 versus the $3,500 you said was your comfort level isn't something you can afford. It is very important that people know they can afford what they're buying. You have to assume you'll be in that payment a long time. Maybe we all get lucky and rates come down and we refinance. But we can't hang our hats on that and figure we have enough savings to swing it for a year — because what happens at the end of that year if rates didn't come down? That client and I kept talking, about the property tax and mortgage interest and mortgage insurance deductions and what that does to their return, about equity, about the possibility of refinancing later — and they decided the higher payment was doable, and we started the application. That's the difference. And when someone isn't ready, we don't say “no, sorry, try again later.” We give them the path: save this much, work on this part of your credit, pay these things off. A road map to home ownership. ### A real client, live on the phone Heather, an agent on my team, wrote in that she has a client for whom refinancing everything into one new loan was better — saving them $900 a month. I wanted the numbers on air, so I called her. Their current rate is 4%. The new rate is about 7% — a bit higher than it might be because they need to work on their credit. They're paying off all their debt, including personal loans, and still saving $900 a month. They'd discussed a HELOC, but a full refinance with cash out was much better for them. Nine hundred dollars a month right now is huge for a family. ### Wrap-up If you've got debt and you're a homeowner, call us and let us run the numbers. If you've been thinking about buying — I say it week after week — get off the fence and get pre-approved. It's the best thing you can do to fight inflation: stability, a payment nobody can raise, a stepping stone. Rent it out later, refinance when rates drop, make some cash flow, and go buy the next one. Reach us at 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. To know when I go live every Wednesday, text the word MOM to that same number; just M-O-M, and you'll get one text a week with a link to join. I'll be back next Wednesday. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of May 31, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Can You Get a Mortgage Without Tax Returns? Four Alternative Loan Programs URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-get-a-mortgage-without-tax-returns-four-alternative-loan-programs/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T17:36:40.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Alternative Loan Options!” • Live show from Wednesday, May 17, 2023 • 58 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and VA all start from the same place: prove your income. This episode is about the four programs that don't. Debbie walks through the Community Mortgage — a true no-income-qualifying loan for a primary residence or second home — bank statement loans for the self-employed, debt service ratio loans where the rental property qualifies instead of you, and hard money. What each one costs, what it takes to get one, and when it's the right tool. ## Key takeaways - **The Community Mortgage is a no-income-qualifying loan** for a primary residence or second home. No W-2s, no pay stubs, no tax returns — and unlike old-school stated income, no employer and no income figure go on the application at all. Confirmed on air: **640 credit score, 20% down, 12 months of reserves.** You don't have to be self-employed. - **Bank statement loans are self-employed only** and qualify you on 12 or 24 months of business bank deposits. Twenty-four months prices better than twelve. Confirmed on air: **20% down at a 700+ score, 25% down at 660–699** (for investment property, 25% down at 740 and 30% at 680–699). Returned inventory and supply purchases are excluded from the deposit math. - **Debt service ratio (DSCR) loans let the property qualify itself** on investment purchases — no income verified from you at all. The rent, set by the appraiser or by an existing lease, has to cover the full payment. **700 credit score, 25% down minimum, 12 months of reserves**, and you generally need to already own a primary residence. - **These carry higher rates because they are non-qualified mortgages.** At the time: the Community Mortgage and DSCR around **8%**, bank statement in the **high sevens** with 20% down and a 680–700 score, and hard money at **11–12%**. For context, a fully documented conventional investment loan was already in the high sevens. - **Hard money is short-term financing with a job to do:** a property that can't be financed — broken windows, no toilets, a build the builder never finished — or a close in about seven days to beat nine other offers. Typically a 12-month term and 25–30% down. Buy it, fix it, then refinance into permanent financing. - **All four work for refinances, not just purchases** — paying off debt, funding home improvements, or pulling equity out when you started a business and your returns don't show it yet. - **On the loan-pricing headlines:** nothing made low credit scores qualify more easily. Everyone still has to qualify. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pricing adjusters were announced at the start of the year and had been in lenders' pricing models since February. High-score borrowers with large down payments actually improved in several places, especially on investment property; borrowers in the 680–699 range saw a slightly worse adjustment. ## Chapters - 06:00What we're covering: DSCR, Community Mortgage, bank statement - 07:00Community Mortgage: no income, no employer, no tax returns - 08:00Why non-QM loans price higher — and the refinance exit - 12:00Confirmed live: 640 score, 20% down - 13:00Reserves explained, and why 12 months - 19:00Bank statement loans: 12 months vs. 24 months - 21:00Down payment tiers and why 20% beats 10% - 29:00Down payment by credit score, confirmed on air - 31:00Debt service ratio loans: the property qualifies, not you - 33:0025% down, 700 score, and the rent-to-payment ratio - 37:00The three programs side by side - 44:00Q&A: do low credit scores now qualify more easily? - 48:00Hard money: fixer-uppers, flips, and seven-day closings - 51:00What hard money costs and what it requires - 55:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ## Questions answered on this show ### “Do the new loan pricing rules mean people with lower credit scores qualify more easily — and does that hurt buyers with great credit?” No. Nothing about it changed who qualifies — everyone still has to qualify for the mortgage they're applying for. What actually changed were pricing *adjusters*: the same category of adjustment that already moves your rate based on credit score, down payment, property type and debt ratio. Higher-score borrowers with larger down payments picked up an additional adjustment of roughly 0.125%, and a small offsetting adjuster was added for lower-down-payment, lower-score borrowers. The real-world impact was minimal in both directions. It wasn't new, either: it was announced at the beginning of the year and had been in lenders' pricing models since February. Comparing before and after, several pockets actually *improved* for high-score borrowers with big down payments — investment property pricing improved significantly — while the 680–699 range saw a slightly worse adjustment. It had been in effect for months before a news article made it a story. ### Find out which of these programs fits your situation Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, licensing recitations, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Today's topic: alternative financing Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom. Most weeks we talk about VA, FHA, conventional, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, jumbo — the conventional options where you have to qualify to buy the property. Today we're talking about the alternative options we have available, because many times our clients don't know those options are there. They feel like they aren't able to buy, or that a refinance isn't possible. Every now and then it's important to remind you of all the different options we have. We're going to talk about DSCRs — many of you don't know what that means. We're going to talk about our Community Mortgage program, which is a stated income program for a primary residence. We're going to talk about bank statement programs for self-employed borrowers. And if we have time, hard money. ### The Community Mortgage: a true no-income-qualifying loan Community Mortgage is a primary residence loan and it's stated income. We are not going to verify where you work. We are not going to ask for W-2s. We are not getting pay stubs. We are not getting tax returns. This is a really great program for somebody thinking about moving out of state or relocating who hasn't found the job yet, so we have no way to verify where they'll be working. They don't want to rent first — they want to get there, get settled, then get the job. And then we can always look at refinancing into a better rate and payment later. Remember that these alternative loans are not qualified mortgages — they're called non-qualified mortgages. Because of that they carry a higher risk, which means a higher rate. Think about hard money loans: those are going to be super high, in the 10%, 11%, even 12% range. These are better than that, but you're probably somewhere in the 8% range, depending on how much you put down, your credit score, and the property type — single family, condo, or two-to-four unit. So you might think, my goodness, that's high. But we can always refinance once you're in a position to show the income needed to qualify. We don't necessarily need a two-year history at your job for that later refinance. If you're working in California and you decide to move to Tennessee — you're with the union, you have your card, you're a pipefitter or an ironworker — you get there, get settled, go down to the local union and get on a job. At that point, because you've been in the same job and the same industry for two years, we have the employment history we can look at. This is also a great program if you're self-employed and writing off all your income and you really want to be a homeowner. We don't have to prove income in any way. It's for a primary residence *and* second homes — so if you wanted to buy a vacation property, this works for that too. It is not going to work for an investment property, but we have other alternative options for those. I want to make sure you heard me: this is not a low down payment loan. This is not a 3% or 5% type of loan. If that's what you need, we're going back to Fannie and Freddie and FHA, those conventional and government programs where you do have to complete full qualifications. But if you have a decent down payment and a decent credit score, this could work — and if you thought you couldn't get financing, maybe you can. One important distinction: Community Mortgage does not require that you're self-employed. You aren't going to say what you do on the application at all. You could be a W-2 employee with a job — that doesn't matter. We are not limiting this to self-employed borrowers. *\[Confirmed live on air by Debbie's team during the show: the Community Mortgage requires a *640 credit score, 20% down, and 12 months of reserves*.\]* Reserves are the full amount of your mortgage payment — principal, interest, taxes and insurance — multiplied by the number of months required. Say your total payment is $3,000; twelve months of reserves means $36,000 we have to verify. You need your down payment, your closing costs, and then enough in the bank for us to verify reserves after closing. You are not required to *keep* those reserves after we close — they need to be in an account at the time of closing, and if you close and need to use those funds the next day, that's absolutely allowed. Every program and every lender has a slightly different reserve requirement. ### Bank statement loans for the self-employed Bank statement loans are for self-employed borrowers only. If you're a W-2 employee getting a salary or an hourly wage with pay stubs, this isn't a program you'd qualify for. We look at your last 12 to 24 months of business bank statements to see how much you've actually done in deposits. If you purchase inventory or tools or supplies for a job and then return those items, that money coming back in is excluded — but actual income from earnings is what we calculate on. We have two versions: the 12-month program carries a slightly higher rate than the 24-month, because the longer the history, the more we can confirm the income has been secure and stable. But maybe one year was bad and the next was great, in which case the 12-month version is better for you. Bank statement will price slightly better than the Community Mortgage, because it isn't purely stated. We're verifying that you own your business, we're seeing the statements, we're verifying the income that came in, and we're qualifying on those deposits — not on whatever you say you make. On down payment: it can go as low as 10% on a bank statement program, but hear the *however*. When you put a low amount down on these, the rate starts to get pretty high. If you're considering it, I'd recommend having at least 20% down. Even six weeks ago when I last looked at the 10% down version, that rate was quite high. Guidelines on these change rapidly. *\[Confirmed live on air: *20% down with a 700 or higher credit score, 25% down at 660–699.* For an investment property, *25% down at 740 and 30% down at 680–699.* Reserves generally 12 months, depending on the scenario.\]* With 20% down and a 680 to 700 credit score, we could absolutely get you down into the seven percent ranges — seven and a half, seven and three quarters. The rate is higher, but it gets you into a home and gets you the financing you need. Maybe you just started your business and filed tax returns for the first time for 2022, so you need to get 2023 filed to have a two-year history. Then in 2024 we do a refinance into better terms. And keep in mind these can be used for refinances as well. If you bought your home and you're trying to get equity out but you're self-employed and don't show enough income to qualify — if the bank statements don't work, we move you to the Community Mortgage for a primary or second home; if they do, we use the bank statement product. Home improvements, paying off debt, that's all on the table. As I'm saying these numbers — 640, 660, 680 — these are not difficult credit scores to reach, which means more people have the opportunity to get financing than realize it. When people hear "stated income" or "alternative" or "non-qualified mortgage," they usually assume they need a score in the 700s or 720s or 740s. That's not necessarily the case. ### Debt service ratio loans: the property qualifies, not you If you were a bank statement candidate buying an investment property, we probably wouldn't put you in a bank statement program — we'd look at a debt service ratio loan, a DSCR, because those rely on the property itself rather than on your income. The exception: if you don't already own a primary residence or an investment property, you generally can't do a DSCR. They want to see that you have housing expense somewhere and that you've been responsible with it. In that case we'd look at bank statement financing for the investment property instead. Here's how DSCR works. This is for investment only — you're buying the property to rent it out. The appraiser determines what the subject property could bring in per month. If it's already a rental with a current tenant staying in place, we use the actual rents. If it's somebody's home that you're converting to a rental, the appraiser sets market rent. Your monthly payment cannot exceed what the property brings in. The property needs to carry itself: if the full payment with taxes and insurance is $3,000 and the rent is $3,000, it qualifies. Rates are in the 8% range, like the Community Mortgage, but it's an investment property, the property is qualifying itself, you're not verifying income and you're not showing tax returns. You need a minimum **25% down** — all investment property loans require 25% and up, so depending on purchase price and loan balance you could need 30% or 35%. Minimum **12 months of reserves**, more as loan amounts rise. And a minimum **700 credit score**, which makes this the toughest of the three on score and down payment. There is a little wiggle room if the payment slightly exceeds rent, but as the gap widens they charge an interest rate premium that climbs and climbs. We want the rent covering 100% of the payment to get you the best financing. Do your due diligence — if it rents for $2,000 and the payment is $5,000, that's a two-to-one ratio and it simply will not qualify. Worth knowing: even a fully documented Fannie Mae conventional investment purchase requires 25% down, unless it's a single family one-unit property, where you could get in with 20%. So a DSCR asking for 25% is not a worse down payment than what you'd need anyway — with far less paperwork. And conventional investment rates were already up in the high sevens. There are many lenders doing these programs, which makes it a moving target. A lower credit score means a different lender, and that lender may want a different down payment or different reserves. But it's a great program, and many people don't even know it exists. ### The three programs side by side Community Mortgage: I keep saying stated income, but in reality it isn't even that. Back in 2003, 2004, 2005, everybody was doing stated income — we'd write down where you worked and then state a figure for what you made. This one doesn't record where you work, doesn't put it on the application, doesn't even put a number in the income field. It's truly a no-income-qualifying loan. Bank statement: self-employed borrowers only, and we *do* verify income — through the deposits into your bank statements. Debt service ratio: the property qualifies to carry itself, and no income is verified from you on the application at all. ### Hard money Those three programs land in the very high sevens to high eights. Hard money usually starts around 10%, and with rates having risen over the last year and a half we're seeing some come in at 11% and 12%. Definitely a more expensive product, but a different tool. Where does hard money make sense? A fixer-upper you can't get financing on. The roof is half falling apart. You're buying a property a builder started and didn't finish — and you're seeing a lot of that right now, brand new homes offered at a lower price if you'll finish the construction. Health and safety issues that make a home unfinanceable: broken windows, the kitchen pulled apart, no toilets in the bathrooms. A hard money loan gets you the money to buy it so you can fix it, then refinance into better financing or flip it. It's short-term financing. They typically write for 12 months and then want to be paid off. Hard money usually wants at least 20% down and it's usually closer to 30% — some lenders will do 25%. They're looking hard at the property and at the price you're paying, because they need to know they can get their money back on a short-term, high-interest loan. Hard money is also good if you want to take cash out of an investment property to go buy another one and you don't have time to put normal financing in place. These loans can close in about seven days. If there are ten offers on a property and you want to make yours more attractive, you can say you'll close in seven days — then afterward come back, do the loan application, get permanent financing, and pay off the hard money. There is a place and a time for it, and we have resources we can refer you to. ### Wrap-up If any of these programs sound like they're for you, head over to mortgagemomradio.com — don't forget the "radio." You can hit contact us, book an appointment for a phone call, send me an email, or call the office at 844-935-3634\. We'll talk about your specifics: what you're buying or refinancing, your goal, how much you have down, your credit score, whether it's a primary residence, a vacation property or an investment, and whether you're self-employed. Then we'll figure out the best program available for you, show you the numbers, show you the options, and let you decide. These are options for people who didn't think they had options, and that's exciting. They aren't for everybody — if you're a W-2 employee with a down payment who can prove your income and wants 3% or 5% down, you're a standard financing borrower and we love those programs too. But today's show was all about alternative financing. To join the show live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 and you'll get one link a week when I go live. I won't be back next Wednesday — I'm taking it off for the Memorial Day holiday week — but I'll be back the week after. In the meantime, call us and let's answer your questions. Talk to you all real soon. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of May 17, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Can't Find a Rental? You Can Probably Afford to Buy Instead URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/cant-find-a-rental-you-can-probably-afford-to-buy-instead/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:59:23.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, May 10, 2023 • 57 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 • With guest Mary, notary and Orange County real estate agent Mary listed one two-bedroom condo for rent, opened it for exactly one hour, and took 42 applications. The applicants had 750-plus credit scores, $50,000 in the bank and documented income — and they were competing for the privilege of paying someone else's mortgage. Debbie brings her on to tell the story, then does the math nobody in that line had done: what it would have cost those same people to buy. ## Key takeaways - **The rental shortage is as bad as the for-sale shortage.** One listing on Facebook Marketplace drew over **1,500 views and 100 requests in a day**, and more than **3,500 views and 400 requests** by day three. A one-hour showing produced **10 applications on the spot and 32 more that night**. - **The people losing rental bidding wars can usually buy.** Mary's applicants had **750+ FICO scores, over $50,000 in the bank, stable jobs and little debt**. By her own estimate, at least **80%** of them could have qualified to purchase. - **Renting isn't cheap up front either.** The winning tenant handed over **$10,900** — first month, last month, security and pet deposit — for a **$3,000/month** rental. Several applicants offered a full year's rent in advance. - **Run the after-tax comparison, not the sticker comparison.** The same condo bought with 3.5% down at a 5.625% FHA rate penciled around **$4,800/month** all-in. Debbie's estimate of the effective cost after the property tax, mortgage interest and mortgage insurance deductions was closer to **$3,500** — and refinanced later at 4.5% without mortgage insurance, the same payment runs about **$3,527**. - **Closing costs are roughly 2% of the price** — about $10,000 on a $500,000 purchase. That is the same order of magnitude as the cash it takes to move into a rental. - **Down payment assistance exists in more states than people think,** including CalHFA in California, with income limits more lenient than most buyers assume. - **You do not need to buy the dream house first.** If Huntington Beach doesn't work, a condo further inland does. It's a stepping stone — and the tenant has no stability, no improvements they can make, and a 5% annual rent increase (in California) waiting at renewal. ## Chapters - 00:50Why today's show is about rentals - 05:30Listing it on the MLS — and then on Facebook Marketplace - 07:003,500 views, 400 requests, and a phone she had to silence - 09:00One hour of showings, 42 applications - 11:00$10,900 just to get the keys - 12:30The buy-versus-rent math on the same condo - 13:30What the tax deductions do to the real cost - 16:40Why getting fully qualified early decides who wins - 18:20If the area is too expensive, move the search, not the goal - 21:40Why the rental market got this tight - 25:40Renovation loans: FHA 203(k) and conventional options - 27:20Q&A: the hardest part is the down payment - 28:40Down payment assistance and the 2% closing cost rule - 41:20Why the landlord picks the strongest file — and lenders don't - 46:20Q&A: does inheriting a condo end first-time buyer status? - 54:20Wrap-up ## Questions answered on this show ### “If someone who has never owned a home inherits a condo and sells it, are they still a first-time buyer?” It depends on whether title actually moved to them, and the rule is the same in every state — these are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA guidelines. The baseline: if you have not owned real property in the last three years, you're considered a first-time buyer. If the property was held in a family trust and the trust sold it, title never transferred into your name, so you never had home ownership — you'd still be a first-time buyer. If the trust deeded the condo to you and you became the owner of record, you are not; you own real property. But this matters less than people think. First-time buyer status is required for many down payment assistance programs. It is *not* required for a low down payment — 3%, 3.5% or 5% down are available whether or not you've owned before, and you can get an FHA loan even if you've bought a house before or still own one. Some assistance programs don't require first-timer status but do require that you not own property at closing — fine if you're selling the one you have, not fine if you're keeping it. ### “The hard part for someone like me is putting together a down payment. How do people actually do it?” Start by comparing it to what a rental costs to move into — the tenant in Mary's story needed $10,900\. What you really need is enough to cover closing costs, which run about **2% of the sales price**: roughly $10,000 on a $500,000 purchase, and sometimes less, and sometimes the seller can be negotiated into paying them. The down payment itself is where assistance programs come in. California has CalHFA, whose income limits are more lenient than most people assume, and there are down payment assistance programs available in other states as well — the listener asking was in Washington, and there were options there too. If you have the cash it takes to get into a rental, there is a very good chance we can get you into something to buy — possibly outside the exact area you had in mind. ### Find out what you'd actually qualify for Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or compare renting and buying with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. The guest is identified on air by first name only.* ### Why we're talking about rentals **Debbie:** Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. Today we're talking rentals. A lot of clients have put home purchases on hold — which I don't agree with, but it's happening — and they're out exploring rentals instead. So I've brought on a good friend of mine, Mary. She's a notary who specializes in loan documents, she's a real estate agent, she owns rentals, and she has just bought a new investment property. She told me what happened when she went to rent it out, and I wanted you to hear it from the person it happened to. **Mary:** I'd been sitting on the sidelines like everybody else, waiting for the crash everyone kept saying was coming. Prices weren't dropping — in Orange County they were only going up. I'd never been a landlord in California; I had properties in Florida, and Florida is a completely different beast. We wanted something close to home this time, and a property came along a block from our house. We finally pulled the trigger at the end of March. Even then I didn't feel like it was the right time — a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath, 1,100 square feet, paying that much for it. But you can't make that kind of money in the bank, so we did it. ### One hour of showings, 42 applications **Mary:** I didn't know where to start. In Florida you list on the MLS, so I put it on the MLS to see what feedback I'd get, and maybe seven to ten agents called and set appointments three, four, five days out. Then my sister, who has rentals, asked if I'd put it on Facebook Marketplace. I don't even do Facebook. She walked me through it, and within a minute I already had five responses. I asked her, is this normal? She said yes — that's why I told you. After one day I had over 1,500 views and a hundred requests. By the third day, over 3,500 views and over 400 requests to see it. I couldn't keep up. I couldn't answer my phone any more; I put it on silent. People were begging — “I don't even need to see it, we'll rent it sight unseen.” I said no, we're not doing that. So I decided to show it for one day, one hour. I picked a Thursday between one and two in the afternoon — the most inconvenient time possible, when everyone's at work. It was a madhouse. I stayed an extra 30 minutes just to close up because I couldn't get people out; they kept coming after the time was over. I had 10 solid applications on the spot, and 32 more came in that night. Forty-two applications for one property. **Debbie:** Let me play devil's advocate. Do you think you priced the rent too low? **Mary:** I don't think so — and when you hear what they had to come up with, it'll make your head spin. The people who applied had over 750 FICO scores. They paid for their own applications. They had over $50,000 sitting in the bank, great jobs, little debt. I had so many choices. I was shocked that they wanted to be in this rat race, begging for a rental, when they could have gone out and bought. **Debbie:** They can. They may not know they can. **Mary:** And it wasn't cheap to get in. First month, last month, security deposit, pet deposit — $10,900 just to get the keys in their hand. I had people offering to pay a full year up front on top of that. I said no. That makes me nervous — are you never going to pay after that? How do I get you out in a year? ### The math on the same condo **Debbie:** Let's back up, because I agree with you. Somebody who can come up with that cash, has a 750 score, $50,000 in the bank and verifiable income could absolutely get a loan. What's the rent? **Mary:** Three thousand a month. Two bedroom, one and a half bath, in Huntington Beach. **Debbie:** So if somebody bought that unit today with an FHA loan at three and a half percent down — principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA dues — that payment is about $4,800 a month. I can see why someone says: I can't afford $4,800, I can afford $3,000 in rent. I completely get that thought process. What they're missing is that the $3,000 is thrown away. They're not getting the property taxes as a deduction, or the mortgage interest, or the mortgage insurance, which as of this year and the two before is deductible — the IRS can change that. So what someone paying $4,800 a month actually gets back on their income taxes puts them, at my rough guess, in the zone of about $3,500 a month. Everyone's income and tax base is different. **Mary:** When I bought my primary residence I took it in the shorts — our rate was so high. But within six months our equity had gone up and I was able to refinance as rates dropped. Right now rates are going up, but they'll turn around and come back down. Maybe you suck it up in the beginning. That's what we did, and we've never left the house since, because it just keeps going up in value. We thought we were overpaying. Now we're thinking, thank God we bought it, because we couldn't afford it today. **Debbie:** And the equity gained over time. We're likely to see rates start coming back down within the next 12 months, which is the chance to refinance. As values increase, you're no longer in an FHA loan — you're in a conventional loan and you can get rid of monthly mortgage insurance. Let me re-run it. The first payment I gave used a 5.625% FHA rate, which is roughly where we've been, with most people buying the rate down a bit. If we go back to something more like normal for 2017 onward — call it 4.5% — with no mortgage insurance, that same payment with principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA is $3,527\. Now you're there. That's Mary's point: you have to start somewhere. You get the deductions, which means a bigger return, and when rates come down and values go up, you refinance. And you own it. ### Get fully qualified before you need to be **Mary:** The key is that people should get qualified even if they're not buying yet. Find out what you can do. Because when you finally find the property you're ready to pull the trigger on, if you haven't gotten your documents to a lender, you're going to lose out. Nobody is going to sit and wait for you to gather qualifying documents. If you're not one of the first one or two offers in, they won't wait. **Debbie:** And the other side of it: the $3,000 a month somebody is paying you — that's money they're throwing away. I understand if Huntington Beach is where they want to live. But there are condominiums further south, in Lake Forest, that cost a lot less than Huntington Beach. Maybe Huntington is your excitement spot, but owning the property is more important. Get into something for $400,000 or $450,000 at the same monthly payment, own it, save a bit more, wait for rates to come down, refinance to a lower payment, rent it out. Now you have a stepping stone. **Mary:** People are renting out rooms to supplement, too — I think it's around $1,200 for one room in a house. If you're willing to have a stranger living with you, that's what's happening right now, because landlords can name their price. And there's nothing on the market. Even the Inland Empire is having a hard time with rentals. It doesn't matter where you look. **Debbie:** At least you have an asset. If your money is in stocks and bonds, it's paper. **Mary:** That was my thinking. If I put my money into a property, I have something tangible. And people always have to rent, so it's passive income for retirement. Even if values drop, rents hold and keep going up. **Debbie:** Right — you leased it for 12 months, and in 12 months when the contract is up you can choose to increase the rent. Here in California you can raise it by five percent. ### Why the rental market got this tight **Debbie:** Do you know why it's so inundated? **Mary:** I asked people why they were moving. Some are coming back — they sold at a premium and moved to Texas, Tennessee, Idaho, Utah, and it didn't suit them. One woman said she'd spent four months under tornado warnings and couldn't take it any more. And there are landlords who were raked over the coals during the period when you couldn't remove non-paying tenants. They got so stressed that now they're selling. They're being decent about it — giving people two or three months — but those tenants have been searching that whole time and still haven't found anything. Others are renovating, because a renovation lets them re-list it at a much higher rent than the five percent annual increase would allow. They don't want long-term tenants. As a tenant, you have no security. Once you're month to month, they only have to give you 30 days' notice. **Debbie:** I want people to hear this. I don't sugarcoat anything. A $3,000-a-month rental takes $10,900 to get into. Yes, the mortgage payment would be higher — $4,800 — but here's my mom rant: you need to own something. Maybe your little booty can't be in Huntington Beach. Maybe it needs to be somewhere less expensive. Or talk to your CPA and ask what your refund would look like if you were paying that much per month with those property taxes and that interest. **Mary:** And if someone bought a fixer, aren't there loans to help fix it up, which would add value? **Debbie:** There are. FHA has a renovation loan called a 203(k), and there are conventional renovation loans as well. Nobody has to live in a dump — you can buy something, get it fixed up, live in it, and let it gain value. ### Q&A: the down payment problem **Debbie:** A viewer says the hard thing for someone like him is putting together a down payment, let alone a bigger one. That's exactly what we're talking about. The person who moved into Mary's condo needed $10,900\. What I want you to hear is that the same money could get you into a purchase. We have down payment assistance programs. In California there's CalHFA, and people assume they make too much money to qualify — CalHFA's income guidelines are actually quite lenient. He's in Washington state, and CalHFA is California-only, but there are down payment assistance programs available there too. What you really need is enough to cover closing costs, which are usually about two percent of the sales price — sometimes a little less, and sometimes you can get the seller to pay them. Assume worst case: two percent of $500,000 is $10,000\. So if you have the same money you'd need for a rental, there's a very good chance we can get you into a home to buy. Maybe a little outside your area. And in most parts of the country the gap between rent and a mortgage payment isn't nearly as extreme as the example we just did. And add the deductions on top. If your refund changes by $10,000 where you were getting nothing back before, that's $833 a month — put it in an account and pay it to yourself monthly, and it helps subsidize the higher payment. Plus you own the place, and you have the stability a rental can't give you. ### What people wrongly assume disqualifies them **Debbie:** The other thing is that people assume they need 20% down, or a certain income, or a certain credit score. That's just not the case. Stop assuming and pick up the phone. The worst thing we say is “not yet” — and then we tell you what to do about it. If someone calls and says “I make money but I don't claim it, so I know I can't get a loan” — no, you can't get a traditional loan. But did you know that with 20% down there are options even if you can't show income at all? Or that with business bank statements for the last 12 to 24 months and 10% down, there are programs for that? People don't know, so they assume no. Same with judgments, or IRS debt. With IRS debt, get yourself on a payment plan and make the payments on time — there's a lot we can work around. But if you don't call and ask, you don't know, and you're not taking the steps to be ready to buy. **Mary:** And there have been people with really bad credit who six months later were able to purchase, because they made the choices you told them to make. **Debbie:** Here's the thing that should get people's attention. If you're a landlord with 42 applications in front of you, you pick the strongest file. Someone with a 630 score and collections on their report is probably not the tenant you choose — but we can do a loan for someone with a 630 score and some collections. It may genuinely be easier right now to buy a property than to win a rental. And landlords aren't casual about it any more; a lot of them use property management companies running full background checks. ### Q&A: inheritance and first-time buyer status **Debbie:** Back to our viewer's question: if someone who never owned a home inherits a condo, wants to sell it and buy a home, do they still qualify as a first-time home buyer? He's in Washington state, but it doesn't matter what state you're in — these are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA guidelines. The guideline is that if you have not owned real property in the last three years, you're considered a first-time buyer. Your situation gets a little sketchy because it depends what happened with the inheritance. If the property was held in a family trust — grandma's property, the trust says you'll inherit it, but title never moved to you — then the trust is selling it, you never had home ownership, and you'd still be a first-time buyer. If the trust transferred title to you and you're now the owner of record of that condominium, then you're not; you own real property. Now let me back up, because people think first-time buyer status is a bigger deal than it is. For many down payment assistance programs, yes, you have to be a first-time buyer. But if you're not using assistance and you have 3%, 3.5% or 5% down, you don't need the title of first-time buyer at all. You can get an FHA loan if you've bought a house before. You can get one if you still own a home. There are also assistance programs that don't require first-timer status but do require you not to own property — so selling the house you have is fine; keeping it isn't. ### How to reach the show **Debbie:** One clarification, because people text questions to the 844 number: that line is an automated notification service, not a monitored chat. It exists to send you the link when we go live. If you have a question and you're not ready to call, go to mortgagemomradio.com and use the contact form — those come to me and I answer them — or email questions@mortgagemomradio.com, which also comes to me. Some questions are too involved to answer by text, and if a question is elaborate enough I'll write back and ask for a good time to talk. ### Wrap-up **Debbie:** If you're a tenant, or you're out looking for a rental right now, what's the harm in calling to find out what a payment would look like, how much you'd qualify for, and how much money you'd need? You might be very pleasantly surprised. You might not be able to buy in the exact area you want. The opportunity of home ownership matters more than being down by the beach next to your favorite bar. We answer the phone on weekends too — if you get voicemail we're on another line, so leave a message and you'll get a call back, usually within an hour or two. We can't call you back if we don't know who you are. To know when I go live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. Just M-O-M; you'll get one text a week telling you the topic with a link to join. We stream on Facebook, Twitch and YouTube. And it's mortgagemomradio.com — don't forget the “radio.” I'll be back next Wednesday, same time. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of May 10, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Are Good-Credit Buyers Really Paying More? The 2023 Mortgage Fee Change, Explained URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/are-good-credit-buyers-really-paying-more-the-2023-mortgage-fee-change-explained/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:59:23.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • Live show from Wednesday, May 3, 2023 • 60 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Fed raised rates a quarter point the morning this show aired, and the headline everyone was texting Debbie was that good-credit buyers would now subsidize bad-credit ones. She reads the Fed's own statement line by line, then reads an industry note explaining what the fee change actually did — roughly an eighth of a percent in rate, live in pricing since February, not a new May 1 event. Then the part that matters more: why the rental market was pushing people toward buying, and the blunt mom advice about what your first property should be. ## Key takeaways - **The quarter-point hike changed almost nothing for mortgage rates,** because it was expected and already priced into rate sheets. Debbie's read: rates were the best they'd been in about three months. - **The Fed vote was unanimous, and Powell gave no clear signal about June.** Debbie's honest summary: it's 50-50, and what happens next depends on what the market *anticipates* before the meeting. - **The “good credit subsidizes bad credit” story was largely a headline.** The FHFA adjuster changes were announced at the start of the year and had been live in pricing since February. The worst-hit buckets, FICOs between **680 and 779**, saw up to **0.75 in price** — which is about **0.125% in rate**. A 5% quote becomes 5.125%. - **Some high-credit buckets got better, not worse.** FICO 780+ with a 60–80% loan-to-value improved, and investment properties below 60% LTV improved significantly. - **The supply-demand gap is the whole story:** roughly **50 million people aged 28 to 38** in the U.S., and only about **562,000 active listings**. - **Bidding is already back.** An agent on Debbie's team wrote an offer that week on a home listed at **$675,000**; it went for about **$725,000**, no contingencies, no credits, 14-day close. - **The mom moment:** your first purchase does not have to be the three-bedroom, two-bath dream house. If you're looking at $2,800–$3,500 apartments, look at condos in that payment range instead. Debbie's own ladder was a 580-square-foot one-bedroom condo, then a townhome, then half a duplex, then a house. ## Chapters - 01:50Today's three topics: the Fed, the fee headline, and rentals - 06:50The Fed raised a quarter point — and why it barely moved rates - 10:20Stocks up, rates up: how money rotates between the two - 14:00A unanimous vote and no clear signal for June - 18:00Reading the FOMC statement in full - 22:20“A very long project” — why cuts weren't coming in 2023 - 26:20The Biden-penalizes-good-credit headline - 28:40What the FHFA adjusters actually changed, and when - 29:400.75 in price is 0.125% in rate — and who got better pricing - 31:40New home sales up 9.6% in March - 36:2050 million people aged 28–38, 562,000 listings - 43:40The rental stories: 3,000 views in two hours - 46:40$10,900 to move in, and a 790 credit score - 52:20An offer at $675,000 that sold for about $725,000 - 54:40The mom moment: buy the condo, not the dream house - 58:40Down payment assistance and the wrap-up ## Questions answered on this show ### “Is it still a good time to refinance, or are rates still rising?” Debbie's answer on air was yes, it's a good time — and the rate discussion that followed is the reason why. Despite the Fed raising a quarter point that morning, rates on lender sheets were the best they'd been in about three months, because the hike had already been priced in. Her view was that rates had hit their peak for the moment and had come back down from the October 2022 highs. She expected them to hold roughly steady for the five to six weeks until the next Fed meeting. If you have a home equity line or credit card debt, the hike does hit you — those minimum payments and the interest on existing balances go up immediately, which is exactly the situation a consolidation refinance is designed to solve. ## This week's numbers (week of May 3, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Fed funds target range: raised a quarter point to **5–5.25%** on a unanimous vote - FHFA pricing adjusters: worst impact on FICOs **680–779**, up to **0.75 in price** — about **0.125% in rate**. FICO 780+ at 60–80% LTV improved; investment properties under 60% LTV improved significantly. Live in pricing since **February**, not new on May 1 - New home sales: **+9.6%** month over month in March, against an expected 1.6% decline; sales prices still **3.4%** below March 2022 - Median home price cited: **$449,800**, up about **3%** year over year (national, not California) - Case-Shiller national index: **+0.2%** month over month in February, **+2%** annually — first monthly gain in eight months - Active listings nationwide: about **562,000**, against roughly **50 million** people aged 28 to 38 - Local example: home listed at **$675,000**, accepted at about **$725,000**, no contingencies, no credits, 14-day close *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find out what you'd qualify for — and what assistance you can use Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Three topics, one show Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. It's Wednesday, May 3rd, and we have a lot going on. The Fed just announced another rate hike, so we'll talk about that. We've had huge articles going around about the government changing things so that someone with a high credit score and a big down payment gets a *higher* rate while someone with lower credit and a lower down payment gets a better one — good-credit borrowers subsidizing lower-credit borrowers. And we've got rentals, because trying to get into one right now is pretty crazy. All three are important and all three have been big news — I was getting text messages with the Biden articles over and over while I was at Stagecoach. Also, meet Buck. He's our new puppy — Buck Shot — and he's a bit of a troublemaker. We lost our cocker spaniel of 14 years; she came to work with me every day, and my car was empty and lonely. Buck's a springer spaniel, a little bigger, because our Newfoundland at home is about 150 pounds and used to trample the cocker. ### The Fed raised — and rates barely moved First thing: the Federal Reserve raised interest rates a quarter of a point. It was anticipated, it wasn't a surprise, and it didn't really rock the markets. What will move the market is what people anticipate for the *next* meeting. Here's the mechanism, in layman's terms. Mortgage rates aren't directly connected to the Fed funds rate. Short-term debt is — home equity lines, credit cards, anything adjustable, car loans. Mortgages are tied to mortgage-backed securities and bond yields, and they behave more like the stock market: a big announcement comes out, the stock market rallies, and mortgage rates get worse with it. When the stock market struggles, mortgage rates get better. Why? Say you have money to place. When the stock market is on fire, the big investors put it into stocks. When things get iffy and stocks start dropping, they move it into longer-term securities that hold value — mortgage-backed securities, 30-year notes. That kind of instrument won't make what a hot stock market makes, but it's slow and secure. So when stocks do great, rates go up; when stocks don't, rates come down. It's money moving back and forth. And everyone is anticipating. Investors are trying to guess what the next Fed statement does to stocks so they know whether to move money now. Banks are trying to decide whether to crank rates up early and get it out of the way, or wait. Everybody is working on anticipation, not knowledge. Which is why the rates we have right now are probably the best we've had in about three months. I believe we've peaked for now. Two or three months from now, who knows — there could be another financial event that changes everything. But based on today, I think rates hit their peak and came down a bit, because everyone had already built that quarter point in. So even with the Fed saying they're raising, our rate sheets are in good shape. If you have a home equity line of credit or credit card debt, though, you *will* see it. Your minimum payments go up and you'll pay more interest. That's immediate. The other thing I took from today's meeting: the vote was unanimous. Watching the press conference, Powell was very elusive — there was no “we're done” and no “we're going again.” It's 50-50 right now. Six weeks ago I said I thought we were in for two more raises, one today and one after. Whether the second happens, I don't know. And notice the paradox in how that plays out. If everyone anticipates another quarter point and decides stocks will be volatile, money moves to safety and mortgage rates could actually get *better*. If the Fed instead announces a hold, you get a stock market rally and rates go up a bit. It's all about anticipation and timing. ### The Fed's own statement I want to read you the FOMC statement itself so you're getting the real thing rather than someone's interpretation. It was released at 2 p.m. Eastern — 11 a.m. my time. “Economic activity expanded at a modest pace in the first quarter. Job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation remains elevated. The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient. Tighter credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring and inflation; the extent of these effects remains uncertain. The committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks. The committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run. In support of these goals, the committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 5 to 5.25%. The committee will closely monitor incoming information and assess the implications for monetary policy in determining the extent to which additional policy firming may be appropriate to return inflation to 2% over time. The committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments. In addition, the committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities as described in its previously announced plans. The committee is strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2% objective. In assessing the appropriate stance of monetary policy, the committee will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook. The committee would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge that could impede the attainment of the committee's goals.” At the end of the day, that's what I opened the show with: they're not telling us anything. Things look stable. Powell did say during the press conference that they're not looking at this point like we're jumping into any massive recession — they still feel the chances of a soft landing are there. Job openings are still plentiful. Starting wages, which had been pushed very high because inflation was high, have come down a little. That's the point of bringing inflation down: when everything costs more you need to earn more to survive, so the two come down together. One question asked was whether they still expect to start cutting rates by the end of this year, as many were anticipating. His answer was that this is going to be a very long project. My read as the Mortgage Mom: we probably don't see cuts by the end of this year. Do I think we'll see cuts? Absolutely, it has to happen. My best guess is they start toward the end of the first quarter of 2024, and I've been saying that all year. ### Did the government just penalize good credit? Now the article everyone has been sending me: President Biden is going to subsidize lower credit scores and lower down payments by making people with good credit and big down payments pay more in their rates. Headlines are headlines. News is news. Media is always looking for a story. Is it true? Yes — but let me read you what our secondary markets contact sent out, because it explains what actually happened. This went out Monday morning. I'm not political, and neither is the Mortgage Mom — I miss the days when religion and politics were the two things you avoided with your neighbors. “I always know something is up when my neighbor, who knows I work in the mortgage industry, asks me: can you believe what Joe Biden is doing to high credit home buyers? With the news cycles always scouring for content, anything is relevant these days, even press releases from usually boring housing agencies. The last couple of weeks, the FHFA raising fees for borrowers with good credit to subsidize lower-credit borrowers has been an actual storyline — except this was announced back at the beginning of the year and has been active in our pricing since February. It is somewhat confusing since May 1st was the day that all Fannie Mae securities could no longer contain loans with the old adjusters, but make no mistake: this is old news, and it barely made a blip in our overall pricing the past couple of months. There is not another new round of price adjustments. However, this morning Republican lawmakers introduced two bills to roll the adjustments back, so stay tuned. A sliver of truth does exist in the headline. Yes, borrowers with FICOs between 680 and 779 suffered the largest negative price adjustment, with a couple of buckets getting up to three-quarters percent worse.” Now — that is not three-quarters of a percent in *interest rate*. That's 0.75 in *pricing*, which is very different. Three-quarters in pricing is about 0.125 in rate. So your rate went up an eighth of a percent. If you were at 5%, you might now be at 5.125%. A minimal impact. It did impact, and they are trying to subsidize, but it isn't new — it's been in effect for months. And some high-credit buckets got *better*. If your FICO is over 780 and your loan-to-value is 60 to 80% — so 20% to 40% down, or that much equity on a refinance — your pricing actually improved. Investment properties below 60% loan-to-value, meaning more than 40% equity, saw a significant improvement. So let's put that one to bed. Don't let it ruffle your feathers. If you locked a rate any time since February, you've already felt it, and it was so minimal nobody noticed. ### The housing data is turning up Here's the part renters need to hear, because a lot of you have put things on hold. “New home sales soared in March. Housing continues to show positive signs lately thanks to a decline in mortgage rates. New home sales for March grew by 9.6% when the markets expected a 1.6% decline.” I've been telling you for months: get in front of the herd, get pre-approved, get ready. There it is. “The sales price remains 3.4% lower than in March 2022, but the improvement we are seeing since the beginning of the year highlights the strong demand for housing coupled with interest rate sensitivity. The Northeast saw the largest pickup in sales; warm weather could have helped fuel the buying activity. Builders also used incentives and buydowns to close deals.” That's something I've said before — if you don't like the rate today, negotiate. Get the seller to help with a closing cost credit and buy that rate down. “Home prices rise for the first time in eight months. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index rose month over month in February, breaking a string of seven consecutive months of declines.” The Federal Housing Finance Agency also reported a price rise for February. What's sparking it in an otherwise slower market? Low inventory and a decline in home loan rates since the peak in October. People ran into a glass wall they didn't know was there — we moved five percentage points in 14 months, which would shock anybody. It brought everyone to a halt. Now people are realizing you can't put your life on hold forever, and coupled with how hard it is to get a rental, things are picking up again. From another source — a different company, same data, which is why I trust it: “We all continue to hear conflicting information about home sales and prices in different parts of the nation and at different price points. One thing remains constant: there are over 50 million people aged 28 to 38\. Millions do not own homes yet. Sure, some of them don't want to own, but millions do. There are currently only 562,000 active listings of houses for sale in the U.S. The supply-demand imbalance helps home prices.” Zonda did a survey of why people decided to buy a home. The top reasons, which every loan officer should use in conversations: building my own equity rather than someone else's; marriage or having kids; stability; participating in home price appreciation; and it was cheaper to own than rent. The median home price cited was $449,800, up about 3% compared to a year ago — and remember that's across the nation, so if you're in LA or Orange County that is not your average. Case-Shiller reported a 0.2% month-over-month gain in February and a 2% annual increase. I hope you heard those two numbers: 50 million people between 28 and 38 who don't own homes, and 562,000 active listings across the country. Even if we have a recession, in my opinion prices don't take a massive plunge like the last one. What happens in a recession is that rates come down — so if you buy today, you get the chance to refinance to a lower payment, and you captured the appreciation in the meantime. ### What it takes to get a rental right now If you rent, you have no control over your landlord deciding not to renew because they're selling. You can't make improvements. You can't change things for your lifestyle. You're making your landlord wealthier, not yourself. Here's what's happening. A good friend of mine just bought a condominium and decided to rent it out. She listed it on the MLS and got about eight agent calls. A girlfriend told her to put it on Facebook Marketplace — that's where everybody looks for rentals now. She's not even a Facebook person, but she tried it, and within two hours she had over 3,000 views. She couldn't respond to everyone, so she opened the property for one hour on one day. She had a line out the door and down the street. Applications poured in. People offered more than she'd asked in rent. People offered to pay an entire year up front just to secure it. She had her pick of the crop on credit and income — she could ask for income documentation, which is exactly what you'd provide for a mortgage, and pull credit reports. And here's my point: if you have enough money in your account to offer someone twelve months of rent in advance, you might want to think about a down payment on a house. What she did get was $10,900 for a $3,000-a-month rental — first month, last month, security deposit and a pet deposit. The tenant had a 790 credit score, fully documented income, a stable job, W-2s and pay stubs. That girl could have purchased a property. With $10,900 you can buy a home — an FHA loan, down payment assistance. Her credit was fabulous and her income was fabulous. There was no reason for her to be renting. I'll have my friend on the show next week to tell you the whole story herself. I have another friend, self-employed, recently divorced, who genuinely isn't ready to buy yet — maybe another 12 months — and I get that; many people are in that spot. She found a place she loved in Valencia, out toward LA County. Same situation: the showing was a zoo, she put in an application, offered money up front, offered more than they'd asked. And that's across California, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's national. Renting right now is very, very difficult. But if you can be one of the lucky few who get chosen to rent, your chances of qualifying for a mortgage are very high. So why continue to subsidize somebody else? Three thousand a month times 12 months is gone. No mortgage interest deduction, no property tax deduction, no stability, and they can raise the rent next year — instead of a 30-year fixed payment that stays the same. ### Recessions don't automatically mean falling home prices Look it up: home prices don't always crash during a recession. In most recessions, prices went up. It's the most recent one everybody remembers, and in that one prices did fall — because we didn't have the regulation in mortgage and real estate that we should have, and behavior was mismanaged. That was the cause. This time, everyone who owns a home today qualified for it, and the majority got in when rates were very low. If they own rentals, they're not selling. If they own a home, they're staying, because moving costs more. Rates will come down eventually — the Fed will get inflation where it wants it and then cut — and that's your chance to refinance to a lower payment. It also brings a lot more buyers to the market. The overbidding has already started. Heather, a real estate agent on my team, wrote an offer for one of our clients two days ago. The property was listed at $675,000\. Everyone thinks homes are sitting right now — they're not. It sold for about $725,000: no contingencies, no credits, 14-day close. Month over month, February to March got better, March to April got better, and May is going to be better than April. There just isn't enough inventory, people see rates stabilizing, and they're coming out of the woodwork. ### The mom moment Now I'm going to be blunt, and some of you are going to hate me for it. My kids hate it when I do this. Property values are high. We live in California because we want to be in California. I think about moving somewhere less expensive all the time — then I think about the heat in Arizona or Vegas, or the humidity in the Midwest, and I can't do it. California is expensive and it's only going to get more expensive. And all the people who exited California in droves are coming back, which is part of why you're having such a hard time finding a rental. Here's the news. Most people come to me with the dream of home ownership, and in their mind a home is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. They're not going to buy a condo. If you're out looking at apartments at $2,800, $3,000, $3,500 a month depending on the city — that's what you can afford to buy. Just not a house. A condo. You need a stepping stone. Even the Mortgage Mom's first property was a one-bedroom, 580-square-foot condo. Then I bought a two-bedroom, 900-square-foot townhome — I got a garage and inside laundry. Then a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath duplex, and I only owned one side of it. Then I bought my first house. Just because you're going to buy doesn't mean you have to go buy the million-dollar three-bedroom. I'm sorry if that kills the dream, but the dream *is* the stepping stone. Get the condo, the two-bedroom two-bath you can afford for the payment you'd pay in rent. Then rent that bad boy out and buy the townhome. Then the duplex. Then the single-family home — and keep all of them as you go. If you're looking at apartments, you should be looking at condos. If you're looking at a two-bedroom apartment, you should be looking at a two-bedroom condo. That's mom's checkmate of the day. Some of you will be mad at me. My kids are millennials; I'm Gen X. I'm used to it. And think about what a landlord asks of you: first, last, a deposit, maybe a pet deposit, proof of income and decent credit. Buying a house is going to be more liberal on your credit report than a landlord is. ### Wrap-up We have plenty of down payment assistance, and Carrie on my team is excellent with it. The CalHFA Dream For All program may have gone away, but the standard CalHFA program is still there, along with other assistance programs, and if you're looking to move somewhere a bit more rural there's USDA. The opportunity is there. Reach out and get yourself started, and stop making other people rich. To know when I go live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4 — or just call that number and talk to us. I'll be back next Wednesday. Talk to you all soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of May 3, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Will California Home Prices Fall? The Spring 2023 Market, By the Numbers URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-california-home-prices-fall-the-spring-2023-market-by-the-numbers/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:00:33.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “California Real Estate Update” • Live show from Thursday, April 20, 2023 • 52 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Everybody waiting for California home prices to collapse got a 2.2% dip — about $16,000 off the statewide median — while rates went up and they kept paying rent. In this spring 2023 update, Debbie walks through what the California Association of Realtors data actually showed, why she doesn't expect a big fallout, what's happening to renters who can't get an application accepted, and why the payment estimate on a listing site is almost always wrong. ## Key takeaways - **The crash people waited for was a 2.2% dip.** California single-family prices fell about $16,000 off the statewide median year over year — while sales rose 17.6% in February. Debbie's blunt framing: you saved $16,000, got no tax write-off, stayed a renter, faced rent increases, and rates went up in the meantime. - **Homes are still selling fast by historical standards.** California single-family homes took a median 28 days to sell in February, up from 9 days a year earlier, against a national 34 days. But in Debbie's nearly 30 years in the business, a normal market is more like 60 to 90 days — so 28 is still a seller's market, not a buyer's. - **She doesn't expect a big fallout, and the reason is supply.** Even with a well-documented exodus from the state, California still doesn't have enough housing for the people in it. Her estimate: listings would need to triple or quadruple before values could really break. She'd guess another 2–4% of decline at most. - **CalHFA's Dream For All money ran out.** Debbie had warned on the two prior shows that it would go fast; by this episode it was gone. Other down payment assistance programs still existed, so a closed program is not a reason to stop asking. - **Renting has become its own bidding war.** Rent caps lifted, landlords got larger allowable increases, and listeners reported applications requiring near-perfect credit, first and last month plus security, and proof of income around 3.5× the rent. Debbie's point: that pile of cash is often a 3% or 3.5% down payment. - **Rates were stabilizing, not falling.** Roughly the mid-6% range on average, against the mid-7s in October 2022\. She thought they'd hover there until inflation is in check, and expected 6.5% to drift toward 5.5% and possibly the high 4s over the following 12 to 18 months — explicitly a guess, not a forecast. - **Buydowns were doing real work.** She had just funded a 30-year fixed VA loan at 4.875% — seller-paid points plus a bit of the buyer's own money. Her view is that pandemic-era rates were never sustainable and aren't coming back. - **The payment estimate on a listing site is wrong three ways.** It uses the *seller's* current property taxes, which get reassessed to your purchase price in California; it leaves out mortgage insurance if you're under 20% down; and its interest rate is usually off. ## Chapters - 01:00Why this week's show is on a Thursday - 03:00Housing starts are out — what today covers - 06:30Spring buying season: the national picture - 11:00California by the numbers: prices down, sales up - 12:20You waited for the crash and got $16,000 - 14:20Days on market: 28 days is not a buyer's market - 16:20Q&A: where do I start if I want to buy? - 19:00Why spring is always the busy season - 21:40Rates are stabilizing — and why the Fed isn't the reason - 25:00The rental market is its own bidding war - 28:00What landlords now require to approve you - 29:40Q&A: if I qualify to rent, could I buy instead? - 31:20The 2023 California forecast, read and challenged - 33:40Where Californians are moving, and what it does to prices - 37:00Her own rate forecast, and a 4.875% VA loan - 42:40The free calculator tool, and why listing-site payments lie ## Questions answered on this show ### “I'm interested in buying a home — where do I start?” With a phone consultation, before an application. Call in and there's a good chance someone is free to talk immediately; if not, book a time that works around your schedule. The point of that call is to find out where you actually stand — how much you'll need for a down payment, where your credit is, what your income supports. If you're ready, you move straight into the application and pre-approval and Debbie's team tells you which documents to gather. If you're *not* ready, the call is still worth having, because that's where you get the roadmap for getting ready. “We don't bite.” ### “If I can qualify to rent, could I be buying instead?” Quite possibly — and Debbie's argument is that renters underestimate how close they already are. To get approved for a decent rental you're typically proving good credit, income around 3.5 times the monthly rent, and cash for first month, last month, security, and often a pet deposit. That is the same credit profile and, frequently, the same pile of cash as a 3% or 3.5% down payment. Add seller credits toward closing costs and the down payment assistance programs that still exist, and the gap narrows further. You're moving either way, so you're paying moving costs either way. It costs nothing to find out which side of the line you're on. ## California by the numbers (week of April 20, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - California single-family home prices: **down 2.1%** year over year, with sales **up 17.6%** in February (California Association of Realtors) - Statewide median price: **$735,480**, having fallen about **$16,000** on average — a decline of **2.2%** - Median days on market, California single family: **28 days** in February, tripled from **9 days** a year earlier - Nationally, properties averaged **34 days** on market in February — up from 33 in January and 18 in February 2022 - Total housing starts **surged in February** after five straight months of declines; total housing inventory was up slightly from a month and a year prior - 30-year fixed averages: roughly the **mid-6% range**, against the **mid-7s** in October 2022 — and one VA loan funded that week at **4.875%** with a seller-paid buydown *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are averages for context, not a quote.* ### Renting and wondering whether you could be buying? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4) for a free phone consultation, [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run a real payment with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, station identifications, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners who wrote into the live chat are identified by first name only.* ### Why this week's show is on a Thursday Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today is Thursday. I'm usually on Wednesday, but we've had a lot going on in the family, so we're a little off this week and I apologize for that. Last week I didn't run a show at all, so some of you may be wondering where I was. On Easter Sunday we had the unfortunate situation with our dog — a little cocker spaniel named Mary Jane. She was 14, so we knew it was coming, but she woke up very sick that morning, and on Monday we had to put her down. When a pet has been with you and in your family for 14 years, it is like losing a member of the family, so we had a difficult week and I took some time off. We did end up getting a new pup, his name is Buck, and now we're right back to potty training and infancy. That first month with a puppy feels like having a brand new baby. So we've been a little busy and a little crazy, and I apologize for the change in the day and time. If you're subscribed to my text messages, you knew I just went live even though it isn't my normal Wednesday. Text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — just the word MOM, nothing else, or it won't subscribe you. I promise I won't spam you. You won't get more than one message a week, and I'm never going to try to sell you anything. I'm just letting you know I've gone live and usually what we'll be talking about. ### Today's topic Housing starts just came out. My job here is to make sure I'm educating you and keeping you in the loop on everything going on in real estate and mortgage. So we have a lot of information back about where we are today: how does housing look in April, how are prices looking, are things starting to pick up? It's spring season. What's the forecast, what's the outlook for 2023? Obviously things can shift very quickly, so what they expect and what actually happens are two different things. But it gives us a good place to make decisions from — is this the right time for me to buy, should I be looking right now, do I need to get my pre-approval started, is this a good time to list my home for sale? If you're a homeowner or hoping to be one, those are important things to be in the loop on. ### Spring buying season: the national picture I sent out a newsletter about spring buying season, and I'll read part of it. As the nation comes out of its winter hibernation, potential home buyers are zeroing in on spring buying season, now almost in full bloom — and there are some positive signs. I've mentioned over the last couple of shows that we're starting to see a pickup. We feel it in the phones, in the applications, in the closings. We went through a time where things were very slow, very quiet — scarily slow, it was scary for a minute — and things are starting to pick up, which is fabulous. The National Association of Realtors recently reported that properties typically remained on the market for 34 days in February, up from 33 days in January and 18 days in February of 2022\. And though still in the winter months, after 12 months of declines, February existing home sales jumped from January. Total housing inventory at the end of February was up solidly, though small, from a month and a year ago. However, low inventories continue to plague the sector. And speaking of inventories, after five straight months of declines, total housing starts surged in February from January. This is really good news. We have been in a time where inventory has been very, very low — so even though there hasn't been much movement, and there haven't been nearly as many applications or buyers out looking, when you did find a home priced right in the right neighborhood, there were multiple offers on it and properties were going over and beyond their list price. So it's good to hear more inventory is coming to market. That makes it easier for new buyers to get into a home. Home buyer borrowing costs have come down from the multi-year highs we saw last November, though they're still double what they were in January of 2022. ### California by the numbers California is what I really want to focus on today, because my show is on radio here in California and the majority of my listeners are Californians. The latest housing stats from the California Association of Realtors show single-family house prices dropped 2.1%, despite a rise in sales of 17.6% in February. As I mentioned, we're getting busier — the phones are ringing, applications are coming in, more people are getting pre-approved — and you can see it in those numbers. Up 17.6% in February is a very big jump. No, we're not at the numbers we were at in 2020, 2021, 2022\. But for having hit the lull we did and coming back this aggressively, it's going to be a very good spring. The February statewide median home price fell $16,000 on average — down 2.2%. Hmm. Not a really huge drop, right? Everybody's been sitting around thinking, I'm going to wait, I'm not going to buy, I'm going to wait for housing prices to just drop out from underneath us, I'm going to get this killer deal. Well — you saved yourself $16,000\. But you've had no tax write-off. You've been a renter. You might have been asked to move because your landlord wanted to sell. Or they told you they're increasing your rent, because as we've talked about in shows months ago, rents here in California are skyrocketing. They were held off, they weren't allowed to be moved or changed, landlords couldn't evict, and now they're finally able to increase rents — and they were given a much larger percentage they're allowed to increase by this year, and I believe next year as well. So if you've been waiting around for a massive drop in home prices: you got $16,000, interest rates are higher, and you've lost out on homeownership. Hopefully you're hearing the scolding from Mom — it is time to get off the fence, get your application started, find out if you can buy, and get out there and start looking. The median home price in California at the moment is $735,480\. If anyone's been wondering what that median number is, that's where we're at — and that's all of California, not just LA County or Orange County. The California Association of Realtors suggests the drop in year-over-year sales may be due in part to the effects of the atmospheric river event; continued difficulty finding buyers and getting sales done would likely contribute to lower prices. ### Days on market: 28 days is not a buyer's market The median number of days it took to sell a California single-family home tripled to 28 days in February, from 9 days one year ago. If you remember, a year ago a property went on the market — sometimes it didn't even make it to market — and it already had multiple offers. We are not in that market anymore. That market is gone. Nationwide, homes are taking about 34 days to sell. California right now is averaging 28 days listed before you're in escrow. Not bad at all. I've been in this business a very long time — I started selling real estate in '94 and got into mortgage in 2002 — and over all those years, an average time for a home to be listed is really more like 60 to 90 days. So we are still very, very low on how long it takes to get a home sold. Some people aren't selling, but that's because they haven't come to the reality that things have shifted. You're not going to list your home way above what the last sale was and get an interested buyer. You need to be competitive right now. If you're a seller, you need to be listed at the right price and offering the right incentives to get your home sold in a decent amount of time. ### Q&A: where do I start? Leticia asks: *“Hello Debbie, I'm interested — where do I start to purchase a home?”* Great question, and a lot of people need to know this. The best way to get started is a phone consultation. Schedule an appointment on the website, or call in — there's a very good chance one of us is available right away to talk to you immediately. If we're all tied up, you can schedule an appointment maybe 20 or 30 minutes out, same day, or pick a day and time on the website that works around your schedule. Start with the phone consultation. It's the very best way to know where you stand. Are you ready? How much will you need for a down payment? We're going to talk about your credit, your income, and get you on the right path. If you're not ready right now, we're going to help guide you to get ready. If you are ready, we'll have you do your loan application, start your pre-approval, and tell you what documents to submit. I always tell everybody to start with a phone call. It's that simple. We don't bite. We're very nice. We'll take you through everything you need to know and devise a plan that works best for you, and if it's the right time to apply, we'll urge you to do that. ### Why spring is always the busy season Right now is *the* season — the buying season and the rental season. This is when everybody's looking to make a move. Why? Kids are out of school in June, and it's easier to move over the summer when they're not in school. Maybe you're trying to get into a certain school district, or you want them to finish the year before you change districts, or you just need the house set up and it's easier when you're not also getting kids off to school in the morning. It's also usually the best weather of the year. People don't want to move in the rain, and if they're in the Midwest, they don't want to move in the snow. Best weather, most convenient timing — so seasonally we're always busier now than at any other time of year. On top of that: we were so busy in 2020, 2021 and 2022 because rates were so low and everybody wanted to take advantage. Then we went through that lull and got freakishly quiet. Rates doubled, more than doubled, very quickly, and everybody got scared. What's happening, what's taking place with the economy, what's going to happen to home values, maybe I should wait. That's a very reasonable thought process — if rates go up really high, prices have to come down, and I don't want to buy at a high price *and* a high rate. So a lot of people hit the brakes. ### Rates are stabilizing Well, things are stabilizing now. They truly are. We're not seeing massive increases every day. I'm not walking into the office with a higher rate sheet, higher rate sheet, higher rate sheet, day after day. Mortgage rates are starting to stabilize, and with the banking sector having some problems, I believe they'll continue to. The Federal Reserve has said they're more than likely going to increase again when they meet next in May. But that increase is not directly connected to mortgage rates. It changes what happens in the market, it affects stocks, and it directly changes your credit cards and your home equity lines of credit, because those are directly tied to the prime rate. It does not directly connect to mortgage rates. Mortgage rates have their own orbit. They're based on mortgage-backed securities, the treasuries, the 30-year bonds, the notes, the yields — and on investors, and where investors want to put their money and where they feel most confident locking up funds with the least risk of loss. Right now a 30-year mortgage is a safe bet. It's a lot safer than the stock market, which has been very volatile recently, or Bitcoin, which has been more volatile still. A 30-year mortgage note is more stable. So the more people who get scared in other areas and shift money into mortgage-backed securities, the more that helps stabilize mortgage rates. We saw a nice dip in mortgage rates from where we were back in October, so we're definitely doing better. We're maybe a tiny bit higher than last week, but we're in the range of about the best rates we've had in the last couple of months. January gave us a nice dip, they came back up, and now they've sort of stabilized. My crystal ball — which is a guess and isn't always accurate — tells me we're stabilizing, and rates hover around where they are now. I could be totally wrong; some announcement could shift things on a dime. But based on what I'm reading and the forecasts, it looks like stabilization. And if rates stabilize while we continue to see historic lows in inventory — which is why we're at 28 days on market instead of a standard 60 to 90 — I think things really start to pick up, with people coming back out and saying, okay, it's time, we're not going to get that massive fallout everybody was anticipating. ### The rental market is its own bidding war If you've been thinking about buying, you're truly putting yourself out by waiting. We're going to talk a lot next week about where rents have been going. I have a good friend who's been trying to rent a place. She isn't quite in a position to buy right now — obviously that would be the first thing I'd tell her to do — but she's been looking for a rental, and it is competitive. She fills out the application, walks into the home, and there are people all over the place. It's crazy how many people are interested. She's having to offer more than what the owner listed the property for in monthly rent, and she's *still* not getting accepted. She's having a really difficult time getting into a rental. Which is why I think it's important for you to understand how key owning a home is for your stability. Nobody can tell you to move — as long as you're making your mortgage payments and your property taxes, nobody comes to the door and says we need you to move, or we're increasing your rent. You have that security, and the pride of ownership. You can fix it, make it what you want, build it up, garden, do what you want. On top of that there are tax benefits and long-term benefits. And I'm talking to you assuming property values *do* drop. Real estate is for the long haul. If you buy a home and stay five to ten years, which is about how long people stay in a property on average, you're going to have equity in that property that you would never have had as a tenant. Please take that to heart. Nora writes in: *“Yes, the apartments are asking for perfect credit, and it's hard to find a decent rental. I've been looking for about two weeks.”* Thank you for giving us your experience — that's the ongoing story I've been hearing from a lot of people. And apartments are a lot easier to rent than a single-family home, a townhome, a duplex, or an ADU in somebody's backyard. The rental market right now is really tough. They want very good credit. They want a couple of months of rent up front. They want the security deposit. And what I've seen especially from big apartment complexes is they want to see you making about three and a half times the monthly rent. They're still qualifying you — making sure you can pay the rent, making sure your credit is there. ### Q&A: if I qualify to rent, could I buy? So think about it. We have down payment assistance programs that can help you get into a property. We're in a market where you can ask a seller for a credit to cover closing costs. And in a rental market where you have to come up with first, last, and security — that money could very well be your 3% or 3.5% down payment. If you're in a position where you can rent — you've got the credit, you've got three and a half times the rent, you can prove your income, and you've got the security deposit, the first, the last, the pet deposit and everything else — you should be calling us to find out. Could I be buying instead of throwing my money away, making somebody else richer? Could I be putting money into something for me that eventually becomes a retirement vehicle? Nora replies: *“Yes, but in that case we would be looking to buy instead of renting.”* Exactly — that's what I'm saying. If you've got perfect credit, deposit money, and verifiable income, why would you not double-check whether you could buy? There are down payment assistance programs. The last couple of weeks we talked about the California Dream program from CalHFA. I warned everybody that money was probably going to go very, very fast, that you all needed to jump on it right away. I tried so hard to stress that urgency. Well — it's run out. The money is gone. That program is gone. But that does not mean there aren't other down payment assistance programs. There are, and we have numerous ones. CalHFA still has its own standard down payment assistance program — just not the Dream For All shared appreciation program — and we have others we can talk to you about. So if you've been thinking about renting and you know you can qualify to rent, why would you not start with a phone call? Book an appointment, give us a call, let's go through your numbers and see if it's something you can afford. It is not cheap to rent a place. You're making the move anyway, you're paying the moving expenses either way. There's a very good chance there's a possibility of getting you into a home. ### The 2023 California forecast, read and challenged Let's talk about the 2023 California forecast: will home prices fall? This is one article, so take part of it with a grain of salt — but this is what's coming out of a lot of places. It asks whether it's a good time to buy a home or rental property in the Golden State, and suggests most millennial-age Californians will prefer to keep renting until there's more economic certainty and the numbers justify buying. The biggest factors in its forecast: rising interest rates, growing another 1% — though I think that's outdated, since as you've heard me say, I'm pretty sure things are stabilizing. Home prices likely continuing to decline slightly — and again, we heard the great news that prices fell $16,000, or 2.2%. Supply continuing to grow — and we *are* starting to see more homes come to market, which is good, but we're still very low. I want you to hear that even if a big article says we have more homes listed, we still don't have enough. We'd literally need to triple or quadruple the number of homes currently listed before we'd see any kind of big bust in value. And tech sector uncertainty weakening demand, which would be Northern California. ### Where Californians are moving California has the highest percentage of people looking to buy elsewhere. The top five states home buyers searched to move *from* were California, New York, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and Illinois. The top five they searched to move *to* were Florida, Texas, Arizona, Maryland and South Carolina. The California exodus is pushing prices up elsewhere — California is being blamed for fast-rising housing prices in states like Utah and Idaho. An exodus of people and businesses might sound threatening, but it may be that this state's housing market is invincible. People want to live or rent in California. There are always buyers for California properties in any of its cities. If high taxes, regulations, fires, floods, inflation and high prices can't scare buyers away, what could? The article notes that calls for a recession and a flat 2023 sales year would have most experts seeing reduced sales and prices in California, which is watching businesses and residents leave for more tax- and cost-friendly states like Texas and Florida. Basically, the gist: people always want to live in California. People leaving California are making Texas more expensive, Florida more expensive, Idaho and Utah more expensive. But even with the mass exodus we've had, we are still short on housing. We don't have enough housing for the number of bodies we have in this state — and I'm not talking about properties listed for sale, I mean housing in general. That's why it's difficult to find rentals, that's what's driving the rent market up, and that's why we don't have enough listings for the number of people who need to buy. ### Her own rate forecast So I don't think we're going to see any kind of massive fallout in prices. I think we might see a bit more decline — maybe another 2%, maybe 4%. But what is that over time, when you hold a home for five or ten years? Like all things in real estate, it will turn. Property values will go up, and you'll be thanking yourself down the road that you pulled the trigger. I do believe we'll see rates come back down in the future. For right now I think we stabilize. I don't think they come down much further than where they are — the mid-sixes is really about an average rate. In October last year we were in the mid-sevens, so we actually feel really good about six and a half. And we can easily buy those rates down into the fives. I just funded a VA deal at 4.875% — they got help from the seller to buy the rate down and threw in a little of their own money to buy it down further, and they're in a 30-year fixed at 4.875%, which I think is a historically low number. You have to remember that the numbers we saw during the pandemic were not sustainable. That was never going to stay around forever, and I don't think we see those numbers come back. Again, I could be wrong — something could trigger it. But until inflation is in check, I think we see rates stabilize in the mid-sixes. I think it's very easy to get into the fives, and it's possible to get into the high fours depending on how you negotiate. Finding the right real estate agent to help you is phenomenal. And if you don't have the money to buy the rate down, that's okay. Over probably the next 12 to 18 months I think we'll see rates float back down — six and a half moving to five and a half, and we might even see high fours, where you could refinance and drop that payment. But the value you get in owning the property is worth every penny. So if you're out there trying to find a new rental right now, it might be worth just a phone call to explore whether you could buy instead. And if you explore it and it isn't the time, then you go rent and sign a one-year lease — and we give you the tools, the roadmap, the game plan to get where you need to be to buy when that lease comes up a year from now. You've got to start somewhere, and the first place to start is that phone call. ### The free calculator tool, and why listing-site payments lie I haven't talked about my phone app in ages, and it's a great tool for exploring on your own if you're a little too nervous to call. There are two different things, and people mix them up. There *is* a Mortgage Mom Radio app in the App Store and on Google Play, but that one is for somebody who's actively applying — it's where you apply, sign disclosures once you're under contract, and upload documentation. That is not the tool app. To get the tool app, text the words PHONE APP — two words — to 844-935-3634\. You'll get a link you can save to your home screen. In it you can book a phone consultation, email or call me or anyone on my team, and watch the show live. But more importantly, there's a calculator, and it does several things. If you've been thinking about refinancing — you have a home equity line tied to the prime rate, the rate went up, your payment went up, and you're wondering whether to consolidate your first mortgage and the equity line into one — it runs refinance payments, which gives you an idea of whether it's worth picking up the phone. For purchases, you can run a real monthly payment, and this is very different from what you get on a listing site. It pulls mortgage insurance if you're under 20% down. It runs the payment for a VA loan, an FHA loan, or a conventional loan. You enter the sales price, your down payment, what you think your credit score is, whether you're a first-time buyer, your property taxes and homeowners insurance. And if you don't know what numbers to use, there's an email button right in the app — write to me saying you're a first-time buyer and have no idea what to enter, and I'll reply and tell you what rate to use, or what to put for insurance or property taxes. There's also an affordability calculator, which is nice if you're trying to figure out how much home you might qualify for. Trust me, we can get much more aggressive when we're working a real application with you directly. The calculator is deliberately conservative, because everyone's scenario is different — a jumbo loan allows a different debt ratio than FHA, which is different from VA, which is different from conventional. But you put in your monthly income and monthly debts and it generates an approximate number, which gives you the idea. Then, if you call the office and we can push you a little further to a higher sales price, you might actually be able to do this. Here's why the payments on those listing sites aren't accurate. Number one, property taxes. In California, when you buy a home, your property taxes are reassessed based on your sales price. The payments shown to you online are based on the *seller's* current taxes — and if they bought that property five or ten years ago, their taxes are significantly lower than yours will be at today's price. So it's always off. Number two, it isn't calculating mortgage insurance. If you're not putting 20% down and you're coming in with 3%, 3.5% or 5%, that monthly mortgage insurance isn't in the number you're being shown. And number three, the interest rate it uses tends to be very off. So as you're window-shopping through listings, open the app and get the real monthly payment you can expect. It's the best tool you could have at your fingertips. ### Wrap-up Book your phone consultation, get on the phone with us, and let us help you determine whether you're in a position to buy. Go to mortgagemomradio.com and click the appointment button, or call the office at 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and see if you can get an immediate transfer. If you're listening by radio on the weekend, we have somebody picking up the phones, and if you get a voicemail, that's okay — leave a message, we call people back even on Saturday or Sunday. If you're still a little too shy to pick up the phone, that's okay. I'm an email girl and I'm more than happy to answer any question that comes my way — use the contact form on the website and it comes straight to me. You're going to get me, the Mortgage Mom. Sometimes a scenario is complicated and we'll ask if we can call you, but many times I can answer simply, get you what you need for that minute, and you come back when you're further along. And one more thing: I'm going to be at Stagecoach. This show is pre-recorded, so by the time it airs on radio it'll be Stagecoach weekend. If you find the Mortgage Mom in the crowd and walk up and say “you're the Mortgage Mom,” I owe you a drink. That's on me. So see if you can find me out there. These shows run a bit behind, so if you want to do this with me live instead of being a week and a half behind on radio, get on YouTube and watch me do it in the studio. I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your week. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of April 20, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### The Fed Raised a Quarter Point — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Go Down? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-a-quarter-point-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-go-down/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:00:34.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “3/22/23 Fed Hikes Rate 25 BPS” • Live show from Wednesday, March 22, 2023 • 60 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Fed raised the federal funds rate a quarter point on March 22, 2023, to a target range of 4.75–5.00% — and mortgage rates *improved* within two hours of the announcement. Debbie explains why, reads the Fed's press release line by line and translates it, and answers a full hour of listener questions: which of your debts actually change overnight, whether home prices are about to fall, whether a wave of foreclosures is coming, and how soon you can refinance out of today's rate. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed hiked 25 basis points to a 4.75–5.00% target range** — the ninth increase in a year. Markets had been pricing a half point before the bank failures, so the smaller move triggered a rate rally, and mortgage rates were already improving within about two hours of the announcement. - **Your mortgage rate is not directly connected to the Fed funds rate.** Mortgage rates track mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries. A quarter-point Fed move does not make yesterday's mortgage quote a quarter point higher today. - **What *does* change overnight:** credit cards, home equity lines of credit, car loans, and personal loans are tied to the prime rate. A HELOC taken yesterday is a quarter point higher today, and your credit card's minimum monthly payment goes up with it. A car loan you already closed is fixed and unaffected. - **Debbie's read on the Fed:** she understands why they did it, but believes they moved far too fast — “like running into a glass door.” Her expectation at the time: another two or three increases, then a hold, with possible cuts around mid-2024. - **Rates were near their best levels since October 2022** — close to but slightly above the January 2023 low. Her argument for locking: as the next Fed meeting in May approaches, rate sheets start pricing the expected hike in again. - **Prices held up despite the hikes.** The median existing home price in January 2023 was $359,000, up 1.3% year over year, and existing home sales had fallen for 12 straight months. The 30-year fixed hit 7.03% the prior week, then dropped to about 6.5% on the Monday after Silicon Valley Bank failed. - **Sellers are cutting rates, not prices.** Rather than reduce the list price, sellers are paying points for the buyer. On a $400,000 loan, two points is $8,000\. Debbie had a client that week locking a VA loan at 4.875% with the seller paying three points and the buyer paying one. - **She does not expect a 2010-style foreclosure wave.** Her team pulls default and foreclosure lists constantly and isn't seeing it: most owners who bought before June 2022 hold a rate below today's, so their payment is cheaper than rent — they have every reason to fight to keep the house. - **Most loans have no prepayment penalty,** so on a standard conventional, FHA, or VA loan you can start a rate-and-term refinance essentially as soon as you close. Cash-out and using a new appraised value carry waiting periods, and stated-income or investor DSCR loans can carry a prepayment penalty — ask before you sign. ## Chapters - 02:30Today's topic: the Fed's quarter-point hike - 07:00Q&A: is a second home a good investment right now? - 11:20Q&A: nine hikes in a year — what are your thoughts? - 14:40Q&A: will the Fed keep raising, and when do they stop? - 16:40Q&A: will home prices come down a lot? - 20:40Q&A: are we going to see foreclosures like 2010? - 28:20Q&A: will Zillow and Redfin dump their houses cheap? - 31:50The state of the housing market, by the numbers - 35:40Q&A: how soon can I refinance if rates drop? - 38:20Reading the Fed's press release, line by line - 40:40“Tighter credit conditions” — what that means for you - 43:20Which of your debts change overnight - 47:20Q&A: is low inventory the only thing holding prices up? - 50:40Q&A: are the rate hikes actually helping inflation? - 55:00Why mortgage rates *improved* after the hike - 57:00Where rates sit, and why she says lock ## Questions answered on this show ### “Is a second home a good investment right now, especially in an area of growth?” Debbie's position is that real estate is essentially always a good investment — provided you treat it as a long hold, not a quick flip, and you budget for a payment you can carry whether or not there's a tenant in it. She argued this particular moment favors buyers: inventory is very limited, but so many people are sitting out because of rates that it is easier right now to get an offer accepted, get a good price, and get seller concessions toward closing costs. Her framing for a second property: instead of putting money into a college plan when a child is born, buy a property and let a tenant cover the mortgage. Eighteen years later you have equity you can borrow against, sell, or trade into a property near the child's college town. ### “The Fed has raised rates nine times in a year to fight inflation. What are your thoughts?” She understands the intent — raising rates is the tool they have to curb inflation — but believes they moved far too fast, and pointed to the bank failures then in the headlines as a consequence. Her description: “like running into a glass door — you didn't see it there, and all of a sudden, boom,” with sharply higher credit card bills, higher HELOC payments, and higher car loan rates all landing at once. She read the decision to hike a quarter instead of the expected half as a hopeful sign they were slowing the train down, and noted Chair Powell had mentioned the possibility of cuts in 2024. ### “Will the Fed keep raising rates? When will they stop?” Her expectation at the time: at least a couple more increases, probably two or three, with the size of each depending on the inflation data — then a hold, and possibly the beginning of cuts around mid-2024\. She was explicit that this was her own read of the research she follows, not a forecast from a financial advisor, and that nobody has a crystal ball. ### “Will home prices come down a lot?” She didn't think so, and pointed at supply. There is an extreme shortage of listed properties, which makes it hard for values to fall even as higher rates hurt affordability — sellers don't face enough competition to need a price cut. She was seeing Southern California homes hit the market Thursday with six offers by Monday. What she *was* seeing instead of price cuts: sellers offering concessions to buy the rate down. That matters for anyone reading comps, because the closed price on Zillow or Redfin shows the full number — a $400,000 sale shows as $400,000, with no note that the seller handed back $8,000 or $12,000 toward the buyer's costs. ### “Do you think there will be a lot of foreclosures like in 2010?” No — and this is something she and her team track directly, pulling foreclosure and 90-day default lists regularly. They were not seeing that inventory come to market. Her reasoning: most homeowners who bought before June 2022 have a rate below today's, which makes their mortgage payment cheaper than renting the same house. If money gets tight or a job is lost, they will scrape together whatever it takes to keep the payment current, because there is nothing cheaper to move into. A licensed agent and lender on her team watching the show added that today's borrowers went through a far more stringent loan process, with stated-income loans now rare, and agreed they expect some increase in bank-owned activity but nothing like 2010. ### “Will the big iBuyers dump the houses they bought at lower prices?” Debbie didn't expect it. When values softened in late 2022, she saw many of those companies put tenants in the properties rather than sell at a loss, and she expected them to hold the portfolio until it makes sense to remarket. More fundamentally, she argued the scale isn't there: however large those portfolios look, they are not large enough relative to the total U.S. housing stock to create a tidal wave in the market. Her team member added that where those companies do list, she has seen them price at or slightly below what they paid, and that a loss affects a business differently than it affects a household. ### “If I buy now at a higher rate, how soon can I refinance if rates drop?” For a standard conventional, FHA, or VA loan where you're only refinancing the balance you took at purchase, essentially right away — roughly 95% of loans carry no prepayment penalty, so you could close a purchase and start a refinance the next day. The exceptions matter: taking cash out has longer waiting periods, and using a new, higher appraised value after purchase has its own waiting period. Non-QM loans — stated income, DSCR loans on investment properties — can carry a prepayment penalty. That doesn't stop you refinancing, but you'd pay the penalty, so ask your lender directly before you sign. ### “When the Fed raises rates, does that affect VA loan rates?” Only indirectly. VA, conventional, FHA, jumbo and non-QM mortgage rates are not directly connected to the federal funds rate — they follow mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries, and they move like the stock market in response to news. A Fed announcement correlates, but a quarter-point hike does not translate into a quarter point on your mortgage quote. On this particular day the opposite happened: the hike came in smaller than expected, and mortgage rates got better. ### “Is the lack of inventory about the only thing keeping prices stable through all these hikes?” Debbie agreed that low inventory is the main factor. If a buyer needs a specific school district, or needs to be near family, or is relocating for a job, and yours is one of the only homes listed in that community, you don't have to reduce the price to find a willing buyer. What sellers are doing instead is paying concessions to make the payment work — effectively buying the buyer's rate back down toward pre-hike levels. ### “Are these rate hikes really helping with inflation?” Based on the published reports, yes — they have started to make a dent, though not a fast one, and she was candid that she can't verify what's behind the numbers and is a little skeptical. Her bigger point was about duration: it is taking longer than the Fed expected. The hope had been to finish raising by the end of the first quarter and simply hold rates high; instead, more increases looked likely through the year. “Strap yourself in.” ### Want to know what a quarter point actually did to your numbers? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, station identifications, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners who wrote into the live chat are identified by first name only.* ### Today's topic: the Fed's quarter-point hike Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you updated information about all things real estate and mortgage. Today we're talking about the Fed. They had their two-day meeting — it started yesterday and ran through today — and they ultimately came out and said they are increasing the federal funds rate by 25 basis points. That's about a quarter percent. So what did the Fed have to say about it, why was that their decision, and what does it mean to you? Where are you going to feel more of a pinch than you've already been feeling, and what does it do to mortgage rates? This is an interactive show. Put your questions in the feed — anything at all to do with mortgage or real estate. Should I sell my home, should I buy a home, what are good investments right now. I'm happy to read the question out loud and answer it. ### Q&A: is a second home a good investment now? Karen asks: *“Is a second home a good investment now, especially in an area of growth?”* Fantastic question. Buying any real estate whatsoever is always a great investment — but real estate is for the long haul. It is not a short-term quick flip, unless you're a contractor buying something cheap because it isn't habitable, making all the changes, and turning it around. For the majority of us who can't do that, it's a long hold. So make sure that whatever you're purchasing, the monthly payment is something you know you can always take care of, whether you put a renter in it or plan to use it as a vacation property. You just need to be budgeting appropriately. I actually think right now is a great time to buy. Inventory is very limited, but with so many people concerned about where interest rates are, there are a lot fewer people out actively seeking properties. So it's a little bit easier right now to get an offer accepted, get a great price, and get some seller concessions to help offset closing costs. Think of it this way. Instead of putting money into a college plan or a retirement plan when you have a baby, what if you invested it in a property? You buy a property, you put tenants in it, the tenants make the payment and cover the mortgage for you. Yes, it costs you something for upkeep and maintenance. But over an 18-year term — and again, long haul, real estate goes up and real estate comes down, that's the cycle — what's that home worth? You've probably got a good amount of equity, and your renter has been offsetting your payments the whole time. Now your child is ready for college. You can borrow against it for cash, or sell it and buy them a property near the college town, and rent the other bedrooms to other students. There are so many directions you can go with it. It is never a bad time to buy, but I think we're in a great spot right now. My own speculation — and I can be totally wrong — is that we'll see rates come down in 2024, and you always have the opportunity to refinance. But when rates do come down substantially there will be far more people out making offers, and that creates competition, overbidding, and no more seller concessions. So I think 2023 is a great year, and if buying is something you've been thinking about, I'd start to pursue it. ### Q&A: nine hikes in a year Michael asks: *“The Fed raised rates a quarter point, the ninth time in a year, to balance inflation. What are your thoughts?”* I understand why they're doing it, and I understand the thought process. The only way they can curb inflation is to bring rates up. I personally feel they did it way too fast. I think that's why we're seeing the banking problems in the headlines. I think they just went too fast — but I do understand the intentions. One positive: the anticipation going into the March meeting was a half-point increase, and they backpedaled and raised only a quarter. I'm hoping that means they're seeing the effects of what they've done and are trying to slow the train down. I also heard them talk about possibly starting to cut rates in 2024, and that was part of Chairman Powell's press conference today. He did say they anticipate continuing to increase — they don't know for how much longer, they don't know the end point, but their goal is to get inflation down to 2%. I just think they went too fast. It took everybody by surprise and leveled everybody. It was like running into a glass door — you didn't see it there, and all of a sudden, boom, we all got hit with much higher credit card bills, higher monthly payments on our equity lines, higher rates on new cars. That slows down car purchases, recreational purchases, personal loans. It hurts banks. It raises CD rates so savers get more interest, but banks lose out on treasuries and bonds. My personal opinion: too fast. But I understand why, it is what it is, and we're all going to make it through this, I promise. ### Q&A: when do they stop? A listener asks: *“Do you think the Fed will continue raising rates? When will they stop?”* I do think we'll see at least a couple more increases. How much each time is a big question mark — it depends on the inflation numbers and how hard they need to push. My guess is probably two or three more. Again, that's my opinion. I'm not a financial advisor, nobody has a crystal ball, so don't hold me to it. But based on my research and staying on top of the news around this, that's what I'd anticipate. ### Q&A: will home prices come down a lot? Russell asks: *“Will home prices come down a lot?”* Great question, and again, no crystal ball — I can only tell you what I believe will happen. I've been in this industry since 1994, so I'm giving you information based on what I've witnessed and been through. I don't believe home prices are going to drop much further than they already have. Every city, county and pocket is different, but what we're seeing across the U.S. as a whole is an amazing shortage of properties actually listed for sale, and that shortage makes it very difficult for values to drop. Even though rates are up and homes are less affordable, sellers don't have a lot of competition, so they don't necessarily need to drop the price to get an offer. We've been seeing homes right here in Southern California go on the market Thursday with six offers by Monday. It depends on the price band — the higher end, the lower end, condos and townhomes, single family, and the average price range for your city. In that average range, if the home comes on the market listed right and in great shape, inventory is moving. What we've been seeing for about the last six months, and more so since the beginning of this year, is that rather than reducing the price, sellers are offering incentives — helping with closing costs, buying down points to get the buyer a better rate, making the home more affordable. And here's what that does to the comps: the closed sale shows on Realtor.com or Redfin or Zillow at the higher price. If the home was $400,000, it shows as closing at $400,000\. It does not show you that the seller gave $8,000, $10,000, $12,000 back to the buyer toward closing costs. We're seeing a lot more of that right now than big price reductions. I know Arizona had a bit of a drop in value at the end of last year, but I don't believe they've seen huge swings in the last couple of months. And going into the spring buying season — when most people start looking again, hoping to move over the summer once school ends in June — with more people actively looking and inventory this low, I don't think we see a big drop of any kind. Again, my opinion. I'm not a financial advisor. ### Q&A: foreclosures like 2010? Russell also asks: *“Do you think there will be a lot of foreclosures like in 2010?”* I do not believe that's going to happen. We pull the lists all the time — it's something my team stays very tight on. We're constantly watching and pulling lists of homes going into foreclosure, and lists of people in default, maybe 90 days behind with 90 more days before a foreclosure is issued. We're not seeing those numbers come to market. Remember that the majority of homeowners who owned before June 2022 have a lower interest rate than where rates are today, which makes their home more affordable than what they could rent for. If they lost the house and had to go rent, they'd pay more. They have a lower monthly payment than if they sold and tried to buy something else. That's why inventory is low, that's why people are holding on to their homes, and that's why it makes sense that even when funds get very tight — you might lose your job — you're going to do everything you can to scrape together the money to keep the mortgage paid. You can't rent any cheaper and you can't buy anything cheaper. We've been watching very closely ever since the pandemic, thinking that could have started a waterfall, and that waterfall just hasn't started. I believe that's the contributing factor as to why. *A licensed real estate agent and lender on Debbie's team, watching the show, wrote in and Debbie read her answer aloud:* “We are not anticipating a rise as we did then, simply because buyers now go through a much more stringent loan process — no stated income loans.” We do have some stated-income programs, but very few and far between. “And current homeowners now have lower payments and lower rates, and they are able to afford their home, or they can rent the home for equal to or more than their current payment. We do anticipate some increases in REO activity, but not as expected.” So she agreed with me. With any kind of turmoil we'll see some of that come to market, but we're really not expecting a ton of foreclosures to flood our market. ### Q&A: will the big iBuyers dump their houses? Russell asks: *“What about the big listing companies that bought all the empty houses — do you think they'll start dumping them cheaper?”* My answer would be no, not right now, while properties are holding. A lot of the properties I saw them purchase, they've actually rented out — when values started to decline a bit in the third and fourth quarter of 2022, rather than sell at a loss they put tenants in. My guess is they hold the portfolio until it's time to remarket and resell. It wouldn't make sense to take rents on those properties and then sell at a loss. And yes, they're big companies, but they are not big enough to create a tidal wave within the industry. Think about how many millions of people and how many millions of homes there are in the United States. Sure, they have a very big portfolio, but it isn't big enough for those particular companies to make a tidal wave in the market. That's my opinion; somebody else may disagree. *Her team member added:* “Yes, we do see these companies listing the homes, and I have seen them list for the same as purchased or a little lower. They are a business, so if they take a loss it will affect them differently. Also, a lot of these companies are renting the homes.” That's exactly what I just said. They know their portfolios, they know which ones should go to market quickly and possibly take a loss, and when they purchase they're already working potential losses into their numbers. ### The state of the housing market, by the numbers *Debbie read from an article she had printed during the break.* The U.S. housing market has been in dramatic flux since 2022 — plagued by oppressive inflation, soaring rental prices, higher mortgage rates, and swelling demand made worse by a shortage of housing inventory. So, everything I just talked about. The continued influence of the pandemic has also reshaped where we live: since 2020, remote work has had many former homeowners from northern metro areas permanently setting up camp in Florida and elsewhere in the Sun Belt, driving up housing prices in once-affordable cities. Average home prices in Tallahassee, for instance, surged by over 30% year over year, according to Redfin data from February. According to the National Association of Realtors, in January of 2023 sales of existing homes fell for the twelfth consecutive month. Last week also marked the sixth in a row that the 30-year fixed rate saw a hike, hitting 7.03% last Wednesday. This week is a different story: with the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank impacting the market on Monday, mortgage rates dropped to 6.5% and are now hovering slightly higher. The median existing home price for all housing types in January was $359,000, an increase of 1.3% from January of 2022\. I hope you all heard that. Home values actually went *up* on average across the United States, during a time when we were all anticipating massive declines — the bomb dropping, every renter waiting to catch that deal — and interest rates were higher. Pending sales, which lead existing sales by one to two months, look promising: up 8.1% from December. In terms of new builds, the National Association of Home Builders reports sales are down 19.4% compared to a year ago. Part of why that number is down is that there aren't as many new builds available — we've talked about this in previous shows, a lot of builders have sort of taken a break from starting new developments, pulling permits, and getting developments under construction. I don't see us having any kind of massive fallout during a time when inventory remains at all-time lows. ### Q&A: how soon can I refinance? A listener asks: *“If I purchase a home now at a higher rate, how soon can I refinance if it drops?”* Great question. The majority of loans — I'd say 95% of the loans people obtain — have no prepayment penalty whatsoever. On a conventional loan you could refinance the day after you close on your purchase. You could start a brand new refinance and close 30 days later with no penalty. FHA is the same idea; VA is a little bit different. That assumes you're refinancing only the balance you took when you purchased. If you're trying to get cash out, that's a different story — there are longer waiting periods. Using a higher value on your property means waiting periods before a brand new appraisal can be used after purchase. But if you're getting a normal conventional, FHA or VA loan and all you're doing is refinancing to drop your rate, there are no prepayment penalties and you could start as soon as you want. There are some loans — non-qualified mortgages, stated-income types, debt service coverage ratio loans for investment properties — that can and sometimes do come with a prepayment penalty. That doesn't mean you can't refinance right away, but you would pay the penalty. So if you're looking at a stated-income or investment loan where you're not verifying your income, ask your lender whether there are prepayment penalties. That's very important. ### Reading the Fed's press release Now to the Federal Reserve. I want to read you the press release exactly as it was given, and then we'll talk about what you can anticipate from it. *“Recent indicators point to modest growth in spending and production. Job gains have picked up in recent months and are running at a robust pace. The unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation remains elevated. The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient. Recent developments are likely to result in tighter credit conditions for households and businesses and to weigh on economic activity, hiring and inflation. The extent of these effects is uncertain. The committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks.”* If you're not quite following: they're saying the U.S. banking system is sound and resilient — no problems. We've seen some problems, but they're saying there aren't any. Okay. And that recent developments are likely to result in tighter credit conditions for households and businesses. What does that mean? It means they're going to tighten credit guidelines for you to qualify to take on more debt. They could lower debt ratios so you don't qualify for as much. You might apply for a credit card and find you don't get approved, where before it might have been easier. They'll make credit conditions for the banks more stringent as well, to head off anything that could become disastrous later. I love how they throw in that the committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks. So they're going to tighten us up on credit, and they expect that to slow hiring — which contradicts what they just said about robust job gains. That's how I'm reading it. Sorry if I'm being a little cynical here. I just think they went too fast. I wish they'd brought us up slowly and let people adjust and get comfortable. But hey, who am I? I'm not the chairman of the Federal Reserve. *“The committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run. In support of these goals, the committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 4.75 to 5%.”* There's the quarter-percent raise. *“The committee will closely monitor incoming information and assess the implications for monetary policy. The committee anticipates that some additional policy firming may be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2% over time. In determining the extent of future increases in the target range, the committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments. In addition, the committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities as described in its previously announced plans. The committee is strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2% objective.”* Basically: they raised a quarter point, they were going to raise a half, and they feel this is the best direction to continue moving toward 2% inflation, which is the end game. Do I think we'll see more job loss? Yes. Do I think we'll see more tightening and higher bills? Yes. ### Which of your debts change overnight Mortgage rates — whether it's a VA loan, a conventional loan, an FHA loan, a jumbo, or a non-prime, non-QM type of loan — are *not* directly connected to the federal funds rate. That's very important to understand. Do the Fed's announcements have some correlation? Yes. But they are not directly connected. So because they brought that rate up a quarter percent today does not mean the rate quote you got yesterday is a quarter higher today. That is not at all how mortgages work. Home equity lines of credit, credit cards, and short-term loans like car loans and personal loans *are* directly connected to the prime rate. If you have a credit card balance at 23% — which sounds high, but is probably pretty close to what you have, and if you haven't looked at your statement in a while you should pull it — that percentage is going to change overnight and go up a quarter percent immediately. You're paying more interest on the debt, and the minimum monthly payment calculated by that credit card company increases. So your out-of-pocket every month, and your budget, change. Home equity lines are exactly the same. If you took a HELOC yesterday, it's a quarter percent higher today. If you took one a year ago, across nine increases you've probably seen significant changes in your minimum monthly payment — and you'll see it go up again. Short-term loans like car loans: when you walk into a dealership and apply for new financing, the rate is going to be higher than it was. If you already have a car loan, that rate is fixed and your payment is fixed — it will not increase. But think about what it does to the car industry. It has gone from people walking in and getting 0%, 1.99%, 2.99% to having to tell people the rate is 6.75%, 7%, or 9% depending on credit. That slows down purchasing, which slows down sales, which hurts that industry, which is where we see less hiring and more layoffs. I do think our job market is going to weaken, and that's an example of how their changes affect the things in that statement I just read you. ### Q&A: is low inventory the only thing holding prices up? A listener asks: *“Is the lack of housing inventory about the only thing keeping house prices fairly stable with all these interest rate hikes?”* Yeah — I do believe that's the main factor. If there's no inventory and you've got people who need to move, then more people are going after the same property. Maybe it's the only house in the entire community where that buyer really wants to live, because they want that school district, or their family lives in the area, or they're being relocated for a new job. If you're one of the only homes listed in the community that buyer wants, it's a lot easier not to have to reduce your price to find someone willing to buy. What we are seeing is a lot of sellers offering concessions, because they also need to help buyers afford the property at those prices. What they're ultimately doing is helping the buyer get the interest rate back down to where it was before the Fed increases. If a seller pays two points — two points is 2% of your loan amount, so on a $400,000 loan that's $8,000 — the buyer can buy the rate down. Depending on the loan type, on FHA or VA they could definitely get into the mid-to-low fives. On a conventional it's possible to get down around 6.25% to 6.5%, maybe lower. It's not unheard of. I've seen sellers pay two to three points. I've seen a buyer come in and pay an additional point. I have a client right now paying one point on top of the seller's three points — so it's only costing them one percent, they paid what the seller wanted for the home, and we're locking them in on a VA loan today at 4.875%. That's a rate from before all the Federal Reserve craziness. That's something that buyer can tolerate and afford, and it also helps that seller keep prices in the neighborhood at their level. ### Q&A: are the hikes actually helping inflation? Heather asks: *“It does not seem like this is really helping with inflation — are these rate hikes really helping?”* I can only tell you what I read, and based on what's being published, it is helping. How much of what they're publishing is a smokescreen, who knows — I can't answer that. But they have started to bring inflation down by doing this, so it has started to make a dent. Has it made a fast dent? Absolutely not. Is it going to take longer than the Fed thought? Yes. So strap yourself in, it could be longer than expected. That was talked about during the press conference today: we're going to do this for as long as we need to. The hope was that by the end of the first quarter they'd be done increasing and would just hold rates high for a while. Now it looks like they'll probably have to continue increasing more times this year. They'll never tell you how many times and they'll never tell you how much. But based on today's press conference and the reports, I'm guessing another two to three increases, then a hold, and maybe by mid-2024 we start seeing them cut back a bit. That's today — it could absolutely change. ### Q&A: new tax deductions or credits for buyers? Michael asks: *“Will there be any new home buyer or homeowner tax deductions and credits for 2023?”* If you're asking whether the government is going to come out with additional tax deductions or credits for buying a property — which I think is where you're headed — the answer is a big question mark. I can't answer that. I haven't read anything or seen anything on it. That doesn't mean it might not exist; maybe somebody is speculating that it could happen. But I've seen no official reports and no documentation that would lead me to believe that buying a home in 2023 gets you some additional tax deduction or credit from the government. ### Why mortgage rates improved after the hike As I mentioned, mortgage rates aren't directly connected to the federal funds rate. They're connected to Fannie Mae 30-year notes, Treasuries, and mortgage-backed securities, and we move a lot like the stock market — announcements can make it good or bad. The press release came out at 11 a.m. Pacific, and the press conference was at 11:30\. So it's been about two hours — and within those two hours we've actually seen interest rates start to gain some momentum. They're getting a little bit better. Why would they get better after the Fed said it was raising rates a quarter? Because prior to the bank fallout of the last couple of weeks, everybody was building the anticipation of a *half*\-point increase into the rate sheets we've been quoting and locking you on. The Fed came out and said we're going to slow it down, give you a second to breathe, and only increase a quarter. That sparked a bit of a rate rally. How long it lasts I can't tell you — rates change every day and the market moves all day long — but based on the hourly updates I get on the mortgage markets, we appear to be getting a little bit better, because we didn't get as big an increase as anticipated. I mentioned in last week's show that we were in a bit of a sweet spot for getting a really great rate. Right now rates are the lowest they've been since January, and we're very close to the lowest levels we've had since October of 2022\. January was slightly better than today, but we're almost back at that level, and January was the best we'd had since October 2022. If the Fed continues to increase throughout the year, then as we get closer to each Fed meeting, the market starts building in the anticipation of the next increase, and rate sheets go up a little. So we are at a very nice sweet spot right now. It's a very good time to get your rate locked in, a very good time to get your financing started, and a very good time to get out and start looking at homes — and get something this year, instead of waiting until next year when they start to cut rates. That really will bring out the herds of people trying to get into a home, and you'll get lost in that stampede like many of you did during 2020 and 2021. ### Wrap-up I hope I made it easier to understand what's happening as you're hearing all of the headlines and your phone is popping up with news articles. Give us a call — we'd love to help you with your financing, that's what we do for a living. Call my office at 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4, or head over to mortgagemomradio.com. Don't forget the “radio” or you won't end up in the right spot. And if you want to be part of the show live, text the word MOM to that same number. It's one text message a week — not spam, just a link — so you know when I go live every Wednesday right around one o'clock Pacific and can put your questions straight into the feed. I hope you join me again next Wednesday. Have a great rest of your week, stay dry, and we'll be back. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 22, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Why Did Silicon Valley Bank Fail, and What Did It Do to Mortgage Rates? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-did-silicon-valley-bank-fail-and-what-did-it-do-to-mortgage-rates/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:00:35.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Banking Collapse - How does this affect mortgage and real estate?” • Live show from Wednesday, March 15, 2023 • 54 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Silicon Valley Bank failed on Friday, March 10, 2023\. Signature Bank followed over the weekend. By Monday morning, mortgage rates had dropped to their best levels in more than a month — and the market had flipped from expecting the Fed to hike toward 6% to expecting it to stop entirely. In this episode, Debbie walks through what actually broke at SVB in plain English, why a bank failure pushes mortgage rates *down*, and what she was watching going into the Fed's March 21–22 meeting the following week. ## Key takeaways - **SVB didn't do anything exotic.** It took customer deposits and bought bonds — textbook banking. The bonds were safe; they just paid yesterday's lower interest rates, so they were worth less than face value in today's higher-rate environment. That only becomes a problem if you're forced to sell them early. - **Its depositor base is what killed it.** SVB's customers were tech startups whose venture funding dried up, so they started pulling their cash out at once. Most held far more than the **$250,000** FDIC insurance limit, which made them quicker to run. Selling bonds at a loss to cover withdrawals is what made the bank insolvent — “the oldest issue in banking, a good old run on the bank.” - **Bad news for banks is good news for mortgage rates.** Money rushed out of stocks and into bonds, and mortgage rates hit their best levels in over a month — roughly back to the January “sweet spot” Debbie had been pointing at, after rates had run up about three-quarters of a point from it. - **The rate-hike forecast flipped 180 degrees in a weekend.** Before the failures, markets were pricing a Fed peak of 5.5%, 5.75%, even 6%. After, futures were pricing an immediate pause at 4.5%. One outlet put the odds of no hike at all at roughly 30%; another had an 85% chance of a quarter-point hike, down from a half point the week before. - **The Fed's emergency fix was to let banks borrow against bonds at full face value** for one year, even where the market price had fallen below it — against roughly **$620 billion** of unrealized losses sitting in bank investment portfolios. Debbie's read: “they are kicking the can down the road for another year.” - **February inflation kept cooling** — the eighth straight month — at +0.4% for the month and 6% for the year, with energy down but housing costs up. - **If rates fall, competition comes back.** Inventory is still extremely low, and three years of sidelined buyers are stacked up behind it. Debbie's argument for acting *before* rates improve: while the market is slow, a seller will still pay your closing costs and buy your rate down. In a multiple-offer market, that offer gets thrown out. - **Under $250,000 at an FDIC-insured bank, you're covered** — Debbie explicitly told listeners not to run to the bank. Above that, she said to talk to a financial advisor about spreading it across accounts or institutions, and was clear that is not her lane. ## Chapters - 01:00Replayed radio interview: is buying a home still a good idea? - 04:30Why the banking collapse is today's topic - 10:30The Fed meets March 21–22 — everything today is anticipation - 11:40If rates fall, low-down-payment buyers lose their leverage - 13:50Why did Silicon Valley Bank collapse? - 17:00Deposits over $250,000 and the run on the bank - 19:20Capital markets desk: the second-largest bank failure in history - 21:30The Fed's Bank Term Funding Program, explained - 22:50Mortgages hit their best levels in over a month - 32:00How buyers got squeezed out between 2020 and 2022 - 36:00Triple the buyers coming back if rates drop - 39:40Monday's alert: “and just like that, everything changed” - 41:40From a 6% terminal rate to pricing in a pause - 44:00February inflation cooled for the eighth straight month - 47:00What this all means for housing - 52:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ### Want to know where you actually stand before the crowd comes back? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, station identifications, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### A replayed radio interview: is buying a home still a good idea? *Debbie opened the show by replaying a radio interview she had recorded with a morning-show host on a local country station.* **Host:** Excited to be talking with Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. Long time no chat — how have you been? There's a lot that's been going on since we last spoke. Interest rates are on the rise, and the question is: is buying a home today still a good idea? **Debbie:** I love that question, because I get it every day. I do believe it is a good idea. I've been doing all kinds of research, reading every article, looking at all of the numbers, and it does appear we're actually starting to get more applications — people finally getting off the fence, because you can only put your life on hold for so long. From everything I'm reading, they're anticipating a slow year for real estate transactions, but they expect transactions to jump by 17% the following year. That creates more volume, more competition, more people going after the same home. Our inventory is still very, very low, and that's going to continue — people who already own their homes have very low interest rates, so it makes more sense for them to stay put. You have fewer properties available. So when we get that spike in people wanting to buy, you're going to have multiple offers again and a lot more competition. Buying something while things are slower — and having the opportunity to refinance later when rates do come down — gives all of our first-time buyers with low down payments, and maybe not the most favorable credit scores, the possibility of negotiating with a seller, getting their offer taken seriously, and even getting credits toward closing costs and buying the interest rate down. That is not going to happen when there are multiple offers on homes. So I do think this is actually a very good time to buy, and it's especially good for people with the lower down payments — the zero-down vets, the 3.5%-down FHA borrowers. It really gives them the possibility of being taken seriously and getting into escrow. **Host:** How can people get in contact with you? **Debbie:** They can always call my office — 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — or head over to mortgagemomradio.com. ### Why the banking collapse is today's topic Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. I ran that interview I did with a morning show host at the top — that sure was fun, and it was recorded before all of the weekend of craziness with the banking meltdown, and Monday's stocks and news and everything that's been floating around this week. It was even before we knew interest rates were probably going to start to come down, which is what we're going to talk about today. I hope I didn't lose too many of you thinking the cameras weren't working. It's a really good way to start this show, because today is about the banking collapse and all of the news articles coming out — the ones you've seen on the news and that are flooding your inbox. It's really important for me to step back and talk about what happened, why that bank went down, why the other banks that are struggling are struggling, and what we foresee for the future — because it has a direct impact on mortgage and real estate. Remember that this show is interactive. I'm doing this live, and you're watching it as it takes place. The audio goes to radio later — radio runs about a week and a half to two weeks behind, so what I talk about today won't be on radio this weekend, it'll be on next weekend. If you want to do this with me live, you have to watch every Wednesday, and then you can put your questions in the feed and I'll read them out loud and answer them for you. ### The headlines this week, and what they all have in common These are some of the articles I'm seeing. This one says bank failures and slowing inflation could lead the Fed to cool or even pause rate hikes. My secondary capital markets group came out Monday morning talking about what we could see happen after Silicon Valley Bank. *USA Today* breaks down exactly why they ended up in trouble, which I think is a really important piece to understand, and then what the outcome is. And *Barron's*: the Fed is now expected to rein in rates, with market pricing showing a shift amid the bank crisis. These are all positive things from where we sit. If the Fed cools down on increasing rates, or keeps them level, we should see mortgage rates start to improve — which helps the real estate market move again. More buyers get out actively looking and placing offers. We have hit our lowest rate levels in about a month. Pretty much every article and every person I'm reading and watching is talking about the anticipation of what the Fed is going to do. And remember that it *is* anticipation — it's people projecting their own opinion of what they think is coming. Keep in mind the next time the Fed meets is March 21st and 22nd. Next week they will make their announcement on the 22nd; they always announce on the second day of the meeting. So we're not going to truly know whether what we're talking about today is what actually happens. This is the speculation of financial experts in the field. ### If rates do come down, low-down-payment buyers lose their leverage One thing to keep in mind: if interest rates do start to come down, we're going to see more people get off the fence and back into the real estate market, looking at homes and placing bids. What does that do? We already have such a supply issue — we are beyond low on inventory at the moment — so you're going to have a lot of competition for every home listed for sale. It's exactly what I've been saying week after week. If you're a first-time buyer with a lower down payment and maybe not the most favorable credit score, and you're asking the seller to pay some closing costs to help you buy your rate down or bridge the gap on your down payment, your offer may not be the one they select in a multiple-bid situation. So if buying a home is one of your goals for 2023 or even 2024, I urge you to reach out. Let's talk about your roadmap, the game plan, how much money you need, what a monthly payment looks like, how much you can qualify for — and maybe get you out shopping before the herd. ### Why did Silicon Valley Bank collapse? *Debbie read from a* USA Today *explainer, stopping to translate as she went.* Silicon Valley Bank was hit hard by the downturn in technology stocks over the past year, as well as the Federal Reserve's aggressive plan to increase interest rates to combat inflation. We all know they've been increasing rates — we've all been feeling it. We also know we've got a major inflation issue, and we're feeling that everywhere: utilities, groceries, gas. The bank bought billions of dollars worth of bonds over the past couple of years using customer deposits, as a typical bank would normally operate. I want you to make sure you heard that: this is a normal situation. This is what banks do. They didn't do anything wrong. These investments are typically safe — but the value of those investments fell, because they paid lower interest rates than a comparable bond issued in today's higher-rate environment would pay. Typically that's not an issue, because banks hold onto them for a long time. Unless they have to sell them in an emergency. Silicon Valley's customers were largely startups and other tech-centric companies that started becoming needier for cash over the past year. Venture capital funding was drying up. Companies weren't able to get additional rounds of funding for unprofitable businesses, so they had to tap their existing funds — often deposited with Silicon Valley Bank, which sat at the center of the tech startup universe. To break that down: these startups have capital sitting in their bank account, but instead of spending it they take startup loans to get off the ground, keeping the capital in the account. Then when they run out of runway but aren't where they need to be yet, they go in for a second round of funding, sometimes a third. With rates rising and these companies not doing well enough, they haven't been able to get that funding — so they start tapping the capital sitting in the bank. But the bank used that money to buy bonds, and those bonds aren't worth today what they were when the bank bought them. So the bank can't sell them at face value to get the money back to give depositors their money. It becomes this big circle of a problem. So customers started withdrawing their deposits. Initially that wasn't a huge issue, but the withdrawals started requiring the bank to sell its own assets to meet withdrawal requests. Because Silicon Valley's customers were largely businesses and the wealthy, they were likely more fearful of a bank failure, since their deposits were over $250,000 — the government-imposed limit on deposit insurance. That required selling typically safe bonds at a loss, and those losses added up to the point that Silicon Valley Bank became effectively insolvent. The bank tried to raise additional capital through outside investors but was unable to find them. The fancy tech bank was brought down by the oldest issue in banking: a good old run on the bank. Bank regulators had no other choice but to seize Silicon Valley Bank's assets to protect the assets and deposits still remaining. Now think about it — if Silicon Valley Bank had this problem, there are other banks in the same scenario. We saw it first at SVB because they were the big name and the first to go, and they were first because of where they sat: a huge startup area, a big tech area. Think about which stocks have dropped the most since the Fed started increasing rates. Tech stocks got hit first, then others followed, and at this point a lot of stocks have been down for quite some time. ### What the capital markets desk told loan officers *Debbie then read the Monday-morning note from the secondary/capital markets department at the mortgage company she originates through.* Friday had the second-largest bank collapse in history, as Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by the feds. The largest was Washington Mutual back in 2008, and we are all too familiar with what led to their demise — that was during the Great Recession, during a major housing crisis. This has ignited concerns and a lot of conversations about financial risk, primarily centered around banks with a high concentration of tech deposits. Over the weekend the Fed stepped in to close Signature Bank, and we're hearing rumors of other banks that could be vulnerable. The main cause is ultimately due to the Fed's interest rate increases — although stronger risk mitigation and management could certainly have placed these banks in a stronger position. But retaining deposits is harder than ever for these banks: money market rates are as much as 50% higher than the interest paid on savings accounts, and as deposits flee, banks could be forced to book what had only been paper losses on mortgage bond and Treasury holdings they are forced to sell. The market this morning has Treasuries racing, as the Fed announced a temporary solution to this latest crisis. U.S. authorities took extraordinary measures to shore up confidence in the financial system, including a backstop to protect all depositors, as well as the Fed's new Bank Term Funding Program, which allows one-year loans to banks under easier terms than it typically provides. The program will allow banks to borrow the full face value of their Treasuries and some other securities even if the market price has fallen below that level. That's exactly what we just talked about — Silicon Valley Bank couldn't sell the Treasuries it held without taking a huge loss in order to get cash back to depositors. This matters for banks sitting on $620 billion of unrealized losses in their investment portfolios. Instead of selling a security at 90 cents on the dollar, they can now get the full dollar for one year. Yes, they are kicking the can down the road for another year. End result: depositors will get their money at Silicon Valley and Signature banks — and mortgages are at their best levels in over a month. ### Back to the January sweet spot We did have a nice little sweet spot. If you've been listening for a while, I told you back in January that rates had dropped significantly and we were far below the highest levels we'd seen in October of 2022\. Then we got a run on rates — rates went back up as much as three quarters of a point from that sweet spot. Now we're in the middle of March and we're hitting the very best interest rate levels we've seen in over a month. We're back at that sweet spot. So if you were shopping for a mortgage to buy a home, or shopping for a refinance, and you finally decided to pull the trigger and found out the rate was significantly higher than you expected — so the payment didn't make sense, or you didn't qualify for as much as you wanted, and you put your plans on hold — we're back at that sweet spot again. Don't leave it on hold. Give us a call and let's talk about your scenario. ### What I watch, hour by hour, to tell you whether to lock Before I get to what's expected: I am not a financial analyst and I'm not a financial advisor. I'm reading you the information I'm finding and researching, and giving you the opinions and information I'm seeing so that you're in the know. I get hourly text messages starting at 6 a.m. I subscribe to a service that gives me up-to-date numbers once an hour on where mortgage-backed securities and the Treasury markets are. When clients ask me — should I lock my rate, should I wait, what should I do — that gives me a good overall indicator of what's happening in the market, which then transcends into mortgage rates. ### How buyers got squeezed out, 2020 through 2022 2020 was absolutely amazing — rates were awesome and we were doing crazy refinance volume. Pretty much if you owned a house and had a mortgage, you refinanced between 2020 and mid-to-late 2021\. Then in the last quarter of 2021 I started making sure my listeners knew rates were on the rise. The Fed was already talking about getting increases started, and I said if you need to do something, act now. Not a lot of people listened, and I wish they had — because from the beginning of 2022 to the end of 2022, within a 12-month period, our interest rates more than doubled. That's hard. People who had been pre-approved to buy a home could no longer afford the prices they were trying to get into. And they'd already run into a brutal situation in 2020 and 2021 trying to get an offer accepted, because inventory was low — unless you were willing to pay all cash, remove every possible contingency, or pay over list price. I saw an offer come across my desk that almost made me pass out. The buyer was offering the seller a free rent-back for six months. If you don't know what a rent-back is: the seller needs extra time to move, so they close the sale and then rent the property back from the new owner. This buyer offered six months of it, free, just to get their offer accepted. Getting a seller to help with closing costs or buy your rate down was simply not happening. People were going in over full price, removing every contingency imaginable — I'll buy it as is, I don't care about an inspection, I don't care if it appraises, I'll pay more than it's worth, I don't care about my loan contingency, I'll lose my deposit if I don't get approved. That was very, very difficult for the buyers with 3.5%, 5%, or 10% down payments who needed the seller's help with a concession — because you have your down payment need and then your closing costs on top of that. So most of them were still sitting there in 2022 after making multiple offers, hoping that would be their year. And what they qualified for at the beginning of 2022 wasn't close to what they qualified for at the end of it. That pushed them out of the market. ### Triple the buyers, if rates drop I'm talking to those people right now. And if you weren't one of them then but you are now — because we're all evolving — do not let yourself get back into that situation. Inventory is still very low. There are not enough homes for sale for all of the buyers. There are multiple offers on properties right now, today, purely because of reduced inventory. If rates come down further, you've got everyone who missed out in 2022, plus everyone whose goal it is in 2023 and 2024\. That's triple the people coming out to look. It brings investors back in to gobble up properties. You'll have the all-cash investor, you'll have the buyer who has been saving and has 20% down or more — and if you're one of the lower-down-payment buyers, you'll find yourself struggling to get into a home all over again. So please get pre-approved. Let's get you ready to go and connected with a really good real estate agent. I did a whole show last week on picking the right agent — whether you're buying or selling, it matters enormously. You need somebody who is 100% in the game of real estate, doesn't have a second job, doesn't do it on the side for friends and family. You need somebody for whom this is their full-time job and you are their priority. I can help connect you to the right person for where you're looking. ### Monday's alert: “and just like that, everything changed” I woke up Monday morning and got the first ray of sunshine the mortgage industry has had in quite some time. The alert read: *“And just like that, everything changed, and no one saw this coming. Rate sheets this morning are going to vary dramatically, but all of them are going to be better. We are seeing huge moves in bonds this morning due to the banking meltdown. Lock desks are going to struggle to price all of the volatility in, and we're going to see big gaps among lenders until the dust settles.”* So they're forewarning us: yes, bonds are much better today than last week, but it's going to take time for that pricing to work into the rate sheets from one lender to the next. *“We have not seen a true flight to safety like we've seen this morning in years. Traders are freaking out about the bank situation. This was not something anyone was predicting or even talking about, but it will now affect the mortgage rate forecasts tremendously. Just like the sentiment shift back on February 3rd, this has flipped markets on their head. We are now seeing a full 180-degree shift. Instead of a forecast for the Fed to hike rates to 5.5%, 5.75%, or even 6%, we are now seeing Fed futures calling for immediate pausing of all Fed rate hikes at 4.5%.”* This is not something anybody could have predicted or foreseen — just like COVID, when nobody expected the Fed to take rates to near zero and spark that absolute boom. And who would have thought this could make tomorrow's CPI inflation data irrelevant? That's what they're saying: it didn't even matter what the inflation numbers were. This news trumped it. *Barron's* said traders are rapidly shifting their expectations of the Federal Reserve's next move amid the crisis of confidence sweeping U.S. banks, with market pricing suggesting a significant chance the central bank makes no change to interest rates in March. Fed funds futures were whipsawing Monday morning, with the chance of no change after the March 21–22 meeting at around 30% according to the CME FedWatch Tool, and pricing for the terminal rate — the peak of rates in the current hiking cycle — also falling. ### February inflation cooled for the eighth straight month The last one I'll read: bank failures and slowing inflation could lead the Fed to cool or even pause rate hikes. It notes that it's only Wednesday but it already feels like next Wednesday — a lot has happened in the past week that could influence the Fed's rate hike decision on March 22nd. Three banks collapsed, including the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history, and the February inflation report came out yesterday. The inflation report showed additional signs of easing. The pace of inflation cooled for the eighth straight month — good — but it's not slowing as fast as the Fed would like — not so good. Still, it is slowing. No surprises: U.S. consumer prices were up 0.4% for the month and 6% for the year, as expected. Energy dropped, but housing costs soared. Stocks popped after the release, and traders priced in an 85% chance the Fed will hike by 25 basis points, down from 50 last week. So *Barron's* is saying maybe they hold and don't move at all; this piece says most traders now anticipate only a quarter point, where they had been pricing in at least a half. All of it is still very good news for mortgage rates, which is why we're seeing them better today than they've been in over a month. The last paragraph: panic could force the Fed's hand to cool its hiking crusade. The administration and U.S. regulators seem willing to do just about anything to prevent a banking crisis, and while the Fed wants to temper sticky inflation and the hot labor market, it really wants to avoid a crisis. The aggressive interest rate environment contributed to bank failures and has been one of the main causes of the stock market's woes. ### So how does all of this affect us? Our interest rates came back down to just about the sweet spot we were in in January. They may continue to improve. If the Fed only raises a quarter, we will probably see mortgage rates improve further. If the Fed doesn't raise at all, we will definitely see them improve further. Rates improving makes housing more affordable, which gets more people out looking to purchase, which creates more demand and more economic stimulation. Stocks have popped since all of this came out, which means we're starting to see a bit of everything come back. So if you've put home buying, a refinance, or a debt consolidation on hold, I hope this sparks something in you to start investigating it again. And if rates drop even further, we'll do it all over again — remember, back in January I said anybody who does a loan with Mortgage Mom in today's environment gets a no-fee refinance from us later if rates drop, so you can capitalize. Going deeper on that: we've got a lot of people with FHA loans where the mortgage insurance is now cheaper — they've brought the mortgage insurance premium down. So you could be looking at a streamline refinance. If your current rate is higher and we've had this downshift, we could possibly lower both the rate and the mortgage insurance and get you into a lower monthly payment. There's a lot of opportunity here, and what it takes is a phone call to find out. You might find out that right now isn't the time — but then we know what you need and where you need to be, and we put you on a list so we can call you and say, hey, we got there. ### Is your money safe? A listener wrote in that this was good news and saved her a lot of reading. I agree — though I don't think it's *good* news that banks are collapsing. I feel for them. I'm self-employed, and I'm having a very hard time with lower revenue in my own business. We're making it through and making ends meet, but things definitely aren't what they were, not even in 2019\. There are a lot of businesses struggling right now, not just those banks. The positive side of a crisis is that maybe it opened the Fed's eyes to say: we went too fast, we went too aggressive, we need to slow this down and help. I think that's the best news we could possibly take from a potentially really bad situation. One more thing. Thank goodness the FDIC rushed in when they did — it's really good that they're taking care of the people who had money on deposit. If you have less than $250,000 in your bank account at a federally insured bank, you are insured. I don't want anybody to feel like they need to run to their bank and pull their cash out. I really don't think we're in that kind of a situation. If you have more than $250,000 at one bank in one account, it's probably a good idea to reach out to your financial advisor and see what they suggest — they might have you move money around a bit, across multiple banks or different accounts. I'm not a banker, but reach out to your financial advisor to make sure you've got yourself covered just in case. ### Wrap-up I anticipate we're going to see mortgage rates continue to fall further. Rates falling further will spark more demand in the real estate market, and I think we'll see more transactions and more people buying. I think it's a good outcome from a really bad scenario. If you've been thinking about buying, refinancing, or doing anything with your real estate, now would be a great time to get in front of it. Pick up the phone, call my office, go to my website, schedule an appointment. And if you haven't already, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — so you know when I go live next Wednesday and we can all hear what the Fed decided to do. Same phone number to call the office, and mortgagemomradio.com. I'll be back here again next week right around one o'clock Wednesday Pacific time. Talk to y'all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 15, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### How To Choose a Real Estate Agent: Questions To Ask Before You List Or Buy URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-to-choose-a-real-estate-agent-questions-to-ask-before-you-list-or-buy/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:56:36.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “How To Select The Right Real Estate Agent” • Live show from Wednesday, March 8, 2023 • 55 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Debbie brings on Veronica, a RE/MAX agent based in Santa Clarita who works across Los Angeles County and beyond, to talk about something both of them were hearing from clients that week: buyers writing offers and never getting a response. Listing agents who don’t publish a phone number, don’t return calls, and in one case told another agent flatly that she was taking twenty calls on that listing and no more. The show turns into a practical guide — what to ask an agent before you hire one, on either side of the deal, and what it costs a seller when their own agent stops picking up. **Editor's note, added later:** this show aired in March 2023, before the National Association of Realtors settlement changed how buyer-agent commissions are offered and paid. Debbie's advice on how to choose an agent still holds, but the commission mechanics she describes here no longer reflect how a purchase works today. For the current rules, see [Will the NAR Settlement Lower Home Prices?](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/will-the-nar-settlement-lower-home-prices-what-buyers-and-sellers-need-to-know/) ## Key takeaways - **The “contact agent” button on a listing portal usually isn’t the listing agent.** Those are paid leads — agents spend thousands a month to receive them. Some are excellent; the point is you’re not reaching the person who actually has the house. - **Pick one agent and stay with them.** You don’t learn what a buyer really wants from a phone call — you learn it walking through the fourth and fifth house. Both women describe buying something completely different from what they originally described. - **Sellers: your agent not answering the phone is costing you offers.** Buyers’ agents report calling, texting, emailing, messaging on Facebook and going through the office with no reply — and sellers usually have no idea it’s happening. - **Interview questions that actually separate agents:** Is real estate your full-time job? What time do you stop answering your phone? How often do you check email? If an offer arrives at 7 p.m., do I hear about it that night or tomorrow? - **The best offer isn’t always the highest.** A seller may need a rent-back, a longer escrow, a fast close, or want to keep the washer and dryer. A buyer’s agent who calls the listing agent *before* writing finds that out and writes to it. - **Manufactured is financeable; mobile generally isn’t.** Debbie’s team finances manufactured homes — permanently affixed to a foundation, HUD tags intact, minimum double-wide, subject to age limits. A home in a park on leased land is mobile-home financing, which they don’t do. - **Buyer letters to sellers are over.** The personal “why we love your home” letter isn’t permitted any more because of fair-housing and discrimination concerns. ## Chapters - 03:00Today’s guest: a RE/MAX agent from Santa Clarita - 04:00What changed: offers written, calls never returned - 11:00The client email that prompted this show - 13:00Buyers: the “contact agent” button is a lead, not the listing agent - 16:00Low inventory means your agent has to actually work - 17:00Referrals and reviews: how to find someone good - 18:00Why one agent across many showings beats a new agent per house - 20:00Sellers: is your listing agent answering the phone? - 22:00“You’re the nineteenth call” — money left on the table - 23:00Questions to ask before you sign a listing agreement - 28:00Q&A: financing a mobile home vs. a manufactured home - 31:00Q&A: how to make an offer stand out when it isn’t the highest - 34:00Q&A: can buyers still write letters to sellers? - 37:00Who pays the buyer’s agent - 44:00Q&A: respecting your agent’s time, and buyer-broker agreements - 49:00Recap: what to settle before you hand over your listing ## Questions answered on this show ### “I’m looking at mobile homes — can I get a mortgage on one?” There is a real difference between a *mobile* home and a *manufactured* home, and it decides whether normal mortgage financing is even on the table. If the home sits in a park on leased land, that is almost always mobile-home financing, which Debbie’s team does not do. A manufactured home can qualify for standard financing, but it has to be permanently affixed to the foundation, it has to have its HUD tags, it can’t be older than the program allows, and it has to be at least a double-wide. There are more boxes to tick beyond those. Her advice was to get on the phone with someone on the team and walk through it property by property before you go shopping, so you know what you’re allowed to fall in love with. ### “What makes an offer more likely to get accepted?” Not price alone. Veronica’s answer: it comes down to your agent doing the due diligence and calling the listing agent before writing anything. Sellers have needs that never appear in the listing — they need a rent-back because they’re moving out of state and the timing has to line up, or they need a fast escrow, or they’d rather sell to a family than an investor, or they want to take the washer and dryer with them and an offer demanding it turns them off. Any one of those can matter more than another few thousand dollars. She calls on every single house before she writes, and that is the specific work you should expect from an agent representing you. ### “Do buyers still write letters to sellers explaining why they want the home?” No — that practice isn’t allowed any more, because of discrimination and fair-housing concerns. Veronica’s honest view is that it cuts both ways: the letters did sometimes move sellers to accept an offer that wasn’t the strongest one in front of them, which is precisely the problem. Either way, it’s a tool that no longer exists, so don’t build your strategy around it. ### “What should buyers understand about respecting their agent’s time?” A listener who used to be an agent herself raised it, and both women agreed it runs both ways. On volume: if a client works six days a week and wants to see ten houses on their one day off, Veronica is all for it — that’s the job. On budget, she pushes back, because touring homes $100,000 over what you can afford means measuring every realistic house against one you can’t have. The part buyers rarely see is the investment on the other side: the gas, the wear on the car, the hours setting up appointments and chasing listing agents, the family events missed — all of it unpaid unless the transaction closes. Veronica personally doesn’t ask clients to sign a buyer-broker agreement; she’d rather work hard enough that you choose to stay. Debbie’s point in return: those agreements are a legitimate business decision, and buyers should read carefully how the agent’s fee is stated in them, because it can leave you covering a shortfall at closing. ### Get your financing lined up before you start touring homes Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, sponsor messages, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. The guest’s surname could not be verified from the audio and her direct phone number has been left off this page — contact the Mortgage Mom Radio office and we’ll connect you.* ### Today’s guest **Debbie:** Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I’m Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. In ten years I’ve gotten her in here twice — my guest today is Veronica with RE/MAX. She’s a local real estate agent here in Santa Clarita, but lately you’re going all over the place. **Veronica:** I have been. I just put one in escrow out in Upland. Especially if it’s a referral and someone I know, I’ll go the distance to make sure they’re taken care of. **Debbie:** Veronica is by far one of the best real estate agents I’ve worked with in my career — I’ve referred many people to her. I wanted her on today because the industry has shifted. We went from a normal market to an absolutely insane market and now to a slower one, and we keep running into the same problem: our clients are trying to see homes, they’re writing offers, and we can’t get the listing agent to even acknowledge that an offer exists. **Veronica:** It’s shocking. They don’t call back. Half the time they don’t even put a phone number in the MLS or anywhere you can find one. I feel like I’m stalking people just to get hold of an agent to help my clients. ### The email that prompted this show **Debbie:** Let me read you something. Heather on my team sent one of her clients a normal check-in: happy Wednesday, any questions, I’m here to help. The client wrote back that they’re just sad, because they haven’t heard anything at all on their offer — and that their own agent told them the seller’s agent isn’t responding to her any more. They were already thinking they’d have to go out and start looking again. And Heather wrote back, my God, Debbie and I were talking about this exact thing today, because another agent had just told her the same story. So I’m hearing it from Heather, I’m hearing it from Veronica, I’m hearing it from agents all over. It’s an ongoing battle, especially for buyers’ agents — the people out there actually finding the home, tracking down the listing agent, asking the questions, writing the offer — and getting no response. Which is exactly why it matters so much who you pick when you decide to sell or to buy. ### Buyers: how not to find an agent **Debbie:** A lot of people decide they want to buy and don’t know how to find an agent. So they’re on Redfin, Zillow, realtor.com, they see a house they like, and they contact whoever they think is the agent. Is that actually the listing agent? **Veronica:** Not usually. A lot of those websites sell what they call leads. You say you’re interested in the house on Elm Street, and it gets sent to an agent who is paying thousands of dollars every month for your information so they can call you and try to earn your business. Sometimes they’re great agents. But it’s usually not the listing agent. **Debbie:** Right, and in my experience — I can’t say it’s true 100% of the time — a lot of those agents are newer and less experienced. This is a harder market than people think. Inventory is extremely low. Homes are sitting a little longer than they were, but there still isn’t much to buy. So when something comes on priced right, in a range with a lot of competition — say five to seven hundred thousand, where there are far more buyers than there are for a high-million-dollar home — you need the right agent to get your offer accepted. Clicking the button attached to the listing is not that. **Veronica:** Referrals are the best way — friends and family who’ve actually used someone and trust them. If you don’t have that, look people up, read the reviews, look at what they’ve done. That speaks volumes. And you want someone in your corner. If you’re always contacting whoever happens to be attached to the house, you never have that one person fighting for you. ### Why staying with one agent matters **Debbie:** The relationship is everything, because you only understand what a buyer needs by walking through multiple properties with them. On the phone they’ll say three bedrooms, two baths, RV parking. You don’t really know them until you’re in the fourth house and they’re saying, I like this but not that, this is too close to the school, I don’t want to back up to that. If it’s a different agent every time, nobody ever hits it on the head. **Veronica:** It’s a learning experience for everybody. A lot of clients think they know what they want, and after a few houses and a few conversations they realize they wanted something totally different. **Debbie:** I bought something completely different from what I set out to buy. I wanted land, room to park the toys, no HOA. Then you start making the drive out to the further areas and you go — I can’t do this every day. I ended up in an HOA in the middle of town, down the street from the grocery store, because what actually mattered to me was that I don’t have time to shop and I need Instacart. You’re not getting Instacart out in the middle of nowhere. **Veronica:** My version of that was walking into houses out there and finding thick dust on everything, and having to tell someone: this is what living out here is. You get used to this. And it wasn’t happening. ### Sellers: is your agent picking up the phone? **Debbie:** Give me some of what you’ve been running into lately. **Veronica:** Not answering calls. Not calling back. It’s gotten to the point where I’ll Facebook message, text, leave a voicemail, call the office, talk to the assistant — several attempts, nothing. And it’s sad, because those agents are leaving money on the table for their sellers. They’re losing potential buyers. I called one agent recently, someone I’ve known for years, just to touch base because I had an interested client, and the first words out of her mouth were: I’m taking twenty of these calls and that’s it, you’re number nineteen. It blew my mind. **Debbie:** So you’re a seller, your house is listed, and agents are calling because they have buyers who might work — and the response is, you’re the nineteenth call. **Veronica:** I highly doubt those sellers know. They don’t know their agent isn’t answering, isn’t taking calls, isn’t answering buyers’ agents’ questions. And they’re losing money because of it. I work both sides — listings and buyers — so I see both ends, and I know what the buyer’s agent is going through. If you’re a listing agent ignoring those calls, you could have had another offer for your seller. **Debbie:** As a seller you have no idea what your agent is doing after you sign. You’re hoping they’re doing their due diligence. You don’t know that they’re not returning questions or setting up appointments to show your home. **Veronica:** There are so many times I’d love to go knock on the seller’s door and say, I’ve tried to show your house ten times and they won’t answer me. ### What to ask before you hire a listing agent **Debbie:** So what does a seller ask in the interview to avoid ending up with that agent? **Veronica:** Sit down and make sure they’re going to work for you and that they want to take care of you. Ask how they work. Some agents will tell you straight off: I work nine to five, then my phone goes off, it’s family time or gym time. Some are blunt about it. Ask whether this is a full-time job, because some agents have a regular job and do real estate on the side, evenings and weekends, so the hours simply aren’t there. Ask when they stop answering the phone and how often they check email. Tell them you want updates on activity. **Veronica:** I work with a lot of police and fire, and their hours are crazy, so I tell people I’ll work around your schedule. If you’re free at 9:45 at night and I’m awake, text me and I’ll call you right back. Not everybody is nine to five. My phone never stops; my kids make fun of me for it. **Debbie:** I stop answering texts and emails when I fall asleep with the phone in my hand. **Debbie:** And think about why that matters. If you’re the buyer’s agent, you work around your clients’ schedules, and most people work days and look at houses in the evenings and on weekends. So an offer gets written at seven or eight at night, and you need the listing agent, because the seller may have something that helps them — a rent-back they need for timing, a fast escrow, or they want to keep the washer and dryer, so don’t write it into the offer and turn them off. Little things that get the deal put together. That agent needs to take the call while you’re sitting with the client writing — not two days later, when the buyer has moved on to another house. ### Q&A: mobile vs. manufactured homes **Debbie:** Blanca writes that she’s a former agent starting over after some major life changes, she’s looking into mobile homes, and she wants to understand the loan options and how to write an offer that’s more appealing. Blanca, get back on the phone with Heather, because we do manufactured home financing — we do not do mobile home financing, and there is a real difference. If you’re in a mobile home park on leased land, the majority of the time that is mobile home financing, and we don’t do it. If it’s a manufactured home, it has to be permanently fixed to the foundation, it can’t be too old, it has to be at least a double-wide, it needs its HUD tags — there’s a list of things it has to satisfy to qualify for normal mortgage financing. Heather can take you through it start to finish so you know exactly what to look for. Take the consultation. That’s what we’re here for. **Veronica:** And on getting your offer accepted — it’s about your agent doing their due diligence, calling the listing agent, finding out whatever they can. It’s not always about who has the highest offer. Sometimes they need a longer escrow, or a rent-back, or they really want a family living there rather than an investor. Lean on your agent to find out what the seller actually needs. ### Q&A: letters to sellers **Debbie:** Blanca asks whether buyers still write letters to sellers about their personal situation and why they want the home. **Veronica:** You’re not allowed to do that any more. They consider it discrimination and unfair. It’s unfortunate in one sense — people let their emotions get the best of them when they read those letters and sometimes chose an offer that wasn’t the best one. But it isn’t permitted now. ### Who pays the buyer’s agent **Debbie:** One thing a lot of buyers don’t know is that they aren’t the ones paying you. **Veronica:** Not everyone understands it. Buyers don’t pay me a dime — the seller pays the fees. So find someone who is going to work for you, not the seller’s agent. The listing agent can work with you, but they represent the seller. Why wouldn’t you have somebody there only for you? **Debbie:** And don’t tour one house with one listing agent and the next with another. Pick someone who works with you start to finish. ### Q&A: respecting your agent’s time, and buyer-broker agreements **Debbie:** Blanca adds that people need to hear about respecting their agent’s advice — not demanding excessive showings in one day or homes out of their budget — and about signing a buyer-broker agreement rather than wasting an agent’s time and then using someone else. **Veronica:** There should be mutual respect on both ends. On showings, if that’s what works for my client, I’m all for it — some of them work six days a week and have one day to see ten properties. On budget, I’ll have the conversation, because if you go see something $100,000 over budget you’re going to love it and compare every other house to it. We find a balance. **Debbie:** And there’s real upfront expense on your side — gas, wear and tear on the car, your time, the hours behind the computer reaching out to agents and setting up appointments, driving all the way out to Upland. If the transaction doesn’t close with you, you never get paid. Not a dime. It’s like being asked to come work the weekend because we’re behind, but we’re not going to pay you. **Veronica:** I miss my kids’ sports games and a lot of family events, and I spend money up front. But I don’t have people sign the agreement — I’d rather work hard enough that you see the value and want to work with me, instead of feeling stuck with me. I know agents who use them and love them, and if it works for them, so be it. **Debbie:** They’re not a bad thing — plenty of good agents use them, and it’s a personal call about your business model. What I’d tell buyers is to read how the fee is written. In the 90s a listing was typically six percent, three to each side. As prices climbed, sellers negotiated, and five percent — two and a half each side — became the norm. Lately I’m seeing listings come in at four percent, two and two, or four and a half where the listing agent keeps more and offers less to the buyer’s agent. Three times in the last month I’ve had buyers paying the difference out of their own closing costs to make up the gap in their buyer-broker agreement. Know what you’re signing. ### Recap **Debbie:** What we’re dealing with right now is simple: buyers need to get into your house, and buyers’ agents need to be able to reach your agent. If you’re selling, interview the person who is going to list your property. Find out what they keep versus what goes to the buyer’s agent. Understand what each side actually does — the listing agent puts it in the MLS, does some marketing, puts it on social media; the buyer’s agent is in the car driving people around, showing the property, writing the offer, helping them get their pre-approval done. I’ve done both sides, and I’ll say it plainly: the buyer’s agent is doing more work. So if you’re negotiating a lower commission with your listing agent, make sure you’re still offering the buyer’s agent enough to bring you a buyer, and that your listing agent is the one accepting the lower number. **Veronica:** The key thing is finding someone who will work for you and answer their phone. Have their number on their website. Put a cell number in the MLS, not an office line that goes to voicemail. Check email. Take calls. Answer texts after five. **Debbie:** That’s it for today. If you want to be part of the show live and ask your questions instead of hearing it two weeks later on the radio, text MOM to 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you’ll get one link a week. And if you’d like to work with Veronica, get in touch with me any way you like and I’ll put you together. Back again next Wednesday. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 8, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Real estate commission practices and buyer-agency agreements described in this episode reflect the rules in place in early 2023 and have since changed; confirm current practice with a licensed agent. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Have Home Prices Bottomed? What the 2023 Forecasts Actually Say URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/have-home-prices-bottomed-what-the-2023-forecasts-actually-say/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:56:36.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Have Home Prices Bottomed?” • Live show from Wednesday, March 1, 2023 • 58 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Debbie spent most of 2022 telling listeners she expected home prices to fall roughly 10% in 2022 and another 10% in 2023\. On this show she publicly retracts the second half of that call. Walking through the National Association of Realtors’ latest forecast — and a county-by-county comparison her own team pulled for Southern California — she explains why the drop most buyers were waiting for never really arrived, and why that changes the math on waiting. She also covers the VA’s funding-fee reduction and answers a listener question about shopping lenders without wrecking your credit score. ## Key takeaways - **Debbie retracts her own forecast.** She had predicted roughly a 10% price drop for 2023\. NAR’s projection is a **1.6% decline** in the national median existing-home price this year, followed by a **3.1% gain in 2024** — and she says plainly she now thinks the smaller number is closer to right. - **Southern California barely moved.** Comparing January 2022 to January 2023 medians: Orange County changed by about **$500**, Riverside by **$5,000**, San Bernardino by roughly **$3,100**. The biggest declines were Ventura (about **$35,000**) and San Diego (about **$50,000**). Nowhere near 10%. - **Fewer sales does not mean cheaper homes.** NAR expects existing-home sales to fall **11.1% in 2023** to 4.47 million units, then jump **17.7% in 2024** to 5.26 million. That’s buyer *count*, not price — and it means roughly 20% more competition next year. - **The negotiating window is now.** Sellers listing today generally have to sell, homes are sitting longer, and nobody is waiving inspections or appraisals. A 3.5%-down FHA offer gets taken seriously in a market like this; it won’t when everyone comes off the fence. - **Rate outlook:** NAR projects the 30-year fixed averaging **6.1% in 2023** and **5.4% in 2024**. Debbie notes the average she was seeing on a zero-point conventional 30-year fixed as of **March 1, 2023** was around **6.5%**, and that other analysts had forecast 7.5–8.5% by year end. Nobody agrees; that’s the point. - **Veterans: the VA funding fee is coming down.** The VA announced reductions to the funding fee on purchases and refinances, effective April 7, 2023\. Anyone rated at least 10% disabled continues to have the funding fee waived entirely. (See the note below — confirm current figures before relying on them.) - **Shopping lenders costs you almost nothing.** The first mortgage credit pull nicks your score by a few points; additional mortgage inquiries inside the shopping window don’t stack. The bureaus say 30 days — Debbie tells clients to finish inside two weeks to be safe. ## Chapters - 02:00Welcome — what today’s show covers - 06:00Meet the team: nobody here has under 20 years - 14:00VA loans: zero down, no mortgage insurance, one funding fee - 16:00How the funding fee works — and what the VA is cutting - 19:00Have home prices bottomed? Debbie retracts her 10% call - 21:00NAR’s forecast: 6.1% rates in 2023, 5.4% in 2024 - 25:00Unit sales vs. home prices — don’t confuse the two - 27:00Why sellers are negotiating right now - 29:00What happens when everyone comes off the fence at once - 30:00Q&A: does shopping lenders mean multiple hard credit inquiries? - 40:00Sales bottoming in Q1; prices down just 1.6% for the year - 44:00New-home prices forecast to *rise*, not fall - 46:00Southern California medians: January 2022 vs January 2023 - 48:00CAR says the bottom is here; NAR says it’s coming this year - 52:00The refinance workshop that got two text messages - 54:00Home Buyer Workshop — Saturday, March 11 ## Questions answered on this show ### “If I start with one lender and then switch, is that a second hard inquiry on my credit?” Yes — every lender who pulls your credit creates a hard inquiry, and each one shows on your report by name for two years. But the credit bureaus code the inquiry by *type*, so they know a mortgage pull from a car loan or a credit card, and they deliberately give you a shopping window in which additional mortgage inquiries don’t compound. Only the first pull really touches the score, and typically by two to five points. The bureaus quote 30 days for that window; in Debbie’s experience it can start behaving differently sooner than that, so she tells clients to keep all their mortgage credit pulls inside about two weeks. Her practical caveat: a full pre-approval means re-telling your whole story and re-uploading every W-2 and pay stub, so shop two or three lenders, not ten. ### Find out where you actually stand before the market turns Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, sponsor messages, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Welcome — and it’s snowing in Southern California Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I’m Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and every week right here on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch I bring you my show live, where you can join me, ask me your questions, and get the information you need. This is an interactive show, so put your questions in the comments and I’ll read them out loud and answer them for everybody listening. Today we’re covering a few things. Number one: have prices bottomed out — have they already taken their spill, and what do we see coming forward? I’m going to read you some information from the National Association of Realtors. It’s their opinion, from their financial analysts, but I found it really interesting. Then we’ll talk about changes the VA has made — they seem to be falling in line with FHA, trying to make their lending more affordable, so kudos to the VA. And we’ll talk about getting you prepared to purchase a home and the Home Buyer Workshop I have coming up on March the 11th. I’m here in California, just outside Los Angeles in Valencia, and it is *freezing* today. We actually had a little snow blow through right before I started the show. If you’re hearing this later on the radio you’re probably a week off and thinking it can’t be that cold — remember I do this on a Wednesday, and today is Wednesday, March 1st. Stay warm and stay safe on those wet roads, which is not something we usually have to say here. San Bernardino County has been absolutely annihilated; Big Bear you can’t even get up to, and I think yesterday they finally started escorting people up and down the mountain fifteen cars at a time. We’re not the East Coast, we’re not the Midwest — we don’t have the equipment, the salt, the plows. Love and prayers to everyone dealing with it. ### Who’s on my team I got a phone call this week from someone who said, “I really want to talk to the Mortgage Mom, I don’t want to talk to anybody else.” First, that is 100% okay. I will take any phone call, you can schedule an appointment with me, and I will personally do the consultation and answer your questions. That’s what I’m here for. But I want you to understand who my team is. There is not one person on my team who has been in this business less than twenty years. Carrie started around 2000\. Heidi started around 2001\. Heather Kilpatrick started in 1992\. I started assisting my parents in 1993, got my real estate license in 1995, and started in mortgage in 2001\. Nobody here is new, nobody here is training on your file. So if you call and can’t reach me and they offer to transfer you, say yes — they’re very good. And if you still want a second conversation with me afterward, that’s fine too. ### VA loans and the funding fee Veterans, perk up your ears. The VA loan is for our active duty and our veterans who have served, and if they qualify there is no mortgage insurance whatsoever, zero money down, and they can get the seller to credit them their closing costs. In reality they can get into a home with literally zero out of pocket — and they can even negotiate a large enough seller credit to help pay off debt through closing costs. It’s a great program. What the VA does have is a funding fee. It’s financed into the mortgage balance, so it doesn’t come out of pocket, but it is charged up front and added to what you owe. You’re paying a funding fee instead of the monthly mortgage insurance you’d have on a conventional loan. That fee had gotten expensive — it was raised several years back — and on a $200,000 purchase a couple of percent is around $4,000, but as loan sizes climbed to $400,000, $500,000, $600,000, $700,000, you’re financing tens of thousands of dollars on top of what you bought the house for. So the VA came out and reduced it. The first-use funding fee drops from 2.3% to 2.15%. Subsequent use — the second or third time you use your VA eligibility — drops from 3.6% to 3.3%. If you are rated at least 10% disabled with the VA, your funding fee is waived entirely, and that is not changing. The changes take effect April the 7th. They also reduced the funding fees on VA refinances, including streamlines and cash-outs. I know it doesn’t sound huge, but every penny counts, and it helps you qualify for a little more because you’re financing less. I want to tip my hat to the VA for jumping in the way FHA did, trying to make things more affordable while rates are up. If you’re a vet wondering how this changes your numbers, give us a call. ### Have home prices bottomed? For the last year or so on this show I’ve been saying interest rates are going up and home prices would come down about 10% — that was my expectation for 2022, and I expected another 10% dip in 2023, with things turning around in 2024\. I don’t really think that’s the case anymore. I have to retract it. I don’t think we’re going to see home prices drop as much as I anticipated for 2023. I don’t have a crystal ball. This is my personal Mortgage Mom opinion — my best guess — from having been in this industry a very long time. A lot of what I said was true: prices did come down a bit, though not quite 10%, and rates did go up as I’d been warning for years. But on the size of the drop, I’m being put in my place. ### What NAR is actually forecasting Here’s the piece I pulled from the National Association of Realtors. The headline is essentially: buy now, before housing prices start to increase in 2024. NAR anticipates the economy will continue to add jobs through 2023 and 2024, with 30-year fixed mortgage rates steadily dropping to an average of 6.1% in 2023 and 5.4% in 2024\. That contradicts other articles I’ve read, where the expectation was seven and a half to eight and a half percent by year end. We’re only two months into the year — today is March 1st — but rates did come down from their highs back in September and October of 2022\. I thought we’d get a quick dip and then a rapid climb back. Instead we came up only slightly from the bottom about three weeks ago and we’re holding fairly steady. When we move, we move slow. So I’m starting to lean toward what this article says. Understand what that 6.1% refers to: a conventional 30-year fixed, no points paid to buy the rate down, on average. Every single person gets a different rate — your credit, the property type, your down payment and your loan program all move it. What I’m seeing today at zero points averages about six and a half percent. So a steady decline to 6.1% is fabulous news, and 5.4% in 2024 lines up with what I’ve believed: things loosen up next year, affordability improves, and far more people come out to buy. Next paragraph: with an improving interest rate environment and job gains, NAR’s economist Yun still expects annual existing-home sales to drop 11.1% in 2023 to a total of 4.47 million units, before jumping 17.7% in 2024 to 5.26 million units. I want to make sure nobody misreads that. That is the number of *units sold* across the United States — not a drop in home prices. NAR also projects new-home sales will fall 3.7% year over year in 2023 before growing 19.4% in 2024. ### Why I keep telling you to get off the fence I’ve said week after week that right now is a good time to get off the fence, get pre-approved, look at homes and pull the trigger. Here’s the reasoning. Sellers have been sitting on the market longer than they were used to. The days of announcing a home on Facebook as “coming soon” and having nineteen offers before it ever hits the MLS are gone. There are fewer buyers out there, because they’re on the fence hoping rates come down and prices come down so they can buy next year. Meanwhile, the sellers who *are* listed need to sell. Nobody with a really low rate lists their home when it’s cheaper to stay than to move. So the homes on the market belong to people who have a reason to move, they’ve been sitting a while, and they’re negotiating — on price, or with a credit big enough to buy your interest rate down so you don’t have to wait for 2024. Compare that to 2020 and 2021, when buyers were waiving appraisal contingencies, waiving inspections and buying as-is. It was chaos. When things turn back, sellers get multiple offers again and they pick the strongest buyer — biggest down payment, best credit score, lowest debt ratios. They ask for your pre-approval letter, and sometimes they ask to see the automated underwriting findings showing your ratios and scores. Right now, if you’re the only one negotiating on their house, they don’t care that you’re FHA with three and a half percent down, or VA with zero down, or conventional with five percent. What they care about is getting into escrow. And if unit sales really do jump 17.7% in 2024, that’s almost 20% more people you’re bidding against. ### Q&A: shopping lenders and hard credit inquiries Fritzy asks: *“It’s a hard inquiry when we start working with a lender. If I decide to switch to a different lender, is that an additional hard inquiry?”* Great question — I answered this for someone on the phone yesterday. When your credit is pulled, the bureaus know what it was pulled for: a mortgage, a car, a credit card, a personal loan. They want to give you time to shop. The first pull is a hard inquiry, and every lender after that is also a hard inquiry — each lender’s name appears on your report and stays for two years. But it’s the very first pull that nicks the score, and it should only cost you two or three points, maybe five at most. During the shopping window, the bureaus tell you that you have 30 days to run your credit with lender A, lender B, lender C, as many times as you want, without it hitting you again. In my experience over all these years I’ve seen it start to affect scores a little sooner than that, so I tell my clients to stay within two weeks. And practically speaking: applying isn’t simple. Every new lender means telling the same story, uploading the same W-2s and pay stubs, answering the same questions. So shop one, two, maybe three companies — not a million. ### Sales bottoming out, prices holding Continuing the article: home sales activity looks to be bottoming out in the first quarter of this year before incremental improvements occur, Yun said, but an annual gain in home sales will not occur until 2024\. Meanwhile home prices will be steady in most parts of the country, with a minor change in the national median home price. Think about the seasonality there. January and February are slow anyway, and probably March too — we just got through the holidays and everyone has kids in school. Spring is when people start looking, making offers and trying to close as school ends so they can move over the summer. So what they’re saying is that we’ve hit the bottom on units sold this first quarter, and now we see incremental growth — not crazy growth, pretty normalized — and then 2024 is the big hike. NAR also predicts median existing-home prices will be stable versus the previous year in most markets, with the national median decreasing by 1.6% in 2023\. I told everybody I expected about a 10% loss, and they’re saying 1.6%. That’s a significantly different number. They then have prices regaining positive traction of 3.1% in 2024\. And they estimate median new-home prices will actually *increase* 1.3% in 2023 and 2.8% in 2024, because of higher land and construction costs — so if you buy from a builder you’re looking at the possibility of appreciation where everyone expected depreciation. That’s fantastic for people who own homes right now and were afraid of losing the equity they’ve gained. It’s less exciting for buyers who were hoping values would bottom out so they could snatch something cheap like 2008 and 2009\. That is just not happening this time — we talked about that six months ago, that we didn’t foresee the crazy foreclosures or the crazy dip. ### Southern California, January 2022 vs January 2023 Heather Kilpatrick on my team put together a comparison of median sales prices for the main Southern California counties, January 2022 against January 2023, to put that article in perspective. Her summary: the numbers are not bad at all. Orange County had no meaningful change. The biggest declines were Ventura at about $35,000 and San Diego at about $51,000. County by county, January 2022 to January 2023: Los Angeles County, roughly $800,000 down to $778,540\. Orange County, $1,195,000 to $1,194,500 — a change of about $500\. Riverside, $590,000 to $585,000\. San Bernardino, $450,000 to $446,900\. San Diego, $875,000 to $824,950\. Ventura, $850,000 to $815,000\. That is nothing. That is not 10%. The California Association of Realtors is saying this *is* the bottom. The National Association of Realtors is saying the bottom comes this year. Either way we’re about there. If you sit on hold until everybody else jumps, you’re back in the crowd, negotiating against multiple offers from people who may be stronger than you, and losing homes you really want. Heather’s own comment, and I agree with her completely: you are so much better off to buy now at the lower prices this year and then just refinance in 2024\. She also points out you get lower property taxes with the lower purchase price. ### Workshops — and how to reach us Last week I said if you’d be interested in a refinance workshop, text me the word REFINANCE and I’d see whether it was worth putting together. I got two text messages. Two. For those two people, please reach out directly — I’m more than happy to take you through a one-on-one consultation on refinance options, streamline versus cash-out versus rate-and-term, and what you need to qualify. And if you were listening and meant to text but didn’t, do it now: text REFINANCE to 844-935-3634 (844-WE-LEND-4). I promise it doesn’t opt you into anything — it just tells me there’s an audience for it. The Home Buyer Workshop is Saturday, March 11th, at 12 p.m. Pacific, streaming on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. I’ll take you from A to Z: getting prepared, fixing your credit, how much you need for a down payment, the different loan types, what closing costs are, what the terms mean, how to select a real estate agent, and what happens once you’re in escrow. You can be at the grocery store or cleaning the house and still follow along. Text WORKSHOP to the same number and you’ll get the link when it starts. To catch the show live each week, text MOM to 844-935-3634 — that’s also the office number, and we answer seven days a week; if we’re on the other line, leave a message in the general box and we’ll call you back, even Saturday and Sunday. At mortgagemomradio.com you’ll find the tools and calculators, and you can book a phone consultation on my calendar directly. If none of the times work because of your schedule, use the contact form — it comes straight to me and we’ll find an early morning or late evening that works. Quick peek at next week: I’m having a guest on, and we’re going to talk about what’s really important to know and to ask when you’re interviewing real estate agents to list your property. I hope you all enjoyed this one. See you next Wednesday. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of March 1, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Loan program terms described on this page — including VA funding fee percentages — were accurate as announced in 2023 and have since changed; confirm current terms before relying on them. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### FHA Cut Its Mortgage Insurance: What It Saves You Every Month URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/fha-cut-its-mortgage-insurance-what-it-saves-you-every-month/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:56:37.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “FHA – Big Changes = More Affordable Mortgages” • Live show from Wednesday, February 22, 2023 • 57 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 FHA announced a cut to its annual mortgage insurance premium the morning of this show, and Debbie went on air the same afternoon with the new numbers in hand. She walks through what the monthly premium was, what it became, and what that does to a real payment at half a dozen loan sizes — then explains who should pick up the phone: buyers holding a pre-approval built on the old numbers, and anyone who took out an FHA loan the previous summer who may now qualify for a streamline refinance. Listeners ask about minimum credit scores, minimum down payments, gift funds and HELOC rates. ## Key takeaways - **The monthly FHA mortgage insurance premium came down sharply** for loans with a low down payment: from 0.85% to 0.55% under the high-balance threshold, and from 1.05% to roughly 0.75% above it, effective for new applications and rate locks as of February 22, 2023. - **The high-balance threshold moved up too** — from $625,000 to about $726,000 — so a lot of California borrowers stopped paying the expensive tier entirely. - **What that is worth monthly:** on a $600,000 loan, mortgage insurance drops from $425 to $275\. On $650,000, from $460 to $298\. On $700,000, from roughly $600 to $321\. On $800,000, from $700 to $500\. Debbie’s rule of thumb: about $200 a month on any loan around $500,000 and up. - **It changes which loan wins.** FHA already priced at lower interest rates than conventional; the only reason to steer a strong-credit borrower to conventional was the cheaper mortgage insurance. With FHA’s premium now comparable, Debbie says FHA is the default for anyone without a large down payment or real equity. - **Your pre-approval is out of date.** One of her clients targeting a $4,000 monthly payment went from about $475,000 in purchase price to about $525,000 — $50,000 more house at the same payment. - **Bought or refinanced FHA around mid-2022? Call.** Your rate is probably close to today’s, but your mortgage insurance is on the old schedule, and an FHA streamline can capture the lower premium — no appraisal, no pay stubs, sometimes no credit pull. - **FHA charges everyone the same premium.** Unlike conventional mortgage insurance, which is priced like car insurance off your score, ratios and property type, FHA’s monthly premium doesn’t scale — the borrower at the top of FHA’s allowable debt ratio pays what everyone else pays. ## Chapters - 02:00Big FHA changes announced this morning - 07:00Why FHA was already the forgiving loan — and what held it back - 10:00Streamline refinances: who should call today - 14:00Change one: the high-balance threshold moves to $726,000 - 15:00Change two: the premium drops above the threshold - 16:00What it saves at $750K, $800K and $850K - 17:00A real client: $50,000 more house at the same payment - 18:00Below the threshold: 0.85% down to 0.55% - 20:00What it saves at $600K, $650K and $700K - 22:00Who should be calling: pre-approvals, refinances, conventional borrowers - 32:00Chapter 13 bankruptcy and FHA’s waiting periods - 35:00Why FHA’s premium doesn’t scale with your credit score - 37:00Q&A: what’s the lowest credit score for an FHA loan? - 39:00Q&A: what’s the lowest down payment — and is down payment assistance worth it? - 43:00Q&A: can I use a gift from my parents? - 47:00Q&A: why HELOC rates are in double digits ## Questions answered on this show ### “What’s the lowest credit score I can have and still get an FHA loan?” FHA’s own guideline goes down to 550, but that is not the number that matters. Every lender funding the loan layers its own guidelines on top, and most won’t take a 550 — so the practical floor Debbie works to is 580, where there are far more banks willing to write it and the pricing is dramatically better. Below 580 it is still possible; she has lenders who will do it, but the rate gets very high because all pricing is risk-based. Her framing: 550 and 580 are night and day, and 600 is night and day again. If you’re under, the more useful conversation is looking at your credit together and deciding what to fix first to get you over the line. ### “What’s the lowest down payment on an FHA loan?” Three and a half percent, and that is the floor on standard FHA guidelines. The exception is down payment assistance, which varies entirely by state, county and city. Debbie’s caution is worth reading twice: assistance programs stack a second — sometimes a second and a third — loan behind your FHA first, and they raise your interest rate. You end up owing more than the house cost on the day you get the keys. If you can reach the down payment any other way — savings, a 401(k), a cash balance plan, deferred comp — you’ll get a lower rate, a better payment, qualify for more, and you won’t start out underwater. The programs exist and they help people; just go in knowing the trade. ### “Can I use a gift from my parents for the down payment?” Yes. FHA allows the full 3.5% to come as a gift — from parents, a sibling, an aunt or uncle, a fiancé. Ask before you plan around a specific giver, but the list is wide. What doesn’t work is the shortcut people try: you cannot fold the down payment into a seller credit. The borrower brings 3.5% of the sales price no matter what, gift or not. Separately, the seller may credit up to 6% toward closing costs, which is more than most conventional programs allow. Debbie’s advice on how to use that: on a $500,000 purchase, closing costs run around $10,000, roughly 2%. Ask the seller for about 4% — 2% to cover the standard costs and another 2% to buy your interest rate down — so the rate reduction is paid for with the seller’s money instead of the cash you scraped together for the down payment, the movers and the refrigerator. ### “I have a 750 score and was quoted 10% on a HELOC. Is that a good deal?” It is high, and unfortunately it is also the market. A HELOC is a second lien on your home — effectively a credit card secured by your equity — and it is adjustable, tied directly to the prime rate. Every time the Federal Reserve raises rates, HELOC rates and credit card rates move with it, whether you opened the line yesterday or two years ago. The Fed had signaled more increases were coming, so Debbie had no good news: nothing was about to price lower. The minimum payment is interest-only, so if you pay only the minimum for ten years you owe on month 120 exactly what you borrowed on day one. As a standby safety net for an emergency — a re-pipe, an unexpected repair — a line of credit is genuinely useful, and it costs nothing while the balance is zero. For a $50,000 to $100,000 renovation at these rates, she’d rather run your actual numbers against a refinance, or tell you honestly to sit tight. ### Your pre-approval may be worth more than it says Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the payment with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, sponsor messages, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Loan program figures quoted here were announced in February 2023 and have since changed — see the note in the disclaimer.* ### Big changes to FHA, announced this morning Hello and welcome. I’m Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and you’re watching Mortgage Mom Radio. We do this show once a week, every Wednesday, live on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. We have big, big changes to FHA — the announcement came out today — and I am extremely excited about it. Here’s the context. FHA is one of my favorite loans to write. It isn’t as strict on your debt ratio. It’s far more forgiving on credit score and on credit history, including bankruptcies. And FHA is known to have lower interest rates than a conventional loan, with three and a half percent down. The one thing holding it back was the mortgage insurance, which was more expensive than conventional mortgage insurance for a borrower with a really good credit score. So if you had strong credit and only three or five percent down, we tried to steer you conventional even though the rate was worse, because the FHA mortgage insurance cost you more every month. What they announced is a reduction in the monthly mortgage insurance premium. That makes the payment more affordable, it helps you qualify for more, and it may let you buy at a higher sales price and keep the payment you wanted. Heather on my team built me a chart of the new monthly payments this morning so I’d have real numbers in the studio, and we’re going to go through them. ### Who should be calling about a streamline refinance If you have a current FHA loan and you’ve been wanting a lower payment, FHA allows a streamline refinance to capture the lower premium. We do need to look at your current mortgage first, because if your rate is very low, dropping the mortgage insurance may not be enough to make the refinance worth doing — going from a three percent rate to five and three quarters or six is not a trade I’m going to recommend. But if you purchased or refinanced with an FHA loan any time since roughly June or July of 2022, do not pass go. Your interest rate is probably close to what’s available today, and your mortgage insurance is on the old schedule. Pick up the phone. Have your mortgage statement in hand, or pull it up on your phone, because we need your full all-in payment and the breakdown of your escrows to do the math honestly. ### Change one: the high-balance threshold Everyone in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Bernardino — you’ll understand this one. When your loan balance went over $625,000, the mortgage insurance premium was significantly higher than for a balance under it. They’ve moved that line up to about $726,000 before you hit the higher premium. That alone takes a lot of California borrowers out of the expensive tier. ### Change two: the premium itself Above that threshold, the monthly premium used to be 1.05%. They’ve brought it down to about three quarters of a percent. Percentages don’t mean much until you see a payment, so here are the numbers Heather ran, all with three and a half percent down. On a $750,000 loan, the old mortgage insurance was $656 a month. Today it’s $469 — nearly two hundred dollars a month. On $800,000: $700 a month before, $500 now — exactly two hundred dollars. On $850,000: $744 before, $531 now. Think about what that does. I have a client right now who says he doesn’t care what he qualifies for — he wants his payment at four thousand dollars a month, full stop, and he’s looking at a condominium with meaningful monthly HOA dues on top. To hold him at $4,000 all in, with taxes, insurance, HOA and mortgage insurance, his purchase price was about $475,000\. It’s now about $525,000\. That is fifty thousand dollars more house, at the same payment, in the next price bracket up. ### Below the threshold For loans under the limit, the monthly premium was 0.85%. It’s now 0.55%. To see why that matters, take the same borrower — a $600,000 property, great credit, say a 740 score, low down payment. Conventional mortgage insurance for that borrower would have been somewhere around 0.5%. So at 0.85% we wanted you conventional, even though FHA’s rate was lower, and we’d have to weigh rate against premium on both to see which program actually won. At 0.55%, FHA’s premium is right there next to conventional — so now you get the lower interest rate *and* a comparable premium. The payments: a $600,000 loan was $425 a month in mortgage insurance at 0.85%; it’s $275 at 0.55%. A $650,000 loan was $460; it’s now $298\. A $700,000 loan sat in the expensive 1.05% tier before, so it was somewhere around $600 a month; it’s now $321. On average, for anybody with a mortgage of about $500,000 and up, we’re seeing roughly two hundred dollars a month in savings. Two hundred dollars is two hundred dollars — especially when the gas bill to heat your house is three or four hundred these days. ### Who this helps Anybody with a current FHA loan from mid-2022 onward, as I said. Anybody who recently took a conventional loan at a high rate — call and see what FHA looks like today. Really, anybody paying mortgage insurance at all. And everybody holding a pre-approval who is out there actively looking: call and get it re-run. You heard the difference in those payments. If your monthly mortgage insurance is lower than it was when your pre-approval was written, you qualify for more. If you already have a lender you love, that’s fabulous, stay where you’re comfortable — but if they aren’t picking up the phone to tell you the numbers changed, come talk to us. This goes into effect on brand new applications and rate locks as of today, February 22nd. ### Chapter 13, foreclosures, and why FHA is the do-over loan Somebody asked me last week about getting a mortgage after a Chapter 13 bankruptcy — he’d been told he had to wait three or four years after discharge. A Chapter 13 is a reorganization rather than a wipe: you go to the court and say you want to repay what you can, and you’re assigned a three-, four- or five-year repayment plan, paying the court, which disburses to your creditors. It’s viewed with softer eyes than a Chapter 7. With FHA, even if you are still in the middle of that payment arrangement, as long as you have twelve months paid, made on time, and you can prove it — assuming your score and income work — you have the opportunity to buy and be approved. Conventional will not do that. FHA’s waiting periods after a Chapter 7 are much shorter than conventional’s too, and on a foreclosure it’s four years with FHA against seven with conventional. That’s why I call it the do-over loan. One more thing I love about it: FHA’s mortgage insurance doesn’t scale. Conventional mortgage insurance works like car insurance — everyone gets a different quote based on credit score, debt ratio, property type. With FHA, everybody gets the same monthly premium. You could be at the very top of the debt ratio FHA allows and you’re paying the same as the borrower with pristine credit. FHA loans get a bad rap and I’ve never understood why. Other than a VA loan — and not everyone served — it’s the best loan most people can get. ### Q&A: minimum credit score Fair Lady asks: *“What is the lowest credit score I can have to do an FHA loan?”* FHA will allow a credit score down to 550\. But FHA has their guidelines, and then the lenders funding the loan have their own, and not every lender will take on a 550\. That makes it hard to find the right bank, and when we do, the rate is extremely high because pricing is risk-based — the better the score, the better the rate. So we like to say 580, because at 580 we have far more options and much better rates. Under 580 we can still talk; we do have banks that will do it. We can also look at your credit and tell you what to do to raise the score. The difference between 550 and 580 is night and day, and if you get to 600 the rate is phenomenally better again. ### Q&A: minimum down payment Goldilocks asks: *“What is the lowest down payment I can do with FHA?”* Three and a half percent. That’s the floor on standard FHA guidelines, unless you look into down payment assistance — and that depends entirely on where you live: your state, your county, your city, which programs exist there and how they work. There is a lot about down payment assistance that’s fabulous and a lot we don’t like. You keep your FHA first mortgage, and then you take a second loan, sometimes a third, to make up the down payment. The rate goes up when you use assistance. And you end up owing more on the house than you bought it for — upside down from day one. So I always tell clients: if there’s any way to get to the funds otherwise — retirement, a 401(k), a cash balance plan, deferred comp, anything — you’ll get a lower rate, a better monthly payment, you’ll qualify for more, and you won’t be upside down. The options are there; just understand them. ### Q&A: gift funds and seller credits Goldilocks also asks: *“Can I use a gift from my parents for the down payment?”* You can. FHA allows a gift for the down payment — parents, a sister, an aunt or uncle, a fiancé. If you’re wondering about a particular person, just call and ask. Separately, FHA lets the seller credit you toward closing costs, and the cap is higher than most conventional products: many conventional loans stop around three percent, some go to six, but FHA always allows six. Now, people do the arithmetic and think: it’s three and a half percent down, closing costs are about two percent, so if I ask the seller for six percent I come in with nothing. It doesn’t work that way. The borrower brings the three and a half percent of the sales price no matter what — it can be a gift, but it has to come from you. So why ask for a big credit if closing costs are only about two percent? Because you can pay points to buy your interest rate down, and a lower rate means a lower payment, which means you qualify for more house. If you’re scraping together the down payment or receiving it as a gift, you don’t have another two percent lying around for points on top of your ten thousand dollars of closing costs on a $500,000 purchase — not with movers to pay and utilities to turn on and a refrigerator to fill. So when you write the offer, ask for about four percent: two to cover the standard fees, and two to buy the rate down. That’s the seller’s money making your payment affordable. ### Q&A: HELOC rates Hugo asks about home equity lines: *“I have a 750 credit score and was told 10% interest. That doesn’t seem like a good deal — too high?”* You’re right, and it’s ten percent if not higher. A HELOC and an equity line of credit are the same thing; an equity loan is something different. The line is adjustable, and the payment is interest-only — if you make the minimum payment for ten years, what you borrowed on day one is what you owe on month 120\. You can use it, pay it back, use it again, like a credit card tied to your house, and you owe nothing while the balance is zero. Pull a recent credit card statement and look at your rate. I guarantee it’s significantly higher than two or three years ago, because the Federal Reserve keeps raising the prime rate, and equity lines are tied directly to prime exactly the way your credit cards are. Every increase pushes those rates and those minimum payments up, whether you opened the line today or two years ago. They’ve already said they plan to raise again — there’s probably another announcement before the end of March — so no, there’s no new HELOC product coming in cheaper. Where a line still makes sense is as a safety net: you have to re-pipe the house unexpectedly, it’s five or six thousand dollars, you draw it, and then you pay more than the minimum to actually retire the balance. If you’re planning a fifty, sixty, a hundred thousand dollar renovation, these get very expensive and they’re going to get more expensive. That’s a call for us to look at a refinance against the line — or to tell you to sit tight. Give us what you owe, what the house is worth, your current rate and how much cash you need, and we’ll go through the options. ### Wrap-up If you don’t own a home yet, let’s get you pre-approved and ready. If you’re already looking and your lender hasn’t called to say you might qualify for more, call us. If you have a current FHA loan from around mid-2022 to today, your rate is probably similar to today’s but your mortgage insurance is not — and a streamline is genuinely simple: an application, a credit pull if we even need one, a verbal verification of employment, no pay stubs, no appraisal. My next Home Buyer Workshop is Saturday, March 11th at 12 p.m. Pacific on YouTube — text WORKSHOP to 844-935-3634 for that link, which is separate from the weekly show link. To catch the show live and ask your questions in the chat, text MOM to the same number and you’ll get one link a week. Same number to reach the office. I’m Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom — back again next Wednesday. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 22, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. FHA mortgage insurance premiums, loan limits, minimum credit scores and seller-credit caps described on this page were those announced in February 2023 and have changed since; confirm current program terms before relying on them. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Buying a Home After Chapter 13 Bankruptcy — and What Rates Really Look Like URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/buying-a-home-after-chapter-13-bankruptcy-and-what-rates-really-look-like/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:56:38.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Homebuyer Workshop 2023” • Live show from Wednesday, February 15, 2023 • 54 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 *Note: this is the weekly live show in which Debbie previewed her free 2023 Home Buyer Workshop — it is not the workshop recording itself.* It turned out to be worth listening to on its own, because a listener asked whether a Chapter 13 bankruptcy discharged the previous year really locked him out of buying for three years. It doesn’t. Debbie explains what FHA actually requires, what it takes to get court approval while you’re still inside a repayment plan, why she refuses to quote a single “today’s rate” in an ad, and what she walks through in the workshop — from what an appraisal is versus an inspection to what actually happens the day escrow opens. ## Key takeaways - **A Chapter 13 bankruptcy does not mean waiting three years.** With FHA, once you’ve made twelve months of on-time payments on your plan — even while still inside it — you can buy or refinance with court approval. Your attorney handles the court side; it’s routine work for them, not an ordeal. - **Credit still has to hold up.** Debbie’s practical floor is a 580 score. FHA guidelines go to 550 and she has lenders who’ll write it, but pricing is risk-based and it gets expensive fast. A 600 buys a materially better rate than a 580. - **Conventional waits longer.** After a bankruptcy, conventional financing generally requires at least two years with documented extenuating circumstances, or three without — which is exactly where the “three years” myth comes from. - **There is no such thing as “the” rate.** Credit score, down payment, property type and loan purpose all move it — a condo prices above a single family, a two-to-four unit above a condo, and a cash-out refinance prices differently again. That’s why you never hear a teaser rate in her ads. - **As of mid-February 2023, her honest average was about 6.5%** on a no-points scenario: strong credit around 740, single-family residence, loan within the conforming limit (raised to about $726,000 for 2023). - **Most buyers were asking sellers for about 2% toward costs** and putting it into a rate buydown rather than into their own pocket — landing rates in the high fives to low sixes. Builders were offering the same incentive. - **The workshop is free and covers the whole transaction:** the terminology, every loan program, pre-approval documentation including self-employment, closing costs, appraisals versus inspections, credit repair, debt ratios, choosing an agent, and what happens once you’re in escrow. ## Chapters - 01:00A late start, and why this year is a buying year - 02:00The free Home Buyer Workshop: Saturday, March 11 - 08:00Q&A: buying after a Chapter 13 bankruptcy - 09:00What FHA requires — twelve payments and court approval - 10:00Credit scores after bankruptcy, and what conventional demands - 11:00Q&A: “What’s the current interest rate?” - 13:00Why sellers are handing out incentives right now - 15:00Buying the rate down with the seller’s 2% - 16:00Is 6% actually high? Three decades of perspective - 21:00The 2023 conforming loan limit - 25:00Inside the workshop: terminology and loan programs - 28:00Closing costs, appraisals vs. inspections, credit and debt ratios - 31:00Choosing an agent, and what happens when escrow opens - 32:00Why buying a home ranks with divorce and death for stress - 36:00Not just for first-time buyers - 40:00Would you attend a refinance workshop? ## Questions answered on this show ### “My Chapter 13 was discharged in January 2022 and I was told I can’t buy or refinance for three years. Is that true?” No — and the answer is the same in all fifty states. With FHA, if you were in the Chapter 13 for at least twelve months and every payment was made on time and you can show the payment history, you can buy or refinance *with court approval*. You call your attorney and they contact the court. It sounds tedious; it isn’t. Attorneys who file bankruptcies do this constantly. The caveats are the ordinary ones. Your credit has to have been rebuilt since — though not nearly as high as people assume. FHA guidelines allow twelve months out, and Debbie wants to see about a 580 score or better. There are lenders who go below 580 and she works with a couple of them, but pricing is based on risk, so under 580 the rate climbs steeply. Income and debt ratio still have to qualify. Conventional financing is the stricter path: at least two years with extenuating circumstances, three without — which is almost certainly where the three-year figure he was given came from. Her invitation on air was broad: Chapter 7, 11 or 13, buying or refinancing, if you assumed you were shut out, call and find out, because a lot of people are eligible and don’t know it. ### “What’s the current interest rate?” The reason you never hear Debbie run an ad shouting a rate is that it wouldn’t be true for the person hearing it. Every borrower has a different score, a different down payment and a different property type — a condo prices above a single family, a two-to-four unit above a condo — and every program has its own base rate plus its own risk adjusters. Purchase, rate-and-term refinance and cash-out all price differently too. With that said, she gave the honest average she was seeing in mid-February 2023: about 6.5%, on a scenario with no points paid, a credit score around 740, a single-family residence, and a loan amount inside the conforming limit. And she pointed at the lever most buyers were actually using — asking the seller for about 2% toward costs and spending it on a rate buydown, which was getting people into the high fives and low sixes. Her longer view: she has been in the business since the mid-1990s and writing loans since the early 2000s, and across those years 6% is a very average mortgage rate. Forecasters at the time expected 7.5–8.5% by the end of 2023 before a turn; she expected the eventual settling point to be back around six. ### Find out what you actually qualify for Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, sponsor messages, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Loan program guidelines quoted here were current in February 2023 and have changed since.* ### Welcome — and the workshop that’s coming Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I’m Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom. I apologize — we sent the text out and then ran a couple of minutes behind, because the keyboard stopped working. We changed the batteries, that didn’t do it, and we had to go old school and plug one in. Everything’s wireless these days. Each week I bring you what’s happening in the real estate and mortgage world: the Federal Reserve, interest rates, home prices, whether you should be buying, what your refinance options are, home equity lines. Today we’re talking about the 2023 Home Buyer Workshop. I’ve said week after week recently that this is a great time to buy — prices are good, you can get real incentives from sellers — and if I’m going to keep telling you that owning a home matters, I should also give you the workshop that helps you understand the process and what all the terms mean. It’s Saturday, March the 11th, at noon Pacific, live on YouTube, and anybody can join. That’s about three weeks out, and I know it’s hard to remember three weeks later that this is what you wanted to do that day — so text the word WORKSHOP, just that one word, to 844-935-3634 (844-WE-LEND-4), and you’ll get a text when we go live. ### Q&A: buying after a Chapter 13 CJ asks: *“My BK 13 was discharged in January 2022\. I was told I couldn’t buy or refinance for three years — is that true? I’m in California.”* The answer is the same across all fifty states: that is not true. If you had a Chapter 13 and you’ve been in it for at least twelve months with every payment made on time, and you can show us the payment history, you can purchase or refinance with court approval. You do have to call your attorney and they contact the court. I know that sounds tedious or difficult — it’s actually easy, and attorneys who handle bankruptcies do it all the time. There are caveats. Your credit has to have been rebuilt since the bankruptcy — but not nearly as high as people think. The program I’m describing is an FHA loan; FHA guidelines allow financing after twelve months, and we typically want to see about a 580 credit score or better. There are banks doing FHA that will go below 580 and we have a couple of them on board. The problem under 580 is that rates get very pricey, because rates are based on risk: how much you’re putting down, how high your score is, what your credit history looks like. Even though FHA can go to 550, we like to say 580 or better, and a 600 gets you a much better rate than a 580. So as long as those payments were made, your credit has been rebuilt, and your income and debt ratio work, we can help you well before three years. Conventional loans have a longer waiting period — at least two years with extenuating circumstances, three if there weren’t any. But a bankruptcy does not keep you out of financing. I want to extend that invitation to everyone: Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 13 — if you thought homeownership was off the table for you right now, or you’ve been thinking about a refinance, call the office or book a consultation on the website. It’s free, we’re friendly, we’re not pushy, and I assure you there are many people who are eligible and simply don’t know it. ### Q&A: what’s the rate today? CJ also asks what the current interest rate is, and that is genuinely hard to answer from this chair. This is why you will never hear a commercial from me that says call now, 2.99% — because it doesn’t apply to everybody, and I don’t want to read a page of disclaimers at the end of it. Every person has a different credit score, a different down payment, a different property type. A condominium carries a higher rate than a single family; a two-to-four unit — a duplex, triplex, fourplex — is higher than a condo. Every loan program has a different base rate and different adjusters based on risk. And it matters whether it’s a purchase, a rate-and-term refinance, or a cash-out. If you want an average of what I’m seeing today, I’d say about six and a half percent. Take a specific scenario — no points paid, a 740 credit score, a single-family residence, a loan balance within the conforming limit — and you’re somewhere in the six and a half range, maybe buying that rate down to 5.875%, 6% or 6.125%. ### Why sellers are paying to buy your rate down Here’s why this is a good year to do this. People who don’t have to sell are not selling. People who have to sell are selling — and if you have to sell, you negotiate more than you would otherwise. It’s a better deal for the buyer, and it lets the seller hold a slightly higher price, which keeps the neighborhood stable, while giving you incentives instead. Those incentives can go toward closing costs or toward buying down the interest rate. The majority of the contracts coming across my desk right now have the buyer asking the seller for about two percent. Brand-new home builders are doing exactly the same thing. And buyers are taking that money and, instead of pocketing it, putting it into the rate — buying it down below where the program would otherwise start. A lower rate means a lower payment and it helps you qualify for a little more. With two percent applied that way, we’re seeing people land in the high fives and low sixes. And when people say rates are so high right now — in reality these are very normal interest rates. I’ve been in this business since 1994 and writing home loans since 2002, and across all those years six percent is a very average rate. I think we’ll stabilize back around there. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that most of the analysts — and I’m not a financial advisor, I’m giving you my read from years in the market — expect seven and a half to eight and a half percent by the end of this year, and then a turnaround with rates coming back down. When they come down, I think we settle in that six percent range. So right now you could be out looking and lock into the sixes before they go higher. Carrie looked up the number I was blanking on: the 2023 conforming loan limit moved to $726,000\. It changes every single year and in my head I was still sitting on the 2020 limits. Thank you, Carrie, for making sure I gave everybody the right information. ### What the workshop covers Buying a home can be overwhelming and intimidating, and a lot of people go about it in the wrong order — they start looking, they see a house, they call a realtor, they fall in love, they want to write an offer, and they don’t have financing in place. On top of that they have no idea what anybody is talking about, because we speak in acronyms nobody would know unless they lived in this world. That’s not on you. It’s on us. So the workshop runs the whole transaction. We start with the words — the terms used constantly through a transaction, so the rest of the sentence makes sense. Then the loan programs: FHA, VA, USDA, conventional, jumbo, non-QM, bank statement loans, DSCR loans — what each one is, what qualifying looks like, and why one might be better for you personally than the others. Then getting pre-approved: what documentation we need, and what’s different if you’re self-employed. Then closing costs — what they are, what they run, who you’re actually paying when you write that check. Then appraisals and inspections, which trip people up constantly: you will pay for inspections, possibly several, which have nothing to do with your loan, and you’ll pay for an appraisal, which does. Your appraiser is not your inspector. Then credit: where the score comes from, what actually improves it, where your credit card balances should sit to reach the highest score you can, and what to do about collections and charge-offs. Your credit has everything to do with the rate you’re offered, and you don’t want to pay a higher rate than you need to. Then debt ratios — I say DTI all the time; what does it mean, how do we improve it, and how do loan officers get creative to help you qualify for more. Toward the end, the part that matters most: you’re pre-approved, now what? How do you select a real estate agent, and what do you look for when you’re interviewing one? Then escrow. You found the agent, they showed you properties, you wrote an offer, you’re in contract — now there are deposits to wire, inspections to order, an appraisal to order, a rate to lock. It moves very fast, and I want you ready for it. ### Why I do it for free Something I’ve heard since I started in 1994 — twenty-nine years now, and yes, I just aged myself — is that buying a home ranks among the most stressful things you’ll go through in life, behind a divorce or a death. It shouldn’t be. You should be shopping online for décor and thinking about where the sofa goes and whether the blender lives on the counter. You should not be flinching every time your phone rings, wondering if this is the call that kills your loan after you’ve already paid for inspections and an appraisal that nobody can refund, because the people who did that work have to get paid. You avoid that by being genuinely prepared before you start. The workshop is free. I could put together something like this and charge thousands of dollars — people do. I used to run these in person, fifty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty people in a room, and I didn’t charge then either. I had attendees tell me they got more out of three hours with me than out of a seminar they’d paid thousands for and walked away from with nothing but an empty pocketbook. I always thought: that’s money that could have gone toward a down payment. So give yourself the free gift of three hours. And this isn’t only for first-time buyers. If you haven’t bought in three or more years, it’s a genuine refresher — guidelines change on every program constantly, and the real estate contracts and forms change every year, sometimes more than once. It’s on YouTube, so you can listen while you shop or clean, with earbuds in and the phone in your pocket, and pull it out when there’s a slide worth seeing. One note for Arizona: you’re an hour ahead of us at that time of year, so noon Pacific is 1 p.m. for you. ### A poll: would you come to a refinance workshop? I’ve done many home buyer workshops. I have never done one on refinancing, and I think there are probably a lot of people who’d want it. How much equity do you have, how much cash out are you allowed to pull, what credit do you need, what about income and debt, what can you use the cash for, what property types can we refinance, should you do a HELOC on an investment property instead? What if you need to change title, or add someone to title? What if you want to buy your mom’s house and she’s willing to sell it to you — is that a refinance or a purchase? There’s a lot of good in it. It takes me about a week to build a workshop, plus the weekend hours in the studio, so before I do that I want to know people would come. Text the word REFINANCE to 844-935-3634\. It doesn’t opt you into anything — I’m using it purely as a poll. ### Wrap-up A housekeeping note, since I promised I’d never spam you: I did an extra show this Monday on a whim and didn’t send a text, so unless you’re subscribed on YouTube you had no way to know. One text a week is one text a week, and I’ll keep it that way. I’ll also apologize to anyone who has left a question in the comments on an old video and never heard back. I don’t reliably get those notifications — I don’t always get them for the channels I subscribe to either — and after more than two years of live shows there’s no way for me to go back through every video hunting for comments. If that’s happened to you, email me through the contact form on the website, or ask me live. Same number for everything: text MOM for one notification a week when the show goes live, text WORKSHOP for the March 11th link, text REFINANCE for the poll, or just call the office — 844-935-3634, 844-WE-LEND-4\. The Mortgage Mom is out. Talk to you real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 15, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Loan program guidelines described on this page — bankruptcy waiting periods, minimum credit scores and the conforming loan limit — were those in effect in early 2023 and have changed since; confirm current terms before relying on them. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Single Women Own 2.6 Million More Homes Than Single Men URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/single-women-own-2-6-million-more-homes-than-single-men/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:56:39.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Go Ladies! Women Outpace Men” • Bonus live show from Monday, February 13, 2023 • 60 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 An extra Monday show, outside Debbie’s usual Wednesday slot. The centerpiece is a statistic she was delighted by: single women own roughly 2.6 million more homes than single men, despite earning less. She uses it as the way into the argument she makes every week — that owning property is a wealth-building decision, not just a housing one — and walks through the free calculator tools she wants people using before they call anyone. *Note: the last third of this episode is a family-business segment unrelated to mortgages and has been left out of the transcript below, apart from one point about documenting a collection sale as down payment funds.* ## Key takeaways - **Single women own about 10.7 million homes; single men about 8.1 million** — roughly 2.6 million more, per a LendingTree analysis of 2021 Census data. And they do it while earning about 83 cents on the dollar historically. - **Homeowners’ typical net worth runs about 40 times a renter’s**, with home equity usually the largest single piece, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances by way of a California Association of Realtors piece Debbie read on air. - **A typical homeowner who bought in 2011 had built about $225,000 in housing wealth by 2021**, from a 2022 National Association of Realtors analysis. - **Buy before you couple up, not after.** If each partner already owns, joining finances means two properties instead of one — live in one, rent the other, and buy a third together. - **The payment estimate on a listing portal isn’t your payment.** Debbie’s free tools app calculates principal, interest, taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, the VA funding fee, FHA upfront premium or USDA guarantee fee — the pieces the portals leave out — plus an affordability calculator and a refinance calculator. Text the words PHONE APP, as two separate words. - **A collection can become a down payment.** Debbie’s team funded a buyer who had his comic book collection formally appraised, sold it, and used the proceeds — because the money could be traced and verified from source to closing. The same logic applies to any documented sale of valuable property. - **Nobody gets told no; everybody gets a game plan.** If you’re not ready today, the answer is a list: file the second year of returns, pay off that card, raise the score to a specific number. Without the list, people wait indefinitely on “maybe.” ## Chapters - 01:00Why a Monday show, and no text message this time - 03:00The free tools app — and how to text for it correctly - 04:00Calculating a real payment, not a portal estimate - 05:00Using the calculator at the car dealership - 09:00The affordability calculator, for anyone not ready to call yet - 10:00Past home buyer workshops, on demand - 18:00Single women outpace single men in homeownership - 21:00Why homeownership is the wealth vehicle - 22:00Buy while you’re single — then you both own - 24:00We never say no; we give you a game plan - 29:00Where the market stood: applications rising, rates ticking back up - 31:00“Rates will be higher next year” — and she wasn’t wrong - 33:00Homeowners’ net worth vs. renters’ - 34:00Planning the second property before you fall in love with one - 49:00Selling a collection as a documented down payment ### Build the game plan before you fall in love with a house Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, sponsor messages and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed, as has the extended family-business segment that closes this episode; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### A Monday show Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I’m Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and today is Monday — I usually come on live on Wednesday. I didn’t send a text message out for this one, because I’m still doing my regular show on Wednesday and I’ve promised over and over that I won’t text you more than once a week. I didn’t do a show last Wednesday, so I feel like I owe you a little information. This is the fun one; Wednesday is the serious one. If you want to catch at least one show live every week, text the word MOM — nothing else, not “subscribe,” not “opt in” — to 844-935-3634, that’s 844-WE-LEND-4, and you’ll get one message a week with the link. ### The tools app I want to talk about my phone app, because a lot of people don’t know it exists and it’s the best toolbox you can have at your fingertips if you’re thinking about financing anything. There are actually two apps. The one in the App Store and Google Play under “mortgage mom” is for clients already in process with us — in escrow, moving through a purchase or refinance. The *tools* app is completely separate, and you get it by text. Quite a few people tried this weekend and texted “phoneapp” as one word, which doesn’t trigger the automated reply. It has to be two words: PHONE space APP, to 844-935-3634. Here’s why I care about it. It’s a principal-and-interest calculator that also factors in your taxes, your homeowner’s insurance, mortgage insurance if you’re under twenty percent down, the funding fee on a VA loan, the upfront mortgage insurance premium on an FHA loan, the guarantee fee on a USDA loan. Knowing your actual monthly payment is how you decide whether a house works. If it’s on your phone and you’re walking a property with a realtor, you can tell in a minute whether this is the house for you at that payment. When you’re out on the weekends looking at Zillow or realtor.com or Redfin, the payment those sites show you is usually not accurate, because it isn’t accounting for everything that belongs in it. This gets you far closer to the real number. You can also strip all of that out and run a plain principal-and-interest loan — thirty thousand dollars at six percent over five years, and it gives you the payment. I use it that way myself. If you’re sitting at a car dealership and they’re telling you the payment, the rate and the term, you can check on the spot that nothing extra has been slipped in there to be financed. That is a big deal with car dealerships. There’s an affordability calculator too: put in your monthly income and your monthly debts and it gives you a rough estimate of what you might qualify for. That’s for the people who are a little shy, not quite ready to pick up the phone, and just want to know what their price range looks like. There’s a refinance calculator on the same lines. And you can call us or email anyone on the team straight from the app, and watch my past home buyer workshops through it — the ones that take you from what the terms mean, through which programs fit whom, credit, pre-approval, documentation, all the way to closing and getting your keys. Just understand what it is and isn’t: it gets you into the ballpark. For an actual rate quote we still need to talk to you, take an application and know your real credit score. Heidi says the loan calculator is the piece she uses all the time, for herself and for clients. Mine might be the call button — when I’m out running errands I don’t want to look up a number, I want to press a thing. ### Go ladies: single women outpace single men Heather on my team is a licensed real estate agent and a member of the California Association of Realtors, which means she gets material I don’t — I’m not a licensed agent, so I can’t tell you what your house is worth. I can search Zillow and Redfin, pull title, look at what neighbors closed at and how their square footage compares to yours, and give you a decent anticipation of where an appraisal lands. But Heather has the MLS and she gets these articles, and she shares them with me. This one I loved. Single women outpace men in homeownership. Historically women have faced more financial hurdles than men and earn 83 cents for every dollar a man makes — and yet single women own roughly 10.7 million homes compared with 8.1 million for single men, according to a recent LendingTree analysis of 2021 Census data. So ladies, a huge round of applause: you are not making the same income, and you are 2.6 million homes ahead. Boys, you and Mom need to talk, because we need to get you out there looking. We need it fifty-fifty. The article makes the serious point too: the trend has long-term financial implications, because homeownership is one of the most effective ways to build personal wealth. A typical homeowner who bought in 2011 had accumulated $225,000 in housing wealth by 2021, on average, according to a National Association of Realtors analysis from 2022\. Don’t take my word for any of it — go look it up and check that Mom isn’t giving you faulty information. ### Why I keep pushing ownership Owning is part of your financial plan and part of your retirement. Think about it this way: buy a home while you’re single, and if your partner has done the same, then when the two of you join finances you own two pieces of real estate instead of one. You can live in one and rent the other. Then you put your money together and buy a third, and you’ve immediately started a portfolio. Diversity matters. You should have money in retirement funds, in a 401(k), in the market, and in real estate — in many places, and you should be using all of the tools. And if you call us and you’re not ready, we do not tell you no. Ever. We give you a game plan. Maybe you just started your business and you need a second year of tax returns filed. Maybe your income is where it is because raises are coming. Maybe it’s pay off this card, or get the score to this number. If you don’t know what you need, you never get there — you just sit and wonder, maybe I could, probably I can’t. But if you make the call and hear that it’s X, Y and Z, or that you’re already ready, you get motivated and you go do it. The consultation is free and we don’t bite. ### Where the market stood This is a good time to be considering it. Prices have come down a little, rates came down a little, and we’re seeing more mortgage applications, which means more activity and more sales starting to happen. Homes have been listed longer than usual, sellers are more willing to negotiate, and you aren’t bidding against thirty or forty offers — getting an offer accepted is far easier when you’re the only one, or up against one other contract. I know many of you don’t believe it. Two years ago I said if you’re thinking about buying or refinancing, now is the time, because rates next year will be higher. I was not wrong. In 2021 I said the same thing about the following year. I was not wrong. People kept telling me they’d wait for rates to come down, and by September of 2022 we hit seven and a half percent. Things dipped again after that, and I kept saying take advantage of that sweet spot. We’ve already given some of it back — rates have ticked up since the Federal Reserve’s quarter-point increase two weeks ago. Mortgage rates aren’t directly tied to the Fed; it’s what happens in the market afterward, in mortgage-backed securities and where investors put their money, that moves our rates. Every analyst I’m reading expects seven and a half to eight and a half percent by year end. Right now we can still get people into the fives. I don’t have a crystal ball and I can’t promise you what year end brings, but hear me: if I’m telling you it’s a good time to buy, go buy a house. ### Homeownership creates a rising tide of personal wealth Here’s the other piece Heather sent, again from the California Association of Realtors. The typical net worth of homeowners is about forty times greater than that of renters, with home equity often the largest component, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. But the benefits go deeper than the numbers suggest: moving into the ranks of homeowners requires planning, saving and prudent management of personal finances, and those habits pay dividends across the rest of your finances, not just the house. They let owners accumulate assets and better withstand financial shocks — a bout of unemployment, a large unbudgeted expense. And as a homeowner with predictable, perhaps declining housing costs compared with renting, more income becomes available for saving and investing, which boosts overall wealth apart from home equity. So: if you don’t own, work out what you need to do to become an owner. If you own and you want to move up, you need a plan. Are you selling? Keeping it? Renting it out and buying another? Do you have the down payment, and how much do you need for a second property? There’s a lot of planning in real estate, and most people do it backwards — they see a home they love, call the agent, get asked whether they’re pre-approved, say no, and only then call a lender, by which point they’ve already fallen for the house and may find they need more money than they expected. Start at the first thought, not at the open house. ### One more thing: a collection can be your down payment If you have real value sitting in a collection — sneakers, comic books, Hot Wheels, Funko Pops, anything you can validate and verify that you own and what it’s worth — that can become your down payment. We did exactly this recently. A gentleman had stacks and stacks of comic books and needed money down. He had them appraised, sold them, and we could trace the cash from where it came from, so we could use it. If you’ve been assuming you can’t buy because you don’t have the funds, look at what you already own. ### Wrap-up Call the office at 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. Text MOM to the same number for one message a week when I go live, or PHONE APP, two separate words, for the tools app. Go to mortgagemomradio.com and get the education, get the game plan, and start building your real estate portfolio. I’ll be back again on Wednesday. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 13, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### The Fed Raised Rates Again — So Why Did Mortgage Rates Get Better That Day? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/the-fed-raised-rates-again-so-why-did-mortgage-rates-get-better-that-day/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:54:51.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “2/1/23 Fed Meeting - Increased Rates” • Live show from Wednesday, February 1, 2023 • 54 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve raised its target rate by a quarter point on the afternoon of February 1, 2023 — and mortgage rates got *better* that day. Debbie reads Chairman Powell's opening statement in full so you hear the source instead of somebody's summary, then explains the part most people get wrong: credit cards, HELOCs and car loans are tied to the Fed, and 30-year mortgages are not. She also replays what she said at the December meeting, and explains why a smaller hike was exactly the signal she had been waiting for. ## Key takeaways - **The step-down is the story, not the hike.** Three-quarters of a point at meeting after meeting through 2022, then a half point in December, and now a quarter point. Debbie's read: the Fed can see inflation turning, it is easing off deliberately, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. - **Powell's own numbers, as read on air:** the target range moved to **4.5–4.75%**; total PCE prices rose **5%** over the 12 months ending in December and core PCE rose **4.4%**; real GDP grew a below-trend **1%** last year; hiring averaged **247,000 jobs a month** over the prior three months with unemployment at a 50-year low. - **Inflation peaked at 9.1% and was down to 7.1% by December.** Still far too high, but moving the right direction — and that is what let the Fed slow down. - **The Fed does not set your mortgage rate.** HELOCs, credit cards, adjustable student loans, adjustable-rate mortgages and short-term car loans move with the Fed almost immediately — expect a higher minimum payment within about 30 days. A 30-year fixed mortgage tracks the bond market instead, which is why rates improved on hike day: investors moved money into longer-term, more stable places like mortgage-backed securities. - **Where rates actually sat that day:** the 30-year fixed averaged around **3%** at the start of 2022, peaked above **7%** in November (the highest since 2002), and on February 1 was in the **low sixes** and could be bought down into the fives. Debbie called it a sweet spot. - **Two groups should re-run their numbers now:** anyone who bought between June and November of 2022 (rates may be a point to a point and a half lower), and anyone carrying a home equity line taken out in 2021 or 2022 whose payment has nearly doubled as the Fed pushed the prime rate up. - **Buyers get leverage that disappears when the crowd comes back.** Homes were sitting 30, 60, 90, even 100 days. That is when a seller entertains closing-cost credits, a rate buy-down, or a zero-down VA offer — and that leverage evaporates the moment everyone decides the market has turned. ## Chapters - 01:00What today's show covers: the Fed decision, two hours old - 06:30Reading Chairman Powell's February 1 statement in full - 11:50The vote: target range to 4.5–4.75% - 15:00What Powell actually said, in plain English - 15:50Replay: December 2022, when hikes stepped down to a half point - 20:20Why smaller increments are the good news - 26:30What the hikes did to car loan rates - 28:2030-year mortgage rates vs. the November peak - 29:40Falling rates are already pulling buyers back out - 32:20Which loans the Fed actually controls - 33:40Why mortgage rates improved on the day of a hike - 36:20Who benefits: buyers, and anyone who bought in mid-2022 - 38:00HELOCs taken in 2021–2022: check your payment - 39:20Q&A: manufactured home loans on owner-owned land - 43:20The Mortgage Mom Radio tools app - 48:20Buyers: closing-cost credits are back on the table - 52:00Wrap-up: a quarter point is a light at the end of the tunnel ## Questions answered on this show ### “Do you do manufactured home loans on a permanent foundation, on land the owner owns?” Yes. The rules are not one lender's rules — they come from FHA, VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so they apply across the board. The home has to be newer than the mid-1980s (Debbie believes 1986, and deferred to Carrie, her manufactured housing specialist, to correct her on air). It has to be at least a double-wide, not a single-wide. And it has to be permanently affixed to the foundation, with the HUD requirements met and the HUD tags in place so it has been converted from personal property to real property. If the land is yours and the home is permanently affixed, financing should be available. One rule most people don't know: **you cannot finance a manufactured home as an investment property.** You have to occupy it. The plan of buying a manufactured place by the river, renting it out in summer, and financing it as an investment doesn't work. ## This week's numbers (week of February 1, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Fed funds target range: **4.5–4.75%** after a quarter-point hike - 30-year fixed mortgage: **low sixes**, and buyable down into the fives — against roughly **3%** at the start of 2022 and a November peak **above 7%**, the highest since 2002 (Freddie Mac data as read on air) - Inflation: peaked at **9.1%**, down to **7.1%** as of December - Auto loans, per Bankrate data read on air: 60-month new car **6.18%**, 48-month new car **6.17%**, 48-month used car **6.83%**, 36-month used car **6.49%** - Home equity lines of credit: repricing upward with every Fed move, with the increase showing up in next month's minimum payment *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find out what your numbers look like today Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your own scenario with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, licensing recitations and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### What today's show covers Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and every week I come to you live on YouTube on Wednesdays to let you know what's going on in the market — the temperature that's out there, the current events, where interest rates are. Today we're talking about the Fed meeting that wrapped up about two hours ago. What does that meeting mean for you? What is the new increase in interest rates? What's going to happen with home buying? The Federal Reserve announced about two hours ago that they increased interest rates by a quarter of a percent. We're going to talk about what that means for you, where you're going to feel it, and what it's going to do to mortgage interest rates — because it's probably not what you're going to expect to hear. ### Reading Powell's statement in full The first thing I'm going to do is read the press conference — the transcript of Chair Powell's opening statement for February 1st, 2023 — so you can hear exactly what he said, and then we'll discuss what it means moving forward. I like for my listeners to have the full story, all the information, and the accurate information. Not somebody's interpretation in an article about what was said. We're going to interpret it our way, but I want you to have the real thing first. *“Good afternoon and welcome. My colleagues and I understand the hardship that high inflation is causing, and we are strongly committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2% goal. Over the past year we have taken forceful actions to tighten the stance of monetary policy. We have covered a lot of ground, and the full effects of our rapid tightening so far are yet to be felt. Even so, we have more work to do. Price stability is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve and serves as the bedrock of our economy. Without price stability the economy does not work for anyone.* *Today the FOMC raised our policy interest rate by 25 basis points. We continue to anticipate that ongoing increases will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2% over time. In addition, we are continuing the process of significantly reducing the size of our balance sheet.* *The U.S. economy slowed significantly last year, with real GDP rising at a below-trend pace of 1%. Recent indicators point to modest growth of spending and production this quarter. Consumer spending appears to be expanding at a subdued pace, in part reflecting tighter financial conditions over the past year. Activity in the housing sector continues to weaken, largely reflecting higher mortgage rates. Higher interest rates and slower output growth also appear to be weighing on business fixed investment.* *Despite the slowdown in growth, the labor market remains extremely tight, with the unemployment rate at a 50-year low, job vacancies still very high, and wage growth elevated. Job gains have been robust, with employment rising by an average of 247,000 jobs per month over the last three months. The labor market continues to be out of balance; labor demand substantially exceeds the supply of available workers.* *Inflation remains well above our longer-run goal of 2%. Over the 12 months ending in December, total PCE prices rose 5%; excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices rose 4.4%. The inflation data received over the past three months shows a welcome reduction in the monthly pace of increases, and while recent developments are encouraging, we will need substantially more evidence to be confident that inflation is on a sustained downward path. Although inflation has moderated recently, it remains too high. The longer the current bout of high inflation continues, the greater the chance that expectations of higher inflation will become entrenched.* *At today's meeting the committee raised the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points, bringing the target range to 4.5 to 4.75%. With today's action we have raised interest rates by 4.5 percentage points over the past year. We are seeing the effects of our policy actions on demand in the most interest-sensitive sectors of the economy, particularly housing. It will take time, however, for the full effects of monetary restraint to be realized, especially on inflation.* *Shifting to a slower pace will better allow the committee to assess the economy's progress toward our goals as we determine the extent of future increases that will be required. We will continue to make our decisions meeting by meeting, taking into account the totality of incoming data. Reducing inflation is likely to require a period of below-trend growth and some softening of labor market conditions. The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy. We will stay the course until the job is done.”* ### What he was actually saying So what was he saying in that statement? Number one: we are starting to see the effects of all of the increases they have done, which is fantastic. In essence, we have to stay the course, we have to keep increasing for a little bit longer, we have to see where it takes us — but they *are* seeing things come down. Our highest point of inflation was 9.1%. As of December we had gotten down to 7.1%. That's a pretty good change very, very quickly — although they changed our interest rates very quickly too, and it kicked all of us in the butt. And I want to remind everybody: all I can do is give you my honest opinion. It *is* an opinion. I'm not a financial advisor and I don't have a crystal ball. But I'm on top of it. This is my business, this is what I do for a living. ### Replay: what I said at the December meeting I'm going to run a quick segment I did back in December at the last Federal Reserve increase, so you can see where my head was at, and then we'll tie it to today. *“Today we are talking about the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates by a half of a percent. I know it's not fun to hear that they increased it by a half, but I'm actually very excited that it was only a half. For many meetings now they had been increasing that rate by three quarters of a percent every time. They meet every six weeks, so in six weeks I'll be on here talking about the next meeting. My hope is that because we went from a three-quarter point increase to a half point increase, the next time maybe we only see a quarter, and maybe the time after that they hold steady. That would be really great news — it means things are turning around, inflation is coming down, things are starting to normalize.”* So back in December I was hoping we'd see the next meeting come in at only a quarter of a percent — which is exactly what they did today. That means they are starting to see significant changes. They don't want to take their foot off the pedal just yet; they will probably increase at least one or two more times. But they're doing it in smaller increments, which helps us avoid that slap across the face nobody was expecting. Think about how fast this happened. People were buying homes at 3%. Car loans were at zero percent for five years. And then things changed almost overnight. So the fact that we're not going up three quarters of a point every meeting — only a half in December, only a quarter now — is positive news as far as I'm concerned. Everything I've read says they believe that by the end of 2023 they'll have their foot off the gas, and might even start reducing. That's not great news that rates went up and you'll feel it in your pocketbook. It's great news that the economy is showing the signs it needs to show. ### What the hikes did to car loans Remember 2019, 2020, 2021? Aside from the car shortage — where we were all paying over sticker — the financing was fabulous. You could easily get 1.99%, 2.99%, or zero percent for three, four, five years. The Federal Reserve has raised rates dramatically since then, so here's the temperature check, according to Bankrate data: a 60-month new car loan is at 6.18%, a 48-month new car at 6.17% — so they're not giving you much of a break for financing it over less time. A 48-month used car is at 6.83%, and a 36-month used car at 6.49%. Substantially higher just to buy the car and finance it. ### Where mortgage rates actually stand Now the 30-year fixed. As the Fed hiked through 2022, 30-year fixed rates shot up. At the start of last year the average 30-year fixed hovered around 3% according to Freddie Mac data. Now they're double that — however, they've come down from November's peak of over 7%, the highest level since 2002. That's what I've been talking about for the last couple of weeks: we are in a fantastic sweet spot right now. We're down substantially from the peak. Rates are on average in the low sixes and can easily be bought down into the fives. If you've been thinking about looking at homes or refinancing, it's a great time. And the fall in mortgage rates is already spurring demand from buyers — I said as soon as rates came down even a little, with homes sitting on the market, it would spur the pre-approval process and get people back on the street. USA Today reported exactly that this week, citing recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association: mortgage rates at their lowest levels since September, and rate buy-downs on the rise as buyers cope with higher rates. So don't be behind the eight ball. Get your pre-approval started. ### Which loans the Fed actually controls A lot of people assume that if the Federal Reserve raises its rate, then everything increases — mortgages, car loans, student loans, equity lines, personal loans. That is not the case. Certain loans are directly connected to the Fed's rate: home equity lines of credit, adjustable-rate mortgages, adjustable student loans, short-term car loans. Most short-term financing is tied directly to it. So those credit card minimum payments are going to go up. The minimum you see this month will be higher next month. That equity line you drew on to rehab the house, do an addition, or add an ADU is going to carry a higher rate and a higher monthly payment. You'll see those things change almost immediately, within about a 30-day period. ### Why mortgage rates got better on hike day Mortgages and savings accounts can actually see some benefit. On the news of the increase, the mortgage-backed securities market and the Treasury market actually improved a little bit. Why would mortgage rates dip when the Fed's rate is going up? Think about long-term savings. If you remember the '80s, '90s and 2000s, a savings account or a CD yielded far more than it did from roughly 2015 on, when the Fed kept its number low. There was nothing to give, because nobody was being charged much to borrow money. Now you're going to see savings rates get better — and many investors are going to pull money out of short-term investments and move it into something more stable and secure. Putting money into a 30-year mortgage-backed security is more beneficial to them than something short-term that dips up and down. We saw the stock market take a dive today while mortgage rates got better, on the news that the Fed raised rates. So I actually think we're going to have a pretty decent year with interest rates. I do think the Fed continues to raise by another quarter. We already got a nice dip from our highest levels in September of 2022, and I think we may see a little bit better than where we've been over the last few weeks. We'll have to see how it plays out over the next week or so. ### Who this helps right now Obviously it helps you if you're buying and getting brand new financing at a lower rate than you could have secured in September. But if you bought a home anywhere from about June of 2022 through the end of November of 2022, there's a very good chance rates have come down a point — maybe a point and a half — and a refinance could drop your payment. Reach out, have your mortgage statement in hand so we know your balance and your rate, remember what you paid for the house, and we can run the numbers very quickly. The other group: if you were trying to get pre-approved in 2022 and got priced out of the market, and rates have come down a point or a point and a half, you could easily qualify for more. It's a very good time to revisit that pre-approval and see where you stand at today's prices. And if you have an equity line of credit you took out in 2021 or 2022, you are probably feeling almost double the monthly payment you originally signed up for. It really might be time to talk about rolling those two loans together into one to reduce your payment. These are things I haven't been able to talk about in literally 18 months, so I'm excited we have that opportunity today. And this might not last — this is a sweet spot. Many experts are saying we could see mortgage rates back at seven and a half, maybe eight and a half percent by the end of this year. I kind of feel like we might see seven and a half by year end and then they start to break a little. So if you're in a bind, or you've been thinking about consolidating or buying, it's a great time to jump in. ### Q&A: manufactured homes on owner-owned land Tom and Heidi ask: *“Do you do manufactured home loans on a permanent foundation, on owner-owned land?”* Yes, we can do that. There are stipulations on manufactured properties, and it's not just us or our mortgage company — it's across the board, because the rules and guidelines come from FHA, VA, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The home has to be newer than the mid-1980s — I believe 1986, and Carrie is watching, she's my manufactured housing specialist, so she can correct me in the feed. It has to be a minimum of a double-wide; it cannot be a single-wide. And it has to be permanently affixed to the foundation, having gone through all of the HUD requirements and gotten the HUD tags to convert it from personal property to real property. There are a couple of other items, but if it's on land you own and it's permanently affixed, you should be good to go for financing. One thing about manufactured homes a lot of people don't know: you cannot get a loan against a manufactured property as an investment. They will not allow investment properties. You need to be occupying it. So if you're thinking you'd grab a manufactured property out by the river for a summer home and rent it out when you're not using it — you're right that it'd be a nice income piece, but you're not going to get that financing as an investment on a manufactured home. ### Buyers: this is your window to negotiate Temperature check, one more time. In September of 2022 we were in the 7% range. Today, February 1, 2023, we're in the low sixes and can easily buy down into the fives. On the seller side, things cooled off. If you've had your home listed you know this — 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. We've seen homes listed for a hundred days and not sold. When a seller is in a market like this and they need to sell, they will do things to get the home sold. That gives you the opportunity to ask for closing cost credits, and to use those credits to buy your rate down and pay your costs. A seller sitting on the market that long isn't going to turn their nose up at your offer. If you're doing a zero-down VA loan, you might get your offer accepted *and* get the seller to cover your closing costs — getting into the home with no money out of pocket. If you're an FHA buyer at three and a half percent down, in 2020, 2021 and even early 2022 you probably weren't getting your offer accepted against a stack of competing offers. Now is your chance. Because as the economy improves — which is what this whole show has been about — you are going to see all the buyers who put their search on hold at 7% come back. As rates come down, the market heats up, and you're back in an environment with multiple offers on the same home where it's much harder to get an offer accepted. So get on top of it. If you've been thinking about buying, or you tried and gave up, it's time to revisit that pre-approval and find out where you stand today. Maybe you're not there yet — or maybe you're ready. ### Wrap-up To summarize: the Federal Reserve increased interest rates today by a quarter point. Although that sounds horrible and awful, my spin — the Mortgage Mom's spin — is that it's actually very positive. We've gone from three-quarter point hikes, time and time again every six weeks, to a half point, and now to a quarter. I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. You have an opportunity to purchase and an opportunity to refinance, below where rates peaked in September of last year. If you want to be part of the show, it's interactive — you put your questions in the feed, I read them out loud and answer them. To know when we go live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. One text a week with a link to join us on YouTube; we stream to Facebook and Twitch at the same time. That's also the office number, and you can book an appointment right on the website at mortgagemomradio.com. And please share the show with anybody it could help. I'll keep bringing you this every single week. See you all next week. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of February 1, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Why Are Investment Property Mortgage Rates So Much Higher Than Owner-Occupied? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-investment-property-mortgage-rates-so-much-higher-than-owner-occupied/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:54:52.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Mortgage Mom Radio Live” • Live show from Wednesday, January 25, 2023 • 61 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 If you have ever asked for a quote on a rental property and nearly fallen out of your chair, this is the episode that explains why. Investment property rates are not higher because a lender decided to charge you more — they are priced with risk adjustments that come down from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and stack on top of the owner-occupied rate. Debbie walks through two real pricing examples, then answers the question every homeowner with a 3% first mortgage is asking right now: is a HELOC or a full refinance the cheaper way to get cash? ## Key takeaways - **Investment property pricing is an adjustment, not a different rate sheet.** The adjustments come from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the investors funding the loan — they are pricing the risk they are willing to take. Your loan officer and their company don't set them and can't waive them. - **Best case still costs you.** An 800 credit score putting 30% down on a single-family investment property takes no hit for credit score — but the simple fact that it's an investment property adds **1.125 points** in cost for the exact same rate an owner-occupant would get at par. - **The adjustments stack fast.** Drop to a 760 score with 25% down and you pick up a **0.625** adjustment for the score, and the investment property adjustment is no longer 1.125 but **3.375**. Same rate, several points of cost — which is what turns a hypothetical 5.5% into something in the sevens. - **Condos, duplexes and 2-to-4 units cost more than single-family, and second homes carry adjustments too.** The logic: the first payment people stop making is on the property they don't live in. - **Multi-family is one of the best first-time buyer plays there is.** Owner-occupy one unit, rent the others, and FHA financing is available with as little as 3.5% down. Inventory is thin because owners with cheap rates won't sell — so get an agent to put you on a drip alert. - **HELOC vs. refinance is a math question, not a preference.** HELOCs are tied directly to the Fed and had climbed into the nines, tens, twelves and fifteens depending on credit score. Whether you keep your low first mortgage and add a line, or consolidate everything, depends on the balance of each. Small line behind a large low-rate first: keep it. Large line behind a modest first: the blended rate may say refinance. - **Debbie's January 2023 forecast:** rates climb through the year to roughly **7.5–8.5%** by the end of 2023, easing through 2024, and possibly back near 5% by mid-to-late 2025\. Her point: it took 15 to 17 months to climb, so don't plan on it falling in six. ## Chapters - 01:00What this show is and how to join live - 02:20Where the market stalled — and why it's moving again - 05:50Q&A: what's the multi-family market like in Los Angeles? - 07:20Why owners with cheap rates won't sell, and what that does to inventory - 10:40Who is actually on the Mortgage Mom Radio team - 16:50Why she says get off the fence and get pre-approved now - 21:00Four headlines in one week: demand jumping as rates dip - 23:00Builder confidence, and buy-downs becoming the trend - 24:40What a “normal” interest rate actually is - 25:40Q&A: is there any sign of rates dropping? - 26:50Debbie's forecast: 7.5–8.5% by year-end, then 2024 - 27:40Why rates don't fall as fast as they rose - 35:40Q&A: HELOC or refinance — which is better right now? - 38:40Blending the rates: the math that decides it - 52:00Investment property rates: where the extra cost comes from - 53:50Best case: 800 score, 30% down, single family - 56:00When the adjustments stack: 760 score, 25% down - 57:50Q&A: can you use home equity to buy an investment property? ## Questions answered on this show ### “How is the multi-family property market in LA? I don't see many new listings.” Multi-family is always desirable, and it's fantastic for a first-time buyer who wants to live in one unit and rent the others to help carry the property. For an investor it beats putting everything into a single property — if one tenant in a fourplex doesn't pay, the other three carry you. It's also easier to renovate: you vacate and remodel one unit at a time as tenants move out. FHA financing is available with as little as 3.5% down if you're going to owner-occupy. The reason you don't see listings is the same reason inventory is low everywhere: owners and investors holding very low rates don't want to give up those payments and that cash flow, so they're sitting tight. Get a real estate agent to put you on a drip alert so you hear the moment a new one hits. ### “Is there any sign of interest rates dropping?” Not this year, in Debbie's opinion — and she's careful to say it is an opinion, not advice from a financial advisor. Her read after 28 years in the business: rates continue to climb through 2023 to roughly 7.5–8.5% by year end, start coming back down through 2024, and possibly approach 5% again around mid-to-late 2025\. The reasoning is the timeline, not a hunch: rates started climbing at the end of 2020 and were on an escalator all through 2022\. However long it took to get to the top is roughly how long it takes to come back down — plus a stretch in the middle where they neutralize and hold. So the plan of “I'll buy now and refinance in six months” is not one she'd build around. ### “I've been contemplating a HELOC versus a refinance. Which is the better option right now?” It depends entirely on the two balances, and it's a real calculation, not a preference. The instinct is to protect a first mortgage in the twos or threes, and that instinct is valid. But home equity lines are tied directly to the Federal Reserve's rate, so a line that priced at five and a half, six and a half or even seven percent in early 2022 had climbed into the nines, tens, twelves and fifteens by this show, depending on credit score. So: what do you owe on the first, what's the rate, how much cash do you need, what's your score, what's your home worth, what's the loan-to-value? Price the line, then blend the rates. Owe $200,000 at 4% and want $100,000 at a high line rate, and a full refinance may well be cheaper. Owe $600,000 at a low rate and want $100,000, and the line is probably your cheapest money. Debbie's team has no preference between the two products — the only goal is the one that fits. ### “Can you use home equity to buy a second home or an investment property, and what are the risks?” Yes, but you have to actually take the cash out — either a line of credit or a cash-out refinance. Equity can't be transferred from one property to another on paper; the money has to come into your hands to be used as a down payment. The risk is exactly what it sounds like: you're adding debt to the home you live in. Can you afford it? And if the investment goes sideways, you now owe more on your primary residence. It's done all the time and it's a genuine way to start a real estate portfolio — it's a question of whether you're ready to carry that risk. ### Run your own numbers with someone who'll tell you to do nothing Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or use the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, licensing recitations, promotional segments and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Where the market stalled, and why it's moving again Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and this is our live show every Wednesday, broadcast on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. This show exists to give you the education and information you need about all things real estate and mortgage. A couple of weeks back I talked about what I thought 2023 would bring — where interest rates go by year end, where property values go, and whether you should be getting off the fence and into the application process. The answer was yes, yes, and yes. What I could see from all the articles and analytics is that we went through a sleeper mode. Everybody calmed down. Interest rates more than doubled in one year, and buyers said forget it, I'm not buying right now. Sellers said forget it, it would be more expensive to sell and then go try to move. Everything came to a stalemate. And we are starting to see things move. I want you to try to get started before the tides turn. ### Q&A: the multi-family market Alberto asks: *“How's the multi-family property market in LA? I don't see many new listings.”* Multi-family properties are always very desirable. They're fantastic for first-time buyers who want to live in one unit and rent out the others to help with the cost of the property — it keeps their own housing cost down. They're also great for investors, instead of having all of your money in one property where if that tenant doesn't pay you, you're just out. With a fourplex, if one person doesn't pay, you have the other three units carrying you. It's also great when you renovate: as one tenant moves out you remodel that unit, then the next, and so on. And they offer FHA financing for an owner-occupied property — you could get in with as little as three and a half percent down if you're going to occupy. Why can't you find them? Same reason I mentioned in my last couple of shows. A lot of homeowners and investors who own property right now have very, very low interest rates, and it just doesn't make sense for them to sell and move their money into something bigger or better. So they're holding tight, they're not listing, and inventory stays low. Something as desirable as units, you're going to see even less of. If you're interested in buying one, make sure you have a real estate agent who has you on a drip system alerting you every single time a new one comes available, so you can get on it as fast as possible. ### The team behind the show I want to remind everybody: even though I'm the one doing the show, I'm still very in touch with everything happening in the office. We are a small group — it's me, Heather, Heidi, Carrie and Jenny, with Manny also helping, Mikey doing the production of the show, and Drew who edits it. That's the entire team. So if a loan comes through the door, whether or not you've talked to me, I know who you are, I know your file. If you call our office, we are taking care of you. This show is my way of doing marketing. I'm not going to get on the radio and spit out interest rates that don't exist and yell “call now.” I want to educate you so you're in a better place when you're ready to buy, or when you need to do that refinance or cash-out. Our goal is that you're educated, knowledgeable and ready — and that in turn you feel confident working with us. *\[Debbie also recapped the promotional offer she and Heather had detailed on the previous week's show, and pointed listeners back to that episode for the full terms. Because that offer was specific to early 2023, it is not reproduced here.\]* ### Why I keep saying get off the fence I watch the articles come through my email every day, and since just last Wednesday I've already received four articles from four different places, all with headlines that make the same point. Here's one from NBC: weekly mortgage demand jumps 7% as interest rates drop to the lowest level since September 2022\. So think about what that means. Right now, if you're a first-time buyer with a low down payment trying to get into a home that's been sitting on the market 90 or 100 days with no offers on it, you have a lot more opportunity to get your offer accepted — and to get the seller to pay some closing costs and help you buy that rate down. As soon as the market decides things have turned and it's time to jump back in, you're in a competitive environment where another offer comes in with 20% down, 30% down, or all cash, and they're not looking at you anymore. Another came from SoFi: analysts say this is a turning point for the housing market. It gets into home builder confidence — builders starting to pull permits again, getting ready to build. “Change is gonna come” is exactly how they wrote it. And in that same article: mortgage buy-downs, the latest real estate trend. We've been talking about buy-downs on this show for a year, maybe a year and a half — we started before it was popular, so I'm going to take some credit for that. Here's the thing about the current market: if a home is listed for sale, it's because the seller needs to sell. Nobody is listing right now who doesn't need to. So if it's for sale, it needs to go — and a home that's been sitting 30, 60, 90, 100 days gives you a real chance at closing cost credits and a good deal, while rates are under the peak we hit in September 2022. And remember what the analysts have been saying: they anticipate rates anywhere between seven and a half and eight and a half percent by year end. So if a seller helps you, and we help you, and we get you into the fives — those are fantastic, normal average interest rates. I want you to hear that. We've all grown accustomed to three percent and four percent. Those aren't normal. Over a 30-year history, normal is closer to seven percent. If we can get you into the five percent range, that's absolutely fantastic. ### Q&A: any sign of rates dropping? Cole asks: *“Is there any sign of interest rates dropping?”* I'm not going to speak for the analysts and I'm not a financial advisor, but my opinion, having done this now for about 28 years — I started in 1995 — is that interest rates are going to continue to climb. I think we got a nice quick drop we weren't anticipating, and it's a fantastic time to lock in a rate before they go higher. If you ask what the Mortgage Mom Radio crystal ball says, and it is not 100% accurate by any means: I'd anticipate seven and a half to eight and a half percent by the end of 2023, and then rates starting to come back down through 2024. A lot of people have it in their mind: I'll get into a house right now and refinance later, and it'll only take about six months. It's like losing weight. However long it took you to put it on is about how long it takes to get it off — sometimes longer. Rates started climbing at the end of 2020 and were on that escalator all through 2022\. I think that upward motion runs through 2023\. Maybe we get lucky and things slow in the last quarter of 2023, but then they need to neutralize and sit for a minute before they actually start coming down. You're talking about 15, 16, 17 months that it took to get there. So if you think rates are coming down super fast, I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe 2024, end of 2025, mid-2025, we see something around the five percent mark with no points. Again — I don't have a crystal ball. Nobody does. That's the best opinion I can give you from years of experience. ### Q&A: HELOC or refinance? Claudia asks: *“I've been contemplating applying for a HELOC versus refinancing. Which is a better option right now?”* Great question, and one a lot of homeowners are stuck on. It's tempting to protect the rate on your current home, which is probably somewhere in the threes, maybe 2.9, maybe even two and a half depending on when you got it — and it's hard to feel good about a refinance that doubles your rate. That's a valid feeling. What many consumers don't realize is that home equity lines of credit are tied directly to the Federal Reserve's rate. They're adjustable. If you'd called me in early 2022 and I'd offered you a line at five and a half, six and a half, even seven percent, that was a great rate then. But as the Fed keeps bumping that rate, we're seeing equity lines anywhere in the nines, tens, twelves, fifteens depending on your credit score. Those are getting really high. So what determines the answer is the balance you owe on your current mortgage and the amount you're pulling from the line. I can't answer it without the details, and we can do it quickly over the phone or by email: how much do you owe, what's your current rate, how much are you looking for, what's your credit score, what's the house worth, what's your loan-to-value. Then we price the line and blend the two rates together. Say your score is 640, you want $100,000, your loan-to-value with that money is 80%, and the rate we'd quote on the line is high — and you owe $200,000 on your mortgage at 4%. When we blend those together, there's a very good chance a brand new refinance is the lower option. But say you owe $600,000 on your mortgage and you want $100,000 out — then the equity line is probably your cheapest way to get your money. I'm throwing out examples, not quoting you. We don't care whether you do a line or a full refinance. We want the product that fits you best, and the only way to know is to run your particular scenario. ### Investment property rates: where the extra cost comes from I promised at the beginning of the show I'd talk about investment property interest rates, so let's get into it. Rates are higher on investment properties, and most of you know that. What you may not know is that it's not any particular lender's decision. It's not that you come to me and I decide to charge you more because it's an investment. It comes down to us from Fannie Mae, from Freddie Mac, and from the investors we're using to write those loans. They determine the risk they're willing to accept for an investment property purchase or refinance. It can get very pricey, which is why you might fall over when you get a rate quote — you weren't expecting the rate to be that high, and it isn't similar to what you'd get on your own owner-occupied purchase. So I want you to understand how those rates change. ### Best case: 800 score, 30% down Take a really good borrower: an 800 credit score, 30% down, buying a single-family residence — not a condo, not a duplex, not a three or four unit. What adjustments come down from Fannie and Freddie to pass on to the borrower? For credit score, in that scenario, no adjustment over what the owner-occupied rate would be. But at the very best-case loan-to-value with 30% or more down, the simple fact that it's an investment property adds **1.125 to the pricing**. That does not mean the interest rate goes up 1.125\. It means the pricing — what it *costs* to get that particular interest rate. So let's say the going rate is five and a half, with no points, for an 800 score owner-occupant with 30% down on a single family. That same exact rate for the same borrower buying that same property as an investment costs 1.125 points. On a typical loan amount that's thousands of dollars in cost for the identical rate. And if we're quoting off a rate sheet with no points instead of passing along that fee, that cost is what takes five and a half up to something like six and a half, six and three eighths, six and three quarters. The rate moves because the cost has to go somewhere. ### When the adjustments stack Where it gets really costly is when you don't have an 800 score, don't have 30% down, and aren't buying a single family — you're buying a condo, a duplex, or multiple units. Then the adjustments start to add up. For example: if your credit score is 760 and you're putting 25% down, there's a **0.625 adjustment just for the credit score**. And the investment property adjustment at 25% down with a 760 score is no longer 1.125 — it's **3.375 points**. So that's 3.375 plus 0.625\. That is a lot of cost for the same exact rate the owner-occupied borrower gets at zero points. What does it do to the rate? It takes that five and a half up to seven and a half, seven and three quarters. It skyrockets. I don't want to steer you away from buying investment properties — I still think they're fantastic. I want you in tune with the kind of rate you should expect before you go down that road. And I want you to understand it is not the loan officer you're calling who's making that rate crazy, and it's not the mortgage company they work for. It's passed down from the top, and they are risk adjustments for the fact that these are not owner-occupied. The first thing people let go of when they can't make a payment is something they don't live in. That goes the same for investments and for second homes. ### Q&A: using home equity to buy another property Michael asks: *“Can you use home equity to buy a second home or an investment property, and what are the risks?”* You absolutely can use home equity, but you have to get the cash out. Whether you pull a line of credit or do a cash-out refinance, you have to actually get the cash in hand. It's not as though we can say he's got this much equity in this property so we'll transfer it to that one. You have to do the refinance or get the line of credit to have the money to go buy the other one. The risks: you're putting more debt on the home you live in and own. Can you afford it? Are you willing to take that risk? What if you lose that other property — now you owe more on the home you currently live in. We do this all the time. It's a great way to get the cash you need to become an investor and start the real estate portfolio a lot of people wish they had for retirement. It's just a matter of whether you're ready to do it. ### Wrap-up If you want to know when I go live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. One text message a week, no spam, with the link to join on YouTube. That's the same number to call the office, and you can book a consultation right on the website at mortgagemomradio.com. If you'd rather write it out, email me — sit down when you've got a quiet minute and send me every question you have in one list, and I'll answer them. One note: if you don't hear back within 24 hours, check your junk or spam folder, because a first email from a company address often gets filtered. Then call the office. We do not miss a response. We're at our hour — I'll be back next week at one o'clock. Talk to y'all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of January 25, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### What Did Analysts Expect From Mortgage Rates and Home Prices in 2023? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-did-analysts-expect-from-mortgage-rates-and-home-prices-in-2023/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:54:53.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Welcome to 2023! What's In Store For Us This Year?” • Live show from Wednesday, January 11, 2023 • 73 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Debbie's first show of 2023 is a forecast episode. She reads through a Bankrate roundup of housing predictions — four named analysts, three different rate scenarios, and estimates ranging from 5% to 8.5% by year end — and stops at each one to say what she thinks it actually means for a buyer or a homeowner. Then she puts her own prediction on the record: values down about 10% at worst, inventory staying stubbornly low, and no good reason to keep waiting for a crash that the data doesn't support. ## Key takeaways - **Nearly every forecaster expected rates to end 2023 higher than they started.** The article's starting point was a **6.63%** average 30-year fixed in early January, with inflation at **7.1%**. One professor of finance projected the 30-year near **8.5%** and the 15-year near **7.7%**; a market-intelligence executive expected a peak around **8%** and **7.25%** before easing back toward 6% and 5.25%. - **The NAR economist laid out three scenarios.** Inflation stays hot and rates approach 8.5%; inflation decelerates and rates stabilize at 7–7.5%; or the economy falls into recession and rates drop to around 5%. Debbie's point: *all three* argue for acting now — because scenario three means competing against all-cash buyers again. - **Home sales fall in every scenario** — down more than 10%, down 7–8%, or down more than 15%. Existing home sales had already dropped **7.7%** in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of **4.09 million**, the slowest pace in a decade. - **Debbie's own prediction: about a 10% drop in home values in 2023, and that's the worst case.** Forecasts in the article ranged from flat (up 1%) to a modest 5–10% decline. She also expects listings to take 30 to 60 days to get a good offer, which is normal — not a crash. - **Inventory is the reason prices don't collapse.** Before the 2008 crash inventory peaked around a **13-month supply**. At the time of this show it was roughly a **three-month supply** — about half of what a healthy market needs. Owners holding 3% mortgages won't trade into a 7% one, and builders had pulled back for three straight months. - **New construction was falling fastest in the biggest states.** Heather's numbers from the chat: new home building in California down about 29% the prior month, with the largest declines in Texas, then Florida, then California. - **If you're carrying a home equity line, run the blended rate now.** A line taken at 7% in 2021 or 2022 could easily be at 9, 10, 11 or 12% by this show. And a refinance depends on your home's value — if values fall and your balance doesn't, the option to consolidate can quietly close. ## Chapters - 01:00Back after the holidays — and what this show covers - 06:00Coming off 2022: rates more than doubled in a year - 08:00The source: a Bankrate roundup of 2023 predictions - 09:00Where things stood: 6.63% average, 7.1% inflation - 11:00Existing home sales at their slowest pace in ten years - 13:00How long can you actually wait? - 16:40Q&A: rolling a HELOC or home equity loan into a first mortgage - 20:00Forecast one: 30-year near 8.5% by year end - 24:00Forecast two: a peak near 8%, then easing back - 27:00Three scenarios for 2023 rates — including the recession case - 33:00Will home sales decline? Every scenario says yes - 35:00Debbie's own call: values down about 10% - 38:00Why prices may hold: low inventory and reluctant sellers - 44:00Buyer's market or seller's market in 2023? - 53:00Will inventory increase? The 13-month vs. three-month supply - 54:00Q&A: could short-term rentals hitting the market add inventory? - 56:00Builders pulled back — the new-construction numbers - 59:00Will homes be more affordable? Rates and prices cancel out - 1:03:00What a 10% drop really means when the market turns - 1:05:00Home equity lines: check what you're actually paying now - 1:07:00The bottom line on the 2023 housing market ## Questions answered on this show ### “What are your thoughts for people who took out a HELOC or a home equity loan over the past year, refinancing it into just a first mortgage?” It depends almost entirely on the relative size of the two balances. If you have a million-dollar first mortgage at 3% and you took a $100,000 second, it is probably not a good idea to refinance and combine everything — you'd be repricing a huge low-rate balance to save on a small one. But if your first mortgage is $400,000 and you took out $100,000 or $150,000, you're approaching the territory where a full refinance of both debts into one produces a better blended rate. That's exactly what the blended rate calculation is for, and it's worth running while rates are sitting below the 2022 peak. ### “Are there many short-term rental homes that may hit the market and create more inventory?” Possibly in specific places, but not enough to move the national picture. In a market that is heavily short-term rental — Debbie's example was Lake Havasu City, where she'd guess a large share of the city is short-term rentals — a wave of those owners selling could genuinely change local inventory. That fits what one analyst in the article said about outcomes varying pocket by pocket. But in an ordinary suburban neighborhood there simply aren't enough short-term rentals to sway the market or change the national forecasts. ## The numbers behind the forecast (week of January 11, 2023 — averages, not quotes) - Average 30-year fixed at the time the article was written (early January 2023): **6.63%**, assuming no points — with government loans such as FHA and VA pricing lower than conventional, and many borrowers paying points to buy into the fives - Inflation rate: **7.1%** - Existing home sales: down **7.7%** in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of **4.09 million** units (National Association of Realtors) — the slowest pace in ten years - Year-end 2023 rate forecasts quoted on air: **8.5%** (30-year) and **7.7%** (15-year) from one forecaster; a peak of **8%** and **7.25%** easing to **6%** and **5.25%** from another; and three scenarios of **8.5%**, **7–7.5%**, or **5%** in a recession - Home price forecasts: flat to **+1%**, versus a **5–10%** decline — Debbie's own call was about **10%** as a worst case - Housing supply: roughly a **three-month supply**, about half of what a healthy market needs, against a **13-month** peak before the 2008 crash - New home construction: California down about **29%** the prior month, with the largest declines in Texas, then Florida, then California *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find out whether waiting actually helps you Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the numbers yourself with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, licensing recitations and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Welcome to 2023 Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and this is our first show of 2023\. I hope you all had wonderful holidays — I definitely did not. I had COVID, and it was not a fun week between Christmas and New Year's. So you haven't seen me for a while, but we're in a new year. Everybody has been asking what's going to happen this year. We've got tons of buyers who have been sitting on the sidelines, waiting to get through the holidays, wondering whether they should buy this year or wait, whether their property value is going to drop. So I want to focus on all of that: exactly where we're at, what I'm reading, what I'm seeing, what I'm hearing. I found a fabulous article that has quite a few different analysts in it, all with different opinions. We're going to go through those and then sum it up. Should you be buying this year? Is 2023 your year to become a homeowner? Should you be looking at a refinance? What happens to your property value, and are you better off getting cash out now rather than later? ### Where we're coming from 2022 was not a fabulous year for everybody. The rate hikes were crazy — mortgage rates more than doubled from the beginning of 2022 to the end. Is that going to continue? That's what we're discussing today. What about property values? In my personal opinion I do think they'll come down some. Rates have actually come down a little from where they peaked in 2022, which makes right now good timing for anybody who has been thinking about purchasing or refinancing. Take advantage while we've got this dip, because I don't think it's going to last long. ### The source I'm going to give credit where it's due. This is from Bankrate, written by Eric J. Martin, published January 3, 2023, and you can go read it yourself on their website. I read constantly — this is my industry, I have to stay on top of it — and this was one of the best articles I've read in a long time, because the writer named every analyst he pulled information from. That matters. It lets you decide for yourself whether you believe what you're hearing. At the time of writing, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.63%. Keep in mind that's an average assuming you're not paying points. Every loan program prices a little differently — conventional rates run a bit higher than government rates like VA and FHA — and a lot of buyers and homeowners right now are paying points to buy the rate down. We're closing loans in the fives: 5.5, 5.875, under six percent. The inflation rate was 7.1%, which the article calls alarming. I want to say something about that: it had been higher, and I was worried it was heading toward eight. So although 7.1% is really high and concerning, we have *stopped rising* and we have *started to decline*. In my opinion we're headed in the right direction. We have a lot of work to do, but I see recovery on the horizon. The article also notes that sales of previously owned homes dropped 7.7% in November, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million units, per the National Association of Realtors — the slowest pace observed in ten years. That means homes stay on the market longer and fewer change hands. We're in a slow period. ### How long can you actually wait? I'll tell you right now that I believe 2023 ends with rates higher than where we are today. So if you've been thinking about taking cash out, or doing a refinance of any kind, you want to make that call now. I've said this all the way through 2020, 2021 and 2022: stop the bleeding. If you've been thinking about doing something, pick up the phone and get it started. A lot of my clients are in disbelief that something is going to change and rates are going to drop out of nowhere, so they think they should just wait. The question is: how long can you wait? If you need cash out for an addition, home improvement, or to pay off debt — can you wait 18 months? Can you wait 24? By the end of this article I think you'll have the same feeling I do, which is that it isn't changing this year. Everybody's situation is different and only you can answer that. But if you've already been waiting six months or a year, you're likely waiting at least another 18 to 24. ### Q&A: rolling a second into a first Heather asks: *“What are your thoughts for people who have taken out a HELOC or a home equity loan over the past year, refinancing it into just a first?”* I think it's actually a really good time for people to do that, and it depends on how much they took out in that second lien. If you have a million-dollar mortgage at 3% and you took a $100,000 second, it's probably not a good idea to refinance and combine everything. But if you have a $400,000 mortgage and you took out $100,000 or $150,000, you're starting to approach the territory where you'd end up with a better blended rate by refinancing both debts into one. If you have a second mortgage — a home equity line or a home equity loan — and you're thinking about rolling it all together, don't wait. We're lower right now than the peaks of 2022, and we're probably moving higher in the near future. Let's run that blended rate calculator and see where you are. ### Will mortgage rates keep climbing? The article's first question is whether the cost of financing a home comes down this year. Some say no: continued inflation, higher interest rates overall, a potential recession and geopolitical tensions push 30-year and 15-year rates up throughout 2023, and bring the two closer together as short-term risks rise. That forecaster expects rates to climb at least one to one and a half percent through 2023. Then there's Robert Johnson, a professor of finance at Creighton University's Heider College of Business. By the end of 2023, he says, financial market participants expect the Fed will have increased the target Fed funds rate by 175 to 200 basis points from current levels — and a hundred basis points is one percent, so that's 1.75 to 2 full points. That would translate into 30-year and 15-year mortgage rates at roughly eight and a half and 7.7 percent. Remember, the article started with a 6.63% average, which had been holding fairly steady for a couple of weeks. Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM Data Solutions, which analyzes real estate and property data, is more hopeful. He says rates peak at about 8% and 7.25% for the 30 and the 15 year, then gradually come down over the course of the year to hang somewhere around 6% and 5.25% respectively. This is entirely dependent, he says, on the Federal Reserve's ability to get inflation under control and ease up on its aggressive rate increases. So we now have two people, from completely different places doing different analysis, both expecting rates to go up. One says as high as eight and a half; the other says the 30-year settles around seven and a quarter by year end. You've got a range — but the general direction is up. And that reinforces what I said at the top: if you've been thinking about refinancing, get something locked in now. One thing I liked about December: the Fed raised by a half point instead of the three quarters they'd done five times before. They must be feeling the difference, because inflation stopped climbing and started to trickle down. In my last show of 2022 I said I was really hoping the next increase would be a quarter, and maybe the one after that they leave it alone. After reading this article and others while I was laying in bed sick, I actually think we're going to see *more* rate increases than I'd said in that show. ### Three scenarios for 2023 Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of real estate research for the National Association of Realtors, envisions three different rate scenarios — which I understand, because nobody has a crystal ball. Scenario one: inflation remains high, forcing the Fed to raise repeatedly, and mortgage rates keep climbing, possibly near 8.5%. Scenario two: the Consumer Price Index responds more to the Fed's hikes, inflation decelerates gradually, and mortgage rates stabilize near 7% to 7.5% in 2023\. Scenario three: the Fed raises repeatedly to curb inflation, the economy falls into a recession, and that could cause rates to drop to 5%. Let's talk about those. Scenario one means higher rates by year end — so if you've been thinking about doing something, do it now. Scenario two means higher rates by year end — so get it started now. Scenario three is the one people are secretly rooting for: a recession, rates cut to pull us out, home prices down. But ask yourself what that actually looks like if you've been sitting on the fence waiting for it. Are you prepared to go up against all-cash buyers? The crazy negotiation, the overbidding, the multiple offers, the shortened terms, having to waive your inspection rights and your appraisal rights? That's everything we saw in 2020 and 2021\. So even in scenario three — do something now. ### Will home sales decline? Each of those three scenarios has a major impact on sales, and in each case sales are down; it's a question of how much. Higher rates under scenario one could cause home sales to drop more than 10% this year. Under scenario two, sales drop 7% to 8%. Under the third scenario, activity may drop more than 15%. I actually disagree with that last one. In my 29th year in this business, my view is that if values come down about 10% — which is my prediction for 2023 — and we do fall into a recession and they drop rates to about 5% to recover the economy, we're going to see home sales *spike* and get a little crazy. That's my opinion. You get to draw your own from the same data. The other experts agree the slowdown continues into 2023\. Sharga believes the number of sales keeps slowing, likely hovering in the four and a half million range, with new home sales around 600,000\. Listings may no longer go at a lightning-fast pace either — days on market have been climbing back toward normal and could approach 30 days or more as the market cools. So my prediction: by the end of 2023, about a 10% drop in housing value. Homes are no longer selling overnight or before they hit the MLS. If you're thinking about selling, anticipate 30 to 60 days on the market before you get a good offer and enter escrow. That is not a crash. That's normal, and people just aren't used to it anymore. ### Will prices fall? Here's where it gets interesting. Evangelou predicts that due to low inventory, home prices *won't* drop in 2023 — she expects pricing relatively flat, increasing by one percentage point. So: no decline, no real appreciation. Johnson feels higher rates will undoubtedly hurt home values, producing a soft real estate market with prices lower than current levels. He doesn't put a number on it. That's not great news for sellers, but welcome news for house hunters. The article also quotes a partner at a Manhattan real estate law firm, who notes there are plenty of potential buyers patiently waiting to enter the market. Assuming home prices ease, you'll start to see some of them emerge — especially the all-cash or low loan-to-value purchasers, who are less impacted by rate concerns. And that is exactly my warning. Those are the buyers who will take advantage of sellers who've been sitting 30 to 60 days and are desperate. People are getting fantastic deals right now — I'm seeing $20,000 and $30,000 credits from sellers to help buyers buy down rates. When the all-cash and big-down-payment buyers come back, that window closes for you. Sharga says home values on a national level are almost certain to decline at least modestly, perhaps between 5% and 10%. Some of the more expensive markets could see larger declines — but limited inventory, strong credit quality among current mortgage holders, and demand from young adults looking to become homeowners should help prevent prices from falling further. And that's the part I want you to hear. There is an *arsenal* of people who want to buy homes and haven't yet: young families, people just getting married, just out of college, just starting careers. When the tides turn it is going to be a jungle. So even though rates are high, this is the year to get yourself a really good deal, secure the property, and refinance later when rates drop. ### Buyer's market or seller's market? Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate, says affordability issues and economic worries will depress buyer demand, and inventory available for sale will remain limited. Think about what that means. If somebody already owns their home and locked a really low rate in 2020, 2021 or early 2022, the chance of them listing it — even worried that values might dip — is very slim, because the payment they have is far better than anything they could get by buying again. That keeps inventory low even with high rates and less buyer demand. So buyers may think we're in a buyer's market and sellers may think we're in a seller's market. I agree with this one completely: it continues to be more of a balanced market than tilting one way or the other. If you need to buy, you're going to buy. If you need to sell, you're going to sell. Inventory stays low, which helps keep prices from falling drastically, and rates are probably higher by year end. Another analyst declined to predict nationally at all, saying leverage varies depending on the type of market — some pockets do well, others hold steady. And Johnson, on the other hand, anticipates sellers holding fewer cards in 2024, as many reluctant sellers — the ones waiting for the market to turn around — capitulate and add to housing supply. Which is exactly what I'm trying to tell you: I think 2024 looks good, and if you've been thinking about buying, capture it this year, earlier rather than later, to keep your rate as low as possible. ### Will inventory increase? Experts differ. Here's the number I want you to hear: before the housing crash of 2008, inventory peaked at about a **13-month supply** — twice what you'd see in a healthy market. Today we have about a **three-month supply**, roughly half of what we need. That is the opposite of 2008\. We have very limited inventory. Eric asks: *“Are there many short-term rental homes that may hit the market, creating more inventory?”* There very well could be, Eric — but personally I don't think there are enough short-term rentals to change or sway the entire nation. In an area that's heavily Airbnb or VRBO — say Lake Havasu City, where I'd guess a large share of the city is short-term rentals — if a lot of those owners decide to sell, yes. That's exactly what one of the analysts meant about it changing based on pockets and markets. But in a normal suburban neighborhood, I don't think there are enough of them to sway the general outlook. Back to the article: current homeowners are unlikely to trade a 3% loan for a 7% one unless they absolutely have to, so existing home inventory should remain low. And builders have scaled back on housing starts for the past three months, so we're not likely to see a big boost in supply from new construction either. Heather and I were talking about this about a month ago — we were watching the building permits new builders were pulling, which they typically do about a year before construction starts, and those had dropped dramatically. Heather has the numbers: last month, new home building in California had dropped about 29%. The largest decline was Texas, then Florida, then California. So in the three biggest states you aren't going to see as many new builds going up, which means more buyers looking at resales, with less inventory because owners aren't selling. That's what stops a massive bleed in property values — again, my opinion. ### Will homes be more affordable? McBride: if inflation pressures ease and we see a meaningful pullback in mortgage rates this year, that eases some of the strain on buyers — but only a bit. Prices remain fairly steady, and in a lot of markets that's a price 40% or more above pre-pandemic levels. Home prices will not fall proportionally. Another forecaster's take: any fall in prices won't be enough to offset the rising interest rate and its contribution to the monthly payment. Johnson agrees. The impact of higher rates and lower prices in 2023 will likely cancel each other out to a great extent, so overall affordability won't change dramatically. So if you've put buying on hold thinking there's going to be a massive crash and rates are going to come back down and you'll execute in that window — if you're genuinely prepared to sit and wait two, three, four years, fine. But if you're not, move on with your life. Start your search, figure out what you can afford, get into a home. The sooner you do, the better the rate you'll get, and if rates drop later you can always refinance to lower the payment. And ask what a 10% decline really means. When the market turns and you're back in a bidding war, going over list price, trying to beat out other buyers on the same house — what is 10% in the scheme of things? Meanwhile you've secured a home, you have a tax write-off, you own property, you have security. When values go up, yours goes up with them. So negotiate while it's easy, while there are fewer buyers, get yourself a fantastic deal, and refinance later. That's my opinion of the day. ### Check your home equity line If you took a home equity line of credit in 2021 or 2022 and your rate is now approaching nine, ten, or eleven percent — and it's only going to keep going as the Fed keeps increasing — look at it. You thought you took a line at seven percent. Get online and check. It's probably not seven percent anymore. You could easily be paying nine, ten, eleven, twelve. If you owe $100,000, $150,000 or $200,000 on that line at twelve percent, even if your current mortgage is at three percent, what are you actually paying in blended terms across both? If you have a big mortgage and a little line, big deal — leave it alone. But if you've got a decent-sized mortgage and a decent-sized line, maybe we get you into a rate in the fives on a refinance and consolidate everything, and then refinance again when rates turn in the next couple of years. There's a timing element too. A refinance is based on the value of your home. If your property value drops and you still owe the same amount — which you will, because monthly payments don't pay a balance down quickly — it gets harder to refinance, and you may not have enough equity to pull the cash you were hoping for. As values drop, that door narrows. And if it doesn't make sense, we are going to tell you to do nothing. That's what's great about my team. We are not here to push you into a program or originate a loan that doesn't make sense for you. I'm very strict about that throughout my entire office. That is not the reputation we want and not the reputation we will ever have. We give you the information, we show you the math, and we let you make the decision. ### The bottom line on 2023 Most of the pros are in consensus on something of a transitional year characterized by uncertainty. McBride predicts the market will be tepid in 2023, with lukewarm demand and limited inventory available for sale — though rates could pull back meaningfully if inflation pressures ease. The hope is that supply and demand normalize and rates can start to come back to earth. Until that happens, those who can't afford the cost of borrowed money will have to keep waiting, and those holding out hope that rates drop soon may have to accept that the low-rate financing windows of 2020 and 2021 have closed. And with more homeowners staying put, we might see an uptick in home equity loans and lines over the course of the year. In other words: if moving is out, remodeling is in. Let me sum it up. Rates have a nice small drop right now, lower than the 2022 peak. Most analysts agree that by the end of 2023 rates will be higher than they are today. If you've been thinking about refinancing to do home improvements — because you've decided staying is better than selling and moving into something bigger — think about doing that financing today, whether that's a refinance, a home equity line, or a home equity loan, because if values drop that opportunity could go away. And home buyers: if you've been waiting for a massive decline in values and a drop in rates, things probably aren't just going to flip. Your chances of negotiating with a seller right now, with lower buyer demand, are much better. The homes on the market are there because those people *need* to sell — relocation, a growing family, something changed. Fewer homes, fewer willing buyers, and your chances of negotiating a great price are really good. Don't wait until the last quarter of 2023 to decide you'll buy in 2024 when rates come down and values have bottomed — because if you're a first-time buyer with a low or zero down payment who needs closing cost credits from a seller, it is going to be very difficult to compete against all-cash and big-down-payment buyers. That sums up today's show. I went way longer than usual. Please reach out to the office for anything you need — 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and to know when we go live, text the word MOM to that same number and you'll get one link a week. I hope you guys have a great one, and we'll see you next Wednesday. Bye-bye. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of January 11, 2023, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### A Half-Point Fed Hike — and How To Start a Real Estate Portfolio From One Small Condo URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/a-half-point-fed-hike-and-how-to-start-a-real-estate-portfolio-from-one-small-condo/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T20:54:54.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “BREAKING! Fed Increased Rates By .50%” • Live show from Wednesday, December 14, 2022 • 46 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve raised rates a half point on the afternoon of December 14, 2022 — smaller than the three-quarter-point hikes that came before it, and Debbie's read is that the size of the step is the real news. She explains which of your debts reprice within about 30 days, why mortgage rates had actually come down from their peak, and why a slow market is the best negotiating leverage a low-down-payment buyer will ever get. Then she gives the advice she says is her favorite of her whole career: buy the smallest place you can comfortably live in, keep it when you move up, and let a tenant carry it. ## Key takeaways - **A half-point hike after a run of three-quarter-point hikes is the signal.** Debbie's hope on air: a quarter point at the next meeting, then a hold. That would mean inflation is coming down and things are normalizing — a light at the end of the tunnel. - **Know which debts move immediately.** Credit cards, home equity lines, adjustable student loans and short-term car loans are tied directly to the Fed and reprice within about 30 days. If you owe $5,000 on a card with a $150 minimum, expect that minimum to be higher next month. - **Mortgages are not.** They follow mortgage-backed securities and the bond market — what investors do with their money. Rates had already come down from a peak around **7.5%** to roughly the **mid-to-high sixes** on conventional and the **low sixes** on FHA and VA, and could be bought down into the high fives. - **Home equity lines had climbed to 9–15%.** The Fed's rate was near zero at the start of 2022\. If you drew on a line that year and haven't checked the rate since, log in and look — Debbie's warning was that people fall out of their chairs. - **This is when a low-down-payment offer gets taken seriously.** With fewer buyers competing, Debbie was seeing sellers hand over two to three percent in credits — enough to buy the rate down or cover closing costs. In a multiple-offer market, the zero-down VA, 3.5%-down FHA and 5%-down conventional buyers are the ones who lose. - **The portfolio ladder:** buy the smallest place you can comfortably live in with a minimum down payment, live there at least a year, then buy the next one up with another minimum down payment — and keep the first as a rental. Repeat. The tenant offsets the debt, and you budget for vacancies and repairs from day one. - **Self-employed and hoping to buy next year? Talk before you file.** How you file your 2022 return determines whether you qualify. File it wrong and you can put yourself another twelve months out from being a homeowner with one click. ## Chapters - 00:50The Fed raised a half point instead of three quarters - 03:20What it means if you carry a HELOC or credit cards - 05:00Why mortgage rates don't follow the Fed - 06:40Where mortgage rates actually stood that week - 07:40Why this was a good moment to negotiate with sellers - 11:10Six weeks out: what she hoped the next meeting would bring - 15:40Sellers handing over two to three percent in credits - 17:00When the frenzy comes back, this window closes - 18:00Why low-down-payment buyers get taken seriously right now - 20:50Q&A: real estate or stocks in 2023? - 23:40Buy small, keep it, buy the next one - 25:20Q&A: how soon can you buy a second home? - 26:40The 12-month occupancy rule and when exceptions are made - 27:40Why the next purchase has to be a move up, not a move sideways - 28:40Budgeting for a rental you actually keep - 32:40Self-employed? Talk before you file your 2022 return - 36:00Recap: which debts reprice next month - 37:40Consolidating a low first mortgage with an expensive line - 40:00Pull your statements and run the blended rate - 42:00Last show of 2022, and what she expects from 2023 ## Questions answered on this show ### “Is it better to invest in real estate or stocks in 2023?” Debbie answers this one with a disclaimer first: she is not a financial advisor and does not work in stocks, so she can't compare them for you. What she will say is what she knows. Real estate is a long-term investment. It doesn't matter as much where or when you buy — it matters when you sell. Buy something with as little down as you can, live in it long enough to save the next down payment, then buy the next property and keep the first as a rental. Do it again. She's clear about who *doesn't* fit this: quick flips are for people with cash, rehab budgets and flipping as their actual job. She isn't one of them and doesn't pretend to be — she does mortgages for a living. For an ordinary person working an ordinary job, real estate is for the long haul. ### “How soon can you buy a second home after buying your first?” The working rule is twelve months. When you sign your note and disclosures on an owner-occupied loan, you're representing that you intend to occupy the property, and guidelines let you finance one owner-occupied property within a twelve-month period. A second one inside that window needs an exception — and exceptions do get made when something genuinely outside your control happens, like buying in Seattle and then being transferred to California. If you're buying six months later in the same city you already live in, you need a good reason: a one-bedroom condo, a marriage, and a baby on the way is the kind of reason an underwriter can work with. The other half of the test is that the new home has to make sense as a move *up*. One-bedroom condo to another one-bedroom condo is a lateral move and usually doesn't fly. Condo to a bigger condo, condo to a townhome with a garage and a yard, townhome to a single-family — that's the progression. ## This week's numbers (week of December 14, 2022 — averages, not quotes) - Fed move: **+0.50%**, down from three-quarter-point increases at the previous meetings - Conventional 30-year fixed, owner-occupied single family: down from a peak around **7.5%** roughly 30 days earlier to the **mid-to-high sixes** - Government loans (FHA and VA): **high fives to low sixes**, and conventional could be bought down into the high fives with points - Home equity lines of credit: Debbie was seeing a range of **9% to 14–15%**, against a Fed rate that was near zero at the start of 2022 - Seller credits: buyers were routinely getting **two to three percent** from sellers toward a rate buy-down or closing costs *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national conforming averages for context, not a quote.* ### Run the blended rate before you assume you're stuck Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or use the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, licensing recitations and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### A half point, not three quarters Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and today — Wednesday — the Federal Reserve announced that they are increasing interest rates once again, but this time by a half a percent instead of three quarters of a percent. This is not great news, obviously, because none of us want to see rates go up. But it is positive news that they are starting to slow down the increments. Hopefully we start seeing rates taper off, and maybe at the next meeting they only bring it up a quarter, which means we can see a light at the end of the tunnel. It's good news, but it isn't great if you've got an equity line of credit, credit cards, or any lending attached directly to the Fed's rate — you're going to see your interest go up and your minimum payments increase. The goal here is that at the next meeting maybe they only take it up a quarter, and the meeting after that they hold steady. That's my hope, not my guess. I'd have to watch the next couple of weeks, read the news, see how inflation is coming along, before I'd give you a prediction. ### Why mortgage rates don't follow the Fed Catherine notes that student loan rates went up — and yes, everything is going up. If you shopped for a car loan in 2020 or 2021 and you're shopping today, you'll see those rates have gone up significantly. Student loans, anything short-term, is affected by the Fed's rate. I mentioned in a previous episode that mortgages are *not* directly tied to it, the way an equity line, a credit card, a student loan or a car loan is. Our rates are tied to mortgage-backed securities and the mortgage bonds. So we don't necessarily go up or down when the Fed moves — it's more about what investors in the market are doing with their money. If they feel that longer-term notes, mortgage-backed securities and bonds are a better, safer place for their money, we see mortgage rates move. And mortgage rates have actually come down quite a bit from their highest level. We had capped out at about seven and a half percent, and we're now looking at the mid to high sixes on a conventional loan and low sixes on an FHA — which makes it very easy to buy that rate down, pay points, and get yourself into the high fives. Many of you already have a rate because you refinanced or purchased in 2020 or 2021, so hearing “high fives” might sound terrible to you. Those are actually really good rates, and below where the average has been over a 20-year period. We're in a very good place. That reprieve made things more affordable if you need to refinance, pay off debt, or buy. ### Why this is a good moment to be a buyer You're also having a much easier time negotiating with sellers right now, because a lot of buyers have gone into a holding pattern. Fewer buyers, more homes, sellers negotiating quite a bit more. Getting the money you need to buy points and bring the rate down to an affordable level is very doable right now. If you've been thinking about buying and put it on hold, you might want to start looking again, because you've got more inventory and more sellers willing to negotiate. I have been seeing some of the most incredible deals come across my desk. Clients easily getting two to three percent in credit from a seller, which they can put toward a rate buy-down, or toward closing costs so they only have to bring their down payment. And getting some price knocked off the listing on top of it. Here's something a lot of people haven't heard: in down markets, investors and first-time buyers do their best when things are low and everyone else has put things on hold — but they keep moving forward. Remember that the next time the Fed comes out and says they're *reducing* that rate. That's going to start a frenzy. Every buyer who's been on the fence comes out of the woodwork, updates their pre-approval, and hits the streets. That creates demand, which means sellers stop negotiating, stop giving closing cost credits, stop helping you buy the rate down — and we're quickly back to a seller's market. So this is a fantastic time, especially for first-time buyers with lower down payments. If you're a vet using VA with zero down, an FHA buyer at three and a half percent, or a conventional buyer at five percent down: when there's a lot of demand and multiple offers on a home, a seller picks the offer they think will close — and that's usually the biggest down payment, maybe cash. You have less chance against somebody with twenty or thirty percent down. Right now, there's a lot of inventory and sellers will take you seriously. Your down payment isn't the concern. They want a buyer and they want to be sold. There are some really good deals for the taking. So get your pre-approval done and get yourself ready. ### Q&A: real estate or stocks? Michael asks: *“Is it better to invest in real estate or stocks in 2023?”* I'm going to be totally honest with you: I'm not a financial advisor, I'm not a stockbroker, I don't work in stocks, so it's very hard for me to answer that. What I can tell you is that real estate is a long-term investment. It's something you get into for the long haul. It doesn't matter where you buy or when you buy — it matters when you sell. If you buy it, you want to hold it. Create a portfolio. Buy something with as little down as you possibly can, live in it as long as you need to in order to save up the next down payment, then go buy the next, bigger property with a minimum down payment again — and hold on to the first one. Make it a rental. Live in the second while you save for the third. Buy the third, move into it, hold on to the second. Now you've got two rentals and your primary. Keep doing it. This will absolutely pay off for you. Many people have done very well on quick flips — those are investors with big money down, putting money into rehab, turning around a fast flip. They know what they're doing, it's their business. I'm not that person. I do mortgage loans for a living. I get up, I get dressed, I go to the office and I work a job, just like you. I'm not out looking for a house that hasn't been renovated in thirty years. So if you're a normal person like me and flipping isn't what you do for a living, real estate is for the long haul, and I absolutely suggest you create yourself a portfolio. By the time you're ready to retire you could sell one and cash out, or live in one, or look at a reverse mortgage — there's so much you can do with real estate. It's a tangible asset. You can put renters in it, or your kids. I've said on a lot of shows: instead of putting money into college savings accounts and similar vehicles, I'd be buying property, putting a tenant in it, and letting the tenant make the payment. By the time your baby is 22, 24, 30, getting married and ready to move out, you've already got something well below market that you bought years ago — and you can rent it to them for what they can afford. That's me personally, not investment advice. ### Q&A: how soon can you buy a second home? Nora asks: *“How soon can you buy a second home?”* I'm going to answer this as buying a home, living in it, and then buying another home and moving into that one — both purchases using minimum down payments. The banks are really looking for you to commit to an owner-occupied residence for twelve months. When you sign your disclosures and your note, they're asking that if you say you're going to occupy the property, your intention is to occupy it — and they typically want to see twelve months. The guidelines say you can finance one owner-occupied property within a twelve-month period, so a second owner-occupied purchase inside twelve months requires an exception. Exceptions can be made. Say you purchase a home in Seattle and then find out you're being transferred to California — that's beyond your control, you didn't see it coming, and banks will make exceptions for that. But if you buy in Phoenix for your primary residence and six months later you want to buy another property in Phoenix for your primary residence, we're going to need a pretty good reason. For example: you bought a one-bedroom condo, you and your husband just got married, and now you're pregnant and you need a second bedroom. That's a reason an underwriter could work with. The good hard and fast rule is twelve months. And you need the next property to make sense as a move up. If you start with a one-bedroom condo and you want to buy another one-bedroom condo, that doesn't usually fly — that's a lateral move. One-bedroom condo to a two-bedroom condo, you're moving up. Condo to a townhome with a garage and a little yard, great. Townhome to a single family, fabulous. A lot of it is common sense. ### Budgeting for the rental you keep I can't push you toward this enough. The more real estate you can own, the better — when you can put a renter in the property and let them offset the mortgage every month, it starts handling itself. But you do have to be prepared. When you have a rental you're responsible for the property. If something breaks, you need the cash to fix it for your tenant. So budget as you collect rent: put a little aside every month for repairs, and for vacancies — somebody moves out and it sits for a month or two. Set money aside for carpet, paint, and the improvements you'll need before the next tenant. Don't rent out a property and buy another one if you're stretching pennies thin and the rent barely covers the mortgage. Let's talk about the budget first: how much do you need to rent it for, and is this something you can afford? Let us run your debt-to-income ratios and figure out whether you're the right candidate. There's a very good chance you are — and maybe it's just asking a bit more in rent so the budget works. This is my favorite advice I've ever given. If every single person I'd given it to had listened, you'd all be in an amazing place right now. So take it to heart: buy the smallest place you can afford and be comfortable in. If you're single, buy a one-bedroom condo — you don't need a full-size house. Then a two-bedroom. Then a three-bedroom. Then a townhome. Then a single family, and bigger single families from there. Ask yourself: what's the cheapest thing I can buy, what can I get into with a minimum down payment, and can I live there at least a year? Make yourself a game plan. It's chess moves. And don't be scared of the market right now — you can get amazing deals, and the minute everybody hears that things are turning and rates are coming down it's going to be a frenzy. Talk to your friends, your family, your neighbors, and count how many say “we're waiting right now.” The more times you hear that, the bigger your opportunity to buy today. ### Self-employed? Talk before you file It's December of 2022, and January of 2023 is two weeks away — which is when you start thinking about filing your 2022 tax returns. If you're self-employed and you want to buy a home next year, you need to talk to us about how you should be filing those returns. That's the best way to get yourself qualified. If you don't know and you don't have a game plan and you file them wrong, in one day, with one click of a button, you can put yourself another twelve months out from becoming a homeowner. ### Which debts reprice next month Let's recap. If you have an equity line of credit, credit card debt, or short-term adjustable loans, all of those are directly connected to the Fed's rate, and you are going to see those minimum payments increase. If you owe five thousand dollars on a credit card and your minimum payment was a hundred and fifty dollars, expect that minimum to be more expensive next month. So what does that mean? You've got to get those credit cards paid off. You've got to get any debt paid off that you can. And if you have a mortgage of $200,000 and an equity line of $100,000, we've got to look at consolidating that for you. Say you owe $200,000 on your first mortgage at three percent, and you've got a $100,000 line of credit at 9, 10, 12, 14 percent — and trust me, I've seen a range of 9 to 14 and 15 on these lines. There's a very good chance you'd do much, much better consolidating those two loans into one fixed rate on a 30-year fixed, and we can always buy that rate down into the high fives. 2022 has been the year of the home equity line of credit. That's the direction people went to get cash, because they had such a low rate on the first mortgage and didn't want to touch it. At the beginning of 2022 the Fed's rate was almost at zero. It has gone up so much since then that if you haven't checked your line lately, I would highly urge you to pull your statement or log into your account and find out what you're actually paying. I have a feeling it's way higher than you think, and I have a feeling you might fall out of your chair. Same with credit cards. Pull the statements, log in, look at the rate on the money you owe. If you own a home and have equity, even if your first mortgage rate is low and a refinance would raise it, take all of that debt — the lines, the cards, the mortgage — and blend it to see what you're actually paying in interest right now. There are a ton of you who would benefit from a refinance today. If you don't know how to do that work, let my team do it. Email us copies of your statements — the Nordstrom statement, the Capital One statement, the Bank of America statement, the equity line statement, the mortgage statement. We will *show* you the math. Here's what the rate would be if you refinanced and paid it all off, here's what the payment would be, here's what you're paying today across everything, and here's your blended interest rate today. If your blended rate today is better than a brand new mortgage, then we leave it be. We do nothing. We're not looking to lie to you — we're showing you the numbers so you can decide. ### Last show of 2022 This is my last show of 2022\. I'm taking the last couple of weeks of the year off for the holidays to enjoy time with my family, so happy holidays and happy New Year to all of you. I'm excited to see what 2023 brings. I have really good feelings about the market, interest rates, our economy and inflation. Remember it's all hard work — we've all paid for it. We've felt the increases in the credit cards and the minimum payments and the lines of credit, the pain at the gas pump, in our food, in our utilities. And the good news today is not that they raised the rate by another half a percent; nobody likes hearing that. The good news is that it was a half and not three quarters. That means things are turning around. My prediction is that by the end of 2023 we see rates down a bit and lots of people out shopping and buying homes. So get yourself ready, get ahead of the herd, and be out there looking before it turns into a seller's market and you've missed your window. To reach us it's 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. To know when I go live, text the word MOM to the same number — one text a week. Head over to mortgagemomradio.com for the tools and the contact form, and the show is on podcast as well. Happy holidays from my family to yours. I'm going to miss you all for the next two weeks. We'll see you in 2023. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of December 14, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Should You Wait For Rates To Drop Before You Buy? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-wait-for-rates-to-drop-before-you-buy/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:01.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “2023 Market Predictions” • Live show from Wednesday, December 7, 2022 • 57 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 **Please read first — this episode is a forecast made in December 2022, not a description of what happened.** Debbie was careful on air to label it as opinion with no crystal ball, and it is preserved here as a record of how the market looked at the time. Some of it landed and some of it did not. **Do not use the predictions below to plan anything today.** The durable part is the reasoning: why the Fed funds rate and your mortgage rate are not the same thing, and why waiting for a rate is a poor way to decide when to buy. Going into 2023, the question Debbie was fielding almost daily was not whether to buy but whether to *wait* — specifically, whether to hold off because rates were supposedly heading back to five percent. Her answer was that the rate is the wrong variable to be timing, and she spent the show explaining why: the Fed funds rate and a 30-year mortgage rate are connected by a pattern, not by a mechanism. Six listener questions got answered along the way, on refinance waiting periods, forbearance, reverse mortgages, and what closing costs actually shrink on a refinance. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed funds rate does not set your mortgage rate.** Credit cards, home equity lines, auto loans, and short-term debt are directly tied to it. A 30-year fixed tracks mortgage-backed securities, which trade in the bond market. The two have moved together lately — that is a pattern, not a wire. - **Do not let a rate forecast decide when you buy.** The rate can be refinanced later; the decision cannot be un-made. The variables that should drive the timing are whether the payment is affordable at today's rate, how much you are putting down, whether you can hold the property at least five years, and what your alternative actually costs you in rent. - **The market was already correcting by about 10% — but through concessions, not list prices.** Debbie's read: sellers were listing above the last comparable sale, cutting back to it, and then paying two to three percent in closing cost credits. A $400,000 sale with a 3% credit nets the seller $388,000, so the comparable holds at $400,000 while the real value has fallen. - **That gap is the buyer's opportunity.** Concessions were being used mostly to buy the rate down, which lowers the payment now and reduces how far rates have to fall before refinancing is worth the cost. - **A slow market gives you back the protections a frenzy takes away.** Appraisal contingencies, loan contingencies, not bidding over value, actually negotiating — all of that disappears the moment buyers return. - **There is no waiting period to refinance after you buy.** Qualified mortgages — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, jumbo — cannot legally carry a prepayment penalty. What can delay you is a new appraised value, which generally cannot be used within six months of purchase. Non-QM products such as hard money, stated income, or bank statement loans *can* carry prepayment penalties, so confirm before you sign. - **Debbie's own record on this show:** she had expected the hikes to stop around December, then revised to March 2023 based on what she was reading, and said plainly she thought the industry chatter about a return to five percent in 2023 was wrong. ## Chapters - 01:00The question everyone is asking about 2023 - 05:00Q&A: best advice for a brand new loan officer - 12:40“Should I wait? I heard rates are going back to 5%” - 14:00What the Fed is expected to do next week - 17:20Why mortgage rates are not tied to the Fed funds rate - 19:20Why the rate should not decide when you buy - 21:20Q&A: how long must you wait to refinance after buying? - 29:40Q&A: which closing costs are lower on a refinance? - 31:40Q&A: is forbearance good or bad in a hardship? - 38:30Q&A: are reverse mortgages a good thing? - 42:20Q&A: mortgage life insurance vs homeowners insurance - 43:40The 2023 forecast for property values - 45:40Seller concessions, and the correction hidden inside them - 48:40Why it is becoming a buyer's market - 49:40The forecast: more correction, then a turn - 50:40Why she would not wait for values to drop ## Questions answered on this show ### “What is your biggest advice for a new loan officer going into 2023?” If you have never been a loan officer, this is the best possible time to start — precisely because it is hard. In an easy market the loans fall in your lap: every aunt, brother, cousin, and grandmother needs a mortgage, you take applications without effort, and you get used to the money right before it dries up. A hard market forces you to actually learn the business, market yourself, and go find your clients. Her concrete advice: read your guidelines, know what you are doing, and work for somebody with real knowledge and experience. Build from one a month to two to three. Then when the tide turns and a refinance boom arrives, you will be busier than ever and glad you are in it. And do every deal right — when you only have a handful, a couple going sour becomes your reputation. ### “How long do you have to wait to refinance after you buy?” Generally there is no waiting period at all, and the reason is legal: qualified mortgages — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, jumbo, FHA, VA — are not permitted to carry a prepayment penalty. You could take the mortgage and pay it off the next day without penalty. Two things to watch. First, non-qualified mortgages are a different story: hard money, stated income, no-ratio, and bank statement loans *can* carry prepayment penalties, so if you are working with another loan officer, confirm before you sign. Second, VA has its own waiting periods depending on the circumstances, particularly on cash-out. And practically, if what you want out of the refinance depends on a higher appraised value — to move from FHA to conventional, or to drop mortgage insurance — guidelines generally will not let a new appraised value be used within six months of purchase. ### “I know refinance closing costs are lower than purchase closing costs. Which fees actually go away?” Almost none disappear entirely — the fees are the same line items, several are just cheaper. Title insurance is required again on every new loan, but it costs less on a refinance, because the title company is rewriting a policy already placed on the home rather than issuing a brand new one. Transfer taxes, where a county or city charges them, do not recur: you already paid them and title is not moving to anyone else. And the closing agent's fee — escrow or attorney, depending on your state — is usually significantly lower on a refinance. What you still pay: the appraisal, underwriting, credit report, and the normal processing fees. The total is meaningfully less than a purchase, but it is a reduction, not a waiver. ### “When you are experiencing a hardship, is forbearance good or bad?” Neither — it exists for people who need it, and if you are in a genuine hardship you should call your mortgage company and ask about it. It does not hurt your credit, and it protects your credit profile while you get through whatever you are going through. There is nothing wrong with using it. But it has consequences, and the biggest is that the payments do not vanish. At the end of a three, six, or nine month forbearance, that total is owed. You enter a new agreement — many people call it a modification — and the servicer handles the balance in one of several ways: moving it to the end of the loan, or making it a separate loan secured by a lien against your property. Practices vary by bank. The other consequence is timing: after a forbearance there is generally a number of on-time payments required before you can refinance, so it can delay a future transaction. Where it is *not* appropriate: going into forbearance to free up cash for home improvements or to pay off credit cards. That is not what it is for. If you do not need it, it is better not to get behind and create a balance you then have to solve. ### “Are reverse mortgages a good thing?” Good for the right person. You must be at least 62, and it requires substantial equity — as a purchase it means a large down payment, and as a refinance it means owning most of the home already. Who it fits: someone whose real estate *is* their retirement vehicle. The alternative for them is selling, downsizing, and living off what is left of the equity for the rest of their life. A reverse mortgage lets them stay in the home, keep their quality of life unchanged, offset their monthly payments, and potentially get cash in hand. Who it does not fit: someone with a job, a good pension, or solid retirement income, who can comfortably make payments and does not need to pull cash out of the house. That person is better off keeping the home free and clear, or continuing to pay it down, so the property passes to their heirs with more equity in it. A reverse mortgage does eat into equity — though as Debbie noted, that is no different from selling and living on the proceeds. ### “How does mortgage life insurance differ from homeowners insurance?” They protect completely different things. Mortgage life insurance is a death benefit: a policy you pay for so that if you pass away, your mortgage is paid off and your family is not left carrying it. Homeowners insurance protects the property itself — a fire, a burst pipe, a slip and fall, the loss of the home and your possessions. It is essentially the equivalent of car insurance, but for your house. ### Decide on your numbers, not on a forecast The consultation is free and there is no charge to talk through your situation. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the payment yourself with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners who asked questions in the live chat are identified by first name only.* ### The question everybody is asking Hello and welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and every week on Wednesday I bring you this show live. It's an interactive show — if you're watching on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitch, put your questions into the feed and I'll read them out loud and answer them. The big question on everybody's mind right now is the market: what's going to happen in 2023, what should we be expecting? I'm getting these questions just about daily. What do I think is going to happen with interest rates, and what do I think is going to happen with home prices? Before I get to that, I want to be clear about what this is. These are all best guesses that experts in the field give you based on what they've been through, what they've seen in previous markets, and what they feel is coming. I don't have a crystal ball and nobody else does either. So what follows is what I think, based on my personal experience over all the years I've been doing this, and I want to make sure you hear that. ### “Should I wait? I heard rates are going back to 5%” The very first question I get, just about daily at this point, is whether people should wait to buy. And it's not a question about property values — they're asking whether to buy now or wait, because they heard interest rates are going to go down in 2023\. They heard rates will be five percent again. Should they wait? My opinion — and I could be completely wrong — is that we are not going to see rates come back down to five percent in 2023\. I'm in this day to day. I get text messages once an hour so I'm on top of mortgage-backed securities and what's happening with the market, whether we're up or down. That's what I do for a living; it's not what a normal consumer is doing. The Federal Reserve meets again next week. Over the last six, seven, maybe eight Fed meetings, they've increased the Fed rate every single time. And although it isn't directly correlated to mortgages, we have seen interest rates go up alongside. The most recent articles I've been reading say that yes, inflation is finally starting to get a little better. A lot of people take that wrong and think we're fixed. We're not fixed. For the first time, the last inflation report said we didn't get worse and actually dropped slightly. The Federal Reserve's goal is to bring inflation down to two percent, and we're nowhere near two percent. But the increases they've done so far are starting to curb it. It's starting to work. So they've talked about continuing to raise rates through 2023\. Earlier this year the prediction was that they'd raise through 2022 and then stop in the first quarter of 2023\. The most recent reports I've read say we don't know if they'll actually stop — we think they'll slow it down. What everybody anticipates for next week's meeting is an increase of another half a percent, instead of the three-quarter-point hikes they've done these last few times. Then in February they'll decide whether to do it again, and by how much. So think about it this way. Even in a best case — only half a percent next week, only a quarter in February, nothing in April — we're still increasing, and then they hold. Once they decide they've increased enough, whether that's April or June or August, they hold it steady. If the Fed rate keeps going up, how would our mortgage rates come down? ### Why mortgage rates are not tied to the Fed Is it possible? A hundred percent — and again, I don't have a crystal ball. Because mortgages are *not* directly tied to the Fed rate. Credit cards, short-term loans, home equity lines of credit, student loans — shorter-term financing is directly connected to the Fed rate. When it goes up, the rate on any adjustable financing tied to it goes up too, and you get a bigger minimum payment and pay more in monthly interest. Mortgages are not tied to that. Mortgages are tied to mortgage-backed securities, and mortgage-backed securities are run by the bond market. So there is no direct correlation. If you look at a pattern, the pattern has been that as the Fed has raised the rate, our mortgage rates have gone up. But that is a pattern, not a wire. So my best guess, my opinion, my judgment as the Mortgage Mom — not a financial advisor, not somebody telling you to act on my advice — is that we're going to see rates continue to climb a bit. I don't see them coming down to five percent in 2023\. I would love to see that. It would be very helpful to my business, very helpful to my buyers, very helpful to sellers. Here's the thing, though. I don't think you should be deciding whether to buy a home based on whether rates might drop. That should not be the determining factor. The interest rate can be refinanced if rates do drop down the road. What you should be thinking about is: what do I feel is going to happen with value? How much am I putting down? Is the monthly payment affordable for me? Can I make this payment at today's rates? Is this something I can sustain? Is this a purchase I'm prepared to hold — whether I live in it or not — for at least five years? Am I being asked to move out of the rental I'm in? Are rents so expensive that I could buy for almost the same payment, or even the same payment? Is it more costly for me to rent because I have no tax deduction? There are a lot of reasons people need to buy right now, and what happens to interest rates next year is not really one of the factors I'd be weighing. ### Q&A: advice for a new loan officer Gustavo asks: *“What's the biggest advice you'd give a new loan officer for 2023?”* — and he mentions I funded his loan in 2021, which I do remember. Number one: if you've never been a loan officer, this is probably the very best time to get into the business. This is the hard time. This is when it's rough. This is not when loans just fall in your lap, not when every aunt, brother, sister, cousin, and grandma needs a mortgage — which makes it very easy to take applications, earn money, get used to that money, and then have it all dry up. This is a market where you need to know what you're doing. You need to understand the market, be looking for your clients, market yourself correctly, get yourself out there, network with the realtors in your area. This is the time to build from the ground up: one a month, two a month, three a month. And then when the tide turns and there's a good refinance boom, you're going to be busier than ever and thankful you're in this business. So: market yourself, understand the business, do your homework, read your guidelines, know what you're doing, and make sure you're working for somebody with a lot of knowledge and experience. And make sure every deal you do, you do right — because the last thing you want is to have only a couple of deals and have them go sour, and have that become your reputation. ### Q&A: refinancing after you buy Victoria asks: *“How long do you have to wait to refinance after you buy?”* There's really no waiting period — it depends on the loan you got. A lot of people understand them as subprime loans, but they're actually called non-qualified mortgages. Something like a hard money loan, a stated income loan, a no-income or no-ratio loan, or a bank statement loan — some of those alternative documentation loans can carry a prepayment penalty. So if you're not working with our team and you have a different loan officer, just confirm you don't have one. As long as you don't, you're fine, because standard qualified mortgages — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, jumbo mortgages, FHA, VA — none of those products are legally allowed to have a prepayment penalty. That means you could get your mortgage and pay it off the next day with no penalty whatsoever. So there really is no waiting period. VA loans do have waiting periods based on circumstances, particularly if you're trying to take cash out — so if you're a vet, call us about your specific transaction. There are things that will limit you, though. If you buy the home and the property has gone up in value, and you're trying to use the higher value — because it helps your rate, or moves you from a government FHA loan into a conventional, or removes mortgage insurance — guidelines say we can't use a new appraised value for six months from the date of purchase. ### Q&A: closing costs on a refinance Michelle asks: *“I know refi closing costs are less than purchase closing costs. Besides origination fees, what closing costs are waived in a refinance?”* Refinance closing costs are less, but all the fees remain the same — some of them are just reduced. Depending on where you live, some states are escrow states, some are attorney states, some run everything through title, so your closing fees are the same line items. But several come down. Title insurance: every time you get a brand new loan you need title insurance, but it's less expensive on a refinance, because the title company is essentially rewriting the policy already placed on the home rather than writing a brand new one. Transfer taxes: in many counties and cities there are transfer taxes when you purchase a home. Those aren't going to happen again, because you already paid them, you're already the owner, and we're not transferring title to somebody else. Your escrow fee — the closing agent's fee, whether you're in a title state or an escrow state — is usually much less expensive on a refinance than on a purchase. But you're still going to pay an appraisal fee, the normal underwriting, and the credit report. Those types of fees are still paid. It is significantly reduced overall, but it's a reduction rather than a waiver. ### Q&A: forbearance Horace asks: *“When one is experiencing a hardship, is forbearance good or bad?”* Forbearance is there for the people that need it. It's not good or bad. It does come with some repercussions — for example, once you're out of forbearance you have to get your payments made and made on time, and there's a certain number of payments that have to be made, which might hold you up from doing a future refinance. But it is not going to hurt your credit, and it is going to help you with a monthly payment you can't afford. Forbearance was created for a reason and it's offered for a reason. If you're in a hardship, it is absolutely something you should reach out to your mortgage company about. There's nothing wrong with doing that. It saves your credit profile, it helps you get through whatever hard time you're going through, and it helps you get back on track. Now, if your goal is to go on forbearance because you want to save up cash to do home improvements down the road, or to save money to pay off credit cards — that's probably not a good idea. Forbearance is there for the people who need it. And once the forbearance is over, those payments don't just go away. It's not like you don't have to make them. There will be a balance. If you're on forbearance for three, six, or nine months, all those monthly payments total up and are owed. At the end you'll enter into a new agreement — many people call it a modification — with your mortgage company to get those payments taken care of. Sometimes they put it at the end of the loan. Sometimes they make it its own separate loan and place a lien against your property in the form of a second. Different banks do it in different ways. So if you don't need the forbearance, better not to get behind and have a balance you then have to figure out what to do with. But if you need it, that's what it's there for. ### Q&A: reverse mortgages and mortgage life insurance Michael asks: *“Are reverse mortgages a good thing?”* Reverse mortgages are good for the right person. You have to be at least 62 years old to even get one. You can get a reverse mortgage as a purchase or a refinance, but it requires quite a bit of equity in the property — if you're purchasing, you'll have a pretty substantial down payment requirement; if you own the home and want to refinance into one, you have to have a substantial amount of equity. It's fantastic for the person whose real estate is their asset for retirement — it's their retirement vehicle. Rather than selling the home, getting the cash, moving into something smaller, downsizing, and then living off what's left of that equity for the rest of their life, they can use the reverse mortgage to stay in their home. They don't make that move. They don't change their quality of life. And the reverse mortgage helps offset monthly payments and can get them cash in hand. If you're somebody who still has a job, has a great pension, has a good retirement coming through the door, and the reverse mortgage isn't something you need — you're capable and happy to make payments, you don't need the cash out of your home to make ends meet, you don't owe anything on the home — then it would not be for you. You could keep that home free and clear, or continue to make the payment to pay the debt off, so that someday when you pass on, you're leaving that home to your heirs with a good amount of equity in it. The reverse mortgage is going to eat away at your equity — but that's really no different from selling the home, taking out the cash, and living on your cash. So it's right for the right person. I like the product quite a bit; it's just a specific program for a specific kind of person. Michael also asks: *“How does mortgage life insurance differ from homeowners insurance?”* That's a great question and not one that's been asked before on this show. Mortgage life insurance is a policy you can take out so that at the time you pass away, your mortgage gets paid off by that policy. It's an actual death benefit, like a life insurance policy. Homeowners insurance is your plan to protect your property — if somebody slips and falls, if a pipe breaks, if something catastrophic happens, if you have a fire and lose the home and all your possessions. It's very similar to a car insurance policy, but for your home. ### What's actually happening in transactions right now I promised you my 2023 forecast on values, so let me start with what I'm actually seeing come across my desk, working with real estate agents who have buyers trying to negotiate contracts and get offers accepted. Because rates are elevated — higher than 2021, higher than 2020, even a bit higher than 2019, and I think higher than 2018 — what we've seen that's been very helpful is buyers' agents helping them negotiate a credit from the seller to buy the interest rate down. That keeps the home more affordable, and it keeps the purchase price up, which helps the market hold the price. Think about it this way. When you look at comparables in a tract or a subdivision, and the last house sold for $400,000 — that was before rates went up. Everything went crazy in 2020, still pretty crazy in 2021, and it really wasn't until about the second quarter of this year, 2022, that we saw values plateau. Now what we're seeing is sellers listing higher than the last sale — that's what the market had been doing, so that's what you think you're supposed to do. Then price reductions, bringing it back down to the most recent sale, which is where the home should be. And then they start offering concessions. So buyers are now getting something they haven't been able to obtain in many years: they're asking sellers for closing costs and getting anywhere from two to three percent of the sales price. The majority of clients are using that money to buy the rate down — to make the rate, the home, and the monthly payment more affordable, and to bring the rate well below where the market is. That means they don't necessarily have to refinance until rates come way down, instead of refinancing right away and then having to do it again and again as rates keep dropping. It gives them a head start. But look at what it does to the comparables. That house sold for $400,000 in early 2022, and the most recent sale is also $400,000, so the market looks steady. In reality the buyer got a $12,000 closing cost credit — so the seller netted $388,000, not $400,000\. The market has dropped in that regard. Values are coming down. I'm not going to lie to you, and I'm not going to put on a pretty face to avoid scaring people away from buying. That's not what I'm here for. As rates stay higher it's less affordable, so there are fewer buyers, which means more sellers than buyers. Before, we had more buyers than sellers. It's becoming a buyer's market, which gives the buyer the advantage and the edge to negotiate those credits and get the rate down. So we've probably seen about a ten percent correction in value — maybe not on paper, but because of the concessions buyers are getting on the deals we're closing. ### The 2023 forecast Here's where I think 2023 goes. I think we see a little more correction — sellers reducing prices a bit further and also providing concessions. And I believe that by the end of 2023 we see this market turn around: rates coming down, and a frenzy of people wanting to buy again. So does that mean you should wait for values to drop? No. I think you need to buy a home, and I would not wait — I'd do it as soon as you're ready. Even if values drop a little from where you buy, if the home is affordable, you're getting your tax deductions, and you're planning on the five-year hold, then it doesn't matter, because it's going to go right back up. And if you were somebody trying to buy between 2020 and 2021 — or you have a friend or family member who was — talk to them about that experience. Once it's back to a seller's market, the concessions to help with closing costs are gone. So are the appraisal contingencies, the loan contingencies, and the ability to not pay over value for the home. All the things we saw when the frenzy was going, you are not dealing with right now. Get the right price, make a good offer, work with the right agent, offer what the home is worth, get the concessions you need — do it while things are not absolutely crazy. And when rates come down, if they come down even lower than what we can buy the rate down to out of the gate, then we consider a refinance. My prediction, my opinion, my gut — not a financial advisor: I believe by the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024, rates start to come back down, property values start to go back up, and more buyers jump in. We start to see multiple offers and overbidding, and it becomes much harder to get an offer accepted. So to sum up my forecast: rates higher than where they are today, starting to come down at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024\. Probably another ten percent decline in property values by the end of 2023\. And by the beginning of 2024, a lot more people jumping into the market, more multiple offers, and more overbidding. We might never get back to the crazy market we had in 2020 and 2021 — but the longer people sit on the shelf waiting, the more opportunity you have to negotiate a great deal. The most important thing to remember, though, is budget. Make sure you're signing up for what you can afford and can continue to afford. Not “I can afford this now, but Debbie said rates were probably going to come down, so once I refinance I'll be fine.” No. Are you comfortable today? Because if you're comfortable with that payment today, then now is the time to buy. And here's the other side of waiting. There are people who made multiple offers on multiple properties through 2020 and 2021, over and over again, and they're still sitting in my pre-approval bucket. They're still out looking for homes. They never got an offer accepted, and then rates went up, and now they've been priced out of the market. ### Wrap-up So if you can afford it today with where rates are today — and I want you to hear that condition, *if you can afford it* — then it is a very good time to buy, and you should be giving us a call. Call the office at 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. Or head over to mortgagemomradio.com, where you can download the tools app to run payments and use the calculators. We don't charge consultation fees. We'll talk to you for an hour and help you work out what you need to do to get on the right track, whether that's a refinance, a purchase, or just a plan for a year from now. And we'll be honest with you — I'm not going to tell you I can do something I can't, and nobody on my team will either. If there's a problem, we'll tell you right out of the gate and talk about how to get you into the next one. I want you back on again next Wednesday, right about one o'clock. To know when we've gone live, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — one text a week, no spam, with a link you can click to join. I hope you all have a great rest of your week. We'll see you real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of Wednesday, December 7, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Conforming, High Balance, Or Jumbo: Which Loan Are You? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/conforming-high-balance-or-jumbo-which-loan-are-you/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:01.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “New Loan limits Announced For 2023! How Does This Help You?” • Live show from Wednesday, November 30, 2022 • 60 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 **Please read first — every loan limit on this page is the 2023 figure and is no longer current.** This show aired on November 30, 2022, the day after the announcement, and the numbers below are what was announced for 2023\. Conforming and high-balance limits are reset every year and have risen substantially since. **Do not plan a purchase around the dollar figures on this page.** Call the office for this year's limit in your county. What stays true is the structure: how conforming, high balance, and jumbo differ, and why the difference lands on your rate. The day after the 2023 conforming loan limits were announced, Debbie handed the show to two senior loan officers on her team and stayed off camera. The base limit jumped from $647,200 to $726,200 — the largest single-year increase most of them had seen — and the practical effect was that a whole band of buyers stopped needing a jumbo loan. This episode is the clearest explanation on the channel of the three tiers of conventional lending and what each one does to your rate and your down payment. ## Key takeaways (limits as announced for 2023) - **There are three tiers, not two.** Conforming, then high balance (the team's nickname for it on this show was a “tweener” loan), then jumbo. High balance exists only in designated high-cost counties, and it sits between the national limit and jumbo territory. - **The tier you land in is set by the loan amount, not the purchase price.** A $700,000 house with $150,000 down is a $550,000 loan — comfortably conforming. Move a dollar over the limit and the pricing changes. - **Crossing into high balance costs you roughly three eighths to half a percent in rate.** That is the whole reason the limit increase mattered: buyers who used to get bumped into high-balance pricing stayed in the cheaper conforming tier. - **The increase substituted for a down payment.** Their worked example: an $800,000 purchase used to mean a jumbo loan at roughly 20% down, or $160,000\. Under the new conforming limit the gap is $73,800 — a bit over 9% down — with no reserve requirement, more forgiving credit, and higher allowable debt ratios. - **Jumbo is a harder loan across the board.** Beyond the larger down payment it wants reserves — roughly six to twelve months of payments sitting liquid — and it is stricter on credit score, debt-to-income, and loan-to-value. Conforming is more forgiving on all of them. - **Jumbo is not automatically worse, though.** A borrower with 20% down, low debt ratios, reserves, and a strong score can sometimes price better in jumbo than in high balance. That is a comparison worth asking your lender to run. - **Multi-unit properties have their own, higher limits.** Two, three, and four-unit conforming limits all rose too — and you can buy one, live in a unit, and rent the others while still using conforming financing. Down payment requirements climb with unit count, even owner-occupied. - **“Do lenders use different debt-to-income limits?” is a yes-and-no.** Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac publish one guideline everyone follows, but individual lenders layer their own stricter overlays on top. A mortgage bank with many investors can shop the file to whichever one has no overlay in your way and the best rate that day. ## Chapters - 01:00Why the loan limits were announced yesterday - 06:00The base limit: $647,200 to $726,200 - 09:00What it means in Los Angeles and Orange County - 11:30What “high balance” and “high cost” actually mean - 12:30The new county limits, read out - 15:00The three tiers, and where the rate bump lands - 16:30Q&A: getting a loan on 1099 income under two years - 23:50Q&A: $700,000 house, $150,000 down — which tier? - 25:40Jumbo vs conforming on an $800,000 purchase - 32:30Why the limits rose 12% in a falling market - 37:20Q&A: is a $750,000 loan conforming or a tweener? - 41:00Q&A: do lenders use different debt-to-income limits? - 45:20Q&A: when are reserves actually required? - 53:20Buying down the rate with the seller's money - 55:00The two, three, and four-unit limits - 57:00Q&A: how much higher are investment property rates? ## Questions answered on this show ### “Can you get a loan on 1099 income if you have not been 1099 for two full years?” Often yes — the key is usually whether you stayed in the same line of work. If you were a W-2 consultant and you are now a 1099 consultant doing the same thing, the history behind the switch is what makes it workable. A brand new industry is a much harder file. And if the standard route does not fit, that is not the end of it. There are 1099 programs, bank statement programs, and asset depletion programs for borrowers with money in the bank, plus some state-specific community lending. Which one applies depends on the loan amount and whether you are in conforming or jumbo territory — so it is a conversation about the specific scenario, not a yes or no. ### “If I buy a $700,000 house and put $150,000 down, is that conventional — or does it go by the purchase price?” It goes by the loan amount, not the purchase price. $700,000 minus $150,000 leaves a $550,000 loan, which sits well below the conforming limit, so it is a straightforward conforming loan. The rule is a hard line rather than a range: at $724,000 you fit, at $727,000 you do not and you would need to bring a little more money in to get under it. The caveat they added: a big down payment does not settle which *program* is best for you. Credit score still matters, you might be a veteran and better served by VA, and a weaker score can point to FHA even with substantial money down. ### “Is a $750,000 loan conventional, or a ‘tweener’?” It depends entirely on where the property is, and this is the question that shows why. If the home is in a designated high-cost county, a $750,000 loan amount is a high-balance loan — between the national conforming limit and jumbo. If the property is in a county with no high-cost designation, that same $750,000 loan is a jumbo. Same number, two completely different loans, decided by geography. ### “Do different lenders use different debt-to-income ratios, or is there a standard?” Both, and Debbie stepped in to say her two guests were each half right. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac publish standard guidelines in a book that every lender writing conventional loans has to follow. On top of that, individual lenders add their own overlays — a bank may decide that even though the agency guideline permits a debt ratio up to 50%, it only wants files up to 45%, because it does not want the riskier loans. The practical consequence is about who you work with. A lender with a single investor has one set of overlays and that is that. A mortgage bank that is direct with Fannie and Freddie and also has many investors on the back end can place your file where the overlay does not block you — and among those that will take it, pick the one with the best rate that day. So a 47% debt ratio narrows your options rather than ending them. ### “Are reserves always required?” No. On a standard conventional or FHA or VA purchase of a primary residence, as long as you have enough for the down payment and closing costs, reserves are not a factor. Where they do come in: jumbo loans essentially always want them. An investment property purchase wants them even on conventional. A cash-out refinance where you are pushing past roughly a 45% debt ratio will want them on Fannie Mae, and on Freddie Mac it depends on what the automated decision returns — which makes that one genuinely unpredictable until the file is run. ### “How much higher is an investment property rate, and do lenders differ?” Expect roughly a point to a point and a half above an owner-occupied rate for a normal conventional investment loan. If you are using a debt service loan, a bank statement loan, or another non-standard investment product, the gap is considerably wider than that. On whether lenders differ: yes, but only slightly — for the identical program, expect variation of about an eighth to a quarter of a point between lenders. The bigger differences come from lenders having access to different *programs*, not from pricing the same program differently. ## The 2023 limits as announced (week of November 30, 2022 — historical record, not current) - National conforming limit, one unit: **$726,200** (up from $647,200) - Two units: **$929,850** • Three units: **$1,123,900** • Four units: **$1,396,800** - Los Angeles and Orange County high balance: **$1,089,300** - Santa Clara County: **$1,089,300** • San Diego County: **$977,500** • Ventura County: **$948,750** - King County, Washington: **$977,500** - Riverside and San Bernardino: no high-cost designation, so the **$726,200** base applied - Rate penalty for crossing into high balance: roughly **0.375% to 0.5%** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These limits were the 2023 figures as announced and are superseded — ask for the current year's limit in your county.* ### Find out which tier you are actually in It depends on your county and your loan amount, and the consultation is free. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run scenarios with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Debbie's two guests are senior loan officers on the Mortgage Mom Radio team and are credited here by role rather than by name. Listeners who asked questions are identified by first name only.* ### The limits were announced yesterday **Debbie:** Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking all about how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac came out and announced the new loan limits. For this segment I've brought on two of the loan officers on my team — both experts in the mortgage field, both in the business many years. They're going to talk to you about the new limits: how this benefits you, how it changes your lending, how it can help you get into a higher sales price or qualify a little more easily. And I love that I'm not on camera today. The limits were just announced yesterday — new loan limits for 2023\. How crazy is it to be talking about 2023 already? I can't wait for FHA to make their announcement; we'll do another one of these when they do. Before we get into it, a question came in asking what the current interest rate is, and that's very hard to answer, because every loan is different: every person, every credit score, every property value, every down payment, every refinance with a different amount of equity. But rates have improved a bit — we've seen a nice improvement. If you're buying right now and negotiating with the seller to pay a couple of points for you, I just locked a client on a VA deal at five and a half percent. We've locked a couple of conventional clients in the mid sixes, definitely low sixes. I had one where the seller paid three percent and we got them down to 5.875%. So rates can be very good. It's about negotiating — and if you're not sure what you should be doing, call us first so we can get you pre-qualified and get you to a real estate agent who will negotiate the right deal. ### From $647,200 to $726,200 **Debbie:** Let's start with the national number, not counting high balance or high cost. What is the current Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conforming loan limit? **Guest:** $647,200. **Debbie:** And where are we moving to? **Guest:** They're increasing it to $726,200. **Debbie:** That's a huge jump. And this matters everywhere — the show is on YouTube and Facebook, it's national, not just where I'm sitting in California. Whether you're in Houston or San Antonio, Nashville, Arizona, Las Vegas, Seattle. So talk about how this helps people. **Guest:** There aren't many high-cost areas in Tennessee. Some counties here have a high-cost designation but it's nothing compared to Los Angeles — the base was $647,200 and LA's high cost went up to around $970,000, whereas some counties here only went to $650,000 or $672,000\. So when I was looking for a house myself with only five percent down and couldn't qualify for a jumbo loan — anything over the conforming limit — I was stuck at a certain price range. If anything was listed just above it, I'd either have to put more money down or find a different house. So this is huge for us here, because we don't have a lot of high-cost areas, and even where we do they aren't extreme like LA, Ventura, or Orange County. **Guest:** For us in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas it's a bit different. Say you're looking at a $750,000 home and you want to put five percent down. That's a loan higher than $647,200 — so we either have to take you into a high balance loan, where the rates aren't pretty, or if we don't have that option, into a jumbo. And jumbo can be very hard to fit into, because they're borrower-specific: whether you're self-employed or W-2 can make a big difference. What it means now is that on that same $750,000 house with five percent down, we can go up to $726,200 and do it as a conforming loan, instead of high balance at a higher rate or a jumbo. It's opening up that loan amount for people who couldn't purchase before. And let's face it — in California, in Arizona, certainly in Washington, $750,000 is not an unreal number. ### What high balance and high cost actually mean **Debbie:** Explain what high balance is, what high cost means, what those numbers look like, and who gets them. **Guest:** High balance is anything over the conforming loan limit in a high-cost area, where that county allows you to go up to a certain higher amount. Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego are examples of high-cost areas. They just announced that in Los Angeles the new high balance limit is $1,089,300\. Riverside and San Bernardino unfortunately are still not considered high cost, but at least they went up to $726,200. I did some math on this. For Riverside and San Bernardino, with the new conforming limit of $726,200, you can get a conventional loan with right around five percent down up to a purchase price of about $764,000\. When FHA eventually comes out with their new limits — and they always follow behind Fannie and Freddie — at three and a half percent down you're looking at a purchase price around $752,000\. So in San Bernardino and Riverside that opens people up a lot, because before we were limited around the $650,000 to $660,000 range. People now have about a hundred thousand more of purchasing power in those lower-cost areas. In Los Angeles, going up to a million, they really needed that considering how expensive everything is. Orange County too — the high balance limit is $1,089,300 in both. San Diego County is $977,500\. Ventura went up to $948,750\. I do think Ventura should have gone higher — everybody loves a house by the beach, and they're not going to get much under a million by the beach. For Washington, that's King County, and they're a little higher: $977,500\. It can be super expensive in Seattle, and a lot of people I talk with there have homes at a million and over. **Debbie:** So here's what everybody needs to understand. There is always the national number, the conforming loan limit, which went from $647,200 to $726,200\. Everybody across the country got a huge raise in what we can lend you without having to go to jumbo. Then, in high-cost areas, there's the high balance limit. If you go over the national number you get into what we call a high balance or high cost loan — another term for it is a jumbo conventional, because you're in a tweener stage. You're in between the conventional number and where you'd have to go for a jumbo loan. And that tweener number gives you tweener rates. That's the best way to explain it. You definitely get a bump in interest rate when you go over the conforming limit and you're in that middle section. So what it means now is that we don't have to go to that high balance number as fast as we did before. Where we were stuck at $647,200, now we're good all the way up to $726,200, and we're still giving you the lower rate. ### Jumbo versus conforming on an $800,000 purchase **Debbie:** Say somebody wants to buy at $800,000\. If they had to go jumbo, how much would they need down? If they can go conventional, how much? **Guest:** On a jumbo, I'm fairly sure you have to put at least ten percent down, and let's go with a basic twenty. And reserves — people ask what a reserve is, and it just means you have to show money in an account somewhere, enough to make that mortgage payment for about six to twelve months, liquid. The other thing with jumbos is they're a little stricter on your credit score, and a little stricter on debt-to-income ratios and loan-to-value ratios. For me a jumbo is just an all-around harder loan to get than a conforming. Conforming is more forgiving on your credit score, and it'll allow slightly higher ratios — and sometimes that little tweak makes all the difference. **Debbie:** So at $800,000 with a jumbo, twenty percent down is $160,000 — and that's before closing costs and before reserves. Now with the increased limits, and using the national conforming number rather than a high-cost area: what's the difference between $800,000 and $726,200? **Guest:** $73,800. **Debbie:** So $73,800 versus $160,000\. As a percentage of $800,000, that's a bit over nine percent. So at nine percent down you can now get into an $800,000 sales price, where jumbo financing typically requires twenty percent. And no reserves. And a lower credit score is acceptable, and higher debt ratios. There's a real benefit there. Now, for our Seattle listeners — King County's high balance number is $977,500\. So somebody in Seattle could put five percent down with a conventional loan on that $800,000 house and never go near jumbo, where somebody in Tennessee or Arizona, with no high balance in their county, would have to cover the difference between $800,000 and $726,200\. So if you're wondering how much cash you need: it depends on where you live and what county you're in. Which is why we really do need to talk to you. And it isn't automatic that conforming wins. If you have a low debt ratio, twenty percent down, reserves in the bank, and a great credit score, the high balance rate might actually be higher than a jumbo rate — so we may opt to put you in the jumbo, because you'd get better pricing, a better rate, and a better monthly payment. ### Why the limits rose 12% in a market that was cooling **Guest:** They take these limits and increase them to keep them in line with the housing market. What I found interesting is that even though the market has lost some pricing in the past five months, they raised it about twelve percent, because the housing market is still up twelve percent from where it was last year. That was kind of crazy to me, because we all talk about how slow it is and how prices are dropping. The big thing people don't understand is that we are so underbuilt. We just don't have enough units in the United States to go around — it doesn't matter if you're in Los Angeles or Seattle or Nashville or Arizona or Vegas. So the fact that prices are still higher than last year, and this comes in and says to home buyers and to people refinancing that we're going to balance these out and let you use more loan amount at better rates — that's a great thing. **Guest:** The market goes in waves. Right now we were at a high and we're going to come down a little, and then we'll go right back up again. I've never seen it, in thirty-plus years, go down and stay down. It's always rebounded — it's just the amount of time it takes to get there. And right now we simply don't have the housing units. **Debbie:** I do think values come down a bit. But the appreciation has been so big that even with drops of twenty or even thirty percent we'd still be well above where values were in 2019 and 2020\. So there aren't going to be many people who end up upside down. I don't personally see a ton of foreclosures coming. If you bought in 2020 or 2021 with minimum money down you may end up a bit upside down, but not far enough that it's like 2007 to 2009, where people were walking away. It doesn't make sense to do that when it's your home, you've got the write-off, you have everything you need. **Guest:** And people have to remember that in 2007 and 2008 we didn't have the shortage of rentals we do now. There are a lot of people renting. And when investors buy these properties, they're buying at the same price you would — so their mortgage payment is about the same, which keeps rental rates up as well. ### A client who saved half a point on the change **Guest:** Here's how this actually benefited a client. I have a buyer pre-approved with a $660,000 loan amount and forty percent down, looking in Los Angeles. Even in a high-cost area, a $660,000 loan amount was high balance. With the increased limit she's now conforming, so her rate dropped — I want to say half a point, plus we've had a little rate improvement lately. And it means she can go higher in her loan amount and put thirty-five percent down instead of forty, which puts money back in her pocket. Win-win. **Debbie:** And that's the part consumers don't see: the difference in rate between regular conforming and the tweener loans is really about three eighths to half a percent. So if you're going from 6.5% to 7% — or go back three weeks, when we were at seven or seven and a half — that's real money. If you were recently pre-approved and your loan officer was talking to you about rates in the sevens, call them back, or call us and get re-approved and get something locked in. Rates definitely dropped. And imagine how much higher she could go on the same down payment, just because the limits changed. ### Q&A from the live chat Catherine asks: *“Is there a way to get a loan with a 1099? I have a family member in another state who was told her income wouldn't count toward being approved — she hasn't been 1099 for two years.”* **Guest:** I believe so, as long as you're in the same industry you were in before. If you were W-2 doing consulting and now you're 1099 doing consulting, we can generally use that, because you have the history of it. And we have 1099 programs, bank statement programs, asset depletion programs if you have money in the bank, and depending on the state, community mortgage programs. **Guest:** I did a loan last year for an occupational therapist who was W-2 for many years and decided to go out on her own. We had her 1099s and I believe we used just the year. So it depends on the loan type and amount — are we in conforming or jumbo — and on the specific scenario. A brand new industry for her would be tougher. Have her call us. A listener asks: *“If I find a house for $700,000 but I'm putting down $150,000, would this still be a conventional loan, or is it based off the purchase price?”* **Guest:** If you're buying at $700,000 and putting $150,000 down, the loan amount is about $550,000\. So you're well below $726,200 — you'd definitely fit in the conforming rate and go on your merry way. As long as your loan amount is $726,200 or below you fit. At $724,000 you fit. At $727,000 you don't, and you'd have to put a little more money down to get under it. **Debbie:** Although — even with a really big down payment, we'd need to know your credit score. Maybe you're a vet and VA is better than conventional. Maybe your credit score isn't great and we need to talk about FHA. Every person is a little different in which program and product suits them. Michelle asks: *“What is a $750,000 loan — conventional or a tweener?”* **Debbie:** If the *loan amount* is $750,000, not the sales price, and you're in a high balance or high cost area, then you're a tweener loan. I love that phrase, I'm going to start using it — I've literally just renamed high balance, but it makes more sense and it's easier to understand. If you're in an area that does *not* have a high balance loan limit, a $750,000 loan amount would be a jumbo. So we have to know where you're looking to buy to answer the question. Michelle also asks: *“Do different lenders use different DTI ratios, or is there a minimum standard?”* **Guest:** FHA and conventional have different debt-to-income ratios, but respectively they should be the same — following the guidelines, they shouldn't vary lender to lender. **Guest:** It also depends on what investors each lender has. Banks or credit unions can be a little different, because they have to adhere to their own guidelines and overlays. With our company we have a lot of investors on the back end, so we can do things in house. Standard Fannie and Freddie is pretty much the same across the board, but then you have overlays, other brokers, other programs. **Debbie:** They were both right — the answer is yes and no. Every lender doing conventional Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac financing follows standard guidelines written in a book that we all have to follow. On top of that, lenders choose whether to add overlays. A big bank might say that even though Fannie Mae will let us go to 50% on the debt ratio, we don't want those loans, so our overlay is 45%. I'm not saying that's what any particular bank does — it's just an example. Then another lender does it differently, and another differently again. Every individual lender can choose what it feels comfortable writing. We're a mortgage bank, so we have multiple investors we can place your loan with. We're direct with Fannie and Freddie, so if we need to go direct to get the full book guidelines with no overlays, we can. Or we can look across all the different lenders that offer financing and pick and choose where you fit and who has the best rate that day. If you have a 47% debt ratio, we have to put you with a lender that doesn't care about 47 — you're limited on which investors will allow it, and then we pick the one with the best rate. If you're an A-plus borrower, we just go to whoever has the best rate that day and their overlays don't matter. Michelle asks: *“You said reserves are sometimes required — not always?”* **Guest:** Typically reserves are required on jumbo loans. On a conventional purchase they don't care about reserves as long as you have enough for your down payment and closing costs — enough to close the loan. There are instances on certain programs, like a cash-out refinance where you're trying to reach a certain debt-to-income ratio, where we look for reserves to qualify you. But on a regular conventional or FHA or VA purchase, as long as you have funds to close, reserves don't matter. So: jumbo, yes. Conventional purchase, no — unless it's a purchase for an investment property, in which case yes, even conventional. And on a cash-out refinance where you want to go over a 45% debt ratio, on Fannie Mae yes, you need reserves; on Freddie Mac it depends on whether the automated decision asks for them, so that one is truly up to the system. ### Buying the rate down with the seller's money **Guest:** Whether you're refinancing or purchasing, understand that if you're purchasing, the seller can help you buy the rate down. If you're at six and a half and you really want to be at six and a quarter, or six, or lower depending on where rates are that day, you can ask the seller in your contract to help you buy that rate down, and the seller can bring in money to get your rate lower. Same idea applies to a refinance — buying the rate down is always an option available to you. So don't just hear six and a half or seven and stop. There's definitely flexibility in there, and we'd love to talk with you about it. ### The multi-unit limits **Guest:** There's one thing we didn't talk about at all. Everything we've covered has been single one-unit properties — a single family home or a condo. But the two, three, and four unit limits increased as well. Nationwide, the two-unit went up to $929,850, the three-unit to $1,123,900, and the four-unit to $1,396,800\. In some high-cost areas the four-unit limits went over two million. And this doesn't mean you have to buy it as an investment property. You can buy it owner-occupied, live in one of the units, get a conforming loan, and rent out the other units to help the property pay for itself. **Debbie:** One thing people should know: when you start buying multiple units, the down payment requirement changes. It's no longer five percent down on a two unit — bigger down payments are required even for owner occupied, depending on whether it's two, three, or four units. So you'd have to call us to talk about what you'd need. But it's definitely easier than trying to get a jumbo loan on a four-unit property at two million dollars. Michelle asks one last one: *“How much higher is an investment rate than a homeowner rate, and do different lenders give different investment rates?”* **Debbie:** Every lender's rate is going to be slightly different, but no lender should be off by more than about an eighth to a quarter of a point — a very small amount — if the program is exactly the same. Some lenders have programs others don't. As for the gap, it's probably about a point to a point and a half higher for an investment property over an owner-occupied rate. But if you're looking at a debt service loan or a bank statement loan or another investment product that isn't a normal conventional loan, that's going to be much more than a point or a point and a half. So you've got to call us and let us answer those questions for you, because there are so many loan programs and so many things that change what the rate would be based on the borrower, the scenario, the property, the county, and the area. We're definitely not a show that says call us now, rates are 2.99%. I've never been that show, even when rates *were* 2.99%, because everybody is a little bit different and there's no cookie-cutter rate that belongs to everybody. Call the office at 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. Thank you to both of you for being on today, and for being the face of Mortgage Mom Radio so I didn't have to be. We'll talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of Wednesday, November 30, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### How Does A Reverse Mortgage Actually Work? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/how-does-a-reverse-mortgage-actually-work/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:02.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Interest Rates Dropped / Reverse Mortgage” • Live show from Wednesday, November 16, 2022 • 57 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 **Please read first — the reverse mortgage figures on this page are from 2022 and are not current.** The percentages Debbie read off her cheat sheet (roughly 42% of value at age 62, 55% at 80, 66% at 90) are principal limit factors, and they move with interest rates and program rules. They were what the numbers looked like in November 2022 and **should not be used to plan today**. The same goes for every rate quoted below. How the product works is the durable part; the numbers are a snapshot. Call the office for a current quote rather than working from this page. Rates fell about six tenths of a point in a single day after the October inflation report landed — the biggest one-day improvement in months — and Debbie's read was that it would not last. The second half of the show is the one people ask her for repeatedly: a plain explanation of how a reverse mortgage actually works, who it suits, and the two things families get wrong about what happens to the house when the owner dies. **Editor's note, added later:** this show does not cover one condition that matters. With a reverse mortgage you remain responsible for property taxes, homeowners insurance and any HOA dues, you must keep the home as your primary residence, and you must maintain it. Falling behind on any of those can make the loan due and payable. Ask your lender to walk you through those obligations before you apply. ## Key takeaways - **Rates improved about 60 basis points — roughly six tenths of a percent — in one move** after the inflation report showed prices actually coming down rather than merely holding steady. Conventional went from around seven and a half into the high sixes; FHA and VA into the low sixes, and into the high fives with a seller-paid buydown. - **Debbie did not expect it to hold.** The drop came in a single day and then flattened. With the Fed still signaling more hikes, her call was that rates start climbing again as the market prices in the December meeting — so if a lock made sense, it made sense now. - **A renovation loan is the answer when you need more cash than your equity supports.** Conventional and FHA both have one. The appraiser values the home on what it will be worth *after* the work, using your contractor's bid — which is what makes the money available in the first place. - **Renovation money is not handed to you at closing.** The lender holds it and releases it to the contractor in stages, with an inspection at each stage to confirm the work has actually reached that point. - **A reverse mortgage runs the loan backwards, and it does not change title.** You stay the owner. The balance grows instead of shrinking, and the loan stays in place for as long as you live there — the lender cannot call it because values fell. - **Your heirs do not lose the house.** At your passing they get roughly six months to pay off the loan, and they can refinance it or sell it — exactly as they would with any ordinary mortgage. If the home is worth less than the balance, they are not required to make up the difference; they can hand it back. - **How much you can borrow depends on your age.** The younger you are, the lower the percentage of value the program will lend, because it has to assume many more years of a growing balance. That is why a 62-year-old with an existing mortgage often does not qualify while a 75-year-old with the same loan does. - **Modern reverse mortgages do check you.** Post-reform, the lender reviews credit and confirms you can cover property taxes, homeowners insurance, and your other monthly obligations — a lower score means a lower loan-to-value, not an automatic decline. ## Chapters - 01:00What today's show covers - 04:00Q&A: I need more cash than my equity allows - 05:30Why rates dropped about 60 basis points - 08:00Where rates landed — and why Debbie expects them back up - 11:20Q&A: does renovation money sit in escrow during the build? - 13:00Q&A: financing a modular home on acreage - 19:20Q&A: equity line or cash-out refinance to pull money out? - 23:30Q&A: first-time buyer wanting a four-unit — where to start - 27:00Q&A: where VA rates are right now - 35:00What a reverse mortgage actually is - 36:00Who it is genuinely good for - 37:20What your heirs inherit — and what they don't lose - 42:00Credit and income checks after the reforms - 44:30How age sets the maximum loan - 50:20The five things we need to quote you - 54:30Wrap-up and the Thanksgiving break ## Questions answered on this show ### “Would we be able to refinance at the moment?” Yes — refinances have not gone anywhere. The only question is where your current rate sits and whether the new one makes sense against it. That is entirely personal, so it is a phone call rather than a broadcast answer. And if you would rather not put your situation into a public chat for Debbie to read out loud, that is exactly what the office line is for. ### “I want to add on to my house, but I need more cash than the equity I have. What loan does that?” A renovation loan — and there is a conventional version through Fannie Mae and an FHA version. The mechanism is what makes it work when a standard cash-out will not: you get contractor bids for the work, the bids go to the appraiser, and the appraiser values your home based on what it will be worth *once the improvements are done*. That future value is what the loan is written against, which is how you get the money for an addition you could not borrow against today. ### “Does the renovation money sit in escrow during the build?” No — the lender holds it. Funds are released to the contractor in stages as the project progresses. The contractor takes a disbursement and starts work, an inspector goes out to verify how far along the project actually is, the contractor requests the next tranche, and the cycle repeats until the job is finished. ### “I have a five-acre lot and I want to put a modular home on it. Can you do the loan?” Probably not, and Debbie said so plainly rather than stringing the caller along. What that project needs is either new construction financing or manufactured home lending, and neither is what her team writes. Her advice was to start with the manufacturer you are buying the unit from, because they generally have a lender they refer to. Failing that, call the office anyway — she has a mobile home lender she refers people to, and she would rather hand you a name and a number than leave you stuck. ### “Is a home equity loan or a refinance better right now if I need to pull money out?” It depends on the gap between your existing rate and today's, and on how much you need. Her worked example: if you owe $200,000 at 3% and you want another $200,000, it can genuinely make sense to put the whole $400,000 into one new fixed loan at around 7% — because the alternative, a home equity line at 10% or more, is worse on the larger balance and it is adjustable on top. Her general lean was toward one new fixed first mortgage rather than a line, for anyone borrowing a substantial amount. Equity lines carry higher rates than a first, they adjust with the Fed, and the Fed was still raising. A fixed rate can always be refinanced later if rates improve; an adjustable line just keeps climbing in the meantime. ### “I'm a first-time buyer and I want a four-unit property. Where do I begin?” Three steps, in order. First, get the education — there is a full home buyer workshop playlist on the YouTube channel, and it takes you from pre-approval to closing. Second, call and get pre-approved, so you know your actual numbers before you fall in love with a building. Third, get matched with a real estate agent who understands multi-unit property, because you will need a credible estimate of what the other units rent for — that rental income can be used to help you qualify. One number to plan around from the outset: on a conventional loan, a four-unit purchase required at least 25% down. FHA carries its own additional guidelines for multi-unit properties, so which program you use changes what you need in the bank. ### “Where are VA rates right now?” VA had some of the best pricing of anything on the board that week — anywhere from the high fives to the mid sixes, with credit score, loan-to-value, and property type all moving it. A low credit score pushes you toward the higher end of that range. Significantly better than where the same loan had been priced a few weeks earlier. ## Rates mentioned on this show (week of November 16, 2022 — ranges, not quotes) - Improvement off the recent high: about **60 basis points**, or six tenths of a percent, in a single move - Conventional 30-year fixed: from around **7.5%** down into the **high sixes** - FHA and VA: into the **low sixes**, and into the **high fives** with a seller-paid buydown - VA range that week: **high fives to mid sixes**, depending on credit and loan-to-value - Home equity lines of credit: **10%+**, and adjustable *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are ranges Debbie gave on air for context, not a quote.* ### Want a reverse mortgage quote? It takes five pieces of information and one phone call — see the list at the end of the transcript. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run scenarios with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners who asked questions in the live chat are identified by first name only, or not at all where they used a screen name.* ### Why rates dropped Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and today we're covering two subjects: interest rates, because they definitely came down and we got a nice little rally, and reverse mortgages, because lately quite a few people have been asking about them. I think it's a very special product with a bad name attached to it that isn't at all what people believe. So: why did rates come down, and how much? We've seen about a sixty basis point improvement. That might sound like a foreign language, but it equates to about six tenths of a percent. Last Thursday the inflation report came out and told us things are looking better than they were. Everybody got very excited — the stock market was up a thousand points, crypto had a little rally. The report was that inflation numbers were actually starting to come *down*. Not staying the same, not inching up a little — actually coming down. That threw the market into a rally, and when we get a rally, rates improve. I talk about this often on the show: it depends on what they're talking about. Somebody makes an announcement or a report gets published, and it can throw mortgage-backed securities, the stock market, the bonds — everything — into a tizzy, for good or for bad. I can't put an exact number on it because rates change every day, but from our highest to where we dropped, it was about 0.60 of improvement. So if you've been hearing seven and a half percent, which is roughly where we've been for the last couple of weeks, now you're in the high sixes. On government loans, FHA and VA, we came down into the low sixes, which is very nice. And if you're a buyer who can get the seller to pay some closing costs and buy your rate down a couple of points, you could very well be into the high fives. Now — my personal opinion, the Mortgage Mom, not a financial advisor. I don't think rates are going to keep dropping. We got one really big drop on Thursday and it's held pretty steady since: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I think we got our dip, we've plateaued, and the next move is the upward escalator. Why? Because after that great report, another one came out this week saying the Federal Reserve understands inflation got better but it is not fixed, we've still got a long way to go, and they do not plan to let up. We're rolling into a holiday week, and the next Fed meeting is at the beginning of December. They told us last time, when they raised in November, that they were planning to raise again at the next meeting. So we'll start to see anticipation build, and I believe rates climb back up. So if you've been thinking about refinancing, or consolidating a first and a second into one loan, or doing a renovation — now is the time. I've never steered you wrong in all the years I've done this show: lock in a rate right now. Over the next week to a week and a half they are going to start anticipating the next hike. That's my two cents of the day. ### Q&A: refinancing, renovation loans, and where the money sits Cindy asks: *“Would we be able to refinance at the moment?”* Great question. You can always refinance — refinances aren't gone whatsoever. It's a matter of where your interest rate is today and whether it makes sense based on your personal scenario. If you'd rather not put your situation into the feed for me to read aloud, that's completely fine. Call the office and get me or one of the team on the phone, and we'll talk it through privately. Another listener asks: *“What kind of loan do I need to do an addition to the house? I need more cash than the equity I have available.”* Really great question. There are plenty of loans where, if you have the equity, you can pull cash out — either in a first mortgage or a home equity line of credit. But you're saying you don't have enough equity for a standard refinance or an equity line. In that case you're a very good candidate for a renovation loan. Renovation loans come a couple of ways: a conventional renovation through Fannie Mae, and an FHA renovation loan. We determine the work you're going to do, we get your contractor's bids for that work, and we provide the bid to the appraiser. The appraiser then appraises your home *and* adds the work you plan to do — the bedroom, the bathroom, the larger family room. They appraise the property based on the future value once those improvements have been made. That's what allows us to close the refinance and get you the cash, and then you start the work with your contractor. Follow-up from the same listener: *“Does the money stay in escrow during the build?”* It doesn't actually stay in escrow — it remains with the lender. The bank holds the money, and as you start the project they disburse funds to the contractor as you go. The contractor gets a disbursement and starts to build. They send an inspector out to see what point in the project the contractor is at. The contractor requests additional funds, they release another set of funds, the contractor keeps building, and it continues that way as you roll through the project. Maria asks: *“I have a five-acre lot and I want to put a modular home there. Can you help me with the loan?”* It really depends, and I'm going to be honest with you — probably not. What it sounds like you need is financing to purchase that home, and we don't do new construction loans. If you're getting a loan for the manufactured home itself, that's mobile home lending, which is its own thing. What I'd actually advise: you can call the office and talk to us, and if it isn't something that works for our group, I have a fantastic mobile home lender I can refer you to. But you may want to start with the company you're buying the home from. Manufacturers generally have a lender they refer you to if you're looking at one of their units. That's the very best place to start. And if that doesn't help in any way, call my office — we'll get you a name, we'll get you a number, we'll tell you who to call and how to find the answer you need. ### Q&A: equity line or new first mortgage? A listener asks: *“Do you feel getting a home equity loan or a refinance is better right now if I need to pull out money?”* A very good question, and one I've answered quite a few times, because we get it daily from people calling the office. It really depends on the person, what their current rate is on the first mortgage, whether they even have a mortgage right now, and how much cash they're trying to pull out. A quick example. If your mortgage balance is $200,000 and your rate is 3%, and you call us and we say we're going to give you 7% on a new loan, you might think that doesn't make sense at all. But if you owe $200,000 and you're looking for another $200,000, and the rate on a home equity line of credit is 10% or more, then it probably *does* make sense to put all four hundred thousand at 7%. And the good news is we just got that nice dip. So right now there's a very good chance that if you called us looking to do a cash-out, or a debt consolidation, or to combine your first mortgage and your equity line into one loan, we could get you locked into something under seven — in the six percent range. We can also talk about paying points to buy that rate down further if it's something you want to hold for a long time. All of your options, and the math behind them, is what we give you so you can make the decision. My own lean: if you owe $200,000 and you want to pull out a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand, you're probably better off doing one brand new mortgage at a fixed rate for the long term. When rates come down in the future you can always refinance again. Equity lines of credit are adjustable, their rates are significantly higher than what you'd lock on a first mortgage, and because they're adjustable they can keep going up — and as I said, the Fed is meeting again in December and is expected to raise. Could they change their mind? They could. But I'm reading them saying the CPI numbers are better and they plan to stay the course. But we've got to talk to you. We've got to know how much you're looking to take out, what you owe on the first, and what your current rate is, before anyone can tell you what's actually best. ### Q&A: first-time buyer, four-unit property Nora asks: *“I want to begin the process. I'm a first-time home buyer and I'd like to know where to begin — a four-unit property preferably.”* Fantastic. We're here to help first-time buyers get the education they need — that's why I do the home buyer workshops. They're on the YouTube channel under a playlist called Home Buyer Workshop. It's a three-hour workshop, so you might have to take me in pieces. But everything you need to know about getting started is in there: the process from beginning to end, what the words mean, what pre-approved means, how to find the right real estate agent, what happens when you're getting ready to close. That's step one if you're not quite ready to make the phone call. Step two — and you sound ready — is to call us and let us start your application, get your documentation, and see what you qualify for. Then you have your numbers and your price range. Step three: because you're talking about a four-unit building, we want to make sure you're working with a real estate agent who understands units and can give us a good indication of what the additional units would rent for. We can use that rental income to help you qualify for the purchase. And depending on the program: if you're looking at a conventional loan, you'd need at least 25% down for a four-unit building. If you're doing FHA, there are some additional guidelines you need to be aware of as you're out looking at properties. So there's a lot to discuss, and I just threw all of it at you very quickly — which is exactly what we don't want the process to feel like. We take you step by step: learn the process, get pre-approved, then talk about properties and an agent, then get out there looking. Another listener asks: *“What are the current rates for VA loans?”* VA loans are going to be lower than conventional — they have some of the best rates of any product we carry. They depend on your credit score, your loan-to-value, and all the same factors as any other mortgage, so I have to give you a range: anywhere from the high fives to the mid sixes depending on you. A lower credit score puts you at the higher end of that. But significantly better than where we were previously. ### What a reverse mortgage actually is A reverse mortgage does exactly what the name says: it goes in reverse. Instead of making a payment every month and watching your balance drop, you don't make a payment — or you make a very small one, depending on how you set it up — and your balance gets *bigger*. It keeps increasing for as long as you have the loan, and that loan stays open for as long as you live there. Who is it good for? Somebody whose home is the bulk of their assets at retirement. Maybe they worked a long time for a company but don't have a pension. All they have is Social Security. They have a 401(k) but the balance isn't very big. They never really got the chance to do a lot of investing or saving — but they have this house, it's worth a good amount, and they don't owe very much on it, if anything at all. They could sell and take the lump sum — but where are they going to go? They want to stay where they are. They want to live in the home they've always lived in. Their property taxes are low because they've been there a long time. When real estate is genuinely your retirement vehicle, that's where a reverse mortgage comes in. Now, if you have a fantastic monthly pension, Social Security, some self-employed income on the side, and more than enough budget to make a mortgage payment — then a reverse mortgage isn't for you. Keep the home free and clear, or keep making the payment to pay the debt off, so that when you pass you leave the home to your heirs with a good amount of equity in it. A reverse mortgage does eat away at your equity. But that's really no different from selling the home, taking the cash, and living on it. ### What your family inherits This is what I get from families who are upset when they find out a parent has looked into a reverse mortgage. They feel like the home they thought they were going to inherit is going to be lost. It isn't. Number one: title does not change. You are still the owner of the property. So what does that mean for sons and daughters? When you pass, the loan on the home has to be paid off. They get six months from the time of your passing to do that. They can refinance the property or they can sell it — so they do have the option to keep the home in the family. It does not automatically go to the bank. It is not taken away from them. They inherit the property exactly as they would in any other situation. If you pass and you have an ordinary mortgage, it's the same thing: they take over the mortgage, or they refinance it, or they sell. It really is no different. Second thing people misunderstand. The reverse mortgage stays on the home for as long as you live. Let's say you took it at 62\. They cannot at any point say sorry, your house isn't worth what it was, you owe more than it's worth, we're cutting you off and you have to pay us back. That doesn't happen. If they put you in the reverse mortgage, the terms you agreed to are yours for your lifespan. That doesn't change. And if property values drop, or you live substantially longer than the bank anticipated, and you now owe more on the house than it's worth — your heirs are not required to pay that back. If the house is worth less than what you owe, they can choose to let the bank take it. If it's worth more, they can refinance or sell. ### What the lender checks A lot of the misconceptions people carry come from before the Dodd-Frank Act and the mortgage reform legislation. Things were done differently in those days. Since then everything has been rewritten to protect the consumer, so it is much different today than it used to be. We are going to check your debt-to-income ratio. We need to make sure you have the means to stay in the home — to cover your property taxes and your homeowners insurance, and to cover your other monthly expenses. It's qualified significantly differently from a normal mortgage, it is not at all the same, but we do check that you have the funds to take care of yourself. We are also going to check your credit. Way back in the day it didn't matter what your credit looked like. Today it does. You can have a low credit score, but you won't be able to get as much financing — we won't go to as high a loan-to-value as we would for somebody with a better rating, no tax liens, nothing else negative on the report, and no recently missed mortgage payments. Creating protections for the consumer also brought in additional guidelines the lender has to follow when qualifying you. ### How age sets the maximum loan Who can get a reverse mortgage? It starts at age 62 — you have to be at least 62\. And the younger you are, the lower the loan-to-value they will allow. I've got my cheat sheet right here so I'm reading this accurately. At 62 years old the maximum loan-to-value is about 0.424 — call it 42%. So if your home is worth a hundred thousand dollars, the maximum loan that can be offered is forty-two thousand. That's what your loan can start at. If you own the house free and clear and it's worth a hundred thousand, at 62 you could take a forty-two thousand dollar loan, cash in hand — minus closing costs, obviously. Then every month that you don't make a payment, your balance increases. So they're leaving the other 58% as equity in the property, because your life expectancy has so many years left that they assume the balance will grow across all those years. Say you're 80 years old, you owe nothing, and the house is worth a hundred thousand. You'd be able to take about 0.546 — call it 55%. So the forty-two thousand becomes about fifty-four or fifty-five thousand, and you're not making a payment for your complete life expectancy. At 90 we could go as high as 0.66 — 66% of your home's value. Here's how that plays out. If you have a mortgage today and you owe $50,000 on a $100,000 property, you would *not* be a candidate at 62\. But at 75, we'd be able to pay off the mortgage you have, set you up with the new reverse mortgage, and you're not making payments going forward. ### The five things we need to quote you It's very easy for us to get you a quote — there isn't much we need. Here's the list, so you're prepared when you call. Names and dates of birth for everyone who will be on the loan. If it's just Mom, or just Dad, or both — and note that if they live together in the home, they both have to be on the loan, and both have to be at least 62\. Then: the property address. Your best guess at what the property is worth, just so we have a place to start. How much you owe on the current mortgage. How much your property taxes are per year. And how much your homeowners insurance is per year. That's pretty much it. If there's an amount of cash you'd like to have in hand, know that too, so we can factor it into the quote. Whether it's for you, a friend, a family member, or a parent who's been thinking about it — we can get you the numbers very simply, and you can take them back to them. Call the office at 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4. ### Wrap-up Back to where we started: we saw a really great rate drop. My personal opinion — the Mortgage Mom, not a financial advisor, just somebody who's been in the industry approaching thirty years — is that the lower rates are very short-lived. So if you've been thinking about any kind of lending, taking out cash, debt consolidation, consolidating a first and an equity line into one loan, or purchasing a home, you need to reach out and do it now. Talk to us about lock-and-shop programs, anything we can do to get you locked in. We had a big rate drop nobody anticipated, and I do not expect it to stick around much longer. I always forget to do this, so: happy holidays, everybody. I will not be on next week, because next Wednesday is the day before Thanksgiving, and that's the day I roll up my sleeves and start cooking — from scratch, starting Wednesday morning, and we eat Thursday at three. So we'll be dark next week and I'll be back the Wednesday after. Happy Thanksgiving. You'll see me after the bird is done. Talk to y'all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of Wednesday, November 16, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Homeowner In Debt: Refinance, HELOC, Sell, Or Short Sale? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/homeowner-in-debt-refinance-heloc-sell-or-short-sale/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:03.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Are You A Homeowner In Debt and Not Sure What To Do?” • Live show from Wednesday, November 9, 2022 • 68 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 **Please read first — some details in this episode have since changed.** This show aired on November 9, 2022\. Two things discussed here work differently today: the estimate of seller closing costs at five to seven percent of the sale price assumed the pre-2024 convention in which the seller's side customarily covered both agents' commissions, which changed with the 2024 National Association of Realtors settlement; and the passing comment that FHA mortgage insurance is tax deductible reflects a deduction that has not been reliably available in recent tax years. **Confirm both with your own agent and CPA rather than relying on this page.** The reasoning about equity, short sales, and hardship is the durable part. The phone calls that week were all the same shape: a homeowner with credit card debt they cannot outrun, sitting on a low mortgage rate they do not want to give up, wondering whether the answer is a refinance, an equity line, or selling. Debbie brought on a licensed California real estate agent from her team and they worked it as role-play — two real consultations, start to finish — then explained what a short sale actually is, since most people had not heard the term in a decade. **Editor's note, added later:** this show refers to FHA mortgage insurance being tax deductible. The federal deduction for mortgage insurance premiums has since expired and is not available today, and whether any such deduction ever applied depended on your own tax situation. Talk to a tax professional before counting on it. ## Key takeaways - **Do not blow up a 3% first mortgage to reach the equity behind it.** Refinancing $400,000 at 3% into $450,000 at high-sixes or low-sevens more than doubles the payment. Leave the first alone and look at a home equity line or a home equity loan sitting behind it. - **Compare the new payment to the minimums you are paying now — not to the interest rate.** If the credit card minimums total $500 a month and the equity line to retire them costs $700, the consolidation has made your month worse. A blended-rate calculation is what settles it. - **Equity you can see is not equity you can borrow.** A cash-out refinance generally requires you to keep about 20% equity, and the combined first-and-second ceiling discussed on air topped out around 90–95%. A buyer who put 3.5% down last year on a home that has not appreciated has no room, however large the number on the valuation site looks. VA is the exception that can reach 100% of value. - **Selling to raise cash usually does not raise cash.** Once the loan and the seller's costs are paid, a recent low-down-payment buyer typically walks away with nothing — and loses the mortgage interest and property tax deductions on top. Debbie's read on that caller: stay, rent the spare bedroom, deal with the debt separately. - **You do *not* have to be behind on your mortgage to do a short sale.** Debbie called this the single biggest misconception. Staying current protects your credit and makes it far easier and faster to get you into another mortgage later — and a short sale is much better on that score than a foreclosure. - **The bank wants a real hardship, and it will look.** A short sale package is a full financial file plus an explanation of what changed — a job loss, a death, a divorce, a pay cut. If you still have the boat, the RV, and money in the bank, the answer is no. Expect roughly six to eight weeks for the lender to even respond after an offer comes in. - **A second lien has to agree too.** Every lien on the property must be satisfied to sell. If you are short on both a first mortgage and a HELOC, both lenders have to approve — and the first dictates what the second is offered. - **Debbie's order of preference is to keep the house.** Sell the toys, look hard at whether bankruptcy is the better tool, cut what you do not need — because a wrecked credit file is far harder to live with when you then have to persuade a landlord to rent to you. ## Chapters - 01:00Why this show: homeowners in debt, calling for options - 14:00Scenario one: $50,000 in cards, 3% first, and equity - 17:00The questions a lender asks you first - 18:00Why the refinance is the wrong tool here - 19:00Compare the new payment to your current minimums - 28:20The warning: you will use the cards again - 30:40Scenario two: bought last year, 3.5% down, no room - 32:20Why you cannot pull out the equity you can see - 34:30Would selling actually help? Running it through - 38:40Seller costs, and the deductions you give up - 45:00When selling *is* the right answer - 52:30What a short sale is and how it works - 55:30The myth that you must be behind on payments - 56:50Q&A: can I still sell if I have a HELOC? - 59:50Who is — and is not — a short sale candidate - 63:00Your home is your most valuable asset ## Questions answered on this show ### “Can I still sell my house if I have a home equity line of credit on it?” Yes. Every lien against the property simply has to be satisfied at closing — a first mortgage, an equity line, a tax lien, an SBA loan, whatever is attached. If you have a $400,000 first and a $100,000 line on a home worth $500,000, the line gets paid off out of the sale like any other lien and there is nothing unusual about the transaction. It only gets complicated if you are short. Then the agent has to negotiate an approval from whichever lender is not going to be made whole. You can short sale a second on its own: if the first mortgage is covered and only the HELOC falls short, the negotiation is with that second lender alone. If both are short, both have to approve, and the first mortgage dictates what the second is offered — the second then has to agree to it. ### Not sure which of these you are? That is exactly the phone call this show is about, and the consultation is free. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the payment comparisons yourself with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, repeated housekeeping, and studio banter have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Debbie's guest is a licensed California real estate agent on the Mortgage Mom Radio team, working in real estate since 1996; she is credited here by role rather than by name.* ### Why we're doing this show Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and today I have one of the agents from my team with me. She's a licensed real estate agent in the state of California and has been since 1996\. We've both been doing this since the nineties, and we've been through the cycles — the up and the down, at least two or three different times. And here we are again in another cycle where a lot of people don't really know what to do. I brought her on because she's been primarily real estate for most of her career, where I started in real estate but have been in mortgage for most of mine. I named this show: are you a homeowner in debt and you don't know what to do? Are you toying with selling? Are you toying with refinancing and worrying you'll lose the low rate you have? Have you got credit card debt and you're wondering about an equity line? We're getting these phone calls. Everybody on the team is fielding them. And in last week's show I talked about a friend who texted me saying she had this debt and didn't know what to do — and it really got me thinking about what we should be telling people. Should we be advising them to sell? To do nothing? That an equity line is the way to go? It depends on the scenario and the person. So today we're going through options and giving you the homework to figure out what works for you. We're not here to give advice — we're not financial advisors — but we can educate you and lay out what's actually available. I can absolutely see that we're probably going to start to see some foreclosures. We are definitely going to see some short sales. And a lot of people don't even know what a short sale is, because it's been eleven or twelve years since they've been common. They don't know it's an option. One more thing before we start: a lot of people assume we're going to judge them. Oh, we're in trouble. That is so far from the truth. A lot of the calls I get off of, people say thank you for taking that half hour and answering my questions, because I really didn't know what to do. I'm not going to tell you that you have to do this or that. I'm going to present you with what's available, and then it's up to you to make the best decision for you and your family. ### Scenario one: $50,000 in credit card debt and a 3% mortgage *Debbie plays the caller; the agent takes the consultation.* **Caller:** My name's Debbie, I was listening to the show, and I've got some questions. I need some cash and I'm not sure how to get it. I've got to get some of these credit cards paid off — I owe about fifty thousand dollars on the cards and they're killing me. **Agent:** Okay. First I'm going to ask what state you live in, so I know what the rules are, because every state is different — on refinancing, and even more so if you're looking at a short sale or a foreclosure. Say California. Then, what county? Los Angeles. Now, what do you think your home is worth? **Caller:** Probably six hundred thousand, maybe seven hundred. **Agent:** And where did you get that value from? A valuation website. Fine — I'll ask for your address, because I'm going to look at the same thing while we talk. How much do you owe? Four hundred thousand. Do you have a second loan, or just a first? Just a first. So we're looking at owing about four hundred thousand on a house worth about six hundred. Right there, as a lender, that tells me you do have some room, whether that's a cash-out or some sort of equity line or equity loan. So I already know I have a couple of different options. Next: are your payments current? Yes, barely, but I'm making them. So you're struggling every month. And if you had the money to pay off the cards, do you feel you'd be able to make the mortgage payment more comfortably, or would you still struggle? **Caller:** I'd really like to pull cash out, get the credit cards paid off, and maybe lower my monthly payment from what it is today. **Agent:** Now, what's the rate on your home? Three percent. So I'm going to be honest with you. Rates are nowhere near three percent right now. You're going to at least double that. If you owe $400,000 and I take you to a rate in the high sixes, possibly low sevens depending on your situation, it's going to more than double your payment. So if it's an option, I'd like to leave your first mortgage where it is at three percent, and look at a home equity line of credit instead. The rate on that is going to be higher, but there are a bunch of different options to look at. Then I'd ask what your payments are — how many cards, what are you looking to pay off, what are the monthly minimums. Because if you're only paying $500 a month in minimums and the equity line is going to cost you six or seven hundred a month, I have been detrimental to you by giving you that line. So I dig in. Three credit cards, a personal loan, a student loan, whatever it is. We have a blended rate calculator: I put in all your debts with their interest and I can see what your overall rate actually is. **Debbie:** And we both know credit cards are well into the twenties right now. I was looking last night, because I wanted to know where they'd landed after the prime rate has gone up so many times. What are they advertising for a new card *before* they've even seen your credit score? Between twenty-six and twenty-eight percent. **Agent:** If you have really great credit there are cards with zero interest for the first twelve or eighteen months, which is fabulous. But if you've already run up the balances and you're close to your limits, your score is already lower and the chances of qualifying for those are very slim. **Debbie:** Keep that in mind. Many of you have not actually stopped and looked at what the rate is on the debt you carry. And a lot of people right now are using the cards just to live month to month, because the cost of everything has gone up. So look at it: where am I, and am I adding to this? So scenario one comes out as either an equity line of credit, or literally keeping what you've got. And one thing I'm going to say, because I've said it many times — listen to Mom. You will pay the credit cards off, you will have every intention of never touching them again, and you will touch them. It'll be just for this one thing, I can pay it off. And then just for this one thing. And the next thing you know you're back in the cycle. You have to get very diligent and very budgeted right now. Put them away. Because if you get out of the hole today and get yourself back in it, there's a very good chance you don't get out the next time. The reason I mentioned scenario one is that “refinance, pull the cash out, pay off the debt, and lower my payment” is what I heard for years running — 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 — and it was something we could do over and over. People were gaining equity every year while rates came down, so I could finance more at a lower rate and keep the payment the same or better while paying the debt off. People got into a cycle: spend it, pay it off, refinance, spend it, refinance. We are in a cycle now where that just isn't going to keep working. ### Scenario two: bought last year, 3.5% down, and no room *This one is a real conversation the agent had with a friend. Roles swap; Debbie takes the call.* **Caller:** Hi Debbie, I'm wanting to know if I can pull some cash out of my house. I bought it this last year with an FHA loan, so I only put three and a half percent down. When I bought it, it was about $460,000\. The market's come down a little, but the valuation site is telling me it's worth about $470,000\. So from what I put down and everything, I think I have about nineteen thousand dollars of equity, and I wanted to pull all of that out so I can pay some bills. **Debbie:** That's actually not going to be possible. We can't do a cash-out refinance unless you're leaving at least twenty percent equity in the property. Are you a veteran or active duty? No. **Caller:** But why can't I pull the nineteen thousand out? I have that equity in the home. **Debbie:** Every loan program has its own underwriting guidelines, and none of them want you to be able to pull out up to a hundred percent of the value of your home. They're concerned that if values drop it becomes that much easier to walk away. It's the risk factor that goes into how the guidelines get written. If you were a vet, I'd say we might have an opportunity to look at it, because with a VA loan we can go up to a hundred percent of the value — that's the one program that lets you go there. But with an FHA loan and three and a half percent down, and a home worth about what you paid for it, we don't even have room to look at an equity line of credit. The highest we can go on an equity loan is 95%, and I believe the lines are held at 90%. There might be something in doing a first and a second, but we can only go to a combined loan-to-value of 95%, and you're already above that because you only put three and a half percent down. So in your scenario I don't, as the lender, have any options to offer you right now. How much debt do you have? **Caller:** About thirty-five to forty thousand in credit cards. I'm really struggling each month to pay my mortgage, and even though I just bought the house I'm borrowing money to pay that and my homeowners association dues. It's more than I can handle. I struggled getting into it. I probably shouldn't have bought it. But now I'm here and I don't know what to do. **Debbie:** Have you looked at what you could rent for if you sold? Could you get something similar for a lower monthly payment, so you could get the cash you need to pay the debts off? **Caller:** I've been looking at apartments. I rent one of the rooms out right now just to help make the payment. I've got a two bedroom, two bath, so if my roommate and I rented an apartment it'd be pretty similar — and I'd probably save about a thousand dollars a month. **Debbie:** A thousand a month, even counting the rent you collect from the spare bedroom. All right. *End of the role-play.* Here's what I'd actually tell him. It's worth exploring — but even if he sells today, I don't believe he walks away with anything. There will be nothing there to pay off the debts, which is what he came to us for. And although the rent would be cheaper than what he's paying, he loses the tax deduction for the mortgage interest and the property taxes. So, number one, talk to your CPA first. If he can keep that extra bedroom rented and take the deductions, that changes the math. And number two, talk to the real estate agent who helped him buy, to find out how much he'd actually walk away with — if anything — or whether he'd end up owing money. Then let him make the decision. If I had to guess, he's probably better off staying in the property, renting out the bedroom, and figuring out what to do with the debt separately. **Agent:** He was really surprised. He kept saying, but I have nineteen thousand dollars. I explained it just the way you did and it was a genuine shock to him that he couldn't get to that money — he was really relying on it. Once we got past that hurdle we talked about the taxes, because he does make good money and he's in a great profession. Could he afford to lose those write-offs? We explored whether he could get more rent for the room. And we explored selling — whether he'd even have enough to cover the closing costs. I don't think he would. **Debbie:** That's where I was going next. He bought with three and a half percent down, and he probably bought at the highest of the high — likely the highest price to close in his condominium complex. Prices have already come down. And depending on where you're located, your seller's closing costs — real estate commissions, title policies, escrow, or attorneys if you're not in an escrow state — usually run anywhere from five to seven percent of the sales price. He doesn't have the equity to cover that. He'd have to bring money out of pocket to sell, and then go rent and lose all his deductions. He's best off staying. ### When selling actually is the answer Let's talk about when it does make sense to sell — not an equity line, not a refinance, but actually selling. Somebody who is behind on their mortgage, who has racked up credit card debt, who isn't making enough to maintain the property, who bought twelve months ago for more than the home is worth today with three, three and a half, or five percent down, or zero down as a vet. This can happen to anybody. It could be financial mismanagement — they went out and bought a bunch of brand new furniture and had a heyday setting up the new house, and now they're paying the consequences. It could simply be inflation: gas costs more to get to work, groceries cost more, utilities cost more, and it wasn't something they budgeted for. It could be a job loss, and the new job doesn't pay what the old one did. There is absolutely no judgment being cast here. **Agent:** And you don't have to be behind on your payments. If you're struggling with the payment, or you know that in the near future you won't be able to make it, this applies to you. **Debbie:** You might be getting close to the point where you're deciding whether to eat or make the payment. So here's the first thing to think about. Your home is one of the most important things you have. It doesn't matter what it's worth, it doesn't matter what you owe on it. Do the homework: where could you relocate to — across the street, across the city, another town, another state? What kind of property do you need for you and your family, and what is that rent going to cost? If your mortgage is three thousand a month and the rent is going to cost you about the same, maybe more, maybe only slightly less — it may not make sense to lose your property. It might make more sense to look into a bankruptcy. It might make sense to ask what you can do about the credit card debt, whether you need the expensive car with the expensive payment. Is there anything at all you can do to keep yourself in the home, if where you'd be relocating to costs roughly the same? Now, if you can go rent for half the price, that's a different ball game. ### Upside down, and what a short sale actually is **Debbie:** Say I owe five hundred thousand, my house is worth four hundred and ninety, I'm not behind yet but I'm getting close. **Agent:** We're going to talk about where you live and what you could rent for. If you tell me you just can't do it, or you have to move out of state, or you know you're going to lose your job — it depends on your situation. If you tell me you're not losing your home, you have to stay, then we're going to have a bankruptcy talk: how much debt do you really have, and is filing right for you? If that's off the table, we're back to looking seriously at selling. Upside down means you owe more on the home than it's worth — or that you do once you're done with the seller's costs. In your scenario there's a ten thousand dollar deficit on paper. But add a minimum of another five percent to sell, and that's twenty-five thousand. You're now thirty-five thousand upside down, minimum. So the question becomes: do you have thirty-five thousand to bring to the table? Because if you do, maybe you should be using it to pay the debt off instead. **Debbie:** So what is a short sale? You owe more on the house than it's worth — or than you can sell it for once all the closing costs and seller's fees are accounted for — and you don't have the cash to bring in to make up the deficit. A real estate agent has to go to your mortgage company and negotiate for the bank to take less than the full payoff, to help you sell the house. **Agent:** The first thing the bank wants to see is an offer on the home. So we get the property on the market, and it does have to be aggressively priced — you're probably going to be the lowest one out there. The property is always sold as is: you're not making repairs, you're not making changes. Don't worry if your walls are dented or your carpet is stained. Once we have that offer, I put together a whole package for the bank — the offer, plus your financials, just as if you were applying for a loan. They want to know why you're not making your payment. What is your hardship? Did you lose a job, did somebody pass away, did you go through a divorce, did you take a pay cut? Why do you have this hardship now that you didn't have when you purchased? Then we negotiate on your behalf. It's back and forth, and it generally takes about six weeks, possibly eight, to even get a response. We submit the package, they review it, they send out an appraiser, the appraiser values the property. Then they come back and say whether it's approved, and give us the terms and conditions. At that point it's a bit like the bank selling your home — but you still sign everything, because you're still the homeowner. **Debbie:** If you can continue to make your payments, I would highly recommend it. I don't even want to talk about foreclosure on this show, because I'd hope anyone listening to me would call us at the first point of emergency rather than getting there. As the lender looking out for your best interest: if you don't miss mortgage payments, it's easier for me to get you into another mortgage down the road. And a short sale is easier and faster to come back from than a foreclosure. There is a huge misconception that you have to be behind on your mortgage in order for the bank to accept a short sale. That is absolutely false. Back in the day, when everyone was trying to do loan modifications, people were actually told to stop making payments so the bank would look at helping them. That is not the case. Anything you can do to save your credit is going to make it easier for you to become a homeowner again in the future. ### Who is not a short sale candidate **Debbie:** Give us an example of somebody who should be considering a short sale. **Agent:** Somebody who owes more on the property than it's worth — and it doesn't matter to me whether that's twenty, thirty, fifty thousand or a hundred; by the time you add selling costs you are definitely upside down. Best case, you're not behind on your payments yet, so you protect your credit while we work it out with the bank. But the bank is going to want to see a hardship. Being behind usually demonstrates one. **Debbie:** But say I make good money and I just got myself into massive debt. I bought a boat, an RV, a trailer, jet skis, a sports car. I've got so many payments that the debt ratio isn't there — but if I didn't have all those toys, I could make my mortgage payment. **Agent:** You're probably not a good candidate, because the lender is going to say: so you're going to sell this house and still have all these toys? You need to do some homework beforehand. If that boat is too expensive, if the RV is too expensive, you really need to get rid of them — because they will look at your credit report and see what you have. If you're only delinquent on your house but current on all the toys, they're going to tell you no. They'll also look at how much you have in the bank. If you sold the toys but you're sitting on a hundred thousand dollars, they're not going to help you out. You truly have to have the need: you can't pay because you don't have the money, you've gotten rid of everything you could have, and you still can't pay. It can also be something like a relocation — they're moving you to another state to keep your job, you planned on staying in the house, but you can't rent it for what you owe and you can't afford to cover the shortfall while renting in the new state. I've seen relocations cause short sales. ### Your home is your most valuable asset **Debbie:** One thing I want to end on. I really believe your home is your most valuable asset, and it doesn't matter what it's worth today, next year, or the year after. Your home is your home. You're not a renter. Nobody can tell you what to do. You can live there as long as you make your payments. I would much rather see you sell all of those toys. I'd rather see you file a bankruptcy, even though that stinks. I'd rather see you lose the things you don't need than sell your property, become a renter, and have your credit fully messed up. Because it's one thing if your credit is messed up but you own your house and you don't have to apply to anybody. Imagine going to apply for a rental, and the landlord is looking at your credit history and sees you didn't make your mortgage payments. That was something we dealt with quite a bit during the great financial crisis. We're not advocating for anybody to sell. We're in the mortgage industry and the real estate industry — we're here to help you buy homes, keep homes, and get your debt paid off. But these are very hard situations that are coming up frequently right now, and we think they'll come up more often over the next couple of years. If there's something you want us to dig into, go to mortgagemomradio.com, click contact us, and send me an email — tell me what's happening with you or with a friend. If it's a good one, I'll make it a show. And if you want the consultation, call the office at 844-935-3634, 844-WE-LEND-4\. We're back every Wednesday right about 1 PM Pacific. To know when we go live, text the word MOM to that same number. Talk to y'all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of Wednesday, November 9, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### What Does a 1% Rate Increase Do to Your Buying Power? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/what-does-a-1-rate-increase-do-to-your-buying-power/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:04.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “11/2/2022 - Fed hikes rate again, .75%” • Live show from Wednesday, November 2, 2022 • 44 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 The Federal Reserve raised the Fed funds rate three quarters of a point on the afternoon of November 2, 2022 — the fourth hike of that size in a row — and Debbie went live a couple of hours later. This episode is the practical version of that news: why the hike was already baked into the rates being quoted, the rule of thumb she uses for how much buying power a rate increase costs you, and the homework she gives homeowners who are looking at a home equity line as the way out of credit card debt. ## Key takeaways - **The hike was already in your rate before it was announced.** Everyone expected three quarters of a point, so lenders had priced it into rate sheets over the preceding weeks. Expect a few days of noise from the announcement itself, then a settle — and then rates climbing again about two to three weeks before the next Fed meeting, as the market starts pricing *that* one in. - **Debbie's buying power rule: every 1% rise in rates costs you roughly 10% of your purchase power.** Her example on air — a buyer who could have bought at $1,000,000 in late 2021 was looking at a budget closer to $600,000 a year later. - **Buy on a five-year plan.** Values go up and values come down; five years is long enough that a dip has time to recover, so you are never forced to sell into the bottom. The corollary is her real test: buy a payment you can carry for those five years, not one you can only carry if a refinance rescues you. - **Do the rent-versus-own homework before you decide.** What are you paying now, what would an equivalent rental cost you today if your landlord ended your lease, and what changes on your tax return if you own? Take the refund difference, divide it by twelve, and that is real monthly money you can add to a housing budget. - **A home equity line is not a fix for credit card debt you cannot control.** HELOCs are adjustable and move with the Fed, so the payment grows with every hike — and if your value drops, the line can be frozen. Debbie has watched the pay-it-off-and-run-it-back-up cycle for years: put the cards somewhere you cannot reach them rather than closing them, because closing them damages your credit. - **The refinance that used to solve this mostly does not exist right now.** Moving a $300,000 loan at 4% into a $400,000 loan at 7% raises the payment substantially. If you are sitting on a low rate, taking cash out on top of it is a very different trade than it was a year or two earlier. - **Consider the ADU math before you borrow for it.** Debbie liked the idea of building a rental unit, but the test is arithmetic: work out what the added loan costs you per month at today's rate, then compare that to the rent the unit would actually bring in. ## Chapters - 00:50The Fed raised three quarters of a point today - 01:30Why the hike was already built into current rates - 03:00Another hike expected at the December meeting - 05:20Every 1% in rates costs about 10% of buying power - 06:40There is no wrong answer right now — buy or wait - 08:30Where Debbie thinks rates go from here - 10:00Sellers pulling listings, and rents going up - 11:10The five-year plan, and buying what you can afford - 12:40Homework: compare your rent to a new rental, and check your tax return - 21:30Self-employed and 1099? Call before you file two years of returns - 23:30Q&A: cash-out refinance to build an ADU and pay off cards - 29:00Why a HELOC can make a credit card problem worse - 30:30Budgeting, consolidating, and lines of credit getting frozen - 34:00Reading the Fed's statement out loud - 36:30What “reducing holdings of mortgage-backed securities” means for your rate - 40:00Wrap-up and how to catch the next live show ## Questions answered on this show ### “I want to refinance and take cash out to build an ADU and pay off credit cards — and lower my payment. Can I?” Taking cash out *and* lowering the payment was normal for years. It mostly is not available now, and the reason is arithmetic rather than policy: if your existing mortgage is $300,000 at around 4% and you refinance into $400,000 at around 7%, the payment goes up substantially. That trade only makes sense in specific situations — if the rate you are sitting on is already high, or if the cash coming out retires other debt that costs far more than the mortgage does. Debbie liked the ADU idea itself, because a rental unit earns money rather than just spending it. But she gave homework rather than an answer: write down what you owe today, your current rate, and your principal-and-interest payment with taxes and insurance stripped out. Add the amount you would need to borrow. Run the new payment at today's rate. Then ask whether the increase is more or less than the rent the ADU would collect. If the added payment is bigger than the rent, this is not the moment for that project. ## Rates mentioned on this show (week of November 2, 2022 — examples, not quotes) - Fed funds target range after the hike: **3.75–4%**, a three-quarter-point increase - FHA 30-year purchase rate Debbie was writing that day: **6.875%** - One buyer locked at **5.875%** — because the seller paid points to buy the rate down - Typical conventional 30-year fixed for the payment math she walked through: **7–7.25%** *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are examples she gave on air for context, not a quote.* ### Run your own numbers before you decide Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or work through the scenarios with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Sponsor messages, commercial breaks, repeated housekeeping, and off-topic asides have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### The Fed raised rates again today Welcome to the Mortgage Mom Radio show. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I'm the Mortgage Mom, and I'm very excited to do this show today. The Federal Reserve did come out and say today, about an hour or two ago, that they raised the Fed rate by another three quarters of a point. So the most important thing to know is what that means for you — if you're out there thinking about buying a home, you've been pre-approved, you haven't found a house yet, you haven't locked in an interest rate. Number one: everybody knew this was coming. Everybody expected it. We all anticipated the three-quarter-point increase today; it's been talked about for a very long time. So in the interest rates we have been quoting people over the last couple of weeks, we have already seen that increase put into the rates. It's already been built in. Like with any announcement, we'll see the stock market move, we'll see the bond markets change, and that might spark something short term. Might rates be a little different tomorrow? Sure — there could be some movement up and down purely from the announcement and the excitement. But in reality we've already seen those rates go up and we've already seen them get built in. One thing to keep in mind: they stated today that when they get back together in six more weeks, at the end of December, they are planning to raise again. So things get a little crazy right now, for the next couple of days — tomorrow, Friday, Monday, Tuesday — then they simmer down. And then about two to three weeks before the next Fed meeting, we're going to see interest rates start to climb again, with the assumption of that next hike being built in. What should you be doing? If you've been looking for a home, making offers, trying to get yourself into your next transaction — do it as quickly as you can. We've been saying it for the last year and a half: rates are going up. That's not going to change. The sooner you lock in a rate, the better that rate will be. The last thing I heard was that they anticipate the Federal Reserve continuing to increase into March of 2023, then leaving things be, and eventually starting to bring rates down a bit. Nobody has a crystal ball, and the direction they're pointed in can get turned around. But right now we are on the upward escalator. I don't see any major dips coming any time soon. ### Every 1% in rates costs about 10% of your buying power A lot of people ask whether they should be buying right now or waiting, so here are some facts you need to be aware of — and this is why the interest rate matters so much. An easy way to think about it: for every one percent that interest rates increase, your buying power decreases by about ten percent. So if this time last year rates were at three and a half percent, and today they're at seven and a half, we have moved four percent. That's forty percent of your purchase power. If in November of 2021 you could have purchased a home for a million dollars, there's a very good chance that today your budget is somewhere around six hundred thousand. It's a very big swing, and it makes a humongous difference. Somebody buying a home for $600,000 at seven or seven and a half percent has a significantly higher monthly payment than that same home carried a year ago. So if you can, try to get that rate locked in before they go higher. And everybody keeps telling me, well, what I think I'm going to do is wait. That's okay too. There is no bad decision right now — there is not a single opinion anybody can have that is wrong, because none of us know what's coming. If you asked me how long before rates come down, I'd honestly tell you I think they'll keep raising into the first quarter of 2023\. Then they still need to bring inflation down, so they need to keep rates high for however long that takes. From March, I think we've probably got until the end of that year, maybe twelve months, before we start to see some relaxation. So my opinion: eighteen months or so before rates come back toward more normal levels. And six percent, five percent — those *are* normal levels. The three percents, the four percents, the two percents had never been heard of before. That was a pandemic. I don't know that we'll necessarily ever get back to that point again. I've been in this business a long time: 2017, 2018, 2019, rates were in the mid fives, touching six, a little higher than six, high fours. Go back to 2005, 2006 and rates were five, five and a half. That's really more of the norm for buying a home. Some people are talking about eight percent. I personally think we could see a nine percent range — and at nine percent it's going to get very, very hard to afford what you want to buy. ### Sellers, rents, and why there is no single right answer Right now there are a lot of homes going on the market, and a lot of homes coming *off* the market. Sellers are saying: we're listed, we're not selling, I'm not willing to reduce my price, I'll pull it off and rent it instead. And rents are going through the roof at the moment, and they're going to continue to. You can argue this from any side of the equation and be right on both sides. I could tell you to hold off, don't buy, save your money, stay in your rental — and you could tell me your landlord is increasing your rent, you've outgrown the property, your landlord said they're going to sell, you have to move, and the new rents are even more expensive. There isn't one right answer. The answer I can give you is this: if you need to buy, if you need a place, it's your time to buy. And if you buy right now, I want you to expect to stay in that home for at least five years. Make it a five-year plan. Even if values drop, they will always come back, and five years is a nice long period for that to happen. The next most important thing is making sure you're buying something you can afford. It is very, very important that you're budgeting for something you can *continue* to afford. I understand you might not be able to trade what you're renting today for the same thing as an owner — you might not get out of a three-bedroom rental into a three-bedroom purchase at the same monthly payment. You may have to consider something smaller, or another area. And nobody is wrong. You're not wrong waiting. You're not wrong buying right now. You're not wrong if you're being transferred, if your landlord is telling you to move, if you've outgrown the place, if you're having another baby and you just don't know where the crib is going to go. ### Your homework So I'll give you all a little homework. First: look at your rent. What are you paying today? Then look at current rents — what would a very similar property cost you if you had to move? If your landlord knocks on the door and says your lease is up, you've got thirty or sixty days, what does it cost you to relocate to a rental of the same size, the same yard, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two-car garage? That's very important to think about. Second: what did you owe when you paid your income taxes last year? Did you pay, or did you get money back? What would you be able to write off if you owned a home? The only way to know how your return would change is to call your CPA or whoever prepares your taxes. Then take the difference — say you owed money before and now you'd get five thousand back — divide it by twelve months, and that is how much more per month you would actually be able to put toward a mortgage payment out of your take-home. Whatever you buy, I want to know you can handle it for at least five years. That doesn't mean you have to stay. You could start in a condo, buy another condo next year, buy a single family home the year after. You can buy as many properties as you want. But you need to know you *could* stay five years, because that way, if values drop, you're not forced into a situation where you're upside down and you lose the property. If you buy a condo you'll only tolerate for a year, I want to make sure we can get you into the next property and keep the condo as a rental. Plan in advance for what could happen. ### Self-employed? Call before you file two years of returns If you call me today and say you just started driving for Uber three months ago — fantastic, we all have to do what we've got to do. But you're a 1099 earner, and I cannot give you a full-doc income-qualifying mortgage without two years of tax returns. So what are the options? If you have twenty percent down, there are programs where I don't even state your income. But if you haven't started to save and you have no money in the bank, the chances of buying right now are slim. Here's what happens to the person who never picks up the phone. They do the job, they get the 1099, they write off as much as they possibly can so they don't have to pay the tax man — because somebody told them they needed two years of returns, so they wait the two years. Then they come to me and say they're ready, they've saved their money. I get the tax returns, and they've written everything off, and there's no income for me to use, and there's no way for me to qualify them. So it is very important that the first thing you do is talk to us. I don't care if you just started the job, I don't care if you've been there a year, I don't care if you have no money. If you want to be a homeowner at some point, get on the schedule and talk to me or one of the team. ### Q&A: cash out to build an ADU and pay off cards Claudia asks: *“I'm looking into refinancing but I don't know if I should go for it right now. I want to take cash out and lower my monthly payment — we're paying around $3,500 and we're barely making it. Our plan is to use the cash to build an ADU; we have the space on our property.”* Great question, and one we get very frequently. I could read you a text message I got today from a friend saying she got herself in trouble again, racked up the credit cards, doesn't know what to do. That's happening everywhere. Many homeowners got into a habit. Rates kept dropping year over year for many years, values kept going up, so they had a lot of equity. We'd refinance, pay all their debt off, get them one monthly payment they could afford — and then they'd use the credit cards again, run them right back to the top, and come back to refinance again. And again. Anyone who's known me over the years has heard me say it: put the credit cards away. Give them to your mom. Put them in a drawer. You can't close them, because that ruins your credit, but put them somewhere you cannot get to them — because there will come a point when you cannot get out of the hole you've created. And here we are. Claudia, I would love to tell you that you could take money out today and drop your payment at the same time, the way you could have a year or two ago. That is very uncommon now. Maybe your situation is different — maybe your rate is already in the sevens, maybe the money you pull out pays off other debts. But if you don't have debt to retire and your mortgage is from a year or two ago at a lower rate, then taking a $300,000 loan at 4% to a $400,000 loan at 7% means your payment is going up, and going up a lot. For 99% of people with mortgages today, that's really not an option any more. Now, I love the ADU idea, because with an ADU you can rent it out and make yourself money. But how much money? Here's your homework, and this goes for everybody listening. What do you owe on your house today? What's your rate? What's your monthly payment — and take out the impounds, the taxes, the insurance, and look at just principal and interest. Now, how much more do you need to build the ADU or pay off the debt? Say it's a hundred thousand, so you're going from $300,000 to $400,000\. Run the new principal and interest at today's rate. If you don't know how to run a payment, use the calculators on the app. Then: is that increase more than what you're going to collect in rent on the ADU? If it is, maybe it's not time to do the ADU right now. ### Why an equity line can make a credit card problem worse We have a lot of people coming to us every day saying they don't know what to do, they owe fifty or sixty thousand in credit cards, and asking whether they should just get an equity line so they don't touch the rate on their first mortgage. Here's the problem. The equity line is adjustable. It moves every time the Federal Reserve moves the prime rate, so it's going to go up and cost more per month. You already can't afford the minimum credit card payments — so you take an equity line, pay them all off, and then use the cards again. Now you've got the minimum payments back *and* an equity line payment that keeps climbing. That's how people end up in a situation they can't get out of. So it's really important right now to budget — whether you're buying, whether you own, whether you're building something, whether you need to pay off cards. Groceries are high, gas is high, utilities are expensive, winter's coming. And understand this: they are not done raising rates. Every time they raise, your credit card minimums go up. If you have a line of credit against your home, or a personal line, or a student loan that isn't fixed, your minimum payments go up and you get pinched harder and harder. One more thing people don't expect: if you have a line of credit and your property value drops, your line of credit can get shut off. I can promise you that — it's what happens every time we go through these cycles. So consolidate as much as you can, cut back where you can, and budget. If you have a line of credit, you should be thinking about consolidating it into your first mortgage if you can. You might not be able to, if the payment is already more than you can afford. Then you might have to think about selling — and if you do, you look at rents again: what does it cost to get into something similar to where you live now? That might not be the option either. We have to look at the hard truth and figure out the best direction. We can give you the reality of where you're at. It might not be what you want to hear. ### Reading the Fed's statement I promised I'd read you what the Federal Reserve actually put out, so you can get an idea of what's coming at the next hike and what they're anticipating. They said recent indicators point to modest growth in spending and production; job gains have been robust in recent months and the unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation remains elevated, reflecting supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic, higher food and energy prices, and broader price pressures. The committee is highly attentive to inflation risks. The committee seeks maximum employment and inflation at two percent over the long run, and in support of those goals decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to three and three quarters to four percent. Note they're giving us a target, not a single number. The committee anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to two percent over time. In determining the pace of future increases, the committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments. In addition, the committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities. A lot of that sounds like a wall of words, but here is the part that matters to you. They are going to continue reducing holdings of Treasury securities — which is what affects our mortgage rates — and agency debt, meaning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities. They're letting go of a lot of what they had been putting money into, and that in turn is going to push our interest rates up quite a bit. There's one more line I love: the committee will be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge that could impede the attainment of the committee's goals. In other words — if we increase rates too hard and too fast and we tank the economy, we're reserving the right to take all this back. I also found an article saying the Federal Reserve hiked by three quarters of a point for the fourth time in a row as central bankers keep up their fight against inflation, despite rising concern about the risks of a recession next year. Recession *next* year? We're already in it. And then further down the same article says the Fed has now raised rates six times this year. First it says four times in a row, then six times. Let's get it straight. There are a lot of people writing about this who don't know, and the Federal Reserve doesn't one hundred percent know what it's doing either. ### Wrap-up They are going to continue to increase rates. You need to look at your budget right now. If you haven't bought a home, make sure you're budgeting for a home you can hold on to. Even though this was kind of a negative show today, I truly do believe real estate is where it's at. If you're renting right now you're throwing your money away — even if the asset drops in value, it will always come back at a later date. But make yourself a plan: how many properties do I want to own, how soon would I need to move, how big is my family going to grow, how long can we sustain where we are, can we add on, how much am I putting down, what is my budget? And for those of you who are like my very dear friend, who refinanced herself out to oblivion and used those credit cards one last time and now finds herself in a financial mess — we've got to get you out of that. Call us to hear what the options are. They may not be options you like, but let us talk to you about it. The office number is 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. If you liked the show, please share it, put it on your social media, tell your friends. I don't have the national radio stations going any longer; I truly couldn't afford to keep that going right now, when things are slow and applications are at their lowest levels in years. So I'm relying on all of you to spread the word. We'd love to help anybody who's ready — and anybody who isn't ready but wants to get ready. The best way to know when I go live is to text the word MOM to 844-935-3634\. You'll get one text a week to let you know we've gone live, and you just click the link and jump right on. I'll be back next Wednesday at one, right here on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. Talk to y'all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of Wednesday, November 2, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Can You Refinance To Consolidate A HELOC Into Your First Mortgage? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-refinance-to-consolidate-a-heloc-into-your-first-mortgage/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:30.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Farewell To Radio” • Live show from Wednesday, October 26, 2022 • 60 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 *Note: loan program guidelines, loan limits, and rate figures on this page are what they were in October 2022 and have changed since. Treat them as a record of that week, not as current terms.* Everyone was telling homeowners the same thing in late 2022: don't touch your 3% first mortgage, take a home equity line instead. On this show Debbie stops and does the math out loud — because if you draw that line up to 95% of your home's value, you have quietly given up the ability to refinance the two loans back into one. This is also the episode where she said goodbye to her terrestrial radio slot after six years on air, and then spent the rest of the hour answering listener questions about loan limits, escrow, property taxes, and whether to buy or keep renting. ## Key takeaways - **A home equity line taken to 95% of value can trap you.** If you owe 95% of what the home is worth, you cannot do a conventional rate-and-term refinance to roll the first mortgage and the line together — not Fannie Mae, not Freddie Mac. Decide how much you actually need before you open the line, not after. - **The one exception she named is FHA** — and it comes with conditions: the line has to have been open at least twelve months and untouched for at least twelve months to be treated as a rate-and-term refinance rather than cash-out. - **Lines of credit float with the Fed.** They are tied to the prime rate, so they move every time the Fed does. In October 2022 Debbie was seeing 9% and up, and as high as 13–14% depending on credit score and how much cash was being pulled out. - **If your home's assessed value falls, the county will not tell you.** You have to request a reassessment yourself. If they lower it, send the notice to your servicer and they will reduce the escrow portion of your monthly payment. - **Loan limits for the following year were still unannounced.** Lenders had opened applications up to $750,000, then pulled back to $700,000 — against a conventional limit she cited on air as roughly $640,000 at the time. Her honest answer on where FHA limits were headed: nobody knew. - **If you own and are selling to buy, the timing argument mostly cancels out.** Wait for prices to fall and you buy cheaper — but you also sell cheaper. You are moving equity from one property into another, so the reason to move should be the reason, not the market. - **Before you decide to keep renting, call your tax preparer.** Ask what last year's return would have looked like with mortgage interest and property tax deductions. Debbie's example: a client who wrote a $3,000 check would have received a refund instead. ## Chapters - 00:30Farewell to radio — and what changes for listeners (nothing) - 08:00Why the radio spend is being cut while the market is slow - 10:00Q&A: what's the worst thing you can do to your home's value? - 19:00Q&A: where are FHA and conventional loan limits going next year? - 24:00Q&A: can I take a HELOC now and refinance later to get rid of it? - 25:00The 95% loan-to-value math, worked through out loud - 27:00The FHA exception: twelve months open, twelve months untouched - 28:00What happens instead if property values fall - 34:00Q&A: if my home's value drops, does my escrow payment change? - 36:00Q&A: buy at the start of the year, or keep renting? - 39:00The tax question to ask your CPA before you decide - 40:00Selling to buy? Why waiting mostly cancels itself out - 45:00Q&A: can I buy with a partner who isn't employed? - 47:00Q&A: adding someone to a refinance — and the property tax trap - 53:00Q&A: the cap on the mortgage interest deduction - 54:00Q&A: how do you price an offer when there are no comparable sales? ## Questions answered on this show ### “What's the worst thing you could do to your home to lower its value, besides the obvious?” Short of letting it run down, Debbie couldn't think of much that hurts a well-maintained home — except decisions made purely for personal taste. Paint it pink and you have shrunk your buyer pool, even though paint is cheap to change. The bigger one is layout: knock a wall out of a four-bedroom to build yourself a larger primary suite, and you now own a three-bedroom. Make the improvements you want, but check them against what the next buyer is looking for. ### “Where do you think FHA loan limits are going next year?” Her answer was that it was a genuine question mark. Conventional limits for the following year had not been announced yet, and the process had been unusually messy: lenders first opened up applications to $750,000, then rolled that back to $700,000, against a conventional limit she cited on air as about $640,000 at the time. She had never personally seen lenders walk a number back like that. On FHA specifically, she was hoping for an increase in the lower-limit counties — her examples were Kern County and Clark County, Nevada, both far below Los Angeles County — and guessed a $50,000 to $100,000 lift would be a saving grace for a lot of her borrowers. But she was explicit: “my guess is as good as yours.” ### “If I take a home equity line of credit now, can I refinance in two years to get rid of it?” This is the answer she asked listeners to tilt their heads for. Take her round numbers: a home worth $100,000 with a $50,000 first mortgage is at 50% loan to value. Add a $45,000 line of credit and you owe $95,000 — 95% of value. Two years later, with values flat and rates lower, can you refinance the two into one? **No.** Not a conventional rate-and-term refinance, not Fannie Mae, not Freddie Mac. The exception is FHA, and only under conditions: FHA will let you consolidate a first mortgage and a home equity line as a rate-and-term refinance if the line has been open at least twelve months and you have not drawn against it in at least twelve months. Use the line inside that window and it is treated as cash-out instead. Then she took away the assumption that values hold. If the same $100,000 home is worth $75,000 in two years and you owe $95,000, there is no refinance at all — you keep the line, the balance, and the terms. And those terms move: lines are tied to the Fed's prime rate, and she was seeing 9% and up in October 2022, as high as 13–14% depending on credit score and draw size. Her point was not that a line of credit is bad. It is that the amount you draw decides whether you have options later. Someone who takes $25,000 against that same $100,000 home is in fine shape even if values slip. ### “If I buy a house now and the value drops, does that affect my payment or my escrow?” Not automatically — but there is something you can do about it, and almost nobody knows it. If your property value falls, you can request that the county assessor's office reassess the property. If they lower the assessed value, your property tax bill drops. Send that notice to your loan servicer, call the toll-free number on your statement, and they will re-run the escrow account so they are only collecting what the new tax bill actually requires, which lowers your monthly payment. Debbie's warning: no assessor is going to mail you a congratulations letter about it. You have to ask. She watched people miss this entirely in 2008 and 2009. ### “I want to buy early next year but rates keep rising. I keep hearing it's a bad time and also a great time. If I'd stay five years, should I buy or keep renting?” Debbie's frame: real estate is a long-term investment, not a short-term one. Markets cycle up and down, and historically each cycle has ended above where the last one left off. If you know you and your family will be comfortable in the home for at least five years, that is enough time for a cycle to bottom out and turn, and the timing question mostly stops mattering. The piece she wanted people to actually go do: if you owed money on your tax return last year, call your CPA or tax preparer and ask how that return would have looked with mortgage interest and property tax deductions. Her example was a client from the sheriff's department who wrote a check for about $3,000 and would have received a refund had he owned. Whatever you decide, buy a payment you can carry — budget for it, and know you can stay. ### “I want to buy a house with my partner, but they're not employed. Is that a problem?” No. If your partner has significant debt and no income, Debbie might recommend leaving them off the application so you qualify for more. But if most of your debt is already joint — shared credit cards, shared car loans — and you are qualifying on your income either way, putting them on the loan generally would not change the outcome. It is worth running both ways before you apply. ### “Can I refinance and add someone who isn't currently on the loan or on title?” Yes — adding parties to a refinance and to title is routine. The part to plan for is property taxes, and it varies by state. In areas where a change of ownership triggers reassessment, adding someone while you stay on title generally does not reset anything. But if you come *off* title — say you add your son and remove yourself — the original owner is gone, that reads as a change of ownership, and the property gets reassessed. Her rule of thumb: keep at least one original owner on title to preserve the existing tax basis. Talk through who is going on and who is coming off before the paperwork is drawn. ### “Can you explain the cap on the mortgage interest we can deduct?” Debbie answered this one by first saying what she is not: she is not a CPA and is not licensed to give tax advice, so this needs to go to your tax preparer. What she could say is that the deduction is capped by *loan size* — interest is deductible on the first $750,000 of mortgage balance, and your CPA runs the calculation above that. The nuance she added: because it is a loan-size cap and not a dollar cap on interest, a $750,000 loan at 7% produces a far larger deduction than the same $750,000 loan at 3%. ### “How do you know your offer isn't too high when there's no comparable property on the market?” This is where the agent earns the fee. On a custom or unusual property with no recent model-match sale nearby, there is no shortcut — you need an agent who has been in the business long enough to have worked markets going up and markets coming down, and who can show you how they arrived at a number rather than just handing you one. Debbie's blunt version: this is not the moment to use the cousin who just got licensed. She suggested looking for someone who has been in the business since at least 2007, and noted that agents doing one or two deals a year are the ones who leave when a market turns. Then look at the data they show you, decide whether it holds up, and make the offer you believe the property is worth. ### Thinking about pulling cash out of your home? Run the numbers before you open the line, not after. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or try the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, theme music, the licensing recitations, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners in the live chat are identified by first name only.* ### Farewell to radio Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux and I am the Mortgage Mom. Every week, usually on Wednesdays at 1 p.m., I bring you a new show all about real estate and mortgage — all of the education you could need, whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an investor, trying to buy up or buy down, getting ready to retire, or looking at a reverse mortgage. We record the show, we take the sound, and we send it to radio on the weekends. As many of you know, things have definitely slowed down. The real estate market is not moving as fast as it was. Mortgage applications are at their lowest levels in almost thirty years. That's okay — the market goes up and it goes down, and it will get very busy again. But during these slower times I'm bringing you education and I'm not charging you for it, and I'm relying on the applications we receive from listeners who choose to work with the team. So as of this coming weekend, this is the very last show where the sound actually goes to the radio stations. What does that mean for those of you watching on YouTube, on Facebook, getting interactive with us live? It doesn't mean anything. You'll keep getting the same show. What it means for those of you whose favorite thing is listening on your station — in Los Angeles, up in Washington, in Las Vegas — is that you have to do it with us on the social channels instead. YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, TikTok, or the podcast. I have been on air since 2016 doing this with you, and trust me, I will be back and we will be doing the radio show again in the future. But right now, while things are slow, we've got to cut back. I know that doesn't sound fun, and I know a lot of you are feeling the same thing in your own pocketbooks. We're feeling it just as much as you are. Social media, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, TikTok, the podcast — those are very inexpensive if not free, so that's where we're going to keep doing this for you. One honest upside of not being on radio: I'm going to be able to say what I want. There aren't going to be filters, there isn't going to be anything I need to be concerned about saying that might offend somebody. So we can actually get very deep and very detailed on quite a few subjects for anybody who wants to ask. ### Q&A: the worst thing you can do to your home's value Karen asks: *“What's the worst thing you could do to your home to lower the value, besides the obvious — trashing it?”* Obviously, if you're not taking care of it or maintaining it, as it gets more run down it's going to be worth less. Somebody will come in and look at it like a fixer-upper and you'll get quite a bit less for it. But if you're maintaining your home, I can't really think of much else — other than taste. Even if it's beautiful, if you paint it pink, there aren't a lot of people who are going to buy a pink home, and some won't be willing to do even that much work to make it look the way they want. So make the corrections you'd like, but make ones that would also be liked by others. If you have a four-bedroom home and you decide you want a larger primary bedroom, and you take down a wall and now it's a three-bedroom, think about the resale later. Are you going to get more for a four-bedroom or a three-bedroom? Just be conscientious about what people are looking for, and try to stick to those improvements rather than only your personal taste. ### Q&A: where will we be able to find you? Everyone on the show today already knows how to find me — you're watching, you've been getting interactive, you've been asking questions. YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, the podcast, TikTok, Instagram. Go to mortgagemomradio.com; there's a contact button and I'll answer your questions that way. If you put Mortgage Mom Radio into your search bar, you will find us. But if you want to watch or listen or be part of the show, you need to be doing it live. ### Q&A: where are FHA and conventional loan limits going next year? Eric asks: *“Where do you think FHA loan limits are going next year?”* Fantastic question, and if you're in the business you understand as much as I do that it is a humongous question mark — not one any of us can guess or even answer. The conventional loan limits haven't even been announced yet. Every year a lot of lenders start to get excited, they expect the limits to increase, and they start opening it up for us to take applications earlier than the announcement has been made. This year was different than last year, and different than the year before that. First they came out and said we're going to start letting you take loan applications up to $750,000 instead of the $640,000 we have right now. Then they actually rolled it back and said, wait a minute, we're starting to get a little concerned they might not let us go to $750, so we're going to let you take applications up to $700,000\. I haven't personally experienced that happening before. On FHA I've been really excited too, because we have a lot of counties that don't have the same FHA loan limits Los Angeles County does. Kern County is a much lower number than LA. Clark County in Nevada is tons lower than Los Angeles County. I'm hoping they start to level that off a little. Here in California, the FHA limit has typically followed the conventional guidelines, so in Los Angeles County we can go as high on FHA as we can on conventional. But for my other areas — Clark County, up in Seattle, Sonoma County, places with smaller limits — I'm hoping we see a $50,000 to $75,000 raise, hopefully maybe a hundred thousand. Again, my guess is as good as yours. I wish I could answer it for you. I'll be waiting for the answer, same as you. ### Q&A: can I refinance later to get rid of a home equity line? A listener asks: *“If I take a home equity line of credit right now, can I refinance when interest rates go down to get rid of the HELOC?”* That is a great question, and I'm going to be straightforward with you. If you've got a home equity line of credit, I want your ears to perk up right now and your head to tilt to the side like your Labrador does at home when you say ball, snack, or park. A home equity line you get today is fine. You've got the equity today, you've got a low rate on the first mortgage you took out a year or two or three years ago, that's all in place today. Everything is based on today — including your home's value today. A lot of you are taking lines up to 90%, maybe 95% of your property's value. So: your home is worth $100,000 and you have a $50,000 mortgage on it. That's 50% loan to value. You take a line of credit for $45,000 and you now owe $95,000 on a home worth $100,000\. Pretend property values do not drop at all — no downturn whatsoever. Two years from now rates come back down and you'd like to roll the two loans together into one. Will you be able to refinance? The answer is no. Perk up the ears, tip your head. No. If you owe 95% of what your home is worth, you will not be able to do a refinance to consolidate the two loans into one. Not a conventional refinance. Not a Fannie Mae. Not a Freddie Mac. Could you refinance and roll the two together if rates come back down? Sure — you could do that with an FHA loan. FHA will allow you to consolidate a home equity line with a first mortgage, and they'll call it a rate-and-term refinance, because you've had the line of credit open for a minimum of twelve months and you haven't drawn against it in a minimum of twelve months. Keep that in mind too: if you have a line of credit and you draw money on it within the last twelve months — if you utilize it — you are not going to be considered a rate-and-term refinance. So in the scenario I gave you, $100,000 value, $50,000 owed, $45,000 line, 95% loan to value, no draws in at least twelve months — yes, you could do an FHA refinance at that point for a lower rate and to consolidate. Now, what happens if values drop? Today your home is worth $100,000\. In a year or two, what if it's worth $75,000 and you owe $95,000? You will not be able to refinance. You will still have that line of credit, you will still owe that loan, you will still have those terms outstanding. And remember that a lot of these lines are adjustable and tied to the Federal Reserve prime rate. Many of them today are at 9% and above. Depending on credit scores and how much cash you're trying to pull out, I've seen them at 13% and 14%. So before you make a decision to take a line of credit, before you apply, you need to think about how much you owe, how much you need, and what you do in the future. If you owe $50,000 on your $100,000 property and you only take $25,000 — so you'll owe $75,000 — even if values drop, you're probably going to be in pretty good shape. How much are you utilizing, how much is your home worth, how far could values fall, and will you still be in a position to refinance later? Those are very important questions to ask yourself. And if you're one of those people with your heels stuck in the mud who does not want to refinance because you do not want to lose your 3% interest rate, but you owe $300,000 on the first and you've got a $150,000 line of credit — you should be picking up the phone and calling us about what you're paying and what that looks like in the future. Everywhere you turn right now, every marketing piece, every ad, every video, it's all get a line of credit, get a line of credit, don't touch your first mortgage. Let's talk about whether that's really the right move. ### Q&A: if my home's value drops, does my escrow change? A listener asks: *“If I buy a house now and home values drop so my home is worth less, does it affect my payment or my escrow in any way?”* Great question — and something that hasn't come up in years and years. If your property value drops, you can actually request from the assessor's office to have the property reassessed. They will bring the value down, they will change the assessment for property taxes, and they will lower what you owe. A lot of people don't know they can do that. In 2008 and 2009, when values dropped significantly, many people didn't know it was even an option. Let me tell you, I don't know of a lot of county assessor's offices that are sending out letters saying congratulations, your property value dropped, so we lowered your taxes. They're not going to do that. You have to ask for it and request it. But if they do drop the value and the taxes due, you can get to your lender, call the toll-free number on your statement, let them know you've been reassessed, and send them the information you received from the assessor's office. The mortgage company will then change your monthly payment and reduce that escrow account so they are only collecting what they need to cover your tax bills. ### Q&A: buy at the start of the year, or keep renting? Piper asks: *“I want to buy a home at the beginning of the year. I'm nervous with rates increasing. I keep hearing it's not a good time to buy, and I also hear it's a great time because rents will keep going up and sellers will help with closing costs. If I want to buy and stay at least five years, is it smart to buy or keep renting?”* That's a question I get just about every day sitting at my desk. Number one: every single person who buys a home today needs to consider that real estate is a long-term investment, not a short-term one. What goes up must come down, and what goes down will go back up. It bounces like a ball, it moves in a cycle. When we finish the top of a cycle and come back down, we start going back up again — and there's never been a time in history when things did not eventually supersede where they left off the time before. You want to make sure that whatever you're buying, you and your family will be comfortable in it for at least five years. Give the cycle time to bottom out and turn back up. It won't take a full cycle, it won't take seven to ten years to get back to where it left off, but five years would be my guess. So if you're expecting to stay somewhere five years, and your rents are increasing, it's not a bad time to buy. Here's another person who really needs to look at this: somebody who owed money when they did their taxes. Did you have to write a check? If you had to write a check, and your rent is going to be increased on you, then call your CPA or whoever prepares your taxes and ask them how your return would have been different if you had owned a home. If you want to know what numbers to give them, that's why you call our office — we'll give you those numbers. I had a gentleman who works for the sheriff's department call me; this year he ended up writing a check for about three thousand dollars, and had he owned a home and had the mortgage interest and property tax deductions, he would have gotten a refund instead of writing a check. Take a lot of that into consideration. But it's also very important that you're budgeting, that you're getting into a home you can afford, and that you know you can afford it for the long haul. ### Selling to buy? Why waiting mostly cancels itself out These are my favorite ones. A lot of people call me and say: I want to sell my house and buy another house, but I don't want to buy right now because property values are high, so I'm going to wait and do it next year, or the year after. But you own a home, and you need to sell that home to buy your next home. In that situation, if you wait a year or two for values to come down, what happens to the value of the home you own today? You're now not going to get as much out of your home as you would have if you'd sold today. You buy the next home at a lower price, but you got less out of your house. And vice versa: you buy today, you sell for more, you get a bigger down payment, but you buy at a higher price. So for somebody selling one home to buy another, I don't really think it matters when you do it. You're moving one investment over to another. You're taking equity and putting it into the next, and even if you buy high and property values drop, you rolled all your equity over — you're still never going to end up upside down. It's really a matter of need. Do you need to move? Have you outgrown where you are? Are you busting at the seams? Three kids in a two-bedroom condo — we need to talk about that. If you're comfortable where you are and you don't need to move, maybe the opportunity is an addition instead of selling and buying. It depends on your scenario, and there's no way for you to know unless you call and talk it through. ### Q&A: buying with a partner who isn't employed Heidi asks: *“I'm not married and I want to buy a house with my partner. Is it a problem if they are not employed?”* The answer is no, it's not a problem. If your partner has a ton of debt and no income, we might recommend they don't go on the application with you, so that you qualify for more. But if almost all of your debt is joint — joint credit cards, joint car loans — and you're qualifying on your income anyway, then putting your partner on the loan truly wouldn't matter. So know that it isn't really an issue. ### Q&A: adding someone to a refinance, and the property tax trap A listener asks: *“Can I refinance my house and add someone who currently isn't on the loan or on title?”* Yes, you absolutely can. You can add additional parties to a refinance, you can add people to title to do the financing. We do it all the time — some people come on, some people come off. What we do need to talk about are the tax ramifications if you are an original owner of the home. Every state is different. In Nevada you have terrific property taxes; the taxes stay with the property. But in many areas the property gets reassessed with a change of ownership. So if I'm the original person who owned the home and I add somebody to my title and I stay on title, my property taxes aren't going to change. But if I come off title — let's say I add my son and I come off — the ownership changed. That original owner who was an owner at the consummation of the purchase is now gone. That's a change in ownership, and that home will be reassessed, and you'll see property taxes change. So it is very important that we talk about who's on it now, who wants to come on, who's coming off, and that we keep somebody on title to maintain the current property tax bill you have in place. ### Q&A: the cap on the mortgage interest deduction Michelle asks: *“Can you explain more about the cap on the mortgage interest we can deduct on our tax return?”* I'm going to be honest with you: that's not one I can fully speak to. I'm not a CPA, I don't have a license to do tax returns, and I don't legally have the ability to advise you on that. What I do know is that they capped it, and it goes up to a $750,000 loan amount. So if you have a mortgage above $750,000, you're only going to be able to write off the interest on what the $750,000 portion would have cost you — and your CPA does that calculation with you. Here's the part worth understanding: let's say you have a $750,000 loan at a 7% interest rate. The interest deduction you get to take is going to be far superior to somebody with a $750,000 loan at 3%. It is about the loan size; it is not a cap on the actual amount of interest you write off. That's about as much as I can say on the subject, because I'm not licensed to talk to you about it. You'd really need to call your tax advisor to get a clear understanding of exactly how it works. ### Q&A: pricing an offer when there are no comparable sales Michelle also asks: *“How do you know whether the price you offer isn't too high, if there's no comparable property similar to it in the market?”* What she's asking is: if you're a buyer writing an offer on a property that's more unique — not a tract home, not a cookie cutter where your neighbor has the same floor plan and just sold for a certain price — a custom home, or a neighborhood where nothing has sold recently, how do you know if you're offering too much or too little? I'm going to be honest with you: that's really where having a very good real estate agent comes in. It's very important you're working with a knowledgeable agent who has been in the business a long time. I hate to say this and I don't want to put anybody down, but if your cousin just got a real estate license and has never done it before, that's not the person you should be working with. Sorry, cousin. Right now the industry is slowing down. There's not a lot for sale, but there also aren't a lot of buyers — it's a bit of a standstill as of today, the end of October. Sellers don't want to bring prices down, buyers don't want to buy. So you want somebody who has been through multiple types of markets, markets going up and markets coming down, who has a way to run comparables and help you get to the number you should be offering. If you're working with somebody who does one or two deals a year at the very most, that's probably not the person for this market. I'd say look for someone who got into the business no later than 2007. There are going to be a ton of real estate agents listening who want to damn me for that, and I get it. But we're going through rough times and you want to be working with the very best. This is when those people come out and shine like trophies, and a lot of others retreat, don't pay their dues, don't re-up, and get out of the business. So work with somebody really good who can help you get to that number and show you how they got there. Then it's up to you: hear what they have to say, look at the data, decide if it makes sense, and ultimately make the offer you feel that property is worth. ### Wrap-up That's the end of the show. I won't be here next week on radio, and we are going to miss you — you have no idea. If you're listening on Saturday or Sunday on your favorite station, we won't be there next week; the only way to hear the Mortgage Mom is on one of our social channels. We're live every Wednesday at 1 p.m. If you want the reminder, text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4 — and you'll get one text a week, that's it, with a link to join us live or to watch later. It is really important for you to stay up to date and in tune with what's happening in this market. I just need to contract like the rest of the world does. I hope to see you next week, right here. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of October 26, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. Loan program guidelines described on this page — including FHA refinance seasoning requirements, loan-to-value limits, conventional and FHA loan limits, and the mortgage interest deduction cap — are as they were described on air in October 2022 and have changed since. Nothing here is a statement of currently available program terms. Property tax reassessment rules vary by state and county. Tax questions belong with a qualified tax professional. ### Should You Buy A Home Now Or Wait For Rates To Drop? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/should-you-buy-a-home-now-or-wait-for-rates-to-drop/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:31.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Nothing But The Truth! Answers to the hard questions! Should you buy now or wait?” • Live show from Wednesday, October 12, 2022 • 58 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 *Note: loan program guidelines, loan limits, and rate figures on this page are what they were in October 2022 and have changed since. Treat them as a record of that week, not as current terms. Debbie's rate forecast is her opinion as of that date, not a prediction that came true.* Debbie called this one “nothing but the truth” and opened the floor: ask the hard questions, and she would answer them whether or not the answer was what anyone wanted to hear. What came back was an hour of the questions people actually have — buy now or wait, how you start when a home isn't even on the radar, whether it's better to get the lower price or the lower rate, and whether the loan you're being pitched is the one you should take. Her single most useful line landed early: there is never really a bad time to buy. There is a bad time to sell. ## Key takeaways - **“There's never really a bad time to buy. There's just a bad time to sell.”** Debbie's frame for the whole hour: if you can hold a property five years or more, the timing question mostly answers itself. Selling is where timing actually costs you money. - **The slow market is the low-down-payment buyer's opening.** In 2020 and 2021 you were bidding against forty offers and losing to cash and large down payments. With homes sitting longer, a 3%, 3.5%, or 5% down offer gets looked at — and you can negotiate closing costs or a rate buydown on top. - **Better the lower price than the lower rate.** Her answer to a direct question: take the lower purchase price and the higher rate, because you can refinance a rate and you can never refinance a price. Timing either one perfectly is not realistic — she said it's hard even after 28 years in the business. - **Go look up the actual rate on your credit card.** A client that week was certain her card was at 14%; the statement said 27%. Card rates are tied to the prime rate and had been climbing all year. If you're weighing a home equity line against a first-mortgage refinance, the blended rate across everything you owe is the number that decides it — not the 3% on your first. - **Build the portfolio one small property at a time.** Buy the condo or town home you can afford with the minimum down, live in it a year or two, keep it and rent it out, then buy the next as a primary with a low down payment and a better rate. She has been giving that advice on the podcast since it started. - **Occupancy decides your down payment.** Primary residence means you have to live there. A second home starts around 10% down and requires you to occupy it at least two weeks a year. An investment property starts at 20% down — but that is the one where rental income can offset the debt when you qualify. - **You can have more than one VA loan at a time.** It depends on how much of your entitlement the current loan uses and the loan limit where you're buying. Renting out the departing home is allowed — that is not against VA rules, despite what a lot of people believe. ## Chapters - 00:30Nothing but the truth: an open hour of hard questions - 09:00Q&A: should a parent buy their kid's first home? - 11:00Never a bad time to buy — only a bad time to sell - 13:00Why a slow market helps the low-down-payment buyer - 15:00Q&A: what if buying isn't even on the radar yet? - 16:00Debt consolidation: what to do, and what to avoid - 19:00Blended rate math, and when a first-mortgage refinance wins - 20:00Q&A: buy a condo, live in it, then rent it and buy again? - 25:00Q&A: buy now with rates up and refinance later? - 29:00Q&A: how many times can you use your VA benefit? - 35:00Q&A: can I buy in another state and rent it until I move? - 38:00Q&A: lower price and higher rate, or higher price and lower rate? - 39:00Who should buy right now, and who should sit tight - 42:00Q&A: why are non-qualified mortgage rates so much higher? - 47:00Q&A: when is a loan actually a jumbo loan? - 51:00Q&A: boarder income, and buying a second home ## Questions answered on this show ### “Should my mom buy me my first home and I rent it from her, with where prices are right now?” Debbie had covered the adjacent question the week before — whether Gen Z will ever be able to buy — and her answer here follows from it. If you're a parent with children anywhere from newborn to sixteen, and you're wondering how they'll buy in ten years or how you'll pay for college, buying real estate is a reasonable answer. Her broader point: there's never really a bad time to buy, there's just a bad time to sell. Rates are up, values have started to slip a little, and sellers have gotten more willing to negotiate and help with closing costs. If the plan is to hold the property five, ten, fifteen years, buying into a softer market is not the risk it feels like — the risk is buying a payment you can't carry. ### “If someone is so broke that getting a home isn't even on the radar, how do they work toward it? Is debt consolidation the answer?” She was honest that the question is too open-ended to answer cleanly — it depends on whether the income is good and the debt is high, or the income is the problem, or the person is early in a career with raises coming. But on the debt consolidation piece she was specific. Consolidation itself is worthwhile and worth looking into. What she does not recommend, if you can avoid it, is the kind of program that stops making payments on your debts so they can negotiate the balance and rate down for you. When those payments stop, the late payments land on your credit, your score drops, and you have traded one problem for a bigger one. If you can get a personal loan to consolidate, that's the direction she'd steer you. Then the part everyone should go do today: look up what you are actually paying. A client that week told a member of Debbie's team her credit card was at 14% — the statement came back at 27%. Three, four, five years ago cards were 14, 15, 19, 21%. Card rates are directly tied to the prime rate, and the prime rate had been climbing all year. If you're one of the people who refuses to touch a 3% first mortgage, run the blended number across everything you owe. A first mortgage at $200,000 at 3% plus $100,000 of card debt at 27% blends out somewhere around 12–14% — which makes a refinance at 6.5–7% the better rate on the whole picture, not the worse one. ### “If I buy a condo now and live in it a few years, can I then rent it and buy another home, or do I need to sell it first?” Keep it. This is the strategy Debbie says she has been promoting since the very first episodes of the podcast five years earlier: start with something small. A condominium if that's what you can afford. A one-bedroom, or a two-bedroom if you have a child or one on the way. Put the minimum down to get in, live there a year or two, save, then buy the next one as a primary residence — low down payment, better rate than an investment loan — and rent the first one out. The part that scares people is whether the rent will cover the payment. Her answer: go research what rentals in your area actually cost right now, on Zillow or Redfin or realtor.com. If you've been in a rental for years with a landlord who hasn't raised your rent, you have no idea what the market has done. Rents are climbing across the country — and even in a recession, when property values fall, rents keep going up. She added the honest aside that this is advice she finds easier to give than to follow herself. ### “Can I buy a home in the state I want to be in later, and rent it out until I'm ready to move? Do I have to live in it right after I buy it?” The down payment follows the occupancy, so this is really a question about which of three categories you're in. A **primary residence** gets the minimum down payment, but you have to actually live in it. If your job is in Arizona and the house is in Utah, there is no way to call that a primary residence — you can't get to work from it. A **second home** can be done with as little as 10% down, and you are required to occupy it at least two weeks a year. Renting it short-term the rest of the year is acceptable, since it's a vacation property you also use. An **investment property** starts at 20% down — but that is the category where rental income can be used to help offset the debt so you can qualify while still paying rent in Arizona. So buying out of state is entirely possible. The question is which structure fits, and that comes down to what you can put down and whether you need the rent to qualify. ### “Should I buy now with rates up and plan to refinance at a lower rate later?” Yes — with the caveat she repeats constantly, that she has no crystal ball. Her read as of October 12, 2022: the jobs report that Monday came in strong, which gives the Fed room to keep raising, so she expected a hike at the November meeting and a good chance of another at the first meeting of 2023\. After that she expected rates to hold roughly level for about twelve months while inflation came down, before the Fed could start cutting. Her longer view: when rates do come down, she expects a wave of refinancing *and* a wave of buying, which puts you right back into multiple offers and bidding wars. That's the argument for the first-time buyer to get in while the competition is thin, because the people who eat up inventory when demand returns are the ones with cash and large down payments. Buy today with a five-year hold in mind and you own the home, take the tax deduction, lock the payment, and keep the option to refinance the rate later. ### “How many times can someone use their VA benefits? If I already have a VA loan with a low rate, can I keep it and buy another home?” You can have multiple VA loans, and most people don't know that. What determines it is how much of your entitlement the current loan has used, the lending limit for the area where you're buying, and how much you have left. It comes up constantly with active-duty borrowers who bought in one state and got orders to another: there's a very good chance you can keep the first home, put a renter in it — which is allowed, despite the widespread belief that it isn't — and still use your VA benefit again on a new property with zero down. The only way to know is to pull your Certificate of Eligibility and do the math: what you can buy up to with zero down, and how much higher you can go if you have some down payment. ### “Is it better to buy at a higher price with a lower rate, or a lower price at a higher rate?” Lower price, higher rate — because you can refinance the rate later and end up with both. Her caveat was equally honest: timing either one is extremely difficult. How do you know prices won't go lower, or that rates won't go higher? She's been doing this 28 or 29 years and can't time it either. Which is why the decision should turn on your situation rather than the market: are you busting at the seams, is your lease ending, is your landlord raising the rent, has your landlord told you they're selling? ### “Why does the rate seem so much higher on a non-qualified mortgage? If that's the only direction I can go, should I still buy?” Non-qualified (non-QM) loans are the descendants of what people used to call subprime — loans for investors, self-employed borrowers, bank statement programs, and no-ratio products. They are not Fannie Mae, not Freddie Mac, not FHA, not USDA, and not jumbo. Because the lender isn't verifying income the standard way, the risk is priced in, and you should not expect a conventional rate. At the time of this show she described non-QM pricing as running in the high 9s to low 10s, against a conventional 30-year fixed in the 6s to 7s. Should you still buy? It depends on the person. If you don't own anything, you're being pushed out of your rental, the rents where you'd move are very high, you have the down payment, and the mortgage payment lands close to that new rent — then you own the home, you get the mortgage interest and property tax deductions, and you have something to refinance out of. The plan she'd build is exactly that: use the non-QM loan to secure the property now while sellers are negotiating, then refinance into a conventional loan once you've filed the tax returns or hit the seasoning you need. ### “When is a loan considered a jumbo loan? I heard it was anything above $500,000.” Debunked. $500,000 would not be a jumbo mortgage anywhere in the country on loan size alone. Every county has its own loan limits, set according to what it costs to buy there. As of that show — October 12, 2022 — the standard conventional loan limit outside high-cost areas was **$647,200**. Above that, in a normal-cost county, you're into jumbo. High-cost counties are different. Los Angeles, Orange County, Hawaii, and a number of others carry higher limits — in Los Angeles County she could take a borrower into the $900,000s on a high-balance conventional loan, not a jumbo product. FHA limits are a separate schedule again and also vary by county. So the answer isn't a single national number: it's the conforming limit for the county you're buying in. ### “Is there such a thing as a physician loan? Is it similar to a VA loan?” Physician loans do exist, though Debbie did not have one to offer at the time — the product her side had offered previously had gone away. They are not like VA loans in any structural sense. They are portfolio products, meaning the lender is using its own money and writing its own underwriting guidelines, so every one of them is different. Some let a physician into a jumbo loan with 10% down instead of the standard 20%. Some have no mortgage insurance where others do. Some allow a first-and-second combination piggybacked together. Because there's no agency standard behind them, the only way to compare is to find the lenders who offer them and ask each one what their guidelines are. ### “If I'm buying a second home, how do they treat my debt-to-income if I'm renting a room in my primary residence?” Boarder income — rent from someone living in one of your rooms — generally cannot be used. There are some first-time buyer programs, aimed at low-to-moderate income borrowers, that will count boarder income to help you qualify on the purchase. Outside of those, once you own the property and are no longer a first-time buyer, Debbie was not aware of any product that lets boarder income offset your debt-to-income ratio. So in this scenario you get hit for the full payment on the home you own today — principal, interest, taxes, insurance, everything — regardless of the tenant in the spare room. And if the new property is a second home at the minimum 10% down, you have to qualify for that full payment too, with no rental income credited. If instead you have 20% down and buy it as an investment property, then rental income from the new property can be used to offset the debt. The down payment changes which door is open. ### Still deciding whether to buy or wait? The answer depends on your numbers, not the headlines. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the scenarios with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, theme music, the licensing recitations, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners in the live chat are identified by first name only.* ### Nothing but the truth Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux and I am the Mortgage Mom. It is Wednesday, it is 1 p.m., and we are going live as usual. Today we're doing nothing but the truth. I want you to ask me hard questions. Ask me about the economy. Should you buy, should you wait, should you sell? What do I think about home equity lines of credit? What are some of the things you've been watching and hearing that you want to know — is it real, would that work, is that advice you should follow? Because we've just entered this whole TikTok world, I've found myself scrolling for hours, and with a mortgage and real estate show, the feed serves me people talking about getting equity lines of credit, paying your mortgage down faster, buying investment properties, fixing them up, cashing them out, keeping them as rentals, using the cash to buy another one. There's a lot being fed to you as a consumer that may not be your expertise. If you want to ask me what I think of it, this is the show to ask. ### Q&A: should a parent buy their kid's first home? A listener asks: *“Should my mom buy me my first home and I rent it from her, with where house prices are right now?”* That's a very good question, and we covered something close to it recently — the question was whether Gen Z will even be able to afford a home someday. My answer then was that if you're a parent today with children anywhere from newborn up to fifteen or sixteen, and you're thinking about whether they'll be able to buy in ten years when they're starting a family, or how you're going to pay for college, buying real estate is always a good answer. I want you all to know: there's never really a bad time to buy. There is just a bad time to sell. Right now, interest rates are up, property values have started to slip a little — which is actually a benefit — and sellers are getting more aggressive about negotiating and helping with closing costs. If you can get into a property right now, even if values come down a bit further and it's no longer worth what you paid — and I think that's the biggest fear most people have — real estate is a long haul. I want you to hear that. If you plan to hold that property five years, ten years, fifteen years, if it's your forever home, then it doesn't matter when you buy. What matters is that you're getting into something affordable, that you're budgeting for the payment, and that it's something you can carry. You can always refinance the loan later to get into a better payment and rate if rates come back down. ### Why a slow market helps the low-down-payment buyer Right now things are slower. Buyers have backed off because homes are less affordable with higher rates. And on the seller side — why would you sell a home with a 3% interest rate to go buy something at 7%? So a lot of people who'd normally be ready to move are staying put. Activity is coming down, and that is actually helping buyers get an offer accepted. Think back to 2020 and 2021, when there were multiple offers and you were bidding against forty other people for one house. It was very difficult for the low-down-payment borrower to get an offer accepted. To win, most people had large down payments and really high credit scores. We weren't talking VA, FHA, or USDA — we were talking conventional loans with large down payments, and a very good chance of an all-cash buyer. Those were the ones eating up the real estate in 2020 and 2021. Right now, because it's taking longer for a seller to sell, they are going to be more open to an offer that comes through the door with 3% down, 3.5% down, 5% down. That gives the buyer without a huge down payment the chance to get in. And it's great pricing, because you can negotiate to get some closing costs paid, which helps enormously when you're trying to put the down payment together. You might even be able to get the seller to help buy your interest rate down to make the payment more affordable. So is there a good time to buy? You should always be thinking about buying. Is there a good time to sell? Yes — if you're selling, you do need to be thoughtful about the timing. ### Q&A: when buying isn't even on the radar yet A listener asks: *“If someone is just so broke that getting a home isn't on the radar, how does one go about working toward that? Do you do debt consolidation? What's your advice?”* What's hard about that question is that it's very open-ended. Do they make good money but carry high debt? Do they not make good money? Are they just getting started in a career where they'll see raises over the next few years? It's hard for me to know what education to give without knowing which it is. But definitely, if you have a lot of debt, consolidation can be very good. What I don't recommend, if you don't have to go that direction, is one of those debt consolidation companies where they stop making the payments on your debts so they can negotiate with the creditor — to bring the interest rate down, or negotiate your ten thousand dollar balance down to five. These usually go by names like consumer credit counseling; there are many companies that do them. The problem is that when they stop making payments to get the credit card company's attention, it also affects your credit. You get late payments on your report, your score drops, and that turns into a whole other ball of wax. If you can get a personal loan to do the consolidation instead, I'd suggest that. ### Go look up your actual credit card rate One person reached out today and spoke with someone on our team about needing an equity line of credit or a refinance — she isn't sure which is best yet, but she's got these credit cards. When we asked what the interest rate was on the card she was talking about, she said, well, it's 14, I think. Then we got the credit card statement and the rate was actually 27. I want to make sure everybody heard that and your ears perked up. Three, four, five years ago the credit cards were at 14, 15, 19, 21%. The prime rate is going up, and I've said it numerous times on this show: every single time they raise the prime rate, credit cards are directly tied to that. So as rates climb with the prime rate, the rates on those cards climb too. If you have not checked what you are actually paying right now on your card, I would highly suggest that you do. I have a lot of clients who are absolutely adamant that they want an equity line of credit — they don't want to touch the fantastic rate they locked in on their current mortgage a couple of years back — but they need their debts paid off. What they don't realize is the blended math. If you owe $200,000 on one loan and $100,000 on another, and we look at $100,000 at 27% against your first at 3%, that blended interest rate could be somewhere in the 12, 13, 14 range. A first mortgage refinance at six and a half or seven percent is a far better rate over everything blended together. Let that resonate. Go back, look at your debts, figure out what you're paying in interest, and then talk to us about your options. ### Q&A: buy a condo, live in it, rent it, buy again? Piper asks: *“If I buy a condo now and live in it for a few years, can I then rent it and buy another home, or do I need to sell it first?”* That is a fantastic question, and it's what I typically promote — and I wish I stuck to my own advice. I was talking to my mom today about strategy, about what we should be doing right now and where we should be moving money. At the end of the day your real estate portfolio is part of how you're diversified. You've got money in stocks, maybe in crypto, maybe in treasuries or bonds — and you own a home, or you need to. Right now, with where the economy is, I personally feel something tangible like real estate is very important, because it's an actual tangible asset. That's my opinion. You can go back to my podcast, to the very beginning five years ago when the first episode went up, and hear me say this: the best way to build your real estate portfolio is to buy something small. Start with a condominium if that's all you can afford. Get a one-bedroom. Get a two-bedroom if you need it because you have a baby, or a baby on the way, or two kids you can bunk into the second bedroom. But if you can get into a one-bedroom, get into a one-bedroom. Put the minimum down that you can to get into it. Save your money. Live there a year or two. Then go buy another one, hold on to that first property, and rent it out. I know that when I say that it's scary, because you're thinking, that's a big payment, am I going to be able to cover the rent? So start researching. We all know Zillow and Redfin and realtor.com — go look at what rentals in your area actually cost right now. If you've been living in a rental for years with a fantastic landlord who doesn't raise your rent, you're well below market and you may not realize what's happening in the rental world. Rents are skyrocketing and they will continue to. That's across the nation — not just here in California, or where members of my team are in Tennessee, Idaho, and Arizona. It's everywhere. And even in a recession, if property values drop, rents will continue to go up. That's just what happens. So you should very easily be able to cover the rent on the little condo you bought and lived in. Then you move, and you buy another — a two-bedroom or a three-bedroom, still smaller — as a primary residence, with a low down payment and a better rate than an investment loan. You live there a year or two, save, rent that one out, and go buy another. I think it's very important for everybody to hold real estate. I know things are more expensive than they were, and I know it's hard to go out and get what you want — you feel outbid and out-priced, you can't get the single-family homes, you're going to have to look at town homes and condos. But guess what: that might be the very best plan of action you can take. If you're in an apartment today, would it really be that bad to go to a condo? ### Q&A: buy now and refinance later? Debbie's mom asks: *“Should I buy now with rates up and then plan to refinance at a lower rate later?”* Yes, I do agree with that. I think that's an opportunity. But I want to make sure I'm letting you all know: I do not have a crystal ball. Nobody knows exactly what's going to happen. There can be twists and turns nobody expected that change where the forecast is pointing today. As of today — October the 12th — I believe we're going to see some more rate increases. The jobs reports came out just on Monday telling us the economy was strong, that there wasn't a lot of unemployment, and that gives the Federal Reserve the opening to say the economy is holding, people still have jobs and are making money, so we can afford to keep raising rates. So I do think at their next meeting in November we'll see another rate hike, and there's a very good chance we see one at the first meeting of 2023 as well. From there I think we hold steady, and whatever rates land at is the level we're going to see stay around for probably a solid twelve months. That would be my guess. I think it will take that long before they feel inflation is coming down to a level where they can start to re-stimulate and drop rates. A couple of years from now, my belief is that rates will come down — and when they do, I think we'll see a lot of refinancing start again to lower the payments people got into over these last couple of years. But I also think we'll see a massive stimulation in purchasing. It's going to create more people wanting to get out and buy, and you're going to be back to multiple offers, back to people jumping on the bandwagon while things are more affordable. Which brings me back to the first-time buyer today: you should be looking at trying to get something now, because the people who will eat everything up as demand returns are the ones with all cash or very large down payments. My best advice is that the home you buy today is one you plan on keeping. That doesn't mean you're staying in it — it means you're holding on to it for at least five years. If you can see that playing out, then you do not have to worry if values come down further. They will go back up, and they will go back higher than they'd ever landed before. In the meantime you've owned a home, you've taken the tax deduction, nobody can kick you out, your payment hasn't gone up, you've locked in a rate, you're budgeting — and you always have the opportunity to drop that payment later. ### Q&A: how many times can you use your VA benefit? Carrie asks: *“How many times can someone use their VA benefits? If I already have a VA loan with a low rate, can I keep it and buy another home?”* You can have multiple VA loans, and a lot of people do not know that. What it depends on is how much of your eligibility you've actually used in the loan you currently have outstanding. Depending on where the home is located, the lending limit for that area, and how much loan and eligibility you've already used, that determines whether you can have two VA loans outstanding at one time. Many times we do see that to be an opportunity. Especially for somebody active in the military who is in one state, bought a home, and now has orders to move to a new state and would like to buy there: there's a very good chance you could hold the house you have today, put a renter in it — which is okay with the VA, that is not against VA rules, though a lot of people believe it is — and still use your VA benefit again on another property in another state with zero down. The only way to know whether you can is to reach out. We have to get your Certificate of Eligibility and do the math, and let you know what number you could buy up to with zero down, and then how high you could go with some down payment if you have one. ### Q&A: buying in another state before you move Piper follows up: *“Or can I buy a home in the state I want to be in in the next years, and rent it out until I'm ready to move there? Do I have to live in it right after I buy it?”* I want to explain this in a way everybody can make sense of. If you're trying to do a minimum down payment, you have to be able to live in and occupy the property. So if your job is in Arizona and you're trying to buy a property in Utah, we can't do a minimum down payment on the house in Utah, because you work in Arizona — you need to be able to get to your job, and there's no way to say you're living in that home. Now, you can buy a home as a *second home* with as little as 10% down. Second homes require you to occupy them at least two weeks a year. So if you wanted to do a short-term rental during the time you don't use it, because it's more of a vacation property, that is acceptable — but you have to occupy it for yourself a minimum of two weeks per year, and it requires a larger down payment. You can also buy the property as an *investment property*. If you need rental income to help offset the debt to qualify, because you live in Arizona and you make rent payments in Arizona, then you'd need a larger down payment — investment property down payments start at 20% down. So absolutely, out of state is great. You can always buy a second home you could eventually move yourself into if you're trying to get to a different state than you're in today. We just want to talk about what you're trying to do and what the goals are, then figure out where you should be looking. ### Q&A: lower price and higher rate, or higher price and lower rate? Michelle asks: *“Is it better to buy at a higher price with a lower interest rate, or a lower price at a higher interest rate?”* I personally think that if you can buy at a lower price with a higher rate, you can refinance later to bring the rate down — so you got the best of both worlds. You got the best price, and later you got the best rate. The hard part is that it's very difficult to time the market. How do you know you're buying at a lower price and prices won't go lower? How do you know you're getting in at a higher rate and rates won't go higher? Even for somebody like me who has been in the business 28 years — I might be at 29 now, I've been saying 28 for a while and need to go count — it's hard to time the market. ### Who should buy today, and who should sit tight So think about who should be looking at buying today. If you are busting at the seams, you don't have enough room, you've got to move, you need a bigger house — and you own a home today — you should be figuring out whether you can rent out the home you own, condo or town home or whatever it is, come up with a minimum down payment of three and a half or five percent, and go buy something that works for what your family needs. If you don't own a home, you're renting, and you're busting at the seams and need something bigger, I will bet almost anything that when you research what a bigger rental in your area costs, you're going to realize you should really just own a home. Same for somebody whose landlord has been raising the rent each year, or who has been told at the end of this lease the landlord is selling and you'll need to find a new rental. If you're in that situation and you're looking around for a new rental — stop, call us, and find out what you can do. There are down payment assistance options we can do for you. It is always best if you can come up with your own money; when you have three to five percent of your own, we can get you a better rate and qualify you for a higher sales price. But if you need down payment assistance, it's there. Before you throw away the opportunity, find out whether buying is something you could do right now. Call us before you go sign a lease with another landlord. ### Q&A: why non-qualified mortgage rates are higher Heidi asks: *“Can you explain why the rate seems so much higher on a non-qualified mortgage? If that's the only direction I can go, should I still buy, and why?”* We do have a lot of people calling about that kind of program. What she's calling non-qualified, or non-QM, is very much the same family as what you may have heard called subprime — loans for investors, for self-employed borrowers, bank statement loans, no-ratio products. These are not Fannie Mae, not Freddie Mac, not FHA, not USDA, not jumbo. They are not the normal tax-return, W-2, pay-stub kind of loans. So do not expect to get the same rate you'd get on one of those. Should you still buy? It really depends on the person. If you don't own anything, you're getting pushed out of the place you're in, the rents where you'd go are very high, you talk to us about the mortgage options, you have the down payment, and the monthly payment would be very similar to the new rent you'd be paying — then why wouldn't you? At least you own a home, you have the tax deduction of the mortgage interest and the property taxes, and you can always refinance later. That's the conversation we'd want to have: how do we get you out of the non-QM loan and into better financing? We need to know more about you. How long have you been in business? Do you only have one year of self-employment behind you, and that's why you need this? Because after you file your 2022 tax returns in a couple of months — and we're already in October — you'd be able to refinance. You're a perfect candidate. You can secure the home, negotiate right now with sellers who are hoping for offers, and then refinance into a straightforward Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan to get the payment down. I do want everybody to hear this on those products: you are going to need a bigger down payment. You'll typically need 20% down; some of the bank statement products will go to 10% down. And I'm going to tell you, the interest rates are not great — they are quite a bit higher than a normal rate. You're talking high nines, low tens. So if you're going to consider one of those programs, plan on a bigger down payment. ### Q&A: when is a loan a jumbo loan? A listener asks: *“When is a loan considered a jumbo loan, and what's the down payment on it? I just heard it was anything above $500,000.”* We can debunk that for you. $500,000 would not be a jumbo mortgage anywhere in the country if we're talking by loan size. There are loan programs we could put you on that would be a jumbo program even if you don't hit the conforming limits for your area, but since you mentioned $500,000, I'll stick to what's jumbo and what's not based on loan amount. Every single county across the nation has different loan limits, and those limits are based on what it costs to purchase a home in that area. Hawaii, Los Angeles, Orange County — many places across the nation are what they consider high-cost areas. Even in Baltimore there's some pretty expensive stuff going on. Every county has a different limit. But there's a standard limit that applies across the nation, so it doesn't matter where you live: if you are not in a high-cost area, as of today, October the 12th, 2022, the conventional loan limit is $647,200\. FHA is going to change based on your area as well, and has completely different limits. So focusing on conventional and jumbo: here in Los Angeles County we can actually take you up into the $900,000 range with a high-cost conventional product, not a jumbo. But across the nation, if you're not in a high-cost area, your conforming loan size is $647,200 — and jumbo would be above that number. ### Q&A: physician loans Mark asks: *“Is there such a thing as a physician loan? Is it similar to a VA loan?”* There are some banks that have physician loans. We had one we used to offer that has since gone away, so I don't personally have a physician's loan to offer right now. But they do exist. You have to figure out who has them, and then they're all going to have different guidelines — completely different from one another. Some will let you into a jumbo mortgage with 10% down instead of the standard 20%. Some may not have mortgage insurance where others would. Some will offer a first-and-second combination, piggybacking an equity line or equity loan with the first mortgage. Every investor that offers a physician's loan is doing it to their own underwriting guidelines. These are what we consider jumbo, and all jumbo loans are portfolio products — they are not Fannie Mae, not Freddie Mac, not government loans, and they don't follow the basic guidelines set for us by the big institutions for conforming loan sizes. It's all portfolio lending: a bank has its own money and can choose whatever guidelines it wants to put on the money it lends. So the lender you go to determines what the product looks like and how it works. ### Q&A: boarder income and buying a second home Mark also asks: *“If I'm buying a second home as an investment, how will they take into account debt-to-income if I'm renting a room in my primary?”* He clarifies that he lives in the house and has a tenant in the second room. When you have somebody living in a bedroom, in most circumstances we cannot use any of that rental income. There are some first-time buyer programs out there — low-to-moderate income programs — that will allow what's called boarder income, meaning somebody living in one of your rooms, to help you qualify when you buy. But once you're past that piece and you own the property and you're no longer a first-time buyer, I am not personally aware of any programs or products that will allow boarder income to help your debt-to-income ratio. So in that situation, even with a tenant in the bedroom, we're going to hit you for the total mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, everything on the home you own today. And if you're buying the next property as a second home with a minimum of 10% down, you'll have to qualify for that complete payment as well. Now, if you have 20% down and buy it as an investment property, then we would be able to use rental income from the property you're buying to help offset your debt-to-income ratio. ### Wrap-up Those are all the questions I got today, and it couldn't have worked out any better — we're right at the one-hour mark. If you want to be part of the show and ask your questions, you've got to join us live on YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook. Text the word MOM to 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4, and you'll get one text a week with the link. Same number to call the office, and you can book a phone consultation at mortgagemomradio.com. If you're in a situation today where you have to find a new rental in the next six months or so, do me a favor: do the research, figure out where you'd need to rent and what that will cost per month — and then call us and find out whether buying a home is possible for you. That might be the very best direction for you to go anyway. We'll see you next week. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of October 12, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. Loan program guidelines described on this page — conforming and high-balance loan limits, minimum down payments, second-home occupancy requirements, non-qualified mortgage terms, VA entitlement rules, boarder income eligibility, and down payment assistance availability — are as they were described on air in October 2022 and have changed since. Nothing here is a statement of currently available program terms or an offer of credit. Debbie's interest rate forecast is her opinion as of that date. Tax questions belong with a qualified tax professional. ### Can You Buy A Home Using A Reverse Mortgage? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-you-buy-a-home-using-a-reverse-mortgage/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:32.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Q&A All Things Real Estate And Mortgage” • Live show from Wednesday, October 5, 2022 • 60 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 **Please read first.** This is a record of a live question-and-answer show from October 5, 2022\. Loan program guidelines, minimum credit scores, down payment requirements, and rate figures below are what they were that week and have changed since. The first-year rate buydown Debbie offers on this show was a **limited promotion for October 2022 and is no longer available**. Nothing on this page is an offer of credit, a rate quote, or a description of a currently available program. No topic, no agenda — Debbie opened the hour and let listeners set it. What came back was one of the more useful grab bags in the archive: how a reverse mortgage actually works when you're *buying* rather than refinancing, why a rate buydown funded by a seller credit beats a small price cut, whether a lifetime in a mobile home still leaves you a first-time buyer, and what has to change in the world before rates come down at all. ## Key takeaways - **You can buy a home with a reverse mortgage, not just refinance into one.** It works like any purchase: you bring a down payment, the loan pays the seller, and you own the home. The difference is that the balance grows instead of amortizing down, and the size of the down payment is set by your age rather than by a fixed percentage. - **A seller credit spent on a rate buydown usually beats the same money off the price.** Debbie agreed with the agent who raised it: on a financed purchase, moving the rate a full point or two for the first year or two changes the payment far more than knocking $10,000 off the price. If you're paying cash, the price is what matters instead. - **A mobile home in a park may not have made you a homeowner.** First-time buyer status turns on whether you've held *real* property. If the home was never permanently affixed to a foundation and you're on DMV plates rather than HUD tags, it's personal property — and you may still qualify as a first-time buyer. The test is whether the county sends you a property tax bill. - **HELOC and “HE loan” are not the same thing.** A home equity loan is a fixed-rate second mortgage that amortizes. A home equity line of credit is a revolving, adjustable line tied to the prime rate, with an interest-only payment — which means your minimum payment does not reduce the balance by a single dollar. - **Down payment assistance can block the refinance you're counting on.** Most DPA is either a grant with a recapture period, or a second loan. Either way, if you're planning to refinance the moment rates drop, find out what the assistance requires *before* you take it. - **She was blunt about the rate outlook.** Her view in October 2022: rates keep climbing for a while, then level off, and the 2% and 3% rates of the pandemic are not coming back. Her guess for a return to the mid-5s was somewhere around 2024 — explicitly a guess, not a forecast. - **Rates and prices move against each other.** When rates come down, demand returns, bidding wars return, and any softening in values disappears fast. Waiting for cheaper money often means paying more for the house. ## Chapters - 04:00An open Q&A: nothing off the table - 05:00Q&A: do you do reverse mortgages, and how do they work? - 08:00Q&A: how do you buy a home with reverse mortgage financing? - 12:00Q&A: what has to happen for interest rates to come down? - 14:00Why the 2s and 3s aren't coming back - 15:00Q&A: I've only lived in a mobile home — am I a first-time buyer? - 20:00Q&A: HELOC or home equity loan — what's the difference? - 23:00Q&A: a $10,000 price cut, or a buydown with a seller credit? - 25:00The October 2022 buydown offer (now expired) - 27:00Q&A: does solar add to the value of a home? - 31:00Q&A: can I refinance later if I buy at today's rates? - 34:00The down payment assistance clause that can block a refinance - 42:00Q&A: will prices or rates ever come down enough for Gen Z? - 46:00Buy property for your kids instead of only saving cash - 50:00Q&A: how much of a sinkhole is owning, compared to renting? - 55:00Q&A: a loan that doesn't require proof of income ## Questions answered on this show ### “Do you do reverse mortgages, and how do they work?” Yes. A reverse mortgage has a minimum age requirement, and it applies to everyone who will live in the home, be on title, and be on the loan — so for a married couple, it's the younger spouse who has to meet it. *(Confirm the current minimum age with your loan officer; program age rules are set by the program, not by the lender.)* The amount you can borrow is driven by age, because the lender is working from life expectancy. The older you are, the higher the loan-to-value you can reach. That's because on most reverse mortgages there is no required monthly payment, so the balance runs backwards — it grows rather than paying down. A longer life expectancy means a balance that can grow for longer, which is more risk to the bank, so a younger borrower is offered less financing. Debbie's own view of the product: she likes it, particularly for someone whose property *is* their retirement. If you have pensions, Social Security, and retirement income and don't need it, keep your assets intact. But if the house is the vehicle that keeps your lifestyle the same, a reverse mortgage is a real option. She also thinks it carries an unfairly tarnished reputation from the way it worked before the financial crisis; the program has been heavily regulated since. ### “How could a person purchase a new home using reverse mortgage financing?” The mechanics look like any other purchase. Take round numbers: you buy a home for $500,000 and you bring a down payment — say $250,000\. The reverse mortgage funds the remaining $250,000, that money pays the seller, and you own the home. The two differences from a normal loan: first, the required down payment isn't a fixed percentage — it's determined by your age, the same way the loan-to-value is on a refinance. Second, there's no amortization schedule paying the balance down. From the day it funds, the reverse mortgage rolls backwards: every month you owe a little bit more, and a little bit more. Most people only ever hear about reverse mortgages as a way to pull equity out of a home they already own. It works as a purchase too, and Debbie's point was that the option exists and almost nobody knows it. ### “What exactly has to happen in the world or the country for interest rates to come down?” She kept this one deliberately non-political, because the show was still going out over the air. The mechanical answer: inflation has to come under control. Rates are being raised specifically to bring inflation down, to a level where the Fed can stabilize and then start bringing rates back down again. Her own read, which she was blunt about: no, she did not expect rates to drop any time soon — she expected them to keep climbing for a while longer, then level off, then eventually come down after a stretch of stability. And she did not expect to see 2% and 3% rates again. That was a pandemic, it was something never heard of before, and she didn't see another one arriving. If she had to put a finger on it after 28 years in the business, she guessed rates might eventually come back into the mid-5s — five and a quarter, five and a half, five and three quarters — but probably not until somewhere around 2024\. And her warning attached to that: as soon as rates start coming down, property values start going up again. ### “I've only ever lived in a mobile home in a park. Do I still qualify as a first-time buyer?” Very possibly yes, and this comes up more than people expect. You are considered a first-time buyer if you have never held *real* property. Mobile homes are frequently personal property, not real property: you're leasing the land the unit sits on, and the home was never permanently affixed to a foundation. If it *has* been permanently affixed, and the county sends you a property tax bill — even a small one, a few hundred dollars a year — then it's being treated as real property, and you're a homeowner. The practical version of the test Debbie gave: have you had your HUD tags done, or do you still have DMV plates? You don't have to guess. The office can look up the property address and tell you whether it's currently taxed as real property, which answers the question either way. ### “I'm looking at a HELOC, and I've also heard the term 'HE loan.' What's the difference, and which one is better?” They're both second mortgages — both liens in second position behind your first, assuming you have a first. (If you own the home free and clear, either can sit in first position.) The difference is in the structure. A **home equity loan** is fixed. It works like a mortgage or a car loan: a set amount, over a set term, at a set rate, and every payment you make pays down the balance. A **home equity line of credit** is adjustable and revolving, much more like a credit card. You have an available line, you borrow against it and pay it back and borrow again, and you only pay on the balance you owe. The payment is interest-only — which means the minimum payment does not pay down the balance by a single dollar unless you deliberately pay more. And because the rate is tied to the prime rate, it climbs every time the Federal Reserve raises rates, so you pay more in interest over time. Which is better depends entirely on what you're using it for and whether you need the balance gone on a schedule. ### “I hear it may not be to a buyer's advantage to offer $10,000 less — a 2-1 buydown using a seller credit would be more helpful to the payment. What do you think?” This came from a real estate agent in Las Vegas, and Debbie agreed with him. Buying the interest rate down for the first year or two produces a significantly different amount of savings than the same money taken off the sale price. The gap between 5% and 6%, or 6% and 7%, over a 12- or 24-month term is a substantial chunk of money — more than a $10,000 price reduction moves a payment. The exception she named: if you're paying cash for the property, obviously you want the lowest price you can get. But the majority of buyers are financing, and for them the rate is where the leverage is. With a 2-1 buydown, the mechanics work like this: if the market rate is approaching 7%, your first year might be at 5%, your second year at 6%, and it isn't until the third year that you reach 7%. If rates come down as inflation is brought under control, you refinance into permanent financing before you ever get there. *Note: on this show Debbie also announced that for the month of October 2022, Mortgage Mom Radio would fund a first-year rate buydown on behalf of buyers and sellers working with the team. *That was a limited-time promotion and is no longer available.* Seller-funded buydowns are a normal part of a negotiation and can be discussed at any time; the company-funded portion described on this show has expired.* ### “Does solar add to the value of the home?” Some — but not dollar for dollar, and only under conditions. If your home and your neighbor's are model matches in a cookie-cutter community and yours has solar, that can be very appealing and help yours sell first. The condition that matters: the solar needs to be owned free and clear, not on a lease with a monthly payment a new buyer would have to take over. On value, Debbie used round numbers: if the last model match in the neighborhood sold for $500,000 without solar, you might get $510,000 with it. Meaningful, but not a recovery of what you spent. She put it in the same category as a pool: it makes the home more desirable, it may get you a bit more, and it will not return dollar for dollar. The same is true of every improvement — paint, landscaping, a kitchen remodel, new appliances, a new roof. Yes, the home becomes more attractive and sells for more than the fixer down the street. No, you do not get back what you put in. ### “If I buy in a month at around 6%, will I be able to refinance next year when rates go down? How long do I have to wait?” First, a correction she made on air: rates weren't at 6% that week. A standard Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac 30-year fixed conventional loan with no points was approaching 7%, if not already there. In a best case — big down payment, excellent credit score, a single-family home rather than a condo or a multi-unit — you might be in the high 6s. Anyone quoting fours and fives was quoting something other than a 30-year fixed: an adjustable, a 15-year, a 20-year, or a rate with points paid. On the actual question: yes, you can refinance later, as long as your qualifications don't get worse. Income the same or better, monthly debts the same, credit the same. What breaks it is new debt — financing all-new furniture for the house, taking a personal loan to renovate the kitchen. If you could qualify to buy, you can generally qualify to refinance. The situation where she'd have to say no is negative equity: if you owe more on the house than it's worth, there's no refinance. But her worked example goes the other way — buy at $500,000 with 5% down, keep your income, credit, and debts steady, and if rates drop from 7% to 5%, a 95% loan-to-value rate-and-term refinance with no cash out is entirely doable. The one trap she flagged: down payment assistance. The large majority of DPA programs come with strings. If it's a grant, there is usually a period during which you cannot refinance or sell without repaying what was granted. If it isn't a grant, it's a loan — a second lien on top of your first, sometimes forgiven after a set number of years and sometimes not. If your plan depends on refinancing the moment rates drop, understand those terms before you accept the assistance. ### “Do you think home prices or interest rates will ever come down enough to make it reasonable for Gen Z to buy?” Her honest answer was no, not in the sense the question means — you are not going to get to buy a house at the price she bought hers. But that isn't the same as being locked out. What she was seeing at the time: values had barely moved. The floor hadn't fallen out. What *had* changed was seller behavior — incentives, money toward closing costs, money to buy the rate down. She expected rates to start coming back down in roughly a year to eighteen months, and she expected that to be the moment values stopped softening, because demand returns instantly. Bidding wars come back, and whatever small depreciation happened evaporates. So the trap she wanted people to see is that rates and prices move against each other. Wait for cheaper money and you compete for a more expensive house. Buy now with a higher rate, negotiate a buydown to make the payment livable, and refinance into the lower rate when it arrives — you end up with the lower price *and* the lower rate. Then she went further, speaking as a parent. If you're worried about whether your children will be able to afford a home, or about college, or a wedding, her suggestion was to think about buying property rather than only putting money into the usual savings vehicles. Consider what a property bought today is worth in twenty years: you could refinance it to cover tuition, or hand it to a child who couldn't buy on their own. Her homework assignment for listeners was concrete — look up the home you live in now, owned or rented, and find out what it was worth twelve, sixteen, eighteen years ago, however old your kid is. Then look at what it's worth today. *(Debbie's own framing of this was an opinion about hedging against inflation, not investment advice. She is not a financial advisor.)* ### “Rent is 100% a sinkhole — $2,800 a month goes nowhere. How much of a sinkhole is it for homeowners?” Not one, in her view. It depends on your income and what your deductions actually give you, but the frame she offered: you own the home, you get the property tax deduction and the mortgage interest deduction, nobody can tell you to move, and as long as you make your payments nobody can put you out. Your payment is fixed. It's both a security blanket and a financial investment. The caveat she attached is maintenance. The Money Pit is a movie, not a normal outcome — most people know what they're buying and get inspections. But ordinary upkeep is real, and it belongs in the budget when you're working out what you can afford. That is exactly why she runs the homebuyer workshops: to make sure people understand what they're taking on as owners before they take it on. ### “I just heard about a loan that doesn't require proof of income. I'm recently back in the job market and don't have one year, let alone two.” At the time of this show, the team had just rolled out a program for a primary residence or second home that verified no income at all — not stated income, no income. No tax returns, no W-2s, no employer. What it required instead was everything else: a substantially larger down payment, a strong credit score, and reserves left in the bank after the down payment and closing costs. Debbie described it as common-sense underwriting — her example was a borrower with significant savings, 20% down, and a 740 credit score, with money left over for a rainy day. If you have 3%, 5%, or 10% down, this was not the program. And she was direct about the cost. Because nobody is verifying that you earn enough to make the payment, it is a riskier loan and it prices that way. Against a 30-year fixed approaching 7% at the time, she put a program like this somewhere around 8 to 8.5%. The strategy is the same one she recommends throughout: use it to get the house now, then refinance into conventional financing once you have the income history to document. *These terms were specific to a product available in October 2022 and are not current. Ask what exists today.* ### Have a question she didn't get to? Ask it directly. Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your own numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, theme music, the licensing recitations, featured-listing promotions, and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners in the live chat are identified by first name only.* ### An open Q&A Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and today the show is all Q&A. I want you to ask your questions, I'm going to read them out loud, and I'm going to answer them for you. There is no particular subject, and nothing is off the table. This is about everything — all things real estate and mortgage. Whether you're buying a home, selling a home, moving out of state, trying to get cash out of your property, refinancing, needing to buy another person out, wondering about equity lines and equity loans, or looking at a reverse mortgage. And a reverse mortgage can be done as both a refinance and a purchase — a lot of people don't know you can buy a home using a reverse mortgage. Or where I think rates are going, or whether you should buy today. All topics are open. ### Q&A: do you do reverse mortgages? Diane asks: *“Do you do reverse mortgages?”* Yes, we do offer reverse financing. There is a minimum age requirement, and it applies to everybody who will be living in the home, on the title of the home, and on the loan. So if you're married, we're going to look at both of you, and whoever is younger has to hit that age. Reverse mortgages are based on your age and what they believe the life expectancy to be. The older you are, the higher the loan-to-value — the higher the loan balance you can carry against the value of the property. You have to remember that on many reverse mortgages there isn't a monthly payment being made, so your balance is actually going backwards, in reverse, rather than being paid down and moving forward. So the longer your life expectancy, the higher that balance can get, which becomes risk to the bank — and that's why they lower the amount of financing available the younger you are. ### Q&A: buying a home with reverse mortgage financing Diane follows up: *“Please share how a person could purchase a new home with reverse mortgage financing.”* Okay, we're on reverse today. I like it. When you buy a home, just like you would with a normal loan, you've got a down payment you'll put on the property. Let me throw out simple numbers we can all follow. Say you buy a home for $500,000 and you're going to put down $250,000 — fifty percent of the house. On a normal loan you'd get a $250,000 mortgage, it would be amortized over 15, 20, or 30 years, and we'd figure out your monthly payment to get that balance paid off. On a purchase with a reverse mortgage, it's much the same, except the amount of down payment required is determined based on your age. So you put down the amount you need to put down, you get the loan from the bank for the other portion, which pays off the seller — and now your reverse mortgage starts rolling backwards instead of forward. Every month you carry that reverse mortgage, you're going to owe a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more. But the opportunity is there to do a reverse mortgage on a purchase just as well as on a refinance. I actually really like the product. I think it's fantastic, especially for somebody who is going to use their property as their main source of retirement. If you've got other ways to make payments — pensions, Social Security, retirement income — and you don't need to do a reverse mortgage, then obviously you want to keep your assets intact. But if that property is your form of retirement, if it's the vehicle that's going to keep your lifestyle the same as what you're used to, a reverse mortgage is absolutely a great opportunity. Later in the show Diane added that she thinks it's a great product, and I agree. It has a badly tarnished name, and maybe in the past it wasn't the greatest of programs — but there has been a lot of regulation since the financial crisis. It really is a good program and it really does help, or could help, a lot of people who haven't looked into it, or who are a little worried or scared of it. ### Q&A: what has to happen for rates to come down? A listener asks: *“What exactly has to happen in the world and/or country in order for interest rates to come down? What's the remedy, if there's nothing we can do as taxpayers?”* That's a little more on the level of probably not okay for me to get into on radio. I don't want to get too far into the politics of what needs to happen — I definitely want the show to stay on radio. But at the end of the day, in order for them to bring down interest rates, the way they explain it is that we need to get inflation under control. Right now they're raising rates to try to bring inflation down, to get to a level where they can stabilize, level off, and start bringing rates back down again. That is the very PC answer. Do I particularly think we're going to see rates drop any time soon? That's a negative, I don't. Do I think we're going to see rates continue to go up? Yes, I do. I think they climb a while longer, then things level off, and after leveling off for quite some time I think we'll start to see them come back down. I do not think we're ever going to see interest rates in the twos and three percents again like we did. That was a pandemic. That was something never heard of. I just don't see us rolling into another one any time soon. I don't have a crystal ball — I guess it could happen. But normal rates, if I had to put my finger on it after doing this for the last 28 years, I'd say we probably eventually see rates come back down into the five range: five and a half, five and three quarters, five and a quarter. I do think we'll eventually get there, but I don't personally think that happens until probably sometime in 2024\. So we're going to feel a little pain over the next twelve months or so — maybe six months where they keep raising them, then level off for a bit, and maybe about a year from now we might start to see them come down. But as soon as rates start to come down, we're going to start to see property values increase again, and then they're going to keep going. ### Q&A: mobile homes and first-time buyer status David asks: *“I've only ever lived in a mobile home in a park. Do I still qualify as a new home buyer?”* Great question, and it comes up quite often. You are considered a first-time buyer if you have never held *real* property. That's the big question mark around mobile homes: many times a mobile home is personal property, not real property. You're leasing the land your unit sits on, and the home hasn't had the work done to permanently affix it to the foundation. Now, if it has been permanently affixed to the foundation, and you get a property tax bill from the county — even if it's for a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars a year, even if it's five hundred or two hundred dollars for the year — then they're considering that to be real property. So the question is: have you had your HUD tags done, or do you still have DMV plates? That's probably the easiest way to explain it. There's a good chance you're still considered a first-time buyer, and there's a good chance you're not. If you're wondering and you want us to pull up the information and tell you the answer, give us a call. I can't look up you and your information, but I can look up your property address and tell you whether it's currently being taxed as real property — and that gives you your yes or no. ### Q&A: HELOC or home equity loan? A listener asks: *“I'm looking at a HELOC. I've also heard the word 'HE loan.' What is the difference, and which one is better?”* An HE loan — a home equity loan — is a fixed rate loan. A home equity line of credit is an adjustable line of credit. Both are second mortgages, both are liens against your property in second position if you currently have a first mortgage. There is an opportunity to have a home equity line or loan in first position, but that would be somebody who doesn't have a mortgage currently. Most of the time they're in second lien position. A home equity line of credit is a lot like a credit card. You have an open available line of credit, you can borrow against it and pay it back, borrow against it and pay it back, and you only pay on the balance you owe. The monthly payment is interest only — which means the payment you make will not pay the balance down on your mortgage, not even a dollar, unless you pay more toward that payment every month. And it's an adjustable rate, so as the Federal Reserve increases the prime rate, the rate on an equity line will continue to go up, and you'll pay more in interest over time as they keep raising rates. A home equity loan is very much like a mortgage or a car loan: a particular amount of money, over a particular amount of time, at a particular interest rate, and every payment you make pays down the balance you owe. It's basically a second loan. ### Q&A: price cut or buydown? Roger, a real estate agent in Las Vegas, asks: *“I hear it may not be to a buyer's advantage to offer $10,000 less, only saving a small amount in payments — that a 2-1 buydown using a seller credit would be more helpful to the payments. What do you think?”* I agree with what you've heard. I do believe that buying your interest rate down for the first year or two is a significantly different amount of savings than just lowering the price on the home. If you're going to get rid of ten thousand dollars worth of interest by buying the rate down, that is quite a bit different as far as the savings go. It's not something I can do here in studio and show you the calculation on, but it is definitely better for a buyer to get a lower interest rate with a seller credit than just a lower price on the home. If you're paying cash for the property, obviously you want the lowest price you can get. But the majority of the nation are getting mortgages when they purchase, and the difference in interest you'll pay between five percent and six percent, or six percent and seven percent, is a pretty big chunk over a 12- or 24-month term. I did my show last week on buydowns and what buydowns are. Let's say we do a two-year buydown: if rates are approaching seven, your first year is at five, the second year the rate is six, and it's not until the third year that it gets to seven. If rates do come back down as inflation gets under control, we get you refinanced into a more permanent solution. *\[Debbie also announced on this show a limited promotion for the month of October 2022, in which Mortgage Mom Radio would fund a first-year rate buydown on behalf of buyers and sellers working with the team. That promotion has expired and is included here only as part of the record of the episode.\]* ### Q&A: does solar add value? Karen asks: *“Does solar add to the value of the home?”* If my house is on the market and my neighbor's house is the exact same model match — we're in a cookie-cutter community — and I have solar and they don't, that could be very appealing to a buyer and help me sell over the other house. That's assuming my solar is owned free and clear, that it's not on a lease with a monthly payment a new buyer would have to take over. Is it going to give me a little bit of equity? Sure. Is it dollar for dollar for what I put into it? No. If the last home that sold in the neighborhood was a model match without solar and it sold for $500,000, you might get $510,000 for yours. So you're not getting dollar for dollar. It's very much like a pool: it makes your home more desirable, you will get a bit more for it, it's more attractive to a buyer — but not dollar for dollar. And that goes for all upgrades. You paint, you landscape, you redo the kitchen, you put in all new appliances, you put on a brand new roof. Yes, it makes the home more attractive. Yes, it'll go for more money than the fixer-upper down the street. But are you going to get dollar for dollar out of your improvements? You're not. ### Q&A: can I refinance later? A listener asks: *“If I purchase a house in a month and have a six percent interest rate, would I be able to refinance next year when rates go down? How long do I have to wait?”* Number one, you can always refinance. But by the way — we're not at six percent today. I'm just going to throw that out there. We're probably closer to seven percent on a conventional loan. If anybody's talking to you about fours and fives, they are definitely not talking about a normal 30-year fixed rate; they're probably talking about an adjustable, a 15-year, a 20-year, or one of the many other programs out there. A standard Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac 30-year fixed conventional mortgage, not paying any points, is approaching seven percent if not already there — and it depends on the property type and your credit score. If you've got the best of all worlds, a big down payment, a fantastic credit score, a single-family property, not units, not a condo, you might be in the high sixes right now without buying anything down. Every commercial you see and hear will be quoting rates that involve paying points. So let's back the truck up and really start at seven percent. If I get into a mortgage right now and the rate is seven percent, can I refinance if rates drop? Yes, you can — as long as you don't incur any extra debt. What does that mean? As long as your qualifications don't change. Your income stays the same or better. You've got a job today, you get a raise, or you get offered a new job at a higher amount. Your monthly debts stay the same. You don't go rack up a bunch of credit cards because you decided to buy all brand new furniture for the house. You don't start taking out personal loans to renovate the kitchen. As long as income, credit, and debts remain relatively the same, if you could qualify to buy, you should not have any problem doing a refinance. What are the situations where it might not be possible? Many of you have heard of down payment assistance and want to take advantage of it. Keep in mind that the large majority of those programs are going to require, if it's a grant, that you cannot refinance or sell the property within a particular amount of time, or you have to pay back what they granted you. And many times it isn't a grant — it's a loan. So now you have your first mortgage, and you additionally have an extra loan that may or may not be forgiven; sometimes it's forgiven after a certain number of years, and sometimes it has to be paid back. If you owe more on the house than what it's worth, we are not going to be able to do that refinance. But if you buy the home for $500,000 and you put five percent down, and your income stays the same and your credit stays the same and your debts stay the same, and rates happen to drop from seven percent to five percent — let me tell you, 95% loan to value, rate and term, not trying to take any cash out of the house, we can do that refinance all day long. So yes, you can absolutely refinance later if rates drop. ### Q&A: will it ever be reasonable for Gen Z to buy? A listener asks: *“Do you think home prices or interest rates will ever come down to make it reasonable for Gen Z to buy homes?”* I do think we're going to see property values come down — they've already kind of started to. They're not going crazy, things haven't exploded, the floor hasn't fallen out. What we're starting to see is sellers being willing to give incentives: money to cover your closing costs, money to buy down the interest rate to make the monthly payment more affordable. We're not necessarily seeing prices drop a lot, barely if at all. I do think we'll see rates come back down again, probably a year, year and a half out. But at that point, if we did get a little back in value, if values did drop a bit, we're going to see them go right back up. Think about it this way. Property values go up, property values come down. It's a cycle, it goes around in a circle. As we go through life we go up, we come down, and the next time we go up even further, then come back down. So do I think you're ever going to get the opportunity to buy a house at the same price I bought a house? No, I don't. I don't think that's going to happen. But I do think there are going to be points of affordability where it would be easier for you to refinance into a better monthly payment. If you buy a home today at today's prices and today's rates, and then values drop, you could always refinance to take advantage of a lower rate and make the home more affordable. If instead you put yourself on hold and say I'm not buying until rates come down — that's not a good idea, because when rates come down, just like what we saw over the last couple of years, demand increases. More people start shopping, more people are out trying to get homes, and you're going to see the bidding wars happening again. Any small amount of depreciation that has happened will escalate away, very quickly, and property values go right back up. So: if rates come down, it creates demand, and more homes sell at higher prices. If rates stay high, property values come down a little like they have been, you get a better deal, and you get incentives from a seller to get their home sold. I really believe your very best time to buy is now. Get into the home now, even if the rate is a little higher than you wanted. Do a buydown — get the seller to pay some money to buy your rate down — get a nice affordable payment for the next 12 to 24 months, and when rates come back down, refinance into your permanent financing. That would really be my suggestion. ### Buy property for your kids Here's my suggestion, and this is just me, this is the Mortgage Mom talking from my heart, as a mother of kids who are Gen Z and on the cusp of millennial. If you have a child right now and you're concerned about whether homes are going to be affordable someday, whether you'll be able to put them through college, whether you'll be able to pay for a wedding — how do you make that happen when prices just continue to go up? Remember: cyclical. They go up, they go down, but every time they go up they go up even higher, and when they come down they don't go down as low. Think of it as a slinky, spiraling upward. So instead of only putting money into the usual savings funds, take the money and buy property. Buy an investment property. Imagine what that property is going to be worth in twenty years if you have a baby today. Imagine what you can do with it then. Can you refinance it to get the cash out to cover their college tuition? If they were getting married and couldn't afford to buy, would it be a home you could hand to them? Property and real estate is the way to go. Buy what you can. Create a portfolio. If you can take cash out of your home to buy another home, do that. If you can muscle up five or ten percent to buy yourself a new home and make your current one the rental, do that. That's my opinion of the day. And I want you to do the research — I'm not even going to throw numbers out there. Look at the house you're living in, whether you own it or rent it. Look it up. What was that property worth eighteen years ago, sixteen years ago, twelve years ago — however old the kid is you're thinking about? What is it worth today? Could you use that property to get cash out for a wedding, for college, for a home for them to start their family in? It's just something I want you to think about: how can I hedge against inflation for my family? ### Q&A: is owning a sinkhole too? A listener asks: *“We know rent is 100% a sinkhole — $2,800 in rent a month goes absolutely nowhere for the renter. That being said, how much of a sinkhole is it for homeowners?”* It depends on every person, on your income level, and on what your deductions give you as an owner. But think of it this way: you own the home. You get the property tax deduction. You get the mortgage interest deduction. It is your home, it's giving you a place to call yours, nobody can tell you to move, and as long as you make your payments on time nobody can kick you out. You get to make of it what you want. It is a security blanket and it is a financial investment into the future. I don't believe buying a home is a sinkhole in any way. Obviously there are movies like *The Money Pit*, which was a fun movie back in the eighties, but that's not a normal situation. We're not usually all buying a house for pennies on the dollar and then finding hundreds of thousands of dollars of repairs. Most people know what they're buying, they're getting inspections. Normal overall maintenance is something we do want to budget in when we talk about what you can afford — we want to make sure you're prepared for homeownership and you understand your obligations as a homeowner. That is why I do the homebuyer workshops. ### Q&A: a loan with no proof of income Joey asks: *“I just heard about the loan that doesn't require proof of income. I'm recently back in the job market and do not have one, let alone two, years of proof.”* Yes — that's a program we rolled out about two or three weeks ago. It's for a primary residence or a second home. It is not stated income; it is literally no income. We are not qualifying you with income in any way, and we are not even saying where you work. You do need a bigger down payment. If you have three percent or five percent or ten percent down, this is not the program for you. This is for somebody where we're using common-sense underwriting: they have the assets in the bank, they have the credit score required, and they have reserves after down payment and closing costs. We're approving them based on assets. They've got significant savings, they're trying to buy a house, they're going to put down twenty percent, they have a strong credit score, and they've got money left over for a rainy day when things go backwards. That's the loan program for them. But do remember: when we don't verify income, we're not looking at your tax returns or your W-2s, and we can't verify that you make money to make a payment. That is a riskier loan, so it comes with a higher interest rate. If a 30-year fixed rate mortgage today is approaching seven percent, a program like that would probably bring you around eight, eight and a half percent somewhere in that mark. But it gets you into a home, it gets you your property, and you can always refinance once you have your one or two years of income under your belt, depending on your situation. It's a great opportunity to get into a property short term and then fix the permanent solution at a later date. ### Wrap-up I have definitely run out of time and I'm not going to be able to answer any more questions today. If you want to be part of the show on Wednesdays and interact with us live, subscribe on YouTube, or listen on the podcast. We're standing behind our community, our real estate agents, and everybody in the business. We want to see everybody buy, we want to see everybody sell, we want to see everybody get done what they need to get done — and the way you do that is to call us first. It's 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. I'll be back next week. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of October 5, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. The first-year rate buydown funded by Mortgage Mom Radio described on this page was a limited promotion for the month of October 2022 and is no longer available. Loan program guidelines described here — reverse mortgage age and loan-to-value rules, down payment assistance terms, minimum credit scores and down payments on no-income-verification products, and the pricing of those products — are as they were described on air in October 2022 and have changed since. Nothing on this page is an offer of credit, a rate quote, or a statement of currently available program terms. Reverse mortgages carry specific counseling, occupancy, and repayment obligations; tax questions belong with a qualified tax professional. ### If Home Prices Are Falling, Why Is My Offer Still Getting Outbid? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/if-home-prices-are-falling-why-is-my-offer-still-getting-outbid/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:05.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Market Update” • Live show from Monday, September 19, 2022 • 59 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Two days before the Federal Reserve's September 2022 meeting, the headlines all said the same thing: the stock market was down, crypto was down, builders were slowing, and housing was rolling over. Meanwhile Debbie had a first-time buyer couple who had written offer after offer and been outbid every single time. In this episode she and Heather, her in-house real estate agent, work through both halves of that contradiction — what a Fed hike actually changes in your budget, and why a slowing market can still be brutally competitive at the entry price point. ## Key takeaways - **The Fed funds rate is not your mortgage rate.** What moves directly with it: credit cards, home equity lines of credit, car loans, and student loans. Mortgage rates react to the news and to the bond market — the 10-year and 30-year Treasury notes that mortgage bonds compete with — not to the Fed's vote itself. - **Go read your own credit card statement.** Debbie's homework for listeners: pull a June 2021 statement, compare it to June 2022, then look at your September bill and again in October. Most people never open the statement and have no idea how far the rate has moved. She was routinely seeing 23–25% on cards, 9–10% on student loans, and 12–20% on personal loans. - **Her call going into the meeting: three quarters of a point.** Some people were saying a full point. She put the odds of no hike at zero, and expected increases to continue into roughly mid-2023 before settling. - **“Buy now, refinance in three years” is not a plan.** Debbie pushed back hard on taking an adjustable because you intend to sell or refinance in three or four years. She did not expect rates in 2025 to be meaningfully lower than 2022, and told buyers to buy for security and a five-to-seven-year hold instead. - **Check in with your lender before you write the offer, not after.** A lot of the listings going back on the market were buyers who got pre-approved in July or August, found a house months later, and only then discovered the payment no longer worked. An eighth or a quarter point moves a payment more than people expect. - **Higher rates push everyone down a price bracket.** Someone who qualified at $750,000 a year earlier was shopping at $650,000 — which is the most crowded band in the market, where first-time buyers, condo and townhome move-up buyers, and downsizing empty nesters all collide. That is why offers were still stacking up on the right house. - **Sellers: price it at the last comparable sale, not above it.** Debbie and Heather walked through the chase-the-market-down cycle — list high, cut, cut again, and by the time you reach the correct number a newer sale has already reset it lower. ## Chapters - 00:51Why this show ran on a Monday - 02:23The headlines: FedEx, builders, crypto — and buyers still getting outbid - 08:33What to expect from the Fed's September 20–21 meeting - 10:04What the Fed funds rate actually controls - 11:35Your credit card rate has already moved — go look - 13:38How big a hike? Debbie's call - 14:38Buyers: check in with your lender before you write the offer - 17:40Q&A: if my rate is fixed, how does the Fed affect it? - 20:16“I'll just refinance later” — what that does and doesn't buy you - 22:50Q&A: borrowing against your equity to pay off credit cards - 36:45Why an adjustable “because I'm only staying three years” worries her - 42:22Investment property as the long game - 44:26Q&A: have loan-to-values changed? - 46:29Q&A: where do I get an accurate value on my home? - 50:04Why buyers are still getting outbid in a slowing market - 53:08Sellers: price it right the first time ## Questions answered on this show ### “If my mortgage rate is fixed, how does the Fed affect it?” It doesn't — that is the entire point of a fixed rate. Once it's fixed, it's fixed. What you are doing is shielding yourself against every future rate hike. Debbie's favorite loan product is a 30-year fixed for exactly this reason: whether you choose 15, 20, or 30 years, the rate does not change, so the payment you budgeted is the payment you keep. Adjustables have their place and some borrowers genuinely want one, but a fixed payment is what lets you hedge against inflation and plan around a number you can count on. ### “Does it make sense to borrow against my home equity to pay off credit cards?” Often yes, but it depends on the whole picture: how much equity you have, how much cash you could pull, what you owe, and what rates you are paying on each debt. Debbie was routinely seeing credit cards in the 23–25% range, student loans around 9–10%, and personal loans from 12% to 20% — against which a mortgage or home equity option is dramatically cheaper. Whether that means a home equity loan behind your existing first mortgage or a full refinance comes down to the math. Her framing: it is not the loan officer's job to tell you which one to take, it is their job to show you the numbers so you can decide. She also flagged that federal student loan payments were about to restart, so borrowers should get other debt under control before that bill lands. ### “Have loan-to-values changed in this lending environment?” Not on the standard, fully documented loans. FHA was still 3.5% down, conventional still 3–5% down on a primary residence, USDA still zero down, and down payment assistance was still available. Where she *was* seeing tightening was at the riskier end: jumbo, interest-only, bank statement loans, and debt-service loans on investment property all wanted more money down or allowed less cash out. She also mentioned that conforming loan limits were expected to rise for the following year from the $647,000 range toward roughly $715,000, with some chatter about $743,000 — which would keep more borrowers out of jumbo territory. *(Those were her expectations at the time, not published figures.)* ### “Where do I go to get an accurate value on my home?” The best single answer is a local real estate agent running a comparative market analysis. But if you are asking in order to figure out how much you can refinance or pull out, your loan officer can get you very close: pull the recent closings from the title company, look for model matches, and cross-check the listing sites for square footage, condition, and photos. Two things to keep in mind. First, an agent pricing your home to sell will usually come in higher than an appraiser valuing it for a refinance — so ask for the number that matches what you're actually doing. Second, if you don't want a listing agent following up with you for months, Debbie's office can have one of the agents they work with pull it as a favor with no follow-up. ### Find out what your numbers look like today Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your own scenario with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, giveaway and workshop housekeeping, and the repeated licensing recitations have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners in the live chat are identified by first name only.* ### Why this show ran on a Monday Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux and I am the Mortgage Mom. We actually went live a little earlier today — we didn't send out a text message, we didn't let anybody know. It wasn't an actual show, it was some filming we were doing for the featured listings we put up on YouTube. So we figured, we're here, we're in the studio, let's do it. Instead of doing it on Wednesday, let's get it all done in one day and give ourselves a break. I've got Heather with me today — she's my in-house real estate agent, licensed here in California. I like to bring her on when we do market update shows, because she's got her finger more on the real estate side and I'm more on the mortgage side. She sees a lot of the announcements I wouldn't. Mortgage Mom Radio does not usually go on at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Monday, but it was a good conversation and it knocks everything out in one sitting. So this is me doing the show on Monday the 19th. You can all fact check me on Saturday and Sunday when this show goes out on radio. ### The headlines — and the contradiction There has been so much happening. News articles, people talking, Bitcoin falling. FedEx having its worst day on record last week. The stock market is down. The builders are slowing down, their inventory is slowing down, their new builds are slowing down. So what does all of this mean to you? And then, on the other side, I've got these poor clients — first-time home buyers, writing offer after offer at a very reasonable sales price — and every single time they submit an offer, one or two other offers come in within hours. Which again goes back to: we don't have enough inventory. So why is this house selling with multiple offers when the one across the street has been sitting for two months and can't sell, and might even be better priced? That's what we thought would make a great show today. ### What to expect from the Fed The Federal Reserve is slated to make its announcement on the 21st — they meet on the 20th and 21st — about whether they're going to increase rates again. We are anticipating that they will raise the Federal Reserve prime rate again. This is something we've been telling you show after show; we started warning about it back in 2021. What a lot of people don't realize is that the Federal Reserve prime rate is not directly connected to mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are affected by the news and by the changes, and we do see increases happening because of the overall trend in the economy — what's pushing the 10-year Treasury notes and the 30-year notes that mortgage bonds are securitized against. We're not directly connected, but we feel the pain. So what *is* directly connected? Student loans, car loans, credit card rates. Any loan tied to it. If you have an equity line of credit and you owe money on it, the minimum monthly payment goes up when that rate increases — if you've had that line a while, you've already felt it, and you're going to keep feeling it. Read your truth-in-lending statement; it tells you that you're tied to the Federal Reserve prime rate. Same with credit cards and short-term loans. ### Go look at your own statement Many of you don't even realize how much the interest on your credit cards has increased, because you just get the bill, you might pay the minimum, it might be auto-debited, and you never open the statement and look at the rate. It might be a very good exercise to pull an older statement — look at what you were paying in June of 2021, compare it to June of 2022, then look at the September bill that just came, and look again in October. You'll see a pretty big change. And what does that do to the economy? Everybody gets tighter. Affordability is getting out of hand. We were just reading about buy-now-pay-later: instead of people using it for the handbags and the expensive jackets like they were this time last year, they're using it for gas and groceries. People tell me, I make good money and I can afford my home, but I can't afford the rest of it, so I'm putting it on the credit card. And you think you have a great rate on that card — you really need to check, because the interest starts accumulating, the balances get higher, and that affects your credit and makes the balances harder to pay off. ### How big a hike? They've alluded to raising by at least three quarters of a point. Some people think it could be a full point. You'll hear that as 75 basis points or 100 basis points depending on who you're talking to — at the end of the day it's three quarters of a percent or one percent. Do I think there's a chance they come out and say they're not raising it? No. I don't think there's a chance. The half-point-per-meeting pace they talked about back in 2021 is not what's been happening. The first one was a quarter, lower than everybody anticipated, and since then it's been three quarters and three quarters. So if the Mortgage Mom had to guess, I'd say three quarters of a point is what we hear on Wednesday. Heather's guess was the same — maybe a one-in-four chance of a full point. ### Buyers: talk to your lender before you write If you're out searching for a home and you're pre-approved and you've been looking for a while, you have to check in with your lender. Ask where rates are today and what rate you should expect — especially before you make an offer. I'm seeing a lot of properties go back on the market, and many of those are buyers who got pre-approved, went looking for a while, got into escrow, and only then contacted their lender. It should be the other way around: call the lender and say, I found this house, I love it, what does it look like — *before* you write the offer. But you get excited, you make the offer, it gets accepted, and then you find out the rate is higher than you expected and so is the payment. Either it's outside your comfort zone even though you qualify, or you don't qualify anymore. That is the majority of the back-on-market activity we're seeing. Heather put it this way: when I used to sell real estate, people would say they wanted to look $50,000 over their price range, and I'd tell them not to — you'll fall in love with something you can't afford. Get in your price range first. Somebody who qualified in July or August at a slightly lower rate finds their dream home two or three months later, gets into escrow, goes to lock, and the payment has moved. Check in every couple of weeks, at least once a month. ### Q&A: fixed rates and the Fed Lori asks: *“If it's a fixed rate, how does the Fed affect our rates?”* Great question, and with every question there's somebody else thinking the same thing who's too shy to ask. If you have a fixed rate, your rate is fixed. What you're doing is guarding yourself, shielding yourself, protecting yourself against future rate hikes. When people ask what my favorite loan program is, I always say a fixed rate. Equity loans have their place depending on the rate you already have and how much cash you need, and I like them because they're not adjustable like a line of credit. But 30-year fixed rate mortgages are my favorite. It's a rate — and really a monthly payment — that you can count on and budget for. You're hedging yourself against inflation by locking something in now that stays with you for the term of the loan. Whether it's a 15, a 20, or a 30, that rate is not changing, so it doesn't matter what they do with future hikes; your payment won't move. There are plenty of good reasons someone might want an adjustable. Everyone's scenario is different, and if that's the right direction for you, we'll help you get it. At the end of the day it's about getting to the goal. ### “What if rates go down — can't I just refinance?” Heather raised this because she gets it a lot: what if I buy now at six or six and a half percent and rates come down? Yes, you can absolutely refinance. People seem to think a 30-year fixed means you're stuck with that rate for 30 years. You're not. If rates drop enough that it makes sense, refinance it. What you don't have is the ability to go backwards. You can't call in two, three, four years and ask for June of 2020's interest rate. You've got to get it while it's there. I expect the Fed to keep raising through the rest of this year and probably into about the middle of 2023, based on what I'm reading. Heather sees the same — roughly every six weeks they meet, rates keep going up, and then things calm down by mid-2023\. Could they come back down after that? Sure. Immediately? Probably not. Rates usually need to settle, and then something else has to happen before they start coming back down. Remember it's never overnight. It's slow up and it's slow down. And keep some perspective: I think it was 2011 when we last saw a 30-year fixed get down to around three and a quarter, and then we didn't see that again until a pandemic. I don't foresee three percent rates coming back. Heather's view, which I share, is that a more normal range — somewhere in the high fours to mid fives — is what we'd see once all of this plays out. ### Q&A: using equity to clear credit card debt Kim asks: *“With this information, does it make sense to take a loan against the equity in your home to pay off credit cards, especially if you have a couple of cards with balances?”* Yes, absolutely — depending on how much you owe. We want to look at everything you've got going on: how much equity is in the home, how much cash you could pull out, how much debt you have, and what the rates are on that debt. I'll tell you that the majority of the credit cards I see come through have rates in the 23, 24, 25 range. Very, very high. Student loans, I've seen nine and ten percent on many of them. Personal loans, anywhere from 12 to 20\. So depending on what kind of debt you have, how much you owe on your first mortgage, your current rate on that first, and how much cash you need and can get, we'd determine whether you're looking at a new home equity loan that leaves your first mortgage alone, or a complete refinance. The math doesn't lie. It's not up to us to tell you which way is better — it's our job to show you the numbers so you can decide. If you ask our opinion we're happy to give it, but at the end of the day it comes down to what you feel is best. Heather added something worth hearing: a lot of us haven't had to make student loan payments in a long time, and those are coming back in the next couple of months while gas and groceries are already expensive. If credit card debt is eating away at your monthly income, it may be worth clearing that out now so you're prepared when the student loan bill lands. And don't assume your student loan rate is automatically the good one — they move too, and nine or ten percent is a lot higher than where we are on a mortgage. ### How long do the hikes last? Back to the Federal Reserve prime rate: it's going up, and it'll probably keep going up until about the middle of 2023 in my guess. Some people think it'll run all the way through 2023 — that would be a lot, and I hope not. What I hope is that at that point things calm down, the economy improves, and rates fluctuate a bit and come back down from wherever they land. But don't hear that as: we'll have these rates until a date, and then it goes back to where it was. Just like they go up, they come down, and it's never overnight. It would probably take quite some time to get to lower rates. ### Why “I'll only be here three years” worries me Here's one I keep hearing: I'm only planning to stay three or four years, then I'll sell and buy something else, and I'll have more equity by then. And in that situation people say, so I think I should get an adjustable, because the rate is lower and I'll pay less interest while I have the loan, and then I'll sell or refinance into a fixed. I don't want you thinking that's a safe plan. I don't see rates two or three years from today being a whole lot lower — if lower at all — than where we are now. It scares me when I hear that philosophy. That was a philosophy in 2020 and 2021: my property's going to go up in value, I'll have the equity I need to go buy another one, I'm only staying a couple of years. That is not the world we're in today. Buy for security. If you don't own one, buy your first home; if you do, look at an investment property. Buy something you expect to stay in for five to seven years, through a normal cycle. If that was your plan, come have the one-on-one conversation with me or with Heather — let's talk about the scenarios that could actually happen and make decisions from there. Heather's point on the values side: yes, when rates go up, home prices generally come down. The question is how high rates go and how much that moves prices. They will correct somewhat. But we still have a shortage, so it's not a straight line — people can't afford as much as they could last month, which changes the dynamic without erasing the inventory problem. ### Rents go up, and what to do about it This show is not Doom and Gloom. It's about what you can do for yourself in this market. Number one: get the credit cards, personal loans, and student loans paid off, under control, or refinanced into something at a lower rate than you're paying today. Number two: even if property values stop, drop, or fall, rents always go up. They get higher. So you want to lock yourself into a payment you can afford, and buying a home does that — a loan you can count on and a monthly payment you can count on. Not counting on an increase in value to give you equity down the road. What I'd be telling you to do is secure your financial future. ### Investment property as the long game One thing we were talking about is investment property. You're buying at today's price and today's rate — and where will prices and rates be in 5, 10, 15, 20 years? A lot of people put money into college funds and retirement accounts. Think about buying a home today, putting a renter in it who makes the payment, so it doesn't really cost you anything beyond the down payment and closing costs. You maintain it, and hopefully the rent covers those expenses. Then when your kid is ready for college in five, ten, or fifteen years — when buying may no longer be affordable for them — could you give them that home? Refinance it, pull cash out, or sell it to pay for the education? Right now is when we need to start making chess moves — figuring out the best moves to set us up for long-term gains. If you're in a home with a great rate and you've been thinking you'd like something bigger, go look. If you can afford it, keep the one you've got, rent it out, and hold on to it. Over time that can be a much bigger nest egg to pass on than what you'd get out of a standard retirement account. It's not all doom and gloom; it's about re-strategizing and putting your money to work in a different way. ### Q&A: have loan-to-values changed? Mary asks: *“Have loan-to-values changed in the new lending environment?”* We have not seen loan-to-values change drastically on the normal FHA and conventional conforming side. Every year we get increased lending limits, and they're expecting the conventional limit to move up from around $647,000 to roughly $715,000 — I've heard it could possibly go as high as $743,000\. That would help a lot of people avoid jumbo territory, where financing is harder to get. Where we *are* seeing loan-to-value come down is in the jumbo arena, so you may need more money down depending on the loan type. Interest-only, and the non-QM products — a bank statement loan, or a debt-service loan where the investment property carries itself — are also asking for a bit more down or allowing a bit less cash out. Those riskier products are where the changes are showing up. But your FHA is still three and a half percent down, conventional is still three or five percent down, down payment assistance is still there, and USDA is still zero. On the standard, fully documented, full-income loans, we're not seeing those changes yet. ### Q&A: getting an accurate value on your home Kim asks: *“Where do we go to get an accurate property value of our home?”* Truly the best idea you can get is to call a local real estate agent in your area and have them do a CMA — a comparative market analysis. That said, if you're asking so you can figure out what's available for a refinance, someone like me or Heather or any of the loan officers on the team can give you a very good idea. We pull comps from the title company, see what the last home in your area closed for, look for a model match, and then check the listing sites. We can pull the most recent closings, compare square footage, whether it had a pool and yours doesn't, whether it was updated. Then we can give you a fairly accurate number for what an appraiser would likely bring back. Heather's addition: the more we know about your house, the better. Original plumbing? What's the roof like? That tells us what a buyer is going to expect walking in. And keep the purpose straight — you'll usually get a higher number from an agent marketing it for sale than from an appraiser on a refinance. If you want to know what you could sell for, that's an agent. If you want to know what an appraisal will say, that's us. And if you don't want the pressure of somebody following up to try to get your house listed, we work with great agents all over the country who will pull it as a favor without hounding you. ### Why buyers are still getting outbid So here's the thing I started the show with. Rates are going up, the Fed is going to keep raising them, a rate today is better than what you'll get next week — all of that is true. And you hear everybody saying property values are dropping. Yet I've got this couple who have made multiple offers over the last two weeks and been outbid every time. We're on the radio telling everybody this is a buyer's market, and here's a couple who can't get an offer accepted. It feels like twelve months ago. Heather's explanation is affordability and price range. This couple is in about the $650,000 range — which here in Southern California is a starting price range. That means they're competing against condo move-up buyers, townhome move-up buyers, first-time buyers, and empty nesters who sold the big house and want to downsize. It is the most aggressive band in the market. Add rates to that. Somebody who qualified at $750,000 a year ago is now in that $650,000 range. Maybe they weren't a first-time buyer at all — maybe they were a move-up buyer who waited, or got outbid a dozen times last year, and now higher rates have kicked them down a bracket. If you were at $700,000 or $750,000 or even $800,000, you're now shopping lower, looking at homes that were less desirable a year ago. So when we say things aren't selling — certain things are selling. Yes, it's slowed down. But the house that's fixed up and remodeled still has a much better chance of going into escrow quickly than the one that's dated. A lot of buyers don't have the funds to go in and renovate, but they do have the funds to pay a bit more for the one already done. Two identical homes, and the more dated one sits even at a better price. And builders are not filling the gap. They're feeling it as much as any other seller, permit applications for new tracts are slowing, and they're selling through the inventory they have rather than bringing new inventory to market. Resale sellers who are competing with new construction are dropping prices to do it, which is a healthy little correction — but the shortage is still the shortage. ### Sellers: price it right the first time I hope sellers are hearing what Heather is saying. If the last home sold at $700,000, you cannot come on at $730,000 and expect to sell at $730,000\. What happens is your agent comes to you and says, we listed high, we haven't had activity, let's go to $720,000 or $715,000\. That's your first price adjustment. You're still not selling, because buyers are savvy — they're searching online and they can see the last sale was $700,000, so why would they pay $715,000? Now you take a second adjustment. You've been on the market 30 to 60 days, and you're finally down to where the last sale was — but in those 30 to 60 days somebody else came on and sold at $690,000\. So now you're above the market again and you're chasing it down. Price it right. That's number one. Number two: if your home is fixed up and improved, it sells much faster. And buyers — get off the fence. Part of what happened to these clients is that they went out and looked over the weekend, they loved the property, and then they sat and talked it through. They wrote the offer today, and the seller had accepted another offer two hours earlier. They missed the house by two hours. If you see the house you want, the seller did the work, and it's affordable, get it. One last idea for sellers who are stuck. The best return you can get is paint — light colors, not dark. If you can't afford to do it, offer the buyer a credit through escrow instead. Say it'll take four or five thousand dollars to paint, and offer that as a credit. The buyer gets the house, picks their own colors, and does it with the seller's money instead of their own. ### Wrap-up If you need more information or have more questions, please reach out — that's 844-935-3634, 844-WE-LEND-4\. We're calling people back even on Saturday and Sunday. If you'd like to know when we go live and be part of the show, text the word MOM to that same number: one text message a week, a link to jump on and follow along, and no spam. Everything else is at mortgagemomradio.com. I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your week — we'll talk to you real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 19, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Can The Bank Freeze My HELOC If Home Values Drop? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/can-the-bank-freeze-my-heloc-if-home-values-drop/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:06.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “What Is The Best Way To Get Cash Out Of Your Home?” • Live show from Monday, September 12, 2022 • 65 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 **Please read first — this episode is a historical record, not a live offer.** It was recorded on September 12, 2022\. In answering listener questions Debbie quotes specific loan program terms as they stood that week: maximum loan-to-value percentages on home equity loans and on investment property loans, and interest rate ranges for second mortgages and cash-out refinances. **None of those numbers should be relied on today.** Loan-to-value caps, minimum credit scores, and pricing change constantly and vary by lender, by property, and by borrower. For what actually exists right now, call the office and ask. Debbie spent a rainy Saturday scrolling social media and saw the same advertisement over and over: get a home equity line of credit. So she built a show around the thing those ads never mention. If home values fall, a lender can freeze your line, cut off the room you have left on it, and convert the balance you already drew into a principal-and-interest payment. She watched it happen to clients from 2008 through 2011\. This episode is her walk through the three ways to pull cash out of a house — a HELOC, a home equity loan, and a full cash-out refinance — aimed squarely at the listener who believes prices are about to drop. ## Key takeaways - **A frozen line of credit is the risk nobody advertises.** In the last downturn Debbie watched lenders shut off HELOC draw access entirely — even for borrowers with plenty of room left — and convert the outstanding balance from an interest-only payment to a principal-and-interest payment over a set term. She saw those repayment terms run anywhere from 10 to 30 years depending on the bank and the fine print. - **If you think values are falling, don't set up a line “for later.”** That's the exact plan the freeze defeats. A home equity loan or a full refinance funds the whole amount at closing — once the money is in your account, there is nothing left for the lender to cut off. - **Line versus loan, in one sentence each.** A HELOC works like a credit card: a limit you draw against, pay back, and draw again, usually with a 10-year draw period and an interest-only payment, at an adjustable rate tied to the Fed. A home equity loan funds once at a fixed rate, a fixed payment, and a fixed term, with no ability to reuse it. - **She would not expect a frozen line to be reopened.** In all the loans and clients she handled through the last downturn, she never once saw a lender restore a closed draw period when values recovered. Her reasoning: real estate cycles run seven to ten years, and a 10-year draw period usually runs out before banks get comfortable again — so you'd be applying for a brand new line on new terms. - **Approaching the end of a draw period is its own deadline.** If you're eight or nine years into a 10-year draw, the interest-only payment is about to become a principal-and-interest payment and the draw goes away. That is the moment to look at refinancing the balance into something more affordable. - **The decision is a blended-rate calculation, not a preference.** Compare what you pay today on your first mortgage against what one new loan would cost, then against what a first-plus-second would cost combined. If the blended rate on two loans is the same or worse, take the single 30-year fixed — one payment, one servicer. - **Her own ranking:** a full refinance first, a home equity loan second, a line of credit last — specifically for the borrower who thinks values are heading down. She is clear this is her preference and that a HELOC is genuinely good for someone who can draw and repay it comfortably and would not be hurt if it were closed. - **Why a second mortgage costs so much more.** The lender in second lien position gets paid only after the first mortgage is paid off in a foreclosure. In the last downturn, second-lien lenders frequently recovered nothing at all — and that risk is priced into the rate. ## Chapters - 00:53Why this show: the HELOC ads are everywhere - 09:36What's genuinely good about a home equity line of credit - 11:07Line of credit vs. home equity loan — the actual difference - 11:38“I'll set up a line now and use it later” — the plan she warns against - 14:11What she watched happen to lines of credit from 2007 to 2011 - 17:47Q&A: can you use a line, pay it back, and use it again? - 21:53Q&A: is a year of homeowner's insurance part of closing costs? - 24:27Q&A: what is the difference with a home equity loan? - 28:35Q&A: what happens to a line of credit when you sell? - 29:36Q&A: if they close my line, will they reopen it later? - 35:12Why every ad right now is selling you a line of credit - 43:27Q&A: can I get a home equity loan with a low credit score? - 44:28Loan-to-value, explained with round numbers - 48:05Q&A: pulling cash out to buy an investment property - 50:38The blended rate: how the decision actually gets made - 59:18Q&A: is a home equity loan easier to apply for than a refinance? ## Questions answered on this show ### “Do you have to use all the money on a line of credit at once, or can you use it, pay it off, and use it again?” You can use it, pay it back, and use it again — that is the whole appeal. Most people who take a line want the limit available rather than the cash in hand, and they don't want to pay interest on money they aren't using. Most lines have a 10-year draw period, during which you can cycle the balance up and down with an interest-only monthly payment. After the draw period ends, based on your bank and the terms you signed, it converts to a fixed-rate loan to pay the remaining balance off over a 10, 20, or 30-year term. Two things to keep front of mind: a line of credit is an adjustable rate tied to the Fed, so your payment moves when they move, and if your property value drops the lender can shut the line off. ### “What is the difference between a home equity line and a home equity loan?” A home equity loan is just like a first mortgage in structure: a fixed rate, a fixed monthly payment, and a fixed term, at a higher rate than a first mortgage would carry. It funds completely at closing — whatever amount you're borrowing lands in your account and you begin repaying it. Debbie's preference between the two, *if you believe values are falling*, is the loan or a full refinance: you've already taken the money, so there's nothing for a lender to reduce or cut off later. ### “If you have a line of credit, what happens when you sell the house? Does the money you took out become due?” Yes. A line of credit, a home equity loan, and a mortgage are all liens against your property. When you sell, every lien has to be taken care of — paid off if there's a balance, and closed and removed either way. Escrow orders a payoff demand on each one exactly as it does on your first mortgage, and it's all settled at the sale. ### “If they close my line because values dropped, will they reopen it when values go back up?” Debbie's honest answer: she never saw it happen. She can't say it never happened anywhere in the country, but in none of the lines, loans, or clients she worked with through the last downturn did a lender reopen a closed draw period. Her reasoning is timing — real estate cycles typically run seven to ten years, and a draw period is usually ten. By the time values recover and banks are comfortable writing lines again, there generally isn't enough of your draw period left for it to matter. You would apply for a brand new line, rewritten with new terms. And yes, you could use a new line to pay off the old one, once lenders are writing them again at all — because when values fall far enough, banks stop offering new lines as well as freezing existing ones. ### “Can I get a home equity loan with a low credit score?” Yes, generally more easily than a line of credit, which tends to want a higher score. What your score changes is how far up in loan-to-value you're allowed to go. Debbie walked through the arithmetic on a $100,000 house: an 80% loan-to-value means an $80,000 total against the property, so if you owe $50,000 on your first, you can take $30,000 in cash. A higher allowance means more cash out; a lower score means a lower allowance. Whatever the cap, you always subtract what you already owe on your first mortgage to find what's actually available to you. *(The specific percentages she quoted on air were the 2022 market and are not current guidelines — see the notice at the top of this page.)* ### “Homes near me are selling for a little less than before, and I want to pull money out to buy an investment property — but I have an amazing rate on my home. What should I do?” Debbie's recommendation is a home equity loan or a full refinance rather than a line, for two reasons. First, a line is adjustable, so if rates keep climbing you need a plan to pay it off. Second, the cash from a loan or refinance is in your bank and cannot be taken back. And because you're qualified for a fixed payment on a fixed term up front, there is no scenario where the property goes underwater and you suddenly can't afford the payment you signed up for. Which of the two wins comes down to the blended-rate math below. ### “When I apply for a home equity loan, is it the same process as a refinance, or is it easier?” Exactly the same. It is a full loan application with full income documentation. Both require an appraisal, both require an underwriter's approval, and both end with you signing loan documents. Same amount of time, same process. So don't choose between them on which is easier — choose on which is financially better. ### “If insurance goes into escrow for the year, is that money part of the closing costs?” Yes. A lender requires you to pay one full year of your homeowner's insurance policy up front at closing, and then collects a couple more months — usually two — to seed your escrow account. From there, a little goes into escrow with every monthly payment, and when the policy comes due at the end of the year the servicer pays it on your behalf for the new one-year cycle. So the first year's premium is part of your closing costs. ### Work out which cash-out option actually costs you less Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your own scenario with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Programs and pricing change — ask for today's numbers rather than the ones on this page. Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, a home buyer workshop promotional clip that plays twice during the breaks, and the repeated licensing recitations have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners in the live chat are identified by first name only, or not at all where only a screen name was given.* ### Why this show Hello and welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux and I am the Mortgage Mom. Today we're talking about the best way to take cash out of your home. The last two or three shows have really been pointed at home buyers and first-time buyers, so today we're turning the tables and talking to you homeowners. The other day I was scrolling through TikTok for a good amount of time, and Instagram, and Facebook, and all the goodies. I was just bored on a Saturday — we had some rain, which is unusual for us, so it was a nice day to relax and scroll like we all do. And ad after ad after ad was coming up about taking out a home equity line of credit. So I want to talk about those today. I want to make sure you understand what they are, how they work, and what happens when property values do start to come down — because it's not particularly what you might think. A quick note on the schedule: sometimes I go on Monday, sometimes Wednesday. More often than not I'm on Wednesday, but this week I have something personal going on, so I'm doing the show on Monday instead. ### What's genuinely good about a line of credit Home equity lines of credit are fantastic, and we'll talk about all the good things about them — but depending on your circumstances, a line might not be the direction you want to go. Number one on the good side: if you have a really low rate on your first mortgage and you don't want to touch it — not the rate, not the payment, not the balance — a line of credit can be a great option. You get an additional line you can borrow against, pay back, and borrow against again. It's at a higher rate than your first mortgage, but it isn't disrupting the entire balance you owe. So for example, if you have a mortgage of $400,000, $500,000, $600,000 — these are just examples — at a rate around three or three and a half percent, and you want to pull out $100,000, that line is at a higher rate, but the majority of what you owe stays at the lower rate. You're only paying the higher rate on that hundred thousand. The same explanation holds if you take a home equity loan instead of a line. ### Line versus loan So what's the difference? A home equity line of credit is very similar to a credit card. You have a credit line, and you only make a payment based on the balance you owe. You can pay it back and use it again, pay it back and use it again, which is great. A home equity loan is different. You take all of the money. It's just like your mortgage — it gets funded on the day of funding, and you owe that balance until you pay it back. It's a fixed rate, a fixed monthly payment, and it's paid off when it's paid off. There's no ability to go in and reuse it. ### The plan I want to warn you about Lately I've been getting a lot of questions and phone calls from people who want to take out a line of credit because they think they might want to do something with the money in the future. They don't want a loan and they don't want to refinance, because they're not sure when they'll use it and they don't want to pay interest on money they aren't using. They're thinking about buying another property, or paying off debt, or doing home improvements, or buying out a co-owner — and the plan is: take the line now, don't draw anything, don't make payments until I'm ready. Here's what I want you to be aware of, and I say this because I've been in this business a very long time. Anybody who can actually speak to this situation has to have been in the business since at least 2005 — that's about seventeen years. You've got me, the Mortgage Mom, saying I think prices are going to hold, appreciation is going to slow down, and we might see values slip — maybe as much as ten percent negative over the long haul of whatever they're calling this recession today. I don't think we're going to see some ginormous crash. That's my opinion. But plenty of people out there are talking crash, and I have clients calling saying, I want to get the cash out now because I'm concerned about where property values will be later and I don't think I'll be able to take money out then. ### What I watched happen to lines of credit Here's the one thing to keep in mind with a line of credit: if you owe money on it and your property value declines, things change. We saw this happen from 2007 and 2008 all the way through 2010 and even 2011. People say, she doesn't even know the date of the last recession. Guys, it doesn't just happen. It's not like on this date we went into recession. It starts, it hits pockets, it moves across the nation, and it hits you when it hits you. Then it takes time to recover. It doesn't go down overnight and stop — it's not a flip-flop, on and off. It was a very drawn-out period. It really started in 2007, it was bad in 2008 and 2009, and some people got hit hard as late as 2010 and 2011. So during that stretch, when we had a crazy fallout of property values, what happened to lines of credit? What I saw was this: if you had a balance on your line, they cut it off. You were no longer allowed to access it even if you had remaining limit open. Think about your credit card — you've got a balance, you've used some of it, and you can keep using it until you hit the limit. On a line of credit we all work that way. We use a little, we don't use it all, and there's always a bit remaining. It's our nest egg. We watched them shut those down. They didn't allow you to access them. And they took the balance you owed and moved it from an interest-only payment to a principal-and-interest payment, due over a particular term — and I saw that term anywhere from 10 years to 30 years. It depends on the bank that gave you the line and what's in the fine details about what happens after the line hits its term. We actually saw clients who had had a line for a year, with lots and lots of room left on it, and it was shut off. No longer accessible. And if they had a balance, that payment became a payment designed to pay the balance in full. So if you're out there thinking, I'm going to set this up for later because I'm worried values might drop, but I don't want to pay on it because I'm not using it today — think again. You might want to consider actually getting the cash out of the house now. With a home equity loan or a full refinance, you take the entire amount out right now, which means there is nothing they can shut off, cut off, or refuse you access to. You've already taken that money and it's not something they can get back. ### Q&A: using a line, paying it back, using it again Sunshine asks: *“Do you have to use all the money on the line of credit at one time, or can you use it, pay it off, and use it again?”* Great question, and that's exactly what I was just talking about. Most people who get a line want the access — they want a limit — and they'll use it and pay it back and use it again, or not use it at all because they're holding it for future use and don't want to pay interest on money they don't need. So yes, you can take the funds, pay it back, use it, pay it back. Most lines of credit have a 10-year draw period. That means you can cycle it like that with an interest-only monthly payment for the first ten years. After the draw period, based on the bank and the terms you agreed to, it turns into a fixed-rate loan to pay back whatever balance remains, over a 10, 20, or 30-year term. It does depend on the paperwork you sign. But again, be very careful in understanding this: a line of credit is an adjustable rate. As the Fed changes rates, lines of credit are tied to them — they will move, and your monthly payment will move. And if your property value drops, they will shut your line off. ### Q&A: is the first year of insurance part of closing costs? Sunshine also asks: *“If insurance goes into escrow for the year, is that money part of the closing costs?”* Great question, and yes it is. The way it works when you're closing your loan is that we require — and I should say the lender requires; I work for a lender that's doing your loan, and it's my job as a loan officer to make sure you're comfortable and that you understand the transaction — a lender is going to require that you pay one full year up front of your homeowner's insurance policy. Then on top of that we collect a couple more months, probably two, to put into your escrow account. Then every time you make a payment throughout the year, a little bit goes into escrow, a little bit goes into escrow. When that insurance is due at the end of the year for a new one-year cycle, the lender or the mortgage company makes that payment on your behalf. So in short: yes, you buy that one-year policy up front at closing, and that is part of your closing costs. ### Q&A: the difference with a home equity loan Heidi asks: *“So then what is the difference with the home equity loan?”* If you are of the school of thought that property values are going to decrease and we're going to have a major fallout in the market, then a home equity line of credit is probably not for you. Between the two, my preference would be the home equity loan. A home equity loan is just like a first mortgage in the sense of a fixed interest rate, a fixed monthly payment, and a fixed term — but at a higher rate than a first mortgage. At funding, the loan is completely funded and the proceeds are given to you. If you're looking for $50,000 or $100,000 or $150,000, whatever that number is, you get the full proceeds up front. You now owe that money and you have a monthly payment to get it paid off over whatever term you selected when you put the loan together. I like this because it's not like a line, where if values drop they can come back later and say your property isn't worth what it used to be, so we're reducing what we're willing to lend you. You've already taken the money. It's in your bank account. Once you take the funds, they're yours. ### Q&A: selling with a line of credit on the house Sunshine asks: *“If you get a line of credit, what happens when you go to sell the house? Does it affect the sale? Does the money you took out become due?”* A line of credit, a home equity loan, and a mortgage are all liens against your property. When you go to sell, any lien against your property has to be taken care of — paid off if there's a balance, and closed and removed either way so the loan is no longer there. If you have a balance on a home equity line, there will be a payoff demand ordered, the same as on your first mortgage, and all of it is paid at the time you sell. It doesn't matter which of the three it is: if it's tied to the property, they order demands on all of them and you pay off what you owe. ### Q&A: will they reopen a closed line? Heather asks: *“If I have a home equity line of credit and they close it because property values go down, will they open my line again if values go back up, or do I have to get a new one?”* All I can do is go off what I saw and witnessed during the last recession, when property values plummeted. Once a line was shut off as far as the draw goes, we never saw them reopen it. Now, I cannot say that never happened — I can't say there's nobody in the United States who somehow got their draw period reopened and the credit re-extended. That absolutely could have happened. But in none of the lines or loans or clients I worked with during those years did I ever see it. So my answer would be no, I don't believe they will reopen it for you if values go back up. Remember that real estate is cyclical. It goes up and it comes down and it goes up and it comes down, and that cycle is usually seven to ten years. The last cycle was actually really long — it definitely exceeded ten years. But the cycles are long. As we start to see values come down — and I truly don't believe in a huge major crash, though many of you do, which is why I do this show and show you the ups and downs — values might come down a little and hold steady. They may not appreciate, they may not depreciate, they may drop a lot and come right back up. Those cycles take time. And the draw periods are usually ten years. So if a cycle takes seven to ten years, there typically isn't enough time in that cycle for it to hit the floor, for banks to start feeling comfortable again, for banks to say okay, we're doing lines of credit again — and then for them to reopen yours when you don't have much draw period left. So usually you would have to apply again for a brand new line, redrawn and rewritten with new terms. Heather's follow-up was whether you could pay off the first one with the second one. Yes. If values go back up, the economy is flourishing, and banks come back out and start offering lines again — because they usually stop writing new lines entirely at the point values have dropped enough to give them shaky knees over all the lines already outstanding — then yes, you'd open a new line and use it to pay off the old balance. ### If you're near the end of your draw period Here's something for anyone who has a line today and is coming up on the 10-year draw mark. If you're eight or nine years in and you've only got two or three years of draw left, you may want to start thinking about refinancing that line now, because you are going to turn into a principal-and-interest payment in order to get the balance paid off, and your draw is going to go away. If you're approaching the latter part of that ten years, look at refinancing that balance into something a little more affordable. ### Why every ad is selling you a line of credit Everywhere I turn, every marketing ploy out there is talking home equity lines and loans. Why are they talking about it that way? Because a lot of people are hesitant to refinance right now. They're afraid to give up the low rate they have on their current mortgage, and they don't want to start over at a higher one. So they're looking for other outlets to get the cash out of their property. And what's the easiest way to go after that consumer? You play to where the best market is: people saying I don't want to get rid of my mortgage, I've got a great rate, so I'll just take a line or a loan. Home equity lines are great for some people. I'll be totally honest with you — they're not my favorite. They're really good for somebody who has the money to use it and pay it back, use it and pay it back, and for whom it wouldn't hurt at all if the line got closed because values fell. Somebody who isn't relying on that interest-only monthly payment to be able to afford what they signed up for. Because if they do shut it down and you have a balance, that interest-only payment goes out the door with it, and you are into a fixed-rate term with a principal-and-interest payment to get the balance paid off. It's very important for you to understand what can happen in the future with a line of credit, and it is not something you're seeing people talk about. That's because there are a lot of people in this industry who weren't around before — they didn't see what took place when the real estate market came down and property values fell. Here's a live example of investors getting cautious. We used to have an investment property loan where the property carries itself. We still have that loan, but we used to be able to do it up to an 85 percent loan-to-value, and we're now down to 75 percent. Why? Because investors — the people offering these loan programs — are unsure about the future. Everybody's talking about values dropping, and then you have the other side saying they won't drop much. I think we might see values go into the negative five or ten percent from the top of the market. I could definitely see that happening. And then you've got a side over here talking about massive decreases and a giant crash. *(That loan-to-value figure was the market in September 2022; see the notice at the top of this page.)* So when you're deciding how to take cash out of your home, look at all the options and ask which one is best for you. Do I go the safe route? Am I a gambler — when I go to Vegas and I win, do I let it ride, or do I take my money and walk? Everybody is different. There isn't one answer that's right. We've got all the programs. You want a line of credit, we'll help you. You want a home equity loan, we'll help you. You want a cash-out refinance, we'll help you. It's a matter of which one makes the most sense for you and your family. ### Q&A: a home equity loan with a lower credit score A listener asks: *“Can I get a home equity loan with a low credit score?”* Home equity loans, yes. Home equity lines of credit typically want a higher credit score. With a loan, what they'll limit is how high they'll take you in loan-to-value. So what is loan-to-value? I don't want to talk in acronyms and have people not understand me. If your home is worth $100,000 — and I'm only using that number because it's easy to round off, not because it's easy to find anywhere in the United States — an 80 percent loan-to-value would be an $80,000 loan, so you have twenty percent equity. A 70 percent loan-to-value would be a $70,000 loan, and you'd have $30,000 of equity. Your loan-to-value is what determines how much cash you can get out on a refinance, a home equity loan, or a line. There are guidelines that have to be adhered to, and the loan-to-value allowed on a home equity loan goes higher the higher your credit score is. With a low score, they're not going to allow that. Here's how the amount is determined. Say you have a mortgage balance of $50,000, your house is worth $100,000, and they'll let you go to 80 percent loan-to-value. That means $80,000 is the maximum combined loans you can have against the property. So if you owe $50,000, you cannot take out more than $30,000 in cash. If you could go to 90 percent, you'd get $40,000 out. Whatever the number, you have to subtract what you owe on your first to see what's really available. So yes, you can get a home equity loan with a lower score. A line is going to be more difficult. The only way to know your options is to call us and let us figure out where your credit is and what's available. ### Q&A: pulling cash out to buy an investment property Heidi asks: *“I've noticed some of the homes around me have been selling for a little less than previously, and I've been thinking about taking some money out of my home to buy an investment property. I have an amazing rate on my home today — what would you recommend I do?”* That's a lot of what we're talking about today. We have many people in that position, thinking: I want to get myself set up to buy that next investment property, and I want to access the equity in my home to make it happen. How do I do it? And they're seeing advertising all over the place. A line of credit is an option if it's something you're going to execute very shortly. But remember a line is an adjustable rate, so you'd better have a plan to pay it off if rates continue to go up — which seems to be the pattern we're seeing. So I would really, honestly suggest looking at both a home equity loan and a full refinance. Why those two? Because you're getting your cash out, it's in your bank, nobody can take it back, and it's a fixed rate. And you're not going to sign up for it unless it's within your budget and you can be pre-approved for it. So it's not a case of taking money out and then, if your property goes upside down, suddenly you can't afford the payment and you walk away from your home. That's not the case, because we are qualifying you for the fixed-rate payment for the loan term you're setting up. ### The blended rate So which one is better for you? At the end of the day we look at the overall picture. We look at the math, because the math doesn't lie and tells us where you're in a better place. We run the calculators and look at your blended rate. What would your rate be if we refinanced today and pulled the cash out? I understand your monthly payment will go up from what you're paying now if you have a significantly low rate — but we're talking about getting cash out, and when you get cash out you're going to have to make some changes. So we look at what a new loan would cost you, what the rate would be, and how much you'd pay in interest. Then we look at what you pay today, what you owe, your current rate, how much cash you're looking to take, and what the rate would be on that new second loan. And then we figure out your blended rate. Say you owe $200,000 and you want to take $200,000 out — and this is very common, a lot of people have a lot of equity right now — or you owe $200,000 and want $100,000 out, which is still fifty percent of what you owe. In that situation, even if you're changing the rate on your first mortgage, you'll actually pay less doing a full refinance at a lower rate and a lower payment than you would on an equity loan. Home equity loans have higher rates. They're fixed-rate second mortgage liens, and a fixed-rate second lien is not cheap. When a lender, a bank, an investor — whoever is giving you the money — is in second lien position against the title of your home, they have less opportunity to get their money back in case of default. If you stop making payments, if you foreclose, if you lose your home and the bank sells it, they have to pay off the first mortgage first. Many times during our last major recession there wasn't enough money left for those second-lien lenders. They literally lost it all. They did not get a dime. That risk is why equity loans are at much higher rates. At the time of this show, that was in the range of ten to fourteen percent depending on your credit score and how far up in loan-to-value you were going — the lower the score and the more cash out, the higher the rate. Whereas a straight refinance of your home to pay off the old loan and get a new one might land anywhere from the mid fives to the mid or possibly high sixes. Rates are changing; it depends on the day you call me. And what kind of property you have matters too — single family, condominium, duplex, three or four unit — along with your credit score, how high you go in loan-to-value, and how much cash you're taking. All of that factors into your rate on a first mortgage, and it is no different on a home equity loan except that the rate will be significantly higher. *(Those figures were the market on September 12, 2022 — see the notice at the top of this page.)* So we decide: how much do you owe on your first today, what rate do you have, what does that mean in interest you're paying, how much are you looking to take out, what would that rate be — and blending those together, what is the actual blended rate you'll pay? If that blended rate is about the same or worse doing it as two separate loans, you're probably better off doing one loan on a 30-year fixed, with one monthly payment to juggle instead of two payments to two different places and two loans that get sold to two different servicers as the market changes. So a first mortgage would be my absolute favorite, and if that doesn't make sense, a home equity loan would be my second option. ### Your homework before you call I'm going to give you homework before you pick up the phone. Know this information first. What is the balance on your mortgage today? You can find it on your most recent mortgage statement or by logging into your lender's portal. What is your interest rate? What is your monthly payment? Does that payment include taxes and insurance — and if it does, get us the breakdown, which is also on the statement or the portal. Have that in front of you; it makes the conversation go much faster and gets you to a decision quicker. Then: how much money do you need? And have a budget in mind. What can you afford monthly for everything — the mortgage, a second mortgage, property taxes, insurance? What is the number you feel comfortable paying every month if you can get out the amount you're looking for? ### Q&A: is the application easier? A listener asks: *“When I apply for a home equity loan, is it the same process as a refinance, or is it easier?”* It is exactly the same process as a refinance. Not any easier, not any more difficult. It's a full loan application with all of your income documentation. There's nothing harder or easier about it. Both require an appraisal, both require an underwriter's approval, and both require you to sign loan documents at the end. Same amount of time, same process, same everything. So it's just a matter of which one is financially better — not which application is easier or faster. And Heather asked whether there's a way to figure out if it's better to refinance the full loan amount versus getting a line of credit. That's the blended rate we walked through earlier — the math is going to make the decision for you. ### Wrap-up We are here to help every single person watching and listening. We're trying to bring you education and information so you can make the best decisions. At the end of the day we do loans for a living — the show is not what makes us money; trust me, I have nothing coming in off of the show except expense. What makes our living is getting to do the loans you need. But in order to do that, we want to educate you first, and show you that we're good at what we do and that we're going to take care of you. Call us at 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. We answer the phones, and after hours a call service will book you an appointment, including Saturday and Sunday. If you don't see a time that works, go to mortgagemomradio.com and use the contact form — I'm the one who reads every question and makes sure you get the answers you need. If you want to know when I go live and ask your questions on the air, text the word MOM to that same number for one link a week. If there's a topic you'd like me to cover, send it through the website. I'll be back next week. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 12, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. This episode discusses specific loan program terms — maximum loan-to-value percentages on home equity loans and investment property loans, credit score effects on those maximums, and interest rate ranges for second mortgages and cash-out refinances. Every one of those figures reflects what individual lenders and investors were offering in September 2022\. Loan program guidelines are set by lenders and investors, change frequently and without notice, and vary by borrower, property type, and location. Nothing on this page is an offer of credit, a description of a currently available program, or a statement of current program terms or pricing. Contact the office for what is available today. ### Does A Housing Recession Mean Home Prices Are About To Crash? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/does-a-housing-recession-mean-home-prices-are-about-to-crash/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:07.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Are We In A Housing Recession?” • Live show from Wednesday, September 7, 2022 • 61 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 “Housing recession” was the phrase of the late summer of 2022, and it was scaring people out of buying. Debbie takes it apart using an article published that morning by NextAdvisor in partnership with Time, and lands on the distinction that actually matters: a housing recession describes a contraction in the *number of sales* — fewer transactions, fewer new builds — not a collapse in prices. Prices were still up double digits year over year while sales volume fell for six straight months. Along the way she answers seven listener questions on first-time buyer programs, using child support as qualifying income, fixed versus adjustable, and what to do when you're a single parent living paycheck to paycheck. ## Key takeaways - **“Housing recession” means a contraction in sales, not a crash in prices.** That is the whole point of the show. Volume — the number of homes changing hands and the number being built — was shrinking. The median existing home sale price was still up 10.8% from a year earlier. - **An economist quoted in the article called the term itself “offbeat.”** A recession describes a broad-based decline across the business cycle lasting longer than a few months. Slowing home sales as borrowing costs rise is real, but it is not the same magnitude of event, and using the same word for both is what confuses people. - **The supply shortage is the reason prices held.** Demand dropped sharply as rates went from roughly 3.3% at the start of 2022 to near 6%, but supply stayed extremely tight because builders stopped building for more than a decade after the 2008 crisis. Debbie's line: it is very difficult for prices to crash when there still isn't enough housing for the people who need it. - **Prices do not usually fall in a recession.** Debbie's point to first-time buyers: look at what homes were worth in the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s. Over the last thirty years, 2008 is the one recession where values dropped out from underneath everyone. It is not the normal pattern — values sometimes rise through a recession. - **Buyers had leverage in 2022 that they did not have in 2020 or 2021.** Ask the seller to cover closing costs. Keep your appraisal contingency. Keep your inspection contingency. Ask for a longer escrow if your lender needs two weeks to get a condo complex FHA-approved. Sellers no longer had the upper hand — though Debbie was clear it had not fully flipped to a buyer's market either. - **Her own forecast, stated as opinion:** no massive crash, higher rates the following year, appreciation slowing to roughly zero, and possibly negative five to ten percent at some point — while the payment on the same house gets more expensive. Her conclusion was that waiting a year would cost more in payment than it saved in price. - **The 30-year fixed is her answer for first-time buyers, every time.** Adjustables and interest-only products are legitimate and right for some borrowers, but they require a serious conversation about what happens at the adjustment and at maturity. What a first-time buyer needs is stability: a payment nobody can raise and a home nobody can make you leave. ## Chapters - 00:46Why “recession” became the word of the summer - 09:31The article: we're in a housing recession — but there's more to that story - 12:36The two reports behind the headline: builder confidence and home sales - 14:09What a housing recession actually means - 15:40Why economists say the phrase itself is misleading - 19:12Supply and demand: why prices held up anyway - 22:17What buyers can negotiate now that they couldn't in 2021 - 28:24Q&A: what should a first-time buyer do with all the mixed messages? - 31:31Q&A: what loans exist for first-time buyers? - 33:34Q&A: does child support count as income? - 34:38Q&A: what if the payment is more than I can afford in California? - 36:40Homeowners: why now was the moment to look at a rental property - 38:13Q&A: fixed rate vs. adjustable vs. interest-only - 51:06What home buyers can actually do about high prices - 54:11Q&A: I'm a single mom, paycheck to paycheck — where do I start? - 56:14Q&A: is a $600-a-month HOA too much? ## Questions answered on this show ### “What should a first-time buyer do with all the mixed information about buying now versus later?” Debbie's answer was to go do the research yourself rather than take her word for it. Look at your parents' home. Look at what property was worth in the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s. Watch the roller coaster over time and you'll see that in the last thirty years it is really only the 2008 recession where values dropped out from under everyone — it is not typical for a recession to bring prices down, and sometimes they rise through one. Her position: buy something you've budgeted for, that you can afford, that you don't feel trapped in, and that you could stay in for five to ten years. Even if values come down, they go back up and eventually surpass where they stopped before. The only thing she saw worth being nervous about was the “should have, could have, would have” of where rates would be a year later. ### “What loans are out there for first-time buyers?” Plenty. Conventional financing at three percent down, FHA at three and a half percent down, USDA at zero down if you're buying somewhere rural enough to qualify, and VA at zero down if you're a veteran. On top of that, in a market where sellers are willing to help, you can ask for closing costs to be covered, which is what really changes the money you need at the table. Debbie's example was a buyer shopping around $180,000 to $200,000 outside Las Vegas: three percent down is $6,000, the seller pays the closing costs, and USDA might mean he doesn't need the $6,000 either. Which program is right depends entirely on where you're buying, your price range, your income, and your credit score. ### “Do they count child support as income for a loan?” Yes, with two conditions. You have to document twelve months of history actually receiving it, and it has to be scheduled to continue for at least three more years. Underwriting will look at the divorce decree and the ages of the children to see when support ends — often at the child's eighteenth birthday, sometimes at the end of college, depending on how the decree is written. Alimony works exactly the same way: the decree, the amount, three years of continuance, and twelve months of receipt. Debbie noted that every now and then an exception can be made at a six-month mark, but twelve is what they typically want to see. ### “What if the payments are higher than I can afford at California home prices?” Then the conversation is about what you can change. Which areas are you looking in, and would you consider a commute? Could you look at a duplex where a second unit brings in rent? Could you look at a single family home with a guest house or ADU that produces income? Debbie's broader point: this is not only a California problem. The show airs in Seattle, where median prices were close to what she was seeing in Los Angeles, and she had been looking at Utah, which was also nearly as expensive. The fix is a plan — what you're trying to achieve, how much you need, what your income and credit need to be, and how fast you can get there. ### “Fixed rate, adjustable, or interest-only — when would you recommend which?” She recommends a 30-year fixed whenever it's obtainable. A fixed rate prices higher than a comparable adjustable, and an interest-only option prices higher again on either a fixed or an adjustable. Adjustables and interest-only loans are not bad products — she was explicit that these are nothing like the negative-amortization loans of the early 2000s — and they're right for some borrowers depending on experience and how long they plan to stay. But they require a serious conversation first: what does the adjustment actually mean, what happens at the maturity date, how much can the payment change. For a first-time buyer, the 30-year fixed is the safest loan and the one that delivers what matters most in that market, which is stability. ### “I'm a single mom, living paycheck to paycheck. Where should I start?” Debbie's answer was direct and unsentimental. There are real paths: looking somewhere more rural for a USDA loan at zero down, three percent down on a conventional loan, funds from a retirement account, a gift from family, a budget to save the down payment, or a down payment assistance program if your income and credit qualify. But she also said plainly that this doesn't mean anyone can buy a house — your income has to actually carry the payment, and the calculation either works or it doesn't. Her practical observation: if you can afford your rent, there's a decent chance you can afford a mortgage in a similar range, and you may pick up a tax deduction that makes it more affordable still. The first step is a call to find out what you actually qualify for. ### “What do you think about a community with a $600-a-month HOA?” She refused to call it good or bad on the number alone. Six hundred dollars a month is a very expensive HOA, and some people want exactly that — she pointed to high-rises in Los Angeles at that level or higher, and Orange County retirement communities running a thousand to twelve hundred. The question isn't whether the dues are high, it's what they buy and whether that's worth it to you: a gym, a restaurant, lifeguards at the pool, a guarded gate. And it is not about resale — the buyer who wants an association and will pay for it is a specific demographic, and that demographic keeps existing, which is why these communities get built. Debbie noted she lives in an association herself and pays more than most because the guarded gate is worth it to her. ## The numbers behind the headline (week of September 7, 2022 — averages, not quotes) - Home builder confidence, per the National Association of Home Builders index: **falling for the eighth straight month** - Existing home sales, per the National Association of Realtors: **down for the sixth month in a row in July**, and down **5.9%** from June - Median existing home sale price: **$403,800** — down $10,000 from June, but still up **10.8%** from a year earlier - 30-year mortgage rates: from roughly **3.3%** at the start of 2022 to **near 6%** by early September *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national averages for context, not a quote.* ### Find out what you actually qualify for Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run your own scenario with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, workshop promotional clips, and the repeated licensing recitations have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners in the live chat are identified by first name only.* ### Why we're doing this show Hi, I'm Debbie Marcoux, host of the Mortgage Mom Radio show. Every week we bring you the hot topics — what people are talking about in the economy, real estate, and the mortgage market — and we work through them so you understand your opportunities. Could you be buying a home right now? Do you need to do some credit repair? What's a good investment at this time? If you're on my texting platform you got a message today saying we're talking about whether or not we're in a housing recession. That word has been all over the news for months. Every time you turn on YouTube there's another person talking about it — another financial analyst, another person on stocks, things are going to drop, things are going to fall, prepare for the biggest fall of your life. As you all know I'm a big advocate of people purchasing homes, especially first-time buyers. So: is right now the time you should be looking into that? What does the Mortgage Mom think? What education can I give you so you feel like you're on the right path? ### The article I want to give credit where credit is due. This is from NextAdvisor, in partnership with Time, and it looks like it came out today, so it's very up to date. The headline is “We're in a housing recession, some experts say. Why there's more to that story.” It opens: the word of the summer might be recession — but is the housing market in one? The idea gained steam this month as a pair of reports showed signs of changes in the housing market. An index by the National Association of Home Builders found builder confidence falling for the eighth straight month. Then a report by the National Association of Realtors found home sales declining for the sixth month in a row in July, down 5.9 percent from June. Again, this could be scary. You're hearing it over and over on YouTube, the world is crashing, right? Both reports prompted experts at those organizations to term it a housing recession. But that doesn't mean prices are going to crash. And that's what the Mortgage Mom has been telling you over and over for the last couple of years, and really pounding since the beginning of this year. Keep going: the NAR report showed the median existing home sales price down $10,000 from June to $403,800 — but still up 10.8 percent compared to a year earlier. This is a report going across the nation. This isn't just LA or Seattle or Las Vegas or Tennessee or San Antonio. These are averages of the United States. So across the country, with all the rate hikes and all the inflation, we're down ten thousand dollars on average on home prices, and we're still up 10.8 percent from this time last year. ### What a housing recession actually means So what does a housing recession mean? It really just means a contraction in home sales over the last six months. A lot of people hear recession and think housing prices are crashing. What it means is that the turnover — the volume of builds and the volume of sales — is getting smaller. Fewer people are moving. The article quotes Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics and behavioral insights at NAR: we have seen a slowdown in home sales, and we have seen home builders contracting as well. It's not a recession in home prices. Which drives home exactly what I've been saying. And then Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial, a national broker-dealer, says the term housing recession is really an offbeat kind of phrase. It confuses it with what a recession is. A recession is about a business cycle in the economy, when the economy experiences a significant decline that is broad-based and lasts longer than a few months. He says: I get where they're going with it — you could argue that the fact that things are slowing down dramatically as borrowing costs rise, that's probably fair. But it's not an equal magnitude. ### There's never a bad time to buy I thought this was a lovely article because it hit everything I've been trying to tell you over the last year, and really since I started this show in 2016\. If you go back through the podcast archive you're going to hear me tell you over and over again: buy a home, buy a home, buy a home. There's never a bad time to buy. There's just a bad time to sell. Real estate is for the long haul. If you buy a home and you stay in it for a significant period of time, prices will go up and prices will come down — but if affordability is there, and you're budgeting correctly, and you are making yourself a *home* rather than an investment, there is never a bad time to buy. ### Supply and demand kept prices up The next section of the article is headed “supply and demand keep home prices up.” The fact that both home builders and home sellers are experiencing slowdowns at the same time points to why prices are still up quite a bit from last year. Prices are about supply and demand, and while demand has dropped considerably in recent months, supply still remains extremely tight. Much of the supply issue is because of a lack of new construction in the decade-plus since the 2008 financial crisis. Remember, home builders stopped building. We got into this housing shortage, we stayed in this housing shortage, and then the pandemic came, rates dropped, and everybody who had any opportunity at all to buy wanted to buy. Demand went through the roof. Sellers were getting thirty and forty offers on a listing. They didn't have to take an appraisal contingency, they didn't have to let you do a physical inspection, they didn't have to do anything — if you wanted their house and you wanted a two percent rate. Right now demand has slowed, but we are still short on inventory. It is very difficult to see housing prices crash when there isn't enough housing for the number of people who need to buy. The article continues: demand has certainly dropped since January, as continued increases in home prices along with the dramatic rise in mortgage rates — from near 3.3 percent at the start of the year to near 6 now — have made it harder for buyers to afford a home. But while it's down, there are still far more people trying to buy homes than there are homes to buy, due in part to demographics. Many millennials want to buy homes and there are a lot of them at that stage of life. Think about how many people right now are starting families, getting married, having babies, and want to create a home. ### What buyers can negotiate now The article goes on: markets have certainly cooled down, but the average house on the market still gets multiple offers. For home buyers today, they are facing slightly less competition in the marketplace. This is what we talked about last week. If you're a buyer in today's market you've got more wiggle room. You can ask for people to pay your closing costs so you get into the home with less money out of pocket. You have room to negotiate on price. If the home is priced right it's going to sell and it may still get multiple offers — so make a good, reasonable offer, ask for some closing costs, keep your appraisal contingency, keep your inspection contingency. Do all the things you should be able to do as a buyer, because sellers no longer have the upper hand. I'll say that we haven't quite turned into a hundred percent buyer's market. I think we're still somewhat more of a seller's market — there are still more buyers than there are properties. But you do have the opportunity right now to ask for closing cost coverage. If you're an FHA buyer and you want a condo in a complex that isn't approved, you have the opportunity to ask for a longer escrow and two weeks for your lender to get that condo approved so you can use your FHA loan. I'll bet there's a seller who'd give you those two weeks, unlike what we saw in 2020 and 2021 when things were absolutely crazy. So this is a fantastic time to buy. It's a great opportunity to do all of your due diligence and create a home. To have stability. Nobody's going to kick you out. The payment you budgeted for is your payment. Nobody can increase your rent, nobody can tell you to move because they want to sell, nobody can tell you that you've got a new landlord. It's your home, and nobody can tell you to go unless you don't make a payment. ### Q&A: what should a first-time buyer do? Heidi asks: *“What do you think a first-time home buyer should do when they're hearing all the mixed information about buying now or later?”* Well, I think they should listen to the Mortgage Mom and go buy a house. But honestly, my education would be to research it yourself. Go look at the statistics. Look at your parents. Look at the home they own and the homes they've bought over time. What was a property worth in the eighties? The nineties? The 2000s? The 2010s? The 2020s? Watch the roller coaster that real estate has taken over time. You'll actually see that only during the 2008 recession — really, in the last thirty years — did we see property values drop out from underneath us. It is not normal that in a recession we typically see property values decline. As a matter of fact, we sometimes see them increase. So I don't believe the scare people have about the housing market applies the way they think. Your bank accounts, your cryptocurrencies, your investments, the stock market — that's inflation, and that's a completely separate education you need to go look at. We're definitely seeing massive changes there, because it's directly tied to money. Real estate is something you own. It's a tangible asset. When there isn't enough of it, it becomes scarce, it becomes worth more, and it naturally goes up in value. Do the research, and I think you'll come to the same conclusion I have. If you buy a home, you budget for it, you make sure it's something you can afford, and you buy something you don't feel scared to be trapped in — somewhere you could stay for the next five to ten years — there should be nothing to be scared about. You're creating a home, and even if values come down, they go back up and they surpass where they stopped the time before. The only thing I see to be scared of is the should have, could have, would have — where rates are today versus where they'll be a year from now, and you scratching your head saying I really should have bought. And if you don't trust me, that's okay. I'm not here to make you do it my way. I'm here to give you something to think about. ### Q&A: first-time buyer loan programs Ronnie asks: *“What loans are out there for first-time buyers?”* Tons. We've got loans where you can get in with three percent down and loans with three and a half percent down — conventional and FHA. We have USDA loans, if you're buying somewhere a bit more rural, where you can get in with zero down. If you're a vet, you can get in with zero down. There's a ton out there. And being in a market where there's more flexibility for the buyer to get the seller to help, you can ask for closing costs to be covered, which makes it a lot easier. If you're looking at a property at $300,000 or $400,000 or $500,000 — it depends on your market — the math changes a lot with seller help. I've got a buyer right now out in Las Vegas looking for a property around $180,000 to $200,000, and he can find that out in Pahrump. Three percent down on that is six thousand dollars, and we're going to get a seller to pay his closing costs. We might even be able to look at USDA for him, where he doesn't need that six thousand at all. The bottom line is that you have to call and talk to us about your scenario — where you're looking, your price range, your income, your credit score — and then we can advise you on what's available and what works best. ### Q&A: child support as income Sunshine asks: *“Do they count child support as income for a loan?”* Yes, they do. You do have to show me twelve months of history receiving your child support, and the child support has to continue for at least three years. So we look at the divorce decree and the age of the children, and at what the decree says about when child support ends. Sometimes it ends at the child's eighteenth birthday, which is more often than not. Other times the decree stipulates it ends when they finish college. How it's written and when it ends determines whether we can use the monthly income. So: twelve months of receipt, and at least three years of continuance. Alimony works exactly the same way — before somebody asks, let's throw that in. We have to see the decree, how much you're getting, that it will last at least three years, and that you've been receiving it for at least twelve months. Every now and then we can make an exception at a six-month mark, but they typically want to see twelve. ### Q&A: when the payment is more than you can afford Stacy asks about payments being higher than she can afford at California home prices. California is expensive right now. If that's the market you're in, we want to look at ways to help you afford it. What areas are you looking in? Would you be willing to do a bit of a commute? Could you look at a two unit, like a duplex, where you might get rental income off the second unit? Could you look at a single family residence with a guest house — sometimes called an ADU — that brings in some rent? There may be ways to strategize around affording the market you're in. And let me be honest with you: this show is on the air in Seattle, and Seattle is very expensive. I was looking at median housing prices there and they were quite close to what we're seeing in the Los Angeles market. It's expensive out there across the nation, and we get it. The best thing you can do is have a plan. Understand what you're trying to achieve, how much money you need to achieve it, what your income needs to be, what your credit score needs to be, and how fast you can get there. The only way to know those answers is to talk with me or somebody in my office and build the plan. ### Homeowners: look at a rental property now In my opinion, prices aren't going to drop out from underneath us. We're not going to see a massive crash. We're going to see higher rates next year. We might see some appreciation; if not, it slows down. We might see zero. We might even see negative five or ten percent. But it's not going to be anything crazy, and this time next year you're going to be telling yourself you should have bought a home — because rates will be higher, the same home will be harder to afford, and the monthly payment will be more expensive. The same goes for you homeowners. Rents are going through the roof right now. If you've been thinking about a rental property — could you cash flow on the house you have and go buy a different one? — look into it right now today. Do not put that question on hold. You will never get a cheaper rate on a rental property than what you already have on a mortgage you already hold. Maybe someday rates fall lower than six percent, but six is actually an average rate — it's lower than the average over the last thirty years. So today's rates might be the lowest you'll ever get on another property. Start thinking about what you can do to create a real estate portfolio. It's a tangible asset that nobody can take away as long as you make payments. Stock markets can crash, crypto can crash, other things can crash. Sure, the housing market can crash too — but this is something you own, that you hold, that you can touch and feel. ### Q&A: fixed, adjustable, or interest-only? Heidi asks: *“What's your advice on a fixed rate versus an adjustable or an interest-only loan, and when would you recommend which, especially in this market?”* I always recommend a 30-year fixed if that's obtainable for you. A 30-year fixed will have a slightly higher rate than an adjustable would. Interest-only will be higher again — you can get interest-only on both adjustable and 30-year fixed, and in each case it prices above the version without it. In my opinion, interest-only and adjustable rates are good for a lot of people. They're not terrible loans. We're not talking about reverse amortization or anything crazy like we used to see in the early 2000s. It depends on the person, their experience, how long they plan to be in the home, and whether they understand interest-only. That's a very serious conversation we need to have with somebody — what does the adjustable mean, what happens when it reaches its maturity date, what happens to the interest-only, how much can the payment change. Are they good for some people? Absolutely. Are they a great loan product? Absolutely. But my favorite is the 30-year fixed. It's the safest loan you can get into and the very best for first-time buyers, because it locks in that payment. The most important thing in today's world is stability, and a 30-year fixed gives you the stability of your monthly payment — unlike an adjustable, where the payment can change, or interest-only, where you can get past the interest-only period and find yourself in something you can't afford. I like a 15-year fixed as well, but when we're talking affordability, the 30-year is probably the best option. ### What home buyers can do Back to the article. The next section is “what home buyers can do.” Given the high prices homes are still going for, buyers may want to be patient. But for first-time buyers, the price of a house isn't the only part of the equation — rent is going up dramatically too. Even though borrowing costs have risen, in the long run it still may be worth buying a home, given that what's driving inflation right now is rising rental prices. It still may be an opportunity to get out of the pressure of rents. This is what I've been saying all year. You have to get out of those rentals. It continues: whether or not the housing market is in a recession doesn't change the guidance for buyers much. She suggests buyers work with experienced real estate agents and mortgage brokers or lenders who know the area and might be able to find deals. Buyers should also consider what they can compromise on, as it may be easier to get a home in a somewhat less competitive area. Something generally has to give for home buyers. Which is exactly what I said earlier about California. Where are you willing to go? Can you commute? Maybe you wanted the three-bedroom and you're willing to go to the two-bedroom. Maybe you didn't want the townhome and you wanted the single family. We have to talk about where you can compromise. And then: is now the right time to make the biggest financial decision of your life? Soaring inflation and an economy trending toward a potential recession have many wondering if buying a house is still a good idea. A recession doesn't unilaterally mean a good opportunity to buy a house — that depends on your individual financial situation. You may be in the right position to buy if you have flexibility in your budget, an adequate emergency fund, and sustained income security. Buying a house in a recession, if you can find a house you like for a price you can afford, is a great idea, because you are taking control of your greatest monthly payment. Again: budget, budget, budget. This is so very important. ### Q&A: single mom, paycheck to paycheck Nora asks: *“I'm a single mom. All of a sudden I feel like I can do it — but I'm living paycheck to paycheck and in the red some days. Where should I start?”* Nora, that's a lot of people. I know being a single mom is very hard, and I know living paycheck to paycheck is very hard. It makes you feel like there's no way out. There are ways to do it and there are ways to get you there. We could look at getting you a little more rural — a longer drive, a longer commute — and possibly into a USDA loan with zero down. We could look at three percent down. Maybe you have a retirement account you could take funds from. Maybe there's somebody in the family who could give you a gift. Maybe it's about putting together a budget to save the down payment. There are down payment assistance programs we could look into if you'd qualify — we have to look at income and we have to look at credit scores. But you've got to start somewhere, and you have to call to find out what your opportunities are. And I want everybody to hear what I'm saying. It doesn't mean anybody can buy a house. If you want to buy something you have to qualify. Your monthly income has to be enough to pay the mortgage you want. You can't call me and tell me you want a $600,000 house on a very small income — the calculation just doesn't work. But if you can afford your rent, even paycheck to paycheck, chances are you could probably afford a mortgage in a similar spot. You might have a tax deduction now, and maybe get a bit more back when you file at the end of the year, which makes things a little more affordable. So give us a call and let us figure out what works for you and help you create that game plan. Heidi added something worth keeping: she was in the same position — a single mom with a baby, on her own — and she bought her first condo with an FHA loan, scraped the money together, and worked up from there. She's three homes on from that now, with equity in her property. I don't know a better way to finish the show. ### Q&A: is a $600 HOA too much? Luke asks about a master-planned community with a $600-a-month HOA. I'll be honest, I haven't looked into that particular community myself. Anything with a six hundred dollar a month HOA is a very expensive HOA — but I think there are some people who like that, so it really depends. We've got people in high rises in the middle of LA paying close to that if not more. We have people in Orange County in retirement communities paying a thousand, eleven hundred, twelve hundred a month in HOA dues. It depends on the buyer and on what the HOA is providing. If they've got a gym, a restaurant, lifeguards at the pool — is that six hundred worth it to you? It's not about whether your home will sell for more later because you're in an association. Somebody looking for an association and willing to pay six hundred a month is a particular demographic, and that demographic will continue to be around. That's why they build it and why they create it. So I don't have an opinion on whether you should or shouldn't buy because it's a $600 HOA. It's more about what the HOA gives you, whether it's worth six hundred to you, and whether it's somewhere you'd want to live. I personally live in an area with an HOA and I pay a bit higher than most, but we've got a guard-gated community and to me it's worth it for the security. That means something to me. So if whatever's going on there is worth the six hundred to you, it's worth considering. ### Wrap-up If you want to be part of the show and ask your questions live, I'm on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. Pacific on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch — text the word MOM to 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4, for one text a week with a link to join. To reach the office or book a consultation with me or anyone on the team, it's the same number, and you can book right through mortgagemomradio.com. And go look up that NextAdvisor article with Time. It's a fantastic one and definitely worth reading. I hope you have a great one, and I'll be back next Wednesday. Talk to y'all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of September 7, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Why Are Rents Skyrocketing, And What Can A Renter Actually Do About It? URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-are-rents-skyrocketing-and-what-can-a-renter-actually-do-about-it/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:32:08.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Skyrocketing Rents!” • Live show from Wednesday, August 24, 2022 • 57 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 **Please read first — parts of this episode are a historical record, not a live offer.** In answering listener questions Debbie quotes specific loan program terms as they stood in August 2022: a minimum FICO score some lenders would accept on FHA loans, waiting periods after a bankruptcy, and minimum down payment percentages. **Those are lender and agency guidelines that change without notice and vary by lender, borrower, and property.** Do not plan around the numbers on this page — call the office and ask what exists today. In the summer of 2022, the bidding war moved from the sale market to the rental market. Debbie had a client who gave up looking for a rental after finding thirty to forty applications on every listing and other applicants openly offering to pay more per month. This episode is about why that was happening, what the rent data actually showed, and the argument she makes to every renter: a fixed mortgage payment is the only way an ordinary household can stop its own housing inflation. In the back half she turns to homeowners with a specific strategy — keep the house and the low rate you already have, rent it out, and buy the next one as an owner-occupant. ## Key takeaways - **Rent was a major driver of the inflation number, not just a victim of it.** Per the article Debbie read on air, rent increases accounted for almost 40% of the core CPI reading in May 2022, and the shelter index's 0.6% monthly rise was the largest since March 2004 — with the year-over-year increase the largest since 1991. - **The reported rent numbers understate the problem.** Because rents are usually tied to 12-month contracts, increases only show up in the data as leases come up for renewal. If you feel safe because your rent is locked, you're not — you're just early in the queue. - **Renters were competing the way buyers had been.** Thirty to forty applications per listing, applicants offering above asking rent, landlords requiring documented income of three to four times the monthly rent — which is brutal if you earn tips or cash that don't show on a pay stub. - **A fixed mortgage payment is the hedge.** Debbie's core argument, stated plainly: even if you assume your home's value falls, a 30-year fixed payment does not change. It is the only mechanism an ordinary household has to stop future housing inflation on itself. - **Rent-versus-own typically breaks even in three to four years** — and that assumes zero appreciation, with the down payment and closing costs counted in. - **Her strategy for homeowners: don't sell the low rate.** If you bought or refinanced while rates were low, that rate is an asset. Instead of selling, buy the next home as an owner-occupant with a minimum down payment, and rent out the one you're leaving. If you need the down payment, pull only what's necessary out of the existing home rather than disturbing the whole mortgage. - **A housing crash would make the rental crisis worse, not better.** Her counterintuitive point: if values crashed, a wave of owners would let homes go and become renters, adding to demand for rentals. That's what happened last time — look up what rents did during 2007 through 2009. - **Start the pre-approval conversation four to six months out.** If you're self-employed, work overtime, earn commissions, or take home tips, income is averaged over two years — so the end of the calendar year is exactly when a conversation can still change what you'll qualify for. ## Chapters - 00:46Why this show: the rental market is now the bidding war - 06:24Listeners on the ground: Arizona income requirements, California rent increases - 08:27Rent versus own: when you actually break even - 16:33The article: skyrocketing rent is driving inflation - 17:34The numbers: CPI, the shelter index, and the median asking rent - 19:37Why a fixed payment is the only real hedge - 21:38Q&A: six months left on my lease — when do I start qualifying? - 25:41Why self-employed and commissioned borrowers should call now - 32:23Why the reported rent data is behind reality - 33:59Q&A: my credit score is low — can I still qualify? - 39:36Q&A: how much do I need to save for a down payment? - 42:38Homeowners: the strategy of keeping the house you're leaving - 47:13Q&A: can I borrow against my home to buy another? - 49:45Your homework: run your own rent-versus-payment numbers - 50:45Why a housing crash would make the rent crisis worse - 52:16Why this is happening: shortage, then builders slowing down ## Questions answered on this show ### “I'm in a rental with six months left on my contract. When should I start qualifying for a loan?” Debbie's answer has two parts. If your goal is to own a home at any point in the next year, get the phone consultation now — that call is about building the roadmap: where you live, where you want to buy, your credit today, whether you need to build credit, your income, whether you can keep the job or need to transfer or find new employment. Sometimes the answer is that you're ready right now and there's no reason to wait. Sometimes it's a twelve-month plan. For the pre-approval itself, about six months out is a good time to start, and four months is the latest she'd want to wait. Her illustration: someone had just called wanting to start looking in September — the call was in late August — while planning an out-of-state move without having looked for jobs yet, so income was unknown. There isn't time to solve that in a few weeks. ### “My credit score is low. Can you see what I need to do to qualify for a home loan and get out of a rental?” Yes, and there were loan programs for lower scores. Debbie mentioned an internal memo that week about investors loosening guidelines in the FHA space, and that she was seeing scores in the low-to-mid 500s go through fairly regularly. She also noted VA loans have no minimum credit score requirement from the agency itself, though finding an investor willing to buy the loan is the practical constraint. She also flagged what she calls the do-over loan: FHA's shorter waiting periods after a bankruptcy, short sale, or foreclosure. On a Chapter 13, you can be financed while still in the repayment plan once you've made a run of on-time payments. On a Chapter 7, there's a waiting period after discharge that can be shortened when there were documented extenuating circumstances behind the bankruptcy. Her framing throughout: even when the answer is no today, the real answer is *when* — what roadmap gets you there. **The specific score and seasoning figures she gave on air were August 2022 lender and agency guidelines and are not current — see the notice at the top of this page.** ### “I have good credit and not a lot of debt, but I need to save for a down payment. How much do I need?” It depends entirely on where you're buying. If you're going somewhere less urban you may have a USDA option at zero down. If you're a veteran, zero down. If neither applies, down payment assistance programs may cover it — but those vary by county, city, and state, and most are income-limited, so earning too much can disqualify you. Assuming none of those apply, Debbie's rule of thumb was to have around three percent of the purchase price saved. Even if you end up qualifying for down payment assistance, that money then becomes your cushion for moving, furniture, paint, and carpet. Whether conventional or FHA is better depends on your situation, and that's the conversation to have. ### “Is it possible to borrow against my current home to buy an investment property?” Yes — through a home equity line, a home equity loan, or a cash-out refinance. But Debbie's strong preference is to protect the rate you already have. If your existing mortgage is somewhere in the low single digits, she does not want to touch it; she'd rather do a second behind it and pull out only what's absolutely necessary for the minimum down payment, so the bulk of your debt stays at the low rate. That's what makes the property you're leaving cash flow once a tenant is in it. She was also careful to separate two different strategies. What she was recommending on this show is *owner-occupied to owner-occupied*: you move into the new home, which is why you can use a minimum down payment. Buying a property purely as an investment while staying put is a legitimate strategy too, but it requires a substantially larger down payment. ## The rent numbers she read on air (week of August 24, 2022 — averages, not quotes) - Rent increases accounted for **almost 40% of the core CPI** reading in May 2022, per the Council of Economic Advisers - The shelter index rose **0.6% in May** — the largest monthly increase since **March 2004** - The year-over-year shelter increase was the largest since **1991**, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics - At least **35% of Americans are renters** - National median asking rent: **$2,002** in May 2022 — the first time it ever passed $2,000; up 2% from April and up **15.3% year over year** (Redfin) - Mortgage rates at the time of the show: in the **fives**, with the Fed signaling another possible three-quarter-point increase within weeks *Your rate depends on FICO score, property type, loan balance, and loan purpose. These are national averages for context, not a quote.* ### Run the numbers on renting versus owning Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or compare your rent to a real payment with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Programs and guidelines change — ask for today's numbers rather than the ones on this page. Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, promotional clips, and the repeated licensing recitations have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Listeners in the live chat are identified by first name only, or not at all where only a screen name was given.* ### Why this show Good afternoon and welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux and I am the Mortgage Mom. Today we're going to be talking about skyrocketing rents — how that's hurting you if you're a renter, and what it means for investors and builders. It's a very hot topic, because I believe many of you who watch this show are renters trying to be first-time buyers. I had a client reach out just last week who said: that's it, I'm done, I've had it, I'm over it. I want to buy a home and I need your help, I don't even know where to start. He's looking at new rentals and there are thirty to forty applications per rental. There are people offering to pay more per month to get their application accepted over somebody else's. It reminds me of what was going on last year and in 2020 with people trying to buy homes — thirty or forty offers per property, overbidding, trying to stand out from the crowd. That is happening to you right now if you're a renter. ### What listeners were seeing A listener in Arizona wrote in: rents are very difficult to get right now, and landlords also want a tenant to make four times the monthly rent just to qualify. That's a great point. I've been looking at rents all across the nation, and many listings state in the comments what the landlord is looking for — often anywhere from three to four times the rent amount in documented monthly income. That can be very difficult for somebody who makes tips, brings home cash, and doesn't show all of that on pay stubs or W-2s. The rental market is getting tighter, there are fewer rentals, which makes rents more expensive, and more people need them. We really do have a housing shortage, and we've been talking about that for years on this show. Another listener in California said rents have gone up recently, deposits are higher, and landlords aren't taking pets. That's correct — California has a statewide cap on how much a landlord can raise the rent each year. And a listener who moved out of California to Tennessee said: buying was the best choice we could ever have made. Instead of throwing $3,500 a month into a sinkhole in California, we're paying $500 less a month for our mortgage in Tennessee, and we're making money because it's going up in equity. ### Rent versus own: when you break even He's absolutely right. When we run the rent-versus-own calculators, we usually find that even counting the down payment and the closing costs and everything rolled in, you'll typically save more by owning than by renting after about three to four years. Which is really nothing, when you consider the amount of money you have to lay out to get into the property. And that's assuming *zero* appreciation — assuming your property gains no value at all over that time. You'll break even in about three to four years depending on where you buy, the price, the rent you were paying before, and how much you put down. ### Buy small, keep it, repeat One of the things I've been telling you for years is that the very best thing you can do is buy your first home with as little money down as possible. Then when you're ready to move, buy the next property with as little down as you can, move into that one, and rent the first one out. And keep doing that, over and over, to create your own real estate portfolio. As rents continue to increase — and it's across the nation; so far today we've heard from Tennessee, California, and Arizona — they're going to keep going. Why they're going to keep going is what we're going to talk about today. ### The article: rent is driving inflation I pulled up an article from The American Prospect, and the name of it was very interesting: “Skyrocketing Rent Is Driving Inflation.” Now, in my opinion as the Mortgage Mom, I don't think it's rent that is driving inflation across the country — obviously there are so many things driving inflation. But one of the things that *is* inflating is rent, and I do agree with that piece of the article. So I'm going to read you a couple of tidbits I pulled out that I thought were really important for people to hear. It says: in fact, as the Council of Economic Advisers reported, the increase in rents was responsible for almost 40 percent of the core CPI number in May. Worse still, the shelter index's 0.6 percent increase in May marked the largest monthly increase since March of 2004\. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the year-over-year increase is the largest since 1991. It goes on: at least 35 percent of Americans are renters, and anyone who has moved recently or whose landlord has reset the price is feeling the squeeze. According to a recent report from Redfin, the national median asking rent was two thousand and two dollars in May — the first time it has ever eclipsed the $2,000 mark. That represented a two percent gain from April, and a stunning 15.3 percent rise year over year. So just from April of 2022 to May of 2022 we saw a two percent gain in what rent costs. And year over year, a 15.3 percent increase. It continues: both rent, and owners' equivalent rent — the amount of rent that would have to be paid in order to substitute a rental property for a currently owned house — are on a historic inflationary tear. These are the two major factors the BLS uses to calculate shelter costs, and they are not slowing down. If you guys can hear me: *they are not slowing down.* That's the thing I want to talk about. ### Why a fixed payment is the hedge I've done show after show about how you need to buy a house, become a homeowner, plant your roots, build equity. But let's pretend you don't build equity. Let's pretend your home falls in value. Let's pretend it goes down year over year while prices and rents go up. Even if your home value dropped — if you buy a home and you have a fixed 30-year mortgage, your monthly payment is not going to change. It is the only way you can lock something in and hedge against the inflation of future rents. If you own a home today, that's amazing, and I'm happy for you. We do plenty of shows for homeowners on refinancing and paying off debts and we'll get back to those. But today is about renters — and about current owners, because is now a good time to buy an investment property? You can lock in a price and a payment, put a renter in there who covers it, and raise the rent a little each year. ### Q&A: when to start qualifying Sunshine asks: *“If I'm in a rental now and I have six months left on my contract, when would be a good time to start qualifying for a loan?”* That's a fantastic question and I get it a lot. Today is the 24th — we're at the end of August. We just got a call yesterday from somebody who said, I'd like to start looking for a home in September or October, what do I need to do? And there's quite a bit that has to go into play. We need to talk about income, we need to talk about credit. This particular couple is looking to transfer from one state to another and they haven't even started to look for jobs yet. They don't know what jobs they'll have or what their income will be. That makes it very, very difficult to get things done in less than a month. So truly, the very best thing you can do: if your goal is to buy a home within the next year, get the phone consultation. Let us help you make a plan and figure out the roadmap. Where do you live? Where are you looking to buy? What are your credit scores today — do you have credit, do we need to build credit? What's your income? Do you work from home, can you keep the same job, do you need to transfer within the company, or do you need to secure brand new employment? Based on those things we talk about what we need to see to get you a loan, how much money you need down, and what you'd like to buy. Everybody's in a different spot. You could be buying rural and might not need anything down — you could get into a USDA loan. You might want to buy a farm, which is a completely different kind of loan depending on the acreage. It depends on whether it's a condominium. It depends on the loan limits for the county you're looking in. Sometimes you'll find out you're ready to go, and the conversation is: why are you waiting? You've got everything you need right now, let's do this. Sometimes you find out you need some planning and it's going to take about twelve months. So the first thing is to call and get a consultation if your goal is to own a home, even a year out. Number two: if you want to buy something, about six months is a good time to actually get the pre-approval started, and four months is probably the longest I'd wait. If you're trying to buy in December, it's already August — you should be reaching out today. If you're looking in January, reach out today. ### Why the end of the year matters for your income Why that much time? Right now is actually a perfect moment for people to start reaching out. It's the end of August, we're rolling into the last quarter. If you're self-employed, if you make commissions, if you bring home cash tips — this is a good time to talk about what income you're going to claim. What did you claim last year? How much overtime did you work last year versus this year? Why does that matter? Because when you work overtime, earn commissions, receive tips, or are self-employed, we look at a two-year average. So if 2021 was great but you're not pacing the same in 2022 — you've been working a little less — we might talk about throwing it into high gear to get extra hours onto those pay stubs before the year closes, since you want to buy in January or February. If you're self-employed, we want to look at your tax returns: what did you file, what did you show, are you showing enough income for what you're trying to buy? Maybe in 2022 you need to claim a little more. Maybe you already claimed more than enough and don't need to do it again. So if you're looking to buy in the first quarter of 2023, or sooner, you should be dialing us right now. ### Why the reported numbers lag reality Another section of that article: there's plenty of reason to believe the rent crisis is actually worse than the BLS data indicates. Because rents are often tied to 12-month contracts, those trends can be slower to surface, as they're only enacted once contracts come up for renewal. It's slow going. We're not going to see the numbers change immediately, because many of you are locked into a rent payment on a 12-month contract. So you may be sitting back thinking, I've got great rent, I've got nothing to worry about — and then when you come up for renewal you might be surprised to find they're going to reset the rent. That is happening, and it's happening everywhere. Don't believe you're somehow sheltered because you're in a rental contract. You're not. When that contract comes up, the landlord has the right to change the terms, and you have to agree in order to stay. If you don't agree, you have to move — and then you jump into this cesspool of trying to find another rental with people outbidding each other to get their application accepted. ### Q&A: qualifying with a low credit score Jason asks: *“My credit score is low. Are you able to see what I need to do to qualify for a home loan and get out of a rental?”* Yes. We do have loan programs available for people with lower credit scores. As a matter of fact, we just had a company memorandum go out talking about how we have more investors starting to open up their guidelines, especially in the FHA space, where they'll now look at loans with FICO scores as low as 550\. We're seeing 550s and 560s pretty regularly right now. That's really amazing, because it opens up the ability to buy for many people who thought they couldn't. VA loans don't actually have a minimum credit score requirement from the agency, though finding an investor willing to buy the loan can make that a little more difficult. FHA also has what I like to call the do-over loan. If you've had a bankruptcy, a short sale, or a foreclosure, those are okay — not okay all the time, but okay with much shorter seasoning guidelines. If you had a bankruptcy and you're in a Chapter 13 on a repayment plan and you've made at least twelve monthly payments, you actually have the opportunity to get FHA financing while still in that Chapter 13\. If you did a Chapter 7 and wiped out all of your debt, you have the opportunity after two years — and if there were extenuating circumstances behind the bankruptcy, there's actually an opportunity after one year. So there are definitely options for people with lower scores or some sort of credit deficiency. And even if the answer is no today, the answer is not no. The answer is *when* — how do we get you there, how far are we looking, and what roadmap do we need to make to get you to your goal. ### “Date the rate and marry the home” A listener says he loves the phrase “date your rate and marry your home,” and that he just found out about the tax write-off on a house. Yes — you can write off your interest and your property taxes, as well as mortgage insurance. Those are things we can talk about. And yes, date your rate and marry your home. You see it on TikTok all the time, you see it on Facebook, everybody's starting to say it, and it is a great reference. If rates drop from where they are today, we can always refinance and lower the rate. But it's your home, it stays your home, nobody can kick you out, nobody can tell you to leave, and nobody can raise your rent. At the end of the day you need that security blanket, and you need to know that nobody can hand you future increases. That's how you guard yourself against inflation on your own as a homeowner. You cannot do that as a renter. ### Q&A: how much to save for a down payment A listener asks: *“I have good credit and not a lot of debt, but I need to save for a down payment. How much do I need to save?”* Every single person is different, and where you're buying matters. If you've got great credit and good income and you're going to buy something a bit further out, not necessarily in the city, you have the option of a USDA loan at zero down. If you're a veteran, zero down. If you're not buying rural and you're not a veteran and you're trying to get in with zero down, there are down payment assistance programs we can look into. Those change based on the county, the city, and the state you're buying in, so it really does depend on where you're looking. And remember that many down payment assistance programs are based on income — if you make too much, you may not qualify. So let's pretend you don't qualify for assistance, you're not a veteran, and you want to buy a high rise in the city. Great, not a problem. What's your minimum down payment? It depends on your sales price and the county limits. But let's say you're buying at an average price in your city — you can get in with as little as three percent down or three and a half percent down, conventional or FHA, and we'll talk about which is better for you. If you can save yourself about three percent, you should be in really good shape. Even if we can get you into down payment assistance, now you've got extra money set aside for moving, new furniture, fixing things up, repainting, new carpet. So three percent is usually a really good number to have in the bank — but again, we've got opportunities to get people in with nothing. How do you know which applies to you? You have to call us and talk about your scenario. ### Homeowners: keep the house you're leaving Now let me talk to homeowners. What's a good investment at the current moment? As I said at the top of the show, the best advice I can give is: buy your first house with as little out of pocket as possible, live in it, love it, and when you've outgrown it, buy another one a bit bigger with the lowest down payment you can get — saving that down payment while you're living in the first home. Then rent out the property you just left. Here's why that matters right now. If you own a home and you bought it over the last four or five years, the rate you have is phenomenal. In 2016 we were writing loans in the fives. In 2017, high fives and low sixes. 2018, 2019 — and then you all know what happened in 2020 and 2021, they came down a lot. So if you own a home today and you had the chance to buy or refinance while rates were low, and your rate is under four percent, the idea that you would let that home go, sell it, take the cash, and buy something else is silly. You will never be able to get lending at that dollar amount again. You'll never be able to keep that money at that low rate. And you'll never be able to go buy another property at that rate, especially as an investment. So my homework for you this weekend: figure out what money you could scrape together. Maybe you're thinking about downsizing. Maybe you're ready to retire and don't want something so big. Maybe the kids went off to college and you have more house than you need. Whatever that situation is — if you've been considering a move, consider this instead: hold on to the property you have. Call us, and if you need cash out of that property to go buy something else, we can talk about the options. But the goal is: don't touch what you own today. The house, the balance, the rate — leave it. Then do the research. What is your monthly payment — principal, interest, taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance if you have it, HOA dues? What is your whole nut every month? Then: what are rents in your neighborhood going for? How much could you rent your property for? And then: what would that rent be next year, if things go year over year the way they just did from 2021 to 2022? If we saw a 15 percent increase, where could your rent go? Look it up for your area. If you could move it ten percent, or fifteen — where does your cash flow land, with somebody else living in your home, making the payments on the mortgage, and paying your debt off for you? Also consider that the Federal Reserve has said they're not going to stop raising rates. They're talking about possibly increasing again within the next couple of weeks by another three quarters. So if you can buy something now and lock something in while we still have rates in the fives, why would you not? Go find yourself something today, lock in what's still fantastic money, keep the rate you already have — which is beyond bizarre that we were all fortunate enough to obtain in 2020 and 2021 — and rent it out. Start building your portfolio. Don't be scared. ### Q&A: borrowing against your home to buy another A listener asks: *“Is it possible to borrow against a current home to buy an investment property?”* Yes it is, and that's where I was going. If you can scrape together a minimum down payment to buy another home, fantastic. If you can't, we can look at ways to get funds out of your existing home. We have home equity lines, we have home equity loans, and you can refinance the property to pull cash out. The whole goal is: if you have a rate around five percent or less on your existing mortgage, keep that rate where it is. If you have a rate at two, two and a half, three, three and a half percent, I don't want to change it. We could do an equity loan to get you some cash out to go buy the next property with a minimum down payment — pulling out only what's absolutely necessary — because that extremely low rate on the current mortgage is how you're going to cash flow when you rent it out. Now keep in mind, the strategy I'm talking about today is you occupying the next property. It's not about buying an investment home while staying where you are. That is also a strategy, and it should absolutely be on your radar if you've been thinking about becoming an investor — but what I'm talking about today is owner-occupied to owner-occupied, because that's what lets us do minimum down payments. When you buy purely as an investment, you'd need a much larger down payment, depending on the price, the number of units, and the property type. Buying for yourself, you can get in with an FHA loan at three and a half percent down or a conventional loan at five percent down within particular county limits. ### Why a crash would make renting worse, not better Based on this article and every other one I've read for the last five or six months, rents are not slowing down. They're going to continue to move and continue to get worse. And here's the part people don't think about: even if we had a housing market crash, there would be a ton of people who make the wrong decision because their home is no longer worth what they paid, and let it go to foreclosure. You've now created a whole new massive pool of people who need to rent. So the rental crisis we're in today, if the housing market were to crash, becomes an even bigger rental crisis — because you've got even more renters. If you don't believe me, don't take my word for it. Google it. Find out what happened during our recession of 2007, 2008, 2009\. How many renters were there? What did rents do during those years? It does happen. Which, to be clear, is not me predicting a crash — personally I don't think we're going to see any kind of crazy massive crash. But rents that continue to go up? They always have, and they will. So do that homework. And if you're a renter and you haven't made a plan to buy a home, I've got to tell you: you're bleeding, and you need to stop the bleeding. ### Why this is happening So why is this happening? Number one, we've been low on housing. Everybody knows we're already short the number of homes we need for the population we have, and that's especially true in major cities. Number two, building was happening — builders were out there, they were building, they were getting new tracts out, everything was going wild. But just like everyone else, when rates go up it costs more to get the financing they need to build. So we're starting to see builders slow down. We're seeing fewer tracts pop up. We're seeing new permit applications through the cities slow down, which means less building and less new housing coming to market. Meanwhile we have more people every day who need somewhere to live. So rentals are big right now, and it's a great place to start thinking about future investment and about starting a real estate portfolio if you don't have one. ### Wrap-up If you don't own a home and you haven't thought about owning one — if you think the best thing to do is sit and wait a year to ride out some massive crash that's coming — I can tell you that's probably not the best idea. Give us a call and talk to us. You're welcome to speak with me, or with anyone on my team; we're all very knowledgeable and we've all been in the business a very long time. I started my career in 1994, and the loan officers on my team started in the late nineties and early 2000s. We've all been through the roller coaster. We've all seen rents go up while people were losing homes. We've seen pretty much everything that's happening today. Call us at 844-935-3634, that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. Somebody answers the phone seven days a week from 9 to 5 Pacific, and outside those hours the call service will book you an appointment. If nothing on the calendar works for your schedule, go to mortgagemomradio.com and use the contact form — it comes to me directly and I'll make the arrangement. To be part of the live show, text the word MOM to that same number: one text a week with a link straight to the YouTube channel, every Wednesday at 1 p.m. Pacific. I will not be on next weekend for my Saturday and Sunday radio listeners — we go dark for the holiday, so you may hear a rerun. If you need anything in between, please reach out. I'm Debbie Marcoux, I am the Mortgage Mom, and until next time I hope you all have a fantastic week and weekend. Take care. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 24, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. This episode discusses specific loan program terms — minimum credit scores some lenders would accept, waiting periods after a bankruptcy, short sale, or foreclosure, and minimum down payment percentages. Every one of those figures reflects lender and agency guidelines as they stood in August 2022\. Such guidelines are set by lenders, investors, and federal agencies, change frequently and without notice, and vary by borrower, property type, and location. Nothing on this page is an offer of credit, a description of a currently available program, or a statement of current program terms. Contact the office for what is available today. ### Moving To Another State? What Happens To Your Pre-Approval URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/moving-to-another-state-what-happens-to-your-pre-approval/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:30:57.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Relocating To A New State” • Live show from Wednesday, August 17, 2022 • 56 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Most loan officers hold a license in exactly one state — the one they live in. That's fine until you change your mind about where you're moving. In this episode Debbie explains what actually happens to your pre-approval when you switch states mid-search, why a multi-state lender saves you from starting over, and the research list she wants every relocating buyer to work through before they pick a destination. ## Key takeaways - **Change states, change lenders, start over.** If your loan officer isn't licensed where you decide to buy, a new lender has to re-pull your credit, take a new application, and collect every document again. Working with a lender licensed in several states means a change of heart costs you a phone call instead of weeks. - **You do not have to start the new job first.** With a relocation or a new position in the same field, Debbie works from your offer letter — verifying the employer, the start date, the pay, and that you've cleared every contingency in the offer (drug screen, background check). No move required, no first paycheck required. - **“Pre-approved” and “pre-qualified” are not the same word.** A pre-qualification is a loan officer's opinion. A pre-approval is an *underwritten loan commitment* — an underwriter has actually reviewed your file. Ask your lender, out loud, which one you're getting. - **Moving somewhere with cheaper taxes raises your buying power.** Qualifying is based on the whole housing payment — principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA. Lower property taxes and cheaper insurance in the new state means you qualify for a higher price. - **Remote income and sign-on bonuses both count.** If your employer confirms you're remote and your pay doesn't change with location, that's the income Debbie qualifies you on. A verifiable sign-on bonus — part of a relocation package or not — can go toward your down payment and closing costs. - **Never trust the payment on a listing app.** Those estimates typically use the seller's current tax basis, not the one you'll be assessed at, and often skip mortgage insurance entirely. - **Do the homework before you fall in love with a state.** Debbie's list: state income tax, state sales tax, and the county property tax rate (they trade off against each other), schools and specific programs, distance to an airport, medical care you actually need, air quality, weather you can live with year-round, and the small daily stuff — which stores are there, whether delivery services run in that area. ## Chapters - 00:43The Great Migration — and why this show isn't “leaving California” - 06:20Why most loan officers can only lend in one state - 07:22The states Debbie is licensed in - 08:56The states where she'd tell you to use a local lender instead - 11:39Q&A: do you have to re-qualify if you change states? - 14:43Agent referrals in the state you're moving to - 18:43Q&A: buying before you start the new job - 22:48Q&A: lower property taxes, bigger loan amount - 24:21Q&A: get pre-approved before you shop, not after - 26:26Q&A: pre-qualified vs. fully underwritten - 31:38Q&A: transferring in 90 days — can you buy now? - 34:13Q&A: does an underwritten approval beat a competing offer? - 36:19Q&A: working remotely, and using a sign-on bonus - 38:24What to research before you pick a state - 49:33Q&A: filling in taxes and insurance on an affordability calculator - 54:11Wrap-up ## Questions answered on this show ### “If I qualify for a home in one state, do I have to re-qualify if I decide to move to a different one?” With a lender who is only licensed in the first state, yes — completely. Say you get pre-approved for Florida, then decide on Texas. That lender has already pulled your credit, taken your application, and collected your pay stubs, asset statements and ID. If they aren't licensed in Texas, none of it transfers. You're back at square one with a new lender, a new credit pull, and every document sent again. Debbie's point in doing this show: if you genuinely don't know where you're going yet, start with a lender licensed in several of the states you're considering, and tell them the whole list. ### “I'm relocating and I already have the new job. Do I have to start the job before I can get a loan?” No. If you're staying in the same industry — or you just graduated and the offer is in the field you studied — the loan works off your offer letter. Debbie verifies with the employer that they are hiring you, that the terms in the offer still stand, what your start date is, and that you've completed every contingency in the offer, such as a drug test or a background check. You don't have to move first and you don't have to work a day first. You do have to have the job secured in a way that can be verified. ### “I'm moving from California to a state with lower property taxes. Would I qualify for a bigger loan amount?” Yes. Qualifying looks at the entire housing cost — principal, interest, property taxes, homeowners insurance, HOA dues, everything that makes up the payment. If taxes and insurance are cheaper where you're going, more of your income is left for principal and interest, so the sales price you qualify for goes up. ### “Is it better to qualify for a loan before I move, or wait until I find a home?” Always get pre-approved before you start looking — whether you're moving across the country or across town. Getting fully approved can take a couple of weeks; a house you love can come and go in that time. And you may be shopping at the wrong price entirely. You might not qualify for the neighborhood average you assumed was yours, or you might qualify for considerably more than you thought and be looking in the wrong place. Know the number first. ### “Is there an advantage to being fully underwritten before I write an offer?” Yes, and it's the difference between a pre-qualification and a pre-approval. A pre-approval is an underwritten loan commitment — it comes from the underwriter, not the loan officer. Debbie is blunt about why that matters: loan officers are human and every lender's guidelines differ. She works with roughly seven different jumbo investors alone, each with its own underwriting rules. A loan officer can genuinely misremember which lender allows what, and you find out in escrow, when switching lenders changes your rate and pricing. Walking into a deal knowing an underwriter has already signed off removes that risk. Ask your lender directly: am I being pre-qualified, or pre-approved — and has an underwriter seen this? ### “My job is transferring me in 90 days and I found the perfect home. Can I buy now?” Yes. Occupancy is generally required within about 60 days of closing, and a typical transaction takes about 30 days to close — so if you're 90 days out from the transfer and you go into contract now, the timing lines up. You close, sell or pack up where you are, and move into a home that's already yours instead of scrambling in the week before a new job starts. One thing Debbie wants on your radar: the same job at the same company often pays a different rate in a different state. Confirm the new figure before you build a budget on the old one. ### “Will a seller take my offer over another buyer's if I'm fully underwritten?” Debbie's answer: apples to apples, yes — if she were the seller she'd take the offer with the loan commitment letter attached. You still have to do your part: the inspection, an appraisal that comes in at value, insurability. But between two otherwise identical offers, the one that can demonstrate an underwriter has already approved the borrower is the safer close, and sellers know it. ### “What if I work remotely and can live anywhere?” Then the lender verifies with your employer that you are remote and that you can work from anywhere with no change in pay — and that's the income used to qualify you. A lot of people don't realize the income follows them. It does, as long as the employer will confirm it in writing. ### “Can I use my sign-on bonus for my down payment?” Yes. Whether it comes as part of a relocation package or simply as a hiring bonus, money you've earned from a job and that can be verified is allowable toward your down payment and your closing costs. ### “How do I fill in property taxes, insurance and HOA on an affordability calculator when I don't know what they'll be?” For property taxes, look up the county rate and use it as a percentage of price — Debbie's own rules of thumb on air were roughly 1.25% in Los Angeles County, around 2.6% in the San Antonio area, and considerably lower in Arizona and Utah. Search the rate for the specific county *and* state, since the same county name exists in several states. For homeowners insurance, email her the city, state and rough price range and she'll give you a number to plug in. And know that her app's affordability calculator is deliberately conservative — she'd rather under-promise and then qualify you for more than get you excited and walk it back. ### Not sure yet which state you're landing in? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page.* ### Relocating to a new state Hello and welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux and I am the Mortgage Mom, and today our show is about relocating to a new state. I'm here in California and there are a lot of people leaving California — but there are also a lot of people going numerous places, moving to many different states, so I didn't want to title this one “leaving California.” We're across the nation. We have people listening by podcast and YouTube everywhere in the U.S., and the general story is that people are moving. This is the Great Migration. We've done these shows before and talked about tips and tricks to make the move easier. Today I want to talk about the lending side of it: how can my team help you, where can we help you, and do you need to get completely re-approved if you decide to change from one state to another? ### Why most loan officers can only lend in one state The first thing to understand is that most loan officers you talk to in your area are licensed by their state, and they're offering lending in the state where they live. That's it — unless they work for a federally chartered bank, where they're covered by that federal license and can do loans everywhere. So finding a loan officer with a large number of state licenses is difficult. It has taken me a lot of time to get those licenses in many different states. I currently have 13, and I'm working on three more, so by the end of this year I should have 16 — which makes it easier for you to call me, talk with my team, and not have to reapply every time you change your mind about where you're going. I actually wrote them down this time, because I rattle them off in shows and always forget one. Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. I just finished the licensing classes and passed the test for Utah, so that should be on the radar very quickly. If you've been listening to the show and you know you want to work with me and my team, reach out and let me know what state you're looking in and I'd be happy to look into what it would take to get licensed there. ### Where I'd tell you to use a local lender instead There are states I think are more difficult to lend in, and for those I believe you're better off with somebody very local to you. Most of them are on the East Coast. New York, for example — I would not want to do lending in New York personally. You really have to live there and understand it; it's a completely different market. Maryland, Washington D.C., Boston — those are more attorney-driven, quirkier markets, and I think you'd genuinely be better served by somebody in your neighborhood, your city, your county. For the vast majority of the United States it's much more standard. You just need somebody who is licensed there and understands it. ### Q&A: do you have to re-qualify if you change states? Heather asks: *“If I qualify for a home in one state, do I have to re-qualify if I decide to move to another state?”* Great question, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to do this show. Let's say you decide on Florida. You start talking to a real estate agent there, they refer you to their lender, you get pre-approved. They've pulled your credit, taken your application, collected your income and asset documents, your pay stubs, your driver's license — everything. Then you change your mind and want to look at Texas. If that person isn't licensed in Texas, you are now back at square one. Another lender re-pulls credit. You reapply. You resend all of your documentation. So it's genuinely useful that my team carries licenses across the country. If you aren't 100% sure where you're going, we're a good place to start — and if you tell me you're thinking about Oregon and then decide on Montana, that's already on my radar and I'd go get it done. ### Agents in the state you're moving to Because we're licensed in so many states and my team lives in different states, we've worked with real estate agents across the country and we've been able to pick the ones who work the way we do — who have your best interests at heart, who will slow down and explain things to a first-time buyer. So we can also refer you to an agent in the area you're moving to. We have agents we trust in Texas, in Tennessee, in Georgia, in Las Vegas, in Washington, in Idaho, and obviously all over California. Now you've got everybody working together as a team, and that matters more than people expect. I understand how much you need from a seller in closing costs to make your cash-to-close work. Your agent understands you need four bedrooms and a house just came on the market — they'll run out there, FaceTime you, show you the home, call me, and I'll run the numbers with you and talk about whether it's actually affordable. I'll get the pre-approval letter out immediately and call the listing agent to tell them what a strong candidate you are. That's what takes the stress off you. This past Sunday I did a home buyer workshop — three hours, on YouTube, from the very beginning of what all these words mean all the way through closing your loan and getting your keys. If you haven't bought a home before, or it's been a long time, go back to my channel and watch it. ### Q&A: buying before you start the new job Heather asks: *“If I'm relocating and I already have my new job, do I have to start the job before I can get a loan?”* No, you do not. If you have a new job, you're relocating, and you're staying within the same industry and field — or you went to school, graduated, and now have an offer in the field you studied — we're looking for your offer letter. We verify with that company that they're hiring you, that everything in the offer is holding true, what your start date will be, and that you have completed all of the items in the offer. Many offers have contingencies: pass a drug test, complete a background check, other requirements before you're hired on 100%. We confirm those are taken care of, confirm the start date, confirm the income, and that's it. You do not need to move there first, you do not need to start the job first — but you do need the job secured in a way we can confirm. ### Q&A: lower property taxes, bigger loan A listener asks: *“I'm moving from California to a state with lower property taxes. Would I qualify for a bigger loan amount?”* Yes. If you're moving somewhere the property taxes are less expensive and the homeowners insurance is less expensive, that affords you a higher sales price. Remember we're looking at the complete picture — principal, interest, taxes, insurance, HOA, anything that goes into the actual housing cost — to calculate what you qualify for. If the housing cost where you're going is cheaper than where you are, you will absolutely qualify for more. ### Q&A: pre-approve first, shop second Heather also asks: *“Is it better for me to qualify for a loan before I move, or should I wait until I find a home?”* You should always get pre-approved before you start looking — out of state or in your own backyard. You're going to find a home, you're going to get excited, and sometimes it's a couple of weeks of work to get you pre-approved and able to make that offer. That home could come and go. You might also be shopping at the wrong price. Maybe you assumed the average price in your neighborhood is your price, and it isn't. Maybe it's well below what you could have qualified for and you should have been looking somewhere else entirely. And you might think you can afford a payment because you've been looking at Redfin, Zillow and realtor.com — which, by the way, don't give you the correct monthly payment. Then you call a loan officer after seeing the home and find out it costs more than you expected. Get pre-approved, talk to a professional, understand your down payment and your closing costs first. ### Q&A: pre-qualified vs. fully underwritten Another question: *“Would I be at an advantage getting fully underwritten before writing an offer?”* Yes, of course. When you talk with a loan officer, ask: are you getting me pre-qualified, or are you getting me pre-approved? And when they say pre-approved, ask the follow-up — are you getting me underwritten, or are you giving me a pre-approval letter? Those are very different things. A pre-approval is an underwritten loan commitment. It comes from the underwriter. Loan officers — and I'm one of them — make mistakes. We're human. We're trying to hold the guidelines for every program out there: USDA, FHA, conventional, jumbo, bank statement loans, debt-service loans. Within my company we work with about seven different lenders for jumbo lending alone, and every one of them has different underwriting guidelines. My job is to put you in the right fit and review your income and assets to make sure you qualify with the lender we're placing the loan with. But the underwriter is specific to that program. So I could make a mistake. I might not remember that one lender has a different guideline than another, and then you're in escrow, excited, and suddenly there's a loan program problem — I have to switch lenders, and the rate and the pricing change. You don't want that. You want to know when you walk into a deal that the deal is going to close. ### Q&A: transferring in 90 days Heidi asks: *“What if my job is transferring me to another state and I find the perfect home, but I'm not being transferred for 90 days? Can I still buy now?”* Yes, we can do that. You do need to occupy the property within about 60 days of closing on the loan. If you're transferring in 90 days and you make an offer now, most transactions take about 30 days to close — which puts you right around that 60-day mark. So you can close on the home, get your current place sold, get packed, and move into a home that's already yours instead of arriving a couple of days early and starting a new job in a rush. One thing to keep in mind: when you get transferred — say you work for a large employer and you're transferring from one state to another — there are often different rates of pay for the exact same job depending on where you're relocating. Make sure you understand what you're walking into. Talk to us in advance, because most of our clients recently have been people relocating, and we can tell you what to check before you find out on your first paycheck. ### Q&A: does an underwritten approval beat another offer? Next question: *“Will a seller take my offer before other buyers' offers if I have a fully underwritten approval?”* I would say yes. A seller is more likely to accept an offer where you can show a loan commitment letter and demonstrate you've been fully underwritten and can close without concern. You still need to do your due diligence — your home inspection, the appraisal coming in at value, making sure the home is insurable. But if you and another person walk in with the exact same offer and you have an underwritten loan commitment, if I were the seller I'd be taking yours. Apples to apples, that's a real edge. ### Q&A: remote work, and using a sign-on bonus Carrie asks: *“What if I work remotely and can live anywhere?”* That's fantastic. We verify with your company that you are remote, that you can work from anywhere with no change in pay, and voilà — that's the income we use. A lot of people don't realize that if they're working from home and want to move somewhere else, we can continue to use that income and qualify them with it. Heather asks: *“Can I use my sign-on bonus for my down payment?”* Yes, you can. If you're getting a sign-on bonus for making the move — which many people do as part of a relocation package — you can absolutely use part of that as your down payment. And if you're not getting a relocation package, you're just choosing to move and they're giving you a sign-on bonus, that works too. Any money you've earned from a job that can be verified is allowable toward your down payment and your closing costs. ### What to research before you pick a state Now to the part I keep promising. Here's what I think is genuinely important to research before you make a decision about where to go — and most of this holds true even if you're only moving across town. First, a warning about the apps. I'm on realtor.com all the time too. The difference is I know how to run a mortgage payment. The payments those apps show you are frequently not accurate: they often use the current seller's taxes rather than the tax basis you'll be charged as a new buyer, and many times they don't show mortgage insurance at all if you don't have a large down payment. My phone app has calculators that will show you what a USDA, FHA, VA or conventional payment actually looks like, including the upfront funding fee or upfront mortgage insurance where those apply. Text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 and you'll get the link. Then the research list. What is the state sales tax? What is the state income tax? What is the average property tax base in that state and county? Those three trade off against each other — you might find a state with no income tax and then discover property taxes are considerably higher. If you have kids, look at the schools and how they rate. If your kids are in a particular program, check whether the schools there have it. The East Coast is huge on lacrosse; for years lacrosse barely existed in California. It's here now, but it might not be in the state you're considering. Anything that's important to you and your family, do the research to make sure it's a fit. What stores are in the area? Are the ones you actually shop at there? Do the delivery services you rely on run in that area? I use grocery delivery constantly because getting to a store is difficult for me — and if that's not available where you're going, that's a real change to your schedule, from one small thing. How close are you to the nearest airport, if family will be flying in? Do you have a health condition where you need to know the medical care is there — are there good doctors for the thing you need handled? Air quality, if anyone has asthma, allergies or a lung condition. For me personally, boating matters, and so do the specialist services and the special-education programs my family needs, so I have to make sure a town has them. And the weather. Are you okay with humidity, or would you rather have dry heat? How do you feel about cold, about snow, about driving in snow, about tornadoes? I lived in Illinois for years and my absolute favorite thing was watching The Weather Channel in winter and seeing “today will be a high of 10 with a low of 1” — or negative 10 with a high of 1\. I personally can't do that. My husband would love Montana. He can have it. Bugs, too — a listener brought that up and she's right. I got excited about a lake this morning and then found out it has alligators. That's not going to work for me. Whether the state is politically red, blue or purple, if that matters to you — I'm not here to tell you which one you want, only that it's on the list of things people care about and should check. The best advice I can give you is to sit down and make a list of everything that is important to you, and then check off every single box before you move. You want to make one move, get there, and be happy. ### Q&A: taxes and insurance on the affordability calculator Wendy asks: *“When using an affordability calculator, how do you factor in property taxes, homeowners insurance and HOA when you don't know how much they are?”* First, about my app's affordability calculator specifically: it is extremely conservative. If it tells you that you qualify for a certain amount, when you talk to me or someone on my team we can most likely qualify you for more than the app shows. I would much rather show you accurate information than get you excited and then say no on the other end. For the fields you have to fill in yourself: property taxes as a percentage. In Los Angeles County you'd use about 1.25%. Around San Antonio, in Bexar County, you're probably closer to 2.6% — I've seen those taxes as high as 2.9% and as low as 2.3% depending on the property. In Arizona you're likely around 0.71–0.74%; in Utah, roughly 0.81–0.87%. Do the research: type it straight into Google, “average property taxes in X county,” and make sure you include the state, because there are counties with the same name in several different states. Homeowners insurance is one you can just ask me. Send an email or a message through the app: tell me what city and state and roughly what price range, and I'll give you a good annual number to use. Some basics: in Los Angeles County, a $500,000–$600,000 single-family home might run about $1,200 a year. Texas is quite a bit more expensive — more like $1,800\. Las Vegas is closer to $800. ### Wrap-up I hope you enjoyed the show. Everything I gave you works even if you're looking at a home in your own backyard. One more time, the states we can help you in: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. I just finished Utah, and Colorado, Montana and Hawaii are in progress. If there's a state I didn't mention that you'd love us to help you in, reach out and ask — I'd be more than happy to look into what it takes to get licensed there so we can make the transition easier for you and your family. To reach the team, call 844-935-3634 — that's 844-WE-LEND-4\. Or go to mortgagemomradio.com and use the contact button. Text the word MOM to that same number and you'll get one text a week letting you know when I go live, so you can jump on and ask your questions during the show. I'll be back next week with all kinds of good stuff. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 17, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Seller Credit or Price Reduction? Why the Credit Wins URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/seller-credit-or-price-reduction-why-the-credit-wins/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:30:58.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “Transitioning From a Sellers Market to Buyers Market!” • Live show from Wednesday, August 10, 2022 • 55 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 A seller sitting on a listing has two ways to move it: cut the price, or hand the buyer a credit. Both cost the same at closing — and only one of them actually solves the buyer's problem. In this episode Debbie and a real estate colleague with nearly three decades in the business walk through what changed as the 2022 market turned, what a buyer can ask for again, and why FHA buyers were being turned away from condos they could have bought. ## Key takeaways - **A $10,000 credit beats a $10,000 price cut.** Drop a $700,000 list price to $690,000 and the buyer's qualifying barely moves. Give that same $10,000 as a closing-cost credit and you've solved the thing actually stopping them — cash. As Debbie put it on air: it's easier to finance $10,000 than to come up with $10,000 in cash. The seller nets the same either way. - **The contingencies came back.** In the peak seller's market buyers were waiving appraisal and inspection contingencies to get an offer accepted. As listings started sitting, sellers stopped canceling over them — and started agreeing to repairs, credits and rate buydowns instead. - **“More inventory” is not a crash.** A historically normal market carries about 90 days of inventory. At the frenzy's peak it was roughly **12 days**. At the time of this show it was around **45** — more supply than buyers had seen in years, and still well short of normal. - **Rates improved *after* the Fed hiked.** The July 2022 hike came in at exactly the expected three-quarters of a point, which the rate sheets had already priced in — and mortgage rates then improved by roughly a quarter to three-eighths of a percent as investors moved into longer-term bonds. Debbie's example: an FHA borrower quoted around 5.25–5.5% two weeks earlier was seeing something closer to 4.75–5%. - **“This complex doesn't take FHA” is often just wrong.** A condo or townhome complex has to be approved for FHA or VA financing — but FHA allows a *spot approval* on a single unit, which adds roughly ten days to escrow. Both hosts were emphatic: if an agent tells a buyer they can't look at a complex, or tells a seller they can't accept FHA and VA offers, get a different agent. Cutting out FHA and VA shrinks a seller's buyer pool for no reason. - **If you're consolidating a HELOC, the window can close.** Home equity lines are tied to the prime rate and were climbing with every Fed hike, and they're interest-only until the balloon comes due. Blending a HELOC into a new fixed-rate first mortgage was Debbie's recommendation — with the warning that a cash-out refinance is capped by your home's value, so a forecast dip in values could take the option away before you use it. ## Chapters - 00:43Today's topic, and today's guest - 16:12What a seller's market actually looked like - 19:48What a buyer's market looks like - 22:24Inventory: 12 days at the peak, 90 days is normal - 25:30Price reductions, and a forecast 5% correction - 26:31Buy at today's rate, or wait for a lower price? - 27:34Sellers: offer incentives instead of cutting the price - 33:20“Paint and carpet credit” — an old idea coming back - 34:52Why a $10,000 credit beats a $10,000 price cut - 36:55FHA and VA condos, and how spot approval works - 39:31If your agent says a complex can't take FHA - 43:21Rate news: why rates improved after the Fed hike - 46:30Cash-out refinancing and blending in a HELOC - 49:34Why the refinance window may not stay open - 51:07Cooling markets across the West Coast - 53:08Wrap-up ### Thinking about buying, selling, or consolidating? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or run the numbers with the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks, personal catch-up and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Debbie is joined for this episode by a real estate colleague she has worked with since 1995; the two of them have close to 60 years in the business between them.* ### Today's topic: the market is shifting Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux and I am the Mortgage Mom, and today we're talking about transitioning from a seller's market to a buyer's market. Yes, that's correct — it is on its way, it is coming. If you're in a market across the nation where you haven't quite felt it yet, it's coming. The small tidal wave is starting to move. We're seeing markets cool from Arizona to Seattle to Las Vegas, and definitely California. So what does that mean to you? How does it affect you if you're a seller? If you're a home buyer? What are the benefits, and what are the tips and tricks to get your home sold if you're worried it's going to take longer? I have a guest with me today, someone I've worked with since 1995 and who has spent the majority of her career on the real estate side, where I've spent the majority of mine in mortgage. We've both done both sides, so between us there's a lot of ground covered. And I'll say up front what I always say: I'm not an attorney and I'm not a financial advisor. This is education, not advice. ### The workshop moves online Before we get into it: we were going to do a home buyer workshop this Sunday in person here at the Mortgage Mom Radio office, and we've canceled the in-person event. I'm still doing the workshop — it will be virtual, on YouTube, this Sunday, August 14th at 1 PM Pacific. It's absolutely free; anyone who paid to come in person has been refunded. We're not looking to make money on this, we're trying to get the education out. We'll still play games and give away prizes. Give yourself about three hours, because that's what it takes to go start to finish: what do all these words mean, loan programs, closing costs, what a closing disclosure is, when you get your keys, how you choose the right real estate agent. And it's interactive — if I say something you don't understand, ask right in the feed. ### What a seller's market actually looked like So what's the difference between the two? In a seller's market — which is what everyone has been living in for the past couple of years — there's very little inventory, so you're less likely to find your perfect home and more likely to settle a little. The seller can get pretty much the price they're asking, because there's so little competition. The seller isn't paying any closing costs for you and isn't helping you out in any way. And you might be asked to remove contingencies: no appraisal contingency, no home inspection contingency. Homes were selling before they were ever listed, just from agents talking to each other about what was coming soon. If a home did list, it got multiple offers — we saw homes taking upwards of 30 offers within a day of hitting the market. People were writing offers sight unseen just hoping to get accepted, and giving away everything to do it: over asking, appraisal waivers, no help with closing costs. Whatever the seller wants, I'll give them. That's a seller's market. And in that market, if you were a first-time buyer with a low down payment — you needed FHA, you had 3.5% down, you wanted a condo and the complex wasn't approved — the seller wasn't going to sit around and wait for that. They'd take the offer with the bigger down payment, or the cash offer, because they were worried your financing wouldn't come through. That's a real problem, because these markets are expensive. Seattle is expensive, Las Vegas is expensive, Lake Havasu has blown up, Los Angeles has blown up. This isn't just a California thing. For a buyer scraping together 3–5% for a down payment, coming up with another $10,000 for closing costs on top of it can be impossible — so they couldn't ask for closing costs, and they couldn't get offers accepted. ### What a buyer's market looks like The shift happens the way we're starting to see now: you notice prices dropping, you start seeing price reductions. That's your edge right there — that's the market correcting and shifting. It's usually one or the other, buyer's or seller's; in transition it can briefly be both, but rarely. Coming into a buyer's market, sellers reduce prices and start offering incentives. You bring an offer in and ask them to help with some of your closing costs. For a first-time buyer, closing costs are your escrow fees, title fees, lender fees, appraisal fees — separate from your down payment. The seller can pay those through escrow, and it reads on the contract as a seller credit: *seller to credit buyer X dollars toward closing costs.* We've seen anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 and up. That can get a buyer into a home they couldn't get into before. Along with the price reductions, the incentives are back. Sellers no longer mind that your appraisal contingency is in there. They no longer mind your inspection contingency. If the inspection turns up broken air conditioning and you want it fixed — before, they'd have canceled and moved to the next buyer. Now they're inclined to help. And when price reductions alone aren't moving the property, you start seeing sellers buy the rate down for the buyer. ### Inventory: what “normal” is I've been reading articles all week, and inventory has doubled if not tripled depending on the market. People hear this and think the world is falling apart, property values are going to drop through the floor, we're going to crash. We are not going to crash. Let me give you the numbers. A normal market is one where a home takes about **90 days** to sell. That's what we've seen throughout history, other than during a major crash like 2007 and 2008, when foreclosures and inventory pushed it far beyond that. If the historical average time to sell is 90 days, then a normal market has to carry about 90 days' worth of inventory. Right before this, we had roughly **12 days** of inventory at the absolute craziest point. That is nothing. What you have grown accustomed to, what you've been feeling and experiencing, is not the norm. Right now we're at about a **45-day** inventory — every market's a little different, some may be at 60\. We are still not at a normal 90-day market. ### Price reductions, and the forecast Why are sellers sitting longer? Because they expected to list, get multiple offers, and not budge on price. They were used to the most recent comp in the neighborhood and listing above it, hoping to be the next highest sale. So they list high, sit for about 30 days, and realize they have to come down to where the last one actually sold. Hence the price reductions. Somebody asked me what I think happens with real estate and where interest rates go — whether we see a big decline. I've said I didn't think we'd see it in 2022; I thought it would be 2023, maybe even 2024, before things leveled off. One of the articles I read this week is predicting that by mid-2023 property values taper off, with about a **5% decline** expected. I've given you statistics before. I've run the payments and shown you the difference between buying today at today's interest rates versus buying next year at a value that's 10% lower but a higher interest rate — and it was still cheaper monthly to have bought now. So if you can, as a buyer, take advantage of the interest rates we have today rather than where they'll be a year from now, and go in and ask the seller for closing costs, and negotiate a little on price, you're getting a genuinely good deal. It's time to pounce. ### Sellers: offer incentives instead of cutting the price And for sellers who've been sitting on the market 30 days trying to figure out how to get noticed: offer an incentive. Offer to help that first-time buyer. Offer to help the veteran who has a zero-down loan but doesn't have the extra 2% for closing costs. Offer two to three percent to your buyer — first to buy their rate down, so they get a lower interest rate than they could get on their own. That helps them qualify, it helps them be comfortable in your home, and it gets them the cash they need. It is easier to finance $10,000 than to come up with $10,000 in cash. Something we used to see back in the mid-90s: *seller will give paint and carpet credit.* That's worth remembering now. Buyers have to come up with a down payment in an economy where everything is more expensive — and then the home needs carpet, or paint, or the appliances need replacing, or the AC is working well enough today but won't be for long. Go out of the gate offering those credits. If I'm a buyer who can barely scrape together the down payment and I have a seller willing to help me, I am willing to pay more for that home, and I'll consider your house even if it wasn't my favorite. ### Why a credit beats a price cut Here's the math, and I like round numbers. Say you have a $700,000 house. If you reduce the price by $10,000, you're at $690,000 — and for that borrower, qualifying is pretty much the same. But if you offer that buyer $10,000 toward their credit or closing costs, that's what gets them into your house. They weren't having a problem qualifying. They were having a problem with the money. At the end of the day you net the same. If the last comparable home sold at $700,000 and you give somebody $10,000 in incentive, you're netting $690,000 — no different from a price reduction to $690,000\. But that $10,000 is money the buyer didn't have to bring in cash. And to be clear, I'm not saying closing costs are $10,000\. Closing costs are based on the sales price; title fees, escrow costs and everything else change with the price. That's just an easy round number. On average closing costs run about one and a half to two percent of the sales price, and across the West Coast markets we're on — Las Vegas, Lake Havasu, Seattle, Los Angeles — the average home price is somewhere around $600,000 to $700,000\. That's why the $10,000 example is in the right neighborhood. ### FHA and VA condos, and spot approval Let's talk about FHA, because I love FHA loans. For a long time, if you were an FHA buyer in a condo price range, it was difficult to get an offer accepted when the complex wasn't already FHA approved. Here's what buyers don't understand: to do an FHA or VA loan on a condominium or townhome, that association has to be approved by FHA or VA. If it isn't, we can't do those loans there. So agents have to bring conventional offers only, which makes it harder on the seller — you're cutting out two loan programs. But we can make that easier. FHA has what's called a **spot approval**, where we approve one unit at a time rather than the entire complex, and that piece takes about ten days. So it's about ten days longer to sell your condo — and ten days is better than sitting on the market waiting for a conventional buyer when you have an FHA buyer who is ready, willing and able right now. VA doesn't have a spot approval process; there we'd have to get the complex fully approved. That's something our team has been doing for years and is good at — we recently completed a VA condo approval in Los Angeles. Many lenders won't do it because it's difficult; they start and then get hung up and it never finishes. If you're an HOA president, reach out and talk to us about getting your complex fully FHA or VA approved. It helps the turnover for every owner in the complex. And to the buyers who've been told a hundred times “it has to be FHA approved or I can't show it to you” — get a different agent. As a seller, your agent should know right off the bat whether your property is FHA and VA approved, and if it isn't, don't let them tell you that you can't take FHA or VA offers. That's not true. Call us, we'll get the complex approved, and you get a much bigger pool of buyers, which is likely to net you a higher price. ### Rate news: why rates improved after the hike Now the interest rate news. You've been hearing us for a couple of years about rates going up as the Federal Reserve raised the prime rate. A couple of weeks ago I did a show ahead of the Fed's announcement, when they were planning to increase by three quarters of a point, and I said on air: the three-quarter-point move is already built into the rate sheets. If it comes in higher than three quarters we might see rates go up; if it comes in lower we might see them go down. I didn't expect a huge change from the result itself. What actually happened is they raised it by exactly three quarters — not a full point. And what we saw was interest rates come *down*. We improved by about a quarter of a percent, maybe three-eighths, 0.375\. That's significant when you're moving from the fives to the high fours. Why? Because I'd also said we'd see home equity lines of credit go up, credit cards go up, and short-term loans like auto and student loans go up. What investors did was put money into longer-term bonds and longer-term mortgages — and that gave us the improvement. So if you talked to us two weeks ago about an FHA loan with a decent credit score, that rate might have been 5.25% or 5.5%. Today we're maybe at 4.75% to 5%. That's a real difference in how much you qualify for and what your monthly payment is. Now we're hoping things stabilize until the next announcement moves the needle again. ### Cash-out refinancing and blending in a HELOC Who does that improvement help? Buyers, obviously. But also people looking to take cash out of their home — for home improvements, to buy out a co-owner, to pay off debts, to build a pool or an addition — who have a rate around three and a half percent from the last couple of years. Here's the problem with a home equity line of credit. We write them, and we're happy to if that's what you need. But those lines keep going up with the Federal Reserve prime rate. The balance goes up, the minimum payment goes up, and you're not paying anything down because the payment is interest only. After ten years it either turns into a mortgage or comes due in full — you have to refinance it anyway. So when we take a blended rate: if your equity line is at 9%, 10% or 12% and we blend it with a three-and-a-half percent first mortgage of $400,000 or $500,000, you might land at a blended rate of four and a quarter, four and a half, four and three quarters. If you can do a refinance that pulls the cash out and puts it all on one 30-year fixed note, that may well be the way to go, and it's the healthiest way to go — you're not worrying about the payment changing. ### Why the window may not stay open Why do it now rather than next year? Set the rate forecast aside and pretend rates don't change at all. We just talked about statistics anticipating property values flattening, possibly down five percent at most, according to the experts I'm reading. If your value goes down, you may not have the opportunity to consolidate. You may not have the opportunity to pull out the cash. Because the thing that determines how much cash you can take is the value of your home. And on a cash-out refinance we can't go above 80% of value unless you're a veteran — veterans we can help at a higher loan-to-value all day long. So picture it: you have a first mortgage and a second — a home equity loan or line. The prime rate is rising, the line's payment is screaming up, and maybe your balloon is coming due and you have to pay it off. If your property value drops, we may not have the equity to pay that second off. And if the balloon comes due and you can't refinance it, you're stuck with the higher rate and the higher payment, or with a note due that you have no way to pay back. ### Cooling markets, and what it doesn't mean I have articles printed out here from two days ago: Seattle housing market cooling down. Las Vegas cooling down. California cooling down. Lake Havasu cooling down. Every market we're on the radio in is cooling down. Cooling down doesn't mean values are dropping crazily. It doesn't mean the rug gets pulled out from under us and we crash. It means we're getting back to normal territory — normal time frames, normal inventory levels, an inventory that lasts about 90 days. So sellers, get ahead of it. Start offering buyers an incentive to get into your home; make your home more attractive. And buyers, take advantage: sellers are sitting longer, there is more opportunity for you, and we've had a nice dip in rates over the last couple of weeks. Learn what you need to do, get pre-approved, and start shopping. ### Wrap-up If you have any questions, call us at 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. We're working in all the markets we've talked about: Arizona, Las Vegas, Washington, California and more — almost 14 states at this point; we just added Missouri. If you've been thinking about selling, or relocating to another state, it's much easier to deal with one lender who can help you where you're going. And if we qualify you for California and you decide on Nevada or Arizona, that qualification goes with you as long as we're licensed there. Text the word MOM to 844-935-3634 to know when we go live, and I'll see you Sunday the 14th at 1 PM on my YouTube channel for the home buyer workshop. We'll be back again next week. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of August 10, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation. ### Why a Fed Rate Hike Doesn't Automatically Raise Your Mortgage Rate URL: https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/why-a-fed-rate-hike-doesnt-automatically-raise-your-mortgage-rate/ Last updated: 2026-09-04T21:30:59.000Z Mortgage Mom Radio • “What To Expect From Wednesday's Fed Meeting” • Live show from Monday, July 25, 2022 • 1 hour 5 minutes • Hosted by Debbie Marcoux, NMLS #237926 Two days before the Federal Reserve's July 2022 decision, Debbie sat down to explain the thing most people get backwards: the Fed does not set your mortgage rate, and by the time a hike is announced the rate sheets have usually already moved. This is the show where she walks through what a widely expected hike does and doesn't change, which of your debts really are tied to the Fed, and what a buyer should be negotiating for instead of waiting. ## Key takeaways - **The market prices the expectation, not the announcement.** A three-quarter-point hike was widely expected, and lenders, investors and mortgage-backed securities had already built it into the rate sheets. The surprise is what moves rates — if the Fed had come in at a full point, that extra quarter nobody priced in would have pushed rates higher; if they'd come in under, rates could have improved. - **What the Fed funds rate really moves:** credit cards, auto loans, student loans and home equity lines of credit — short-term debt. A 30-year fixed mortgage is long-term debt and tracks the bond market. Savings-account yields go up too, though Debbie's honest caveat is that you won't notice much. - **A HELOC is adjustable and tied to prime.** A line at 5–6% becomes 6–7% after another three-quarters or a full point, and it keeps climbing with every hike. If you need cash out, Debbie's recommendation was to look at blending it into a long-term fixed loan rather than watching an interest-only line ratchet up. - **Waiting costs more than a price drop saves.** Her example: at roughly 5.5% today versus 7.5% later, a home bought 10% cheaper still carries a *higher* monthly payment. That's before you factor in a seller who'll help with closing costs or buy the rate down — leverage buyers didn't have a few months earlier. - **Stop waiving your contingencies.** With homes averaging 17 days on market instead of selling the first weekend with 15 sight-unseen offers, Debbie's answer was flat: do not waive your appraisal or loan contingencies in this environment. If a seller won't accept them, another seller understands the market well enough to negotiate. - **You can stack a seller credit on top of down payment assistance.** Down payment assistance covers the down payment; the seller credit covers closing costs. It is possible to get into a home with effectively nothing out of pocket — and Debbie's larger point is that most people never find out because they never make the call. - **On points, the math decides.** Whether buying down the rate pays depends on the recovery period against how long you'll hold that *loan* — not how long you'll hold the house. Points are recouped much faster on a purchase than on a refinance. And if you can get a seller to pay them, that's a lower rate for the life of the loan on someone else's money. ## Chapters - 03:53Today's topic: what to expect from Wednesday's Fed meeting - 14:10What a hike moves — and what it doesn't - 15:44Why the hike was already in the rate sheets - 19:20Q&A: what if they raise a full point? - 20:51HELOCs are tied to prime, and they keep climbing - 24:31Q&A: will the hikes continue all through 2023? - 29:11Q&A: should a buyer ask the seller to buy the rate down? - 30:46Q&A: if rates rise, do home prices fall? - 32:20Buy now, or buy a cheaper house at a higher rate? - 34:22Q&A: do buyers still have to waive contingencies? - 35:25Q&A: rents are rising faster than people expect - 36:59Q&A: zero-down programs and down payment assistance - 39:35Q&A: how much closing-cost help should you ask for? - 47:51Q&A: do you get a choice about an impound account? - 48:54Q&A: is it worth paying points? - 53:36The 10-year Treasury, and an inverted yield curve ## Questions answered on this show ### “What do you think happens if they raise rates by a full percent this week?” About three quarters of a point is already built into the rate sheets we're quoting from. If the Fed comes in at a full point, that's an extra quarter nobody anticipated — and Debbie's expectation was that mortgage rates would move up a bit as a result. Conversely, if they'd come in below the expected three quarters, rates could have improved. Her caveat, repeated all show: this is an educated best guess, not a crystal ball. ### “Do you think rates will keep increasing at this pace through 2023?” Her honest read at the time: probably a couple more hikes, possibly into the first quarter of 2023, and then a ceiling — because going further would push the economy into a serious recession. She expected the Fed to take everyone to the brink of what they can tolerate, stop there, and let the recovery happen slowly. So higher rates in 2023 than 2022, but stabilizing rather than climbing indefinitely, and becoming the new normal. ### “Is it smart for a buyer to ask the seller to pay some closing costs to help buy the rate down?” Yes. Homes were averaging about 17 days on market — still fast by historical standards, where 90 days is normal, but a world away from a listing getting 30 showings and 15 sight-unseen contracts in a day. That's leverage. Ask for your appraisal contingency, ask for closing-cost help, ask the seller to buy your rate down for the first year or two. There are a lot of options that didn't exist a few months earlier. ### “If rates go higher, will housing prices go down?” Higher rates slow buyer activity, homes sit longer, more listings come to market, and competition among sellers pushes prices down. Debbie's expectation was mostly *stabilization* — appreciation slowing sharply rather than a collapse — with a possible 10–15% correction. She did not expect that in 2022; she guessed the floor would come around the first quarter of 2024\. As always, her own forecast, offered as one. ### “Isn't it better to wait and buy a cheaper house later?” Run the numbers. If today's rate is around 5.5% and by the time you buy in 2023 or 2024 rates are at 7.5%, then even buying that home for 10% less leaves you with a *higher* monthly payment than buying today. Then add a seller who'll help with closing costs and buy the rate down, which you can negotiate for now. That's the entire “coulda, shoulda, woulda” argument in one comparison. ### “Do buyers today still need to waive appraisal and loan contingencies to get an offer accepted?” No — absolutely not, in this environment. Keep them. If a seller won't take an offer with contingencies in it, there is another seller who understands the market and knows they need to negotiate to get their property sold. ### “If housing prices keep going up, will rents go up too?” Yes, and they were already moving fast. A landlord who paid a higher price at a higher rate has a more expensive payment to carry, and that gets passed to tenants. Debbie noted that California had moved to allow larger annual rent increases than the cap renters had been used to, and that inflation was hitting landlords too — appliances, carpet and paint all cost more to replace between tenants. Her framing: you're already paying a mortgage every month. The question is whose. ### “Are there any zero-down programs for educators?” There are plenty of down payment assistance programs that can get you in with zero down, and some are aimed at specific professions. They change by county, city and state, and they can be structured as a grant or as a loan. Which ones you actually qualify for depends on your credit, your income and where you're buying — every person qualifies for something slightly different. They do exist, and it's worth asking rather than assuming. ### “If I ask the seller to help with closing costs, how much should I ask for?” Closing costs run about one and a half to two percent of the sales price on average, varying by state, county and city. So if you have your 5% down payment saved but not the 2% for closing costs, that's the number to negotiate for. Debbie's advice: ask. The worst they can say is no — and if your agent won't ask, get a different agent. ### “If the seller pays my closing costs, can I still use a down payment assistance program?” Yes. The assistance program covers the down payment and the seller credit covers the closing costs — you can use both, and you could end up in the home with essentially nothing out of pocket. Debbie's point to anyone who's decided they can't buy: if you have good credit, steady employment and workable debt ratios, and the only thing missing is savings, that is exactly the call worth making. ### “Does the buyer get a choice about having an impound account for taxes and insurance?” Yes and no — it depends on your program and your down payment. On a conventional loan with 10% down or more you can choose to pay property taxes and insurance yourself rather than having them collected in your monthly payment. With a government loan — FHA or VA — taxes and insurance are escrowed in your payment regardless of how much you put down. ### “Is it worth paying points to lower your interest rate?” The math doesn't lie. Whether points make sense depends on the loan program and the rate sheet that day, and on how long you plan to be in that *loan* — not the property. One year, three, five, seven: that determines how many points you can pay and still recoup before you'd refinance. Points on a purchase are recouped much faster than points on a refinance. Debbie's view is that paying points often does come out ahead, and that it should always be worked through as a calculation with you rather than as a rule. And if you can get the seller to pay them, that's free money buying down your rate for the life of the loan. ### Want your own numbers run before the next Fed meeting? Call [844-935-3634](tel:8449353634) (844-WE-LEND-4), [start an application](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/apply/), or use the [mortgage calculators](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/tools/). Get the weekly rate rundown in the [newsletter](https://www.mortgagemomradio.com/newsletter/). Full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) *Auto-generated captions cleaned for readability. Commercial breaks and repeated housekeeping have been trimmed; licensing information appears at the bottom of this page. Debbie reads from a paid industry market update during this show; her reading is summarized here rather than reproduced.* ### Today: what to expect from Wednesday's Fed meeting Well hello everybody and welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux and I am the Mortgage Mom. I come to you live every Monday or Wednesday — or both — right here on YouTube at 1 PM Pacific, and today I'm a little late off the starting block. Today we're talking about Wednesday's Fed meeting. They meet this week, and we're expecting an announcement Wednesday about increasing the Federal Reserve prime rate. What does that mean to you? How does it change things in your pocket, how does it change mortgage, and what else does it change? That's what today's show is about. Cole jumps on and says “thank God I bought in September.” Cole, the sooner anybody can buy, the better. Anybody who wanted to buy a home, or has been looking, or keeps telling themselves they're going to — you're going to be in a would-have, could-have, should-have position. And you'll feel the same way next year that Cole feels now. I want to be clear that this is my personal opinion, not something a statistic told me: I don't believe waiting to purchase a home is the right decision. ### Where the information on this show comes from Before I get into it, I want to explain where my material comes from. Being in the industry, I'm constantly getting articles sent to me. I subscribe to services, and I pay for content, because I want to give you actual data coming out of the industry — from the people running the numbers — rather than my own impressions. One of the subscriptions I use for the weekly newsletter sends me a market note every week. Last week's didn't make it into the newsletter, but the information in it was good, so I want to walk you through what it says and then talk about what happens on either side of the outcome. And a reminder: I'm giving you education and the best knowledge I have. I'm not a financial advisor, so I don't want to call it advice. ### The calm before the storm The note calls this the quiet before the storm: Fed officials went silent last week, with no speeches ahead of a meeting where a three-quarter-point hike is widely expected. It came out to me on Friday — and realize that today is Monday, and the announcement is expected Wednesday. It goes on to say that for the first time in over 40 years, the Fed is expected to raise rates by at least three quarters of a percent in back-to-back meetings. That's right — the last hike, six weeks ago, was three quarters of a point, and that itself was more than expected. Back in 2021, when the Fed started signaling that it was seeing inflation and would begin raising, everyone was led to believe it would be half-point increments every six weeks through 2022 and into 2023\. Instead the first meeting was a quarter, and then we hit three quarters, and now they're talking three quarters again. I've even heard one percent. They're moving more aggressively than anticipated. ### What a hike moves — and what it doesn't Here's the key line from the note: this rate hike will have no direct impact on home loan rates, but it will increase short-term rates like credit cards, auto loans and home equity lines of credit. Consumers should also expect a boost to the interest rate on their savings accounts. On savings: those rates fell drastically over the years as mortgage rates went to the lowest levels we've ever seen, and the return on money sitting in a savings account went to the lowest in history along with them. Inflation and rising rates will help that a little. But I don't expect it to be significant — you're not going to make a huge amount back on savings, and I still think you want to be looking at other places to grow your assets. ### Why the hike was already in the rate sheets What I find most interesting is that line about no direct impact on home loan rates. Here's why they say that. Everyone has expected this. In 2021 we were told 2022 would bring increases, and the market has been anticipating a hike this Wednesday. All of the mortgage lenders, all of the loans, all of the mortgage-backed securities, all of the investors in the bonds — they have all already anticipated it. What's happened is aggressive front-running: rates on the sheets we've been quoting you have already moved to get ahead of the curve, with that anticipation built in. So if for some reason they *don't* raise this Wednesday, we might actually see rates get a little better. What's expected and priced in is three quarters. They're not expecting a full point and they're not expecting a half. This is an article, and I agree with it — but I don't have a crystal ball and neither does the person who wrote it. Could rates go up when the announcement comes? Absolutely. But the general consensus is that if they raise by three quarters, it's already worked into today's rate sheets. That's good news for somebody who's pre-approved and shopping right now and likes the payments they've heard: it probably isn't going to jump overnight the way it has earlier this year. ### Q&A: what if they raise a full point? Heidi asks: *“What do you think will happen if they increase them by one percent this week?”* I think we've built about three quarters of a point into the rate sheets already. If they actually increase by a full point, that's an additional quarter nobody expected or anticipated, and I do think we'd probably see rates go up a bit. Again — my best guess, no crystal ball. ### HELOCs are tied to prime, and they keep climbing Back to that paragraph: the hike increases short-term rates like credit cards, auto loans and home equity lines of credit. I want you to hear that loud and clear. A lot of people right now are looking to take money out of their home — for home improvements, to buy land and build, to buy out a co-owner after a divorce or for another reason. And a lot of them are heading toward a home equity line of credit. We offer them and I can write one for you. But I want to warn you: home equity lines are adjustable and directly tied to the Federal Reserve prime rate. As prime moves up, the rate on your line moves up. So if you have a line at five or six percent today, after a few more hikes it's six or seven — and it will keep going as they keep raising to try to break inflation. You may genuinely be in a better position taking a long-term loan for the cash you need. It depends on how much cash out you need. I did a whole show on this last Wednesday — home equity lines, home equity loans and cash-out refinances, the good, the bad and the ugly. Go back and watch it if you're in that position. Car loans are short-term loans too — five or six years, not thirty — so those rates go up on the announcement as well. Mortgages are long-term rates, which is why the anticipation is already priced in. ### Q&A: will the hikes continue through 2023? Heidi asks whether the increases will keep coming at these intervals all the way through 2023. I'd like to say no. I really believe they'll hit us another couple of times, possibly into the first quarter of next year, but I think they'd throw us into a massive recession if they did much more than that. I'd expect there to be a ceiling these guys stop at so they can get everyone back in forward motion. I don't think we see it all the way through 2023 — but I also don't think we're going to see rates drop. That's part of the coulda-shoulda-woulda: if you need money now, or you want to buy now, now is the time, because rates are going to be better today than in 2023. Think about it like any recovery — surgery, a torn ACL. To get past inflation and recover from the debt on the economy, they have to raise rates to the level they think we can tolerate. They're going to push us as far as they can, take all of us to the brink of barely making it while keeping us functioning, and then try to make back as much as they can. That's not overnight and it's not fast. So I think 2023 rates are higher than 2022\. I don't think they keep raising indefinitely, but those rates stay and stabilize and become the new normal. If I had to guess as the Mortgage Mom, I think by the end of next year we're around seven and a half percent on a standard 30-year fixed — which is actually a very standard rate historically. ### Q&A: should a buyer ask the seller to buy the rate down? Heather asks: *“Do you think it's smart for a buyer to ask the seller to pay some of the buyer's closing costs to help the buyer buy the rate down?”* Yes, I do. Homes are starting to sit a little longer. I saw an article today saying the average time on market nationally is at 17 days. Seventeen days is still really short — when I was in real estate before I got into loans, a normal market was a home sitting about 90 days before it sold. But the days of a seller listing and getting 30 showings and 15 sight-unseen contracts within a day, and dictating every term, are gone. This is turning into a buyer's market, which is fantastic. Go in and ask for your appraisal contingency. Ask for closing costs. Ask the seller to buy your rate down for the first year or two. We're still under six percent; you could buy that rate down for the first couple of years into the fours or fives. There's a lot of opportunity right now. ### Q&A: if rates rise, do home prices fall? Another listener asks: *“Do you think if rates go higher, housing prices will go down?”* Rising rates have definitely slowed buyer activity. With less activity, homes sit longer and it takes longer to get an offer accepted, and more homes come to market — so in your neighborhood there might be four listings instead of one or two. That competition drives prices down. What I think we see is a lot of stabilization. I don't think we see much appreciation; that's slowing down. If we do see a price drop, I'd guess a 10 to 15 percent correction — and I don't think that's 2022\. I'd guess it hits its floor around the first quarter of 2024\. These are all my guesses. And where are rates in 2024? We don't know, but probably higher than today. ### Buy now, or buy a cheaper house at a higher rate? Last week I did a whole show on what happens if you wait to buy — what a 10% drop in property values actually does to your monthly payment. In essence: if rates today are five and a half, just as an example, and by the time you buy in 2023 or 2024 they're at seven and a half, then even buying the house for 10% less leaves your monthly payment higher than it would have been today. Now add a seller who could buy your rate down and pay some closing costs. Coulda, shoulda, woulda — right now is the time. If getting pre-approved has been the goal, get pre-approved. Don't sit on hold waiting to see what happens. ### Q&A: do buyers still have to waive contingencies? Heidi asks: *“Do you think buyers today still need to waive appraisal and loan contingencies to get their offers accepted?”* That is a no. Absolutely do not waive those in this environment. Keep them. And if a seller doesn't want to take them, there's another seller who understands the market and knows they need to negotiate a bit right now to get their property sold. ### Q&A: rents are rising Carrie says she thinks buying a house now will be better than paying rent next year. She's right, and rents are increasing very quickly — that was last Monday's show. California moved to allow larger annual rent increases than the cap landlords had been working under, partly because there were years through the pandemic when they couldn't evict or raise rent at all. And rents are exploding because of inflation too: a landlord replacing appliances for the next tenant is paying more, carpet costs more, paint costs more. A related question: *“If housing prices keep going up, will rent prices too?”* Yes. As home prices go up it costs more to buy them; as rates go up the landlord's payment to carry the property goes up. Tenants pay the price for the landlord to hold something tangible — a piece of real estate that is part of that landlord's retirement. Why would you do that for somebody else when you could do it for yourself? ### Q&A: zero-down programs and down payment assistance Manuel asks: *“Are there any zero-down programs for educators?”* There are plenty of down payment assistance programs that can help you get in with zero down. Those programs change by county, state and city. Assistance can be a grant or it can be a loan. It depends on you — your credit score, your income — and on what's available where you're buying. Every person qualifies for something a little different. But yes, they exist. ### Q&A: how much closing-cost help should you ask for? Heather asks: *“If I want to ask a seller to help with closing costs, how much should I ask for?”* It depends on how much you need. Closing costs vary by state, city and county, but on average they run about one and a half to two percent of your sales price. So if your down payment is five percent and you have that five percent of your own money but you don't have the two percent for closing costs, that's what you go negotiate for. What's the harm? Ask for it. The worst they can say is no. And if you have a real estate agent who won't ask, get a different one. She also asks: *“If I ask the seller to pay my closing costs, can I still use a down payment assistance program, or do I have to pay the costs myself?”* Yes, you can use a down payment assistance program for the down payment and yes, the seller can pay the closing costs. Ultimately you could get into that home with literally zero out of pocket. I hope everybody who has been thinking there's no way they can buy a home hears that. If you have good credit, good employment and good debt ratios and you just don't have savings, that's a good time to pick up the phone. Most of the time we are our own worst enemies — we decide we're not worthy of the financing, so we never make the call. Let us figure out whether you can do something today, or what the plan is to get you there. If you don't have a goal and a game plan, you never get to the finish line. ### Q&A: impound accounts Janice asks: *“Does the buyer have a choice about having an impound account, where property taxes and homeowners insurance are paid through the bank or escrow?”* Great question, and the answer is yes and no. If you have less than 10 percent down, the bank will require an escrow impound account. With more than 10 percent down you won't be required to have one — a conventional loan with 10 percent down doesn't require it, and you can choose to pay taxes and insurance on your own. But it also depends on your loan program. With a government loan — a VA loan or an FHA loan — you will be required to have taxes and insurance impounded in your monthly payment no matter how much you put down. ### Q&A: is it worth paying points? Jason asks whether it's worth paying points to lower the interest rate. As I've said on many shows: the math doesn't lie. Whether you should pay points is determined by the math, and we'd go through it together based on the loan program you're selecting and what the rate sheet looks like that day. Sometimes it makes real sense — a significant difference in savings over the long term, or a quick recovery of the cost. Points on a purchase are recouped much, much faster than points on a refinance. Many times paying points does come out ahead, but it also depends on your goals for the loan you're taking — not the property, the loan. If you plan to be in that loan one year, three, five, seven, that determines how many points you can pay and still recoup faster than the time you'd be in it. And if you're a buyer and you can get the seller to pay some closing costs and pay some points and bring your rate down — why the heck not? That's free money giving you a lower interest rate from the beginning of your mortgage to the end. ### The 10-year Treasury, and an inverted curve I want to finish the article, because I want to leave you with the question marks going into Wednesday — and if you're hearing this on the radio a week or two later, go back and see whether what we talked about actually happened. How will mortgage rates react? That's the unknown. Back in June, when the Fed also raised by three quarters of a percent, the 10-year note yield hit 3.49% — the highest in years — and then moved sharply lower on increased recession fears. So rates actually came down a little after the last hike, and then spiked. Today the 10-year note stands near three percent. To be clear, that's not a mortgage rate; that's the yield mortgage rates are tied to. If the economy can absorb higher long-term rates, we should expect long-term rates to move higher. Currently the two-year note yield is near three and a quarter percent and inverted with the ten-year, which typically portends a recession — and in a recession, long-term rates don't go higher and the Fed doesn't hike. That's roughly what I was describing: I think they push us to the limit and then leave us there to recoup. The Fed, which controls short-term rates — not mortgages; your car loans, your equity lines, your credit cards — is hiking the Fed funds rate to slow demand, tamp down inflation, cool off the labor market, and remove froth from the housing market. That froth is what I mean when I say appreciation slows and we might see values come down 10 to 15 percent over the next year to year and a half. But rates when we get to that point are probably quite a bit higher than today. I thought it was important to do this show before Wednesday's meeting. It's going to be very interesting to see what they do, and how mortgage rates react. ### Wrap-up To reach the team, call 844-935-3634 — 844-WE-LEND-4\. Text the word MOM to that same number and you'll get one text a week with a link so you can join the show live and ask your questions. You can also subscribe on YouTube and turn notifications on, since sometimes I go live Monday, sometimes Wednesday, and sometimes twice a week. The next home buyer workshop is Sunday, August 14th at 1 PM Pacific. It runs from the very beginning — what do all these words mean — through “I'm in escrow, what do I do now” and signing the final closing disclosure. You can attend in person or virtually; virtual attendees get the same content, the same chance to ask questions, and the same games and giveaways. And a note for those who ask how often we run them: about every six to eight weeks. Next show is all about coulda, shoulda, woulda — rates, refinances, this year versus next year, how payments change, whether you should consolidate. We'll take on the skeptics who think property values are going to fall to pieces and the people who think rates drop within twelve months. That should be a good time. Talk to you all real soon. Debbie Marcoux is licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act, NMLS ID #237926, and additionally licensed in AZ (0941504), FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, and WA. Rates and figures discussed were current as of the air date of July 25, 2022, reflect national conforming averages, and are not an offer of credit or a rate quote. Debbie Marcoux is not a financial advisor; consult qualified professionals about your individual situation.