An escrow shortage raises a fixed-rate payment twice at once. Cotality projects a $2,157 average in 2026, which is about $360 a month for a year.
The median new home sold for $398,300 in June 2026, about $42,300 less than the median existing home. Here is how to price a builder buydown.
HELOCs run near 7.5% while 30-year mortgages sit at 6.5% in July 2026. Compare the two ways to tap home equity, and see when not touching it wins.
Your pre-approval was fine three months ago and now the number dropped. The usual suspects: a rate that crept from 6.4% to 6.49%, a new car payment, and the 28/36 DTI rule doing exactly what it was built to do. Here is the math lenders run, plus a copy-paste AI prompt that runs it for you in five minutes.