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Blame Game
By Jeff Walton & Kelly Guest
Banks, lenders, home builders and developers might be shocked to learn that consumers blame them for housing affordability issues in pretty significant numbers. A Clever Real Estate survey on housing affordability and the midterms found that 63% of Americans don’t think the midterms will help the housing market, but 64% don’t know their Congressional candidates’ positions on housing either. Nonetheless, consumers are pointing fingers: 37% blame the affordability crisis on banks and lenders, while another 33% blame home builders and developers.
Happy Monday.
Table of Contents
CHATTER
Trump Issues EO on Housing: White House Says It Will Increase Innovation, Decrease Costs
· The Order directs the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to create a pilot program to cancel borrowers’ mortgage insurance premiums proactively once they have satisfied their equity requirements based on the current market value, which will eliminate a large monthly expense for qualifying Americans across the country.
· The Order establishes the Task Force on Manufactured Housing Innovation, co-chaired by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the FHFA Director, to increase the quality of and lower the cost of building a home by facilitating the use of modern manufacturing methods in the production of factory-built housing eligible for federal housing programs.
· The Order directs the FHFA Director to reduce homeowners’ refinancing costs by expanding the FHFA’s title insurance waiver pilot into a permanent program to allow more borrowers to utilize cost-friendly alternatives to title insurance and to reduce the closing costs of refinancing and monthly expenses associated with homeownership.
· The Order directs the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Veterans Affairs to reduce interest rates on single-family home loans made by their respective Departments.
Rate Lock Rundown
Who’s Holding On: Realtor.com
· A record-high 43% of mortgages are now 5 to 7 years old. These are mortgages that were made between mid-2019 and mid-2022, when interest rates were at historic lows. The report indicates that people are moving out of these mortgages at much lower frequency than they otherwise would have.
· Only 28% of currently outstanding mortgages were originated during the four years leading up to June 2026, as rising interest rates limited both new lending and refinancing.
· In the second quarter of 2026, 19% of outstanding mortgages still had rates below 3%, while 30% had rates between 3% and 4%.
· 29% of mortgages had an interest rate between 4% and 6%. In other words, 78% of outstanding mortgages had an interest rate below 6%.
Killing the messenger?
Whose Fault Is It? Clever RE Survey
63% of Americans don’t think the midterms will help the housing market.
Nearly half of Americans (48%) blame the Trump administration for the housing affordability crisis, followed by corporate and institutional investors (37%), mortgage lenders and banks (33%), home builders and developers (33%), and the Biden administration (23%).
Buying In? Balance Homes’ “Co-Ownership Program” in 12 States
· How it works – from the press release: Balance Homes purchases a share of the home and in the process pays off the existing mortgage, which lowers the co-owner’s total monthly obligations and frees up cash, while the family stays in the home with a defined path back to full ownership.
· After closing, homeowners receive ongoing credit counseling. Equity can be repurchased incrementally at any time, and homeowners who buy back Balance Homes’ share within three years earn a sliding-scale fee rebate.
MOVING & SHAKING
Jet Mortgage welcomed Amy Marsh, Jason Fregoso, and Rhonda Ramsey to help grow wholesale and correspondent business. Jetalso announced Andre Harriott as new SVP of Operations.
VantageScore Introduces Credit Score Simulator API:
New VantageScore 4.0 Credit Score Simulator API Provides Actionable Credit Score Improvement Plans
New API Simulates and Forecasts Credit Score for All Three Credit Reports: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion
Integrates Seamlessly into Existing LOS Systems
Financial Planning for Home Buyers: GetWyz Launches Tool in App Store on for Web
They want buyers in the very early stages - and it's connected to GetWyz Mortgage.
MARKET/INDUSTRY
Smacking Fannie: Yields helped us out last week, but the Fed meets Wednesday and core PCE comes out this week, so we'll see how rates do. But Bill Bodnar pushes back on Fannie Mae's downer forecast revision in his latest Master the Markets segment.
Mortgage Applications Decreased 5.3% from One Week Earlier: MBA Weekly Survey for the week ending 10-16-26.
The Market Composite Index decreased 5.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 5% compared with the previous week.
The Refinance Index decreased 2% from the previous week and was 59% lower than the same week one year ago.
The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 7% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 7% compared with the previous week and was 18% lower than the same week one year ago.
Drop in Pending Home Sales: NAR
Month-Over-Month:
· 7.3% decrease in pending home sales
· Declines in all four regions
Year-Over-Year:
· 11.3% decrease in pending home sales
· Declines in all four regions
“Market conditions weakened in September due to fast-rising mortgage rates. Although job growth and income gains can support home purchases, housing affordability is more affected by changes in mortgage rates.” - NAR Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun
Really? Affordability Strained: ATTOM Data Q3 2026 U.S. Home Affordability Report
Homes were less affordable in Q3 than historical averages in 98% of counties analyzed. Despite a decline in the national median home price and wage growth outpacing home prices in a majority of counties, affordability remained a challenge across much of the country:
· Wage growth outpaced home price growth in 58.9% of counties analyzed.
· Monthly homeownership expenses on median-priced homes consumed 31.8% of the typical worker’s wages.
· Monthly homeownership expenses exceeded typical wages in 80.1% of counties analyzed.
· ATTOM puts the income needed to afford a median-priced home at $90,191 — roughly $10,700 above average wages, despite lower prices. The average annual wage used in the analysis was $79,534.
· A $73,600 down payment still leaves the average worker short of the income needed to afford the nation’s median-priced home under ATTOM’s latest affordability calculation.
Undeterred…
Yep, Expensive; Moving Ahead Anyway: Veterans United Q3 State of Mind Survey
Most buyers expect borrowing costs to climb over the next year, yet fewer of them are willing to hold off on buying because of it:
· Most prospective buyers (57%) expect mortgage rates to be higher a year from now, yet only 32% would wait for rates to fall before purchasing a home, down 7 points from a year ago.
· Fewer buyers say lower rates, lower prices or more inventory would motivate them to act, a sign they are adjusting to today’s market rather than waiting for a perfect one.
· Veterans and service members see their VA home loan benefit as an edge: 82% say it gives them an advantage, and Gen Z military buyers report greater confidence than their civilian peers.
DPA Stepping Up
More Opportunities, Flexibility: Down Payment Resource Q3 2026 Homeownership Program Index
· DPR’s HPI shows the highest number of programs in the survey’s history: As of 10-1-26, there are 2,833 homeownership programs available nationwide, up 87 programs, or 3.2%, from 2,746 in Q2 2026.
· The growth is not just in numbers: Programs are expanding in the ways that matter most to lenders and buyers, with more grants, greater flexibility on income ceilings, and broader coverage for property types that have historically been harder to finance.
· Programs with no income restrictions reached 311 in Q3, up from 291 in Q2. That means 11% of all programs are now available to borrowers regardless of their earnings.