California's backyard-housing boom may be about to take another significant step. For years, accessory dwelling units—or ADUs—have become an increasingly important part of California's attempt to create more housing without requiring entirely new subdivisions. Homeowners have converted garages. They've built backyard cottages. Families have created housing for parents and adult children. Investors have added rental units. And California lawmakers have repeatedly c

Why Mortgage Rates Jumped — Even Though Core Inflation Is Falling Mortgage rates had an extremely difficult week. The 10-year Treasury yield broke through 4.80%, surged toward 5%, and mortgage-backed securities experienced a significant selloff. That pushed mortgage rates to some of their highest levels of 2026. Then something interesting happened Friday morning. The August Consumer Price Index showed another relatively hot month for inflation — and bonds improved. That sound

Something unusual is happening in the American housing market. For years, one of the biggest complaints from prospective homebuyers was painfully simple: There weren't enough homes for sale. Buyers would find a property they liked and discover five other offers. Open houses were packed. Properties sold almost immediately. In some California markets, buyers waived contingencies, bid substantially over asking price and wrote offers on homes they barely had time to think about.

That's the question I had when I saw this story. A 54-unit affordable-housing project in West Marin is moving forward with an estimated development cost of about $55.4 million. That's roughly $1 million per unit. Before everybody loses their mind: That does NOT mean residents are paying $1 million for these homes. This is also a complicated redevelopment of a former Coast Guard property with existing buildings, infrastructure, construction requirements and multiple

A house in California can mean three completely different things depending on who is standing in front of it. To a local family, it is a place to raise their kids. To a second-home buyer, it might be weekends at the beach. To an investor, it could be an income-producing property with hundreds of potential nightly rental opportunities each year. All three buyers may want the exact same house. And in California's coastal, mountain and vacation communities, that competition rais

There is a strange financial experience happening to a lot of California families. They are making more money than they ever expected to make. They have careers. They may own a home. On paper, their household income might look excellent. And yet at the end of every month, they look at the checking account and wonder: Where did all the money go? For families with young children, one answer is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Housing is expensive. Childcare is expensi

For years, one of the assumptions about America's housing market seemed almost inevitable. Baby Boomers would get older. Their children would move out. The four-bedroom suburban house would become unnecessarily large. Eventually, millions of older homeowners would sell those properties, purchase smaller homes or condos and release a significant amount of housing inventory for younger generations. There's just one problem. A lot of Baby Boomers aren't leaving. Recent reporting

For decades, the idea of a “starter home” was pretty easy to picture. A young couple bought a small single-family home. Maybe it needed some work. Maybe it only had two bedrooms and one bathroom. They lived there for several years, built equity, earned more money, and eventually moved into something larger. In much of California, that traditional path has become increasingly difficult. And that raises an important question: What if the California starter home isn’t dead? What

For years, renters have heard some version of the same advice: “Renting is throwing your money away.” I work in the mortgage industry, so you might expect me to agree with that statement. I don't. Buying a home can be one of the best long-term financial decisions someone makes. Homeownership can provide stability, potential appreciation, principal reduction and the opportunity to eventually own a significant asset outright. But that doesn't mean buying a home is always smarte

Buying a home in California has always required buyers to think carefully about price, location, property condition, taxes and financing. But there is another question that has become increasingly important: Can you actually insure the house? For years, homeowners insurance was often treated as one of the routine items buyers handled after getting into contract. You found the house, negotiated the purchase, completed inspections, worked through the mortgage process and ob

A beautiful condo can have new flooring, an updated kitchen, a great location and a monthly payment that fits perfectly into your budget. Then you discover something that wasn't obvious during the showing. The homeowners association needs millions of dollars for major repairs, doesn't have enough money saved in reserves, and owners may be facing a substantial special assessment. That can change the economics of the purchase very quickly. This is why buying a condomini

Buying a home in Northern California can require a substantial amount of cash, but you may not need to save a 10% or 20% down payment before becoming a homeowner. Eligible buyers may have access to down payment assistance programs that can help cover some or all of the required down payment and, depending on the program, certain closing costs. The key is understanding that down payment assistance is not one universal program. To qualify, you'll generally need to meet re

Buying a home in Petaluma can put you into jumbo-loan territory faster than you might expect. For 2026, the conforming loan limit for a one-unit property in Sonoma County is $897,000. That means a conventional first mortgage above $897,000 generally falls outside standard conforming limits and may require jumbo financing or another loan structure. But here's the important part: jumbo does not necessarily mean difficult, and it does not automatically mean a worse mortgage.

There was a time when earning $100,000 a year represented a fairly obvious financial milestone. You had reached six figures. You were doing well. Buying a home seemed like something that should naturally come next. For many Californians in 2026, that expectation collides with reality very quickly. You can have a good career, earn more money than you ever have before and still open Zillow and wonder how the math is supposed to work. That frustration isn't imaginary. Ac

What if your neighborhood grocery store became an 848-home residential development? That is essentially the conversation happening around San Francisco’s Marina Safeway. A proposed redevelopment of the site would replace the existing low-rise grocery property with a much larger mixed-use project containing 848 homes, including 86 affordable units, with buildings reaching up to 22 stories. A grocery store would remain part of the new development. Those numbers are attent

Homebuyers naturally gravitate toward new listings. A house hits the market Thursday, the photos look great, and by Saturday everyone wants to see it. That's understandable. But if I'm trying to find negotiating opportunities for a buyer, I also want to look in the opposite direction. Show me the houses nobody is talking about anymore. Show me the listing that's been sitting for 45 days. Show me the property that went pending and came back. Show me the house with

Getting pre-approved for a mortgage feels like you've crossed the finish line. Then you find a house, your offer gets accepted, the appraisal is completed, and suddenly closing day is right around the corner. That's usually when buyers start making plans. They shop for furniture. They look at appliances. They start moving money around. Maybe they decide it's finally time to buy a new car. And that's exactly when I want borrowers to become incredibly boring. A mortgage

If you feel like people are buying their first or next home later in life than they used to, you're not imagining it. A new Los Angeles Times analysis of Southern California housing data found something striking: The typical Southern California homebuyer was about 40 years old in 2005. Today, that buyer is around 45. Five years may not sound dramatic. But it says a lot about what has happened to homeownership in California over the last two decades. California Homeo

There’s an interesting shift happening in California housing right now: buyers aren’t necessarily giving up on homeownership. They’re changing the map. New Realtor.com data released August 25 found that 94.4% of home-shopping traffic originating in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro went to homes outside the area during the second quarter of 2026. That was the highest percentage among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country. And when you look at San Jose home

Should You Wait for Mortgage Rates to Drop Before Buying a Home? The Math Isn't That Simple “I'm going to wait until mortgage rates come down.” I hear some version of that constantly, and on the surface it makes perfect sense. A lower mortgage rate can reduce the monthly principal-and-interest payment on the same loan amount. If rates fall enough, a buyer who couldn't comfortably afford a particular home today may suddenly be able to make the numbers work. But there's a