For years, the housing crash crowd warned that homebuilders were headed for disaster. But here’s the real question: did they put their money where their mouth was? If they shorted the major homebuilder stocks back in 2021, they may not want to look at the results. While affordability got crushed and new home prices are now showing cracks, many builder stocks soared instead of collapsed. So were the crashers right — or did they bet on the wrong side of the housing market?
Companies spent years blaming tariffs for higher prices. Now that some tariff money may be refunded, the big question is simple: will those dollars make their way back to consumers, or will they quietly boost corporate profits? Here’s how the tariff refund process works, who gets paid first, and why accountability may become the next major economic fight.
Inflation may have cooled since the 2022 spike, but that does not mean prices went back to normal. From 2018 through 2025, a $100 basket of everyday goods rose to roughly $128 — a real-world example of how inflation stacks year after year and quietly damages household purchasing power.
Mortgage rates have improved from the 2023 peak, but affordability has not meaningfully recovered. Higher home prices, rising property taxes, and surging homeowners insurance costs have absorbed much of the benefit from lower rates — leaving many buyers with nearly the same monthly payment as before.
Mortgage Insurance Has varieties
Since June 2022 — when many predicted the housing market was about to crash — national home values have not collapsed. In fact, the overall market is up modestly, while some metros have continued climbing and others have clearly pulled back. This report breaks down what actually happened after the FOMO era: where home prices held strong, where they weakened, and what buyers and homeowners should watch next.
Foreclosure headlines sound scary, but context matters. Filings are rising from the artificially low COVID-forbearance era, not from normal market levels. Current foreclosure activity is still far below the 2008–2010 housing crisis peak, and the risk appears more concentrated in certain states and borrower groups — not a nationwide foreclosure wave.
Rate Shopping Mistakes
Gerrymandering has been around for more than 200 years, but it is back in the spotlight as courts, lawmakers, and voters debate how political maps should be drawn. In this blog, we break down what gerrymandering is, why Illinois is one of the clearest modern examples, and how redistricting can shape elections long before voters ever cast a ballot.
