Insights · Daily commentary
What today’s rates actually mean.
Daily mortgage and macro commentary from True Blue Lending. AI-drafted, compliance-reviewed by Jesse Gonzalez (NMLS #278103). Published on weekday mornings — never financial advice, just plain-English context.
October 26, 2026
How to choose an FHA 203(k) lender
Before you sign with any FHA 203(k) lender, ask three things: how many 203(k) loans they closed in the past 12 months, whether they handle both Standard and Limited 203(k) loans, and who runs the draw process once work starts. HUD does not require a HUD-approved consultant on a Limited 203(k), so if a lender insists on one anyway, ask why. Pricing on a 203(k) typically runs a bit higher than a standard FHA loan to cover the extra administration, and closings usually take longer than a standard purchase.
October 26, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 26, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 4.96% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.32%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 23, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 23, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.13% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.32%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 22, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 22, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.12% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 21, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 21, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.15% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 20, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 20, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.09% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 19, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 19, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.1% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 19, 2026
Construction-to-permanent loans explained
A construction-to-permanent loan combines your construction financing and your long-term mortgage into a single loan with a single closing. You pay interest only on the portion your builder has actually drawn, and the loan converts on its own to a fully amortizing mortgage once the home passes its final inspection and gets a certificate of occupancy. One-time close programs can reach 95% loan-to-value on conventional, 96.5% on FHA, and 100% on VA.
October 16, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 16, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.19% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 15, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 15, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.21% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 14, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 14, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.24% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 13, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 13, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.22% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 12, 2026
What Are Florida's 2027 FHA and Conforming Loan Limits by County?
FHFA typically announces the next year's conforming loan limit for every U.S. county in late November, with FHA's county limits following within weeks through a HUD Mortgagee Letter. As of this writing, the 2027 numbers have not been published, so the current limits on file for each Florida county still govern loan sizing until FHFA posts the update. Once the new figures are out, they'll be posted county by county so you can check your exact number rather than guess at it.
October 12, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 12, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.22% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 12, 2026
Renting Out the Home You're Leaving: The New Departing Residence Rule
Starting with applications dated November 1, 2026, Fannie Mae's new departing residence rule (Selling Guide B3-3.8-05) only lets 75% of the market rent on your old home offset its full mortgage payment, never add to your income. A lease no longer counts as proof: you need an appraiser's opinion of market rent or three comparable listings. Rent has to run about 1.333 times the old payment before it fully cancels that payment out of your debt-to-income ratio.
October 10, 2026
Bank statement vs 1099 vs P&L loans: which mortgage fits?
The right loan depends on how you document your income. Use bank statement loans if your deposits are strong and consistent, 1099 loans if you are a contractor with thin bank activity, and P&L loans if you have a CPA-prepared profit-and-loss statement to clear up messy deposits.
October 9, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 9, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.28% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.4%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 8, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 8, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.27% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.28%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 7, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 7, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.31% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.28%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 6, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 6, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.28% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.28%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 5, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 5, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.24% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.28%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
October 1, 2026
Daily Rate Update — October 1, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.26% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.03%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 30, 2026
Daily Rate Update — September 30, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.24% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.03%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 29, 2026
Daily Rate Update — September 29, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.17% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.03%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 28, 2026
Daily Rate Update — September 28, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 5.18% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 7.03%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 28, 2026
VA second-tier entitlement: real examples
VA second-tier entitlement lets a veteran keep an existing VA loan and use whatever guaranty is left over to buy a second home, sometimes with no down payment. The VA guarantees 25% of a VA loan amount, and once part of that guaranty is tied up in your current mortgage, only the remaining portion backs the next one. Whether you need cash down on the new purchase comes down to a specific calculation involving your county's loan limit and how much entitlement is still available.
September 25, 2026
Qualifying for a mortgage with 1099 income when tax returns hurt you
If your tax returns show a fraction of what you actually earn because of write-offs, full-doc qualifying isn't your only path. Non-QM lenders offer 1099-only programs that qualify you off one to two years of gross 1099 income with an expense factor applied instead of your net Schedule C number, and bank-statement or P&L-based programs sit right behind that as backup options.
September 25, 2026
Palm Beach County FHA loans: limits, requirements
Palm Beach County's FHA loan limit is set once a year by HUD, based on the national conforming loan limit the Federal Housing Finance Agency publishes each November, and it determines the largest FHA-insured mortgage you can get in the county before you're pushed into a jumbo or conventional program. Down payment starts at 3.5% for borrowers with a credit score of 580 or higher; buyers with scores between 500 and 579 need 10% down. The dollar limit itself shifts every year, so never quote last year's number as this year's ceiling.
September 25, 2026
Florida Hometown Heroes program: how it works
Florida's Hometown Heroes Housing Program, run by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC), gives eligible frontline and community workforce employees a second mortgage to cover down payment and closing costs on a home purchase. It's paired with an eligible first mortgage, not used on its own, and it's available to full-time workers in a defined list of professions across the state. Exact assistance amounts, income limits, and purchase price limits are set and updated by FHFC and posted at floridahousing.org, so check there before you budget around a specific figure.
September 25, 2026
How DSCR Is Calculated on a Rental Purchase (Exact Formula)
DSCR stands for debt service coverage ratio, and on a rental purchase it's calculated by dividing the monthly rent by the monthly PITIA payment on the property. A DSCR of 1.0 means the rent exactly covers the payment; most DSCR lenders want to see something between 1.0 and 1.25 before they'll approve the loan. The rent number itself can come from either the appraiser's market rent opinion (Form 1007) or an existing signed lease, and which one a lender uses can change your ratio.
September 25, 2026
Bank Statement Loan Expense Ratio: 50% Standard vs 20% With CPA Letter
Lenders underwriting a bank statement loan default to a 50% expense ratio, meaning they treat half of your business deposits as expenses and only count the other half as income. A letter from your CPA confirming your actual expense structure can lower that ratio to 20%, which often means significantly more qualifying income for high-deposit, low-expense businesses.
September 19, 2026
Daily Rate Update — September 19, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 4.94% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 6.95%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 13, 2026
Daily Rate Update — September 13, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 4.95% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 6.76%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 12, 2026
Daily Rate Update — September 12, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 4.95% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 6.76%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 11, 2026
How does a mortgage broker get paid? Lender-paid vs borrower-paid
A mortgage broker gets paid either by the lender or by the borrower on a given loan, never both. That's a federal rule (Reg Z's loan originator compensation rule), not a company policy. The compensation amount is built into your rate one way or another, so understanding which model you're in tells you exactly where your money is going.
September 10, 2026
Daily Rate Update — September 10, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 4.78% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 6.71%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 8, 2026
Daily Rate Update — September 8, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 0% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 0%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.
September 7, 2026
How does a DSCR second mortgage on an investment property work?
A DSCR second mortgage lets an investor pull equity out of a rental property using the property's rent to qualify, not personal income or tax returns. The underwriter combines the payment on both loans into one debt service coverage ratio: gross rental income divided by the total PITIA on the first lien plus the new second. A ratio of 1.0 means the rent exactly covers both payments, and anything above that is the cash flow cushion most lenders want to see before they'll approve the file.
August 31, 2026
When does keeping a low first mortgage beat a cash-out refinance?
A blended rate is the weighted average of your current first mortgage rate and the rate on a new second loan, based on each loan's share of your total balance. If that weighted average lands below what a full cash-out refinance would cost on the whole balance, keeping your low first mortgage in place and adding a HELOC or closed-end second almost always wins. The math shifts with every combination of balance and rate, so it has to be run on your actual numbers, not a rule of thumb.
August 28, 2026
Using a co-borrower who isn't a veteran on a VA loan
Yes, a veteran can add a non-veteran co-borrower to a VA loan, but the VA only guarantees the veteran's share of the debt. In a common 50/50 split, that typically means a down payment equal to 12.5% of the non-veteran's half of the loan amount, even though the veteran's half can still close with no money down.
August 24, 2026
DSCR below 1.0: your options (what kills DSCR deals)
A DSCR below 1.0 doesn't automatically kill a rental property loan, it means the property's rent doesn't fully cover the mortgage payment on paper. You can still close the deal by putting more money down, switching to an interest-only or ARM structure, buying down the rate, using a no-ratio program that skips the DSCR test entirely, or restructuring the deal so the numbers pencil. What actually kills these files more often isn't the ratio itself, it's underestimated taxes and insurance, a missed HOA payment, or short-term rental income the lender won't count.
August 19, 2026
203(k) Contractors and Consultants: Ocean City MD, Delaware, Columbia
FHA's 203(k) renovation loan splits the work into two roles: a HUD-approved consultant, required only when repair costs exceed $75,000 or involve structural work (that's the HUD cap for the Limited 203(k) program), and a licensed contractor you hire yourself. Neither role is assigned by the lender, and in coastal or rural pockets of Ocean City, Delaware, and Columbia, MD, finding the right one usually means searching HUD's own roster and widening your radius.
August 17, 2026
Finding a HUD 203(k) consultant in Atlanta
There's no separate "Atlanta" roster of HUD 203(k) consultants. HUD approves consultants nationally through its 203(k) consultant roster, so you find one near Atlanta by searching that roster (or a state-level directory) by zip code and checking who lists Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, or Gwinnett counties as coverage area. You only need a consultant for the Standard 203(k) program, which applies to repairs over $35,000 or any structural work; the Limited 203(k), capped at $35,000 in repairs, doesn't require one at all.
August 12, 2026
USDA Section 502 Rural Housing Loan: Zero Down & Income Limits
The USDA Section 502 Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan lets eligible buyers finance a home with no down payment, as long as the property sits in a USDA-designated rural area and the household's total income doesn't exceed 115% of the area median income (AMI) for that county and household size. It's a government-backed program, guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and originated by approved lenders like True Blue Lending, not a direct loan from USDA itself.
August 7, 2026
How to calculate the VA funding fee
Per VA guidelines, the VA funding fee is a percentage of your loan amount set by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the percentage depends on three things: whether this is your first use of VA entitlement, how much you put down, and whether you receive VA disability compensation. On a first-use purchase loan, VA sets the fee between 1.25% and 2.15% of the loan amount depending on your down payment; on a subsequent use, VA raises that range up to 3.3% unless you put down 10% or more. Veterans and service members who receive VA disability compensation are exempt from the fee entirely, per VA guidelines.
August 5, 2026
Can You Use Future Rent to Qualify for a Mortgage?
Yes, on many purchase transactions a lender can use rental income from the property you're buying, before you've collected a single payment, to help you qualify. The math starts with a Form 1007 market-rent appraisal: the appraiser estimates fair market rent for the unit or units, and the lender counts 75% of that figure to offset the new PITIA (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and association dues). The exact treatment depends on whether you're house-hacking a 2-4 unit owner-occupied property or buying a pure investment property.
August 3, 2026
How Fannie Mae Counts Rental Income (Form 1038/1039 & 75% Rule)
Fannie Mae lets lenders count only 75% of a rental property's gross rent as qualifying income, treating the other 25% as an automatic vacancy and maintenance factor. Which worksheet applies, Form 1038 for individually owned rentals or Form 1039 for properties held in an LLC or other business entity, depends on how title is held and whether the property already shows up on a filed tax return. If the property has a full year of history, Fannie Mae starts with Schedule E net income and adds back certain expenses; if it doesn't, a lease or an appraiser's Form 1007 rent schedule drives the number instead, and the 75% haircut gets applied to gross rent.
July 31, 2026
VA IRRRL Recoupment Rule: the 36-Month Math (What Actually Counts)
Under 38 U.S.C. § 3709, a VA IRRRL has to pass a recoupment test: the closing costs the veteran actually pays have to be paid back through lower monthly principal and interest within 36 months. The catch is that not every line on the closing disclosure counts toward that math. "Recoupable" is a defined, narrower category, and getting it wrong is the fastest way to misjudge whether a streamline refinance actually pencils out.
July 27, 2026
Is There an FHA IRRRL? (FHA Streamline vs VA IRRRL)
No, there is no FHA IRRRL. IRRRL (Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan) is a VA-specific program name, and FHA's equivalent is called the FHA Streamline Refinance. Both programs share the same seasoning rule set by their respective agencies: you need at least 210 days since your first payment due date and six monthly payments made before you can refinance (VA, HUD).
July 24, 2026
Daily Rate Update — July 24, 2026
Today's 10-Year Treasury yield is 0% and Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed PMMS is 0%. Below: the rate snapshot plus the three finance headlines moving the macro picture today.