What the pros quietly do when rates slip Here’s the candid take you won’t hear in ads: when mortgage rates ease, lenders pitch refis and agents pitch listings. Meanwhile, the folks who do this for a living pull up a spreadsheet and run cash flow, taxes, and optionality first. Not because we don’t like a lower rate, who doesn’t, but because the right move depends on you: your time horizon, your cash needs over the next 12-36 months, and the odds you assign to where rates go next. Ads push activity. Pros push math. Quick context so we’re on the…

Why timing beats headlines in housing Headlines love neat stories: “3% inflation, rate cuts coming, housing to the moon.” Maybe. But in housing, the when usually matters more than the what. Your monthly payment is set the week you lock, not by the yearly average economists quote on TV. I’ve sat across too many kitchen tables to count where a 48-hour rate swing made or broke a deal. It’s annoying, I know, but that’s the game. Two quick numbers to make this real. First, mortgage rates don’t move in tidy straight lines. During CPI prints and Fed weeks, 30-year fixed…