2026

The Trump administration has proposed nearly flat payment rates for private Medicare plans in 2027, a move that could significantly affect insurers that rely heavily on the Medicare Advantage program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said payments to Medicare Advantage plans would rise by an estimated 0.09% on average in 2027 — far below expectations from Wall Street analysts, The...

Brian Brown, chief financial officer and treasurer for Rocket Companies, expects continued improvement in the mortgage market in 2026, building on momentum that emerged in the second half of 2025. “If you look at the mortgage forecasts, it depends on which one you choose, but they’re up anywhere from 8% to 25% based on the Fannie Mae and MBA numbers,” Brown said during a webinar with Fitch...

Some Manhattan townhouses are impressive. Others have their own IMDb résumé. A rare six-story, 25-foot-wide elevator townhouse in Midtown West — famously featured in Netflix’s romantic comedy Uncoupled starring Neil Patrick Harris — has just hit the market for $11.75 million. Located at 416 West 51st Street, the 7,000-square-foot residence is listed with Clara Chung of Douglas Elliman and...

Some Manhattan apartments offer a great view. This one offers all of them at once. The former home of fashion mogul Steve Madden has just hit the market for $11.5 million, bringing a full-floor “sky mansion” to the top of the Upper East Side skyline. Located at 200 East 69th Street, Apartment 47, the 4,617-square-foot residence sits high above the city with cinematic 360-degree views of...

Twenty years after building their home in the countryside outside Fayette, Ohio, this couple were ready to rethink their primary bathroom. The teal walls, single-sink vanity and corner shower-tub layout felt dated and underwhelming, especially the tub they rarely used and the cramped...

Winter weather can keep even the most avid gardener from working outside. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up all gardening activities until spring. Instead, use this time to focus on planning for later in the year or to knock out a couple of garden-related tasks that can be done now. Once...

The U.S. housing market ended 2025 on a weaker footing than expected, raising fresh concerns about momentum heading into 2026 as buyers pulled back sharply from signing new contracts. Pending home sales -- a forward-looking gauge of closed transactions -- fell 9.3% in December 2025 from the prior month and were down 3% from a year earlier, according to data released last Thursday by the National...

It goes with the insanity of today’s U.S. housing affordability crisis that two rights can make a wrong. Two federal policies — each designed to lower the lifetime operating cost of owning a home — can instead combine to raise the barrier to entry so high that millions of households never get through the front door in the first place. The technical terms for these lose-lose-lose, vicious circle...

The Jason Mitchell Group (JMG) said it has added mortgage brokerage LitFinancial to its network of business-to-business partners. LitFinancial was founded in 2024 and has closed more than $1 billion in client volume since launching — providing mortgage services and working with homebuyers nationwide. “JMG is proud to partner with LitFinancial, who provide a world-class service,” said Jason...

Detroit-based Rocket Companies was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Monday that accuses one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders of steering consumers to their loan products, “even though Rocket Mortgage‘s terms are disadvantageous to the clients.” The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The plaintiffs are represented by Hagens Berman, a consumer...