The Loan Ranger: Mortgage rates wander, policies change, while California home costs climb

Oh, my goodness, there's a lot of noise in the mortgage world these days. As a person who enjoys the sport of marketing myself, I can't help but believe that the current Federal Housing Finance Agency director, Bill Pulte, does as well.

Regardless of what side of the political aisle you sit on, the mortgage world could benefit from more attention because that's the fuel for the real estate universe.

And let's face it: if you are a homeowner, you don't want to watch your neighbor's home sit on the market for months trying to sell or take a gut-punch price reduction — or both. That's not fun for your own personal online property-valuation-watching activities that most folks obsess over way too often.

However, this is not quite party time for buyers. True, interest rates have slid down a bit over the last few months, although they have not plummeted by any means. If anything, lately, they are very confused, directionally speaking, and are looking for a leader or indicator to help guide them. Until then, Bill Pulte is attempting to toss a few pennies into the wishing well to see if some massive changes at Fannie and Freddie will unlock things without creating more problems.

On a side note, now that there's no longer production of the U.S. penny, I wish I had kept all those pennies I threw around for years.

According to the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) recent post, its California Housing Affordability Tracker (3rd Quarter 2025) report showed I would have needed 553,600 pennies to make the monthly payment for a typical mid-tier California home in September 2025. Ouch — that's a big difference from the 306,900 pennies needed for a monthly payment back in September 2020.

Per the LAO, a typical mid-tier California home reflects home values in the 35th to 65th percentile range, and its monthly home-payment calculations assume a 30-year mortgage, 10% down payment, 1.1% property-tax rate, 0.38% homeowners-insurance rate, and 0.558% private-mortgage-insurance rate.

For purposes of its data analysis, "these assumptions do not change over time. As a result, trends over time reflect changes in home prices and mortgage rates." The LAO calculations are based on the Zillow Home Value Index, the U.S. Census Bureau (gross rent), and Freddie Mac mortgage rates.

I don't spend much time on the LAO website. I just found this information interesting — along with the source of the data. I cannot imagine how the LAO would be able to accurately put together this type of data if there were, let's say, a 50-year mortgage, a portable mortgage, or more widely available assumable mortgages. All great marketing from Pulte.

Brilliant. Reckless. Both?

Either way, I'm glad people are not sitting down but are taking action. Then again, sometimes the stuff they do requires you to sit down and listen.

I can't wait for Dec. 10, the last Fed meeting of the year!

Chris Salese can be reached at [email protected] or 707-363-4439. He is a licensed California mortgage lender (LO NMLS #254469 | CA-DBO #254469 | Corp NMLS #1850 | Equal Housing Opportunity.