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The 7.03% Everyone Quoted Was Stale, HouseCanary Files Chapter 11 & New Jersey Comes for Your Listing Photos
THURSDAY · SEPTEMBER 24, 2026
Your shortcut through today’s real estate news. Ten stories worth knowing, each with the context the headline skips.
One read, and you still get how the industry is reacting to all of it.
👋 Agents. Two numbers moved and a proptech went under.
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Freddie Mac put the 30-year at 7.03 percent and most of the coverage called that rates crossing 7 percent. The daily index was already near 7.5. HouseCanary filed Chapter 11 three months after announcing a nationwide listings deal with Google. New Jersey wants interior photos off the MLS within 30 days of closing. And a second independent dataset this week found the private-listing premium does not exist. Let’s get into all of it.
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Enjoy, — CURATED.
1st Take
The 7.03% Everyone Quoted Was Already Stale
The Quick Take
Freddie Mac’s weekly survey put the 30-year at 7.03 percent, up from 6.95 percent, and most outlets ran that as rates crossing 7 percent. Mortgage News Daily pointed out the survey is not built to track where rates sit on a given day. Its own top-tier daily index was already close to 7.5 percent.  Read more →
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Why It’s Hitting
The weekly survey is useful for long-run comparisons and poor for telling a buyer what today costs. Quoting the wrong one by half a point is the difference between a lock and a lost deal.
📊 The Takes
Quoting a rate now means choosing among the daily index, Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, and no number at all, with buyers sent straight to the lender.
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📅 Quotes the Daily — ‘My buyer pays today’s rate, not last week’s average. I quote the daily number.’
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📊 Starts With Freddie — ‘Freddie is the number my clients already saw in the headlines. I start there and explain the gap.’
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🛑 Leaves It to Lenders — ‘I am not a rate sheet. Every rate question goes straight to the lender.’
2nd Take
HouseCanary Filed for Bankruptcy Three Months After Its Google Deal
The Quick Take
The AI-powered brokerage filed voluntary Chapter 11 in the District of New Jersey on September 22. In June it had announced a deal to expand real estate listings across Google nationwide. The filing appears timed to stop secured creditor Ocean II PLO from holding a foreclosure sale in California that was scheduled for Tuesday.  Read more →
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The Real Story
A foreclosure sale would have swept in essentially everything the company owns, from deposit accounts and equipment to inventory and investment properties. The Google announcement was three months ago.
📊 The Takes
Skepticism of splashy partnership headlines leads the talk on HouseCanary, ahead of worries about where the listing data went and a few shrugs.
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📉 Distrusts the Announcement — ‘A logo on a press release is not a balance sheet. Three months proved that.’
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🔍 Tracks the Listing Data — ‘They were pushing listings to Google. Who holds that data now?’
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🤷 Shrugs It Off — ‘One AI brokerage folding does not change how I sell a single home.’
3rd Take
New Jersey Wants Your Listing Photos Taken Down After Closing
The Quick Take
A bill in the New Jersey State Assembly would require brokers to hand buyers an image-removal request form before the date of sale, and have the MLS pull interior photos offline within 30 days of getting it back. It carries penalties of 500 dollars for a first offense and up to 1,000 dollars for each one after.  Read more →
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What’s Changing
A 2025 survey of 2,000 consumers found 76 percent think states should require interior photos to come down once a home sells. Security and family privacy were the top reasons at 69 percent each, followed by principle at 53 percent and fear of scams at 48 percent.
📊 The Takes
Pulling interior photos after a sale draws the most agent support, while some balk at one more form with a fine and others doubt the MLS reaches every copy.
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🔒 Wants Them Down — ‘Those interior photos are a floor plan for anyone who wants one. Take them down.’
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📄 Counts the Forms — ‘One more form before closing, and a fine if I forget it. Sellers can ask without a law.’
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🌐 Doubts It Reaches Copies — ‘The MLS can pull them. I worry about the copies already sitting on other sites.’
4th Take
New Home Sales Rebounded, and the Rebound Is Older Than It Looks
The Quick Take
New home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 684,000 in August, up 6.4 percent from July but 2 percent below August of last year. Builders competed on price to close them. Those sales were signed earlier in the summer, when rates were meaningfully lower.  Read more →
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What This Means
Builders are using their own margins to buy rates down, which is the only reason the new-home channel has held. With rates near 7.5 percent and margins tightening, that support is the thing to watch.
📊 The Takes
August’s rebound reads as old contracts to many agents, a resale squeeze to some, and a reason to tour new construction to others.
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⏪ Reads the Lag — ‘Those sales were signed earlier this summer, when rates were lower. That is not this week.’
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🏚 Feels the Resale Squeeze — ‘Builders are buying the rate down. My resale sellers cannot match that.’
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🏗 Tours the Model Homes — ‘If a builder will pay down the rate, my buyers are walking new construction this weekend.’
5th Take
Zillow Asked a Judge to End the Mortgage Steering Suit for Good
The Quick Take
Zillow filed a motion asking Judge James Robart to dismiss the Taylor/Armstrong class action with prejudice, so it cannot be refiled. The suit alleges referrals to Zillow Home Loans violate RESPA. Robart dismissed it in July but left an opening to refile, and the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in August.  Read more →
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Why You’ll Feel It
Zillow says a pre-approval letter is not a settlement service under RESPA, because the letters are free and optional. It adds that the plaintiffs were not required to use Zillow Home Loans. The amended complaint dropped every brokerage defendant named before.
📊 The Takes
A free pre-approval is no settlement service to the largest camp, while others want the steering claims heard and a practical group has buyers compare lenders either way.
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📄 Sides With Zillow — ‘A free pre-approval my buyer never had to use is not a kickback. Close it.’
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⚖️ Wants It Heard — ‘Dismissed once, refiled once. I’d rather a judge test the steering claim than toss it for good.’
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🔍 Shops Lenders Anyway — ‘Whatever the judge decides, my buyers compare lenders before they pick one.’
6th Take
The Private-Listing Premium Never Existed
The Quick Take
Appraiser Jonathan Miller walks through Mike DelPrete’s analysis of about ten years of Bright MLS data, roughly 3.7 million listings across six states and the District of Columbia, or about 6 percent of U.S. sales. The question was how pre-market listings actually perform once they reach a buyer.  Read more →
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The Bigger Picture
This lands the day after an independent regulator reached a similar conclusion from a separate dataset. Two different bodies of data, neither commissioned by a brokerage, pointing the same direction.
📊 The Takes
The Bright MLS study convinces many agents, sends others looking for their own MLS numbers, and reminds a few that privacy, not price, was the pitch all along.
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📐 Trusts the Independent Data — ‘Two datasets, and no brokerage paid for either. That beats any press release.’
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🗺 Wants Its Own MLS — ‘One regional MLS is not my market. Show me my own numbers.’
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🤫 Never Sold the Premium — ‘I never pitched off-market for more money. Privacy was always the pitch.’
7th Take
A Westside MLS Is Relabeling Palisades Lots That Counted as Home Sales
The Quick Take
MLS/CLAW, the Combined Los Angeles/Westside MLS, is reclassifying Pacific Palisades off-market lot sales that had been labeled as single-family homes. Before the fix, those lots made up about 27 percent of single-family home sales since the Palisades fire, according to the MLS. MLS president Marco Rufo, a broker at The Agency, called it priority number one.  Read more →
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Why People Are Mad
Some brokers say they flagged the problem more than a year ago. When David Kelmenson of Compass pulled the lots from a report, the three-month Palisades median came out 1.3 million dollars higher, at 4.7 million. Rufo expects the fixes to reach third-party sites within 72 hours.
📊 The Takes
Skewed Palisades comps worry agents most, a second camp faults the MLS for taking a year, and a third turns it on Clear Cooperation.
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📊 Reruns the Comps — ‘A lot sale counted as a home sale drags every comp near it. I’m rerunning mine.’
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⏰ Faults the MLS — ‘Brokers flagged it more than a year ago. Priority number one should not take a year.’
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🗝️ Questions Clear Cooperation — ‘If the MLS wants to control the data, the data has to be right.’
8th Take
Down Payments Just Hit Their Lowest Second Quarter Since 2021
The Quick Take
The median down payment fell to 27,100 dollars, or 13.7 percent, in the second quarter. That is down 9.2 percent and 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier, though still above what buyers put down before the pandemic. A typical buyer’s estimated monthly payment is up 74 percent since 2021.  Read more →
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What’s at Stake
Down payments rose from the first quarter, which is the normal seasonal move. The year-over-year direction is the part worth reading, and it points at buyers with less to put down facing payments that are 3.5 percent higher than a year ago.
📊 The Takes
Weaker offers are the first worry about shrinking down payments, followed by the monthly payment and, more hopefully, buyers getting in with less.
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💵 Sees Weaker Offers — ‘Less down means less cushion if the appraisal or inspection goes sideways.’
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🧾 Watches the Monthly — ‘The down payment is not what stops my buyers. A payment up 74 percent since 2021 is.’
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🚪 Calls It Access — ‘They are still buying with less down. That is the number I care about.’
9th Take
Builders Bought the Rate Down and It Worked for a Month
The Quick Take
August new home sales reached an eight-month high, held up by builders using their own margins to lower effective borrowing costs for buyers. Strip out the pandemic surge and the channel has been flat for ten years. New home sales are still running at 2019 levels.  Read more →
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Why It’s Heated
With rates at 7.37 percent and margins tightening, the next few months will show how long builders can keep paying for that gap.
📊 The Takes
How long builders can keep paying for buydowns worries agents most, ahead of relief at workable payments and doubt that one good month means much in a flat decade.
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💸 Watches the Margin — ‘Builders cannot subsidize the rate forever. When the margin runs out, so do the sales.’
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🏠 Takes the Win — ‘My buyers got a payment they could actually make. I will take that.’
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📏 Calls It Flat — ‘Strip out the pandemic and this channel has been flat for ten years. One good month is noise.’
10th Take
Las Vegas and Florida Are Pulling the Most Movers
The Quick Take
Las Vegas is the single most searched destination for house hunters moving between metros, followed by Florida and Sacramento. Nine of the top ten destinations are in the Sun Belt, with Spokane the only exception. Nationwide, 19 percent of house hunters are looking to move to a different metro.  Read more →
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Why It’s Hot
Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle are losing house hunters faster than anywhere else. Roughly one in five searches is somebody leaving their own market entirely.
📊 The Takes
Movers cut both ways for agents, who court the arrivals, refer out the sellers leaving town, or stick with the four in five house hunters searching close to home.
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✈ Works the Inbound — ‘If my market is a destination, I want to be the first agent out-of-towners find.’
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📦 Works the Outbound — ‘My sellers who are leaving still need an agent where they land. That is a referral.’
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🏡 Stays Local — ‘Four in five house hunters are searching their own metro. That is still my business.’
👋 Until tomorrow, Agents.
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CURATED will be watching what the builders do with their margins.
CURATED for Agents
CURATED for Agents — the day’s real estate stories, and how the industry is reading them.
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