Two national home price measurements landed inside twenty-four hours of each other and they agree. FHFA's House Price Index, which tracks purchase transactions on conforming loans, reported U.S. prices up 2.1% between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026, and up 0.3% from the first quarter. S&P Cotality Case-Shiller, which uses repeat sales across all price tiers, showed the national index up 1.5% year over year through June, accelerating from a revised 1.2% in May. Two different methodologies, two different sponsors, same direction — and the direction is up, modestly, with the rate of growth picking up rather than fading. That is worth more to your marketing than a bigger number would be, because a modest, corroborated, still-rising figure is the one your borrower will actually believe. Nobody trusts a real estate professional who says prices are booming. Everybody can hear "up about two percent, and here are the two indexes that say so."
Rates cooperated too, though not dramatically. Bankrate's 30-year conventional is at 6.70% this morning against 6.75% yesterday, which puts today three basis points off the 30-day low of 6.67% and below the 30-day average of 6.74%. Be precise about the longer arc when you write copy this week: the same series bottomed at 6.47% within the last ninety days and today's number is about seven basis points higher than a month ago. Rates have stabilized in the high sixes. They have not come down, and a borrower who checks Bankrate after reading your post will know that immediately. The genuinely improved number is the 15-year, down seven basis points to 6.07% — a full 63 under the 30-year, which is the widest useful lever you have for anyone whose goal is a payoff date rather than a lower payment. On a $400,000 loan, today's 30-year payment runs about $2,581 in principal and interest.
The tactical move this week is an equity statement, not a rate alert, and it is the highest-response piece of outreach available to you right now because it says something about the borrower's own house rather than about the market. Take anyone who bought twelve to thirty months ago, apply the FHFA year-over-year figure to their purchase price, and send them the dollar number with the index named. On a $400,000 purchase, 2.1% is roughly $8,400 of value over the past year — real money, verifiable, and completely unrelated to whether they want a loan from you today. That is what makes it work: it is a genuinely useful message from someone with no immediate ask. Cite the source in the message itself. "FHFA's national index, released yesterday" beats "our market analysis" by a wide margin with a skeptical audience, and it protects you if the borrower goes looking. Attach one line of optionality at the end — a note that a 15-year at 6.07% is worth a look if they have been thinking about payoff timing — and let them come to you.
pick twenty borrowers who closed between twelve and thirty months ago, run the FHFA 2.1% figure against each purchase price, and send all twenty a two-sentence text with their own dollar amount and the index name in it — no rate quote, no call to action beyond replying if they want the details.