👋👋 Good morning real estate watchers! Today, we are going to talk about how assumable mortgages are so rare that they make Bigfoot sightings look like DoorDash deliveries. And yet somehow, every suburban Florida homeowner over 65 has one. Coincidence? We think not.

But first, here’s what we’ve been paying attention to this week…

1️⃣ Leased and Confused: Despite an 8.5% rise in industrial leasing—driven by 3PLs and manufacturers—U.S. vacancy rates climbed to 6.6%, the highest since 2014. Net absorption hit a 15-year low as companies ditched older facilities, signaling a market in transition despite strong demand. (CBRE)

2️⃣Crash Course Denied: Despite cooling demand and rising inventory, experts forecast home prices will still increase 1.5–2% nationally in 2025. So no, this isn’t a housing crash—just a market finally taking a deep breath. (KCM)

3️⃣ Permit Me a Shift: While the top multifamily permit markets mainly stayed the same, momentum is shifting: Dallas and Houston ramped up activity, while New York, Austin, and Phoenix cooled off. The reshuffling signals changing investor confidence and development focus across major U.S. metros. (RealPage)

4️⃣ Reshoring: Texas is leading the reshoring charge with over 40,200 new manufacturing jobs, driven by massive investments from companies like Samsung and Tesla, while the computers and electronics sector dominates with 68,700 jobs across the top 20 states. (Globe St)

5️⃣ Zoning Reform: In a bipartisan effort, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz and Todd Young have introduced legislation that would require communities receiving federal grants to report on and potentially modify restrictive zoning policies that impede housing development, targeting barriers like minimum lot sizes and single-family zoning restrictions. (ConnectCRE)

TOP STORY

In the summer of 2024, Anthony Volpe didn’t expect to find a deal from 2021 hiding in a Florida suburb. But that’s exactly what he stumbled upon: a 2.75% mortgage rate (the kind most Americans now only whisper about like it’s an urban legend) attached to a modest three-bedroom home in Davenport, just outside Orlando.

It wasn’t a typo. It was an assumable mortgage. Assumable mortgages are like vintage wine. They’re hard to find, misunderstood by most Americans, and if you do manage to get one, you’ll spend the next 30 years bragging about it to people who absolutely did not ask.

Volpe, a semi-retired pharmacist, did what many might consider a real estate hat trick: he sidestepped today’s brutal 7% mortgage rates, inherited a sub-3% loan, and is now saving roughly $500 a month. “It’s giving us more breathing room.” And he’s not alone.

Assumable mortgages — the financial relics once relegated to housing textbooks and Ronald Reagan-era transactions — are suddenly back in fashion. With mortgage rates more than doubling from their pandemic lows, buyers and sellers alike are searching for ways to make homeownership remotely affordable again. And in some cases, the answer is hiding in plain sight: take over the seller’s existing mortgage, rate and all.

Roam, a startup founded to help buyers do just that, says assumable mortgages are sitting quietly inside the portfolios of millions of American homeowners. And most people don’t even know they have one.

“We should just take the mortgages that already exist at an average rate of 2% or 3% and transfer them,” Roam CEO Raunaq Singh told Business Insider. “You don’t need to, like, wave a wand and try to fire Jerome Powell or all these crazy things.”

According to ICE Mortgage Technology, roughly 12.5M mortgages nationwide are assumable, nearly a quarter of all outstanding home loans. More than 6.8M of those clock in at 4% or below, and 4.8M are under 3.5%. In a housing market frozen by the so-called “lock-in effect” (where homeowners refuse to give up low rates for today’s painful alternatives) these loans might be the key to unlocking both inventory and affordability.

A joint study by the Australian National University and the University of Queensland found homes sold with assumable mortgages fetched $20,000 more on average and sold faster than their non-assumable counterparts. That's a 5% premium for simply including a low-rate loan with purchase.

If this all sounds too good to be true, blame bureaucracy.

Despite being legally obligated to process assumptions, many loan servicers are notoriously slow and understaffed for the task. Their incentives don’t help either, as servicers make far more money originating new loans than processing assumptions (which are capped at around $1,800 in fees). Rob Wittman, a Redfin broker in D.C., summed it up bluntly: “Why can I get a new mortgage from scratch in, like, 10 days, but old money takes months?”

That lag has spawned a mini-industry of mortgage whisperers. Roam, for instance, charges 1% of the sale price to help buyers find and complete an assumable deal. The company even offers to cover the seller’s mortgage if the assumption takes more than 45 days to close.

Another startup, Assumable.io, helps buyers track assumable deals nationwide. Co-founder Ryan Carrillo, who used one himself, told Business Insider that he was able to “buy more house for the budget” because of the lower rate.

Assumable mortgages aren’t plug-and-play for everyone. You must qualify for the original loan’s terms, and in most cases, pony up the difference between the sale price and what’s left on the seller’s mortgage. That means cash or a second mortgage, which may come at today’s higher rates. But even then, the blended rate can be a bargain.

In addition to bypassing high interest rates, buyers often avoid paying for an appraisal, lender’s title insurance, or mortgage origination fees. That’s a few thousand dollars saved before you even move in.

The biggest barrier, experts say, is simply awareness. Most real estate agents aren’t trained on assumptions. Listings rarely highlight them. And buyers may not even think to ask.

“We’re so caught up right now in this part of the rate cycle,” said Singh. “Everybody’s like, ‘I can’t move because my rate is too good,’ or ‘I can’t move because rates are too high.’ But I just think that shouldn’t even be a conversation.”

Still, change is coming. Servicers are getting better. Platforms like Roam and Assumable.io are growing. And for those willing to put in the effort — or pay someone to — the payoff can be significant.

Because in a housing market where 7% mortgage rates are the norm, and inventory is locked tighter than a Manhattan co-op board, being able to borrow at 2.75% isn’t just a good deal, it’s practically science fiction.

Except it’s not.