John Cassels

Home Price Growth Is at One-Third Its Pre-Pandemic Pace. For East Valley Buyers Who Have Been Waiting, the FHFA Data Finally Makes the Case.

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE MARKET INTELLIGENCE May 2026 5 min read The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported this week that U.S. home prices rose just 1.7% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to a year earlier — a pace that is one-third what it was at

A New Law Sets a $1 Million Home Equity Cap for Medicaid Long-Term Care. It Takes Effect January 1, 2028. East Valley Seniors Need to Plan Now

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE SENIOR PLANNING ALERT May 2026 5 min read The Budget Reconciliation Act of 2025, signed into law on July 4, 2025, changes how much home equity a senior can hold and still qualify for Medicaid coverage of long-term care. Starting January 1, 2028, the

Congress Is Going After Wall Street Homebuyers. For East Valley Buyers, the Real Competition Is Not Who You Think

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE POLICY REALITY CHECK May 2026 5 min read The House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act this week 396-13, with broad bipartisan support and White House backing. The bill's most politically popular provision would ban institutional investors that own 350

Why You Keep Getting Mortgage Offers in the Mail. And Why the Best Deal Is Never the One in the Envelope

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE CONSUMER INTELLIGENCE May 2026 5 min read If you own a home in Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, Eastmark, or Apache Junction, you have almost certainly received unsolicited mortgage offers in your mailbox. Refinance offers. Equity access offers. Cash-out offers. They

Most East Valley Buyers Who Are Not Buying Think They Cannot Afford To. The Data Says Most of Them Are Wrong

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE BUYER EDUCATION May 2026 5 min read The Community Home Lenders of America just published a white paper identifying homebuying literacy gaps as one of the defining barriers to homeownership in 2026. Their finding is pointed: the knowledge gap is not just a minor inconvenience.

Goldman Sachs Says You Will Need $2.57 Million to Retire. Most People Have a Fraction of That. Your East Valley Home May Be the Bridge.

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE RETIREMENT INTELLIGENCE May 2026 5 min read A new Goldman Sachs retirement survey projects Americans will need $2.57 million to retire comfortably by 2043. That figure reflects years of inflation driving up housing costs, healthcare expenses, and the basics of daily living. Households headed

Home Insurance Costs Finally Slowed in 2025. For East Valley Buyers, the Problem Is Far From Solved.

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE MARKET COST ALERT May 2026 5 min read For the first time since 2019, homeowners insurance premium growth decelerated in 2025. That is genuinely good news. The Rate Insurance 2026 Home Insurance Trends Report, analyzing more than 265,000 policies across 100-plus carriers, found

54,000 Combat-Wounded Veterans Are Losing Retirement Pay They Earned. The Major Richard Star Act Would End That. Here Is What Every East Valley Veteran Needs to Know.

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE VETERAN ADVOCACY May 2026 5 min read If you were wounded in combat and medically retired before completing 20 years of service, current federal law reduces your military retirement pay dollar-for-dollar by the amount of VA disability compensation you receive. In some cases,

You Spent Decades Building Home Equity in the East Valley. Here Is How to Make It Work Before You Run Out of Retirement

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE RETIREMENT PLANNING May 2026 5 min read Two-thirds of Americans aged 55 fear outliving their retirement savings. That fear is not irrational. Americans are living longer than any prior generation, retirement stretches further than traditional planning assumed, and the gap between what people have

Buyers Are Moving. The Data Just Confirmed It. And the East Valley Is One of the Strongest Markets in the Country

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE DEMAND DATA May 2026 5 min read While headlines have been dominated by rate anxiety, fiscal deficits, and geopolitical uncertainty, the National Association of Realtors just released data that tells a different story. Pending home sales rose 1.4% in April, beating expectations and marking

Congress Voted 396-13 to Address the Housing Crisis. Here Is What East Valley Buyers Need to Know Before They Get Excited

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE POLICY UPDATE May 2026 5 min read The US House of Representatives passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act this week by a bipartisan vote of 396-13. The White House praised it. Speaker Johnson urged the Senate to move quickly. If it becomes

The Listing Price Is Not the Full Price. New Data Just Changed How East Valley Buyers Should Compare New vs. Resale

TEAM CASSELS | EAST VALLEY MORTGAGE NEW CONSTRUCTION May 2026 5 min read A new Realtor.com analysis just put a precise number on something East Valley buyers in Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, Eastmark, and Apache Junction have been debating without data: how much does it actually cost to own