"At a Glance" Local Housing STATS and News 07/23/26

30-Year Fixed: 6.85%  |  15-Year Fixed: 6.29%

The daily 30-year fixed jumped to 6.85%, its highest since June of last year, and the 15-year rose to 6.29%. Rates have been grinding higher alongside oil and inflation worries.

Here is the twist: buyers are not all backing down. With rates up, plenty of sellers are trimming asking prices and more homes are hitting the market, which hands buyers real room to negotiate. The affordability math is still brutal, though. The ICE Mortgage Technology index suggests it would take about a 16% drop in home prices, a 19% jump in incomes, or mortgage rates back near 5% to get affordability back to normal, and none of those is coming soon. So the opportunity right now is less about cheaper prices and more about less competition and more willing sellers.

Today’s live board across our five focus cities shows 741 homes a buyer can actually pursue right now, including 48 brand new listings and 98 more coming soon. The full, always-updating ledger lives at harvrealtor.net/live-inventory.

Today’s Live Inventory (buyable now)

• Fremont: 282 available (221 active, 21 new, 38 coming soon)
• Hayward: 210 available (172 active, 18 new, 20 coming soon)
• Milpitas: 111 available (85 active, 2 new, 24 coming soon)
• Newark: 79 available (69 active, 2 new, 8 coming soon)
• Union City: 59 available (46 active, 5 new, 8 coming soon)

S&P 500: 7,498 ▼ 0.14%  |  DOW: 52,218 ▬ 0.01%  |  NASDAQ: 25,690 ▼ 0.57%

Stocks slipped as earnings season rolled on. The headliners reported after the bell: Google beat on profit but said it needs to spend even more on AI, Tesla grew sales while profit sank on heavy AI and robotics spending, and IBM missed and fell again on fears it is behind in the AI race. Their 2026 paths could hardly look more different (chart below).

Elsewhere, AMD said it will pour $5 billion into AI startup Anthropic, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia signed a deal to sell American nuclear technology to the kingdom, and EU regulators cleared the $110 billion Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger with strings attached.

US 10-Year: 4.65% ▬ 0.00%  |  Gold: $4,046 ▼ 2.1%  |  Silver: $57.90 ▼ 3.2%  |  Brent: $95.85 ▲ 1.85%

Retiring is getting more expensive. Fidelity now estimates a 65-year-old leaving the workforce in 2026 will spend an average of about $185,500 on healthcare in retirement, and this year’s estimate jumped roughly 7%, the biggest one-year increase in the series (chart below). Long-term care is not even in that number.

Oil kept climbing, with Brent crude up 1.85% to $95.85 on Middle East supply worries. The metals cooled off after a strong run: gold slipped back below $4,100 to $4,046 and silver fell to $57.90 as traders booked profits. The 10-Year Treasury held at 4.65%.

BTC: $65,779 ▼ 0.47%  |  ETH: $1,927 ▼ 0.29%  |  XRP: $1.14 ▲ 0.30%

Crypto drifted lower. The news was about the rules: a new Senate bill would bar the president and top federal officials from launching or endorsing any cryptocurrency, an update tucked into the still-unsigned Clarity Act. Separately, federal agents clawed back more than $25 million in crypto from scammers running fake romance and investment schemes, a reminder that if an online sweetheart is asking for Bitcoin, it is probably not love.

Disclaimer: The market data, rates, and information provided are for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always verify rates and data with your lender or financial advisor before making any decisions.