"At a Glance" Local Housing STATS and News 07/28/26

30-Year Fixed: 6.76%  |  15-Year Fixed: 6.31%

The daily 30-year fixed slipped to 6.76% and the 15-year to 6.31%, helped along by oil’s collapse. That is three straight days of easing.

The backyard is the new subdivision. Accessory dwelling units made up nearly 28% of all new home permits in the Bay Area in 2024, as California’s housing push turned side yards into build sites. Plenty of owners put them up to rent out and offset a cost of living that keeps climbing. If you own a lot here, that is a real equity lever worth understanding.

The other half of the story is who is not buying. One in three young Americans now lives with their parents, priced out of living alone. That is a demand problem with a long tail: millions of would-be first-time buyers sitting out for years, which eventually shows up as fewer move-up sellers too.

Today’s live board across our five focus cities shows 723 homes a buyer can actually pursue right now, including 55 brand new listings and 99 more coming soon. The full, always-updating ledger lives at harvrealtor.net/live-inventory.

Today’s Live Inventory (buyable now)

• Fremont: 277 available (210 active, 23 new, 44 coming soon)
• Hayward: 202 available (167 active, 18 new, 17 coming soon)
• Milpitas: 109 available (83 active, 3 new, 23 coming soon)
• Newark: 82 available (66 active, 6 new, 10 coming soon)
• Union City: 53 available (43 active, 5 new, 5 coming soon)

S&P 500: 7,413 ▲ 0.02%  |  DOW: 52,210 ▲ 0.51%  |  NASDAQ: 24,932 ▼ 0.18%

Amazon wants to put your phone on a satellite. It is seeking approval to launch 5,105 satellites for a direct-to-phone network, no cell towers required, chasing SpaceX’s Starlink, which already offers the service. The scale of that catch-up is the story: about 15,500 active satellites circle Earth today and Starlink alone accounts for roughly 10,200 of them (chart below).

Apple is having a moment: traders placed $590 million in options bets in a single day ahead of its July 30 earnings, and it has overtaken Nvidia as the most valuable company in the world at $4.9 trillion. In China, new memory chip maker CXMT jumped as much as 466% on its Shanghai debut.

US 10-Year: 4.62% ▼ 0.02%  |  Gold: $4,032 ▼ 1.0%  |  Silver: $57.53 ▼ 1.49%  |  Brent: $88.36 ▼ 8.7%

Tariffs are the quiet cost in everything. The average statutory rate sits near 10.2% across all goods, but it is wildly uneven by category (chart below). Steel and aluminum carry roughly 52.6%, about five times the all-goods rate, while semiconductors run 10.3%, automobiles 9.4%, food 5.7%, and pharmaceuticals 4.7%.

China said the U.S. agreed to cap a new set of tariffs on Chinese goods at 20%, though the two sides are still fighting over AI. The Fed meets today and tomorrow and is expected to hold rates steady, with inflation running at 3.5%, well above its 2% target.

Oil fell off a cliff. Brent settled at $88.36, down about 8.7% in a single session after the U.S. paused strikes on Iran and Tehran halted retaliation. Gold slipped to $4,032 and silver to $57.53 on a stronger dollar and Fed uncertainty.

Why a REALTOR® cares: steel and aluminum at 52.6% is not an abstraction. It is framing connectors, ductwork, roofing, and appliances, and it lands in the price of every new build and major remodel your clients are quoted.

BTC: $63,113 ▼ 0.91%  |  ETH: $1,873 ▼ 0.79%  |  XRP: $1.06 ▼ 0.84%

Crypto kept sliding, and the sector is trying on a new identity. With prices in a slump, many firms have pivoted to AI, and it has not rescued anyone yet: Strategy is down 81% from its November 2024 peak and the median decline across these companies this year is 43%. Security remains the sore spot, with Apple now being sued after users lost $1.8 million to a counterfeit wallet app. About $1.32 billion has been lost to crypto scams and hacks so far in 2026.

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.