Portland Mortgage Market Update — August 14, 2026

It was inflation week, and after last week's lackluster jobs reports mortgage rates turned the corner for the better when inflation came in right near where it was expected. Both the consumer reports (the CPI released on Wednesday) and the wholesaler inflation reports (the PPI release on Thursday) showed that for the most part, inflation is right where the Fed would want it to be without the oil crunch from the Iran War and tariffs. These weaker reports crushed odds for a Fed rate hike at their next meeting, with about 70% of the market betting rates will stay the same when the Fed convenes in September.

TALKING POINT! Social media is abuzz with news about portable mortgages, something I have never heard of being spoken of seriously until this week. Congressman Tom Kean (R-NJ) introduced a bill last week that would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allow homeowners to "port" their conventional loans to the next home they purchased, thereby keeping their low interest rate that they may have acquired during COVID. If you are looking for more details, there aren't many- the "Making Ownership Viable for Everyone" Act (M.O.V.E. Act) is literally just 25 lines long , with the bulk of it defining what a conventional loan is. Bottom line, if the bill goes through, Fannie and Freddie have 180 days to set up protocol for making this work. Then for each applicant that wants to "port" their mortgage to their next home, they would have 90 days to process the request. So best case scenario we have about 9 months before we can even think about capitalizing on this, but if buyer and sellers catch wind of it, it would be best to keep abreast and it might get some buyers off the fence who might want to make a move before this is viable.

Got a Condo lisitng? Fannie and Freddie just made your life a little more difficult. As of August 1, if the condo complex is greater than 10 units, it requires a full condo review now, full stop, which can be the death knell for certain struggling HOAs. The good news is I can pre-flight these units for you, making sure it goes through the review process BEFORE you sink time and resources in a condo's marketing, which would give you an edge in the market.