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Car finance: What happened and how much compensation will be paid?
Millions could be entitled to compensation as a result of commission arrangements between lenders and dealers.
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An aerial view of homes in San Francisco, Aug. 27, 2025.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
The share of U.S. homeowners with high rates on their mortgages has jumped sharply in just the last few years.
That’s having a marked impact on the refinance market and a somewhat more muted impact on home sales. Rates have been front and center in the debate over how to improve home affordability — and for good reason.
In 2022, after mortgage interest rates hit more than a dozen record lows, sparking a refinance bonanza, barely 10% of homeowners had 30-year fixed mortgages with rates above 5%. Just four years later, that share has jumped to over 30%, according to ICE Mortgage Technology. About 20% of borrowers have mortgages with a rate over 6%.
Home sales have been less than robust over the last few years, with the National Association of Realtors reporting a historically low 4.06 million sales last year, basically unchanged from 2024. This, after hitting a 15-year high of 6.12 million home sales in 2022.
More recent sales, combined with some cash-out refinancing, pushed the share of higher-interest-rate borrowers up.
There has been a major focus by the Trump administration to lower mortgage rates as a way to boost home affordability.
The president recently announced a plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy more than $200 billion in mortgage-backed bonds. It is still a subject of debate as to how much lower that would push mortgage rates once the purchase is made, but just the announcement alone caused rates to drop a bit.
Industry experts say the actual purchases could shave perhaps about an eighth of a percentage point off the current 30-year rate, putting it right around 6%. Last year at this time, the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was just over 7%, according to Mortgage News Daily.
If the average on the 30-year fixed moved to 6%, 5.5 million current homeowners would be able to benefit from a refinance, according to ICE Mortgage Technology. Those homeowners could save at least 75 basis points on their rate, which makes the fees involved financially worthwhile, it said.
If rates dropped to 5.88%, that number grows to 6.5 million homeowners.
“The most popular interest rate that’s been used to buy a home over the last 3.5 years is between 6.875% and 6.99%, right? Nobody wanted to tell their neighbors they used a 7% interest rate to buy a home, so everybody bought down into this high 6% range,” said Andy Walden, ICE Mortgage Technology’s head of mortgage and housing market research.
“Coincidentally, those 15-basis-point-spread moves from this $200 billion in MBS purchase is moving rates from what would have been six and a quarter right now down to six and an eighth. And so it’s providing meaningfully more refinance incentive than would otherwise be out there, and it’s having an oversized impact on the market,” he said.
Applications to refinance a home loan are now about 120% higher than they were one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
As for home sales, the last four years were characterized by the so-called rate “lock-in” effect, meaning potential sellers didn’t want to give up their historically low rates. They therefore put off moves that they might otherwise have wanted to make.
Entering 2025, there were roughly 39 million homeowners with an interest rate below 5% and roughly 12 million with an interest rate below 3%, according to Walden.
“If you look at how those borrowers behaved last year, only about 6% of those folks gave up those low rates, either through a refinance to pull equity out of their home or through the sale of their home. Close to 95% of homeowners held on to those rates tight,” he said.
As for prospective homebuyers, a 15-basis-point drop on the 30-year fixed rate would save only about $35 a month on the mortgage payment for the average-priced home. Alternately, they could keep the rate and buy 1.5% more home.
“Certainly a move in the right direction, but not a massive movement for those homebuyers,” said Walden.
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Rail modernisation: Railways plans 260 Vande Bharat sleeper rakes; phased rollout with advanced safety, comfort features – The Times of India
The government has planned to manufacture 260 rakes of Vande Bharat Sleeper trainsets as part of efforts to upgrade long-distance rail travel with advanced safety systems and passenger comfort features, according to Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.The programme will be executed in phases covering prototype development, testing, trials and series production. The sleeper variant is being developed through a coordinated manufacturing effort involving BEML, Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai and technology partners.
According to the official statement, the “development of new rolling stocks like Vande Sleeper necessitates a holistic approach, combining technological innovation, strategic planning and manufacturing to ensure a safe, reliable and comfortable travel.”The government said induction of Vande Bharat Sleeper trainsets into passenger services will be carried out in phases based on demand and operational readiness.“The process involves development of prototype, extensive testing and trials followed by series production,” the statement said.The project is part of the broader push to enhance passenger experience while improving operational efficiency and safety standards across the railway network.The new sleeper trainsets are being equipped with multiple advanced safety and passenger-centric features.These include semi-permanent jerk-free couplers and anti-climbers, KAVACH safety systems, and crashworthy coach design complying with EN safety standards. The trainsets will have fire barrier doors, aerosol-based fire detection and suppression systems in electrical cabinets and lavatories, and CCTV coverage across all coaches.The trains will also feature regenerative braking systems for energy efficiency and higher acceleration with a design speed of 180 kmph and operating speed of 160 kmph.Passenger comfort upgrades include centrally controlled automatic plug doors, fully sealed wider gangways, centrally monitored coach systems, and air-conditioning units fitted with indigenously developed UV-C lamp-based disinfection technology to improve hygiene inside coaches.Special provisions have been made for Divyangjan passengers, including dedicated lavatories in driving coaches, along with emergency talk-back units for passenger communication with the train manager or loco pilot during emergencies.
Business
The Five-Minute Billion-Dollar Ride: How Mukesh Ambani And Larry Fink Birthed Jio BlackRock
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Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani and BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink engaged in a riveting conversation at the JioBlackRock event ‘Investing for a New Era’
Mukesh Ambani and Larry Fink at the Jio BlackRock fireside chat. Image/News18
In a high-powered fireside conversation on Wednesday, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink shared the remarkable origin story and the ambitious future of their joint venture, Jio BlackRock.
The youngest fund house in India has achieved a staggering feat: in less than six months since launching its first fund in mid-2025, it has crossed Rs 13,700 crore in assets under management (AUM) across 13 schemes.
The Five-Minute Car Ride Deal
The partnership, a $300 million equal joint venture between Jio Financial Services and BlackRock, was famously forged during a simple car ride in 2023.
“It was a conversation that we had in 2023, and it took me five minutes to say, ‘Larry, BlackRock should be back in India.’ And he said, ‘Will you partner with me?'” recalled Mukesh Ambani at the JioBlackRock event ‘Investing for a New Era’.
Larry Fink, whose firm manages a world-leading $14 trillion in assets, echoed the sentiment of speed and trust. “We had to go from point A to point B, and we accomplished it in that car ride,” the 73-year-old CEO remarked, noting that the deal reflected a “long-term optimism” for the Indian economy.
Democratising Wealth: From Savers to Earners
The conversation highlighted a massive shift in Indian household habits. The Indian mutual fund industry has ballooned nearly sevenfold in the last decade, reaching Rs 80.23 trillion by December 2025. Ambani emphasised that the mission is to unlock the “unproductive” savings of Indians.
The Opportunity: Household savings in equity and mutual funds rose from 2% in 2012 to over 15% in 2025.
The Goal: To encourage Indians to convert those savings into consistent earnings through accessible, tech-driven investment options.
BlackRock’s Strategic Bet on India
For Larry Fink, the partnership is about finding partners with the “guts to break the mould”. He stressed that BlackRock’s purpose in India transcends short-term returns.
“If I cannot put this money to work first for the betterment of society and as a byproduct I give my investors and shareholders returns, then I wouldn’t have done my job,” Fink stated.
BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein added that with India poised to become the world’s third-largest economy, the mutual fund industry—currently under a trillion dollars—is just at the beginning of its growth curve. To further this, the venture recently launched a digital advisory platform powered by BlackRock’s Aladdin technology, offering personalised investment advice for as little as Rs 350 a year.
With banking veteran KV Kamath predicting the industry will double again in the next five years, the Ambani-Fink alliance is positioned as the primary catalyst for India’s “wealth inclusion” era.
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February 04, 2026, 18:10 IST
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