SUCCESS

Back in May, I covered Bank of America analyst Tal Liani’s initial Buy call on ServiceNow (NOW) with a $130 price target. 

His core argument was that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the strongest tailwind ServiceNow has ever seen, not an existential threat to its business. The stock hit that target. Liani came back with a higher one.

On Aug. 19, Liani raised his price target to $150 from $130 while maintaining his Buy rating, according to a note shared with TheStreet.

His reasoning this time centers on three things:

Broad-based software multiple expansion;

Improving growth at select infrastructure names;

Easing concerns that AI would disrupt enterprise software businesses. 

Crucially, his fundamental estimates on ServiceNow itself haven’t changed. The re-rating is about sentiment catching up to reality.

That’s an important distinction. Liani isn’t saying the business got better. He’s simply saying the market was wrong to penalize it as much as it did, and is beginning to correct that mistake.

Also Read: ServiceNow Inc. Latest News and Stories

Why the AI disruption fear around ServiceNow was always overstated

The narrative that weighed on enterprise software stocks earlier in 2026 went something like this: if AI agents can automate workflows, why would companies pay for platforms like ServiceNow to manage those workflows? 

It’s a surface-level argument that sounds plausible until you look at what ServiceNow actually reported in Q2 2026.

More Bank of America:

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Bank of America spots ServiceNow’s overlooked AI advantage

ServiceNow’s AI annual contract value (ACV) crossed $1 billion during the quarter, according to its Q2 fiscal 2026 earnings statement. Agentic deployments of ServiceNow AI increased ninefold in just nine months, CEO Bill McDermott said in the same statement. 

The $29 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPO) grew 21% year-over-year, reflecting longer customer commitments and expanding partner demand.

Related: ServiceNow’s quiet $1B cybersecurity boom

My read is consistent with what I wrote back in May. ServiceNow isn’t being disrupted by AI. It’s becoming the governance layer that makes AI deployable at enterprise scale. 

The AI Control Tower, the partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft, Anthropic, and AWS — these aren’t defensive moves. This is clear evidence that the biggest AI spenders are running their deployments through ServiceNow’s platform.

McDermott’s framing was simple in the company statement, too.

With our AI Control Tower as the market standard, agentic deployments of ServiceNow AI increased ninefold in just nine months.

ServiceNow Q2 numbers that validate Liani’s original thesis

ServiceNow reported Q2 2026 results on July 22 that beat Wall Street expectations across every meaningful metric.

Key ServiceNow Q2 highlights:

Subscription revenues of $3.877 billion, up 24.5% year-over-year (YoY)

Total revenues of $3.987 billion, up 24% YoY

EPS of $0.90, above estimates of $0.86, MarketBeat reports

RPO of $29.0 billion, up 21% YoY

Current RPO of $13.20 billion, representing near-term contracted revenueSource: ServiceNow Second Quarter 2026 Results

The company raised its full-year 2026 subscription revenue guidance to $15.76-$15.78 billion, implying approximately 21% constant-currency growth, according to the same statement. 

Non-GAAP operating margin is projected at 31.5% for the full year, with non-GAAP subscription gross margin at 81%.

I’ve previously reported that ServiceNow‘s management targets approximately 100 basis points of operating margin and free cash flow margin expansion in 2027, with free cash flow margins projected between 35% and 37%. 

Those numbers don’t scream business under AI-disruption pressure. In fact, they describe a business compounding efficiently while growing its AI revenue to scale.

Bank of America raised ServiceNow’s stock price target to $150 from $130.Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The partnership ecosystem that keeps widening the moat

When I look at ServiceNow, what strikes me most about recent activity is the breadth of partnerships being signed. Second is how quickly the enterprise AI ecosystem is consolidating around its platform.

Anthropic joined as the first design partner for ServiceNow Action Fabric, connecting Claude directly to ServiceNow workflows. AWS Marketplace transactions surpassed $1 billion. NVIDIA deepened collaboration to extend agentic AI governance from desktops to data centers.

Microsoft integrated ServiceNow AI specialists into the Agent 365 ecosystem. Nearly all 50 U.S. states are now using the ServiceNow AI Platform for citizen services, achieving up to a 66% reduction in service desk costs, according to ServiceNow.

Related: ServiceNow CEO admits there’s a solution to AI’s biggest problem

That’s a company embedding itself deeper into the AI infrastructure stack from multiple directions simultaneously.

Tech Mahindra also announced an expanded multi-year partnership with ServiceNow on Aug. 20 specifically to accelerate enterprise AI from pilot deployments to production scale. 

The timing isn’t coincidental. It’s another data point suggesting that large technology services firms see ServiceNow as the connective tissue for enterprise AI deployment.

Why the stock’s underperformance creates the opportunity Liani is flagging

NOW shares are down 15.34% year-to-date and 27.16% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance. The S&P 500 returned 11.84% and 19.70% over those same periods.

That underperformance is the setup Liani is pointing at. A company growing subscription revenue at 24.5% YoY, crossing $1 billion in AI ACV, holding $29 billion in RPO, and trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 29.15 times is priced more conservatively than its growth profile suggests it should be, according to Yahoo Finance valuation data.

Related: Bank of America sees ‘great convergence’ across America’s two economies

The market spent months pricing ServiceNow as if AI would hollow out its business. The Q2 results showed the opposite. Liani’s revised $150 target reflects a view that the re-rating from that misconception is still in its early innings.

From where I sit, having tracked this name since May, the fundamental story hasn’t changed. What’s changing is the market’s willingness to believe it.

Related: Bank of America’s latest Nvidia alert is a must-read for worried investors

There’s a simple way to make a perfectly good investment portfolio feel like a failure: Compare it to something that did better.

Maybe the S&P 500 gained 20% while your portfolio was up 13%. Or international stocks suddenly took off while most of your money was invested in the U.S. Perhaps a friend tells you how much money he made owning a handful of technology stocks. Suddenly, earning 13% doesn’t feel so great.

This is benchmarking, and Wes Moss, a fiduciary financial advisor and host of Ask an Advisor on the Clark Howard Podcast, says it can be an especially dangerous mistake for retirement investors.

“Benchmarking is a dangerous retirement mistake because it feeds the phenomenon of always seeing something greener on the other side of the investment fence,” Wes says.

The problem isn’t looking at a benchmark. Benchmarks can be useful tools. The problem starts when you use someone else’s performance, or the performance of an index that doesn’t resemble your portfolio, to decide whether you’re succeeding.

Your Portfolio Isn’t the S&P 500

The S&P 500 is probably the benchmark investors hear about most often. And if you own a diversified portfolio, there will inevitably be years when you underperform it. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done anything wrong.

Imagine you’re approaching or already in retirement and have 60% of your portfolio invested in stocks and 40% in bonds. If the stock market has a huge year, you’re going to trail the S&P 500. Of course you will. The S&P 500 is essentially 100% stocks. Your portfolio isn’t.

Those bonds that held back your returns during the boom are there specifically to reduce volatility and provide stability when stocks fall. Comparing the two portfolios based only on their returns ignores why they’re constructed differently in the first place.

It’s like criticizing a minivan because it can’t keep up with a sports car. Speed wasn’t the reason you bought it.

There’s Always Something Doing Better

Even if you’re 100% invested in stocks, benchmarking can get you into trouble. At almost any moment, you can find an investment that has recently performed better than yours. Maybe it’s large U.S. companies. Then it’s small caps. Then international stocks. Then technology. Then value stocks. Then some individual company everyone seems to be talking about.

Look at 2026 so far. Through mid-August, the S&P 500 is up about 12%. That’s a good year by any normal standard. But small-cap stocks are up nearly 22% and emerging markets stocks are up more than 20%. So an investor who spent the last several years moving money toward the S&P 500 because it kept beating everything else is now watching two other asset classes beat it.

Our asset class returns quilt shows how routinely this happens. It ranks eight major asset classes from best to worst each year, going back decades. Whatever finishes on top one year is rarely on top the next.

Something will always do better than your portfolio. That’s not a flaw in diversification. It’s practically the definition of diversification.

If you spread your money among different types of investments, you know in advance that you won’t have all your money in the year’s best-performing investment. You also won’t have all of it in the year’s worst. The trouble comes when investors look at what’s winning and decide they need more of it.

Benchmarking Can Turn Into Performance Chasing

This is where an innocent comparison can become an expensive investing habit. You notice that the S&P 500 has beaten your portfolio for several years, so you move more money into the S&P 500. Then international stocks begin outperforming, and you wonder whether you should own more of those. Technology stocks soar, and your diversified index funds start to seem boring. This is the investment hopping Wes warns about.

“Instead of asking whether your portfolio is funding your personal retirement goals, benchmarking pulls you into a toxic loop of comparing your returns to arbitrary market indexes or hotter sectors you think you’re missing,” Wes says.

That comparison can create “a pattern of investment hopping that rarely turns out well.” The reason is simple. You’re usually reacting to what has already happened.

The investment you’re tempted to buy is attractive precisely because it has performed so well recently. Meanwhile, the investment you’re tempted to abandon may look unattractive because it has recently underperformed. You’re effectively looking in the rearview mirror and using it to decide where to go next.

What’s the Right Benchmark?

For most investors, the most important benchmark has nothing to do with the market. It’s whether your portfolio is doing what you need it to do.

Suppose your retirement plan assumes you need an average long-term return of 6% to support your spending without running out of money. Your diversified portfolio is producing returns consistent with that plan while taking a level of risk you’re comfortable with. Does it really matter that the S&P 500 did better last year? It might be interesting, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you should change anything.

A portfolio earning 6% when your plan needs 6% is doing its job. And a portfolio earning 12% while carrying far more risk than your plan calls for has taken on an exposure you never needed, which is something you’ll only find out about in a bad year. Your plan tells you whether you’re on track. An index tells you what a group of stocks did.

Don’t Let Someone Else’s Returns Ruin Your Plan

Investing would be considerably easier if we never knew how anyone else was doing. But that’s not the world we live in.

We see the stock market’s performance every day. We hear about the stocks that soared, not the ones that quietly lost half their value. Friends tell us about their winners. Financial headlines constantly remind us which investments are “crushing the market.” All of that makes it remarkably easy to feel like you’re falling behind.

But investing isn’t a competition to earn the highest possible return every year. Higher potential returns generally come with higher risk, and the portfolio that’s appropriate for someone else may be completely inappropriate for you.

Final Thoughts

Before changing your portfolio because something else is outperforming it, ask yourself two questions:

Is my portfolio appropriately diversified for my goals and risk tolerance?

And is it on track to provide the money I’ll need?

If the answer to both is yes, you may not have an investing problem at all — you may simply be looking at the wrong benchmark.

The goal isn’t to own whatever is winning right now. It’s to build a diversified portfolio with an appropriate level of risk that gives you a good chance of reaching your financial goals, and then have the discipline to stick with it when something else inevitably looks greener on the other side of the fence.
The post Are You Making This Common Investing Mistake? (Benchmarking) appeared first on Clark Howard.

After a second quarter of positive growth, Target is executing a turnaround strategy focused on merchandising, guest experience, tech acceleration, and store operations.

Scammers use many strategies to get victims to part ways with their money, and Social Security recipients are a common target.
Fake Social Security statement emails have become more common, with the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of the Inspector General warning of a “significant increase” in government imposter emails earlier this year. Knowing the common red flags can help you avoid becoming a victim.

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How the fake Social Security Statement email works
Some scammers send messages impersonating the SSA and claim that you can view or download your recent statement. The email contains a red flag right away because Social Security would never send an unsolicited link or download button that gives access to your statement.
The link will often lead to a fraudulent website that looks legitimate and asks for your login information. Then, once a victim provides that information, a scammer can get into their actual Social Security account and redirect benefits. It can also lead to identity theft, which can translate into additional losses if the scammer takes out credit lines under your name.
Scammers can find real government employees’ names and create fake documents to appear legitimate. While you can also check the sender’s email address for a slight misspelling or the wrong URL in the email, the best thing you can do is avoid clicking the link.

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The safe way to check your Social Security Statement
Instead of following the steps suggested by the potential scammer, head over to the SSA’s website and sign into your personal “my Social Security” account to review records and account information. That way, you go straight to the source instead of clicking what is very likely to be a fraudulent link in a scammer’s email.
Phishing isn’t limited to Social Security. Scammers will present themselves as other agencies and companies when attempting to steal your information. That’s why the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) advises against clicking links or downloading attachments in unexpected messages.
Phishing also isn’t the only Social Security scam. Threats of arrest, claims that your Social Security number will be suspended, demands for immediate payment (especially through an alternative method like crypto or gift cards) or pressure to provide personal information are common scammer tactics.
What to do if you clicked the link
You should report the scam to the SSA regardless of whether you clicked the link or not. If you clicked the link but did not enter any of your personal information, you should update your security software and run a scan for malware.
If you clicked the link and entered any personal or financial information, you must move quickly. Change compromised passwords and follow the FTC’s identity theft recovery process if sensitive identity information was exposed. You should also freeze your credit so a scammer cannot take out loans and credit lines under your name.
Be sure to monitor your financial statements and Social Security records to ensure there is no suspicious activity. While clicking does not guarantee your information has been stolen, it’s good to be cautious and know how to pinpoint scammers before you become a victim.

Menswear retailers have been recovering over the last six years since the Covid-19 pandemic, led by Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank owner Tailored Brands, which plans to open 20 stores by the end of 2026 and another 30 in 2027.

Tailored Brands had closed over 400 stores when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2026, but the retail operator has changed course with expansion. Smaller chains like Peter Manning New York plan to grow as well, despite filing for bankruptcy.

Men’s fashion apparel retail chain Peter Manning New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its business as it faces a lawsuit filed by a supplier, alleging unpaid invoices.

The debtor operates its Peter Manning Fit Shops at 933 Broadway in New York’s Flatiron district and at 1413 Wisconsin Ave. NW in Washington, D.C. The men’s apparel chain plans to open a third location in Boston in September 2026, a customer service representative for the retailer told TheStreet.

Peter Manning New York also operates an e-commerce platform on its petermanningnyc.com website.

In addition to the New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston locations, Peter Manning LLC holds a lease on a warehouse at 4014 1st Ave., in Brooklyn, N.Y., according to the debtor’s petition.

Peter Manning New York files for bankruptcy protection seeking to reorganize its business.Antonio_Diaz / Getty Images

Peter Manning files bankruptcy

The New York-based specialty men’s clothing chain filed its Subchapter V petition in the U.S. bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Aug. 19, listing about $138,000 in assets and about $3.1 million in debts.

Peter Manning New York’s largest creditors include its landlord 933 Broadway LLC, owed over $783,000; vendor Kam Caine Hong Kong Ltd., owed over $276,000; Shopify, owed over $247,000; 19-20 Bush Terminal Owner LP, owed over $230,000; and Lever Style Ltd., the supplier that filed a lawsuit against the debtor, owed about $150,000.

Lever Style files lawsuit

Lever Style filed a complaint against Peter Manning New York and the company’s owner and CEO Jeff Hansen in June 2023, alleging that retailer and Hansen owed the plaintiff over $1.14 million in unpaid invoices.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is still pending.

Debtor issues personal guarantee

Lever Style manufactured and delivered Peter Manning apparel from May 2018 through September 2022, but the retailer began having difficulties making payments on invoices, according to the complaint. To convince the supplier to continue fulfilling purchase orders, the CEO issued a personal guarantee of delinquent balances and any future balances owed to Lever.

Peter Manning on or around Feb. 22, 2023, stopped paying invoices related to its purchase orders, prompting Lever Style to demand payment of the outstanding balance from Hansen, according to the complaint.

The Peter Manning CEO allegedly refused to make payment in full on the outstanding balance, which resulted in Lever Style filing a breach of contract lawsuit demanding that Hansen pay the $1.14 million owed.

Offers its own clothes size system

The men’s apparel chain was founded in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2013, focusing on manufacturing high-quality clothes with a proper fit. Having difficulty finding an acceptable fit for typical small, medium, and large sizes, the company launched its own proprietary size system.

The size system consists of four sizes, ranging from Size 1: 5 feet, 1-inch and 105 to 120 pounds, to Size 4: 5 feet, 7-inches to 5 feet, 10 inches and 145 to 160 pounds.

The company also offers “broad cuts” from 2X: 5 feet, 2 inches to 5 feet, 6 inches and 130 to 155 pounds, to 4XL: 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches and 180 to 205 pounds.

Related: 54-year-old lawn and garden giant seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” may be a real contender for a Best Rock Song Grammy nomination — a field the rocker knows very well.

Sinner, 25, is the reigning Wimbledon champion and won the U.S. Open in 2024 before falling in last year’s final to Alcaraz.

Marvell Technology (MRVL) shares have been on fire this year as semiconductor stocks rallied on booming demand.

The stock is up roughly 195% year-to-date, helped by strong demand for AI chips, networking and data-center infrastructure.  This week, Marvell jumped more than 10% after expanding its custom silicon partnership with Alphabet’s Google.

The agreement could significantly increase Marvell’s role in Google’s AI infrastructure and comes just days before the chipmaker reports earnings on Aug. 27. Wall Street is already rethinking its expectations for Marvell ahead of the report.

Marvell stock closed at $251.01 on Aug. 20. SOPA Images / Getty Images

Google expands its Marvell AI chip deal

Under the recent expanded agreement, Google can buy up to 58.97 million Marvell shares at $206.58 apiece, representing as much as $12.2 billion in stock.

The agreement covers a broad range of custom silicon products, including AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, memory interfaces and near-memory compute products.

Related: Cathie Wood buys $22.3 million of surging semiconductor stock

Marvell said those products will “attach to the [tensor processing unit] ecosystem,” CNBC reported.

Google has previously relied heavily on Broadcom (AVGO) to help develop its custom AI chips, including its Tensor Processing Units. The two companies expanded their chip relationship earlier this year, but Google has also been adding suppliers as it pours more money into AI infrastructure.

Marvell’s relationship with Google had already caught Wall Street’s attention. Shares jumped in April after reports that Marvell was working with Google on new chips for AI inference workloads.

Citi raises Marvell stock price target before earnings

Citi sees more upside ahead for Marvell stock, raising its price target to $275 while maintaining a buy rating, citing “higher earnings expectations and valuation.”

Citi believes the Google deal strengthens the outlook for Marvell’s custom compute business and could help diversify the company away from Amazon, according to a recent research note sent to TheStreet.

Related: Jim Cramer sees trouble brewing for stock market 

“While we await further details from management next week, we view the expanded GOOGL agreement as a structurally positive datapoint for Marvell’s custom compute franchise,” Citi analysts said, adding that the deal signals that Google “intends to meaningfully ramp this program.”

But Citi doesn’t expect Marvell to replace Broadcom as Google’s core TPU supplier.

The firm believes the new opportunity is “likely an LPU (Language Processing Units) program, not a TPU program ramp in 2028.”

Citi also expects Marvell’s AI optics business to remain an important source of growth.

“We believe MRVL AI sales are being led by DSP optical business,” the analysts said.

Demand for optical connectivity has surged as hyperscalers build increasingly large AI clusters. Those systems require high-speed connections to move enormous amounts of data between accelerators and servers, creating another way for Marvell to benefit from the AI boom.

What to watch in Marvell’s next earnings

Marvell is set to report its fiscal second-quarter 2027 results on Aug. 27.

Three months ago, the company reported fiscal Q1 revenue of a record $2.42 billion, slightly above Wall Street’s forecast of about $2.40 billion to $2.41 billion. Adjusted earnings came in at 80 cents per share, in line with estimates of 79 to 80 cents. 

CEO Matt Murphy said Marvell was seeing “exceptional AI-related bookings” across AI optics, Ethernet switches, and custom XPU and XPU-attach products.

Marvell guided for second-quarter revenue of about $2.7 billion, plus or minus 5%, and adjusted earnings of 93 cents per share, plus or minus 5 cents.

Citi will be watching three areas in particular: the trajectory of Marvell’s Trainium 3 and Maia XPU programs, the growth potential of its AI optics business, and updates on its XPU-attach design-win pipeline following the Google agreement.

Marvell stock closed at $251.01 on Aug. 20. 

Related: Popular breakfast chain closes half its restaurants

“The public is going to have a harder and harder time accessing these benefits,” union official said.

Average mortgage rates today

Mortgage Type
Label
Rate
APR

30-Year Fixed
Most Popular
6.57%
6.61%

30-Year FHA
Lower Credit
6.08%
7.29%

30-Year VA
Military
6.15%
6.31%

30-Year Jumbo
High Balance
6.7%
6.72%

15-Year Fixed
Shorter Term
5.84%
5.91%

7/6 ARM
Shorter Term
6.21%
6.28%

HELOC
Home Equity
8.09%
8.09%

Home Equity Loan
Home Equity
8.21%
8.22%

Updated on 08/20/2026

Rate data provided by RateUpdate.com. Displayed by Mortgage Research Center, LLC, NMLS# 1907, Equal Housing Opportunity, Payments do not include taxes or insurance premiums. Actual payments will be greater with taxes and insurance included. Rate and Product details

Mortgage rates reversed course on Thursday and ticked higher. The rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan increased to 6.61%. Elevated rates are keeping many prospective buyers away from the market as the summer season draws to a close.
Key mortgage rate averages:

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.61% APR
The 30-year fixed-rate FHA mortgage averaged 7.29% APR
The 30-year fixed-rate VA mortgage averaged 6.31% APR
The 30-year fixed-rate jumbo mortgage averaged 6.72% APR
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.91% APR
The 7/6 adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 6.28% APR
The rate on a HELOC averaged 8.09% APR
The rate on a home equity loan averaged 8.22% APR

Mortgage rate trends
Mortgage rates dipped slightly after the Treasury Department announced it would increase its buyback of long-term Treasury bonds to stabilize the bond market and increase liquidity. The news pushed bond yields lower on Wednesday, including yields on 10-year bonds, which influence mortgage-rate movements.
While the move resulted in marginally lower interest rates, the move was short-lived. The factors applying upward pressure on rates — unresolved conflict in the Middle East, elevated consumer prices and a record-high national debt — are keeping rates locked in a tight range in the mid-6% range for now.
Which loan is best for you?
When shopping for a mortgage, you may be offered several loan options that will fulfill different needs. Here’s a rundown of the most common loan types you’ll find, and who they work best for.
30-year conventional mortgage: Conventional loans work best for borrowers who have a credit score above 620, have saved enough to make a down payment of at least 3% and are looking for flexibility in the type of property being purchased.
30-year Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage: FHA loans are good for first-time homebuyers, borrowers with less-than-perfect credit scores or those with a high debt-to-income ratio.
30-year U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loan: Specifically designed for active duty and retired service members, members of the National Guard and Reserves, and surviving spouses. Offers 0% down loan options, competitive rates and accepts less-than-perfect credit scores.
30-year jumbo loan: Good for homebuyers purchasing property that is priced above the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) conforming loan limit. In 2026, that limit is $832,750 in most of the U.S. but increases to $1,249,125 in high-cost areas.
15-year fixed-rate loan: Borrowers who prefer a shorter loan term and can afford to make higher monthly payments will pay less overall interest with a 15-year mortgage and pay off the loan faster.
7/6 adjustable rate loan: Good for a buyer who wants to lock in a favorable interest rate for a set period of time and either plans on selling the home before the interest rate starts, is willing to make a higher monthly payment once the rate becomes variable or is open to refinancing the loan.
Home equity line of credit (HELOC): A good option for a homeowner who wants to access the equity they’ve accumulated in their home and have an open line of credit to use as needed.
Home equity loan: Another option for a homeowner who wants to access their home equity and have the financial capacity to take on a second mortgage.

How mortgage rates affect affordability
The rate on your mortgage can make a big difference in how much home you can afford and the size of your monthly payments. That’s true whether buying your primary residence, an investment property or refinancing an existing loan.
Here’s an example. If you bought a $250,000 home and made a 20% down payment of $50,000, you would end up with a starting loan balance of $200,000. On a $200,000 home loan with a fixed rate for 30 years, here’s what you would pay:

At a 3% interest rate = $843 in monthly payment (not including taxes, insurance, or HOA fees)
At a 4% interest rate = $955 in monthly payment (not including taxes, insurance, or HOA fees)
At a 6% interest rate = $1,199 in monthly payment (not including taxes, insurance, or HOA fees)
At an 8% interest rate = $1,468 in monthly payment (not including taxes, insurance, or HOA fees)

Experimenting with a mortgage calculator allows you to find out how much a lower rate or other changes could impact what you pay. A home affordability calculator can also estimate the maximum loan amount you may qualify for based on your income, debt-to-income ratio, mortgage interest rate and other variables. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can also provide a range of rates offered by lenders in each state.

Current mortgage rates FAQs
What is a 30-year mortgage rate right now?
The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 6.61% as of August 20, according to Money’s rate data. Other rate surveys show 30-year rates averaging over 6.6%.
Can you get a 4% mortgage rate?
No, not under current market conditions. A 30-year fixed-rate loan is averaging in the mid-to-6% range as of August 20.
Will we ever see a 3% mortgage rate again?
It is unlikely that mortgage rates will fall below 3% in the near term, unless a severe economic downturn occurs. However, rates were averaging in the mid-3% range prior to the pandemic, so a return to that range at some point in the future is not entirely out of the question.
How much is a $300,000 mortgage at 7%?
The monthly payment on a 30-year, $300,000 conventional mortgage at 7% is $1,995.91, excluding taxes, insurance and HOA fees. Your actual payment will vary depending on your credit score, down payment, lender and location, among other factors.