It's home improvement time
Marketplace Morning Report
Marketplace
4.5 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rates on 30-year mortgages fell again this week to an average of 6.27%, according to FreddieMac. That could boost consumer spending on home improvements in 2026, new research finds — and be driven by homeowners locked in with lower rates who recognize that an addition or coat of paint is less daunting than starting over in this housing market. Also on the show: a check-in on regional banks and a bite of a carbon fat croissant, from the latest season of Marketplace's "How We Survive."
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, listeners. Marketplace's Webby-winning Kids podcast, Million Bazillion, is back for an all-new season. |
| 0:07.2 | Hosts Bridget and Ryan are answering a whole new set of kid questions about everything from royalties and franchises to why the heck we have a $2 bill. |
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| 1:33.1 | slash go. Are regional banks okay from Marketplace? I'm Sabrina Beneshaw in for David Bruncaccio. |
| 1:42.0 | Markets are having a little bit of a freak out this morning over the health of regional banks in the U.S. |
| 1:47.5 | Salt Lake City-based Zions Bank and Phoenix-based Western Alliance Bank said some of their loans had gone bad due to fraud. |
| 1:54.3 | These were loans to investors who put money into distressed commercial mortgages. |
| 1:58.2 | Adding to the anxiety, J.P. Morgan, CEO Jamie Diamond, warned about |
| 2:01.9 | cockroaches in the economy, referring to bad debt. Mortgage rates fell again this week to an |
| 2:09.3 | average of 6.27 percent, according to Freddie Mac. Will that get more people to buy and sell homes? |
| 2:14.4 | We'll see. But spending on home improvement is expected to grow in the |
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