Tony Perri Jr. - Novus Home Mortgage

10/17/2026

With rates crossing 7%, what are buyers actually saying at showings right now? They’re not pausing. If anything, they’re pushing ahead.

Buyers on the ground, actually walking through properties, have largely already made the commitment to buy. They understand today’s rates are just what it is. But they are noticeably more cost-conscious than they used to be. The question that comes up constantly now is: what is this actually going to do to my payment?

That’s a real shift. A couple years ago, buyers mostly knew they were approved, knew their range, and the focus was simply what it would take to win the property. Now it’s two questions at once: what does it take to get this house, and what is that actually going to make my monthly payment look like.

This week’s episode, “Fore! 7% Rates Are Back,” breaks down exactly what buyers can do about that payment, including ARMs, seller concessions, and rate buydowns. Watch the full episode for the strategies.

📲 Mortgage: Tony Perri Jr., applywithjr.com | 630.284.9729 | [email protected] | NMLS #52423
🏡 Real Estate: Tony Mitidiero, eXp Realty, [email protected]

10/16/2026

Here’s why rates move the way they do, in the simplest terms possible.

If inflation is running at 4%, lending someone $100 today means getting paid back $100 next year, but that $100 is only really worth $96 once inflation eats into it. Investors understand that money today is worth more than money down the road, so rates get pushed up to make up the difference.

That’s the mechanism. The real question is what it means for the housing market right now, with the 30-year fixed just crossing 7% for the first time since January 2025.

This week’s episode, “Fore! 7% Rates Are Back,” breaks down exactly what’s happening in the market and the strategies buyers are using to navigate it, from ARMs to rate buydowns to knowing when a house is worth the stretch. Watch the full episode to get your game plan straight.

📲 Mortgage: Tony Perri Jr., applywithjr.com | 630.284.9729 | [email protected] | NMLS #52423
🏡 Real Estate: Tony Mitidiero, eXp Realty, [email protected]

10/15/2026

Want to know what’s really driving inflation right now? Watch diesel.

Most people drive gas-powered vehicles, so the price of diesel is one they rarely look at or feel in their own pocketbook. But it matters more than people realize. A recent cross-country motorcycle trip through Pennsylvania and Ohio during harvest season made that clear: all that farm equipment out in the fields right now runs on diesel.

Diesel costs ripple through everything, shipping, farming, production, and that’s exactly why it’s one of the clearest signals of what’s actually inflationary versus what’s just noise.

This week’s episode, “Fore! 7% Rates Are Back,” breaks down why the 30-year fixed just crossed 7% for the first time since January 2025, and what buyers can actually do about it. Watch the full episode now.

📲 Mortgage: Tony Perri Jr., applywithjr.com | 630.284.9729 | [email protected] | NMLS #52423

🏡 Real Estate: Tony Mitidiero, eXp Realty, [email protected]

10/14/2026

When a listing sits, everybody’s first instinct is to cut the price. That’s usually not the move that gets it sold.

A $10,000 price cut barely moves a buyer’s monthly payment. The same $10,000 in seller-paid concessions, put toward a temporary buydown, can drop their payment in a way they actually feel in year one. The payment is what’s keeping them up at night, not the sale price.

Novus put together a Buydown Playbook that lays this out properly: how seller-paid temporary buydowns work, side-by-side scenarios against a straight price reduction, and language you can use with both sides of the deal.

It’s worth saying plainly that a temporary buydown is temporary. The payment steps up to the full note rate after the buydown period, so the buyer needs to be comfortable with that final number, not just the first-year one. Done right, it’s a tool. Sold as a gimmick, it isn’t.

Here’s the playbook: https://www.novushomemortgage.com/buydown-playbook/

If you’ve got a listing that’s been sitting, or a buyer who keeps stalling on the payment, send it over and we’ll run both scenarios on your actual numbers.

Tony Perri Jr. | NMLS #52423 | Novus Home Mortgage, a division of Ixonia Bank, NMLS #423065. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Not a commitment to lend. Buydown availability varies by loan program and is subject to program guidelines and underwriting.

Explore seller-paid temporary buydown strategies, compare price-cut scenarios, and find practical tips for talking with buyers and sellers.

10/14/2026

Fore! The 30-year fixed mortgage rate just crossed 7% for the first time since January 2025, and buyers across Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana are asking the same question: do I wait, or do I play it where it lies?

In this episode, mortgage lender Tony Perri Jr. and real estate pro Tony Mitidiero break down why rates jumped after the Fed’s September hike and a record-setting run in the 10-year Treasury, what it does to your monthly payment, and the strategies buyers are using right now: adjustable-rate loans, seller concessions and rate buydowns, and knowing when a house is worth the stretch.

We also hit our rapid-fire “Big Deal / Not a Big Deal” round on what’s worth worrying about this week, and what’s just noise from the headlines. With the CPI report out on episode day and the next Fed meeting October 27-28, this is the right week to get your game plan straight.

No 3-putts, no panic. Just a clear read on the green.

Ready to run your numbers?

• Tony Perri Jr. (mortgage): applywithjr.com | cell 630.284.9729 | [email protected] | NMLS #52423

• Tony Mitidiero (real estate, eXp Realty): [email protected]

10/08/2026

Picking up where yesterday’s clip left off.

So what does buying that same house look like today? One just sold nearby for $280,000. Put the same 20% down, and the numbers shift fast. Property taxes on that house now run about $4,800 a year, a big jump from the original $1,400. Homeowners insurance comes in around $1,600 a year, with a brand-new roof already factored into that number.

Principal and interest on the monthly payment work out to $1,533. On its own, that’s actually less than Dad’s original payment. But once you layer in today’s taxes and insurance, things start evening out fast.

So who really has it worse, 1990 or today? This week’s episode, “Par for the Course,” runs the full side-by-side. Watch now for the final numbers. Link in bio.

Comment “PAR” if your parents had it just as hard.

📲 Mortgage: Tony Perri Jr., applywithjr.com
🛡️ Insurance: Adam Hage, adamismyagent.com

Tony Perri Jr., NMLS #52423. Novus Home Mortgage, a division of Ixonia Bank. Examples are for illustration only and are not a commitment to lend.

10/07/2026

In 1990, Tony Perri Sr. bought a brand-new 3-bed, 2-bath ranch. He put 20% down, landing a $72,000 mortgage at a 10% interest rate. Property taxes were fully assessed at about $1,400 a year. Homeowners insurance ran around $320 a year.

A 10% rate sounds brutal today. But once you run those numbers through the Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI inflation calculator, $632 in 1990 dollars comes out to roughly $1,661 today, using the official rate. Worth noting, that official inflation figure is arguably conservative, especially considering the roughly 40% inflation seen just since 2020.

So how does Dad's original payment stack up against a buyer purchasing that same house today? This week's episode, "Par for the Course," runs the full comparison. Watch now to see how it plays out.

Comment "PAR" if your parents had it just as hard.

📲 Mortgage: Tony Perri Jr., applywithjr.com
🛡️ Insurance: Adam Hage, adamismyagent.com

Tony Perri Jr., NMLS #52423. Novus Home Mortgage, a division of Ixonia Bank. Examples are for illustration only and are not a commitment to lend.

10/07/2026

Dad's first house payment was $782 a month. In today's dollars, that's about $2,056. A buyer today pays about $2,067 for the same house. Funny how that works out.

On the drive home from the lake with his dad, Tony Sr., and his son, Holden, Tony Perri Jr. ran the numbers on the 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,300-square-foot ranch in Peotone, IL that Tony Sr. bought in 1990 for $90,000 with a 10% mortgage. Adam Hage joins to explain why insurance nearly doubled. Interest rates dropped. Taxes and insurance rose. The result: Dad and today's buyer are almost dead even.

Comment "PAR" if your parents had it just as hard.

Tony Perri Jr.: applywithjr.com
Adam Hage: adamismyagent.com

Tony Perri Jr., NMLS #52423. Novus Home Mortgage, a division of Ixonia Bank. Examples are for illustration only and are not a commitment to lend.

10/05/2026

Final question: can I just let AI handle my whole mortgage process?

Do you really want to trust your biggest financial decision, likely the biggest one you'll make, to something that still hallucinates and gets things wrong? Probably not the best idea. And it's not just a judgment call either. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac explicitly say lenders are not allowed to use AI to make underwriting decisions.

This hits close to home too. A friend was recently using ChatGPT to calculate some income formulas, and the math simply didn't math. When he asked why, it admitted it made a mistake.

That's the gap between a generic AI answer and the real one. This is just one of the real buyer questions broken down in this week's episode, "ChatGPTee Time: How Much House Can You Really Afford?," comparing the Google/AI answer to the real one. Watch now for the full breakdown.

🏠 Mortgage questions: Tony Perri Jr., Novus Home Mortgage, applywithjr.com

10/05/2026

1 more day to register! 👀⏳

Tony Perri Jr. wants to invite you to Inside the Market with our CEO at Novus Home Mortgage, Eric Egenhoefer, on October 6, 2026. As the CEO of Novus and veteran leader in the mortgage industry, Eric has a firsthand view of the trends, challenges and opportunities shaping today’s housing market.

He’ll break down what’s shaping today’s housing and mortgage market and what real estate professionals like you should watch as you guide your buyers and sellers, helping eliminate the uncertainty that may be keeping them on the fence in today’s shifting market.

Register here for the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/.../WN_xWGOcsVbR5iJnHgOAVzZEA...
Date: 10/6/2026
Time: 10:00 AM Central