Buying a Home at a 2% Rate in 2026

By Joshua Holt

Meet Joshua, a licensed real estate professional and accomplished broker. As the forward-thinking leader of the Holt Real Estate Team, he has forged a strategic alliance with Keller Williams and PLACE to deliver on Our Promise.

What if we told you it’s still possible to buy a home in 2026 with a mortgage rate around two percent? It’s rare, it’s complicated, and it is absolutely not for everyone. We recently helped a buyer do exactly that, and the story of how it came together began with something as small as a business card left on a kitchen counter.

Here’s how it happened. Much of it came down to the right place, right time. We were representing buyers relocating to the Madison area for a new job, and we spent a day showing them a number of homes. At one of them, we did what we always do: after the showing, we left a business card on the counter. Our card happens to say Army Veteran on it, and that one detail changed everything.

The seller of that home saw the card, saw the word veteran, and reached out to their own agent with a question. Their home carried a VA loan locked in at a COVID-era rate of around two percent, and they wondered whether our buyer, also a veteran, might want to assume that loan, take it over, and keep that remarkable rate. That question started one of the more interesting deals we’ve worked.

What a loan assumption actually is. When a homeowner has a VA loan, a qualified buyer can, under the right circumstances, take over that existing loan rather than originating a brand-new one. You don’t have to be a veteran to assume it, but our buyer being one mattered because a veteran-to-veteran assumption lets the seller restore their own VA benefit, which is exactly why this seller wanted a veteran buyer. Right now, this is a very big deal.

This seller locked in their rate during the COVID years, when rates sat around two percent, and today’s rates are dramatically higher. Stepping into that older, lower rate instead of taking today’s can mean a difference of hundreds of dollars a month, potentially for the life of the loan. When people talk about buyers being locked out by high rates, this is one of the few doors that gets around it, but that door only opens under a very specific set of conditions.

Now the catch, and it’s a big one. When someone has owned their home for several years, they’ve usually built substantial equity, and homes have appreciated significantly since the COVID years. That creates a large gap between what’s still owed on the old loan and what the home is worth today, and the buyer must cover that gap in cash. It is not rolled into the loan.

On many assumptions, that gap runs well into the six figures, and for most buyers, that’s exactly where the dream ends, because they don’t have that kind of cash available. What made our situation work is that our buyers had just sold a home of their own and had the proceeds to cover the gap. That’s the piece that has to line up, and for most people it simply doesn’t.

Here’s the real lesson underneath the flashy rate. Even when the money lines up, these assumptions are slow, months rather than weeks, because you’re working through the seller’s existing lender and a full approval process, much of it outside anyone’s control. A deal like this only survives if everyone stays patient and communicative: our buyers, the sellers, both agents, and the lender, all rowing in the same direction.

This is where the right people matter most, and where an agent earns their keep. One thing we always make sure of for a selling veteran is a formal, written release of liability from the lender, so that once the buyer assumes the loan, the seller is genuinely off it and not still responsible if the new owner ever misses a payment. It’s a separate step from the entitlement piece, and it’s easy to overlook, but it protects the seller for years.

Our sellers happened to be relocating on a timeline that gave us room, so we negotiated something creative: our buyers moved into the home early, on an agreed arrangement, so the family could start a new job and settle in while the assumption worked its way through.

In a more rigid situation, or with agents who didn’t communicate, the whole thing falls apart. The rate grabs your attention, but the teamwork is what gets it done.

No, most people will not buy a home at a two percent rate in 2026, and we want to be straight with you about that. This story is really about something bigger than a rate. It’s about knowing every option, spotting an opportunity most people would walk right past, and having the relationships and patience to pull it off. That’s what a great agent brings you: the doors you didn’t even know were there.

If you’re buying or selling in the Madison area, especially if you’re a veteran, we’d love to talk through every possibility with you. Call or text us at 608-345-6594, email us at info@holtrealestateteam.com, or visit holtrealestateteam.com. Let’s find the opportunity that’s right for you.