It depends on three things, and only one of them is about you. The appraisal, the title work, and the income verification method decide most of the timeline on any California second mortgage or HELOC.
Something just happened in the mortgage market that hasn’t happened in nearly two decades, and it confirms what a lot of California homeowners with low-rate mortgages already figured out on their own.
What the Fed did: The Federal Reserve held the federal funds rate steady at 3.50%–3.75% in its January 28, 2026 decision.