Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

Employees at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) feel safer, more valued and empowered in their roles at the department. This is according to the 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) that tracks the sentiment of federal employees across the government. “The FEVS, which is the largest annual employer survey in the country, tracks how federal employees view their current work environment, including workforce management, policies, and new initiatives,” HUD said in an

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

Patricia “Patti” Cook , who broke the glass ceiling in the mortgage industry during a successful 45-year career , died on Friday at her home in New York. She was 70 years old. Cook retired as CEO of Finance of America in June 2022 to focus on her health. She is survived by her three daughters, Kathleen Cook Suozzi, Colleen Cook Flannery, Annie Cook Carroll and her six grandchildren, as well as her sisters Laurie Bonello and Marybeth Solazzo. “Patti was not only a remarkable lea

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

Stubbornly elevated mortgage rates created more affordability pressures for homebuyers in October, according to ICE Mortgage Technology ’s November Mortgage Monitor report. In October, the monthly payment needed to purchase a median-priced home exceeded the $2,500 threshold for the first time ever. It now takes 40.6% of the median household income to afford monthly mortgage payments, making housing the least affordable it’s been since 1984.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Real estate agents are always looking for vetted, high-quality leads — and especially so during 2023 market conditions. One of the most efficient ways to acquire leads is to buy them through lead generation providers. These providers offer a rapid and cost-effective means for real estate agents to gather a list of potential clients and ultimately boost sales.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Pending home sales ticked up 1.1% in September despite significant affordability hurdles weighing on the market, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index rose to a reading of 72.6 in September. Pending homes sales mirrored the trend in new home sales , which posted a 12.3% increase in September.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Wednesday afternoon’s proceedings at the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit trial continued with more testimony from HomeServices of America executives. After appearing in a video deposition on Monday as part of the plaintiff’s testimony, Rosalie Warner, a corporate representative for HomeServices of America and its affiliates, was in the Kansas City courtroom in person on Wednesday.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Average mortgage rates on 30-year fixed home loans continued their march towards 8% this week as the Treasury yield surpassed 5%. Rates have been steadily climbing for seven straight weeks, the longest consecutive increase since Spring 2022, according to Freddie Mac ‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.79% as of Oct. 26.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 24, 2023

Insellerate , a CRM provider serving banks, lenders and credit unions, announced an integration with Finastra ’s MortgagebotLOS and Originate solutions on Tuesday. Thanks to this latest collaboration, lenders who use Finastra’s software will benefit from a seamless, fully integrated CRM as well as a marketing automation solution. “Finastra has a long history of delivering innovative solutions to its customers,” Josh Friend, CEO of Insellerate, said in a statement. “With this i

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 24, 2023

Livian , a real estate platform for expansion teams, appointed Thadious “Thad” Fisher as senior vice president of revenue, the company announced on Monday. In this new role, Fisher will uncover new growth strategies and sales processes, and expand Livian’s market center teams. He’ll also help agents boost their production. “I’m thrilled and honored to join Livian, where we are incredibly focused on our mission to partner with the most talented teams in the country,

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Online real estate market provider CoStar Group has sued former Homesnap founder Guy Wolcott and three others for allegedly stealing trade secrets related to its online information platform feeding its various marketplace products, including Homes.com and Apartments.com , according to court documents obtained by HousingWire. The filing of the suit was first reported by Inman News.

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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Over the past year, the pace of rent increases has cooled significantly , drawing the market closer to its pre pandemic levels. U.S. single-family rent increases in July 2023 registered a 3.1% year-over-year gain, down from 3.3% in June , CoreLogic’s latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) showed. The index , which analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas, dropped on an annual basis for the 15th consecutive month in July.

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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

As someone who worked for a large, nationally branded brokerage for 30+ years, I had a front-row seat to many mergers and acquisitions. I would love to say they all went well, but they didn’t. Back before iron-clad earn outs and claw-back clauses, I witnessed a time when two days after an acquisition announcement, the entire agent population walked out with the managers.

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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

The housing market faces renewed headwinds with mortgage rates settling above 7%. Still, the downside risk to home sales is limited as more sales are being driven by life events, according to Fannie Mae ’s Economic and Strategic (ESR) Group. “New home sales were surprisingly strong in the first half of the year, due partly to homebuilder rate buydowns , which become more expensive when mortgage rates rise,” Fannie Mae’s ESR group said in its latest commentary.

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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,283,000 in August, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s a 11.3% drop from the revised July estimate of 1,447,000 and 14.8% below the August 2022 rate of 1,505,000. On the bright side, permits for future construction recorded a 6.9% gain from July, indicating some builders might be more hopeful that things will turn around soon.

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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) presented its annual Ken Markison Legacy Achievement award to Michael Eising, a vice president and mortgage compliance manager at Merchants Bank of Indiana. The recipient retrieved his award Monday at the MBA’s Compliance and Risk Management Conference. The prize recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves in pursuit of the Certified Mortgage Compliance Professional (CMCP) certificate and designation program.

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Housing Wire

AUGUST 24, 2023

Mortgage rate shot up again last week as the bond market continues to grapple with a growing economy in the run up to the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Investors are concerned that the central bank will continue raising the funds rate, pushing borrowing costs even higher. For many, there is worry that the Fed may overtighten on the monetary front and lead to economic damage,” said George Ratiu, chief economist at Keeping Current Matters.

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Housing Wire

AUGUST 24, 2023

Soaring mortgage rates are taking a major chunk out of homebuyers’ budgets, according to a new report from Redfin. A homebuyer on a $3,000 monthly budget, for example, could afford a $429,000 home with a 7.4% mortgage rate, using rate data from August 23. That buyer lost $71,000 in purchasing power compared to one year ago when a $500,000 home would have been accessible to them with an average rate of about 5.5%.

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Housing Wire

AUGUST 24, 2023

Homebuyer affordability remained unchanged in July from June, according to Mortgage Bankers Association ‘s (MBA) Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI). The index measures how new monthly mortgage payments vary across time, relative to income, drawing from data from MBA ’s weekly applications survey. The national median payment applied for by purchase applicants was $2,162 in July, up $318 from a year prior but unchanged from June.

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Housing Wire

AUGUST 4, 2023

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Interior announced this week its plans to arrange the sale of federal land to the State of Nevada in an effort to spur construction of affordable housing units in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The arrangement, codified in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by both departments, establishes an arrangement to sell federal lands to the state at a rate of $100 an acre, far below the land’s market valu

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Housing Wire

AUGUST 4, 2023

eXp World Holdings faced headwinds in the second quarter, as persistently slow real estate sales drove the company’s revenue down 13% year-over-year to $1.2 billion, executives disclosed on Thursday. Despite the decline in revenue, the holding company for eXp Realty maintained profitability with a net income of $9.4 million, up from $1.5 million in the first quarter of 2023 and $9.3 million in Q2 2022.

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Housing Wire

AUGUST 2, 2023

Dallas-based Pinnacle Realty Advisors , the world’s pioneering Brokerage-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, is expanding into the California real estate market. The subscription-based cloud brokerage model, which started in Texas, will now be available to residential and commercial agents in California, ranking as the second strongest real estate market in the US, behind Texas. “We are proud to offer agents a platform that unlocks vast opportunities for single agents and teams seeking aut

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Housing Wire

JULY 24, 2023

By now, you’ve all heard the buzz about artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential impact on the real estate industry. While it’s certainly buzzworthy technology, it’s been met with reticence in the brokerage world. In a recent RealTrends BrokerPulse , real estate brokerage leaders responded that they are embracing artificial intelligence (AI), they are doing so cautiously.

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Housing Wire

JULY 24, 2023

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) looks poised to settle on the merger deal with Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) and Black Knight , Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) said in a note following the postponement of the preliminary injunction to August from this week. ICE and Black Knight’s agreement to sell its product and pricing engine unit Optimal Blue business leaves the FTC with a weak case as it remedies the remaining horizontal overlap cited in the FTC’s complaint with a com

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Housing Wire

JULY 17, 2023

Angelo Robert Mozilo, the founder of Countrywide Financial , died from natural causes this weekend, his family announced. He was 84 years old. Mozilo was a pioneer of the mortgage industry, though a deeply controversial figure. “Independent of how people outside of the industry may perceive this man, insiders know what an incredible force he was,” his son Eric Mozilo wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Over his span of 50 years, he dedicated his life to delivering the American dream

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Housing Wire

JULY 17, 2023

The real estate sector is constantly evolving, and one technology has emerged as a true game changer: virtual reality (VR). With its captivating and immersive experiences, VR has captured the attention of industry stakeholders, unlocking vast untapped potential. While VR has transformed various industries, it is in real estate where its impact truly shines.

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Housing Wire

JULY 14, 2023

loanDepot has named Darren Graeler as executive vice president and chief accounting officer. He will succeed current CFO David Hayes as the publicly traded lender’s chief accounting officer. The company will pay Graeler a base salary of $335,000 with an annual target bonus of 100% of base salary, according to a filing registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday.

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Housing Wire

JUNE 30, 2023

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2023-14 this week, which increases the threshold from $75 million to $120 million for multifamily loans to be considered large loans. This marks the first major increase to the threshold since 2014. The goal of the increase is to “enable a greater number of transactions to use standard underwriting processes when submitted for FHA Multifamily insurance,” the agency said.

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Housing Wire

JUNE 30, 2023

Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group is nearing an agreement to sell a portfolio of single-family rental homes to Invitation Homes Inc. The transaction would include roughly 2,000 homes and value the properties at about $400,000 each, one source told Bloomberg , which first reported the story. The deal hasn’t been finalized and may not go through.

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Housing Wire

JUNE 27, 2023

New home sales in May rose 12.2% from April, which marks the third consecutive month of growth. Sales of new single‐family houses came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 763,000, according to estimates released jointly Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 20% above the May 2022 estimate of 636,000.

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Inventory Construction Buyers Marketing 370

Housing Wire

JUNE 27, 2023

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Middle Class Borrower Protection Act of 2023,” legislation sponsored by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) that was designed to cancel controversial changes to loan-level pricing adjustments (LLPA). The LLPA changes were announced earlier this year by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The measure — which recently earned the support of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) — passed on a vote of 230-189, with the House Repu

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Mortgage Finance Design 370

Housing Wire

JUNE 13, 2023

Atlanta-based Equity Prime Mortgage (EPM) has decided to focus its investments on the wholesale channel amid the most challenging mortgage market in decades. This has resulted in the company closing branches and laying off loan officers on the retail side. “Wholesale is growing. It’s a shift that is happening in the market. And we’re just going along with the shift,” Eddy Perez, co-founder and CEO, said in an interview. “We still have retail, but we do believe that

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Retail Mortgage Loan Officers Landlords 370

Housing Wire

JUNE 5, 2023

The town of Newton, Massachusetts is working to comply with a new state law that requires the construction of new multifamily housing units in areas served by public transit, according to reporting from the Boston Globe. The law, which went into effect in early February, requires 177 communities served by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to eliminate barriers that could restrict the zoning and construction of multifamily housing units.

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Construction Law Transportation Government 365

Housing Wire

JUNE 5, 2023

Title Resources Group (TRG), a leading title insurance underwriter, announced on Monday that HomeServices of America , a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate and one of the nation’s largest residential real estate companies, has increased its ownership stake in TRG. This move further solidifies the partnership between the two industry leaders, according to a press release from the companies.

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Real Estate Insurance Agents Marketing 367

Housing Wire

MAY 30, 2023

Low housing inventory and still-strong demand kept prices high in March, according to the latest according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index , released Tuesday. The annual growth rate in March 2023 was up 0.7%. On a month-over-month basis, the index was up 1.3% before seasonal adjustment. This was the second month-over-month increase following seven consecutive month-over-month decreases.

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Housing Wire

MAY 23, 2023

Homebuilders , whose sentiment hit the midpoint mark of 50 earlier this month for the first-time since July 2022, have yet another reason to celebrate. The sales pace of new homes has also increased for the fifth consecutive month, according to data published on Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD ).

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Housing Wire

MAY 18, 2023

Just when I thought days on market were returning to normal, that number for existing homes fell back down to 22 days. Why is this so important to me? If the days on the market are at a teenager level or even lower, it’s never a good sign for the housing market. I would say it’s savagely unhealthy to have that level and even though we’re not there yet, we are dangerously close.

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Housing Market Marketing Mortgage Inventory 539

Housing Wire

MAY 9, 2023

California-based lender loanDepot was in the red again in the first quarter of 2023. However, margins and revenues improved in the period, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. The lender recorded a loss of $60.2 million in non-GAAP adjusted net income from January to March, compared to a negative $110.7 million in the previous quarter.

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