Housing Wire

JANUARY 28, 2024

Housing demand is up and it’s time to track the spring housing data and see what the selling season will bring. As I always stress, we are working from the lowest bar ever with demand, so let’s add historical context to the data. But, even with mortgage rates higher this year than last year, demand is rising. Purchase application data As we get closer to the end of the first month of 2024, forward-looking purchase application data looks good.

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Inman

JANUARY 29, 2024

A buyer with a monthly budget of $3,000 can now purchase a home worth approximately $453,000 — up from $416,000 in October when mortgage rates reached a record of 7.8 percent, according to Redfin.

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Real Estate News

JANUARY 8, 2024

Kasper had been in the role for just over four months following the resignation of former president Kenny Parcell. Kevin Sears is taking over as president.

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BiggerPockets

JANUARY 24, 2024

Home prices have grown year over year through the last several months and show no signs of slowing down. Some markets have more momentum than ever and have emerged as early hot spots this year. Here's what you need to know.

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Marketing 85

Mortgagebroker News

JANUARY 29, 2024

Central bank notes initiative will help alleviate pressures on housing market

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Housing Market Marketing 84

Eyes on Housing

JANUARY 17, 2024

Mortgage rates well under 7% over the past month have led to a sharp increase in builder confidence to begin the new year. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes climbed seven points to 44 in January, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). This second consecutive monthly increase in.

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Inman

JANUARY 8, 2024

The National Association of Realtors' leader said she recently received a "threat to disclose a past personal, non-financial matter unless she compromised her position at NAR.

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Real Estate News

JANUARY 17, 2024

New York Times journalist Debra Kamin talked to Real Estate News about the response to her investigations, why her eXp story “hit differently,” and what’s next.

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BiggerPockets

JANUARY 31, 2024

Every four years, the SEC weighs in on accredited investor requirements. After loosening the requirements in 2020, more than 18% of U.S. households now qualify, making the SEC worry that there might just be far too much access to accredited-only resources. Here's what you need to know about the possible changes coming.

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Mortgagebroker News

JANUARY 24, 2024

Central bank makes eagerly awaited announcement on benchmark rate

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 6, 2024

Will the number of homes that take a price cut this year drop below 2023 levels? Yes! If the current trends continue into the strong seasonal pricing period, we will see fewer homes that are discounted before selling. I believe this was the most overlooked housing story of the last year because even as mortgage rates rose all the way to 8% , the home price cut percentage data was always about 4% lower year over year.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 18, 2024

Lights, camera, lawsuit! A copycat commission lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles. The suit, known as Fierro, after its lead plaintiff Gael Fierro, a Californian home seller, accuses the real estate industry of colluding to artificially inflate real estate agent commissions. It was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Patrick Thurber, a California home seller, is an additional named plaintiff in the suit.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 13, 2024

Last week, housing inventory grew and the number of price cuts fell, which is expected at this time of the year. I hope the next thing we see is housing inventory grow at the level it typically does in January or February instead of being delayed until March or April. Last year at this time, inventory rose week to week and I was hopeful for a typical spring inventory year, but the seasonal bottom didn’t actually happen until April 14.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 18, 2024

Mortgage rates continued their descent this week to mark their lowest level since May 2023, welcome news for homebuyers who have been waiting on the sidelines for rates to drop. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.6% as of Jan. 11, a decrease from last week’s 6.66%, according to Freddie Mac ‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey released on Thursday.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 23, 2024

Fifty-five percent of surveyed baby boomers plan to remain in their existing homes as they age, but less than a quarter of those surveyed have any plans to renovate their homes to more safely and easily accommodate natural changes that come with aging. This is according to a new report from home improvement services company Leaf Home and market research firm Morning Consult , which enlisted responses from 1,001 baby boomer homeowners (aged 59–77) and 1,001 millennials (aged 27–42) in late Decemb

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 30, 2024

The U.S. housing market has reached its least affordable point in decades and housing agencies have increasingly rolled out homebuyer assistance programs to tackle this issue. A total of 135 new homebuyer assistance programs were introduced in 2023, a 6% increase over the previous year. This brought the nationwide tally up to 2,294, according to Down Payment Resource’s fourth-quarter Homeownership Program Index (HPI) report.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 2, 2024

The “ silver tsunami ” — a colloquialism referring to aging Americans changing their housing arrangements to accommodate aging — could have more of an impact on the housing market this year, according to analyst Meredith Whitney in a conversation with Yahoo Finance. “[T]he other major demographic trend you see is the aging of America,” Whitney said.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 9, 2024

Among the numerous issues that retirement preparation can present to those near the end of their careers, long-term care (LTC) provides an increasingly common discussion point. One potential product that could assist in paying for LTC and its insurance could be a reverse mortgage, according to personal finance publication Kiplinger. LTC is already an expensive prospect and is projected to become a more common necessity as the U.S. population grows older in the coming years.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 8, 2024

Top-15 U.S. mortgage lender loanDepot confirmed Monday morning that it is the industry’s latest cyberattack victim. The incident has brought loanDepot’s systems down. The California-based lender, which originated roughly $17 billion in mortgage loans from January to September 2023, said it has launched an investigation with the support of cybersecurity experts.

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Technology Mortgage Insurance Business 509

Housing Wire

JANUARY 11, 2024

Inflation came in hotter than expected on Thursday, but we are still talking about rate cuts in 2024! The 10-year yield had a mild reaction to today’s data , increasing a few basis points early. It’s now at 3.98% , a far cry from 5.04% as we saw last year. This, while jobless claims data is still historically low. As I have stressed time and time again, when the market believes the Federal Reserve is done hiking rates, the markets make a big move lower with the 10-year yield and mortgage r

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Supply Chain Marketing Mortgage 501

Housing Wire

JANUARY 10, 2024

Despite an uptick in mortgage rates at the beginning of 2024, mortgage demand surged after adjusting for the holiday. Mortgage applications increased 9.9% for the week ending Jan. 5 compared to one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.62% as of Jan. 4, according to Freddie Mac ’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 5, 2024

Slowing job growth doesn’t mean a recession, but today’s jobs report tells me that the significant job gains we were accustomed to in the early part of the COVID-19 recovery period are ending, which ties nicely to how I thought labor would recover after COVID. Even though the headline number on the report today beat estimates, we are entering a new phase of the economic cycle, which means you need to know where to look to get clues for a recession.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 24, 2024

Fannie Mae has announced updates to its HomeReady product, including a temporary $2,500 credit for very low-income purchase borrowers to use for down payment and closing costs. Another step the government-sponsored enterprise took was to enhance the best efforts commitments on HomeReady loans. It allows lenders to lock in margins and reduce hedging costs.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 24, 2024

Mortgage demand continued to increase last week, as seen in an uptick in purchase activity. Mortgage applications rose by 3.7% in the week ending Jan. 19 compared to one week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, per the Mortgage Bankers Association ‘s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey. “Conventional and FHA purchase applications drove most of the increase last week as some buyers moved to act early this season,” Joel Kan , MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist, said in a st

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 9, 2024

In the ongoing struggle for attainable housing, one positive development has been the increased availability of funding options for homeowners seeking to incorporate Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) into their properties. A recent survey by Villa noted that some ~60% of rental tenants said that living in an ADU has allowed them to live in a neighborhood they would not otherwise be able to afford — that’s a big deal.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 12, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Co urt last week scheduled oral arguments for seven pending cases to take place in February, including one that will decide whether “the National Bank Act preempts the application of state escrow-interest laws to national banks,” according to a publication of the argument schedule and reporting at SCOTUSblog. The court will decide whether or not national banks will be required to follow state-level laws governing escrow accounts’ accumulation of interest.

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Law Mortgage Government Real Estate 475

Housing Wire

JANUARY 25, 2024

Homeowners in California now have even fewer choices in homeowners insurance carriers. The Hartford Financial Services Group , better known as The Hartford, announced Wednesday that it would no longer issue new homeowners insurance policies in California starting in February 2024. The firm noted that this change would also impact The Hartford’s joint homeowners insurance program with AARP.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 8, 2024

National Association of Realtors President Tracy Kasper has resigned following a threat made against her, the trade group said Monday. “Kasper informed NAR’s Leadership Team that she recently received a threat to disclose a past personal, non-financial matter unless she compromised her position at NAR,” NAR said in a written statement. “She refused to do so and instead reported the threat to law enforcement.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 17, 2024

Mortgage rates at their lowest level in three weeks led to an increase in borrowers’ demand for home loans last week, spreading some optimism in the industry in the first few weeks of 2024. To prove it, analysts are already discussing a potential refi recovery. Overall, mortgage applications rose by 10.4% in the week ending Jan. 12, compared to one week earlier, on a seasonally adjusted basis, per the Mortgage Bankers Association ‘s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey.

Mortgage 468

Mortgage Retail Investors Marketing 468

Housing Wire

JANUARY 16, 2024

Empty-nester baby boomers own roughly twice as many of the nation’s three-bedroom-plus homes as millennials with children, according to a report from Redfin published on Tuesday. The report is based on a Redfin analysis of U.S. Census data from 2022, that breaks down the share of three-bedroom-plus homes owned and occupied by each generation, by household type and size.

Inventory 469

Inventory Home Value Mortgage Buyers 469

Housing Wire

JANUARY 31, 2024

After months of plaintiffs’ lawyers in commission lawsuits claiming that the National Association of Realtors sets real estate agent commissions, the trade group finally decided to, in its words, “set the record straight.” In a video posted on Wednesday, NAR interim CEO Nykia Wright told viewers that, “the notion that the National Association of Realtors controls what real estate professionals get paid is wholly untrue.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 12, 2024

Despite the still-challenging rate environment, some homeowners might opt to bite the bullet and give up their low rate to move, according to a Redfin study. Nationwide, the share of homeowners with relatively low rates has fallen modestly from a record high of 92.8% in mid-2022. In the third quarter of 2023, 88.5% of U.S. homeowners with mortgages had an interest rate below 6%.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 26, 2024

The past three years in the mortgage industry were cutthroat, with origination volume shrinking, and while things are looking better for 2024 , lenders are still in a position where they must make bold moves to stem losses on the production side of the business, according to a report from Stratmor Group , a mortgage advisory firm. More than half of mortgage executives who participated in Stratmor’s recent survey indicated that they do not believe their companies have turned the corner to b

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 25, 2024

Data from research organizations and aging advocacy groups is clear: More older Americans want to age in place in their own homes, as opposed to living in dedicated care facilities. To get a better grasp on this preference, Chicago-based National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate station WBEZ recently featured a dedicated aging-in-place segment. WBEZ spoke with experts and community members about why more older Americans are opting to remain in their homes as they grow older.

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