Housing Wire

JULY 10, 2024

With the release of the CoreLogic 2024 Q1 Equity Insights report, which Logan discussed last week , and now the FHFA National Mortgage Database Aggregate Statistics , we have a lot of visibility into the financial position of the American homeowner. The important message in the mortgage data is that even as the economy perhaps finally slows and even as mortgage rates stay higher for longer than anyone expected, the housing market remains buoyed by an incredible cushion of very strong borrowers.

Inventory 545

Inventory Housing Market Mortgage Marketing 545

Appraisal Buzz

JULY 10, 2024

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed new rules to simplify the process for homeowners to get help when struggling to pay their mortgage. “ Streamlining Mortgage Servicing for Borrowers Experiencing Payment Difficulties ,” if finalized, would require mortgage servicers to focus on helping borrowers, not foreclosing, when a homeowner asks for help.

Mortgage 447

Mortgage Home Improvement Government Investors 447

Real Estate News

JUNE 22, 2024

New York is one of only two cities where landlords can hire brokers and require renters to pay them. This may be changing — but not if the industry has its way.

Landlords 354

Landlords 354

Inman

JULY 25, 2024

New reports from "The New York Times" and "The Wall Street Journal" suggest that executives at Douglas Elliman and Side had heard about sexual assault allegations made against the Alexander brothers while they worked for their firms.

Agents 179

Agents 179

Eyes on Housing

APRIL 17, 2024

According to the latest What Home Buyers Really Want Study*, the vast majority of home buyers are looking for a home with at least one home office (or space dedicated to work/study). More specifically, 66% would prefer to buy a home with exactly one home office, 13% want at least two offices, and 20% want.

Buyers 217

Buyers 217

BiggerPockets

JUNE 13, 2024

Learning the art of rent collection is crucial for running a successful rental business. Implementing efficient, effective rent collection strategies can minimize stress, improve cash flow, and help maintain a positive relationship with your tenants.

Tenants 86

Tenants Business Property Management Landlords 86

Housing Wire

JULY 23, 2024

Sinking sales, rapidly rising inventory and prices at all-time highs — this is the state of the market for existing homes. That’s according to June’s existing-home sales data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which reflect the problems that have hampered housing markets since mortgage rates began to rise in 2022. Sales of existing homes in June fell 5.4% year over year and month over month to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.89 million.

Inventory 495

Inventory Buyers Sellers Inspection 495

Housing Wire

JULY 8, 2024

Since launching in late June, Ryan Serhant’s latest reality TV venture “ Owning Manhattan ” on Netflix , has become quite the phenomenon. Despite debuting on June 28, the show cracked Netflix’s top-10 most streamed shows in the U.S. for the week ending on June 30. The show stars Serhant, who is no stranger to reality TV, having spent a decade starring in Million Dollar Listing New York , among other shows, and several of SERHANT.’s agents and team leaders.

Agents 526

Agents Business Real Estate Investing 526

Housing Wire

JULY 1, 2024

In the game of housing crisis Rochambeau, we play with income, inventory, and policy. Inventory cannot beat inadequate incomes, but better compensation policies can. The labor market has reached peak disengagement rates, partially driven by historic strikes , resignations , non-participation , and silent quitting. By splitting the workforce into five income groups to view homeownership rates, we lay bare a cause for retreat from an increasingly unfair labor market – a system with four times more

Real Estate 526

Real Estate Government Inventory Housing Market 526

Housing Wire

JULY 19, 2024

Artificial intelligence has taken the real estate industry by storm over the past two years and Coldwell Banker is no exception. On Thursday, the Anywhere Real Estate brand announced that it had equipped its exclusive marketing platform tool Listing Concierge with generative AI capabilities. Through this update, the firm says the platform will now allow agents and concierge coordinators to automate the generation of listing descriptions, captions of images and property attributes.

Advertising 487

Advertising Real Estate Realty Technology 487

Housing Wire

JULY 23, 2024

Today’s existing home sales report shows that the existing home market is now almost balanced. That might sound strange, but like most things I do, I have a model for it. We are very close to getting this balance nationally and in some markets we’re already there. I have often discussed four months of supply and active inventory between 1.52 and 1.93 million as a balanced market, but this equation has a second variable tied to today’s housing economics: affordability.

Marketing 468

Marketing Inventory Housing Market Buyers 468

Housing Wire

APRIL 24, 2024

Two former New Jersey -based mortgage loan originators have been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger. Christopher Gallo has been noted as a top-producing loan originator, at one point being Scotsman Guide ‘s fourth-ranked LO in the country.

Mortgage 543

Mortgage Retail Finance Investing 543

Housing Wire

JUNE 5, 2024

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) this week announced the launch of a new program designed to allow for the purchase, refinance or renovation of manufactured housing under a loan program sponsored by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The Manufactured Home Community loan product will “will help entities to preserve, stabilize, and revitalize these vital sources of affordable housing,” the department explained.

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Government Finance Renovations Insurance 527

Housing Wire

MAY 30, 2024

Pending home sales sales dropped 7.7% in April compared to March as rising mortgage rates weighed on the market, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Year over year, pending transactions fell 7.4%. The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index declined to 72.3 in April, down from 78.2 in March. All four U.S. regions reported decreases on both a monthly and yearly basis, with the Midwest and West experiencing the largest monthly declines.

Real Estate Agent 528

Real Estate Agent Inventory Realtors Buyers 528

Housing Wire

JULY 17, 2024

International homebuyers purchased the fewest number of existing homes for any year since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) began tracking the data in 2009. On Wednesday, the trade group reported in its 2024 International Transaction in U.S. Residential Real Estate Report that the number of existing homes purchased by international buyers had fallen 36% year over year to 54,300 homes during the year ending in March 2024.

Buyers 484

Buyers Inventory Realtors Real Estate 484

Housing Wire

JULY 5, 2024

With today’s jobs report and all the reports we got during this jobs week, can we finally say the Federal Reserve is winning its war against the labor market? I believe the Fed won’t pivot until the labor market breaks. That has been my position since 2022 and we are starting to see some early signs of them successfully attacking the U.S. labor market in the past few months, something I talked about on a recent HousingWire Daily podcast.

Marketing 499

Marketing Housing Market Government Construction 499

Housing Wire

JUNE 11, 2024

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Tuesday issued a temporary fix that will allow homebuyers using VA loans to pay for their real estate agent’s commission — i.e., the buyer-broker fee. The change, a result of the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) commission lawsuit settlement agreement , was anticipated late last month and commented on by Michelle Corridon, the deputy policy director at the VA.

Buyers 517

Buyers Real Estate Brokerage Real Estate Agent 517

Housing Wire

JULY 25, 2024

Mr. Cooper Group has struck a deal to acquire a third-party origination (TPO) platform and $356 billion in mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), advances and subservicing contracts from Flagstar Bank , owned by New York Community Bancorp (NYCB). As part of the deal, the Dallas-based servicer and lender will pay $1.4 billion in cash, funded via available cash and drawdowns of existing MSR lines.

Business 450

Business Retail Contracts Mortgage 450

Housing Wire

JULY 24, 2024

While there is no doubt that the Florida housing market has slowed since the height of the post-pandemic homebuying boom, the state’s condominium market has been especially hard hit, according to local agents. “It has definitely slowed,” said Cyndee Haydon , a Seminole-based agent for Future Home Realty. “Inventory has gone from a three-month supply a year ago to at least six months, so really we are into a buyers’ market now.

Insurance 456

Insurance Inspection Marketing HOA 456

Housing Wire

JUNE 5, 2024

A report released Wednesday by Realtor.com shows that a key measurement of U.S. home values is growing faster that the more commonly viewed metric of listing price. The analysis revealed that, across the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, price per square foot rose by 52.7% during the five-year period ending in May 2024. By comparison, the national median list price for a home jumped 37.5% during the same period to its current level of $442,500.

Agents 516

Agents Home Value Buyers Real Estate 516

Housing Wire

MARCH 15, 2024

The National Association of Realtors has agreed to pay $418 million in damages to settle the commission lawsuits. The story was first reported by the New York Times. NAR’s legal counsel approved the settlement agreement early Friday morning. It has yet to be filed in court. Lawyers for the trade organization told the Times that they anticipate the settlement will be filed in the coming weeks, however it will still be subject to court approval.

Legal 540

Legal Agents Realtors Real Property 540

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Three sources, who have asked to remain anonymous, have confirmed to HousingWire that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has run out of liability insurance funds. The news about NAR’s insurance predicament began circulating late Wednesday , with industry analyst Rob Hahn highlighting the news in the Thursday edition of his email newsletter NotoriousROB.

Insurance 544

Insurance Realtors Legal Design 544

Housing Wire

JUNE 7, 2024

Home equity continued to rise in the first quarter of 2024 as residential properties with mortgages collectively gained $1.5 trillion in equity over the past year, according to a CoreLogic report released Friday. The average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage added $28,000 in equity during the year ending in March 2024 — the highest year-over-year increase since late 2022.

HOA 512

HOA Home Value Insurance Mortgage 512

Housing Wire

JULY 17, 2024

There is no escaping the reality that the recent NAR/Sitzer/Burnett settlements is already changing the real estate world as we know it. Amongst the most substantial terms of that agreement is a blanket ban on the requirement that agents subscribe to MLSs to offer or accept compensation for their work. There has been quite a bit of discussion already about how this will impact the traditional residential purchase.

Real Estate 473

Real Estate Agents Training Buyers 473

Housing Wire

APRIL 15, 2024

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not count buyer’s agent commissions as part of their allowable interested party contributions (IPCs), according to announcements from the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) on Monday. The GSEs noted that this guidance was not an update to their selling guides but a clarification on the treatment of seller-paid real estate agent fees.

Buyers 530

Buyers Agents Real Estate Agent Sellers 530

Housing Wire

MAY 21, 2024

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs will soon release a circular that “bridges the gap” on an agency law that prohibits a VA buyer from paying their real estate agent compensation, a VA official announced on Tuesday. Michelle Corridon, deputy policy director at the VA, announced at the Mortgage Bankers Association ‘s Secondary & Capital Markets Conference in New York that the circular would be issued between now and June 12.

Buyers 517

Buyers Agents Real Estate Agent Real Estate 517

Housing Wire

MAY 25, 2024

The mortgage rate lockdown premise holds that very few people will list their homes when mortgage rates are this high, thus suppressing inventory. But 2024 has proven that theory wrong. 2024 has had healthy inventory growth despite mortgage rates above 7%. Also, for the third time this year, I have hit my target of weekly inventory growth between 11,000 -17,000, thus leading to more inventory than we saw in 2023.

Inventory 514

Inventory Mortgage New Listings Marketing 514

Housing Wire

JULY 19, 2024

“A national secondary market for construction financing could allow lenders, like state housing finance agencies and banks, to provide the investment capital needed to get multifamily housing projects built and keys in families’ hands.” This is the conclusion of a new report published by the Center for Public Enterprise , a nonprofit organization that promotes the expansion of public sector projects.

Construction 466

Construction Finance Development Marketing 466

Housing Wire

JULY 26, 2024

Secure payment provider Payload is launching a new payment and billing tool specifically geared to buyer agents , according to an announcement on Thursday. In a release, Payload said it created the solution in response to the terms of the National Association of Realtors’ nationwide commission lawsu it settlement agreement , and the potential changes to buyer agent compensation.

Tools 428

Tools Buyers Agents Realtors 428

Housing Wire

MARCH 2, 2024

The mortgage rate lockdown premise says that if rates rise, inventory can’t grow meaningfully. The idea is that nobody will trade their low mortgage rates to buy another home — even though this happened every week last year. Of course, I have a different view. My podcast partner, Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler, disagrees, along with many others. You can see our debate on this topic here.

Inventory 534

Inventory Mortgage New Listings Housing Market 534

Housing Wire

JANUARY 20, 2024

Housing inventory, new listing data and mortgage rates are all rising, but the price cut data percentages are falling. Traditionally at this time of year purchase apps rise and the number of price cuts fall. However, at the current trend, we will break below the lows in the price cut percentage data that we saw in 2023 in the spring of this year. I will watch for rising mortgage rates to see if they change the weekly data.

Inventory 541

Inventory Mortgage New Listings Sellers 541

Housing Wire

JUNE 1, 2024

Mortgage rates have been a bit more volatile recently due to hawkish Federal Reserve statements and inflation data, which has impacted some of the recent movement in the 10-year yield. But now we have the big jobs week coming up! So, what does this all mean for the housing market and the future of mortgage rates? 10-year yield and mortgage rates As we approach a crucial week for mortgage rates , the 10-year yield and labor data could influence the Fed’s decisions.

Mortgage 507

Mortgage Inventory New Listings Housing Market 507

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.

Inventory 542

Inventory New Listings Housing Market Mortgage 542

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 17, 2024

Will mortgage rates break toward 8% again, making another 2024 data line that looks like a carbon copy of 2023? It’s not part of my 2024 forecast, but since the Federal Reserve likes playing with fire , let’s look at where we are with mortgage rates and their impact on weekly housing data. Mortgage rates and the 10-year yield The 10-year yield is the key for housing in 2024.

Mortgage 535

Mortgage Inventory New Listings Housing Market 535