Housing Wire

APRIL 22, 2024

Scott Wright and Steve Murray of RealTrends Consulting. (Photo Credit: AJ Canaria) Between inflation , an uncertain interest rate environment and legal challenges , the real estate industry is facing unprecedented challenges. While merger and acquisition activity has quieted amid the uncertainty, RealTrends Consulting’s Scott Wright and Steve Murray say now is the perfect time for firms to lay the groundwork for future deals.

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Housing Wire

APRIL 22, 2024

Last week, Keller Williams was named to an additional class-action lawsuit, which also takes issue with alterations made to the brokerage’s profit-sharing program. In the past few weeks, 12 agents formerly affiliated with Keller Williams — Jerri Moulder, David Bueker, Robert Hill, Kevin Ortiz, Edward Fordyce, Paul Davis, Penny Alper, Jana and Dennis Caudill, Eric Mendoza, Jack Levine and John Exnicios — took legal action against the real estate brokerage by filing a host of class-action lawsuits

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Housing Wire

APRIL 22, 2024

CoStar Group is continuing to focus on expansion. The firm announced Monday that it has acquired 3D scanning company Matterport. The Andy Florance -helmed CoStar purchased all of Matterport’s outstanding shares for $5.50 each, representing a value of $2.1 billion. Through the terms of the deal, stockholders will get $2.75 per share in cash and $2.75 in shares of CoStar Group.

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Housing Wire

APRIL 22, 2024

Tracey Velt and Glenn Sanford at HousingWire’s The Gathering 2024 (Photo credit: AJ Canaria.) Real estate executives disagree on many things, but nearly everyone agrees that the terms of the National Association of Realtors’ commission lawsuit settlement agreement , if approved by the court (a big if), would generate significant change within the industry.

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Housing Wire

APRIL 16, 2024

When they say housing leads the U.S. economy into and out of a recession, they’re correct, as housing starts fall into a recession and rise when we are recovering. Economic cycles follow a familiar pattern, however, each one is unique in its way. In 2022, many recessionary red flags popped up. However, after Nov. 9, 2022 , a critical recessionary data line changed as mortgage rates fell, new home sales grew, builders bought down rates and the cycle moved on.

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Housing Wire

APRIL 16, 2024

Mortgage rates posted a big jump last week after Wednesday’s release of a higher-than-expected inflation report. As a result, HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center showed the average 30-year fixed rate for conventional loans at 7.24% on Tuesday, up from 7.16% one week earlier. That’s roughly 40 basis points above the rate at the start of the year. At the same time one year ago, the 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.42%.

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Housing Wire

APRIL 16, 2024

Defendants in the behemoth Batton homebuyer commission lawsuit filed a ream of motions on Monday seeking to have the class-action allegations struck down and dismissed. The Batton suit consists of two separate lawsuits filed by the same homebuyer plaintiffs, alleging that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and several of the nation’s largest corporate real estate firms conspired to adopt and enforce anti-competitive rules applicable to the vast majority of real estate brokers, resulting

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Housing Wire

APRIL 16, 2024

Bellevue, Washington-based real estate investment firm Legacy Group Capital announced this week that it has acquired fintech company Rook Capital , a provider of home equity investment (HEI) products through its “Shared Value Investment” brand. Legacy is privately owned and terms of the deal were not disclosed. “As [HEIs] evolve and grow into a foundational component of the real estate market, the need to empower builders with a homebuyer-focused HEI is paramount,” Legacy said in its announcemen

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Housing Wire

APRIL 16, 2024

Bank of America (BofA) reported another quarterly decline in mortgage and home equity production in the first quarter of 2024. On Tuesday morning, the top-20 U.S. mortgage lender stated it produced a volume of $3.4 billion in first mortgages from January to March, down 12.5% from the $3.9 billion in the previous quarter and the same quarter of 2023.

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Housing Wire

APRIL 16, 2024

The judge overseeing the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit will not issue a final ruling on the HomeServices of America defendants just quite yet. In a filing on Monday, Judge Stephen Bough denied the plaintiffs’ motion for entry of judgement without prejudice, meaning that the plaintiffs could file another motion for entry of judgement in the future.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 13, 2024

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) signed onto an international climate declaration, described as “a foundational document for international cooperation that will enable progress towards a rapid, fair, and effective transition of the building sector to zero emissions,” according to a HUD announcement. Joining 69 other nations, the U.S. and HUD signed onto the Declaration de Chaillot during the United Nations (UN) Buildings and Climate Forum in Paris last week.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 13, 2024

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) will begin to cover the upfront cost of hard credit report pulls for its broker partners as it aims to expand market share. The new initiative will ease the impact of out-of-pocket expenses for mortgage brokers after the costs for credit reports increased this year, the company said in making the announcement on Wednesday.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 13, 2024

A decline in interest rates buoyed mortgage demand for another week. Mortgage applications increased by 7.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ending March 8, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association ’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey. It was the second increase in a row. “Mortgage rates dropped below 7% last week for most loan types because of incoming economic data showing a weaker service sector and a less robust job market, with an increase in the unemployment ra

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Housing Wire

MARCH 13, 2024

Boston-based U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris will allow the Nosalek commission lawsuit plaintiffs and MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) defendants to file a response to the Department of Justice’s statement of interest. In late February, MLS PIN and the plaintiffs filed a joint motion asking Saris for permission to file separate responses to the DOJ’s mid-February filing.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 13, 2024

Good news: The national economy is growing, unemployment is low and corporate revenues are up. For housing and mortgage professionals, however, these apparent boons spell trouble. They signal that economy is still running hot — or at least more than lukewarm — and that inflation may still need more cold water from the Federal Reserve to slow down. The cold water comes in the form of the Fed continuing its presently high federal funds rate, which indirectly produces higher mortgage rates.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 11, 2024

The fast-growing real estate firm The Real Brokerage just added to its agent count. Salt Lake City-based agent and team leader Dustin Brohm announced Monday that he and his teamerage , the Massive Agent Team , are leaving eXp Realty to join Real. Brohm and his team have been with eXp since 2018. The Massive Agent team has roughly 340 agents in 36 states and three countries, and Brohm said he expects roughly half of the team members to make the move with him to Real over the next few months.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 1, 2024

Thomas Cangemi is stepping down as president and CEO of New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) following the company’s disclosure of internal control deficiencies and a goodwill impairment of $2.4 billion. Alessandro DiNello, appointed executive chairman of the board on Feb. 6, will replace Cangemi, effective immediately. DiNello was the president and CEO of Flagstar Bancorp , a bank recently acquired by NYCB.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 1, 2024

Compass has added two top New York City agents, Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon, to its roster, the company announced on Thursday. The pair joined Compass after spending almost nine years at Douglas Elliman , where they were founding members of the sports and entertainment division. Postilio and Conlon are known for their roles on Page Six TV’s “Billion Dollar Brokers” and on HGTV’s “Selling New York.” They boast a celebrity clientele. “We look forward to

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Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs is still moving forward with its servicing purchase program, despite a hearing in the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs last week raising uncertainties about its future. “We’re still moving forward; we’re still working to get our program out for veterans. We do believe that it can save up to 40,000 veterans from foreclosure at this point in time.

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Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

Existing-home sales picked up in January as buyers took advantage of the lowest mortgage rates seen in several months. Existing-home sales rose 3.1% from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million in January, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Year over year, sales dipped 1.7%, down from 4.07 million in January 2023.

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Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Top 10 mortgage lender and servicer NewRez is restructuring its distributed retail mortgage business, which has resulted in cuts to regional and divisional managers. The restructuring also includes reduced compensation for loan officers, and sources said that many are seeking new opportunities at rival lenders. Nonproducing regional and divisional managers were let go on Wednesday as part of the restructuring, multiple sources told HousingWire.

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Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

For the past 12 years, HousingWire’s Tech100 program has recognized the industry’s most innovative and impactful technology companies that are continuing to bring long-awaited solutions to the challenges that mortgage and real estate professionals have struggled with for decades. The award uncovers the innovators that are unleashing insight with analytics, powering growth and efficiency with AI and automation, providing leaders and production teams the tools they need to accelerate.

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Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

In a bizarre turn of events, the National Association of Realtors posted, then removed before reposting, a video featuring the trade group’s interim CEO Nykia Wright “setting the record straight” on agent commissions. The video was first posted on Wednesday around 9 a.m. ET before being removed roughly two hours later. It reappeared on NAR’s website later in the day around 6 p.m.

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Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

The report on the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) book of business inside the Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund was another positive overall development for the program, with the estimated economic net worth of the HECM MMI at $15.368 billion, according to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Annual Report to Congress released in November.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 24, 2024

Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced this week the release of their “Mission Index,” updating or expanding their single-family social bond framework to better communicate the goals of the index to stakeholders and investors. The GSEs issued separate announcements and a joint statement. Freddie Mac updated its single-family social bond framework which includes refinements to its mortgage-backed securities (MBS) disclosures, “designed to further support unde

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 23, 2024

The top-ranked brokerage in the country by transaction sides, eXp Realty , is facing another lawsuit alleging sexual harassment at the firm. The suit was filed last Tuesday in a Nevada federal court by Reno-based real estate agent Misty Carter. In the complaint, Carter accuses former eXp team leader Chris Nevada of a variety of sexual harassment behaviors, including making sexual remarks in the workplace, offering to pay Carter for sex, “unwanted touching” and attempts at kissing, and sexually o

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Housing Wire

DECEMBER 28, 2023

In his 20 years in mortgage banking, no year has compared to 2023 in terms of difficulty, said Ben Cohen, Guaranteed Rate ’s managing director and a top-producing loan officer. “This is a lot different than 2008 where you needed a credit score and a heartbeat to get a mortgage. Now, you need to be very qualified in order to get a mortgage,” he said.

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Housing Wire

DECEMBER 10, 2023

Are big Wall Street investors really buying 44% of homes this year? The answer is no — not even close. Housing inventory is near all-time lows, but big institutional investors like Invitation Homes or BlackRock aren’t to blame. The 44% claim was made in the headline for a Medium article last week and then spread like wildfire all over social media. Congress has even jumped on the bandwagon, with Democratic lawmakers introducing bills looking to limit or ban hedge funds from buying single-family

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Housing Wire

DECEMBER 1, 2023

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Friday published a proposal that would require public housing agencies (PHA) to provide 30 days’ notice before filing an eviction notice in court for nonpayment of rent. PHAs with tenants in public housing and owners of properties participating in HUD multifamily project-based rental assistance programs would need to provide “written notification at least 30 days” before a court filing for an eviction due to rent nonpayment.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Bright MLS released its National Housing Market Outlook on Wednesday, which shows that affordability will remain the biggest challenge for homebuyers next year. Homebuyer traffic will increase in 2024, fueled by lower mortgage rates and more existing-home inventory. Home sales are expected to rise, as homebuyers will have more options to choose from.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Going more in-depth than a Fed meeting, our virtual Housing Market Update event provides you with the strategy-building insights needed to operate in 2024. It’s a savagely unhealthy housing market out there, and these economists unpack what that means for you. Register for the virtual event on Dec. 11 here. In a typical year, there are about 5.2 million sales of existing homes nationally and home prices rise by about 4%.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Mike Cagney’s financial technology firm Figure Technologies has taken another step to go public with its lending division, LendCo , hiring investment banks to coordinate the initial public offering (IPO), per a Bloomberg report. People familiar with the transaction told Bloomberg that Figure is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. for the IPO.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Fidelity National Financial (FNF) was attacked by a “cybersecurity incident” that led the system to shut down some of its network, the company said. FNF blocked access to certain systems, which resulted in disruptions to title insurance, escrow and other title-related services, as well as mortgage transactions and technology for the real estate and mortgage industries, according to a filing with the U.S.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Mortgage applications rose to their highest level in six weeks after the 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 7.44% last week. Total home loan applications increased 3% for the week ending Nov. 17 compared to the previous week , according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Mortgage rates for the 30-year fixed loan averaged 7.44%, falling 6 basis points in one week, according to Freddie Mac ‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

The housing market has not hit the bottom in existing home sales yet, Fannie Mae projected. With mortgage rates having previously soared to around 8% , existing home sales will likely decline further to bottom out in early 2024. The good news is that sales will rebound as mortgage rates are expected to decline, Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) group, said in its November commentary.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

While foreclosure completions remained relatively flat in October, foreclosure starts rose to 33,000, hitting their highest level in 18 months, according to the ICE Mortgage Monitor report. In October, there were 217,000 loans in active foreclosure , up 3,000 since September. However, this remains 25% under the pre-pandemic levels. The national delinquency rate fell three basis points to 3.26% in October.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Scot Rose , CIO at Class Valuation , to talk about innovation in the appraisal space and how the technology being deployed for appraisal modernization can actually protect appraisers. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Sarah Wheeler: You’re the chief innovation officer at an appraisal firm, and the appraisal space has not always been known for tech innovation.

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