Mon.Mar 31, 2025

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Rocket Companies to acquire Mr. Cooper in bombshell $9.4B deal

Housing Wire

Rocket Companies is buying Mr. Cooper , America’s largest mortgage servicer, in a market-shattering deal that could reshape the mortgage industry for years to come. The Detroit-based fintech , which is also in the midst of acquiring real estate brokerage and home search portal Redfin for $1.75 billion , is paying an equity value of $9.4 billion in stock, the companies said in a statement early Monday morning.

Finance 468
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Rocket to Acquire Mr. Cooper in $9.4B Transaction

Appraisal Buzz

Detroit-based fintech platform Rocket Companies has announced the acquisition of Mr. Cooper Group Inc. in an all-stock transaction for $9.4 billion in equity value. After the acquisition, Rockets combined servicing book will be worth a reported $2.1 trillion across nearly 10 million clients, or one in every six mortgages in America. Servicing is a critical pillar of homeownershipalongside home search and mortgage origination, said Varun Krishna , Rocket CEO.

Clients 407
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Florida’s housing affordability crisis is reaching a breaking point

Housing Wire

Florida’s long-standing reputation as America’s affordable sunshine paradise is rapidly dimming under the weight of skyrocketing housing costs, unsustainable insurance premiums and crumbling infrastructure, according to a new report from real estate analytics firm Cotality. The study reveals a state at a critical crossroads, with early warning signs mirroring California ‘s housing collapse that triggered a mass exodus of residents.

Insurance 385
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Fannie Mae Projects Mortgage Rate Drops on the Horizon

Appraisal Buzz

According to Fannie Maes Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group , mortgage rates are now expected to end 2025 and 2026 at 6.3% and 6.2%, respectively, downward revisions of three-tenths for each. Research from the ESR Group found that the lower mortgage rate outlook resulted in a small upward revision to existing-home sales outlook in 2025, though expectations for total home sales remain subdued.

Mortgage 435
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Leverage Trellis Court Data To Identify More Investment Opportunities

Finance teams find Trellis to be particularly effective in conducting comprehensive due diligence on both individuals and businesses. With our court data solution, financial experts can access critical litigation insights, making it an invaluable resource for informed decision-making in the financial sector.

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Home price signals continue to weaken for 2025

Housing Wire

There are three big trends in the spring 2025 housing market: Supply continues to build. This is measurable in both the total unsold inventory and the number of new listings each week. Because each week we have 815% more sellers than last year, the total inventory will continue to build unless and until demand shifts dramatically, which would require notably lower mortgage rates.

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Dominion Financial creates AI assistants for real estate investors, mortgage brokers

Housing Wire

Baltimore-based private mortgage lender Dominion Financial is joining the AI movement. On Monday, the company announced the addition of two artificial intelligence-powered assistants to help real estate investors and mortgage brokers. The digital assistants, dubbed “Harvey” and “Donna,” were built internally under the leadership of John McClelland, who heads the company’s artificial intelligence division.

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Experiences with Firearms as an Appraiser: When Tenants Behave Unexpectedly in “Their Area”

Appraisal Buzz

Appraisers often find themselves in a wide variety of settings and situations. I mean, we are entering peoples homes, somewhere that most people see as their comfort zones and a place they are not open to having a stranger poke around in. We as professionals understand this and usually try to make it as quick and painless as possible. There are those moments where it turns into a memorable experience and homeowners or tenants feel like they must make it known we are not welcome.

Tenants 301
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Rocket’s ‘Apple of homeownership’ flywheel is getting more complex

Housing Wire

Rocket Companies industry-shaking plan to acquire Mr. Cooper in a $9.4 billion deal comes just weeks after the Detroit-based lender announced its acquisition of real estate brokerage Redfin for $1.75 billion. Rocket CEO Varun Krishna and Mr. Cooper CEO Jay Bray who is slated to report to Krishna as the president and CEO of Rocket Mortgage told HousingWire in an interview that the merger is expected to generate $100 million in revenue synergies and $400 million in expense savings.

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Affordability Pyramid Shows 94 Million Households Cannot Buy a $400,000 Home 

Eyes on Housing

NAHB recently released its 2025 Priced-Out Analysis, highlighting the housing affordability challenge. While previous posts discussed the impacts of rising home prices and interest rates on affordability, this post focuses on the related U.S. housing affordability pyramid. The pyramid reveals that 70% of households (94 million) cannot afford a $400,000 home, while the estimated median.

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The Constructor's Digital Transformation Playbook: Reducing Risk With Technology

Speaker: Dylan Secrest

Construction projects are high-stakes operations where even minor inefficiencies can lead to costly delays, safety concerns, and budget overruns. Managing risk in construction has always been a challenge, but as projects grow in complexity, traditional methods no longer cut it. Enter Digital Transformation - a game changer approach that replaces inefficiency with AI-powered analytics, real-time monitoring, and automated workflows to proactively manage risk.

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Senior-held home equity falls in Q4 2024

Housing Wire

Following a rise to an all-time high in the second quarter, senior-held home equity saw a modest decline in the third quarter and endured a more severe drop in the fourth quarter. Homeowners 62 and older saw their collective home equity levels drop by 1% in Q4 2024 to a total of $13.95 trillion. That’s according to the latest edition of the Reverse Mortgage Market Index (RMMI), a quarterly report compiled by the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) in conjunction with data

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Rocket to Acquire Mr. Cooper for $9.4 Billion

Appraisal Buzz

Less than three weeks after announcing its intention to acquire digital brokerage platform Redfin in an all-stock transaction, Rocket Companies says it now plans to acquire national mortgage servicer Mr. Cooper Group Inc. , also in an all-stock transaction. The deal, if approved, is valued at about $9.4 billion, Rocket says in a release. The combined company will service more than $2.1 trillion in mortgages.

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UWM appoints Rami Hasani to CFO slot

Housing Wire

UWM Holdings Corp. , the parent of United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) on Monday named Rami Hasani as its new chief financial officer, effective April 1. Former CFO Andrew Hubacker , who took on the role in February 2023, will be moving into a new role as a senior adviser effective April 1, UWM confirmed. external reporting; financial compliance; tax, treasury and liquidity management; and budgeting and forecasting.

Mortgage 297
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MortgagePoint Announces 2025 Tech Excellence Award Recipients

Appraisal Buzz

MortgagePoint is proud to announce the 2025 recipients for the inaugural MortgagePoint Tech Excellence Awards, designed to recognize the most innovative technology providers in the mortgage industry. The MortgagePoint Tech Excellence Awards highlight companies that have developed cutting-edge solutions, improved operational efficiencies, and enhanced the mortgage process through technology.

Design 239
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Need Curated Pre-foreclosure Lists to Generate New Real Estate Leads? Trellis Has the Data!

Trellis is a state trial court research and analytics platform that provides Real Estate Professionals (Buyers, Foreclosure, Loan Modification, etc.) with LEADS on Pre-Foreclosures, Lis Pendes, Distressed Assets and more — to help uncover **new** opportunities and grow their business. The process is quick and easy — and all in real time. Trellis will supply you with a link to the relevant dockets, a Leads sheet and access to its UI where applicable.

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Gibson plaintiffs denied motion to intervene in eXp, Weichert commission settlements

Housing Wire

Plaintiffs in a high-profile commission lawsuit have been denied a motion to intervene in eXp World Holdings’ and Weichert Realtors settlement in a separate case. Plaintiffs in the combined Gibson/Umpa suit argued that the settlement agreed to by the brokerages in the Hooper suit is a sweetheart deal that’s meant to avoid harsher judgments than they might have received if theyd negotiated their settlements in the Gibson case.

Brokerage 312
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FinLocker to Cover Cost of Verifications

Appraisal Buzz

Verifications are one of the fastest-growing expenses in the mortgage origination process right now. In response, FinLocker , which offers technology that readies consumers to become responsible mortgage borrowers, is offering to cover 100% of verification costs for consumers using lenders FinLocker-powered apps. By eliminating verification costs at all stages of the mortgage journeyfrom pre-qualification and underwriting to final re-verification before closingFinLocker is helping the industry s

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California housing advocates seek exemption from landmark environmental law

Housing Wire

As much of the nation continues to reckon with critical shortages to housing inventory that exacerbate affordability woes, housing advocates in California are seeking to exempt homebuilding projects in urban areas from being subjected to a key climate law that critics say has slowed construction. Last week, a group of bipartisan lawmakers unveiled a robust package of 22 bills seeking to address the states housing woes.

Law 261
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ATTOM: Homeownership Slightly Less Affordable in Q1 Despite Home Price Slowdown 

Appraisal Buzz

Homeownership was slightly less affordable in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter, according to ATTOMs U.S. Home Affordability Report. The report shows that homes were less affordable compared with historical norms in 97% of U.S. counties with enough data to analyze. The latest trend extends a three-year pattern of homeownership requiring historically large portions of wages as U.S. home prices stay at or near record levels, ATTOM says.

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Agent mobility continues to slow as recruitment season begins

Housing Wire

The latest data through February 2025 shows agent mobility dropping across all tracked measures, signaling an unexpected dip as the real estate industry heads into its traditionally active recruiting season. This continues a pattern of subdued agent movement identified throughout late 2024 and early 2025, reflecting ongoing caution among agents and brokerage leaders alike.

Agents 240
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Women, Wealth and Real Estate: How Shauna Skarin leads the way

Inman

Coach Melanie Klein profiles title industry executive Shauna Skarin and learns how she leveraged the power of real estate to create a space for herself in industry leadership.

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Compass clients solicit class action suit against NWMLS

Housing Wire

Amid a contentious industry debate on private listings, Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) President and CEO Justin Haag offered strong words of support for NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) and recent provisions to the rule. Now, a new website , called Washington Homeowner Rights, is soliciting NWMLS home sellers in Washington state for a potential class action lawsuit.

Clients 217
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EXCLUSIVE: Compass clients signal legal action against NWMLS

Inman

A new website soliciting plaintiffs for a possible class-action suit against the Washington MLS asks homeowners if they've sold in the state and seen "a price drop or significant days on market.

Legal 158
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Reverse mortgage software pioneer Jerry Wagner has died

Housing Wire

Late last week in an email update to its members, the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) announced that reverse mortgage software pioneer Jerry Wagner, founder of Ibis Software , died in February. Prior to embarking on his forays into the reverse mortgage industry, Wagner served as chief operating officer for San Diego Financial Corporation , at the time the largest bank holding company in that city.

Mortgage 240
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Zeckendorfs accused of ‘brazen fraud’ in $80M penthouse sale

Inman

According to the complaint, developers and brothers Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf of Zeckendorf Development, LLC allegedly rushed to close the deal before news broke about a planned 37-story skyscraper next door that would erase the penthouse's premium-priced park view.

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RentSpree, Docusign announce tech partnership for rental transactions

Housing Wire

RentSpree , a rental software provider, has partnered with Docusign to simplify and expedite rental transactions for real estate professionals, the companies announced Monday. The integration will allow agents and brokers to access RentSprees rental tools such as tenant screening, rental applications, payments and rent estimate reports through Docusigns suite of real estate products.

Tenants 202
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Agents report falling commissions. But that’s not their top concern

Inman

More agents say their clients are successfully negotiating lower commissions than they've traditionally earned, according to preliminary results from the latest Inman Intel Index survey.

Agents 129
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Frost-Lindner joins Christie’s International Real Estate in Utah

Housing Wire

The Frost-Lindner Team , one of northern Utah s leading luxury real estate groups, has joined Christies International Real Estate in Park City, Utah, the company announced. Led by Jamison Frost and Valen Lindner, the team has closed more than $1 billion in career sales and is known for representing some of the most exclusive properties in Park City.

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Judge rebuffs bid to transfer case over alleged eXp ‘sweetheart deal’

Inman

A federal judge in Georgia has rejected a bid to transfer a case against eXp Realty and Weichert to a federal court in Missouri over allegations the companies negotiated a sweetheart deal to resolve commission-related antitrust claims against them nationwide.

Realty 126
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Altos data licensing product relaunches as HousingWire Data

Housing Wire

HousingWires data licensing product is getting a makeover. The company announced Monday that it’s relaunching and rebranding that line of business from Altos Research to HousingWire Data, which will offer the proprietary dataset that Altos is known for. The data covers housing markets in 99% of ZIP codes in the U.S. Theres a reason the worlds top analysts and innovators use HousingWire Data, HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins said in a statement.

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NWMLS responds to Compass, blasts efforts to ‘gatekeep’ listings

Real Estate News

Countering criticism from Compass Robert Reffkin, the CEO of the Washington-based MLS said private networks are designed to benefit brokerages, not consumers.

Brokerage 258
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Judge faces another call to recuse himself over political donations

Inman

Gibson plaintiffs accuse Hanna Holdings of "judge shopping." Berkshire Hathaway Energy and Hanna Holdings say donations to Judge Boughs wifes city council campaigns are disqualifying.

Brokerage 113
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First Redfin, now Rocket acquires major mortgage rival

Real Estate News

Rocket makes $9.4 billion deal to buy Mr. Cooper and bring together the homeownership experience at scale posing a bigger threat to Zillows super app.

Mortgage 254