Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Todays new home sales report beat market expectations, just like last weeks existing home sales report. However, a detailed analysis of the data explains why housing permits continue to remain at recession-level figures. Builders are struggling to get clarity on how many homes they can sell in this rate environment in the future. Without more clarity on mortgage rates , substantial growth in housing permits is unlikely.

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Appraisal Buzz

JANUARY 27, 2025

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) have released their new residential sales statistics for December 2024 , which found that sales of new single-family homes were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 698,0003.6% above the revised November rate of 674,000, and 6.7% above the December 2023 estimate of 654,000.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

New home sales continue to be a bright spot in a dismal housing market. The December report from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development shows new-home sales registering at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 698,000, good for a 6.7% rise year over year and 3.6% higher than November. Even better, new home sales for the calendar year 2024 are estimated at 683,000, which is 2.5% more than 2023 and the highest sales have been since 2021.

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Inventory Buyers Housing Market Construction 472

Appraisal Buzz

JANUARY 27, 2025

A report on the financial results for borrowers of cash-out refinance mortgages has been released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Credit scores for cash-out debtors first improved significantly before progressively declining. However, overall scores continued to be higher than they were before to the refinance. According to CFPB research, debtors frequently use the proceeds from cash-out refinances to settle other debts, especially credit card and auto loan debt.

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Speaker: Timothy Allsopp

Payment challenges often lead to delayed projects, financial bottlenecks, and strained relationships. With construction projects becoming more complex, outdated processes are no longer sustainable. By refining financial workflow, companies can improve cash flow, reduce error, and foster trust between stakeholders. Discover practical strategies for redesigning payment systems to overcome workflow challenges while creating a smoother, more reliable process for contractors and subcontractors alike.

Construction

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Recently, weve shared that the inventory of unsold homes is growing. In recent weeks, home sales also faltered in the face of 7% mortgage rates. Now were noticing some signals in the data that national home prices could turn negative this spring, showing year-over-year home-price declines for the first time since early 2023. There are already plenty of markets nationwide where the inventory of unsold homes has built up over the past few years and home prices have ticked down.

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Inventory Sellers New Listings Contracts 393

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) this month published an issue spotlight that takes a closer look at home equity contracts, or what the industry refers to as home equity investments (HEIs) that offer a lump sum payment to clients in exchange for a stake in their home equity. At the time the contract is settled, the homeowner must pay a lump sum back to the provider, an amount that is also partially based on the homes value.

Contracts 370

Contracts Mortgage Property Taxes Law 370

Appraisal Buzz

JANUARY 27, 2025

Whilescheduled foreclosure auctions slightly increased from a two-year low in the previous quarter, the supply of properties available to purchase at foreclosure auction fell to a three-year low in Q4 of 2024. This suggests that completed foreclosure auctions may also slightly increase in Q1 of 2025, according to new Auction.com data. Although interest for properties up for foreclosure and bank-owned (REO) auctions declined overall in Q4, continuing a downward trend that began late in the second

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Home negotiations technology platform Indigo just received a large investment to expand its operations in 2025. The company announced this week that it secured $8 million in funding to offer better insights and cohesiveness to real estate agents. Pete Flint at venture capital firm NFX , Clelia Warburg Peters at Era Ventures and Paul Irving at GTMfund led the seed round along with contributions from 1Sharpe Ventures and Jake Seid.

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Real Estate Real Estate Agent Agents Brokerage 369

Appraisal Buzz

JANUARY 27, 2025

Home prices might be coming down, but theyre still pretty steep in many areas. So it would be normal to wonder if other types of housing, such as mobile homes, are more affordable or even cheap. Unfortunately, per a new report by LendingTree , that is not the case. As home prices have dropped, mobile home prices have risen. LendingTrees latest analysis of U.S.

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Transportation Design Government Finance 221

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Real Estate

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Consumers who chose to take out a cash-out refinance largely used the loans proceeds for paying down existing debts, with notable impacts on credit card and auto loan balances as well as credit utilization rates. Cash-out borrowers also saw increases in their credit scores on average, while scores for non-cash-out borrowers decreased. This is according to a recent report published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which is based on data from the National Mortgage Database (NMDB

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Mortgage 369

Real Estate News

JANUARY 27, 2025

Less stringent requirements for consumer contact will stay in place for a year, FCC says, as it delays TCPA changes that wouldve required one-to-one consent.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Have a seat and buckle in. The real estate industry is already in a whirlwind and the year has barely kicked off. To put it simply, the industry appears to be in its rapid evolution era. What does this look like? Firstly, real estate professionals are facing an unyielding storm of new challenges. For example, changing agent commission guidelines and emerging lead contact regulations are keeping professionals up at night.

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Real Estate Clients Technology Agents 370

Real Estate News

JANUARY 27, 2025

Sales were up at the end of 2024, and for the full year, increased by 2.5% over 2023 in contrast to existing home sales, which fell short of 2023 numbers.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Interest rates have risen from their record lows, housing inventory is tight and more homeowners are staying in their current properties, which means it is more important than ever for servicers to retain the customers they have. To help servicers boost retention and recapture strategies, ICE offers a mobile and web-based solution called Servicing Digital.

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Tools Technology Valuation Insurance 369

Appraisal Buzz

JANUARY 27, 2025

Profit margins for home sellers decreased in 2024 compared with 2023, despite rising home prices, a report from ATTOM shows. Home sellers made a $122,500 profit on typical sales nationwide last year, generating a 53.8% return on investment. Thats down from 56.9% from 2023, according to ATTOMs Year-End 2024 U.S. Home Sales Report. The dip in returns comes even as the national median home price climbed to $350,000.

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Sellers Housing Market Investing Appraisal 195

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Real estate agents are in the clear when it comes to dealing with changes to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) thanks to a last-minute ruling by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday night. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) first established that companies and individuals sending marketing calls or texts must have prior express written consent before issuing a call or a text in 2012.

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Real Estate Agent Real Estate Insurance Agents 338

Appraisal Buzz

JANUARY 27, 2025

New home sales in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 698,000, an increase of 3.6% compared with November and an increase of 6.7% compared with December 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. An estimated 683,000 new homes were sold in 2024, an increase of 2.5% compared with 2023. The median sales price of a new home sold in December was $427,000.

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Construction Inventory Appraisal 195

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Members of the U.S. home remodeling industry report that while market conditions are stalling larger-scale remodeling projects, consumers seeking remodeling work are focused on efforts that could serve to increase home values and to future-proof homes for later life and aging in place. This is according to a report at Kitchen & Bath Design News , based on a quarterly gauge of market conditions compiled by one of the outlets sister publications.

Renovations 359

Renovations Design Home Value Realtors 359

Appraisal Buzz

JANUARY 27, 2025

The national mortgage delinquency rate stood at 3.72% in December, a decrease of 0.60% compared with November but up 4.02% compared with December 2023, according to ICE Mortgage Technologys latest First Look report. As of the end of the month, there were about 2.016 million mortgages 30 days or more past due but not in foreclosure, a decrease of about 11,000 compared with the previous month but up 108,000 compared with a year ago.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

In this week’s episode of the RealTrending podcast , host Tracey Velt sits down with RealTrends founder Steve Murray. The duo explore the current state of mergers and acquisitions, team-based brokerage models, commission compression, and growth opportunities for agents and brokers. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To start the conversation, Velt and Murray dive into the current state of mergers and acquisitions in the real estate industry.

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Brokerage Agents Valuation Real Estate 360

George Dell

JANUARY 27, 2025

Time adjustments are now required by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Time adjustments were previously required when necessary. Now a market conditions adjustment isrequired on every appraisal. This means that even if personal judgment says the subject market is stable, ananalysis must be performedto arrive at the zero adjustment conclusion. An FHFA (Federal Housing Finance […] The post What Time is It?

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Finance Appraisal Marketing Valuation 195

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) and News Corp., along with several of its subsidiaries such as Move , Realtors Information Network and OpCity , are looking to have the Bandy fraud suit dismissed. Filed in U.S. District Court in California in August 2024 by 13 real estate professionals, the suit is seeking class-action status and alleges that Move made misrepresentations regarding the quality of the leads provided to Connections Plus subscribers.

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Realtors Legal Law Real Estate 376

Inman

JANUARY 27, 2025

Sixty-nine percent of agents since 2020 have recommended their sellers list on a private listing network. However, sellers still favor listing on the multiple listing service, a Zillow survey said.

Agents 171

Agents Sellers Realtors 171

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Distressed home sales marketplace Auction.com released a new report Monday highlighting a drastic drop in foreclosure auction property volume in the fourth quarter of 2024. But auction buyers are still willing to enter the market as the new presidential administration settles into office. Auction.com’s Auction Market Dispatch report is released on a quarterly basis.

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Inventory Buyers Marketing Sellers 355

Inman

JANUARY 27, 2025

Cheap rates on existing loans are holding well-off homeowners in place. But others insist they're unable to buy at today's high prices whether rates come down or not, Intel survey data suggests.

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Agents Marketing Mortgage 167

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Lone Wolf Technologies , a real estate technology company that has been in business for decades, unveiled its reimagined brand identity last week as an effort to “blend technology with human-centered design to better serve real estate professionals,” per a release from the company. “This isn’t just a new coat of paint,” said Lisa Lausten, senior vice president of marketing at Lone Wolf. “Our brand evolution represents a deeper transformation in how we serve ou

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Real Estate Technology Modernization Design 369

Miller Samuel

JANUARY 27, 2025

Last week, Newsday, the primary newspaper for Long Island, New York, published the results of our 4th quarter housing market report for Long Island. WNBC picked up the story and did a good job of describing the nuances of the Long Island results. I got a bunch of calls from random friends who saw the clip, which is always fun. Click on the image to play the clip.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Can you build a thriving real estate business on TikTok? Kina Desantis did. She went from a brand new agent in 2020 to running her wildly successful boutique brokerage with Side in less than four years. No cold calling, no door knocking just (patiently) educating new and move-up buyers with quick-hit educational TikTok videos. When we caught Kina on a recent episode of the Real Estate Rockstars podcast, we had questions lots of them.

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Agents Business Real Estate Real Estate Agent 293

Real Estate News

JANUARY 27, 2025

Watch the conversation with NARs general counsel as she answers the big, lingering questions about the commissions deal, gives an update on appeals and more.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Who owns photos of a real estate listing? The broker? The photographer? And what exactly happens when a photo used in marketing material looks essentially identical to an already copyrighted photograph? Based on suits filed on Friday by builder, real estate broker and professional photographer Alexander Stross, the answer is legal action. Stross filed two suits on Friday in U.S.

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Real Estate Architecture Real Estate Agent Legal 262

Real Estate News

JANUARY 27, 2025

Baird & Warner and Real Estate One will add another $3.7 million to the fund, while the MLS PIN case moves forward after an extended pause.

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Brokerage Real Estate 149

Inman

JANUARY 27, 2025

Joe Rand, of Howard Hanna | Rand Realty, and Sean Roberts, CEO of Villa, advocated for the acceptance of smaller homes built off-site as a solution to the inventory crisis.

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Realtors Realty Inventory Construction 164