Housing Wire
OCTOBER 26, 2024
Since mid-2022 when mortgage rates headed higher , two facts have been apparent: new listings data has been trending at the lowest levels ever recorded in history and inventory has been able to grow from record low levels thanks to mortgage rates staying elevated. We’ve seen some growth in new listings this year compared to 2023 levels, which is good for housing.
Appraisal Buzz
OCTOBER 31, 2024
An estimated 1.4 million (1,355,909) residential homes in the U.S. remain unoccupied, according to ATTOM ‘s fourth-quarter 2024 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report. That percentage, or one in 77 households nationwide, is about the same as it was in the third quarter and only somewhat higher than it was a year ago. In Q4 of this year, 215,601 residential properties in the U.S. were in foreclosure, according to the data.
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Housing Wire
OCTOBER 21, 2024
Since 2019, the state of Florida has built more than 77,000 new properties in areas with a high risk of flooding. This is the most among all states, according to an analysis by climate-modeling firm First Street Foundation on behalf of the The Wall Street Journal. The construction activity is likely to place the housing industry and its financing partners on a “collision course” with insurers, the outlet said.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 28, 2024
After previously taking issue with some of the forms generated as a result of the terms of the National Association of Realtors ’ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement , University of Buffalo law professor Tanya Monestier is now objecting to NAR’s settlement. In a document filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City — less than a month before the NAR settlement is slated for its final approval hearing — Monestier took issue with the business practice changes, sayi
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 31, 2024
Over the last decade, real estate transactions have increasingly become a prime target for cybercrime. Far from slowing down, the scams are becoming more prevalent, sophisticated, and difficult to recognize as fraudulent. With October being Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it is important that the real estate industry and consumers speak up and spread the word about how to prevent these real estate cybercrimes.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 29, 2024
In the latest episode of the RealTrending podcast , Amy Stockberger — broker-owner of Amy Stockberger Real Estate — joins Tracey Velt for a tantalizing conversation that covers her teamerage’s unique “Lifetime Home Support” model and other ways that agents can provide value to home buyers and sellers. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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Housing Wire
OCTOBER 29, 2024
Is home-price growth finally cooling? That’s a question raised by the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index for August, which showed deceleration on a year-over-year basis and a slight dip relative to July. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the national home price index posted a 4.2% gain year over year, less than the 4.8% gain from July. The monthly index fell by 0.1%.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 15, 2024
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. has agreed to settle with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) over the regulators’ allegations of mortgage lending discrimination in majority-Black neighborhoods of the Birmingham, Alabama , metro area. The agreement, which was submitted for court approval, requires the Madison, Wisconsin-based mortgage lender to pay a $1.9 million civil penalty.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 18, 2024
California-based Provident Funding Associates LLC is getting out of the Florida condo lending business , it told broker partners on Friday. In an email sent Friday morning, Provident said that it would “no longer be accepting new applications for condominiums ” effective that day. Provident told broker partners that all loans in the pipeline must be locked by 11:59 p.m.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 21, 2024
Another regulator has sued Rocket Mortgage for allegedly discriminating against a Black homeowner by undervaluing her home during an appraisal in Colorado three years ago. And the Detroit-based lender believes it’s a “massive overreach.” On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice —following a move made by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in July—filed a lawsuit against the lender, appraiser Maksym Mykhailyna and his company, Maverick Appraisal Group ,
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 22, 2024
Mortgage rates continue to rise, serving as a bucket of cold water for lenders and consumers that were warming to lower borrowing costs just a few months ago. According to HousingWire ‘s Mortgage Rates Center , the average 30-year conforming rate was 6.61% on Tuesday. That was up 15 basis points (bps) from one week ago and 30 bps higher than on Sept. 18, when the Federal Reserve lowered benchmark rates by 50 bps.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 25, 2024
Many renters think they’re saving money by renting, but long term, that might not be true. In some of the U.S.’s largest metros, a monthly mortgage payment is less expensive than the average rent. But there are many factors surrounding affordability—how do city dwellers make this decision? A new report from Zillow Home Loans outlines some key trends and factors for renters to consider when evaluating a home purchase.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 24, 2024
anely Sandoval’s calling to be a pre-foreclosure peacemaker started when she was in high school. “My mom and stepdad went into pre-foreclosure,” said Sandoval, a real estate agent and investor who specializes in working in low-income, often Latino neighborhoods in Southern California. “I knew things were going down, but I didn’t know how bad it was until people started knocking on our door.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 24, 2024
Online real estate marketplace Auction.com released data this week showing that demand for distressed homes — including bank-owned properties and foreclosures — shrank for a second straight quarter. The company’s Auction Market Dispatch for third-quarter 2024 included a survey conducted in late September of more than 140 active buyers on the platform.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 30, 2024
A 60 basis point increase in mortgage rates in October has strangled mortgage demand, particularly for refinancings , according to the latest survey data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage applications overall decreased 0.1% from one week earlier, per the MBA ‘s weekly applications survey for the week ending Oct. 25. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, but fell 1% on an
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 10, 2024
Ongoing supply and affordability challenges in the housing market have frustrated many homeowners who have looked to trade up or relocate for various reasons. In response, some consumers have turned to renovation projects to meet their needs. According to survey data released this week by St. Louis-based Clever Real Estate , 63% of homeowners would rather remodel their current home than move to one that has already been fixed up.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 15, 2024
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — the regulatory body that oversees communications across a wide variety of media including radio, telephone and the internet — announced that new rules related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) will go into effect in April 2025. The new guidelines are designed to make it easier for consumers to revoke consent for unwanted robocalls and texts.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 18, 2024
As mortgage rates fluctuate based on decreasing housing inventory volume, the appraisal market is more volatile than ever in key areas such as urban and rural communities states like California and Texas. With higher rates, lower transaction volumes usually plague the industry, translating to fewer appraisals as homeowners hunker down with their lower rates.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 15, 2024
Fannie Mae on Tuesday announced enhancements to its Expanded Housing Choice (EHC) initiative, opening it up to all jurisdictions without source-of-income protections. The government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) said the Housing Choice Voucher program, which launched in 2022, assists very low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities in being able to afford stable and quality housing in the private market.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 30, 2024
A California regulator has revoked the residential mortgage lending license of LoanSnap , the latest in a series of difficulties for the fintech lender. According to a filing from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation dated Oct. 18, LoanSnap had its license revoked after it failed to renew its surety bond. That policy, which is designed to protect consumers from lender fraud and financial risk, expired in early August.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 23, 2024
What had previously been a surprisingly mild 2024 hurricane season closed with two devastating storms that hammered Florida and North Carolina. While assessing the full scale of the damage could still take months, the short-term effects on the two state’s housing markets were immediately visible — the markets came to a complete halt. In the days right before and after Hurricane Milton battered central Florida, two highly responsive metrics went into free fall.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 28, 2024
We track inventory and home sales very closely, so the biggest surprise this year has been the resiliency of home prices. Given the unrelenting mortgage costs, generally weak homebuyer demand, and the year’s rising supply of unsold homes, I’ve been expecting home prices to recede a bit in the second half of this year. They have not. That’s an important lesson to learn from when looking into next year.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 24, 2024
With new-home sales growing since 2022, why are housing starts at recessionary levels? Well, it’s a complicated story if you don’t know how the homebuilders operate, and not all homebuilders are the same. The big publicly traded builders have money to pay down mortgage rates and manage their pipelines better than smaller homebuilders. However, even with that reality, when mortgage rates were at 7.50% earlier in the year, housing starts and permits were heading lower, single-family permits were h
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 22, 2024
Feeling overwhelmed by all the AI talk? It’s understandable. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a hot topic across every facet of life, including the real estate and title industries. Many title professionals are asking how AI can be used safely and effectively to improve daily operations. In this article, we’ll explore practical ways title companies can leverage AI to stay competitive in a fast-changing landscape, offering actionable tips to help you integrate these emerging tools respons
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 17, 2024
The U.S. economy appears to be on firmer footing than previously thought, mortgage rates are forecast to end 2024 at 6% and home-price growth is also on the move. These are conclusions drawn by economists at Fannie Mae ‘s Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group. They’re now projecting gross domestic product (GDP) growth to fall from 3.2% in 2023 to 2.3% in 2024 and 2% in 2025.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 31, 2024
It’s been one year since the Sitzer/Burnett verdict was rendered in Missouri. What has changed for real estate brokerages since then? (Image generated by AI in Midjourney) Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of articles that will explore the effects of the landmark Sitzer/Burnett case, which was decided on Oct. 31, 2023, and has since reshaped the business practices for real estate brokerages and agents across the country.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 17, 2024
Wall Street investors and analysts forecast that mortgage credit-score costs will rise in 2025 as lower interest rates may drive an increase in home loan applications. Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), the company that retains the rights to the market’s widely adopted consumer credit-risk assessment methodology, is expected to raise the price for mortgage credit scores from $3.50 to at least $5, according to the estimates.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 21, 2024
The legal woes continue for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). On Wednesday, Maurice Muhammad — the broker of Progressive Realty — filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania claiming that NAR, the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors (PAR) and the Greater Lehigh Valley MLS (GLVMLS) have violated federal civil rights statutes, engaged in unlawful discriminatory practices, breached their contracts, created a monopolistic system and broken federal antitrust laws.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 29, 2024
Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles that will explore the effects of the landmark Sitzer/Burnett case, which was decided on Oct. 31, 2023, and has since reshaped the business practices for real estate brokerages and agents across the country. It is no secret that many first-time homebuyers are struggling. Stubbornly high interest rates, low levels of inventory and elevated home prices are putting a strain on the often-limited budgets of first-time buyers.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 23, 2024
Existing-home sales continued their downward trend in September. After falling 2.5% from July to August , sales again trended down last month, dropping 1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.84 million, according to data released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) On a year-over-year basis, existing-home sales were down 3.5% in September.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 10, 2024
Real estate data provider CoreLogic is unveiling a new artificial intelligence -powered property and location intelligence platform. The California-based company is launching the Araya platform, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Through Araya, CoreLogic will give customers access to the data and analytics of nearly all U.S. properties on one platform.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 14, 2024
The latest tumult in real estate feels like our world has been turned upside down yet again. But underneath all the frenzy, I see a genuine opportunity for us to turn this into a positive and come back even stronger than before. I often think of the term “Anti-fragile” from the book of the same name by Nassim Taleb. The principle is that people and organizations can build their success around being able to come back even stronger after a wallop, instead of just withstanding the impact.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 28, 2024
In an environment where technology is increasingly becoming a recruitment tool for brokerages, eXp Realty has partnered with a data provider in an effort to give its agents an advantage over the competition. The brokerage on Monday announced a new partnership with Sisu, a real estate business intelligence platform that provides agents the ability to set goals, monitor performance and compete with each other via a leaderboard and individual contests.
Housing Wire
OCTOBER 22, 2024
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finalized a rule that lays the groundwork for open banking in the U.S. financial system, including the mortgage sector. But this rule has sparked mixed reactions within the industry, reflecting both enthusiasm and concerns. Announced on Tuesday, the new rule mandates that financial providers — including banks, credit card issuers and mortgage companies — share personal financial data for free with their peers when customers request it.
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