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.

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Appraisal Buzz

MAY 22, 2024

Mortgage application volume increased 1.9% during the week ended May 17, as the average rate for a 30-year- fixed-rate mortgage fell to to 7.01%, down from 7.08% the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey. Applications for refinances increased 7% compared with the previous week and were up 21% compared with the same week one year ago.

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Sacramento Appraisal Blog

MAY 2, 2024

Consumers are feeling economic pain, and we need to talk about some of the things that are brewing. Today, I want to look at growing debt, distressed sales, and unemployment. I have both national and local stats. Sounds like a happy post, right? Look, some people really hype this topic and use it to magnify […] The post Some red flags for the housing market first appeared on Sacramento Appraisal Blog.

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Cleveland Appraisal Blog

MAY 9, 2024

Last year I purchased a pickleball set and have threatened to give it a try. It’s on me and my wife’s list of things to do this summer. We’ve determined that while we could throw our back out just standing up, bending over to pick something up, or sneezing, we still need to keep moving. According to the article below, “Nearly 70% of adults reported reduced stress and anxiety after playing pickleball, and 64% called the sport “uplifting,” according to a report

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Inventory Appraisal Real Property Property Appraisal 344

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 With construction projects becoming more complex, outdated processes are no longer sustainable.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

MAY 28, 2024

It’s the end of May and unsold inventory on the market is increasing across the U.S. Every state in the country has more homes on the market now than a year ago and, in many places, new construction is being completed and added to inventory, so it’s not just resale inventory that’s growing. There are more homes on the market now than anytime since August 2020.

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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.

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Housing Wire

MAY 29, 2024

Northwest MLS , the largest multiple listing service in the Pacific Northwest, will not take part in the $418 million agreement reached by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in the Sitzer/Burnett case. In fact, NWMLS said that its own rules on buyer agent compensation are fairer and more transparent than the terms NAR agreed to in March. It also criticized NAR for pushing “consumers and brokers to make secret deals off MLS, inviting deceptive practices, discrimination and unfair housi

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Housing Wire

MAY 8, 2024

Home prices trended up in almost all U.S. metro areas during the first quarter of 2024. Out of 221 metro markets analyzed, 205 (93%) posted yearly home price gains in Q1 2024, while 30% experienced double-digit price gains during the same period — up from 15% in the fourth quarter of 2023 — according to the National Association of Realtors ’ (NAR) newest quarterly report.

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Housing Wire

MAY 6, 2024

Legendary investor Warren Buffett and Greg Abel, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy , addressed the commission lawsuits and HomeServices of America’s recently announced settlement of the suits, during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday. “There is no question that the industry will go through some transitions because of the settlements — ours and every other major player in the industry settled, the National Association of Realtors settled for more than $400 million ,”

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Real Estate

Housing Wire

MAY 14, 2024

A report released this week by St. Louis-based Clever Real Estate found that recent homebuyers, as well as people who are considering a home purchase in the next year, are experiencing a laundry list of difficulties. Last month, Clever surveyed a total of 920 Americans about their views of the home purchase process and real estate agents. The respondents included 420 people who bought a home in 2023 or 2024, and another 500 who plan to do so in 2024 or 2025.

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Real Estate Agent Agents Real Estate Buyers 484

Housing Wire

MAY 30, 2024

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) announced on Wednesday that it has called on mortgage servicers to extend the moratorium on foreclosures for VA-guaranteed loans through Dec. 31, 2024, while these companies implement a new program to help struggling veterans. The current moratorium, announced in November, was set to end on Friday. It was implemented amid complaints of veterans’ struggles because there was no program available to succeed a partial claim option offered during th

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Housing Wire

MAY 6, 2024

U.S. home prices continued to climb in March as a persistent shortage of homes for sale helped to buoy the housing market, according to the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Home Price Index. And while prospective homebuyers cope with the challenges of rising housing unaffordability, existing homeowners are reaping the benefits of historically strong price gains.

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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.

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Housing Wire

MAY 20, 2024

Fraud and forgery claims represented more than one-fifth of the total dollars spent by title insurers on claims expenses and losses over the past decade, according to a study conducted by Milliman and commissioned by the American Land Title Association (ALTA). Between 2013 and 2022, title insurers recorded 203,181 claims for policies written during that time, and they paid out $4.4 billion in claims related to losses and loss expenses.

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Housing Wire

MAY 22, 2024

I anticipated solid year-over-year home-price growth in today’s existing home sales report, so I’ve tried my best on social media to inform people that we have a low bar in home-price comps for this report and the next one. This is the context for why the home-price growth data was strong, which took some people by surprise. As you can see below, even though home prices rose in 2023, the median sales price showed negative year-over-year growth in April, May and June of last year.

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Inventory New Listings Housing Market Contracts 464

Housing Wire

MAY 3, 2024

The business practice changes outlined in the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) commission lawsuit settlement agreement ,will go into effect on Aug. 17, 2024, according to a letter sent to members on Friday by NAR chief legal officer Katie Johnson. Originally, the trade group had said the practice changes would go into effect in mid-July.

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Housing Wire

MAY 8, 2024

Housing credit channels directly impact housing inventory channels. What does that mean? Home prices escalated out of control after 2020 and when we look at why that happened, we can see that housing credit mattered more to inventory data than most people realize. Let’s see how this has played out in different stages of the economy. On March 18, 2020, purchase application data broke out to pre-cycle highs in demand.

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Inventory Law New Listings Sellers 463

Housing Wire

MAY 28, 2024

The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s 2024 Women of Influence award are open now through May 31st, 2024. Click here to nominate someone. For the past 15 years, the HousingWire Women of Influence award has celebrated the exceptional contributions of women leaders in the housing industry.

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Housing Wire

MAY 21, 2024

In a supply-constrained housing market , even landing a deal at foreclosure auction has become challenging, but those deals tend to be more readily available in markets or neighborhoods that are off the beaten path. “It’s oddly enough in states where people are leaving,” said Florida-based real estate investor Paul Lizell of the markets where he is more focused on acquiring investment properties in 2024.

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Housing Wire

MAY 16, 2024

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) has launched a new service to handle all the title work for its brokers on refinancings. As a result, brokers no longer need to deal with a title company or settlement agent to close a refi. The top U.S. mortgage lender announced the service on Thursday during an annual meeting with its broker partners in Pontiac, Michigan.

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Housing Wire

MAY 18, 2024

New listings data has been moving lower over the last few weeks. I usually wouldn’t care too much about this as its a data line that can be volatile week to week but now it’s been three weeks. The moves haven’t been significant and our weekly pending contracts data picked up this week. But, we need to see more growth in new listings data just to grow from 2023 levels. 2023 new listings data was the lowest ever on record, so it’s already a low bar.

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Housing Wire

MAY 7, 2024

The official magazine for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently touched on the topic of reverse mortgages, mentioning products such as the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for Purchase (H4P) and addressing topics like the desires of baby boomers to age in place in their homes. Describing reverse mortgages as originating in 1961 before coming to greater prominence through the establishment of the HECM program during the Reagan administration, one of two recent NAR articles dea

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Mortgage Real Estate Agent Inventory Housing Market 456

Housing Wire

MAY 7, 2024

With a 67% annual increase in agent count to 16,680 agents during the first quarter of 2024 , it is no surprise that The Real Brokerage also recorded an 86% annual increase in revenue to nearly $201 million. The uptick in agent count contributed to a 74% yearly jump in transaction count to 19,032 sides, good for a total sales volume of $7.5 billion and an 88% year-over-year increase.

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Housing Wire

MAY 7, 2024

Recent data from Inside Mortgage Finance shows a significant leap in broker market share, jumping to 24.3% in Q4 2023, the highest number we’ve seen since 2009. This is a true testament to the care, commitment and passion brokers across the country have for their borrowers. The big question is, what caused this increase? First and foremost, there has been a noticeable shift in consumer behavior.

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Housing Wire

MAY 23, 2024

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Thursday published Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2024-10 , outlining reporting requirements that lenders must follow if they detect a cybersecurity intrusion. Effective immediately and applicable to all FHA-insured mortgage programs, the letter states that all lenders “that experience a potential or actual cyber incident must notify HUD via the FHA Resource Center at answers@hud.gov and HUD’s Security Operations Center at cirt@hud.gov within 12 hours of detect

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Housing Wire

MAY 15, 2024

In the contemporary digital landscape , one of the principal threats to an organization’s cybersecurity infrastructure stems from sophisticated email phishing attacks. The increasing complexity of these tactics necessitates a strategic approach to arm employees with essential skills and knowledge, thereby enhancing their ability to recognize and neutralize such threats.

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Training Tools Technology 446

Housing Wire

MAY 15, 2024

VantageScore has released a pilot of its latest credit-scoring model , VantageScore 4 Plus, for banks, fintechs and government lenders. The new model combines alternate open banking data with traditional credit data , which it claims gives lenders a “substantial predictive lift of up to 10% compared to the industry leading VantageScore 4.0 credit score, which itself has up to an 8% lift over conventional scoring models.” VantageScore said its new pilot is compatible with all major ag

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Housing Wire

MAY 3, 2024

Friday’s jobs report came in as a miss of estimates and wage growth came in lower than expected. The labor market isn’t tight anymore and that will eventually be good news for mortgage rates. After last month’s jobs report, I talked about the path the Federal Reserve could take to land the plane based on wage growth data slowing down and getting closer to the Fed’s model.

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Housing Wire

MAY 13, 2024

Zeb Lowe: How do you feel about the manner companies in this industry are approaching technology in today’s market? Merrick Lackner: It’s no secret that companies are looking to reduce operating expenses, and automation plays an integral role in accomplishing that. The danger of automation-first thinking is it often comes at the cost of the relationship with the customer.

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Property Management Technology Real Estate Tools 443

Housing Wire

MAY 30, 2024

A report released Thursday by Redfin showed that 6.4% of U.S. home sellers cut their asking prices during the four-week period ending May 26. That is the highest percentage since November 2022 and a potential sign that sale prices will soften in the coming months. The national real estate brokerage reported that the median asking price in the past week was $416,623, a weekly decline of about $3,000 and the first pullback in six months.

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Housing Wire

MAY 21, 2024

At a status hearing on Tuesday for the Nosalek commission lawsuit, a lawyer for the Department of Justice said the terms of the National Association of Realtors’ nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement represented “an improvement.” However, it remains unknown if the DOJ will file a statement of interest in the Sitzer/Burnett suit, as it did in the Nosalek suit, according to RisMedia , which first reported the news.

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Agents Realtors Government Legal 442

Housing Wire

MAY 1, 2024

Corcoran expanded its talent pool this week and welcomed three new faces — two in Nashville and one in New Jersey. Former National Football League stars Andy Levitre and Marc Mariani have joined Corcoran Reverie , an affiliate of The Corcoran Group, in Nashville. The duo will be part of the Your Nashville Agent team under the leadership of Aaron Joyce.

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