September, 2024

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Why have mortgage rates gone up since the Fed rate cut?

Housing Wire

The Federal Reserve cut rates on Wednesday and mortgage rates went up! What happened? The answer lies in the bond market. The 10-year yield and 30-year mortgage rates have been in a slow dance since 1971 and trended together. The bond market isn’t old and slow like the Fed — it moves very quickly, and for months it has been sending the 10-year yield (and mortgage rates) lower in anticipation of a series of Fed rate cuts, not just one or two.

Mortgage 531
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Where Are Home Prices Heading Over the Next 24 Months?

Appraisal Buzz

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The hot mess of concessions in real estate

Sacramento Appraisal Blog

It’s a mess out there right now since the NAR lawsuit went into effect. Well, sort of. It feels messy that concessions information is no longer in MLS, there’s some confusion about how appraisers are handling some of this, and we have a new question to ask. Let’s talk about it. UPCOMING SPEAKING GIGS: 10/18/24 […] The post The hot mess of concessions in real estate first appeared on Sacramento Appraisal Blog.

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Can mortgage rates go even lower?

Housing Wire

Mortgage rates have made almost a 2% move lower from the highs of 2023. Now that the jobs week data is in, the question is: can mortgage rates go even lower? The answer is yes, but we will need more economic weakness, better spreads and a more dovish Fed. While the Fed can be old and slow, the bond market, thankfully, is doing a lot of the heavy lifting and has already priced in a lot of Fed easing policy.

Mortgage 527
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Unlock The Blueprint: How To Construct A Better Payment Workflow

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 With construction projects becoming more complex, outdated processes are no longer sustainable.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

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Lower mortgage rates attracting more homebuyers

Housing Wire

An often misguided premise I see on social media is that lower mortgage rates are doing nothing for housing demand. That’s ok — very few people are looking at the data without an agenda. However, the point of this tracker is to show you evidence that lower rates have already changed housing data. So, let’s review the data together. Purchase application data First, purchase apps is the fastest way to look for positive or negative data at higher or lower mortgage rates.

Mortgage 518

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Housing demand firming up with lower mortgage rates

Housing Wire

Housing demand is very seasonal, so the fact that our pending contract data is firming up lately just shows that lower mortgage rates have stabilized and firmed up demand recently. It will likely take mortgage rates to go under 6% and stay there for an extended period to get real sustained demand growth from record-low sales levels. However, considering the affordability challenges with the housing market , it’s good to see a flip in the housing data without rates getting under 6%.

Mortgage 509
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Buyers still expect sellers to cover agent compensation

Housing Wire

The majority of homebuyers are still expecting sellers to cover their agent’s compensation, according to The Real Brokerage ’s August 2024 agent survey. This comes even as the business practice changes outlined in the National Association of Realtors ‘ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement have been implemented across the country. Real conducted its survey between Aug. 30 and Sept. 15, recording the responses of roughly 300 agents across North America.

Sellers 509
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Mortgage rates drop to another new low for 2024

Housing Wire

On this crazy day with the bond market, mortgage rates dropped to another yearly low after the CPI inflation print. How low? Mortgage News Daily came out with a shocking print of 6.11% mortgage rates for their top-tier borrowers, while HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center , which tracks actual loan lock data from Polly , is also at a year-to-date low of 6.44%.

Mortgage 514
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Housing inventory falls as mortgage rates drop

Housing Wire

Have we seen the peak in housing inventory for 2024? The best part about 2024 has been that higher mortgage rates have created an inventory buffer, so if the economy gets softer and rates fall, we have many more homes to work with than we had in 2020-2023. I have consistently written that with mortgage rates above 7%, inventory should grow between 11,000-17,000 and this year it has happened six times perfectly in the channel.

Inventory 511
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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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Are these the lowest mortgage rates we’ll see in 2024?

Housing Wire

Have we seen the bottom in mortgage rates for 2024 after a crazy roller coaster ride so far this year? My 2024 forecast had a mortgage rate range of 7.25%-5.75%. To get to the lower end of this range, we needed to see two things: the labor market getting softer and the mortgage spreads improving. This is the double-whammy impact, and that’s what has happened.

Mortgage 501
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The average homeowner just gained another $25K in equity

Housing Wire

Home equity continued to rise in the second quarter of 2024 as residential properties with mortgages collectively gained $1.3 trillion in equity over the past year. But growth began to slow during these three months, according to the CoreLogic Homeowner Equity Insights report published on Thursday. The aggregate equity gain was 8% year over year, bringing total equity on mortgaged properties to more than $17.6 trillion at the end of Q2 2024.

Insurance 504
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Fed goes big, slashing interest rates by 50 bps

Housing Wire

The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday by 50 basis points (bps) to a range of 4.75% to 5%, turning an important corner in the central bank’s fight against inflation. The cut is the first since March 2020 after the Fed raised interest rates to a 23-year high point to cool the economy and quell inflation. With both inflation and the labor market cooling, economists and housing professionals alike had expected the Fed to cut borrowing costs in September, with the

Inventory 500
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Pennymac increases its conforming loan limit to $802,650

Housing Wire

In what has become a familiar fall ritual, mortgage lenders are increasing their conforming loan limits months ahead of the FHFA’s official announcement. On Friday, Rocket Pro TPO and Pennymac both announced an increase in their conforming loan limits to $802,650 — before the expected increase by the FHFA in November. Rocket’s increase was effective Friday and Pennymac’s increase will be effective for new broker locks on Monday, Sept. 16.

Mortgage 488
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Is the Fed behind the curve with this labor market?

Housing Wire

In 2022, I argued that the Federal Reserve won’t pivot until the labor market breaks. This means that the Fed will need to create such a slowdown in the labor market that nobody will question their action when they pivot. This is what I call the “cover cuts” policy. After today’s jobs report and the negative revision to this report and the previous ones, it is safe to say nobody outside of crazy people who want to see America go into a recession will question the Fed rate cut that will happen th

Marketing 487
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Signs of housing demand surge after interest rate cut

Housing Wire

The question from the housing industry after the Federal Reserve ’s half-point interest rate cut is simple — will this bring buyers back to the stalled housing market? A new report from Redfin suggests that it is already happening. The company analyzed mortgage rate-lock data from Optimal Blue and found that locks have risen 68% this week compared to one month earlier.

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Is housing affordability improving? Two new reports say yes

Housing Wire

Elevated mortgage rates have strained housing affordability for more than two years. With rates now falling — and more downward movement expected after the Federal Reserve ‘s recent interest rate cut — two new reports suggest that affordability is getting better too. The third-quarter 2024 housing affordability report from Attom says that falling mortgage rates, rising wages and slower home-price growth has made the expenses of buying and owning a home slightly more affordable.

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Can my agent get a better deal than others? The data says probably not

Housing Wire

The landmark antitrust lawsuit settlement agreed to by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in March has put the practices of real estate agents in the spotlight for both regulators and clients alike. Now, with agent commissions starting to decline, agents naturally want to convey the value of their services to buyers and sellers. New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta attempts to answer one question — can my agent get a better sale price on my home than a competing agent?

Agents 476
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The fall housing market could see hotter competition, Zillow says

Housing Wire

Lower mortgage rates over the past several months have led to increased affordability for prospective homebuyers, and this could lead to an extra competitive fall 2024 season. That’s according to a Zillow report released Thursday in which the Seattle -based real estate company said that “lower mortgage rates and rising inventory are giving home buyers a window of opportunity at an unusual time of year.“ Zillow noted that the U.S. median monthly mortgage payment in August had declined by mo

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Real estate agents have mixed feelings about Fed rate cut

Housing Wire

Real estate agents have white-knuckled their way through more than two years of suffocatingly high mortgage rates that have stymied sales, choked off inventory and pushed home prices to new all-time highs. So what was the reaction from agents when the Federal Reserve surprised everyone by cutting rates by 50 basis points rather than the 25 that was taken as a given?

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Alabama Realtors ask NAR to decouple association memberships

Housing Wire

The Alabama Association of Realtors (AAR) is asking the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to provide greater flexibility by allowing members to decide which levels of Realtor associations they would like to join. AAR made the request in a letter sent Monday to NAR CEO Nykia Wright. AAR CEO Jeremy Walker and President Senia Johnson signed the letter.

Realtors 473
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Mortgage rates falling to 5% would get a swath of buyers back in the market

Housing Wire

Declining mortgage rates have yet to break the dam on the stalled housing market, but the sweet spot on rates that would get the market moving again is about 5%. That’s according to a new survey from Mphasis Digital Risk, which revealed that 42% of prospective buyers said a 5% rate would get them back in the market. An additional 27% said they’re targeting a 4% rate, while 20% say it’s 6%.

Buyers 474
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Real estate vets team up to launch virtual brokerage

Housing Wire

There’s a new brokerage on the block. The recently launched Realty of America (ROA) is a fully virtual brokerage co-founded by CEO Eddie Garcia, President Mark Dimas, chief culture officer Erinn Nobel and chief operating officer Peter Nobel. The firm is launching in 23 markets across the country and has more than 2,000 agents already signed on.

Brokerage 468
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Game of chicken: Private MLSs stare down DOJ over settlement terms

Housing Wire

Dawn Pfaff is a free-market evangelist, and that informs how she runs MyState MLS. The privately owned multiple listing service has taken a laissez faire approach since its launch in 2009, as it promises no fees and fewer rules than MLSs owned by Realtor associations. This manifesto has helped MyState develop a national footprint with listings for all types of properties, including single-family homes, manufactured homes, newly built homes, foreclosures and even land.

Legal 467
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More home sellers are withdrawing listings

Housing Wire

While inventory of unsold homes in the housing market in each of the last two years headed higher during September and October due to mortgage rate spikes, we’re seeing a more normal seasonal pattern now with inventory beginning to decline. We’re also seeing more home sellers withdrawing their listings to try again next year. In fact, for every two sales, there is another listing withdrawn from the market.

Sellers 468
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To the moon! Case-Shiller home price index hits another record high

Housing Wire

Home prices have reached yet another all-time high, but the pace of growth is slowing. That’s according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index for July, which shows U.S. home prices rising 5% year over year. Growth in major U.S. cities was even higher, as the 10-city composite index was up 6.8% year over year and the 20-city composite index was up 5.9%.

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Lower mortgage rates are bringing more borrowers out of the woodwork

Housing Wire

With the calendar shifting to September and the next meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers only two weeks out, mortgage rates continue to recede and evidence suggests that borrowers are reacting to more favorable housing market conditions. At HousingWire ‘s Mortgage Rates Center on Tuesday, the 30-year rate for conforming loans averaged 6.60%, down from 6.64% one week ago.

Mortgage 466
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Reverse mortgage lenders are ready for lower interest rates

Housing Wire

Like the traditional forward space, the reverse mortgage industry has been operating in an elevated interest rate environment for some time. While news of the Federal Reserve lowering its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points (bps) to a range of 4.75% to 5% will have wider economic ramifications in the government’s ongoing efforts to fight inflation, there are expected benefits to the reverse mortgage business as well as the demographic it serves: seniors on a fixed income.

Mortgage 458
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54% of baby boomers say they’ll never sell their homes

Housing Wire

In a traditional sense, the term “silver tsunami” refers to pent-up housing stock that older homeowners will eventually choose to sell, which would have the effect of flooding the market with new inventory. But if prior suppositions about this trend being overblown failed to convince people, new data might make things clearer. More than half (54%) of baby boomers have no intention of ever selling their homes, according to new survey data from Clever Real Estate.

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CANDID and Atlantic Bay Mortgage forge strategic partnership

Housing Wire

In an industry where managing a web of technology vendors to support LO’s sales and marketing needs has become overwhelmingly complex, inefficient and creates unnecessary security and compliance risks, CANDID is quickly becoming a leader in transforming how mortgage lenders operate. With its new partnership with Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group, CANDID is set to make an even greater impact.

Mortgage 459
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Top-producing Maryland mega team joins eXp Realty

Housing Wire

The No. 1 brokerage in the country by transaction sides just got bigger. On Thursday, eXp Realty announced that Brandon Brittingham and his top-producing Maryland-based mega team are making the jump to eXp. Brittingham and his 30-person team, The Maryland & Delaware Group , had previously been brokered at Long & Foster Real Estate. “For me, by far, what eXp could do to support the growth of my business along with their vision, hands down, made the most sense,” Brittingham said in a state

Realty 459
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First-time buyers hampered as starter homes become much less affordable

Housing Wire

Starter homes are more affordable to the average American than they were a year ago, but they have become significantly less affordable over the past decade. That’s the conclusion Redfin reached in a data report released Monday. The national real estate brokerage analyzed household income levels and monthly housing payments to calculate its affordability metric.

Buyers 451
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Invitation Homes to settle FTC claims of unfair rental practices for $48M

Housing Wire

Invitation Homes , the largest owner of U.S. single-family rental homes , has agreed to pay $48 million to consumers and change some of its practices, according to a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that was announced Tuesday. According to the FTC, Invitation Homes advertised monthly rent prices without including mandatory “junk fees.