Connecticut-based lender, servicer and asset manager Planet Home Lending has appointed Bill Shuler as executive vice president and chief information officer. In his new role, Shuler will focus on Planet’s technological growth and enhancements to its operational efficiency.“My focus has always been o

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

The reverse mortgage industry is no stranger to novel marketing campaigns, and it has often made use of celebrity spokespeople to drum up conversation about its products. While consistency can count for a lot when it comes to marketing and messaging, novelty can also be a path toward greater engagem

Tapping into home equity, particularly for people in or near retirement, can be challenging — especially for those who may have a pressing need. Traditional equity-tapping methods — such as selling the home or taking out a home equity loan — could present lifestyle challenges, which is where alterna

Sandra Ho, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase, will join Wells Fargo next week as its head of home lending sales, Wells Fargo said in a statement Monday.It is a newly created role, and Ho will lead Wells Fargo’s consumer direct and distributed sales forces. She will report to Serhat Oztop, head o

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 statem

Rocket Mortgage has entered into a settlement agreement with a group of current and former employees who have alleged the company did not provide sufficient overtime pay, according to court documents reviewed by HousingWire and reporting at Bloomberg Law.In a case filed in January 2023 in the U.S. D

Zillow announced the release of an open-source tool, the Fair Housing Classifier, on Tuesday as part of the company’s efforts to “promote responsible and unbiased behavior in real estate conversations powered by large language model (LLM) technology.“In a news release, Zillow explained that artifici

U.S. single-family rent growth strengthened overall in March despite some weaknesses in specific markets.Single-family rent increases in March 2024 registered a 3.4% year-over-year gain, unchanged from February, according to CoreLogic’s latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI). The SFRI analyzes singl

Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), is aware that some loan officers are taking creative — and, as detailed in a recent HousingWire investigation, often illegal — approaches to winning business. And he would be willing to reexamine the decade-old rule that proh

Rental software provider RentSpree announced on Monday a new partnership with UtahRealEstate.com (URE), a multiple listing service (MLS) serving approximately 20,000 real estate professionals across Utah. Additionally, RentSpree CEO Michael Lucarelli revealed in a LinkedIn post a new collaboration w

California-based multichannel lender and servicer PennyMac Financial Services announced on Monday a proposed private offering of a $650 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes that the company says it will pay back with interest by 2030.The notes will “be fully and unconditionally guarant

The setting could not have been more appropriate. Rohit Chopra, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and frequent critic Bob Broeksmit, the president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, sparring on stage over what constituted a junk fee. Chopra, the consumer watchdog, noted

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Monday morning an extension to Ginnie Mae’s digital collateral program and an increase to fees servicers can charge on assumable mortgages, aiming to bring more efficiency and affordability to the housing market. “The past four

The most notable trend in U.S. housing data recently is that price reductions are on the way up. There are more homes sitting on the market that didn’t get offers at their original list price and have had to reduce their prices than in any recent May.What does this leading indicator data tell us abo

Mortgage capital markets tech firm Polly announced on Monday its API integration with cloud banking provider nCino to enhance the digital mortgage process for lenders. This integration combines Polly’s advanced pricing engine with nCino’s Mortgage Suite point-of-sale (POS) solution, offering lenders

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Monday published a new version of its Single Family Housing Handbook 4000.1, which includes numerous updates to its guidance for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program overseen by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).“Toda

The proportion of newly built homes for sale in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2024 remained steady compared to last year, fueled by a continued shortage of existing-home supply. According to a Redfin report released Monday, newly built homes accounted for 33.4% of single-family homes for sale

Buying into homeownership is already challenging enough for many Americans, but keeping — and maintaining — a home can come with serious challenges as a person gets older. This may lead an older homeowner to consider a product like a reverse mortgage, but potential borrowers should be aware of the p