The taste of victory was short lived for RE/MAX, Keller Williams and Anywhere. After successfully getting the Batton 1 homebuyer commission lawsuit stayed in October as a result of the defendants having been granted final approval of their home seller commission lawsuit settlements, the three nation

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Monday unveiled its three-year plan for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to improve housing opportunities in underserved areas.Key pillars of the plans include bolstering access in rural communities, looking to manufa

On this week’s episode of the RealTrending podcast, host Tracey Velt sits down with HousingWire Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami to discuss his 2025 housing market forecast, interest rates, the potential impacts of Donald Trump’s tariffs and the possibility of a trade war.This interview has been edited

In a recent episode of “The Loan Officer Podcast,” co-hosts Dustin Owen and John Coleman explore upcoming trends and shifts in the mortgage and housing markets following the 2024 election. Their conversation dives into new trade policies, tariffs, constructions costs, labor and more.These questions

With relentlessly high mortgage rates and stubbornly high home prices, the mortgage payment on the median priced home in the U.S. is now back up above the 2023 and 2024 levels for the first time since August. Affordability is getting worse for homebuyers this fall. That does not bode well for home s

Life after the 2008 financial crisis hasn’t been kind to the appraisal industry. Stagnant pay and increasingly shorter turnaround times have prompted tens of thousands to leave the profession, and the presence of appraisal management companies (AMCs) has rankled industry veterans.The tension between

Ginnie Mae on Monday released a final term sheet for its new, complementary Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Securities (HMBS) program referred to as “HMBS 2.0.”Ginnie Mae has been developing the final term sheet in consultation with reverse mortgage industry stakeholders and comments s

After spending their entire career in the “accumulation” phase of wealth building, retirees who then have to transition into the “decumulation” phase — spending down their assets with no additional employment income — is a source of stress for nearly half of American retirees. This is according to a

Ever since president-elect Donald Trump announced his appointment of onetime Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency,“ housing agencies have been on edge.The soon-to-be-created department is ironically referred t

There’s nothing quite like an 11th-hour twist. On Sunday evening, less than 48 hours before the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) commission lawsuit settlement agreement is set to head for final approval, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its long-awaited statement of interest in the Sitze

U.S. single-family rental properties posted rent-price growth of 2% during the year ending in September 2024, according to a recent CoreLogic report. That’s down from annual growth of 2.4% in August.The property data and solutions company reported that the year-over-year gain was well below the pre-

It has been almost two months since mortgage rates spiked again, and my initial thought was this would tank housing demand. We had a positive 18-week period with purchase applications before mortgage rates started rising in September. I figured those increases would produce the same weakness in purc

In this week’s episode of the Power House podcast, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez sits down with Chad Smith, president and chief operating officer at Better. The duo discuss Smith’s decision to join Better, the company’s new platform and AI loan assistant, and its growth strategies going into 2

President-elect Donald Trump announced late Friday that he has chosen Scott Turner, the former executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council (WHORC), to serve as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in his administration.Scot

As the U.S. housing market slowed down in the third quarter due to rising home prices and higher mortgage rates, investor purchases also ramped down, according to a new report by Redfin. The Seattle-based brokerage found that real estate investor purchases dropped by 2.3% year over year in Q3 2024,

The reverse mortgage industry has been anticipating the development of a new, complementary Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Securities (HMBS) program designed to further address liquidity issues in the aftermath of the collapse of a major lender and issuer.But following the results of

Treating older patients with chronic health conditions can already be a challenge for medical professionals, but some of these challenges can bite harder if a patient endures preventable trauma, including a fall. That’s why it’s so important to ensure a living space is appropriately fashioned for ag

The housing industry expected mortgage rates to come down in 2025. Then Donald Trump got elected president and the Fed cast doubt on how much—and how quickly—it would cut rates.The latest sign that views on interest rates are changing comes from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), which has rele

The historically fragmented mortgage servicing space has been transformed over the past few years due to an influx of large companies and ongoing consolidation, which presents challenges for smaller players, industry experts say.  This shift is driven primarily by active merger and acquisition (M&A)