President Joe Biden’s new plan to lower housing costs includes a pilot program that waives the requirement for lender’s title insurance on certain refinance transactions, according to the White House. The plan will be announced during his 2024 State of the Union address on Thursday night. However, t

The way that the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs interact is unfair to low-income workers and retirees, and changing the Social Security benefit applied to SSI would “allow low-income older adults to obtain additional income during retirement.” This is according to a

The migration surge that characterized the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic has come to an end, according to an analysis from John Burns Research & Consulting.Against a backdrop of constrained housing supply, the pace of migration has slowed compared to 2020 and 2021. But where movement does occ

The White House announced that President Joe Biden will call on lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate to address a series of housing issues in his State of the Union address, which will be delivered to a joint session of Congress and televised nationally on Thursday night.In the a

Connecticut-headquartered mortgage servicer and lender Planet Home Lending has hired Doug Long as senior vice president and divisional sales manager. Long, who brings more than 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry, will be responsible for building Planet’s retail networks and will also ha

Home sellers looking to maximize their sale price may want to avoid the start of the busy spring buying season and list their properties closer to the midpoint of the year, according to a Zillow analysis released Thursday.In a study of 2023 home sales, the real estate analytics company found that ho

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated in recent congressional testimony that interest rate hikes are now likely at the “peak for the current tightening cycle,” after signaling in November of last year that the Fed was close to the end of its war on inflation.For investors in the private-labe

Buoyed by a rise in home prices, U.S. homeowners with mortgages saw their home equity increase by 8.6% year over year in fourth-quarter 2023.Homeowners saw an average increase of slightly more than $24,000 compared to Q4 2022, adding up to a collective gain of $1.3 trillion, according to CoreLogic’s

The real estate market has always been subject to fluctuations and changes, and as we enter the year 2024, many homeowners, buyers, and investors are curious about how the market will perform. With the experiences of the past year, it's important to take a closer look at the current state of the rea

Proptech company and iBuyer Opendoor is no longer facing the allegations of a copycat commission lawsuit.On Wednesday, Nathaniel Whaley, the sole plaintiff in the Whaley suit, filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss Opendoor without prejudice. The motion noted that the reason for the dismissal was tha

Guaranteed Rate hired Bijoy John, former head of marketing at Newrez, as its vice president of marketing.John’s new tasks will include consumer direct marketing and the crafting of strategies for new products. His goal at Guaranteed Rate is to increase origination volume for the company while also h

Amid an elevated mortgage rate environment, consumers are reevaluating their priorities when it comes to purchasing real estate. According to a recent nationwide survey conducted by Coldwell Banker, the price of a home carries more weight in the decision-making process than its location. Price was t

Moderation in mortgage rates led to a pickup in demand for residential real estate, but limited inventories across the country hindered actual home sales, the Federal Reserve reported in its Beige Book survey of regional business contacts that was published Wednesday. Several Fed districts reported

Despite feelings of optimism expressed by loan originators in the opening weeks of 2024, the road to more normalized levels of reverse mortgage volume and securities issuances may be longer than expected.Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements fell 11.8% to 1,900 loans in February, a dro

Christie’s International Real Estate appointed Jamie Duran as executive vice president and managing director of its  Beverly Hills-based affiliate, the company announced on Wednesday. Prior to joining Christie’s, Duran was affiliated with Coldwell Banker for almost 35 years.In her new role, Duran wi

A group of investors led by the former U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s private equity firm, Liberty Strategic Capital, will inject $1 billion in equity investment in struggling New York Community Bancorp (NYCB), one of the nation’s largest residential mortgage servicers. The m

A state-level program in Connecticut that pays caregivers living with loved ones who require special attention, and is designed to facilitate aging in place, is seeing a surge in demand across the state. This is according to reporting by Connecticut Public Radio.The state’s Adult Family Living (AFL)

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated Wednesday that the central bank won’t be applying any cuts to benchmark interest rates until it’s sure that inflation is under control. In his prepared testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Powell hinted at rate cuts “at some point this y

California-based mortgage lender CMG Financial will partner with fintech Sagent for seven years as it brings its servicing business in-house. CMG Financial is “doubling down on controlling lifetime customer experience,” and the seven-year deal with Sagent is in line with the lender’s effort to prior