In his 20 years in mortgage banking, no year has compared to 2023 in terms of difficulty, said Ben Cohen, Guaranteed Rate’s managing director and a top-producing loan officer. “This is a lot different than 2008 where you needed a credit score and a heartbeat to get a mortgage. Now, you need to be ve

Zillow Group and ShowingTime are taking two multiple listing services (MLSs) to court, due to their allegedly anticompetitive behavior.On Friday, Zillow Group and ShowingTime filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Arizona against Arizona Regional MLS and Wisconsin-based Metro MLS. The lawsuit als

The nation’s second largest title insurer, First American, as well as some of its subsidiaries, remain offline as of Wednesday morning in the wake of the title firm’s Dec. 20 cybersecurity incident. The systems outage has derailed closings across the country over the holidays for homebuyers and sell

In the nearly two months since a Missouri jury found the real estate industry liable for colluding to artificially inflate real estate agent commissions, Jason Posnick has fielded a lot of questions about commissions and cooperative compensation from clients.“I’ve been on about 11 listing appointmen

When Jen Dillard, broker and team leader of Jen Dillard Real Estate Team, and her family first moved to Hood River, Oregon, she didn’t know anyone. She hadn’t started her real estate business there yet, and she was lonely — so to meet new people, she decided to throw a holiday party and invite anyon

Guild Mortgage has an ambitious plan under the leadership of its new CEO, Terry Schmidt. The California-based retail lender has set a target of becoming a top-10 lender in the markets in which it has a presence, which would give it about a 2% market share. It won’t be easy. United Wholesale Mortgage

With its four largest firms all at least 100 years old, the title insurance industry has a bit of a reputation for being antiquated and technology averse.“I always joke that we work in an industry that literally researches the past, and because of that, sometimes, I feel like our marketing, sales, a

Mortgage subservicer Loancare informed authorities that the data of about 1.3 million customers was compromised following a cyberattack in November on its parent company, the big four title firm Fidelity National Financial (FNF). This data includes customers’ social security numbers. The company inf

U.S. house prices increased year over year in October, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index. However, the data shows it slowed down compared to the previous month. In fact, home prices climbed 6.3% from October 2022 to October 2023, compared to 5.5% year over year

Vetted by HousingWire  |  Our editors independently review the products we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission.You’ll need to complete 75 hours of prelicensing classes to get licensed as a real estate agent in North Carolina. We’ve done the research for you, evaluatin

Despite lower sales activity, home prices continued their upward trend in October, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Real estate experts say the performance reflects limited inventory in the country, a problem expected to continue in 2024. The data released on Tuesday sho

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There is no question that the headline of the year in 2023 for many publicly traded brokerages was the commission lawsuits. But in 2024, industry analysts believe mortgage rates will be the primary focus for many firms.“I don’t think the lawsuit storyline is very relevant from the perspective of vol

Kyle Joseph, a specialty finance equity research analyst at Jefferies, believes that the worst of the current mortgage cycle may be behind us, a sentiment shared by most analysts covering this industry.“Barring any sort of unforeseen consequences, I’d like to think so,” Joseph said in an interview.

The mortgage tech industry has taken its fair share of punches in 2023. But for Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE), it was a year of solidifying its dominance in the mortgage space.It’s been  more than a year since ICE’s acquisition of mortgage data juggernaut Black Knight for $11.9 billion, the

As we approach Christmas day, we can only hope that the Federal Reserve now realizes their fear of 1970s-style inflation created a rate-hike cycle that disproportionately impacted the U.S. housing market and that they need to be pro-housing again. Even with all the drama we have dealt with in 2022-2

New home sales missed sales estimates, but the builders’ stocks have been roaring higher. What gives? There are two key things to remember before I go into the report’s details. Mortgage rates rising to 8% in October impacted the data line, which I spoke about on CNBC recently.Also, new home sales a

Entering the real estate finance world in the summer of 2022 as a 23-year-old, I immediately felt like a fish out of water. Attending industry-related conferences and visiting clients, I was typically the only person in the room under the age of 30. Our industry is full of professionals with decades

New home sales fell month-over-month in November to their lowest level since last November. But despite this dip, 2023 is poised to be one of homebuilders’ busiest years. Total new home sales are expected to reach about 5% higher than last year, while sales of existing homes are down by nearly 20% y

Williston Financial Group is closing out 2023 with yet another acquisition. The firm announced Thursday that MyHome, a WFG subsidiary, has acquired technology and marketing services provider Volly.The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.“Since inception, both WFG and MyHome have been dedi