Windermere promotes founding family member Lucy Wood to regional director

Windermere Real Estate has promoted Lucy Wood to regional director for western Washington and Oregon, placing her in charge of the company’s largest operating region. The appointment expands Wood’s leadership responsibilities across more than 170 offices and strengthens the company’s presence throug

Onity wins approval for revised reverse MSR sale to FOA

Onity Group Inc. won regulatory approval for a revised sale of most of its reverse mortgage servicing rights to Finance of America (FOA), the company said Tuesday. Under the new agreement, Onity will sell MSRs on about 20,000 Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) with an unpaid principal balance

Home purchase demand holds up even with mortgage rates at 6.7%

Rates for 30-year conforming mortgages stayed above 6.7% this week, but housing market activity has been resilient as weekly pending sales and purchase loan demand are up slightly compared to this time last year. At HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center on Tuesday, 30-year conforming loan rates averag

Opinion: Compass has made the MLS its proxy

When an industry’s incumbents can’t win on merit, they stop competing and start restricting. The MLS feed cutoffs to Zillow are the latest version of this pattern. Taxi commissions tried to slow Uber in 2014. They didn’t fight on product. They couldn’t. Uber was easier, cheaper and the cars were cle

Is the mortgage industry broken—or structurally misaligned?

There is an ongoing debate in mortgage lending about whether the industry is fundamentally broken or simply experiencing another cycle of technological evolution. Over the past decade, lenders have invested heavily in automation, OCR, verification services, title integrations and income validation t

Realtor.com adds Agoyu AI to generate quotes for movers

Realtor.com has integrated Agoyu’s AI-driven moving quote platform into select rental and for-sale listings, giving consumers access to instant estimates from vetted movers without an in-home visit, the companies announced on Monday. Within their home-search experience on Realtor.com, users can now

Berkshire’s big housing bet: What agents should pay attention to

When one of the world’s most respected investment companies makes an $8.5 billion move during a challenging housing market, people tend to pay attention. Berkshire Hathaway‘s agreement to acquire Taylor Morrison Home Corp. has sparked conversations throughout the real estate industry — with many vie

Berkshire Taylor Morrison deal focuses on scale and ecosystems

[Editor’s Note: Berkshire Hathaway‘s planned acquisition of Taylor Morrison is one of those rare transactions whose significance extends well beyond the companies involved. Today’s analysis examines the deal through a broad strategic lens, exploring why Berkshire may be betting not simply on a homeb

NAR publishes new resources on MLS, listings

With the increasing discourse surrounding listing data control and access, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has published three new resources aimed at providing clarity for MLSs and brokers navigating these conversations.  Two of the resources, NAR said, are a complement to its MLS policy

Mutual of Omaha remains No. 1 as HECM endorsements fall 4.7% in May

Mutual of Omaha Mortgage remained the nation’s largest reverse mortgage lender in May, even as overall Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements continued to decline, according to a report released Monday by HECMWorld.com that utilizes data from Reverse Market Insight (RMI). Mutual of Omah

Quiet 2026 hurricane season forecast, risk remains for builders

The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season is underway, and despite predictions of a quieter year, experts are urging the housing industry not to ease up on storm-resilient building. NOAA’s 2026 outlook calls for 8–14 named storms, 3–6 hurricanes, and 1–3 major hurricanes. That follows 2025, the first seaso

Analysis: The average American needs nearly $900K to retire comfortably

A new analysis from Investopedia found that a single American who retires at 65 needs roughly $898,000 in savings to fund a comfortable retirement. But the required nest egg varies sharply — from about $644,000 in North Dakota to more than $1 million in New Jersey, Hawaii, California and Washington,

Eye on the wrong prize: How the myth of loan officer productivity is costing lenders

Few phrases surface more often in mortgage boardrooms than “loan officer productivity.” Leaders understandably want more loans per originator, more dollar volume per head and greater efficiency across the sales force. The metric feels clean and controllable, offering a simple way to measure performa

Berkshire Hathaway to buy Taylor Morrison in $8.5 billion all-cash deal

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has agreed to acquire Taylor Morrison Home Corporation in an all-cash deal valuing the national homebuilder at approximately $8.5 billion, the companies announced Friday. Under the definitive agreement, Berkshire will pay $72.50 per share in cash, a 24% premium to Taylor Morr

Housing inventory just turned negative year over year

Housing inventory officially went negative year-over-year last week. This might be a shocker to some people, but not for readers of our Housing Market Tracker, since I believe the housing inventory story started shifting in mid-June of 2025. Lets go over last week’s data and explain what’s happening

How social media became 100% of a Las Vegas real estate agent’s pipeline

One video. 320,000 views. Five closings. That’s what happened when I posted a short video explaining down payment assistance programs not as a polished advertisement, but as the kind of casual, straight-talk conversation I’d have with a friend. The response didn’t just surprise me. It changed how I

Beazer takeover bid tests book value and returns

Hostile takeovers don’t happen often among publicly traded companies in America, and they’re even rarer in U.S. homebuilding. So a little over a week of public quiet during Dream Finders Homes’ hostile pursuit of Beazer Homes should not be mistaken for inaction. Rather, this may be the phase when th

As Florida’s housing market finds its footing, sellers still face pricing realities

Florida’s housing market is settling into a period of measured stability, with pending sales on the rise and inventory levels flattening. Sellers who cling to pandemic-era pricing continue to face resistance from buyers navigating high mortgage rates and affordability constraints. As of May 23, Hous

Tennessee brokers brace for Zillow listing cutoff amid Realtracs dispute

A little over a week after real estate agents and brokers in the Chicagoland area saw their listings disappear from Zillow after Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) suspended its data feed to the listing portal giant, real estate professionals in Tennessee are preparing for the same possibility.  In an

Will getting rid of property taxes make Florida more affordable?

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal to phase out property taxes for most primary homeowners is rapidly becoming one of the state’s most consequential housing debates in years. Supporters argue it could ease affordability pressures while critics warn it may fuel higher home prices and reshape local t