D.C. pushes single-stair apartments higher with added safety rules

Washington, D.C., council members are leaning into a growing national trend by relaxing single-stairway rules to cut the cost of building small and mid-rise housing. On Tuesday, the D.C. Council unanimously advanced the One Front Door Act. If it passes on second reading, the maximum height for resid

HECM activity rises in March, but proprietary loans are taking a bite out of business

U.S. reverse mortgage endorsements rose sharply in March following subdued activity in February, but overall volume remains down compared with recent months, according to data released Wednesday by Reverse Market Insight (RMI). Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements increased 16.3% in M

FOA introduces second-lien reverse mortgage LOC in California

Finance of America (FOA) on Thursday introduced HomeSafe Second Line of Credit, a second-lien reverse mortgage line of credit now available in California that lets homeowners 55 and older tap home equity over time without refinancing or taking on a new required monthly mortgage payment. The product,

NAR rolls out expertise-based application process for 2027 committees

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has introduced an expertise-driven application process for its 2027 governance committees, aiming to match members to roles based on their experience, qualifications and leadership background, the trade group announced Thursday. This announcement comes one

Frost Bank is betting on 0% down mortgages in Texas

Frost Bank previously announced in 2023 that it was reentering the mortgage business after a multiyear buildup that included system development and pilot programs. Now, reporting from Dallas news outlet WFAA says that the Texas-based bank is coming back swinging with a new program for borrowers who

Manufactured housing is the homeownership solve we keep ignoring

“Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have.” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on 3.24.2026 that from January

Why HousingWire’s new Mortgage Rankings matter for originators

The HousingWire Mortgage Rankings launched this week to give the housing industry a standardized, transaction-based view of origination activity across the country. The rankings are powered by InGenius data and they’re built on recorded mortgage transactions, not submissions or self-reported numbers

Housing market demand is holding, but pricing gaps are breaking deals

Housing demand is still holding up on a year over year basis, even as mortgage rates sit at 6.64%, a level that has historically marked a key dividing line for demand. That is the backdrop Logan Mohtashami laid out in this week’s Housing Market Tracker, where he wrote that “we are at a key inflectio

Housing supply summit highlights the cost of complexity

I love Jerusalem Demsas’ “Housing Breaks People’s Brains” article in The Atlantic from November 2022. For me, it’s a trailhead for understanding why efforts and solutions aimed at the housing access and attainability crisis for so many Americans often short-circuit and fizzle before they can fix any

UWM tried for its first acquisition, then its stock fell and the math stopped working

When UWM Holdings Corp. lost its bid last week to acquire Two Harbors Investment Corp. (TWO), upstaged by an offer from rival CrossCountry Intermediate HoldCo, analysts were not entirely surprised. “It was such a wild turn of events,” said Eric Hagen, an analyst at BTIG. “But we were not surprised t

First fully rebuilt Palisades home testing post-fire demand

Fourteen months after California’s Palisades wildfires destroyed nearly 5,900 homes, the first fully rebuilt residence has come to market, offering the clearest pricing test yet for post-fire demand. The newly built contemporary home — listed at just under $7.5 million — comes after the original was

Ashton Woods puts pace over margin in a choppy housing market

In today’s challenging homebuilding environment, builders are often presented with a lesser-of-evils choice: maintain a strong sales pace at the expense of slimmer margins, or sacrifice market share in favor of higher profitability.  Multi-regional private homebuilding powerhouse Ashton Woods chose

Rocket moves to dismiss RESPA suit, citing safe harbor and lack of injury

Detroit-based Rocket Companies this week moved to dismiss a lawsuit alleging violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), arguing that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury, relied on claims beyond the one-year statute of limitations and did not sufficiently plead unjust enrich

How one brokerage uses AI voice, listening tools to help agents transform client calls

When it comes to implementing AI into business workflows, many agents and brokers typically consider things like backend office work, lead, CRM and email management, listing description drafting and marketing collateral creation. But Gary Ashton and Debra Beagle, the broker-owners of REMAX Advantage

Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group hires Gregory S. Richardson as CRO

Gregory S. Richardson has joined Virginia-based Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group as chief revenue officer, the company announced Thursday. In his new role, Richardson will lead enterprise revenue strategy and alignment across production, capital markets, product development and institutional investor rel

California bills target condo deposits and defect liability

California lawmakers are weighing bills that would reduce regulatory barriers to revive condominium construction, which has dropped significantly from its peak in the years before the Great Recession. Assembly Bill 1406 would raise the state’s liquidated-damages limit on new condominium sales from 3

Lennar land bank exposure under the microscope

All eyes are on Lennar’s forthcoming 10-K filing, maybe as soon as Thursday, as a wave of investor questions converges around one central issue: How much financial risk – recognized or not – sits inside the company’s land-light strategy? In recent days, that question has pitched from a routine analy

Labor department rule would ease path for riskier 401(k) investments

The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a rule that would make it easier for retirement plan sponsors to include alternative investments — such as private equity, private credit, real estate and cryptocurrency — in workers’ 401(k) plans while reducing regulatory burdens and the threat of lawsuits.

HousingWire Mortgage Rankings: The playbook for the top-producing LOs of 2025

Jarret Coleman is not on social media posting about interest rate moves or explaining mortgage concepts to the public — a model successfully adopted by some of his peers. Instead, the Greenwich, Connecticut-based loan officer for US Bank takes a more traditional approach to his business. “I started

Immigration policy, economic uncertainty reshaping housing market

The U.S. housing market is facing unprecedented shifts as immigration enforcement tightens, domestic migration patterns evolve and consumer confidence sours, according to a Tuesday webinar hosted by John Burns Research & Consulting (JBRC). The presentation, “The State of US Demographics and Consumer