CoStar shakes up board, focuses on Homes.com profitability

Following investor pressure from hedge funds D.E. Shaw and Third Point, CoStar Group, the parent company of Homes.com, is making changes to its board of directors as it looks to put Homes.com on the path toward profitability. On Monday, the Andy Florance-led firm announced its appointment of three n

HUD doubles down: No FHA financing for ‘unqualified aliens’

In a letter to agency stakeholders and grantees last Friday, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner effectively doubled down on a recently-announced policy aiming to restrict Federal Housing Administration (FHA) financing to U.S. citizens and permanent resident

Lower mortgage rates are spurring housing demand

Mortgage rates recently hit a year-to-date low, coinciding with ongoing market disruptions from tariffs. The more encouraging story, however, is that the spring season is shaping up positively for the housing market. Notably, purchase applications show growth both year-to-date and year-over-year. Ad

Mortgage software firm RETR hires two executive leaders

Reston, Virginia-based mortgage software company RETR announced this week that it has hired two new senior leaders to guide the company’s growth efforts.Heidi Iverson is the company’s new vice president of growth and Anthony Savala is the new vice president of sales. Both are joining the firm effect

How are agents navigating the growing economic uncertainty?

Chip Stella, one of the broker-owners of Wellesley, Massachusetts-based Rutledge Properties, was not having the greatest start to his Friday morning. “I got off the phone about 30 seconds ago from a call with one of my agents. We had a listing with a buyer under contract at $5 million, and he made t

Experts weigh usefulness of exclusive listings

Office exclusives are becoming an increasingly significant segment of the Bright MLS marketplace, according to a recent Bright MLS study examining their impact on the broader housing market.While they previously accounted for only 2% to 4% of listings, that share surged to nearly 8% of new listings

Longbridge has a new addition to its proprietary reverse mortgage suite

Following other recent proprietary product development news, Longbridge Financial announced on Friday the launch of a new variation for its private fixed-rate reverse mortgage offering.The Platinum Peak product suite aims to offer higher available loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, which are designed to tr

The lean, mean (illegal?) 1099 LO machine

An illustration of a mortgage executive losing a top-producing LO who wishes to become a 1099 LO. Illustration made with ChatGPTA source called with what sounded like big news. One of the bigger players in the wholesale space was soon going to require that all broker LOs be paid as W2s. Doing so wou

Retiree moving activity was down nearly 25% in 2024

Older Americans are apparently choosing to stay put in greater numbers despite the fewer restrictions on their time granted by retirement.Between 2023 and 2024, moving activity among retirees dropped by nearly one-quarter (23.8%), according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau that was compiled by mo

Keller Williams adds New Jersey real estate team

The Nunez Group, a real estate team with more than $123 million in sales last year, has officially joined Keller Williams City Views, the company’s Fort Lee, New Jersey-based market center.Founded by Oscar Nunez, The Nunez Group has been recognized for its focus on strategic investment opportunities

Fed Chair Powell speaks out on the impacts of Trump’s tariffs

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been tight-lipped about his interactions with President Donald Trump and the policies of the Trump administration. But that changed on Friday when Powell spoke publicly about the president’s global tariffs that were announced this week.At a conference in Arlin

HUD ramps up discussions about relocating its headquarters

Citing concerns about renovation needs, associated costs and even “ugliness,” the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is reportedly ramping up its discussions about relocating its headquarters in Washington, D.C., according to a recent report from Bloomberg.The Robert C. Weaver Fe

Trump’s tariffs, not jobs, are driving mortgage rates lower this week

This week has presented a unique set of challenges for the markets, with jobs week coinciding with tariffs week, leading to significant headline events that have driven mortgage rates lower even with positive labor data. We’ve observed a notable decline in both stocks and bond yields this week. Impo

First American CEO Kenneth DeGiorgio choked dancing, barefoot man on cruise ship, FBI says

Kenneth DeGiorgio, CEO of First American Financial Corp., has been charged with assault following an altercation aboard a Virgin Voyages cruise ship, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI, which was first revealed by The Independent.The incident occurred on March 31 aboard the Resilient

Trump spares homebuilders on Canadian and Mexican imports, but China’s tariff hits hard

President Donald Trump ended months of suspense on Wednesday by announcing his long-awaited new tariff regime, and the result is mixed for homebuilders.The good news is Trump didn’t place any new tariffs on goods from Canada or Mexico. He’s also allowing the one-month pause on tariffs for some goods

Judge rules in favor of Ginnie Mae in lawsuit brought by Texas Capital Bank

A lawsuit over rights to reverse mortgage-backed collateral stemming from the collapse of a major industry lender has been brought to an end with a summary judgment, but the plaintiffs in the case have vowed to appeal the decision.The suit was filed by Texas Capital Bank (TCB) against Ginnie Mae in

FOA enlists new marketing agency in renewed push

Top-five reverse mortgage lender Finance of America (FOA) has enlisted creative advertising agency David&Goliath (D&G) to serve as its new creative agency of record (AOR), following a competitive process including several other candidate agencies.The company — which formally announced the arrangemen

7 tips for high-converting real estate landing pages (+ examples that work)

As a professional marketer, your real estate landing pages are one of your most valuable lead generation assets. Get them right, and your ROI from paid leads will soar. Get them wrong, and your leads will head right back to Zillow.To help, we’re giving you seven deceptively simple tips we’ve used to

First American: Home sales are weaker than they seem

Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American, argues that failing to account for the growing number of U.S. households gives a misleading impression of housing market strength.“If we look at existing-home sales as a percentage of the total number of households over time, we see that sales are dow

How Sierra Pacific is scaling without a factory-line approach

In a live-recorded episode of Power House at the Housing Economic Summit, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez sat down with Suzy Lindblom, chief operating officer at Sierra Pacific Mortgage, to explore the company’s growth strategy and how it’s navigating today’s lending environment.After consulting