FHFA, HUD move to bring new credit score models into mortgages

Federal agencies on Wednesday took steps to bring newer credit scoring models into the mortgage underwriting process, marking a significant shift in how borrower risk is evaluated. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced the adoption of FICO 10T and Va

Support grows for Whitmer housing zoning reform bills in Michigan

Michigan lawmakers returned from spring recess with housing affordability clearly in their sights. A bipartisan group shepherding a package of bills this week picked up strong support from a coalition of housing advocates and business groups, including the Home Builders Association of Michigan. That

AI isn’t to blame for the housing crisis 

After years of serving as a convenient political target, artificial intelligence is entering a new phase of the debate: one shaped not only by state and local experimentation, but also by a more assertive federal posture. A recent Executive Order on AI directed the Justice Department to create a Lit

Opinion: FICO, the 3Bs: Fruit from a rotten tree. Here’s how we fix It.

In November 2025, Equifax published a statement making the case that FICO is the villain in the mortgage credit cost story. It was just one more shot across the bow from the 3Bs at FICO; a battle we’ve been watching play out in real time for years. The numbers don’t lie: FICO’s per-score price has g

Toll Brothers expands luxury footprint with Buffington acquisition

The market reaction to homebuilder earnings this spring has carried a clear message: scale, discipline, and positioning still matter­. Where you choose to deploy them may matter even more. On Tuesday, Toll Brothers signaled its next move in that equation by announcing a deal to acquire substantially

D.R. Horton executed again, and smaller builders feel the squeeze

D.R. Horton’s stock arc mapped a familiar story Tuesday. Of investor recognition. Of the power and primacy of no financial or operational surprises to the negative. Shares traded modestly higher on elevated volume following the company’s fiscal Q2 earnings release this morning, as investors processe

Why AI is still a subpar real estate agent replacement

I recently got a question from Real Estate Writer Michele Lerner for Florida Realtor magazine that cut right to the chase of this technological moment: Can AI replace real estate agents?⁣ Here’s my answer: Not yet. And maybe not ever, but not because I’m anti-tech. Quite the opposite. I’m an early a

What Artemis II can teach every real estate agent about building a career that goes the distance

On April 6, 2026, four astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission did something no human being had ever done in the history of our species. They traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, shattering a record that had stood since 1970, when the crew of Apollo 13 was pushed to that distance not by triumph, b

Busy isn’t productive: How top real estate agents should actually allocate their time

For years, real estate rewarded one thing above all else: activity. More calls. More showings. More emails. More hours. The assumption was simple: if you stay busy enough, the results will follow. But that equation is starting to break. Clients are more informed. Deals take longer. Expectations are

Two Harbors hit with shareholder lawsuit over CCM acquisition

Shareholder Michael Koblentz filed another lawsuit against Two Harbors Investment Corp. and its board of directors, alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act tied to the company’s pending acquisition by CrossCountry Intermediate Holdco (CCM). Koblentz previously filed a similar suit targeti

NAR fine-tunes its 3-year plan, fast-tracking execution and trimming governance

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its first quarterly update on the 2026–2028 Strategic Plan on Tuesday, outlining early progress on initiatives tied to affordable housing, the Realtor brand and broker relationships. In the first quarter of implementation, NAR said it initiated abo

Senate questions Warsh on $100M-plus holdings and Fed ethics

Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the 17th chairman of the Federal Reserve, faced sharp questioning from senators on Tuesday at his confirmation hearing. Warsh asserted that he would not be the president’s “sock puppet” when determining interest rate decisions. Warsh, a forme

Why cost discipline is replacing cost cutting in apartment operations

Costs are climbing faster than many operators expected, and teams are actively trying to figure out how to keep up without creating new problems in the process. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that more than half of all operating expense (OpEx) inflation since 2020 ties back to propert

10 myths loan originators believe about reverse mortgages — and the reality that could change their business

Every day, about 10,000 Americans turn 65. That pace is expected to continue for another seven to eight years. Collectively, senior homeowners are sitting on a record $14.6 trillion in housing wealth. That’s not a niche. It’s a wave of new business that most purchase-loan originators are overlooking

Is California looking to tax retirement accounts? Experts push back on claims

A wave of texts and mailers warning that California politicians are targeting retirement savings for taxation has sparked confusion among voters, but experts say the claims mischaracterize a broader fight over competing ballot initiatives. At issue is a proposed measure called the Retirement and Per

How one builder cut cycle time by 30 days with integrated ops

Selling season 2026 – long on uncertainty and short on Spring mojo – is keeping many private homebuilders up at night and on edge all day long. The challenge is no longer just about generating traffic to homebuilder websites and new neighborhood sales centers, converting buyers, or managing incentiv

The strategic rationale behind QXO’s $17 billion TopBuild acquisition 

Brad Jacobs’ vaunted, capital treasure-trove-fueled sprint to geographic and marketshare clout, enough to disrupt the nation’s building products and materials supply infrastructure, took another big leap this weekend, with a $17 billion deal to acquire TopBuild, a giant among homebuilder-favored dis

IRVE: The independent brokerage that grew $2B in five years

While national brands dominate real estate headlines, an independent brokerage based in Pennsylvania’s chocolate capital has quietly posted one of the industry’s strongest five-year growth runs. Iron Valley Real Estate — now rebranding as IVRE — placed No. 10 nationally for five-year volume growth a

How the post-war homebuilders built the modern playbook

If you want to understand the DNA of the modern American homebuilding industry, you don’t start in a boardroom or on Wall Street. You start in the aftermath of World War II. The men (and they were almost entirely men at the time) who came home from that war didn’t just return with discipline and gri

Real estate brokers own the listing data, says Realtracs

Tennessee-based MLS Realtracs has replaced its traditional MLS participation agreement with a new Brokerage Services Agreement that explicitly affirms brokers own their listings and the associated data, according to an April 14, 2026 company blog post by president and CEO Stuart White. In the post,