Minimum residential lot size dispute heats up in a Texas county

A battle has brewed over residential lot sizes in Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law last year reducing them in the state’s biggest cities. Since the law didn’t apply statewide, Montgomery County, which abuts Houston, is trying again to increase its lot sizes after doing so last March. County

Tri Pointe Homes unveils its new wellness models in Utah

Tri Pointe Homes recently announced the launch of LivingWell, a new wellness concept that expands on its LivingSmart program. The initiative is part of a multilayered strategy to enhance mental and physical health through innovative design focused on performance and human-centered approaches.  The b

FNF adds nine senior title and agency professionals across New England

FNF Family of Companies has hired nine experienced professionals across its New England agency operations during the first quarter of 2026, adding senior underwriting and sales capacity in Massachusetts and the broader region, according to an announcement earlier this week. The additions, announced

Recruiting Insight launches agent persona framework for brokerage hiring

Recruiting Insight has released a new strategic guide, “Real Estate Personas and Avatars,” designed to help brokerage leaders diagnose agent motivations and tailor recruiting pitches to specific career stages, the company announced Monday. The framework, built from findings in the firm’s 2026 Agent

AI killed the real estate agent personal brand — now what?

Visibility used to win. Now it’s just noise. For the past 20 years, real estate agents have been told the same thing: build your personal brand. Post consistently. Shoot video. Be everywhere. The belief was simple — if people saw you often enough, they would eventually do business with you. And for

REMAX merger creates 400-agent firm in Arizona

REMAX Fine Properties and REMAX Solutions have merged to form a single brokerage operating across Arizona — combining more than 400 agents and 10 offices statewide. The unified company will operate under the REMAX Fine Properties name with offices in Avondale, Flagstaff Glendale, Munds Park, Peoria

Errol Samuelson: Zillow retools for AI-driven home search — and the agent stays central

Artificial intelligence is not only changing the way people search for and find information online, but it is also changing how they are searching for products and services, including their new home. Founded in 2006, Zillow has witnessed the housing industry develop from its early embrace of the int

Rocktop Technologies forms Rocktop Digital, names Brett Benson CEO

Rocktop Technologies has launched Rocktop Digital, a new business focused on digitizing and tokenizing mortgage and private credit assets to modernize how the assets are financed, owned and traded, the company announced Wednesday. As part of the launch, Dallas-based Rocktop Technologies promoted Bre

Housing market update: Regional fragmentation grows as rates pressure demand

The housing market update still looks relatively stable on the surface. Inventory rose to 723,460 single-family homes in the week ending April 3, while 34.44% of listings had price cuts and the weekly absorption rate came in at 10.49%. At the national level, the baseline is still holding. As Housing

Borrowers have a new agent. Is your organization built for it?

AI is shifting negotiating power from lenders to borrowers at scale. The institutions that restructure their workflows and tools to meet that reality will grow. The ones that don’t will feel it in pull-through rates before they understand why. For most of mortgage’s recent history, information asymm

Auction.com’s 2026 outlook reveals bearish home price expectations

Even though homebuying conditions have improved, the real estate investors closest to distressed housing are increasingly pessimistic about where home prices are headed next. That’s according to Auction.com‘s 2026 Buyer Outlook Report that was released Wednesday. The report is based on a survey of m

True Footage lands $40M Series C as appraisal industry hits ‘critical’ AI phase

True Footage has raised a $40 million Series C round led by Cox Enterprises’ Socium Ventures that will fund expansion of its staff appraiser model and its data and analytics platform for lenders and consumers. True Footage launched in 2021 with a thesis that appraisal quality and turn times could be

California steps up reform to join the single-stair bandwagon

California lawmakers have been at the forefront of zoning reforms to increase housing supply and affordability. New legislation filed Tuesday would put the state on the path to joining single-stair reform that other states and cities have already adopted. Assemblymember Alex Lee’s newly filed bill p

Residential contractors remain AI-skeptical early on, report finds

The use of artificial intelligence in residential contracting is still in its early stages, with only a minority of contractors fully integrating AI into their workflows. That said, interest in leveraging new technologies is steadily increasing across the industry. That was one of the main findings

The rumors aren’t true. Housing market crash unlikely despite war, high rates

A U.S. housing market crash remains extremely unlikely in 2026 even as the war in Iran strains buyer psychology, according to Logan Mohtashami, lead economic analyst for HousingWire. The conflict with Iran has sent mortgage rates higher over the last five weeks, from a low of 5.99% to a high of 6.64

Mortgage rates level off, but is 6.5% the new normal?

Mortgage rates have soared in the past month, but market participants appeared to take a wait-and-see approach this week as they contemplate further price increases for home loans. On Monday, Mortgage News Daily reported that 30-year fixed rates averaged 6.43%, down 4 basis points in the past week.

DataTrace on AI’s reality, risk and responsibility in title search

DataTrace has released a new white paper examining how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping title workflows and where trusted data infrastructure remains essential. The paper, “Title Search Automation: Reality, Risk, and Responsibility of AI,” finds that while AI can improve speed and workflow

Real Brokerage adds 65-agent Equity Realty Group in Phoenix

The Real Brokerage Inc. added Arizona real estate leader Randy Anaya and his 65-agent team, Equity Realty Group, expanding the company’s footprint in Phoenix’s Southwest Valley, the company announced. Equity Realty Group, founded in 2009 as an independent brokerage, is known across Avondale, Goodyea

A new study says private listings beat the MLS. Here’s what it left out

Let me be straight with you. A research report is floating around out there from the University of Georgia, and some people in our industry are using it to make the case that private listings, homes sold off the MLS without full public exposure, actually get sellers a better price. The report is 56

The hidden cost of mortgage tech: How workflow fragmentation is driving the “interoperability tax”

The cost problem lenders can’t automate away Mortgage lenders have spent years investing in automation, yet one metric continues to resist improvement: cost per loan. New tools promise faster processing, better decisioning and improved borrower experiences. For many lenders, however, those gains hav