Zillow workforce reduced by 3% amid annual performance reviews

A Zillow spokesperson has confirmed to HousingWire that the real estate listing portal giant has terminated approximately 200 employees or roughly 3% of the firm’s total workforce in recent weeks. The company confirmed that the cuts were widespread throughout the company and not concentrated to any

Christie’s International Real Estate launches Charleston affiliate

Two South Carolina-based Christie’s International Real Estate affiliates are teaming up to form a joint venture and launch the brand’s first Charleston, S.C.-based operation. The firm announced the launch of IndigoOak Christie’s International Real Estate on Thursday.  The new affiliate is the result

Utah lawmakers target starter homes with lot size reform

Utah lawmakers opened their 2026 legislative agenda with a proposal to revive a once-bedrock fixture of the American Dream of homeownership: starter homes. By streamlining permit approvals and rezoning for smaller property lots, Beehive State legislators will try to pry open a path to first-time hom

State regulators, consumer groups push back on OCC’s escrow account proposals

State regulators and consumer advocates are pushing back against two proposals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that would expand banks’ authority over escrow accounts and assert that federal law preempts state rules that govern these accounts. In a joint letter, the Conferen

Mortgage defects stabilize as lenders face new quality control challenges

Mortgage lenders are seeing loan defects stabilize after several volatile years, but shifts in interest rates and loan volumes continue to expose weaknesses in quality control (QC), according to ACES Quality Management CEO Trevor Gauthier and chief operating officer Phil McCall. In an interview with

The 8 best real estate CRMs for every budget in 2026

Want to scale your business faster? Today’s real estate CRM software makes it easy to stay organized, generate, convert and nurture leads on autopilot and automate the tedious but crucial daily tasks that build lasting client relationships. Our team of experienced agents reviewed dozens of real esta

Trump to announce new Fed chair Friday, sending the 10-year yield higher

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday evening that he will name his choice for the next Federal Reserve chair on Friday morning. At publication time, prediction sites Polymarket and Kalshi had Kevin Warsh as the frontrunner, putting his odds of being chosen at more than 85%, which sent the 10

PennyMac reports Q4 profit of $107M as origination growth offsets MSR runoff

PennyMac Financial Services reported its full-year and fourth-quarter 2025 earnings on Thursday, telling investors and analysts that higher mortgage production helped offset pressure on servicing income from increased prepayment activity. The California-based company posted a solid quarter and a str

NVR’s Q4 and the value of staying land-light in a headwinds market

A headwinds-meets-crosswinds housing market buffets homebuilding business leaders as 2026’s spring selling stretch lies just ahead. Almost in everything, everywhere and all at once, homebuilding firms are buying sales, trying not to be among those whose inventory ages on the vine. An outlying knack

RealTrends Verified ranked De Niro Team joins Brown Harris Stevens

After over two decades at Douglas Elliman, Raphael De Niro and his team are making the move to Brown Harris Stevens.  The New York City-based De Niro Team, which consists of De Niro and eight other agents, closed 14 transaction sides for a total of $52.12 million in sales volume in 2024 according to

Rocket RESPA lawsuit is unique but faces early legal hurdles, attorneys say

The class-action lawsuit filed this week against Rocket Companies and its subsidiaries, which alleges violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), has drawn heightened attention from the mortgage industry as a wave of mergers and acquisitions accelerates the push toward verticall

Why M/I Homes is spec-heavy ahead of the spring selling season

M/I Homes’ Q4 2025 earnings call this week peeled back details on how one of the nation’s top-20 homebuilding enterprises will lean into a contrarian, spec-heavy strategy. Based on the firm’s geographical footprint, product set and construction operational efficiencies, M/I executives are betting a

Propy secures $100 million for AI-powered closing platform

Propy — a tech company using artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to automate real estate closings — announced it has secured a $100 million credit facility from Metropolitan Partners Group. Financing will be used to consolidate title and escrow companies into an AI-powered, end-to-end closin

Paul Fiore on making HighTechLending a bigger mortgage player

Paul Fiore enjoys taking on new challenges, something he’s done before during a lengthy stint at American Advisors Group (AAG) and pit stops at Finance of America and Smartfi Home Loans. Fiore’s reverse mortgage industry journey took another turn recently after he joined California-headquartered Hig

Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group names Robyn Zacharias as CMO

Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group on Thursday announced the appointment of Robyn Zacharias as chief marketing officer. Zacharias, who brings 30-plus years of marketing and advertising leadership to the company, will oversee the company’s marketing, brand and communications strategy. “Robyn is a proven lea

IMBs originate 84% of residential mortgages in 2025

The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) on Thursday released its 2025 report on independent mortgage banks (IMBs), highlighting these companies as the “dominant” force in mortgage lending as they originated 84.1% of all U.S. single-family mortgages last year. CHLA cited data from the Urban Inst

Tapping investments for homeownership down payments

Reports before Davos suggested that President Trump would announce an initiative to spur homeownership by allowing individuals to withdraw funds from their 401(k) accounts to make a down payment on a home purchase without incurring a10% early withdrawal penalty. Davos has come and gone, and we are n

Foreclosure auction volume reaches highest level since Q2 2020

Foreclosure auction volume in the fourth quarter of 2025 rose 48% from a year ago, reaching the highest level since the second quarter of 2020, according to Auction.com‘s Q4 2025 Auction Market Dispatch report. Volume remained 39% below the level seen in Q1 2020, just before the start of the COVID-1

Gen X investors are confident, but they often lack formal retirement plans

A new study commissioned by Equitable and conducted by The Wall Street Journal’s Intelligence Unit examines how Gen X is approaching investing and retirement planning. The research is based on a survey of 500 retail investors — primarily Gen X — with millennials and pre-retiree baby boomers included

Louisville, Ky., joins municipalities piloting AI to fast-track permits

Earlier this month, the City of Louisville, Ky., announced a partnership with Govstream.ai, a technology company that utilizes AI to speed up the permitting process, reflecting a broader national push to utilize AI to accelerate permitting and approvals.  Municipalities are increasingly under pressu