Homes.com metrics climb as CoStar profit slides in 2025

Despite recording the 59th consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth during the fourth quarter of 2025, with revenue jumping 27% to $900 million, CoStar Group’s financial results may not have been as strong as many expected given the firm’s recent rhetoric about how well the company is perf

Trump State of the Union offers few housing details

President Donald Trump delivered the annual State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night and touched on a wide variety of economic topics. But he barely mentioned ways to make housing more affordable for everyday Americans. Housing professionals expected the speech to include subjects lik

Builders engineer payments, not prices — LGI results highlight why

We intended to dig into LGI Homes’ fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings last week. Then the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show happened in Orlando, and the days became a blur of conversations, walking meetings, and on-the-fly triangulation among builders, capit

Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales on portal strategy and MLS ties

The real estate listing portal space has generated its fair share of headlines over the last several months. While Zillow, Homes.com and Redfin have been stealing most of the spotlight, Realtor.com has also issued some announcements of its own. HousingWire recently caught up with Realtor.com CEO Dam

California-based LenderMac to acquire Direct Mortgage

Cypress, California-based LenderMac Holdco LLC has agreed to acquire Direct Mortgage Corp. in a move aimed at expanding its geographic footprint and building a multichannel mortgage platform, the companies announced Tuesday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “This acquisition represent

Friday Harbor adds income and asset scenario testing for LOs

AI-powered mortgage underwriting platform Friday Harbor announced Tuesday the launch of a new set of tools called Income and Asset Sandbox, which are designed to help loan officers structure income and asset decisions earlier in the origination process. The tools allow lending teams to test how diff

ICE’s Matt Dowd: MSP updates are ‘just a foundation’ for AI journey

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) is seeing an “overwhelmingly positive” response from mortgage servicers in response to its newly updated MSP platform user interface, as servicers view the update as the first step in a broader push toward automation and AI-driven efficiencies. The update marks t

FHFA hit with FOIA lawsuit over Powell memo

The Campaign for Accountability (CfA), a nonpartisan watchdog group, has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The group alleges the FHFA failed to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that sought access to a report prepared by FHFA Director Bill Pulte about

Houlihan Lawrence adds 3 RealTrends-ranked agents in NYC push

Houlihan Lawrence is strengthening its presence in Yonkers, New York, with the addition of eight new agents, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Among these additions is the Vision Alliance Team, led by Rahhim and Tara Shillingford. Rahhim Shillingford is the former principal broker of Vision A

Georgia lawmakers revive push for LIHTC property tax protection

Georgia affordable housing developers revived an effort to amend the state constitution to shield their properties from steep property tax hikes. State Rep. Shaw Blackmon, chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, and State Rep. Rob Leverett officially introduced a constitutional amendment on Mo

Real Brokerage adds RealTrends Verified Haley Garcia team in The Woodlands

The Real Brokerage is strengthening its presence in the luxury housing market of The Woodlands, Texas. The firm announced Tuesday that Haley Garcia and her five agent team Garcia Real Estate Group are making the move to Real after leaving Keller Williams Realty – The Woodlands.  The team will be joi

UHG goes private: Daiwa House’s Stanley Martin strikes $221M deal

In the two-thousand-mid-teens, you would not have needed a crystal ball to predict that three Japan-based vertically integrated real estate powerhouses would each rank among the nation’s top 15 enterprises. That’s because each of those three organizations – Daiwa House, Sekisui House and Sumitomo Fo

C2 Financial pushes for nationwide growth, top broker ranking

Leadership at C2 Financial is looking to reclaim a top wholesale ranking by strengthening its infrastructure, leveraging artificial intelligence, recruiting and mentoring the next generation of loan officers, and expanding from 42 states to nationwide coverage. In 2021, C2 was ranked No. 1 on Inman’

The hidden housing cost Washington can’t ignore: real estate fraud

Housing affordability is usually framed through numbers: mortgage rates, housing supply, construction costs and zoning restrictions. Washington debates the numbers, and families feel the squeeze. But there is another housing cost hiding in plain sight—real estate fraud. With Congress working on bipa

Fix-and-flip investor sentiment climbs even as 2025 activity declines

Investor sentiment in the fix-and-flip housing market improved at the end of 2025, even as overall transaction volume fell to its lowest level in a decade. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by Kiavi and John Burns Research & Consulting. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the Burns + Kiavi Fi

Spreads play the superhero as mortgage rates move below 6% again

After a weekend of crazy headlines and a stock sell-off on Monday morning, bond yields are close to hitting 4% again, but mortgage rates are back under 6% once again, which is the multiyear low in recent history. The biggest reason rates are under 6% isn’t just that the 2025 labor market produced th

VoicePilot lets CAR members draft forms by voice

The California Association of Realtors (CAR) is teaming up with Ethica AI to provide members with access to VoicePilot through CAR’s subsidiary Real Estate Business Services (REBS), according to an announcement on Monday.  Ethica AI describes VoicePilot as an AI driven voice and workflow platform th

Where does HUD’s potential reverse mortgage revamp stand?

Nearly two months after three federal housing agencies wrapped up an extended public comment period about the future of two federal reverse mortgage programs, industry stakeholders are waiting to learn what they’ll do next. In October, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the

Compass launches referral program for listing agents’ buyer leads

Compass, the brokerage owned by Compass International Holdings, has launched a new program it says will help agents generate passive income while retaining control over how they manage their business. On Friday, the brokerage launched its Listing Agent Lead and Referral Program.  Under this program,

City Lending to shut down amid regulatory strain, market consolidation

Virginia-based mortgage lender City Lending Inc. is winding down operations as regulatory burdens and ongoing industry consolidation weigh on independent mortgage banks, according to founder and CEO Jorge Campodonico. The lender originated approximately $232 million in mortgages over the past 12 mon