White-label brokerage Side is seeking more than $4 million from the Alexander brothers and the brokerage Official Partners.According to an amended complaint filed this week, Side alleges that Official Partners and its founders Tal and Oren Alexander committed multiple events of default on a $4.6 million promissory note Side extended in April.Side claims the current balance owed is $4.2 million, and the note continues to accrue interest. The balance request includes additional damages for legal fees and a jury trial.The dollar amounts associated with the loan mentioned in the lawsuit, which was filed in October, were previously redacted. The note replaced a previous loan Side extended in 2022. It’s unclear why the money was extended or its intended use.“We are beyond disappointed by the destructive behavior of Side towards its partner,” said James Cinque, counsel to Official Partners, in a statement to HousingWire. Side declined to comment, citing the case being in active litigation.Tal and Oren Alexander were superstars among real estate agents in New York City and Miami, having represented ultra wealthy clients at Douglas Eliman before leaving to found Official in 2022.But in March, two women filed sexual assault lawsuits against Oren Alexander and twin brother Alon, and another did so in July. Tal was named in a later suit. According to Side’s complaint, more than 30 women have accused the brothers of sexual assault or rape.They have denied the allegations.In the wake of the accusations, Tal and Oren Alexander took a leaves of absence from Official, and Oren’s New York and Florida real estate licenses are no longer active. Alon Alexander works for the family security firm called Kent Security.In addition to defaulting on loan payments, Side alleges multiple events of default, including dissociating from their real estate licenses. Earlier this month, Side filed for a temporary restraining order against the Alexanders and Official for allegedly moving the underlying collateral on the loan. The latest filing does not include details on the collateral, only to say it includes cash, investment property, intellectual property, equipment and documents, among other things.

NAR’s volunteer leaders receive financial benefits that no other nonprofit in the housing space comes close to matching. " data-medium-file="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_02e19dff-acd4-403c-b2ab-f9dbd7d3cb77.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_02e19dff-acd4-403c-b2ab-f9dbd7d3cb77.jpg?w=1024" tabindex="0" role="button" src="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_02e19dff-acd4-403c-b2ab-f9dbd7d3cb77.jpg?w=1024" alt="compensation-of-NAR-executives-and-elected-leaders-to-the-compensation-of-leaders-and-officers" class="wp-image-494194" srcset="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_02e19dff-acd4-403c-b2ab-f9dbd7d3cb77.jpg 1200w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_02e19dff-acd4-403c-b2ab-f9dbd7d3cb77.jpg?resize=150,84 150w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_02e19dff-acd4-403c-b2ab-f9dbd7d3cb77.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_02e19dff-acd4-403c-b2ab-f9dbd7d3cb77.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_02e19dff-acd4-403c-b2ab-f9dbd7d3cb77.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />NAR’s volunteer leaders receive financial benefits that no other nonprofit in the housing space comes close to matching, 990 filings reveal. Earlier this week the National Association of Realtors(NAR) made headlines for the extravagant perks and compensation its executives and volunteer leaders receive.A New York Times investigation detailed the lavish perks enjoyed by trade group executives, particularly former CEO Bob Goldberg, who had three memberships to exclusive country clubs, paid first-class airfare for personal travel, a $1,500 monthly car allowance, free pet-sitting for his dogs Tuffy and Fonzie, and tickets to “Hamilton” at the height of the musical’s popularity. These niceties were on top of a salary of $1.2 million per year that later ballooned to $2.6 million, according to NAR’s 2022 Form 990, which was filed in November of 2023.Other NAR executives who earned over $1 million in 2022 are Mark Birschbach, the senior vice president of strategic business innovation and technology, and Shannon McGahn, the senior vice president of government affairs.Volunteer elected leaders also received choice perks and swollen bank accounts. Per the 990 form, 2022 NAR president Leslie Rouda-Smith earned $413,566, while president-elect Kenny Parcell pocketed $256,956, first vice president Tracy Kasper earned $181,362 and treasurer Nancy Lane received $212,356.According to the Form 990, all of the salaried elected leaders worked an average of 30 hours per week for the trade organization.The New York Times spoke to seven nonprofit lawyers who argued the perks at NAR were excessive. The lawyers also said that the trade association may be running afoul of tax laws given its status as a nonprofit trade association.“It is highly unusual — I would even say virtually unheard-of — for volunteer leaders and officers to receive compensation at those levels,” Jeff Tenenbaum, a nonprofit lawyer in Washington, D.C., told the paper. “Many of us who practice association antitrust law have always wondered, ‘How can they get away with this?’”Using NAR funds for personal benefit might be a violation known as “private inurement,” even if the spending is related to business travel. Private inurement could result in NAR losing its tax-exempt status.Although the trade association declined to comment on the issue, 990 filings show clear that the compensation for NAR’s executives and leaders is not in line with those of other trade associations in the housing space.Mortgage Bankers AssociationLike NAR, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has executive staffers and a board of directors, which has its own leadership team. But unlike NAR, the compensation of the trade group’s leaders looks quite a bit different. Although MBA president and CEO Bob Broeksmit earned $2.04 million for his work directly related to MBA in FY 2022-2023, according to the MBA’s 2023 Form 990, Matt Rocco, who served as the chair of MBA’s board of directors in 2023, took home $12,566. The MBA clarified that it was reimbursement for expenses specifically incurred when fulfilling his duties as an MBA officer. Other MBA officers who received reimbursements included chair elect Mark Jones, who worked an average of seven hours per week for the association and incurred $3,670 in expenses for the year, immediate past chair Kristy Fercho (average of one hour per week), who was reimbursed $6,892 and vice-chair Laura Escobar (averaged four hours per week), who was reimbursed $1,623.However, while NAR’s compensated volunteer leaders all worked an average of 30 hours per week for the organization, MBA’s 990 shows that its chairs like Rocco only worked an average of four hours per week on MBA related work, which one could argue is a more reasonable work load for an uncompensated volunteer position. American Land Title AssociationIn stark contrast to NAR, the American Land Title Association (ALTA), which also has elected volunteer leaders, including a president, who serves a one-year term, does not compensate any of its officers, including those who serve as president, president elect, treasurer, committee chairs or governors.According to the trade group’s fiscal year 2022 Form 990, which was filed in September of 2023 and is the most recent form publicly available, 2022 ALTA president Jack Rattikin III worked an average of two hours per week for ALTA and another two hours per week at related organizations. According to the filing, elected officers put in an average of one to two hours of work a week at ALTA and an average of one to four hours a week at other related organizations, which may include things like their state or local land title association.ALTA declined to comment and would not clarify if officers were compensated for expenses incurred while doing work for ALTA, such as travel costs.In addition to not compensating its volunteer leaders, the salaries paid to ALTA executives are also much smaller than those earned by c-suite executives at other trade associations. In 2022, ALTA CEO Diane Tomb took home $756,697 for an average of 40 hours of work per week at ALTA. The pay for other executives ranged from $127,567 to $516,544. National Association of HomebuildersThe trade group advocating for homebuilders, the National Association of Homebuilders(NAHB) boasts roughly 140,000 members, roughly one-tenth of NAR’s membership, but the association still compensates the volunteer leaders of its board of directors. The NAHB’s fiscal year 2022 Form 990 shows that 2022 board chairman Jerry Konter took home $41,121 for an average of four hours of work per week, while John Fowke, the immediate past chairman, took home $47,830, also for a weekly average of four hours of work. The trade group’s first, second and third vice chairs were also compensated $34,226, $29,614 and $25,968, respectively. According to the NAHB, these payments are annual stipends to cover business expenses accrued when performing duties related to their roles as NAHB senior officers. The association noted that these roles are all volunteer positions. Chairmen are elected annually by the NAHB’s leadership council, which the trade group said consists of over 1,700 NAHB members. The rest of the board of directors is also volunteer and they do not receive a stipend. Of the trade group’s executive leadership, the NAHB’s president Gerald Howard received the largest compensation package in 2022, taking home $1.774 million. Other top earners include James Rizzo, the group’s chief legal officer, at $575,375, treasurer and CFO Eileen Ramage, who earned $502,687, and James Tobin, who serves as the executive vice president of government affairs and chief lobbyist, and earned $529,915.Appraisal Institute Topping out at roughly 16,000 members, the Appraisal Institute (AI) is much smaller than the roughly 1.5 million member NAR, but like NAR it does compensate its elected volunteer leaders.According to AI’s fiscal year 2022 Form 990, the organization’s 2022 president Jody Bishop earned $148,525 in return for working an average of 40 hours a week for AI. Other compensated officers include president-elect Craig Steinley ($104,600), vice president Sanda Adomatis ($94,600), and immediate past president Rodman Schley ($94,524). All three officers worked an average of 20 hours per week on AI related activities, according to the 990 form. But while AI’s elected leaders were compensated more generously than those at other, larger trade groups, its executives were paid less. AI CEO Jim Amorin took home $498,511 for an average of 50 hours of work per week in 2022, while CFO Beate Swacha earned $253,925, and general counsel Jeffrey Liskar earned $326,920. U.S. Chamber of Commerce While not a housing industry trade association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of the few trade associations with similar heft and influence as NAR. The group, which claims to include members from more than 3 million businesses nationwide, advocates for policies that help businesses and the economy. The organization’s most recent Form 990 is from fiscal year 2022 and it reveals that its board of 111 directors, who all work an average of one hour per week for the group, are not compensated. CEO Suzanne Clark, who took over for longtime leader Tom Donohue, made $5.9 million in salary from the nonprofit, plus $423,000 from related organizations. The next highest salary earner was Agnes Warfield-Blanc who earned $4.4 million in 2022, while executive vice president and COO Justin Waller, executive vice president and chief policy officer Neil Bradley, head of intelligence Myron Brilliant, chief legal officer Harold Kim, executive vice president David Hirschmann, senior vice president of policy Martin Durbin and chief communications officer Michelle Russo all earn between $1 million and $2 million per year. The Chamber did not return HousingWire’s request for comment. Jeff Andrews contributed reporting.

Fannie Mae on Wednesday announced that its next version of the Desktop Underwriter (DU) software platform will be available for users on Jan. 11. The platform will feature “enhanced” risk assessment by incorporating new data points, including updated market conditions and loan performance data in its assessment functionality.Fannie Mae said that DU version 12.0 represents “a major update to DU’s credit risk assessment and opens new opportunities for homeownership,” while claiming it will also offer new ways to evaluate borrowers “with thin or no credit” and will offer additional details on rent history and “cash flow assessment.”The new version also removes certain criteria from the evaluation process, according to the release notes of version 12.0. These include “the composition of revolving debts within the borrower’s total monthly expenses” (though student loan debt will continue to be a factor); and variable income resulting from overtime, bonus or commission pay.Status as a first-time homebuyer will now also count as “a mitigating factor in the DU Risk Assessment,” as research into the development process for the new version suggested that loans where a borrower identified themselves as first-time homebuyers “performed better than similar loans for borrowers that had previously owned a home.”The new version will also change the recommendation given for an applicant with a “significant derogatory credit event,” which often includes bankruptcies, foreclosures, short sales and charge-offs of mortgage accounts.In the new version, a certain amount of time must pass following a significant derogatory credit event “before the borrower is eligible for a new loan salable to Fannie Mae,” the release notes explain. “When it does not appear that a borrower has met the waiting period requirements for a foreclosure or bankruptcy, [the updated DU] will now issue an ‘ineligible’ recommendation instead of a ‘Refer with Caution’ recommendation.Criteria will also change for borrowers who have no credit score, and some of these borrowers may be able to move forward under specified eligibility guidelines. Specific considerations will also be made in instances where multiple borrowers on a credit application have at least one credit score between them, and these potential loans “will no longer be subject to limitations on loan purpose or occupancy and will now be subject to standard eligibility guidelines.”But in certain situations, the lender will need to document a nontraditional credit history for each borrower without a credit score, the notes said.

Chicago-based multichannel mortgage lender Rate, formerly known as Guaranteed Rate, has announced a shakeup in its reverse mortgage division’s leadership by appointing two longtime industry veterans to lead the company’s efforts with older borrowers.Jesse Allen, most recently of OneTrust Home Loans and formerly of American Advisors Group (AAG), has been appointed to the role of president for the division. Meanwhile, Greg Pahel — who previously served in other reverse mortgage divisions at different companies, will join alongside as the division’s EVP of consumer direct reverse mortgage lending.Jesse Allen, president of reverse mortgages at Rate." data-image-caption="Jesse Allen" data-medium-file="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_d7cdd0ea-e5ad-4d27-a900-107dfc5045ac.jpg?w=200" data-large-file="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_d7cdd0ea-e5ad-4d27-a900-107dfc5045ac.jpg?w=200" tabindex="0" role="button" src="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_d7cdd0ea-e5ad-4d27-a900-107dfc5045ac.jpg?w=200" alt="Jesse Allen, president of reverse mortgages at Rate." class="wp-image-462029" style="width:200px" srcset="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_d7cdd0ea-e5ad-4d27-a900-107dfc5045ac.jpg 200w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_d7cdd0ea-e5ad-4d27-a900-107dfc5045ac.jpg?resize=150,150 150w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Jesse Allen“Jesse brings a wealth of experience and a remarkable track record of success in the reverse mortgage space,” said Rate CEO Victor Ciardelli. “His leadership aligns perfectly with Rate’s vision of providing innovative solutions that truly meet the needs of homeowners seeking financial flexibility in retirement.”With Allen leading the division and Pahel growing the company’s consumer-direct model, Ciardelli says the lender is “well-positioned to become a leader in this growing market.”The new hires “underscore Rate’s commitment to enhancing financial solutions tailored to the unique needs of this demographic, empowering them to leverage their home equity for a more comfortable and secure retirement,” the company said.Allen maintains roughly 35 years of financial services experience, returning to the reverse mortgage industry in 2016 at its leading lender AAG, after having previously managed Bank of America’s reverse mortgage division before moving to other roles within that company.OneTrust appointed him in 2022 to lead its new 55+ Lending division, where he oversaw its implementation into the OneTrust organization including with reverse mortgage lending.“Rate’s entrepreneurial and innovative culture prioritizes the customer and loan officer at the heart of all operations,” Allen said in a statement. “The company’s extensive reach, core values, and brand credibility offer an incredible platform and opportunity to scale and empower more people to live retirement with greater financial freedom and peace of mind.”Pahel maintains over a decade of reverse mortgage experience including at companies like Nations Direct Mortgage, loanDepot, Primary Residential Mortgage Inc. (PRMI) and The Federal Savings Bank.“I am incredibly excited to embark on this new chapter with Rate,” Pahel said. “Over the next three to five years, I expect to see significant changes in the competitive landscape, with the rankings of the top lenders in the reverse mortgage market up for grabs.”Ryan Ogata has taken on a management position for the company’s forward mortgage arm, HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) has learned.

While many older homeowners own their properties free and clear of a mortgage payment, this is not a feasible reality for many seniors. In fact, more than 10.5 million Americans at or over the age of 65 still pay into a forward mortgage loan, according to a study conducted by LendingTree.To get a better grasp of the dynamics involved with older homeowners maintaining their existing mortgages, LendingTree took a closer look at data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), which helped illuminate “the share of housing units with mortgages in each of the nation’s 50 largest metros owned and occupied by people 65 and older,” the organization said.Across all 50 examined metro areas, nearly 20% of all homes that had mortgage loans attached to them are owned by someone at least 65 years old. Homes owned by this cohort, the results said, “tend to be less valuable than those owned by the general population, while monthly housing costs tend to be lower.”The metro areas with the largest shares of older homeowners included Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego. More than one-quarter (25.31%) of all homeowners in these regions are at least 65 years old, a figure that drops to 19.76% when averaged across all 50 examined metros.Conversely, the smallest shares of senior-owned homes — 14.64% — were contained within Austin and Dallas, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah.LendingTree previously examined this statistic in 2021, and the figure has risen by roughly 500,000 people since that point. Other than that, there is relatively minor variation between the data from 2021 and 2024 when comparing the results, however Miami no longer has a higher concentration of senior homeowners and Houston no longer has one of the smallest.While these older homeowners are likely impacted financially by continuing to make forward mortgage payments, their housing costs still tend to be lower than their younger counterparts on average.“Largely because their homes are typically less expensive, median monthly housing costs paid by 65-and-older homeowners with mortgages are usually hundreds of dollars less expensive than median monthly housing costs paid by the general population of homeowners with mortgages,” the results said. “Other factors, such as lower mortgage rates or property tax exemptions, can also help reduce housing costs for older homeowners.”The reverse mortgage industry has consistently expressed frustration with the idea that its penetration rate continues to lag behind the traditional mortgage industry, despite feeling that there is a mismatch between the age of older homeowners and the decades-long terms they may be entering into with a new, forward loan.Reverse mortgage industry trainer and speaker Martin Andelman crystallized this perspective in a 2019 episode of The RMD Podcast.“It’s also worth mentioning that [in terms of] 30-year mortgages, I promise you, no one ever sat around and talked about 30-year mortgages thinking they’d be perfect for 70 and 80-year olds,” he said at the time. “30-year mortgages were never meant to be for them. And now, I bump into people all the time who could be 72 years old, just refinanced two years ago, and now have only 28 years to go. What could go wrong?”

Executives at mortgage lenders anticipate a minimum 20% increase in credit reporting costs in 2025 compared to 2024. And the soaring costs will hit as lenders try to dig out from multiple years of financial losses and mass layoffs.In early November, Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), the company behind the widely used consumer credit-risk assessment methodology, announced an increase in its wholesale royalty for mortgage originations from $3.50 to $4.95 per score. However, this is just one among many credit reporting costs for lenders, who must also absorb additional fees from credit bureaus and tri-merge resellers applied downstream. Lenders told HousingWire that they have yet to see price increases from credit providers, as confirmations from the credit bureaus are expected in the coming weeks. However, in planning for 2025, many lenders have already started factoring in higher credit report costs based on initial discussions with vendors.To start, FICO’s wholesale price hike translates to an additional $1.45 per score—equating to $4.35 per borrower and $8.70 per joint application for a tri-bureau credit report, the industry standard.Michael Metz, operations manager at Arizona-based lender V.I.P Mortgage, which has 330 sponsored loan officers across 39 active branches, expects that most credit bureaus will raise their prices as well. “By the time it’s all added in, we’ll see an increase of about $18-20 per borrower,” Metz said. This adds to the current level of $80-$100 for the tri-merge credit report and score bundle, based on FICO’s estimates.  “FICO set the stage for the pricing increase with their 40% increase this year. I think we’ll see most credit bureaus take that opportunity to do similar swings.” Metz said. “With pending legislation banning trigger leads, they’ll need to go conservative and make up the revenue – anticipating it passes – and increasing the pricing now to make up for that loss of revenue.”At Tennessee-based First Community Mortgage, which operates with about 200 registered loan officers across 38 active branches, credit reporting costs are projected to increase by 22% in 2025.“Our new pricing starts on January 1, and given our discussions with our vendor, we anticipate the expense to rise by $12 to $20 per report,” said Keith Canter, CEO at First Community Mortgage. “Currently, we pay $82, so for 2025, we are budgeting $100 per report. We should have the exact amount within the next two weeks.” While the year-over-year price increase for 2025 may seem moderate compared to recent years, it represents a significant 72% jump from 2023 for First Community Mortgage.FICO does not set the final price for customers. In 2023, the company implemented a tiered wholesale pricing structure ranging from $0.60 to $2.75 per score, which caused some lenders’ final costs to surge by as much as 400%. In 2024, FICO returned to a fixed royalty of $3.50 per score, applying the same rate for both soft and hard credit pulls. Now that the 2025 wholesale price of $4.95 per score is official, HousingWire contacted the three major credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion—to inquire about their 2025 pricing policies for mortgage lenders. However, none provided specific details or responded to the request. In a statement provided to HousingWire, a spokesperson for TransUnion said, “Credit reports represent a fraction of a percent of the cost to purchase a home, and ultimately it is an individual mortgage lender’s decision whether to pass those minimal costs onto their customers.We are proud of the role we play helping homebuyers qualify for a mortgage that meets their needs, and are likewise proud to supply consumers with free weekly credit reports to help them plan for their home purchase.” Putting it into perspective Jim Wehmann, executive vice president of scores at FICO, wrote in a recent blog post that the $4.95 royalty per score accounts for a small portion—approximately 15%—of the cost of a tri-merge credit report and score bundle. “With total average closing costs of $6,000, FICO’s share of total average closing costs before this new per-score royalty was only approximately two-tenths of one percent.” However, executives at mortgage lenders view these costs differently. A white paper from the Community Home Lenders Association (CHLA) noted that credit reports are often pulled multiple times during the mortgage application process, as they are only valid for 120 days. Given that home searches can extend over many months, it can swell to hundreds of dollars.According to CHLA, the credit costs for closing a single loan have increased from $50 in 2022 to between $150 and $200 in 2024. When factoring in credit reports for applications that do not lead to closed loans, the cost rises dramatically to $510–$725 per closed loan in 2024. CHLA plans to release a new estimate for 2025 in the coming weeks.“The cost of the credit report may remain a smaller share of the total closing costs on a loan, but a mortgage company still has a loss from the other credit reports pulled that don’t convert into a closed loan,” Metz said. “That ends up having more impact on a mortgage company’s financial performance, which affects consumer pricing in a world with thinned margins.” Phil Crescenzo Jr., a branch manager at New Jersey-based Nation One Mortgage Corporation, which has 52 sponsored loan officers across six active branches, said that overall costs associated with credit reporting at his branch now total $20,000 per month, more than double what they were two years ago.“Part of that is credit rescores and updates, and some verifications – VOE, VOA, VOR items – through the credit report process, not just standard reporting,” Crescenzo said. “At some point, it does fall back on the borrower, or maybe the lender covers some, or they give them credit, but it’s all going to come from somewhere.” The latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) shows that independent mortgage banks (IMBs) as a group saw improved profitability in Q3 2024, with an average pretax net profit of $701 per loan (18 bps). However, 71% of IMBs reported profitability across both their origination and servicing operations—a decline from 78% in the prior quarter, and a 20% increase in credit reporting costs would bring down that 18 bps figure, industry analysts said.The cost to close a loan Canter, from First Community Mortgage, said that rising vendor costs are happening at a time when IMBs are striving to lower the average cost of closing a loan to below $10,000. At his company, credit reporting expenses account for 2% to 3% of the total cost per loan. But it adds to compliance and regulatory burden and irrational margin setting by competition, he said. “In the last two quarters, we have been profitable, thankfully.” Leading U.S. mortgage lenders have taken steps to support originators in navigating the challenging market environment. Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage, for instance, introduced its Fee Freedom initiative in 2023, covering the cost of credit reports for brokers closing loans through its wholesale arm, Rocket Pro TPO. The program was extended into 2024.“Next year, with all the increase, we’re going to have to sit down and look at it,” Rocket Pro TPO‘s executive vice president Mike Fawaz said. “Our decision is to continue to cover credit reports fees for our broker partners, similar to what we did the last two years. Now, we also did tell our broker partners that at one point, we will cover everything when the loan doesn’t close, but if a loan closes, we will charge for that. I don’t know if we’ll implement it next year or not.”For now, Rocket is maintaining the program, as brokers are increasingly hesitant to pull credit reports due to its costs, according to Fawaz. He said this approach is an investment in strengthening Rocket’s broker network.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Wednesday posted a proposed Mortgagee Letter (ML) that would add flexibility for people receiving rental income from “boarders” who pay for space in an existing dwelling when considering them for an FHA-insured mortgage.Borrowers receiving rental income from “boarders,” a term referring to “individuals who rent space in borrowers’ homes” according to the Single Family Housing 4000.1 Handbook, would have less stringent underwriting requirements for documenting and calculating this form of income when seeking a new FHA-insured loan, according to the proposal.“FHA remains committed to extending affordable housing opportunities to its core constituency of first-time and low- to moderate-income homebuyers, including those in underserved communities,” the agency said in its announcement of the proposal. “In doing so, it recognizes that rental income received from individuals renting space in borrowers’ homes is a stable and viable source of income that increases housing affordability and allows borrowers to better manage housing costs.”The first two elements of the proposal include a reduction in the “acceptable rental income history” from 24 to 12 months for income earned from boarders; and an allowance for borrowers with a 12-month rental history to qualify for an FHA-insured mortgage, “provided the income has been received for at least nine of the most recent 12 months, is currently being received, and is averaged over a 12-month period.”The proposal would also establish that rental income from boarders used in a qualifying decision “cannot exceed 30% of their total monthly effective income;” and the ML would also expand acceptable income verification documentation for boarders to “include bank statements, canceled checks, and/or deposit slips showing rental payments received.”The proposed ML is now available to review on the Single Family Drafting Table, an online portal where proposed U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) single-family policies can be reviewed prior to going into full effect.The agency encourages all stakeholders to thoroughly review the proposed document and to provide feedback on it, which can be done through Dec. 10.Depending on the amount of feedback received, HUD will have limited time to implement the proposal if current Biden administration leaders plan to see it through. The incumbent president’s term expires at noon EST on Jan. 20th, at which point President-elect Donald Trump will be administered the Oath of Office by Chief Justice John Roberts.

HSBC has agreed to direct $25 million over the next four years to support underserved communities in an agreement with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) following allegations of redlining, the parties announced on Wednesday. In August 2023, the bank disclosed it was under investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) after the nonprofit organization filed a complaint alleging violations of the U.S. Fair Lending Act. According to the document, HSBC allegedly engaged in discriminatory lending practices in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in six U.S. metropolitan areas from 2018 through 2021. It included New York (NY), Seattle (WA), Orange County (CA), Los Angeles (CA), Oakland (CA), and the Bay Area (CA). NCRC withdrew the complaint in the spring, and talks toward the agreement began shortly thereafter. The new partnership begins in January and aims to expand economic opportunities in low—and moderate-income, diverse and underserved communities through loan subsidies, grants and donations.“What began as a dispute turned into a conversation that will now expand a powerful bank’s work on behalf of lower-income communities, communities of color and other places that the whole banking industry has historically overlooked,” Jesse Van Tol, president and CEO of NCRC, said in a statement. The HSBC US and Americas CEO Michael Roberts added that the partnership “reflects our shared commitment to fostering economic resilience and opportunity in communities across the U.S., and we are honored to support these efforts through our loans, investments and grants.”HSBC has committed $10 million in loan subsidies, including $3.5 million to certain California markets. Another $4 million will be directed to grants to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and community-based nonprofit organizations, $6 million will be donated to NCRC and $1 million will go towards community engagement initiatives. According to the mortgage tech platform Modex, HSBC originated about $3.5 billion in mortgages in the last 12 months, most of them purchases (77% of the total) and conventional (90%) loans. California and Washington are the bank’s main markets. The Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) shows 87 registered mortgage loan officers as of Wednesday.

Nearly three quarters of recent American home sellers said in a Clever survey that using a traditional real estate agent is the best way to sell. " data-medium-file="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_e61fd16f-d4c2-4c03-a61a-d90091c17ff3.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_e61fd16f-d4c2-4c03-a61a-d90091c17ff3.jpg?w=1024" tabindex="0" role="button" src="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_e61fd16f-d4c2-4c03-a61a-d90091c17ff3.jpg?w=1024" alt="nearly-three-quarters-of-recent-American-home-sellers-say-using-a-real-estate-agent-is-the-best-way-to-sell" class="wp-image-494104" srcset="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_e61fd16f-d4c2-4c03-a61a-d90091c17ff3.jpg 1200w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_e61fd16f-d4c2-4c03-a61a-d90091c17ff3.jpg?resize=150,84 150w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_e61fd16f-d4c2-4c03-a61a-d90091c17ff3.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_e61fd16f-d4c2-4c03-a61a-d90091c17ff3.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241121/16/original_e61fd16f-d4c2-4c03-a61a-d90091c17ff3.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />Nearly three quarters of recent American home sellers said in a Clever survey that using a traditional real estate agent is the best way to sell. As real estate agents adjust to sweeping changes brought by the commission lawsuit settlement, a new report from discount brokerage Clever Real Estate reveals one thing hasn’t shifted: Americans still overwhelmingly trust full-service agents to sell their homes. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of recent home sellers say agents are the best way to sell, with 77% opting for traditional full-service agents—outpacing all other methods, including FSBO and iBuyers, by a wide margin. Clever’s finding was aggregated by a survey of 1,000 Americans who have sold a home in the past five years. Of the 73% who said they preferred using agents, 67% believe traditional real estate agents are still the best option and 6% favor discount agents.Of the surveyed pool, 42% have sold since late 2022 as rising mortgage rates cooled the post-pandemic market. The majority of recent home sellers overwhelmingly prefer traditional full-service real estate agents, with 77% choosing this method for their sale — nearly eight times more than those who opted for a ‘For Sale By Owner’ (FSBO) transaction (10%). Not only is this method popular, but it’s also well-regarded; 76% of sellers who worked with an agent felt their services were worth the cost. That’s despite a recent research report from the Atlanta Fed that found the vast majority of real estate agents achieve similar price outcomes. Although there are agents who consistently outperform on price relative to others, they are very rare, Atlanta Fed researchers found.The Clever survey comes out as agents and brokerages adjust to seismic changes in real estate, namely the National Association of Realtors (NAR) commission lawsuit and related business practice changes, as well as several down years for existing home sales. In August, directly after the NAR settlement went into effect in most markets, Redfin reported that the typical U.S. home seller paid a 2.55% commission to the real estate agent hired by their buyer, down from an average of 2.62% in January. At the end of October, the narrative changed; Redfin reported that commissions paid to real estate agents representing buyers remained essentially unchanged. Some agents and brokers told HousingWire that their buy-side commission splits have increased since the announcement of the settlement.The changes haven’t materially had an impact so far on NAR membership or projections of 2025 membership. NAR Treasurer Greg Hrabcak assured members during the NAR NXT conference that the organization remains on solid footing, with no planned dues increases and a maintained reserve level.Hrabcak credited budget reductions across NAR for minimal impact on services and a “disciplined approach” to fulfilling settlement obligations. Membership numbers also remain strong, with 1.526 million reported in October — the fourth-highest ever — and a forecasted 1.4 million members in 2025, at 8% smaller decline than many had expected.Corporate cash buyer, iBuyer DistrustOnly 3% hired discount agents, 5% sold to cash buyer companies, and just 2% used iBuyers like Opendoor or Offerpad. Recent sellers have a much less favorable view of cash buyer companies, with 38% considering them the worst way to sell. About 35% of those who sold to cash buyers and 33% of iBuyer users would choose a different method if they could do it over. Almost two-thirds of respondents (61%) go as far as calling cash buyer companies “scams.” Some sellers (65%) touted that their cash buyer experience led to them closing within a month and 31% sold without listing their home. Cash buyer companies appeal to sellers with property issues, the report pointed out, as 54% avoid expenses like repairs or staging. While 74% would consider this option, motivations differ: 36% prioritize the highest offer, 8% value speed, and 27% see it as a last resort.Nearly 1 in 4 sellers (24%) view the polarizing FSBO method as the worst way to sell a home. While 46% believe FSBO is the most profitable and 51% see it as the least expensive option, it comes with significant challenges. Two-thirds (66%) say it’s the hardest method, and 55% call it the slowest. “[RealTrends] found [in polling] that well over a third of all sellers considered using for sale by owner before they went with an agent,” Steve Murray, the founder of RealTrends and a HousingWire consultant, said in September. “Why would they do this? It turns out that people perceive that using an agent to deal with the complexity and possibility of making a stupid mistake is better than if they did it themselves.”Per the Clever survey, traditional real estate agents are considered the easiest (58%) and often the fastest (40%) way to sell, despite being seen as the most expensive by 69% of sellers.Despite their popularity, real estate agents face some criticism: 36% of sellers feel pressured to accept lowball offers, 12% report agent mistakes during the sale, and 13% found their real estate agent more of a hassle than a help. While traditional and discount agents offer similar services, the difference between them matters significantly to sellers. About 76% would consider a traditional real estate agent for their next sale, compared to just 25% for a discount agent.However, 60% of sellers are open to trading some traditional real estate agent services for cost savings. Many are willing to forgo hosting open houses (26%), pricing strategy and market analysis (13%), or negotiation support (11%). Still, concerns about marketing support linger, with 71% believing discount brokers provide less than traditional agents, though this varies by individual agent.Despite these perceptions, most sellers who’ve used both would recommend them: 83% for traditional agents and 56% for discount brokers.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is getting a temporary reprieve from the latest antitrust suit it’s fighting regarding “three-way membership agreements” for MLS access.On Monday, the complaint filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by John Diaz was dismissed by Judge Dolly Gee.According to the judge’s ruling, the complaint was dismissed as it did not comply with a local court rule which requires that all documents, except declarations, to be signed by the attorney for the party or the party appearing pro se. Diaz is representing himself pro se. Due to the lack of compliance, Judge Gee dismissed the complaint with leave to amend. According to the ruling, Diaz has until Dec. 9 to file an amended complaint that is properly signed in compliance with the local rules.If Diaz does not refile his complaint before the deadline, his claims will be dismissed without prejudice.Diaz is a broker at UHOO Real Estate Services. In addition to NAR, the defendants in the suit include the California Association of Realtors (CAR), the Lodi Association of Realtors (LAR) and MetroList MLS. In his complaint, Diaz claimed hat the defendants “have established an exclusionary practice, requiring brokers to join multiple associations (NAR, CAR, and LAR) to gain access to MLS services provided by MetroList, which are essential for conducting real estate transactions.” It goes on to state that the membership requirement “constitutes an unlawful tying arrangement,” as brokers and agents “must ‘purchase’ association memberships they may not need or want to obtain MLS services.”According to Diaz, the three-way membership agreement has “created an anti-competitive monopoly over MLS services, limiting the market’s ability to support alternative trade organizations, thereby stifling competition in violation of the Sherman Act.” The plaintiff also claims that he has “experienced a significant financial burden” due to the membership dues and MLS fees, which he said have “diminished his revenue and impeded his business.”In the state of California, it is illegal for an MLS to require Realtor association membership it order to access the MLS.NAR currently faces two other antitrust suits — Hardy and Muhammad — that involve similar allegations. Additionally, the Alabama Association of Realtors sent a letter to NAR asking it to end the three-way agreement.

Major reverse mortgage companies like Finance of America (FOA) and Ellington Financial — the parent of reverse lender Longbridge Financial — recently released their third-quarter 2024 earnings results, with FOA in particular posting strong numbers while Ellington continues to tout the versatility of Longbridge in its overall portfolio.Recently, HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) sat down with UBS analyst Douglas Harter to take a closer look at investors’ attitudes toward these companies in the here and now.When looking ahead at the future, there are some unsettled questions regarding the outlook of certain details within the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program, as well as other recent priorities in both the public and private sectors.Past issues shaping future responseWhen asked about the 2022 collapse of top-five reverse mortgage lender Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF) and the resulting liquidity crisis that ensued, Harter was asked whether something like that can trigger either investor pessimism regarding the fact that it happened, or confidence considering the government’s response to it.Ultimately it depends, he explained.“I think, initially, it leans toward concern over the near-term impact on liquidity and potential contagion to other areas,” he said. “There’s also the question of how existing players will be impacted. But as these issues are addressed and potential government actions like HMBS 2.0 improve industry dynamics, it can create new opportunities.”That’s because an event like this could signal how an entity like Ginnie Mae could approach working with other liquidity providers, which could be a source of optimism. But investors need time to absorb and assess the impacts.“These kinds of questions tend to arise after the initial aftermath, once the market begins to see how stakeholders and investors are responding,” he said.But it’s also likely that investors could see what the companies are seeing, and that is additional product viability for the lenders’ proprietary reverse mortgage offerings. Both FOA and Ellington emphasized the strength of their proprietary products in the recent earnings calls.“When looking at the proprietary side, there’s clear potential for growth and efficiency, especially with jumbo loans,” Harter said. “If you can reduce origination costs through scale, that can be beneficial. This fits well with Ellington’s strategy, as they’re a balance sheet-heavy business focused on creating long-term investments to support their dividend.”There’s more potential volatility at FOA, since that company aims “to be less capital-intensive than Longbridge or Ellington,” Harter said. “This has historically caused more fluctuations in their financial reports, with market adjustments playing a significant role—positive this quarter, but negative in previous ones.”But as FOA’s originations business scales, that volatility could diminish, he said. The key will lie in the company’s ability to find long-term investors.Impending changesSince a large segment of the reverse mortgage industry is intertwined with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)’s HECM program, the impending transfer of power in the federal government does have some implications on the viability of the space depending on the kind of policy the next HUD secretary, Ginnie Mae president or FHA commissioner will choose to pursue.As of now, Ginnie Mae is pursuing a final term sheet for HMBS 2.0, a complementary reverse mortgage securities program first telegraphed by Ginnie Mae at the beginning of this year. An initial term sheet was released by Ginnie Mae this summer, with a final term sheet expected sometime in the near future according to a timeline offered by Acting Ginnie Mae President Sam Valverde in an interview with RMD.But with the impending change of administrations, and the insistence from some congressional allies of President-elect Donald Trump to cease policymaking activity until the transfer of power takes place, it remains to be seen how things will progress. As far as investors are concerned, HMBS 2.0 and proprietary product performance could play a role in their outlooks on the reverse mortgage business.“I think the resolution of HMBS 2.0, and assessing the potential ongoing balance sheet or liquidity benefits that might come from it, is definitely something people are watching,” he said. “As we discussed earlier, the success of proprietary products or the HomeSafe Second are other key areas of interest. People are looking for indications of whether the market can grow. Of course, interest rates will fluctuate, which is largely beyond anyone’s control.”As for whether or not investors have a stake in the specifics of the actual transfer of power, it does not command a lot of time in the conversations Harter has with investors, he said.“It doesn’t seem like people have a strong view yet on what might actually change,” he explained. “On the forward side, there’s more focus on considering the potential impact of ending conservatorship for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That seems to be where the current conversations are centered.“No one really knows what that would mean yet, or how much can be accomplished with or without Congress, and what could get through Congress. It’s definitely on people’s minds, but there isn’t a clear sense yet of what it would look like.”

In the newest episode of the RealTrending podcast, host Tracey Velt sits down with Kamini Lane, CEO and president of Coldwell Banker Realty. In this fireside chat, Velt and Lane explore her approach to leadership, Coldwell Banker’s unique focus on agent development and its training program that is designed to teach effective communication.Lane also shares key takeaways from her first year of leading Coldwell Banker following her previous role as president of Sotheby’s International Realty. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Kamini Lane: It’s been an amazing time. I think 2024 was such a pivotal time in the real estate industry with all of the changes related to the NAR settlement. I spent the first quarter or so in the role listening and learning. Velt: Some buyer’s agents haven’t had to portray value in a presentation. Are there any specific initiatives or anything that you’re doing to really help your agents through all of that?Lane: The best agents in the profession have been able to articulate their value all along. One of the things that we rolled out was a program called Perfect Pitch — and that’s laser focused on getting agents to articulate their value proposition. What’s your 30-second elevator speech? What’s your three-minute speech standing in line at a hot dog stand? What is your unique value proposition? And I tend to break those three things up into relevance, credibility and authenticity.Velt: Tell me a little bit about your growth strategy and goals moving into 2025.Lane: We are focused on being the home for the best agents in the business. It’s kind of a singular focus, if you will, right? And so, we build everything else around that. We want to be the destination for agents who see this as an honorable profession, who see themselves as trusted real estate professionals, trusted real estate advisers. I don’t need to have the biggest roster. Our local leaders handpick every person who joins the company. Velt: Is there any growth through mergers and acquisitions that you’re looking at, or is that not something that you’re actively going for?Lane: We want to be a destination for agents who are motivated to be productive. We want to help agents who feel like we can coach them up to thrive. So, M&A isn’t a part of the growth strategy at this point.To end the conversation, Lane shares her unique leadership strategy that impacted the culture at Coldwell Banker when she first arrived.Velt: Can you share your approach to leadership and how that kind of informs the culture of Coldwell Banker? Lane: So, I have a pretty simple leadership philosophy. It is clarity, transparency and authenticity. And you’ve heard me say that word a couple of times. I believe that it is incumbent upon all leaders to be really clear about what the direction the company is going in, company goals, and what’s expected of every individual in the company.

The passage of the mortgage trigger lead bill as proposed in the U.S. Congress will face a challenge from a new plan expected to be released this week by representatives of the consumer reporting industry, HousingWire has learned.In September, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) included U.S. Senate Amendment 2358 — known as the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act of 2024 — in the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).The amendment addresses mortgage trigger leads, which occur when a potential borrower’s credit score is pulled for a new home loan application and credit bureaus sell the data to other companies interested in reaching the customer. The practice is legal, but customers often report receiving hundreds of calls, texts and emails. Post-election uncertainties have cast doubt on whether the amendment will be approved and attached to the NDAA. Meanwhile, lobbyists for consumer credit reporting companies, led by the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA), are working to change the language of the legislation to a more limited version, according to sources. Under the new text, reviewed by HousingWire, companies could only solicit consumers by telephone if they are the current mortgage originator or loan servicer. But the proposal permits “written offers” via mail, email or text message from any company that receives a mortgage lead. The proposal introduces a two-year implementation period before the rules take effect.This approach contrasts with the current version in the NDAA, which prohibits all forms of solicitation — including calls, mail, email or text — except when authorized by the consumer, transitioning from an “opt-out” to an “opt-in” model. This version also permits solicitations initiated by the mortgage originator and servicer, and by insured depository institutions and credit unions with active consumer accounts.  The CDIA told HousingWire in a statement that “mortgage lenders should not inundate consumers with unwanted telephone solicitations.” “The industry proposal does not address the underlying problem of telephone solicitations.  We believe any legislative solution should address the root cause — telephone calls — and maintain a competitive market that allows the consumer to shop for a better deal. When shopping for a mortgage this can mean saving thousands of dollars and helping people afford the right home for them,” the CDIA said in the statement. The statement goes on to say that “current law requires the lender to provide the consumer an opt out notice in written offers if they do not want to receive prescreened offers.” They can also do so by visiting www.optoutprescreen.com.”A spokesperson for Reed’s office told HousingWire that “CDIA tacitly acknowledges that the phone calls are a nuisance and should be prohibited.” But they disagree with revisions to his amendment.“Senator Reed’s language has bipartisan momentum because it will better protect consumers and this eleventh hour alternative doesn’t go far enough,” his spokesperson said.Mortgage trade groups have expressed concerns, arguing that the change in the bill’s language exposes consumers to harassment through emails and text messages. They note that while these channels allow consumers to respond at their convenience and are less intrusive, they still fall short of adequately protecting privacy.Bill Killmer, chief lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), said that the trade group “appreciates that the credit bureaus finally are acknowledging that invasive trigger-leads phone calls from unknown callers need to stop.”But Killmer added that “the bipartisan bill currently under consideration, the MBA-supported Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act, is the best way to appropriately curtail the abusive use of trigger leads and limit their usage. Additionally, consumers in any proposal shouldn’t have to wait for years until the harassment ends.”  “We had heard for some weeks that there might be compromised language,” Rob Zimmer, external affairs consultant at the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA), said about the amendment added to the NDAA. “If the compromise severely waters down the consumer privacy protections, we wouldn’t be for that.” Zimmer said lenders associated with CHLA and its borrowers are irritated by phone calls and “all kinds of texts and emails.” This means less stringent requirements “would not be a material improvement in consumer privacy and what our customers call harassment.”  Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a statement from Sen. Jack Reed’s office.

The trend line for mortgage rates has been the same for several weeks, even as some of the uncertainty surrounding the 2024 election is fading. The cost of a home loan continues to move in a negative direction for U.S. consumers and housing professionals alike as the downward movement that started in August has been erased entirely.At HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center on Tuesday, the average rate for 30-year conforming loans was 6.99%. That was up 4 basis points (bps) from a week ago and 75 bps higher than when rates bottomed out in late September. Meanwhile, the 15-year conforming loan rate — which had been as low as 5.57% less than two months ago — stood at 6.98% on Tuesday.The pace of increases is moderating. “Mortgage rates are expected to be lower today as bond yields have been decreasing throughout the night and early morning, slightly dropping further following the recent softer housing starts data,” HousingWire Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami wrote on Tuesday.Construction data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that even as sales of new homes continue to outperform that of existing homes, higher interest rates and higher costs for building materials will likely lead to a slowdown in housing completions in the coming months. Single-family permits were down 7.7% and starts were down 4.4% year over year in October. That contradicts a healthy pace for completions, which rose 16.8%.“Housing starts missed consensus estimates and single-family starts declined in October, despite rising builder sentiment. Recent mortgage rate volatility serves as a reminder that elevated financing costs could temper a broader housing market recovery,” Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American, said in a statement.Mortgage rates have continued to rise following Donald Trump’s win in the presidential election two weeks ago. But homebuilders are responding positively to a Republican-controlled government come January as the November sentiment index from the National Association of Home Builders moved higher. Fewer builders are using incentives, including price cuts, to lure buyers.“While builder sentiment remains in negative territory, builders are increasingly confident about selling newly constructed homes,” Kushi said. “Of the index’s three components, builder sentiment on sales expectations for the next six months jumped seven points to 64 — the highest since April 2022.”Bank of America analysts this week reported that 10-year Treasury yields — which tend to closely influence mortgage rates — have continued to rise to the range of 4.45% to 4.5%. They noted that their “base case has been a cyclical bull market” since October 2023 and their forecast is for 10-year yields to remain below 4.5% for the rest of this year.Mohtashami also noted “positive” conditions for the spread between the 10-year Treasury and the 30-year mortgage rate, which sank to 2.38% this week. “If I took the worst spreads from last year, mortgage rates would be 0.72% higher today, whereas if mortgage spreads were back to normal, you would see mortgage rates lower by 0.71% – 0.81% right now,” he wrote.After cutting benchmark interest rates by a total of 75 bps in the past two months, the Federal Reserve won’t announce another policy decision until Dec. 18. Although much can change in the next month based on the direction of jobs and inflation data, the CME Group’s FedWatch tool shows that interest rate traders are placing nearly 60% odds on another 25-bps cut in December.Real estate investors, who continue to account for a significant chunk of home purchase activity, should remain optimistic in the near term, according to Charles Goodwin, senior director of sales at Kiavi.“The narrative of continued U.S. economic strength, pesky inflation, and an expanding deficit have dominated the headlines, and have overpowered any notion of mortgage rates coming down in the short term,” Goodwin said in a statement. “That being said, despite the increase in mortgage rates, the leading indicators of the housing market show that home buyer demand remains steady, and resale inventory remains tight. This is a good sign for real estate investors as they look forward to 2025.”

Lamacchia Realty is continuing its acquisition spree. On Tuesday, the New England-based firm announced its acquisition of Massachusetts-based Stone Ridge Properties.The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 1990, Stone Ridge Properties has offices in Amesbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts. It is owned by Cathy Toomey, Celine Muldowney, Erica Puorro, Marc Ouellet, Nick Motsis and Sandy Berkenbush. Its agents serve clients on the North Shore of Massachusetts and in southern Maine and New Hampshire.“I’m extremely excited to finally substantially grow our presence on the North Shore, and up the New England coast. This merger will also add significantly to our luxury sales. The owners of Stone Ridge Properties have created a tremendous company that happens to be a seamless cultural fit for us,” Anthony Lamacchia, the broker-owner of Lamacchia Realty, said in a statement.The owners of Stone Ridge noted that part of their decision to move to Lamacchia Realty was the desire to have better tools for serving their clients.“Many of us owners have spent our entire careers with Stone Ridge Properties, and we are all incredibly proud of that. With the rapidly changing landscape of business today and the clear direction it is heading in the future, partnering with Lamacchia felt like a natural fit and something we wanted to be a part of,” Motsis said in a statement.Through the acquisition, Lamacchia Realty gains 33 new agents. This is the firm’s 10th acquisition in Massachusetts in the past 16 months. Prior acquisitions include Shrewsbury-based Thrive Real Estate, Falmouth-based Foley Real Estate and Springfield-based Sears Real Estate.

Homeowners are sitting on a record level of about $35 trillion in home equity — more than double the equity levels recorded prior to the financial crisis and housing market collapse of the late 2000s. But as the share of first-time homebuyers gets smaller — and older — it’s not a given that homeowners will be able to tap that resource, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.Part of this comes from the so-called “rate lock-in effect.” Nearly seven in 10 homeowners have an interest rate of 4.5% or less, according to data from Morgan Stanley that was cited in the report. But a major indicator of the ability for a homeowner to be able to feasibly tap their equity centers on age.Older homeowners, who have been paying their mortgages for longer, are part of a select group that owns their homes outright. This mortgage-free cohort “represents almost 40% of American homeowners and includes anyone wealthy enough to not need home financing at all, as well as people who have lived in their property long enough to have paid down most of their mortgage or cleared it entirely,” the report explained.The typical age of a home seller has recently reached a new high of 63, and many of this group bought their homes during another time of affordability challenges in the 1980s.But they “are now able to fund a comfortable retirement using the wealth stored in their homes,” according to the report. “However, owners in some parts of the country might have a short window to cash out at the top of the market. Home prices are starting to fall in certain states, notably in areas of Texas and Florida.”According to data from the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) and data analytics firm RiskSpan, Americans ages 62 and older were sitting on a repository of roughly $14 trillion in home equity as of second-quarter 2024, or 40% of the $35 trillion accumulated by all U.S. homeowners. There was an estimated 3.97% (or $624.6 billion) increase in senior home values during the second quarter, which was offset by a 0.89% (or $20.9 billion) increase in senior-held mortgage debt. Senior homeowners were beneficiaries of the acceleration in home prices seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a frame of reference, in 2011, the collective level of senior-held equity sat at roughly $3 trillion. By Q3 2021, it topped $10 trillion for the first time. And in Q1 2022, it exceeded $11 trillion.

We heard a lot about the need for millions of new homes during the run-up to the election, so I can imagine how shocked some people are to see today’s report on housing starts and permits at recession levels. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari recently stated that housing demand is high so the clearance rate (mortgage rates) should be higher. Since a Fed president makes this claim, it’s worth examining the data closely as he and his staff should be able to see the same housing data we are all looking at. We should note that existing home sales are in the third consecutive year of the lowest sales on record when you adjust to the workforce size. Meanwhile, when Kashkari made this statement a few days ago, the data on housing starts and permits was already at levels seen during the early COVID-19 recession. Traditionally, if demand is high, housing starts and permits should rise, but we are at recession levels today. Housing starts and permits have been falling for some time now, so the Fed staffers should be able to pick this up with basic vision skills. Builders pay down mortgage rates as much as possible to move products, so Kashkari’s comment on clearance rates shows that he doesn’t know what he is talking about.Today’s housing starts report shows the same trend we have been seeing for some time: builders tend to get more bullish about building homes when mortgage rates head toward 6%, just like the existing home sales data improves. However, they slow down when mortgage rates are between 6.75% and 7.5%. This is just with single-family permits; 5-unit permits are at recession levels already and not showing much life at all.From Census: Housing Starts: Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,311,000. This is 3.1 percent (±11.6 percent)* below the revised September estimate of 1,353,000 and is 4.0 percent (±9.0 percent)* below the October 2023 rate of 1,365,000.Building Permits: Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,416,000. This is 0.6 percent below the revised September rate of 1,425,000 and is 7.7 percent below the October 2023 rate of 1,534,000.The charts below speak louder than any words. It doesn’t seem like we will build millions more homes like everyone had hoped. When it comes down to it, the supply and demand model works and new home sales currently today are still below levels we saw during the tech recession in 2001.On a positive note, builder confidence improved when mortgage rates fell from 7.5% to 6%. However, rates have since increased again. According to the data, we know that builders have the potential to boost sales by offering lower rates to attract buyers. But the market has only been able to maintain the low 6% rate for short time periods. If we want to see significant growth in housing starts, we need to hold that level for longer. A lower Fed funds rate can assist with land purchases and apartment construction, but that process would take considerable time before we see any development. We are already behind in this regard and if this trend continues, we should expect rent inflation to increase.The key takeaway from today’s housing data is that there simply isn’t enough demand to justify additional construction — at least as far as the builders are concerned. Builders, as we know, are not charitable organizations. I wrote an article back in 2021 when many believed a massive construction boom would last for a decade. However, I cautioned that once interest rates rise, we shouldn’t be surprised if housing starts decline. As the Mandalorians always say, “This is the way.” So, what can be done about this situation? Unfortunately, not much until mortgage rates drop again and remain low. I am realistic about how low mortgage rates can go in the current environment given the economy’s expansion and the Federal Reserve’s policies. However, if mortgage rates trend toward 6%, it could at least breathe some life into the data. For now, though, we are experiencing a general apathy toward housing construction, which means millions of homes will stay unbuilt.

John Rogers is a well-known name in the world of mortgage and real estate data analysis. The globe-trotting CoreLogic executive recently earned a larger role at the California-based company and is now serving as its chief data and analytics officer.Rogers met with HousingWire to discuss his new role and cover a variety of topics, including artificial intelligence (AI), climate risk and land development. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Neil Pierson: What does your expanded role as chief data and analytics officer mean?John Rogers: I’m very fortunate to be in the role. And I get to look after nearly 300 data scientists, data gurus, who nurture all the 22,000 data assets that come into the company, to make sure it’s the right quality. We have amazing data scientists who are building out new models — from reducing premiums on wildfire insurance in California to using image analytics so that an appraiser can capture the appraisal in real time and use it for quality assurance.I look after the dataset and all things related to property location. The data gurus are ensuring the quality, finding new insights, and delivering it to our clients and our solution sets that face off into real estate, mortgage, insurance, government and so forth. I’m very fortunate — they’ve all got brains the size of planets.NP: AI is such a vast and complex topic, but what do you see happening right now in that space? What are some of your AI initiatives at CoreLogic to sort out the data analysis piece and more quickly and efficiently serve your end user?JR: We literally have, I think, just under 100 initiatives in some form right now at CoreLogic that are underpinned by AI. We can do that because we have the scale and we have the infrastructure in place. You can capture appraisals using your iPhone — images and video and talking to your phone — to fill out the appraisal form at a high quality. That is taking time, cost and energy out of the process and allowing the appraiser to appraise more homes or spend more time with his family.We’re also working to reduce wildfire premiums in California. The insurance commissioner there declared 13 resiliency prerequisites. We use AI and image analytics to look at every single home and provide that insight to insurers, who then can reach out to you and say, “Hey, we can reduce your wildfire insurance by a certain percentage.” Obviously, insurance premiums have skyrocketed. We’re all feeling the pain over the last three to four years. In Florida, costs have risen 68% over the last three years. It’s a real hot potato.There are so many things we’re doing. One that’s in the oven right now, in the attainable home area, addresses the housing shortage of about 1.6 million in the United States for families of low to moderate income. The total number varies between 4 and 5 million.One of the challenges in this area is that it typically takes double-digit months to several years to get approval, the tick in the box, to build homes. We can now do that in an afternoon. We can literally identify land to build a certain type of home with a certain type of material at a certain cost, and we can try to solve the conundrum while providing an ROI back to the developer.NP: You touched on climate change issues there, which leads into the next question. What is CoreLogic working on to address climate change, an issue that will only grow in importance in the coming years?JR: We want to make sure we make homes more resilient and protect the largest asset class in the world at $45 trillion. Unfortunately, with temperatures rising, you see the frequency and intensity of major weather events on the up. Since 1980, there were roughly eight major weather events per year that each caused over $1 billion dollars in damage. Last year, there was 28.What we provide the market is something called climate risk analytics, which allows companies to financially measure and mitigate the impact of climate through every single property up to the year 2050. Broadly, for every $1 invested in making a home more resilient, it’s equivalent to about $6 if that that disaster did occur and you need to rebuild the home.NP: Let’s talk specifically about flooding related to climate change. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is working with outdated flood zone models. Are you doing any work in that area?JR: That’s a very interesting area. Ninety-five percent of all flood insurance is from the NFIP, which is good for you and I as homeowners. But there are challenges between federal and state authorities, so sometimes flood maps at the state level are not updated, even though it has been requested.Coupled with that, we supported FEMA in building out something called Risk Rating 2.0. Imagine we’re going from a first version of a Tesla to the latest Tesla car that we have today. Risk Rating 2.0 is basically getting down to the flood risk per house, which is fantastic.The natural inclination is with insurance premiums is “Oh my goodness, everything’s going to go up.” But with the 2.0 restriction, when we looked at areas in Florida, 88% of current premiums would either go down, stay the same or go up by $10 a month. No one likes the bill going up, but hopefully that’s tolerable when you’re looking after your biggest asset.NP: You work directly with land developers too. We’ve heard a lot of discussion about these issues during the election season. What sort of policies are you helping to develop on their end?JR: There’s obviously a complex set of issues for housing development — where to build, NIMBYism, how do you finance it, how do you get an ROI? We need to really galvanize the industry to reduce that housing shortage.There are a lot of amazing things happening in the U.S., from what some of the states are doing, to private investors, to the big building developers, to 3D-printed houses. I would argue there isn’t a connective tissue across all of this, and there isn’t enough of a movement to really push it.We have a coalition we’re harnessing right now — banks, lenders, insurers, building developers, technology companies — with the goal to reduce that 1.6 million deficit of homes. We’ve just embarked on research of asking these 1.6 million people, “What do you want?” It might sound like a very basic question, but you could probably argue there hasn’t been much research done in that area.

As the transition to the second presidency of Donald Trump continues, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) this week aimed to emphasize what it sees as the accomplishments of its environmental record before the agenda on climate issues is set to change dramatically in January.One of the programs winding down within the Biden-Harris administration is HUD’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP), which had funding set aside from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. That law allocated $837.5 million in grant and loan subsidy funding, as well as $4 billion in loan commitment authority, specifically for the GRRP program.On Tuesday, HUD announced the final round of GRRP grant funding, bringing the total delivered to recipients to $1.43 billion. GRRP funding is designed to be used for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, to address climate resilience, and to increase energy and water efficiency of HUD-assisted multifamily properties in low-income communities.“Today’s final round of awards will deliver approximately $30 million in awards to 45 properties across 23 states under [GRRP] to support energy efficiency and protect residents and affordable housing from natural hazards in more than 4,700 homes,” HUD announced.HUD acting secretary Adrianne Todman said the funds “are going to help preserve and modernize affordable homes for countless people over many years to come.”John Podesta, senior international climate policy adviser to the president, added that GRRP “is boosting the quality of life for tens of thousands of low-income families, seniors, and Americans with disabilities by making their homes safer and more comfortable.”Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Julia Gordon added that the funds have made “a meaningful difference in the lives of more than 30,000 low-income individuals and families while supporting efforts to combat climate change.”Official U.S. Senate portrait of Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.)." data-image-caption="Sen. Tim Scott" data-medium-file="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241120/16/original_d22d3bdb-f234-4bbb-bb95-919a2df6fb71.jpg?w=227" data-large-file="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241120/16/original_d22d3bdb-f234-4bbb-bb95-919a2df6fb71.jpg?w=586" tabindex="0" role="button" src="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241120/16/original_d22d3bdb-f234-4bbb-bb95-919a2df6fb71.jpg?w=586" alt="Official U.S. Senate portrait of Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.)." class="wp-image-482130" style="width:200px" srcset="https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241120/16/original_d22d3bdb-f234-4bbb-bb95-919a2df6fb71.jpg 586w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241120/16/original_d22d3bdb-f234-4bbb-bb95-919a2df6fb71.jpg?resize=114,150 114w, https://img.chime.me/image/fs/chimeblog/20241120/16/original_d22d3bdb-f234-4bbb-bb95-919a2df6fb71.jpg?resize=227,300 227w" sizes="(max-width: 586px) 100vw, 586px" />Sen. Tim ScottBut allies of president-elect Trump have also recently taken the opportunity to clear the way for the incoming administration’s housing agenda. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the ranking member of the U.S. Senate’s Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to cease any rulemaking and nominations for personnel.The letter was also sent to current cabinet secretaries and agency heads including Todman, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Sandra Thompson and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra.“To ensure an orderly transition, federal financial and housing regulators should suspend any rulemaking and nomination-related activities,” Scott wrote in the letter, which he posted on X.“As the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, I call on the agencies overseen by the committee to cease all rulemaking, including the finalization of any pending or proposed regulations or guidance, and to comply with federal record retention laws and preserve all agency documents, records and communication.”Scott went on to “demand” that all pending nominations taking place at the agencies and overseen by the committee be withdrawn. He advised Biden that he “will not vote for, or advance, any nominees put forth in front of the committee by [the Biden] administration.”Trump has yet to make selections for major roles, including HUD secretary, FHFA or CFPB director, or FHA commissioner. On Tuesday, it was reported that Trump selected longtime confidant Howard Lutnick for secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce.