The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said Tuesday it has allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to approve Rocket Companies’ planned acquisition of Mr. Cooper Group, noting the combined company should not exceed a 20% counterparty risk limit set for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Detr

The Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) has appointed Valerie White to lead its national housing team — expanding her role beyond her current position as senior executive director of LISC New York. White will oversee the organization’s national housing investments — which total $30.4 billion to d

Real estate analytics and valuation firm Clear Capital has formed a partnership with CAPE Analytics, offering a new automated property condition tool for home equity lenders. The collaboration introduces an Automated Property Condition Report (aPCR) and an inspection cascade designed to speed up loa

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is continuing its growth efforts. On Tuesday, the firm announced its acquisition of Coastal Properties, which serves clients in the Lowcountry regions of South Carolina and Georgia. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Howard Hanna said the acquisiti

The Hispanic Organization of Mortgage Experts (HOME) on Tuesday announced the launch of what it claims to be the mortgage industry’s first bilingual learning management system (LMS), HOME Certified, powered by Twiz.io. The organization also introduced Wholesale Search, an AI-powered tool built on Ch

The U.S. land market is rapidly losing momentum, with demand falling to levels not seen since late 2022, according to Q2 2025 data from John Burns Research & Consulting. Only 28% of land brokers describe demand as strong, down sharply from 76% a year ago. The pullback marks a steep reversal after tw

A Michigan judge ruled on Friday that Rocket Mortgage’s noncompete provisions are void and unenforceable, dealing a blow to the lender in its long-running legal battle with Swift Home Loans, its founder Andi Numan and several former employees. The decision, issued by Judge Brian R. Sullivan of the T

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook plans to sue President Donald Trump after he attempted to fire her on Monday, citing allegations of mortgage fraud. The case has renewed concerns over the Fed’s independence and added fresh volatility to financial markets. “President Trump has no authority to remov

Planet Financial Group LLC, the parent of national mortgage lender Planet Home Lending, on Tuesday reported strong growth across its servicing, origination and asset management channels in the second quarter of 2025. The company — which also does business under the name Planet Loan Servicing and ass

President Donald Trump fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Monday evening after calling for her resignation last week over allegations of mortgage fraud. The move further consolidates Trump’s power at the Fed, which has traditionally been an independent organization shielded from overtly politi

When Rishard Rameez, co-founder and CEO of Canadian-based real estate brokerage Zown, bought and sold a home within the same year, the inefficiencies of the process left him frustrated. “I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I had to pay [almost] all of my down payment towards covering the re

On-time rent payments improved in August 2025, offering a rare positive note in a year marked by declining performance, according to new data from Chandan Economics. Preliminary estimates for August show that 83.2% of tenants at independently operated units paid their rent on time — up 34 basis poin

Fannie Mae‘s latest Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey points to a growing trend of lenders that want to make the mortgage process and its various components as efficient as possible. In 2025, lenders ranked streamlined business processes, reduced costs and consumer-facing technology as their leading

The nation’s top brokerage by transaction side count continues to expand. On Monday, eXp Realty announced that it was welcoming back San Antonio-based The Victorica Group.  The group was formed at eXp, but went on to briefly operate as an independent brokerage. It ultimately decided to return to eXp

The publicly traded companies in the reverse mortgage space were largely profitable in the second quarter of 2025, despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop.  As a group, they posted $1.2 billion in originations in Q2 2025, compared to $1 billion in the first quarter. Executives pointed to strong

Realtor.com is welcoming a new executive to its C-suite. On Monday, the company announced that it had appointed Janakiraman Karthikeyan as its new chief technology officer. This role will see Karthikeyan lead Realtor.com’s technology strategy as the company looks to achieve its long-term growth goal

New home sales followed the existing home sales market by beating sales estimates and having positive revisions in today’s report, which suggests that we are already seeing some benefits of lower mortgage rates. While it’s not a spectacular number by any means, if mortgage rates can get toward 6% an

Top-producing residential real estate team Schemmel Soda Group has left Premier Sotheby’s International Realty to join Douglas Elliman’s Sarasota, Florida, office. The group is led by cofounders Joel Schemmel and Donna Soda, along with agents Sharon Chiodi and Patti Tebo. Marketing Director Katie Ku

To continue its goal of national expansion, Evergreen Home Loans announced on Monday that it has entered 11 new states: Texas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Wyoming, Nebraska, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio and New Mexico. To support this growth, the Bellevue, Washington-based com