Mortgage rates reached a new year-to-date low Friday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell, during his speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Summit, finally acknowledged that he was concerned about the labor market. Does that mean mortgage rates can go lower from here? It’s complicated. Since the last jobs re

Stripping away decades of precedence and standardized regulation makes compliance a moving target — especially for lenders whose operations span state borders — yet this is exactly what happened earlier this summer. SCOTUS’ impact on the lending landscape The Supreme Court’s June 20th decision in Mc

Older adults support changing zoning laws to make homebuilding easier, according to new surveys by AARP and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Older adults overwhelmingly want to age in place, but their homes are often unsuited to aging, while rising home prices and a shortage of housing inventory makes it

Welcome back to Tech Pulse — HousingWire‘s weekly series rounding up the latest in technology news, including tools, integrations and trends that impact mortgage and real estate. Here’s what happened this week: eXp Realty embraces digital twin tech to transform workflows eXp Realty isn’t dabbling in

No one in the homebuilding business I know is sitting around waiting for things to get easier. That’s not how this works. Not in 2025. Not when mortgage rates, insurance shocks, permitting delays, capital costs and housing politics are all pulling in different directions. Not when builders are expec

Many in the real estate industry lauded President Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election as they anticipated his win would usher in a new wave of weaker antitrust scrutiny on an industry that had spent the past four years battling its fair share of antitrust suits.  However, these

Pittsburgh and Cleveland rank as the world’s most affordable major housing markets, but a new report finds that not a single metro area among 95 studied actually qualifies as affordable. The annual Demographia International Housing Affordability report — released by Chapman University — measured aff

From business practice changes, to a slowing housing market, to rapidly advancing technology, real estate agents have had to adapt quite a bit over the past few years. Still, homebuyers find them more important than ever. Data from Cotality shows that while more than 500,000 agents have entered the

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium left real estate and mortgage professionals cautiously optimistic. While expectations are building for lower interest rates, volatility remains a concern. In his final address as Fed chair at the Federal Re

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week that it has awarded technology services firm Phoenixteam a $49 million contract to modernize its mortgage underwriting platform, the Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS). The Arlington, V.A.-based company will overhaul GUS, which supports

We’ve reached fresh new year-to-date lows in mortgage rates after Jerome Powell, speaking at the Jackson Hole Economic Summit on Friday, suggested that the labor market may be more important than inflation for the time being. If only someone had been saying that for a few years! All jokes aside, mor

Nearly 58,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements were canceled in July, equal to 15.3% of homes that went under contract during the month, according to a Redfin analysis of MLS data. That marks the highest July cancellation rate since the company began tracking the metric in 2017 — and up from 14.5% a ye

Industry veteran Bill Dallas, chairman of Dallas Capital and former president of Finance of America, says accessory dwelling units (ADUs) still face major hurdles before they can become a reliable solution to what he calls the nation’s “largest social challenge:” affordable housing. “One of the chal

For eXp Realty, artificial intelligence (AI) is not a side project — it’s a company-wide mandate. Following a session at HousingWire’s AI Summit where eXp chief technology officer Sumanth Kamath talked about how the company was utilizing digital twin technology, HousingWire sat down with  eXp CEO Le

WFG National Title Insurance Co. has been added to Fannie Mae’s list of approved title insurers for multifamily transactions. The designation means lenders and borrowers using WFG for Fannie Mae–financed multifamily deals can avoid delays caused by policy exceptions or compliance issues. Fannie Mae

LUX Real Estate Company ERA Powered has expanded with the acquisition of Vail Real Estate Center, the firm announced this week. The Cherry Creek North, Colorado-based brokerage — founded and led by Emily Duke — will now have a presence in one of the state’s most competitive resort markets. Founded i

The knowledge and use of artificial intelligence (AI) among older generations is often misunderstood and mischaracterized. But seniors are often following the path of the wider population when it comes to incorporating AI into their daily lives. Recent survey data published by the University of Mich

Attention Mortgage Professionals! You’ve been selected to participate in our exclusive survey on AI in mortgage operations. Your insights are crucial! Click Here As noted at the HousingWire AI Summit, exploring AI solutions is essential. We want to know your journey and strategies in this exciting f

Roger Alford’s time at the Department of Justice (DOJ) may have been brief — much to the relief of the real estate industry — but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have thoughts on his time there.  Alford, a law professor at Notre Dame who served as an expert witness testifying against the real estate in