Texas continues to outpace other states in attracting new residents, according to migration data from John Burns, with Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth showing strong housing demand. The other top cities for in-migration include Jacksonville, Florida, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee.However, the Austin housing market, which boomed during the pandemic, is now seeing barely positive migration numbers, along with Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada.According to Altos Research, the Austin metro housing market shows signs of a substantial normalization in home prices compared with the overall trends of the pandemic years and pre-pandemic years. The median sale price for a home in the Austin metro area reached a peak of $675,000 in April 2022. By April 2023, that figure had dropped by 14.07% to a median sale price of $580,000. As of August 2023, the median sale price in the Austin metro area had moderated further to $569,900.The John Burns report shows housing demand is weak in Sacramento and Riverside-San Bernardino, California.Meanwhile, in metros such as Denver, Seattle and Philadelphia, the concern doesn’t revolve so much about the people coming in but too many going out, as out-migration is becoming a real issue.At the very bottom of the list, the East Bay area, Orange County, San Diego, San Jose, Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago and San Francisco show very negative domestic out-migration. However, this exodus might be offset by international migration.To conduct this study, John Burns monitored domestic migration trends in near real time, using postal address change forms that are current within a few months. This data excludes international migration.

American Bank of Oklahoma has agreed to invest $1.5 million in credit opportunities for neighborhoods of color in the Tulsa metropolitan area as a settlement with the Department of Justice in an alleged redlining case. The bank denies the allegations. The DOJ complaint, filed in federal court, claims that the bank failed to provide mortgage lending services from 2017 through at least 2021 in neighborhoods in and around Tulsa, including those that were the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. According to the complaint, all branches and loan production officers were in majority-white neighborhoods and bank employees, including executives and LOs, sent and received emails containing racial slurs and racist content. The DOJ claims that the bank excluded a majority of Black and Hispanic clients from its service area and ultimately reinforced and perpetuated segregated housing patterns because of race, color or national origin. The investigation followed a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) referral. “Providing equal access to credit is essential in every community, but the painful history of Tulsa makes this agreement particularly poignant because the redlined areas include historically Black neighborhoods that have endured the legacy of racial violence and the continuing effects of segregation and discrimination,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “American Bank of Oklahoma engaged in the illegal practice of redlining and failed to serve the diverse members of our Tulsa community as they attempted to purchase homes,” Clinton Johnson, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma, said in a statement.The American Bank of Oklahoma denied the allegations in a statement but said it “has agreed to resolve the matter to avoid the cost and distraction of protracted litigation.” As part of the settlement, the bank will invest at least $950,000 in a loan subsidy fund for residents of majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the Tulsa area; $100,000 for advertising, outreach and consumer education; and $100,000 for community partnerships. In addition, the bank will open a new community-oriented loan production office in the historically Black area of Tulsa and ensure at least two mortgage LOs are dedicated to servicing majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Founded in 1998 by chairman and CEO Joe Landon, along with others, the bank has $383 million in assets and full-service branches in Collinsville, Disney, Muskogee, Ramona and Skiatook. American Bank of Oklahoma originated $97 million in mortgages in the last 12 months, per the mortgage tech platform Modex. The lender has seven branches and 23 active LOs. Purchases were 49.8% of its volume in the last 12 months, compared to 38.1% in refis. “As Oklahomans, we carry a profound sense of sorrow for the tragic events of the Tulsa Race Massacre over a century ago. It is with deep concern that we note the Justice Department’s decision to reference this distressing historical event in its complaint against our bank, established a mere 25 years ago,” the bank said in a statement. U.S. regulators are active in investigating redlining cases.In June, the DOJ announced a $3 million redlining settlement with ESSA Bank & Trust, which followed a $31 million settlement with City National Bank in January. In 2022, settlements were made with Trident Mortgage Co., Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, and Lakeland Bank. 

At the height of the Great Depression In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter, had fallen on hard times. With few jobs available, he began crafting wooden toys in his workshop to make ends meet for his wife and three boys. It was a humble beginning for what would become one of the most iconic and beloved brands by people all over the world.In the early years, the company produced a wide variety of dozens of wooden toys—yo-yos, model airplanes, toy trucks.  But after a factory fire destroyed their wood supply and production facilities, the company began experimenting with a new type of material — plastic.  Two years later, a simple and versatile “automatic binding brick” was born with great success.By the 1950s, the company began narrowing its focus, discontinuing non-brick toys until only the little plastic brick remained as its core product. It was this pivotal decision that laid the foundation for building a toy empire.Those tiny plastic bricks became the ubiquitous toy that kids played with and parents stepped on for decades to come.By honing in on its most popular core product, Lego was able to rise from being an “all size fits no one” company, to a toy empire that provides fun and familiarity for kids to build and create.Within these blocks lies a big lesson for Realtors and teams — focus.To achieve endless success, Lego discovered that its iconic bricks were all it needed to succeed, and Realtors must apply the same logic, finding motivated people to serve is the product.Each week, I meet with the most successful Realtors in the nation. What I find separates the good from the most wildly profitable and helpful, is their flirtation with that tempting mistress— distraction. In a noisy industry full of pandering proptechs, influencer marketing, costly seminars and TikTok, it’s hard to be Lego.The successful teams that are often trying to break through the messy middle, always tell me that ‘selling real estate is simple’.  But when it comes to leading people, I find that’s where they tell me that complexity really sets in.  So recently, at Livian Mastermind I asked Gary Keller what he thought about the simple differences between selling and leading.His answer?  “It’s all simple.”“Once you decide to succeed through others, you and your people are doing the same thing. It looks exactly the same.” Keller said. “How many agents hitting their goals, on your team, do you have to have to hit your goals?  Then, each day go look for motivated people that you want to help be successful. That’s it. It’s all simple.”The road to success is simple for both agents and leaders. It is built one brick at a time by focusing on finding and helping motivated people achieve their goals while ignoring all of the other toys.Eric Forney is vice president and director of industry relations for LIvian.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.To contact the author of this story:Eric Forney at eric@livian.comTo contact the editor responsible for this story:Tracey Velt at tracey@hwmedia.com

The second quarter 2023 was a boon for real estate teams, beating out financial performance in Q1 2023, according to the Streamlined Quarterly Team Benchmarking Report, which looked at the financial performance of more than 200 teams across the nation.Steamlined, based in Arizona, has a roster of hundreds of U.S. real estate teams and individual agents as clients for their accounting and bookkeeping services. The firm confirms actual financial and operational details of these businesses and assemble the data in useful benchmark studies to help their clients assess how effectively they are operating. “This is extremely valuable information, not only for teams but also for the brokerage firms with whom they are affiliated,” says Steve Murray, senior advisor to HW Media. “A clearer understanding of the performance of teams helps everyone understand the impact of the growth of the organization and performance of teams and confirms the importance of LG in the industry.”The second-quarter performance analysis shows the benefit of scale as revenues had their normal seasonal upturn while many costs remained fixed, resulting in increased gross and net margins among all sizes of teams.Small teams had highest increase in net marginTeams in every size category saw an increase in Gross Margin (GM), with teams having annualized revenue between $300,000 and $550,000 seeing the largest increase in GM from 72.5% to 76.3%.Teams in the smallest category of size, having less than $300,000 in Gross Commission Revenues (GCI), had the largest increase in Net Margin (NM), whereas in Q2 2023 it grew from 36.9% of GCI to 49.3% of GCI. Imagine a pretax profit margin of nearly 50%?  The largest teams had net margins of 18.8%. Compare this to the average of all brokerage firms for the past 12 months, published by RTC Consulting, of gross rates of less than 14% and NM of less than 4%.Two of the main factors impacting the improvement in net margin were the decline in spending of salaries/benefits and lead generation. In every size category, these costs as a percentage of GCI declined in a material way. “It appears from these results that teams are keeping these costs fixed in terms of the dollars spent,” says Murray. “As the seasonal upturn in housing sales experienced across the board this year in Q2 (which does happen virtually every year) and GCI and GM followed this upturn in sales, then it follows that the percentage spent in these categories would fall.”Team operating costs declinedTotal operating costs for all sizes of teams declined in Q2 as a percentage of GCI, as well. Interestingly, it was the category of teams doing between $1.5MM and $3.0MM of GCI that saw the largest decrease, dropping operating costs from 37.7% of GCI to 29.0% of GCI, or a decline of 23.1% from Q1 to Q2.  The category that had the next highest decline in expenses was the smallest group doing less than $300,000 in GCI, which saw these costs fall from 42.6% of GCI to 33.6% of GCI, a decline of 21.1%. “It would be expected to see the smallest teams have the lowest costs and have the most leverage. They are small and focused and have the lowest fixed overhead, generally,” says Murray. “What is surprising is how teams as large as $1.5 to $3.0 million also have used both their scale and leverage to drive operating costs down as a percentage of GCI as well as increase their NM.Q1 versus Q2 2023In terms of changes in results from Q1 to Q2, it was also those teams with GCI between $1.5MM and $3.0MM that had the largest increase in NM, at 63.8%. The lowest increase was that of teams between GCI of $550,000 and $800,000, at 22.5%. One quarter of results are not convincing as to whether the small teams or the largest teams can execute on scale and leverage, but it is an indicator worth examining in future reports.“Should anyone question where the money has flowed over the past 10 years and what form of business enterprise is still performing well, then these findings confirm that it is teams that have figured out how to make a profit in good markets and poor markets,” says Murray.In this quarter, Cost of Sale barely fluctuated as a whole, reconfirming this is an average cost of closing revenue.Overall, the data seems to suggest that as the annual revenue increases, there are rising costs and shifting priorities in spending, leading to a decrease in net income percentage.  This may indicate challenges in scaling the business efficiently or a strategic decision to invest more in certain areas, like lead generation, at the cost of profitability.Streamlined, RTC Consulting and HWMedia are teaming up to share this data with our readers to help create transparency in the results of over 200 teams. We will publish these results on a quarterly basis roughly 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter.David Pittiglio is the CEO of Streamlined Business Solutions.

While passage of The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act suggests a brighter future for affordable housing in the U.S., one observer questions just who will benefit most from the NHIA's enactment.

The purpose is to provide a nurturing, relaxing space for occupants.

Two days after a New York Times exposé of alleged sexual harassment and a culture of fear at the National Association of Realtors, President Kenny Parcell announced his resignation.Parcell was called out for alleged sexual harassment by 16 of the more than two dozen current and former NAR employees interviewed by the Times.“I am deeply troubled by those looking to tarnish my character and mischaracterize my well-intended actions,” Parcell wrote in a letter to NAR’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors, which was first published by RISMedia. “This resignation signifies that I will put the organization’s needs first to move forward above my own personal needs to stay in this position.”Parcell also wrote that the allegations were false, and claimed he was the victim of character assassination.In the Times investigation, three women described a pattern of inappropriate behavior by Parcell, who runs the Kenny Parcell Team at Equity Realty in Spanish Forks, Utah.One woman reported that Parcell placed his hands down his pants in front of her, while another woman received unsolicited lewd photos and texts from him, including a picture of his crotch. Parcell denied that he had done anything inappropriate, saying the picture in question was of a promotional belt buckle and he was asking for input on the design.A third woman, Janelle Brevard, who filed a lawsuit in the summer, disclosed a consensual relationship with Parcell that lasted months and ended with the NAR president allegedly retaliating against her. Brevard settled a lawsuit with NAR that included a $107,000 severance payment and a nondisclosure agreement, the Times reported. According to Bruce Fox, a lawyer who began representing Brevard in August, his client decided to settle the case after “feeling intimidated by such a powerful adversary.”Another woman, Amy Swida, a director of business meetings and events at the organization, filed an internal complaint of sexual harassment or gender discrimination by Parcell. Swida alleged that he was cruel and condescending to her after she became pregnant. She worried about being cut off from future opportunities.“I’m scared every day coming to work,” she told the Times. NAR said Swida’s complaint was documented and she was promoted several months later. Parcell also denied any wrongdoing.“There is the sexual harassment, and then woven into it, this culture of fear,” Stephanie Quinn, the organization’s former director of business meetings and events told the Times. “His behavior is predatory.”  An NAR spokesperson, in a statement, told HousingWire that it does not tolerate discrimination, harassment or retaliation. “We acknowledge the people who have shared their stories and we are committed to continuing our efforts to foster a welcoming and positive environment. We follow clear reporting procedures to investigate any issue of concern brought to our attention,” the spokesperson said. NAR has over 1.5 million dues-paying members and roughly two-thirds of its membership is female. Most of its leaders and executives are male. NAR is also facing two class-action lawsuits which accuse the trade group and several large brokerages of using MLS rules to charge excessive fees and unfairly prop up agent commissions. These topics are also being addressed in an investigation by the Department of Justice into NAR’s Clear Cooperation and Participation policies.

Non-bank originator Change Lending lost its Community Development Fund Institution (CDFI) certification, according to a report from Barron’s.Change Lending was removed from the CDFI Fund’s list of certified program lenders last week, the outlet reported. Its parent company, The Change Company CDFI, remains as one of the certified program originators. The CDFI certification is a designation given by the U.S. Department of Treasury CDFI Fund to specialized organizations that provide financial services to low-income communities and people who lack financing. At least 60% of a lender’s financing must target low- and moderate-income borrowers or customers in underserved communities. Since becoming a CDFI in 2018, The Change Company has funded over $25 billion in loans to more than 75,000 families, according to the firm. Because CDFIs provide credit and financial services to underserved Black, Hispanic and low-income communities, they are exempt from certain mortgage regulations.In particular, the CDFI designation exempts lenders from complying with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule, which requires mortgage lenders to document a borrower’s income, assets, employment and credit history. The Change Company faces a lawsuit by a former high-ranking employee accusing the firm of retaliation after he notified executives of employees “mischaracterizing loans” to apparently skirt federal reporting requirements. When Adam Levine – CEO Steven Sugarman’s former chief of staff – reported illegal activity by the company’s employees in 2023 to Sugarman and other executives and board members, leadership terminated his employment, according to a suit filed by Levine in Superior Court in Orange County, California in June.Levine also accused The Change Company of false representations to investors about the underlying characteristics of the mortgages it securitizes.The former chief-of-staff is seeking damages for alleged wrongful termination, whistleblower retaliation and breach of contract. Bloomberg reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is probing The Change Company over its mortgage-backed securities and the regulator is also looking into some of the actions of Sugarman, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.Sugarman was the former chairman and CEO of Banc of California before resigning amid a SEC probe in 2017. The SEC declined to comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation. The Change Company nor Change Lending responded to requests for comment. 

In a shrinking mortgage market, fee pressures are the main challenge for appraisers, according to a new survey from the National Association of Realtors. In 2023, nearly half of appraisers surveyed said fee pressure was their biggest challenge, up 20 percentage points since last year. Fee pressure was followed by appraisal management company (AMC) requests for revisions (28%) and technology fees (26%), a category that was not included in 2022 survey responses.The NAR survey included feedback from 2,174 respondents, including 388 appraisers. The top three concerns expressed in the survey were related to AMCs. These organizations were intended to function as a mortgage industry firewall in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, acting as middlemen between lenders and appraisers and overseeing the logistics of property appraisal processes.Appraisers, however, feel AMCs put pressure on the market by taking a increasing cut of appraisal fees. AMCs have a tendency to select appraisers who are willing to work for relatively low fees. Appraisers are also often incentivized to work with AMCs because they generate a steady flow of work and are seen as an integral part of the process. AMC surcharges are typically passed on to the customer. HousingWire published a deep dive on the topic in June 2021. Other challenges Appraisers were much less likely to cite high demand for appraisals as a challenge compared to the year-earlier period. Last year, 26% said it was their greatest challenge, compared to only 6% this year.  In spite of the growing popularity of automated valuation models (AVMs), nearly all appraisers conducted their work in person, while 81% did so through desktop/drive-by appraisals, according to the survey. AVMs were used by 9% of the appraisers this year, up from 7% last year. Automation adoption has room to grow, with 60% of the appraisers noting that they felt  “very uncomfortable” with AVMs, compared to 22% with desktop/drive-by appraisals.On the consumer side, respondents were wary of appraisal bias and discrimination, which was highlighted as a challenge by 13% of appraisers. By contrast, among non-appraisers, 1% said bias and discrimination was a  challenge. “[It’s] essentially redlining — neighborhoods of predominantly people of color are given lower market value,” said one non-appraiser respondent.Similar to 2022, some 63% of non-appraiser members cited a lack of inventory among their greatest obstacles, followed by rising prices and declining affordability (54%). Meanwhile, 39% said they had challenges finding sellers.Real estate transactions fell through because of appraisal value (59%) and appraiser lack of knowledge or use of inappropriate compensation (48%), survey respondents said.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reached a multi-billion dollar settlement with a collection of brands that offer credit repair services to American consumers, the agency announced on Monday.The settlement includes some of the largest credit repair brands in the country, including Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com, following a court ruling that found the companies had collected illegal advance fees for credit repair services through telemarketing.If the settlement is approved, the companies will also be banned from telemarketing credit repair services for a period of 10 years. They would also need to pay out compensation associated with a monetary settlement.“These credit repair giants used fake real estate and rent-to-own opportunities to illegally bait people and pad their pockets with billions in fees,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “This scam is another sign that we must do more to fix the credit reporting and scoring system in our country.”Credit repair services offerings from impacted companies are marketed through a collection of related entities across the Salt Lake City, Utah area, including PGX Holdings, Progrexion Marketing, and John C. Heath, Attorney-at-Law PC law firm.The companies had more than 4 million customers who were subjected to telemarketing, with defendants having combined annual revenues of approximately $388 million in 2022, the CFPB said.The CFPB previously filed suit against these entities in 2019, demanding they “halt their illegal conduct” while the Bureau sought redress and other relief. Earlier this year, the district court ruled that the defendants violated the advance fee provision of the Telemarketing Sale Rule, which includes protective measures for consumers related to telemarketing and sets payment restrictions for certain goods and services.That rule requires credit repair companies to wait until six months after they provide the consumer with documentation reflecting that the promised results were achieved before they request or receive payment from the consumer, the Bureau said.That ruling preceded the companies filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection when they “shut down about 80% of their business, including their call centers, and laid off about 900 employees in response to the court’s ruling,” the Bureau said.

Better Home & Finance Holding, the digital lender that debuted on Nasdaq last week, reported a net loss of $135.4 million in the first half of 2023, an improvement from nearly $400 million in the same period last year, according to its 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday. Better is focused on originating profitable business while pulling back from unprofitable channels, which resulted in the company shutting down its real estate arm and laying off employees in June. CEO Vishal Garg said in an interview with HousingWire that the company targets mortgage marketplace and white-label technology models. While Better didn’t break out Q2 earnings numbers, considering the firm posted a net loss of $89.9 million in Q1, the digital lender reported an improved net loss of $45.5 million from April to June.Better — which went public after merging with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Aurora Acquisition Corp. on Thursday — funded a loan volume of $1.7 billion across 4,768 loans in the first six months of 2023. In Q2, Better’s origination volume was $900 million across 2,421 loans, compared to production of $800 million across 2,347 loans funded in Q1.Of the $1.7 billion in production volume in the first half of 2023, refis accounted for $131 million and purchase loans consisted of $1.6 billion. Better’s funded loan volume of $1.7 billion in the first half of 2023 declined from $9.7 billion during the same period in 2022.The lender’s gain-on-sale margin increased to 2.34% for the six months ended June 30, 2023, from 0.99% for the six months ended June 30, 2022. The jump in gain-on-sale margin resulted from “market volatility which positively impacted our mortgage platform revenue,” its 8-K filing states.Better’s total market share of 0.2% during the six months of 2023 declined from 0.7% in the same period in 2022.“The mortgage market remains competitive among lenders, given the interest rate environment and we continue to focus on originating the most profitable business available to us. As a result, we have pulled back on our most unprofitable channels, resulting in further declines to market share,” according to its filing.In Q2, Better decided to wind down its in-house real estate agent business to focus on partnering with third-party real estate agents. The pivot was aimed at providing customers with real estate agent services, a business model that better aligns costs with transaction volumes, particularly in market environments with decreased mortgage volumes.The company’s latest filing shows the firm had less than five agents as of June 8, 2023, declining from 470 agents as of December 31, 2021, and about 80 agents as of December 31, 2022. Total operating expenses dropped to $183.9 million for the six months ended June 30, 2023, driven by lower funded volume as well as reductions in headcount-related costs and other operating expenses resulting from restructuring initiatives. Compared to the same period in 2022, operating expenses declined by 80% from $903.7 million.Better scaled down about 91% of its workforce over an 18-month period to 950 team members as of June 8, from 10,400 employees in Q4 2021. “As we have reduced headcount drastically in previous years and have continued headcount reductions in the first and second quarters of 2023, and expect to continue through 2023, we expect employee-related costs to decrease as a smaller administrative function is needed to support an organization with a much lower headcount,” the disclosure states. Filings show Better completed the acquisition of Birmingham Bank – a regulated U.K bank – in April 2023. The company acquired 100% of the equity of Birmingham for a total consideration of $19.3 million – consisting of $15.9 million in cash and $3.4 million in deferred consideration.The acquisition allows Better to grow and expand existing operations in the U.K. by enabling it to offer online deposits to consumers and hold U.K. residential mortgages, the company said. Back in April, Better announced plans to create 40 jobs in Birmingham over the next three years following the buyout in fields such as business development, savings management, marketing, operations, finance, risk management and IT.Its 8-K filing revealed that Fannie Mae notified Better about failing to meet the agency’s financial requirements due to the company’s decline in profitability and material decline in net worth. “Subsequent to June 30, 2023, as a result of failing to meet FNMA’s financial requirements, the Company has entered into a Pledge and Security Agreement with FNMA on July 24, 2023, to post additional cash collateral starting with $5.0 million, which will be held through December 31, 2023,” the filing stated.The company had cash and cash equivalents of $109.9 million as of June 30, 2023, down from $318 million on December 31, 2022. Better’s stock opened for trading at $1.20 on August 28. They were down about 93% from $17.45 when blank check company Aurora closed for trading on the stock exchange on August 23.

Anne Hodge and Debra Dobbs are joining the Chicago office of Compass, the company announced Friday. The top agents were previously at brokerage @properties. “We are thrilled to welcome Anne and Debra to our growing Chicagoland team,” Fran Broude, regional vice president at Compass, said in a statement. With her 20 years of experience, Hodge is one of the top-producing agents in the western suburbs of Chicago. Before becoming an agent, she was a civil engineer. She ranked 102nd in the 2023 RealTrends ranking of the top agents in Illinois by volume. Her sales volume was of $25,146,500 in 2022. “I’m excited to be working alongside the top real estate agents in Chicago and look forward to tapping into the Compass tools that are proven to scale agent business,” Hodge said in a statement.Dobbs, on the other hand, has nearly four decades of experience. She ranked among the top 1% of Chicago Realtors in 2017 and is also a past president of the Women’s Council of Realtors. On her website, Dobbs claims that she was among @properties’ 2022 Altitude Award earners, which indicates that her team raked in between $20 million and $50 million in total sales volume.  “We’re excited to bring our business to the end-to-end Compass platform and integrate AI-based processes to the benefit of our clients,” Dobbs said.Compass joined the Chicago market in 2017 and has since grown to 22 offices and over 1,600 licensed agents, the company said.

U.S. single-family rents grew by 3.3% year over year in June, the lowest gain since autumn 2020, according to a new report from property data provider CoreLogic. Meanwhile, monthly rent growth was 1.1%, nearly identical to June’s pre-pandemic average of 1%.Corelogic’s Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas.  “Annual single-family rent growth has returned to its long-term, pre-pandemic rate,” Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic, said in a statement. “But increases for attached properties were one-and-a-half times that of detached properties in June; this is historically not the case, as both housing types tend to rise at the same pace.” While rent growth for attached properties trended under that of detached properties in 2020 and 2021, it has surpassed the latter in 2022 and 2023, Boesel said. For attached properties, rent growth was 4% year over year in June, while it was 2.6% for detached homes in the same period, CoreLogic shows.“Rent growth for attached homes is projected to continue to exceed that of detached properties as the market balances,” Boesel said. The rent growth slowdown scored consistently across all four tracked price tiers. All categories showed a 10 percentage points decrease since June 2022.However, lower-cost rentals seem to be rising faster because of the strong demand for such housing. Properties that cost 75% of the regional median price were up 4.9% year over year in June, while rent for homes that cost 125% or more of the median was up 2.3%.For a breakdown by region, Chicago posted the highest year-over-year increase in single-family rents in June 2023, at 6.6%. Boston came in second at 5.9%, followed by Orlando at 5.5%. Las Vegas, on the other hand, saw an annual rent price decline of -1.2%.

Not so for a luxury landmark property on the Potomac River in Virginia that may look more at home in Europe than the nation’s capital.

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) and Black Knight announced late Friday an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the $11.7 billion merger deal to go through. The settlement comes months after the FTC sued ICE alleging antitrust concerns surrounding a buyout of Black Knight. According to the agreement, ICE is expected to complete the acquisition of Black Knight on September 5. In addition, the two companies are set to complete the previously announced divestiture of Black Knight’s loan origination system (LOS) Empower business and product and pricing engine unit Optimal Blue to a subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc. within 20 days after the acquisition.September 1 is the deadline for Black Knight stockholders to decide if they want to receive cash or ICE stock in exchange for their shares as part of the merger deal.ICE’s planned acquisition of Black Knight — announced in May 2022 — has been stalled due to antitrust concerns raised by the FTC.The companies that have the two largest loan origination systems would allegedly raise costs to lenders, which would then be passed to homebuyers; and the deal would eliminate competition for product, pricing and eligibility engines (PPEs) and other various ancillary services that are add-ons to LOS, the FTC alleged in a suit against ICE in March 2023.ICE and Black Knight’s agreement to sell Black Knight’s Empower business and Optimal Blue was to address antitrust concerns, leading to speculations of a possibility that the FTC would settle on the merger deal with ICE and Black Knight. However, amid expectations that FTC would settle on the merger deal, the FTC dropped a federal lawsuit seeking to block ICE’s acquisition of Black Knight earlier this month.  Despite the agreement for the merger deal to go through, antitrust concerns surrounding ICE’s acquisition of Black Knight still linger. In a recent letter, representative Maxine Waters, the ranking member of the House Committee on Financial Services, raised concerns that the deal will “no doubt” affect the pricing of mortgage loans and mortgage servicing rights.Waters urged the FTC to ensure safeguard protections to avoid additional pricing pressures in a housing market that already faces serious consolidation and affordability concerns.In recent years, ICE has sealed several deals to expand beyond its core exchanges business.ICE’s acquisition of Black Knight would be the second massive mortgage tech deal for ICE, which acquired Ellie Mae from Thoma Bravo for $11 billion in 2020.

Retail lender Guild Mortgage announced Monday the acquisition of First Centennial Mortgage, a privately-held Illinois-based lender with 15 branches predominantly in the Midwest and a presence in 17 states. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.Guild has been acquiring lenders to expand in local markets in a purchase mortgage-focused environment. Since December 2022, Guild has closed deals with Inlanta Mortgage, Legacy Mortgage and Cherry Creek Mortgage.  Established in 1995 by brothers Steven and David McCormick, First Centennial Mortgage offers a wide range of mortgage products, including conventional, FHA, VA building and construction, per the mortgage data platform Modex. The company had 227 active loan officers and originated $830 million in the last 12 months. Of the total origination volume in the period, purchase mortgages accounted for 82% and refis consisted of 15%, the data shows.“We continue to effectively execute our strategy to grow and gain market share through acquisitions where there exists a strong cultural match and the potential for value is present for both parties,” Terry Schmidt, CEO of Guild, said in a statement. This is the first Guild acquisition under Schmidt’s leadership. She went from president to CEO when Mary Ann McGarry retired from the CEO position in late June. McGarry remained on the California-based lender’s board of directors after retirement. Steven McCormick, president of First Centennial Mortgage, said in a statement that the company has a similar culture and platform to Guild as both focus 100% on retail, local sales and operational fulfillment.  On the back of a purchase market-focused strategy, Guild posted a net income of $36.9 million in Q2 2023, an improvement from the loss of $37.2 million in the previous quarter. Originations came in at $4.45 billion from April to June, up from $2.7 billion last quarter. According to Modex, Guild has 2,179 active LOs and 564 branches. Schmidt said during the Q2 earnings announcement that the lender continues to execute its strategy to gain market share through organic growth and acquisitions while broader industry challenges persist due to higher interest rates and limited home inventory. Regarding its products, Guild rolled out in June a 1% down payment advantage program that allows customers to buy a home with a minimum down payment of 1% of the purchase price. Guild will also cover 1% of the borrower’s interest rate for the first year with a lender-paid temporary buydown. 

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Did the recent move in higher mortgage rates impact the new listings data more than normal? I hope this isn’t the case, but we had a noticeable move lower in new listings last week. The Fed spoke at Jackson Hole last Friday but that didn’t move mortgage rates much. Also, purchase applications data took another week-to-week dive. Weekly active listings rose by only 6,618.Mortgage rates went from 7.37%  to 7.48% and back down to 7.37%Purchase apps fell 5% week to week.Weekly housing inventoryLet’s focus on the big move lower in new listings, which I hope was just a one-off and not related to higher mortgage rates. I have been pleased with the orderly decline in new listings in the last two months, but this week saw a big move lower. As mortgage rates rose to 23-year highs and new listings data fell, I saw a possible corollary between the two. I don’t usually put any weight in one week’s data, but since rates just broke to new highs, I was mindful of this possibility. As shown below, this data line had a slow, orderly decline during the seasonal period but picked up speed last week. I am hoping this changes course for the upcoming week.July 21: 63,375 new listingsJuly 28: 62,525August 4: 61,490August 11: 60,759August 18: 60,295August 25: 55,291Total active listings grew slightly more than last week, but it is still too slow for my taste. However, seasonality is about to kick in here. I would like to extend seasonality a bit longer to have more active inventory in the system before winter.Weekly inventory change (August 18 — August 25): Inventory rose from 496,541 to 503,159Same week last year (August 19 — August 26): Inventory rose from 551,458 to 554,748The inventory bottom for 2022 was 240,194The inventory peak for 2023 so far is 503,159For context, active listings for this week in 2015 were 1,216,061As we can see in the chart below, we have been showing negative year-over-year inventory since June. Last year’s move-in inventory looked like a rocket compared to the slow-moving zombie of 2023.Mortgage rates and bond yieldsThis was a key week for the 10-year yield and mortgage rates. I talked about how critical it was for us not to close above 4.34% and see the bond market selling off more after that. That had the potential to send mortgage rates to 8%. However, this last week, we held the line and closed below my peak 4.25% forecast level on the 10-year yield.For this week and the rest of the year, I am only focused on seeing if the 10-year yield can close above 4.34%. The farther we stay away from that level; the better. As we can see in the chart below, the lower inflation growth rate has not helped mortgage rates this year, as the economy is still holding up.Purchase application dataPurchase application data was down 5% weekly, making the count year to date at 14 positive and 17 negative prints and one flat week. If we start from Nov. 9, 2022, it’s been 21 positive prints versus 17 negative prints and one flat week. While home sales aren’t collapsing like last year, the forward-looking housing data is getting weaker and weaker because we haven’t had growth data with rates above 7%. Historically, we are at extreme lows, so it wouldn’t take much to move the needle positively, but we need to see lower rates.The week ahead: Jobs week, inflation data, pending home sales, home prices It’s jobs week again, so look for the big four reports — job openings, ADP, jobless claims, and the Friday Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report. The key for the Fed is that they want less job growth, slower wage growth, fewer job openings, and higher unemployment claims. We will also get the national home price data updated. Don’t miss the Housing Bubble Crash debate on August 31. Register here. The Fed’s main inflation report, the Personal Consumption Expenditure report, is out this week. This is where they want to see progress toward 2%. We also have pending home sales, and as the purchase application data has shown for many weeks, home sales are slowing down. Buckle up, everyone; it will be a wild ride with economic data.