Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers owns a $28 million home in Malibu that ranks as the most expensive house among NFL players.

An eye-popping 38% of recent homebuyers under age 30 used either a cash gift from a family member or an inheritance in order to afford their down payment.

Last week, mortgage rates hit a 21st-century high, the 10-year yield closed slightly higher than my peak forecast for 2023, and housing inventory growth was still slow. Purchase application data didn’t budge much on the week-to-week data.Weekly active listings rose by only 4,401.Mortgage rates went from 7.19%% to 7.37%.Purchase apps were flat week to week.Weekly housing inventoryMortgage rates have been near or above 7% for the last few months, and active listings growth has been slow during this tenure. I had anticipated active listings growth to be between 11,000 to 17,000 per week with rates this high, and it hasn’t happened. I will keep a close eye to see if the country can achieve some decent weekly active listings data before the seasonal decline in inventory. Last year, the seasonal decline took longer than usual, but 2022 was an abnormal year with mortgage rates. Weekly inventory change (August 11-August 18): Inventory rose from  492,140 to 496,541Same week last year (August 12 – August 19): Inventory rose from 550,175 to 551,458The inventory bottom for 2022 was 240,194The inventory peak for 2023 so far is 496,541For context, active listings for this week in 2015 were 1,211,841As noted above, active listings have been negative year over year for some time now, and we are heading toward a seasonal decline. Will higher rates extend the inventory season, or are we going into the traditional seasonal decline?The new listing data has been trending at the lowest levels ever for over 12 months now. Hopefully, we will have found a bottom in this data line before the year ends. This data line is very seasonal, and we’ve already started the seasonal decline. As long as we see an orderly drop toward the end of the year, I will be happy. The last thing we want to see is more sellers calling it quits faster than the current trend.Here’s how new listings this week compare to the same week in past years:2023: 60,2952022: 68,1672021: 80,898Mortgage rates and bond yieldsIt was a crazy week with mortgage rates as we hit a 21st-century high last week, with mortgage rates hitting 7.37%. To understand how I look at mortgage rates, the Fed, and the 10-year yield, I wrote this article last week to give a more detailed view. This topic was so “en vogue” this last week that CNBC asked me to open their Squawk Box show Friday morning to go over the issue. Here is the video clip of that interview. With all that’s happening in the market, what should we focus on this week? For me, it’s straightforward — to see if we could break above 4.34% on the 10-year yield, which was the intraday high last year. The 10-year yield didn’t even touch 4.34% last week, and we closed the week at 4.25%.Purchase application dataPurchase application data was flat last week, making the count year to date at 14 positive and 16 negative prints and 1 flat week. If we start from Nov. 9, 2022, it’s been 21 positive prints versus 16 negative prints and one flat week. While home sales aren’t collapsing like they were last year, they’re not growing with mortgage rates this high. Purchase apps are forward-looking for 30-90 days, which means home sales will be stuck near 23-year lows for the rest of the year.The week ahead: Home sales and the fed Next week, we have existing and new home sales reports. These two reports will show one big difference in 2023 compared to last year, new home sales are growing yearly while existing home sales still show negative year-over-year prints. This trend should continue this week. As we head toward the end of the year, we have to remember that last year at this time, home sales were collapsing. So, the year-over-year declines will be less for existing home sales, and new home sales will show solid growth.On August 25, we have the Federal Reserve’s meeting in Jackson Hole, which is very interesting. At this point of the cycle, higher rates aren’t something they want to see as they have stated they believe they’re in restrictive policy now. I will be curious to hear if Jay Powell admits that higher rates would not be something the Federal Reserve wants to see now. 

Middlebury is paying students $10,000 to take the semester off. Other schools are housing students in everything from trailers to rooms at a casino resort—or leaving them to fend for themselves.

We asked Ashley Danbury, color marketing manager at HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams, for tips on how to use the 2024 Color Collection of the Year in your home.

Country Garden Holdings defaulted and China Evergrande Group sought Chapter 15 protection to keep creditor restructuring plans on track. Is this China's Lehman Moment?

Thanks to this presence of international institutions, over 40% of the city’s population are of foreign origin or other nationalities.

Once you’ve found a property and have a vision for how you could add value to it, you’ll need to present your case to potential investors.

Once you’ve found a property and have a vision for how you could add value to it, you’ll need to present your case to potential investors.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) this week announced a package of regulatory and administrative waivers that will allow the use of HUD funding to assist with the recovery of Maui after the island endured a series of devastating wildfires. The waivers come as thousands of government-backed mortgages on the island have been impacted by the disaster, according to data released by the office of Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D).Based on the data, 5,200 mortgages serviced by Freddie Mac, 9,800 mortgages serviced by Fannie Mae and 2,400 mortgages serviced by Ginnie Mae on Maui have all been impacted by the fires. Additionally, 1,300 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages including two public housing and two senior living buildings have been impacted, as well as 927 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) mortgages.However, this data only provides a partial picture. The governor’s office said that the Lāhainā and Kula areas are “still being assessed.” Lāhainā, a popular tourist destination on the island, was the town most affected by the spread of the wildfires. Most of the structures in the town were destroyed.HUD’s waiver package aims to accomplish five key goals in assistance for Maui, including suspending the community development block grant (CDBG) public services cap to provide additional support services related to the effects of the disaster on individuals and families, which will allow for HUD funds to pay for food, water and “other emergency needs,” HUD said.The funds will also allow for new housing construction with CDBG funding in declared-disaster areas, and provide flexibility in HOME tenant-based rental assistance requirements “to reduce burden for those seeking assistance.” The HOME local matching contribution requirements will also be waived in an effort to provide “greater flexibility in the entities that can expeditiously provide housing to displaced persons and repair properties damaged by the disaster.”Finally, the waivers will allow for an extension of time so that  “individuals can receive temporary assistance, including CDBG emergency grant payments and ESG rental assistance.”The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has also been active in the conversation since Americans will typically aim to find ways to donate money, clothing or other materials to the disaster area in the immediate aftermath and beyond. CFPB warns that some bad actors typically aim to take advantage of these inclinations.“It’s natural to want to lend a hand to others who have been affected by an emergency,” CFPB said in an announcement distributed on Friday. “You can share our tips for sending financial support to others, including fast facts about mobile apps. And, refer to our tips for avoiding scams and fraud that can entrap people trying to help.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) this week announced a package of regulatory and administrative waivers that will allow the use of HUD funding to assist with the recovery of Maui after the island endured a series of devastating wildfires. The waivers come as thousands of government-backed mortgages on the island have been impacted by the disaster, according to data released by the office of Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D).Based on the data, 5,200 mortgages serviced by Freddie Mac, 9,800 mortgages serviced by Fannie Mae and 2,400 mortgages serviced by Ginnie Mae on Maui have been potentially impacted by the fires. Additionally, 1,300 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages including two public housing and two senior living buildings have been impacted, as well as 927 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) mortgages.However, this data only provides a partial picture. The governor’s office said that the Lāhainā and Kula areas are “still being assessed.” Lāhainā, a popular tourist destination on the island, was the town most affected by the spread of the wildfires. Most of the structures in the town were destroyed.HUD’s waiver package aims to accomplish five key goals in assistance for Maui, including suspending the community development block grant (CDBG) public services cap to provide additional support services related to the effects of the disaster on individuals and families, which will allow for HUD funds to pay for food, water and “other emergency needs,” HUD said.The funds will also allow for new housing construction with CDBG funding in declared-disaster areas, and provide flexibility in HOME tenant-based rental assistance requirements “to reduce burden for those seeking assistance.” The HOME local matching contribution requirements will also be waived in an effort to provide “greater flexibility in the entities that can expeditiously provide housing to displaced persons and repair properties damaged by the disaster.”Finally, the waivers will allow for an extension of time so that  “individuals can receive temporary assistance, including CDBG emergency grant payments and ESG rental assistance.”The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has also been active in the conversation since Americans will typically aim to find ways to donate money, clothing or other materials to the disaster area in the immediate aftermath and beyond. CFPB warns that some bad actors typically aim to take advantage of these inclinations.“It’s natural to want to lend a hand to others who have been affected by an emergency,” CFPB said in an announcement distributed on Friday. “You can share our tips for sending financial support to others, including fast facts about mobile apps. And, refer to our tips for avoiding scams and fraud that can entrap people trying to help.”Editor’s note: A previous version of this article said that 5,200 mortgages serviced by Freddie Mac, 9,800 mortgages serviced by Fannie Mae and 2,400 mortgages serviced by Ginnie Mae on Maui had “all been impacted,” when the estimates referred to mortgages potentially impacted. We regret the error.

The slower housing market and uncertain economic conditions took their toll on the number of real estate brokerages and firms that were named to Inc. Magazine’s 5000 list for 2023, a ranking of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.Last year, over 60 real estate brokerage firms or real estate teams made the list, but this number shrank to just 36 in 2023.The self-reported list ranks U.S. based firms on percentage revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent–not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies–as of December 31, 2029. The minimum revenues required are $100,000 for 2019 and $2 million for 2022. Rank Company Growth (3-yr Avg.) HW Media Category 186 CityLight Homes 2,870% Brokerage 188 RedBird Realty 2,842% Brokerage 531 Keeton & Co Real Estate 1,101% Brokerage 580 DASH Carolina 1,012% Brokerage 602 The Tarry Team 975% Team 711 United Real Estate Group 826% Brokerage 1,416 Spyglass Realty 411% Brokerage 1,452 1st Class Real Estate 396% Brokerage 1,501 Axios Real Estate Group 383% Brokerage 2,101 Cory Home Team 267% Team 2,284 Engel & Völkers Chicago 241% Brokerage 2,369 Mark Spain Real Estate 233% Teamerage 2,781 huntington & ellis, A Real Estate Agency 192% Brokerage 2,848 YOUR HOME SOLD GUARANTEED REALTY 187% Brokerage 2,905 Worth Clark Realty 181% NaN 3,168 Neal & Neal Team 162% Team 3,307 Rogers Healy and Associates Real Estate 153% Brokerage 3,393 Lamacchia Realty 148% Brokerage 3,581 The Hiller Group 137% Team 3,619 Skender-Newton Realty 135% Brokerage 3,629 ONE Sotheby’s International Realty 134% Brokerage 3,818 At World Properties / @properties 123% Brokerage 3,977 Realty Group 116% Brokerage 4,054 Anderson Real Estate Group 113% Team 4,111 Nathan Clark & Associates 110% Team 4,137 The Realty Agency 109% Brokerage 4,143 Matt Smith Real Estate Group 109% Team 4,165 Professional Realty Services International 108% Brokerage 4,304 Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty – Laflin & Wolfington Team 101% Team 4,625 Lake Homes Realty 88% Brokerage 4,666 Jenny Maraghy Team 86% Team 4,734 VOYAGE Real Estate 84% Brokerage 4,822 Fulton Grace Realty 80% Brokerage 4,895 Landro Realty 77% Brokerage 4,929 The Salas Team 76% Team 4,939 HomeSmart Holdings 76% Brokerage Source: Inc. 5000 – 2023CityLight Homes came in as the top-ranked real estate brokerage or team in 2023, claiming the No. 186 spot on the Inc. 5000 list, with a 3-year growth rate of 2,870%. This is the first year CityLight Homes, which was founded in 2012 by Robert Berry, has made the list. The firm is based in Peabody, Massachusetts and serves clients in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Florida, Arizona and Utah.RedBird Realty (No. 188), and Keeton & Co Real Estate (No. 531) rounded out the top-three fastest growing real estate brokerage firms or teams, with 2842% and 1101% three-year growth rates, respectively.Last year’s top ranked real estate brokerage firm, DASH Carolina, dropped from No. 436 in 2022 to No. 580 in 2023, with a 1012% growth rate.At No. 711, United Real Estate Group was the highest ranked brokerage or team also ranked by RealTrends. In 2023, the Dan Duffy-helmed firm reported an 826% growth rate. The brokerage also recorded 50,565 transaction sides in 2022, for a total of $20.887 billion in sales volume, helping United Real Estate take the No. 7 spot on the 2023 RealTrends 500 transaction side rankings.Other RealTrends-ranked brokerages to make the Inc. 5000 this year include Worth Clark Realty (No. 2,905), Rogers Healy and Associates Real Estate (No. 3,307), Lamacchia Realty (No. 3,393), ONE Sotheby’s International Realty (No. 3,629), @properties (No. 3,818), Realty Group (No. 3,977), Professional Realty Services International (No. 4,165), and HomeSmart Holdings (No. 4,939).Rogers Healy, whose Dallas-based firm made the Inc. 5000 for the sixth time in 2023, said he is looking forward to the future growth of his firm.“Our incredible team of real estate agents, staff, and those by our side every step of the way are who to thank for this achievement,” Healy wrote in an email.Matt Widdows, the CEO and founder of HomeSmart, was also pleased with his firm’s performance.“Despite the current challenges of the residential market, we have stayed true to our vision – giving HomeSmart agents the tools and systems that enable them to provide their buyers and sellers outstanding service, all at the lowest brokerage fees in the industry,” Widdows wrote in an email. “Traditional brokerages simply cannot compete with the value that HomeSmart provides. Our dedication to the evolution of our industry has paid off and we’re honored to be recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. for over a decade.”Several real estate teams also made the Inc. 5000 list this year. Claiming the No. 602 spot and the title of top-ranked team was North Syracuse, New York-based, The Tarry Team, which was founded in 2013 by Thomas Tarry. This is the Tarry Team’s first year on the Inc. 5000 list.“We were hoping to debut in the top 1000 and we ended up at 602 which led to some champaign being popped,” Tarry wrote in an email. “The ranking is the result of our unique approach to helping our clients buy and sell homes: we work as one unit. In our team approach someone is always available to show a home and we offer one stop shopping for every need a buyer or seller would have during the process. From showing homes to inspectors to attorneys to insurance services to moving services we bring all of these assets to bear on every transaction.”The Cory Home Team (No. 2,101) and Mark Spain Real Estate (No. 2,369) rounded out the top-3 highest ranked real estate teams in 2023.In addition to a spot on the Inc. 5000, Mark Spain Real Estate also claimed a spot on the 2023 RealTrends The Thousand rankings, coming in as the No. 2 mega team in the U.S. after recording 11,211 transaction sides and $3.854 billion in sales volume in 2022.Other RealTrends-ranked teams to make the Inc. 5000 list include the Missouri-based eXp Realty mega team the Matt Smith Real Estate Group (No. 4,143) and the Jenny Maraghy Team (No. 4,666), a Virginia-based mega team brokered by Compass. The Hiller Group (No. 3,581) also ranked as the 46th largest medium-size team in the RealTrends 2023 rankings. The Neal & Neal Team (No. 3,168), Nathan Clark & Associates (No. 4,111), the Laflin & Wolfington Team (No. 4,304), and The Salas Team (No. 4,929), also made the Inc. 5000, but did not make the RealTrends rankings.Sarah Marx contributed reporting.

A great Listing pre-qualification script pulls out critical facts so you can be best prepared to not just take the listing, but to price it right in the first place! Not prequalifying is unprofessional and can waste your time and the sellers. Always prequalify, 100% of the time! Price it to sell, not to sit.  The best price reduction conversation is the one you never have to have. All pricing scripts are best used at the listing table!  Don’t lose the listing of a motivated, have-to-sell seller over price. If they have sell, you have to take the listing! Someone is going to make a commission. Shouldn’t it be you?  Proper previous planning prevents pitifully poor pricing!  Don’t go to your next listing appointment unless you know the following items:  What the seller wants, needs or thinks it’s worthPricing the home correctly in the first place prevents future price reduction drama. It’s not unusual for a homeowner to believe that their home should fetch a price higher than the comps. You should always find out how they arrived at ‘their’ price. Learn that information before you arrive at the appointment so you can better strategize, explain the pricing strategy and consider how to ultimately price the home.  Try saying the following when the seller requests a list price that is too high: “That’s interesting, ‘seller.’  How did you arrive at that price?” Listen to their answer, carefully!Secret #1Sellers overprice out of either ignorance or arrogance. Even in a hot seller’s market, there is aspirational pricing. You can price too high. Ignorance is when they just don’t know how to price a home. Square feet matters, bedrooms, baths, views and condition are all taken into account. Arrogance is when they won’t listen to comps and have reasons other than real value to try to justify their price. Secret #2Sometimes, especially in a low-inventory market, your potential seller client may know about comparable sales you didn’t capture. Private sales, for sale by owner and other sales not found in your MLS could be really good comparable homes, so ask good questions and don’t just assume your seller is overpriced.  The average days on the market You should know this stat for properties like your subject property. This information helps set both your expectations and the homeowner’s expectations. Not just for your town or even zip code, but for their neighborhood, school district and MLS code. Drill down as best you can to understand the days on the market for homes as similar to theirs as possible. Sometimes even the style of the home can make a difference.  The list to sell price ratioThis data helps you combat the ‘price it high, let them negotiate’ objection. It can also help you know if you can price it right on the mark and expect to get slightly more. Are homes selling on average for 105% of the list price? Or, are sellers in the subject neighborhood typically settling at about 95% of the list price?  Know the number of homes competing with your subject propertyWhat are you up against? How would it compare in the eyes of the buyer? If you’re showing your new listing versus its competition, do you look priced right, overpriced or priced so well you’d be dying to write an offer and snap it up?  Secret: If you’re the only home on the market in the entire zip code or MLS code,  you can price it higher than you could if there were seven other competing homes, all within the same neighborhood. Especially if the competing homes are basically the same size and age. In that case, you need to be staged better and priced better than your competition or you’ll be the  one who’s stuck doing price reduction calls in about 60 days.  Secret: The next time you have to do continuing education, take an Appraisal class. This will help you become more confident in your pricing strategy. It will show you multiple ways of arriving at the correct price. Don’t just use ‘cost per square foot’ to arrive at the right price!  New construction in the area that competes with your potential listing Remember when builders provide in-house financing, they often can sell a more expensive home for the same payment as your resale. If there are new homes going up, be certain to tour them and understand the builder’s perks and financing before you go to your listing appointment.  Secret: A resale home for $350,000 may be competing with new construction as high as $500,000 if the builder has buy-downs and in-house financing with incentives that reduce the mortgage interest rate. Know what’s going on with the new construction! Have the new build salespeople explain their different mortgage plans to you. Ask lots of questions like, ‘what happens when they have build clients who need to sell their old  house?’ What is the seller’s time frameIdeally, when does the home need to sell and close by?  Secret: If they don’t actually have a time frame, you may have a problem! The less motivated they are, the higher they may wish to price the home. That is a recipe for a tough relationship.  What is motivating the sale? When you know why they want to or have to move, you can use this to stay on task during the appointment, referring to their needs and making it more about them than about you. This can also greatly affect your pricing strategy. If they are closing on a new home in 60 days, your strategy will be different than if they want to sell first, rent for a while and then decide what to do later. If you don’t find out, you’ll be left guessing, and guessing is not a good strategy. Secret: You can actually win a competitive listing situation by simply asking and then focusing on exactly what the seller really needs. Be the one who is their problem solver, not the agent who assumes they know everything. Sellers appreciate the attention to detail and focus on their needs.  Are they listing and buying or just listing? Is there a referral needed for where they’re moving to? Are they already in contract on something? Is there more than one transaction for you to help them with?  What happens if it doesn’t sell?Or, if they don’t get their ideal price? Is keeping the house an option? If they’re thinking about  perhaps turning it into a rental property, you should do your research about going rates for a home like this one. Can they break even or make money on the potential lease payment, or would they be losing every month? You can see how it would affect your strategy and pricing. How did they happen to call you? Track your sources of business. Tracking where your listing appointments are come from will tell you what’s working. Do more of what’s working and fewer things that are speculative and costly.  What’s the bottom Line? Don’t go to any listing appointment without having the answers to the ten points we discussed here. Knowledge equals confidence. Ignorance equals fear. You’ll present more confidently and walk away with not only the listing but also the seller’s trust. Start out the relationship right if you expect to have a great relationship, including repeat and referral business!  Tim and Julie Harris host a podcast for real estate professionals. Tim and Julie have been real estate coaches for more than two decades, coaching the top agents in the country through different types of markets.

Living in privacy on a secluded, amenity-filled estate.

The 10-year yield closed today above my key level of 4.25%: Does that mean mortgage rates will hit 8%? To understand what’s happening, here’s how I look at the bond market and mortgage rates in my forecast for 2023.In my 2023 forecast, the range on the 10-year yield was between 3.21%-4.25%, emphasizing that the bond yields can go lower than 3.21% only if the labor market breaks — which would require jobless claims to go over 323,000 on a four-week moving average. That 10-year yield channel equates to 5.75%- 7.25% mortgage rates. And since the labor market isn’t breaking and the economy is doing well, mortgage rates are at the higher end of my range for this year. In fact, mortgage rates today were as high as they have been since December of 2000.The big surprise in 2023 has been that the spreads with mortgage rates got worse, not better — all due to the banking crisis.As you can see in the chart below, spreads were getting better, then the banking crisis hit and they got worse. This new variable is our 2023 reality until the Federal Reserve cries uncle.Now let’s look at the 10-year yield: We closed today at 4.28%. For intraday action, I wanted to see if we could reach the highest level of last year at 4.34%. We didn’t, and in fact, yields headed lower toward the end of the day from the high peaks. For now, keep an eye out for that 4.34% level because breaking above that could cause more short-term bond selling.As we can see below with a longer timeline chart, the 10-year yield has stayed in my range this year for 99.9% of the time. Considering where the economic data has been recently, it makes sense that we are at the higher end of the range because there is no recession in the data lines currently.  The critical time was early this year when it looked like the bond market wanted to go lower due to the banking crisis, but my Gandalf line (the red line below) held. I believe as long as the economy isn’t breaking, the 10-year yield shouldn’t go under 3.37% — and the chart below shows that line has held up eight times.I started forecasting 10-year yield ranges and mortgage rates in the previous expansion: It was a very boring channel. Every year starting from 2015, it was the same forecast; the 10-year yield would be between 1.60%-3% which meant mortgage rates between 3.50%-4.75%, roughly.As the chart below shows, before the COVID-19 recession, bond yields mostly stayed in that range, although there were times between 2015-2020 when they broke below 1.60% and over 3%. Currently, we are slightly above 4.25%. When COVID-19 hit, I had a 10-year yield range for the recession at -0.21%-0.62. My COVID-19 recovery model began on April 7, 2020, as the 10-year yield was above 0.62% on that day. In  2021, even though I was calling for higher mortgage rates because home prices could explode higher, the 10-year yield forecast was 0.62%-1.94% with an emphasis on creating a range between 1.33%-1.60%. That happened and we spent a good amount of time there in 2021. In 2022, my 10-year yield call peaked at 1.94%, but I said that if global bond yields rose, we could hit 2.42%. March of 2022 brought a Fed pivot and the Russian invasion of Ukraine and we were off to the races with bond yields getting as high as 4.33% intraday in 2022. So will mortgage rates go to 8%?The inflation growth rate has been falling, but my bond yields range for 2023 was based on the economic data staying firm, meaning if economic data gets better, yields should be at the higher end. This week’s economics data, retail sales, and industrial production data beat estimates and the Atlanta GDP data is at 5.8%. The economic data hasn’t just stayed firm — it’s gotten better so bond yields are now above the range.We also have to consider the Federal Reserve. The Fed now believes its policy is restrictive, which wasn’t case last year, so this is a reason why they’re not talking about more aggressive rate hikes. How much higher can bond yields and mortgage rates go before the Fed starts talking about it? Hopefully, this chart below gives you an idea, because if the inflation growth rate cools even more, the Fed might step in to cut rates or stop their balance sheet reduction, which is another form of tightening policy.So, can mortgage rates hit 8%? Yes, they can, but it would require the economic data to stay firm. Short-term, as long as the economy outperforms, 8% is in the works. However, you can see the limits of mortgage rates now because the Federal Reserve has told us they believe their policy stance is restrictive. They don’t want to push the lever too much because one of their goals is to keep the Fed funds rate higher for longer. The one thing that can change the Fed’s mindset is the labor market breaking, but for now they don’t have to worry about that.

With the housing industry down across the board, upstart title insurance firms couldn’t maintain strong growth rates in 2023. Just three title insurance firms made the annual Inc. 5000 list, a growth-based ranking of U.S.-based privately held and independent companies. Nine title insurers made the list in 2022.Each business had a minimum revenue of $190,000 in 2019 and $2 million in 2022, according to the business magazine. The top title insurance firm to make the 2023 list was AccuTitle, which placed 1,556 out of 5,000 companies, with a three-year growth average of 369%. New Jersey-based AccuTitle has title management platforms TitleFusion, Landtech, Closers’ Choice and TrackerPro. It’s the third consecutive year that AccuTitle, founded in 2003, has made the Inc. 5000 list. AccuTitle was No. 1115 in 2022. Virginia Beach, VA-based Priority Title made the list again in 2023. The title insurance firm ranked No. 4,206 in 2023 with a three-year growth rate of 106%. Priority, run by Joseph LaMontagne, focused in growth in 2019 and was well positioned to handle the volume from the pandemic boom years of 2020 and 2021. The industry declined in 2022 — as was expected — and that impacted Priority. They slipped in the Inc. 5000 rankings from No. 984 in 2022 to 4,206 in 2023. The firm, however, has made the list in each of the past seven years. Also appearing in 2023 was First National Title Insurance Company, which came in at No. 4919 in the rankings with a three-year growth rate of 77%. The Plano, Texas-based title insurance firm was ranked No. 3792 in 2022), and this is the seventh consecutive year it has appeared on the Inc. rankings. Meanwhile, several homeowner’s insurance companies also made the rankings — Kin Insurance (No. 109), Neptune Flood (732), Safely (1,089) and Obie (2,316). Housing companies in general had a poor showing on the Inc. 5000 list in 2023 — just 16 mortgage lenders and brokerages appeared, down from nearly 70 a year prior. Similarly, only 37 real estate brokerages and teams made the 2023 list, down from over 60 the year prior. Rank Company Growth (3-yr Avg.) HW Media Category 109 Kin Insurance 4,342% Homeowners Insurance 732 Neptune Flood 803% Homeowners Insurance 1,089 Safely 544% Homeowners Insurance 1,556 AccuTitle 369% Title Insurance 2,316 Obie 238% Homeowners Insurance 4,204 Priority Title & Escrow 106% Title Insurance 4,919 First National Title Insurance Company 77% Title Insurance Source: Inc. 5000 – 2023

With the housing industry down across the board, upstart title insurance firms couldn’t maintain strong growth rates in 2023. Just four title insurance firms made the annual Inc. 5000 list, a growth-based ranking of U.S.-based privately held and independent companies. Nine title insurers made the list in 2022.Each business had a minimum revenue of $190,000 in 2019 and $2 million in 2022, according to the business magazine. The top title insurance firm to make the 2023 list was AccuTitle, which placed 1,556 out of 5,000 companies, with a three-year growth average of 369%. New Jersey-based AccuTitle has title management platforms TitleFusion, Landtech, Closers’ Choice and TrackerPro. It’s the third consecutive year that AccuTitle, founded in 2003, has made the Inc. 5000 list. AccuTitle was No. 1115 in 2022. Virginia Beach, VA-based Priority Title made the list again in 2023. The title insurance firm ranked No. 4,206 in 2023 with a three-year growth rate of 106%. Priority, run by Joseph LaMontagne, focused in growth in 2019 and was well positioned to handle the volume from the pandemic boom years of 2020 and 2021. The industry declined in 2022 — as was expected — and that impacted Priority. They slipped in the Inc. 5000 rankings from No. 984 in 2022 to 4,206 in 2023. The firm, however, has made the list in each of the past seven years. Also appearing in 2023 was First National Title Insurance Company, which came in at No. 4919 in the rankings with a three-year growth rate of 77%. The Plano, Texas-based title insurance firm was ranked No. 3792 in 2022), and this is the seventh consecutive year it has appeared on the Inc. rankings. One new title company appeared on the 2023 list: Allied Title & Escrow, based in Arlington, Virginia. The company operates in 11 states and sported a 247% growth rate over the last three years. Meanwhile, several homeowner’s insurance companies also made the rankings — Kin Insurance (No. 109), Neptune Flood (732), Safely (1,089) and Obie (2,316). Housing companies in general had a poor showing on the Inc. 5000 list in 2023 — just 16 mortgage lenders and brokerages appeared, down from nearly 70 a year prior. Similarly, only 37 real estate brokerages and teams made the 2023 list, down from over 60 the year prior. Rank Company Growth (3-yr Avg.) HW Media Category 109 Kin Insurance 4,342% Homeowners Insurance 732 Neptune Flood 803% Homeowners Insurance 1,089 Safely 544% Homeowners Insurance 1,556 AccuTitle 369% Title Insurance 2,316 Obie 238% Homeowners Insurance 4,204 Priority Title & Escrow 106% Title Insurance 4,919 First National Title Insurance Company 77% Title Insurance Source: Inc. 5000 – 2023Editor’s note: This story was updated to include Allied Title at No. 2,242.

Bank of America (BofA) prevailed in a court case brought against it by Cook County, Illinois, which sued the bank alleging predatory mortgage loans to Black and Hispanic borrowers in the Chicago area. The news was first reported by Bloomberg Law.Cook County initially sued BofA and other banks in 2014, alleging that the company had violated the Fair Housing Act in making credit too easily available to borrowers in the Chicagoland area with mortgages the county described as “unchecked or improper.”When the borrowers could not repay these mortgages, the county alleged that it was hurt as a result of vacant properties and lost taxes and fees.When the District Court of Northern Illinois sided with Bank of America in the 2014 case, Cook County appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. This week, that court affirmed the lower court’s decision and sided with BofA, finding that Cook County was “at best a tertiary loser” — with its injury deriving from the injuries to the borrowers and banks —and not the proper plaintiff.The Fair Housing Act only provides relief for more immediate injuries, according to Judge Frank H. Easterbrook in his decision cited by Bloomberg Law. Cook County, the judge said, was too far removed from the alleged predatory lending scheme to be considered the proper plaintiff.“The banks are secondary losers, for they did not collect the interest payments that the borrowers promised to make and often did not recover even the principal of the loans in foreclosure sales,” Easterbrook wrote in his published opinion.Circuit Judge Kenneth F. Ripple wrote in a concurring opinion that the dismissal should be affirmed due to an exclusion of testimonies from two expert witnesses called by Cook County. Without them, two of the three county claims against BofA had less merit, but the lower court was appropriate in its exclusionary discretion because it found the statements of the witnesses unreliable Ripple wrote.The presence of an alleged scheme was also not supported, he said.“As the district court explained, the record does not support the County’s suggestion that the defendants engaged in a coordinate scheme to target minority borrowers for loans that they could not afford in order to provoke defaults and foreclosures,” Ripple wrote.

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued orders against Freedom Mortgage Corporation and Realty Connect USA Long Island for illegal kickbacks on Thursday, the first enforcement action associated with the 1974 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act in six years.According to the CFPB, Freedom provided real estate agents and brokers with incentives, including cash payments, paid subscription services, and catered parties in exchange for agent and broker referrals for mortgage loan offerings. “Freedom provided kickbacks to real estate brokers and agents — including those at Realty Connect — in return for mortgage referrals, a clear violation of federal law,” Rohit Chopra, the director of the CFPB, said in a statement. “The CFPB will be vigilant in rooting out anti-competitive behavior that interferes with consumers’ ability to choose financial products and services.”Freedom must  pay $1.75 million into the CFPB’s victim relief fund, while Realty Connect was slapped with a $200,000 penalty. Both parties were also ordered to cease illegal activities immediately.The CFPB claims that Freedom entered into marketing services agreements with more than  40 real estate brokerages, with monthly payments to brokerages totaling approximately $90,000. . Instead of using these payments to compensate the brokerages for marketing services they performed, Freedom used these marketing services agreements as a vehicle to pay for mortgage referrals, the CFPB said. Realty Connect was one of those 40 brokerages and received $6,000 per month from Freedom, but it did not perform many of the marketing tasks required under the agreement.Other alleged violations include Freedom offering real estate brokers and agents fee-free access to industry subscription services, which included information about property reports, comparable sales, and foreclosure data. These perks were offered in exchange for a requirement for agents and brokers to agree to be paired with a Freedom loan officer. Freedom also offered free access to  parties and other exclusive events.Agents and brokers with access to subscription services made more than 1,000 mortgage referrals to Freedom since 2017, according to the CFPB. Freedom reportedly denied requests for event sponsorship from real estate brokerages that did not refer mortgage business to Freedom’s loan officers.This is the CFPB’s first RESPA enforcement action since 2017, when the agency reached a consent order with Sherman Oaks, California-based Prospect Mortgage. The mortgage lender allegedly paid RE/MAX Gold Coast and KW Mid-Willamette monthly fees that were contingent on the number of referrals they gave Prospect Mortgage. CFPB dinged the lender, which paid these brokerages up to $20,000 a month, a $3.5 million fine. A few months later, the CFPB fined Meridian Title Corporation $1.5 million for a purported scheme involving mortgage and title kickbacks. Freedom Mortgage and Realty Connect didn’t respond to requests for comment.

A wide array of U.S. federal agencies are descending on the Hawaiian island of Maui as relief begins pouring in following a devastating set of wildfires that completely destroyed the popular coastal town of Lahaina, displaced thousands of local residents and killed at least 111 people, according to the most recent information.The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has instituted a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures of mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), as well as a pause on foreclosures of mortgages in the Indian Home Loan Guarantee program.Borrowers at or over the age of 62 who are engaged in a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) have also been given a 90-day extension. All relief measures are effective as of the official disaster declaration issued by President Joe Biden on August 10.HUD also detailed the availability of additional housing assistance for individuals upon request, including FHA insurance to disaster victims; HUD’s Section 203(k) loan program that allows the finance of a purchase or refinance of a house along with its repair through a single mortgage; flexibility to Community Planning and Development grantees, Public Housing Agencies and Tribes; and the availability of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies.Hundreds of personnel from FEMA have been deployed to the disaster area, while the USDA is deploying food assistance programs for displaced residents. The State Department has also granted a fee waiver for people who lost their U.S. passport book or passport card as a result of the wildfires. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has also been deployed to clear roads and bolster electric service, while the Environmental Protection Agency is on-site to assist with household hazardous waste removal that will be “essential to begin recovery work in the impacted areas.”But there are other issues that could present problems for the area as rebuilding begins, particularly with regard to homeowners insurance, according to recent coverage by the New York Times.The status quo of relatively low home insurance rates — solidified by a general lack of natural disasters striking the islands — could be upset by the fires, which may exacerbate other issues impacting Hawaiian housing such as gentrification.When Hurricane Iniki devastated the island of Kauai in 1992, Hawaii’s state legislature established a fund to provide hurricane insurance for homeowners. That program was dissolved in 2002, however, since the private insurance market was built back to “full strength,” according to the Times. While wildfires have not been a major problem for Hawaii in the past, this latest disaster could signal to insurance carriers that they could become more of an issue in the future.“I think insurers are going to start factoring in the increased frequency and severity of wildfires,” David Marlett, a professor of risk management at Appalachian State University told the New York Times. “You’ve already seen that in California.”With the increasing prevalence of natural disasters across the U.S. and the world, insurance companies have reacted by pulling back coverage in habitually-impacted areas. Recent data from Redfin showed that housing markets with flood and wildfire risk are booming since that additional climate risk has translated into lower costs in certain areas.But insurance carriers themselves are pulling back or leaving, notably in California and Florida, and they’re citing climate risk as a primary driver.