Our weekly pending contract data is still positive year over year, but only by 1%, as demand growth has slowed amid higher mortgage rates. What does this mean for the spring housing market? Let’s take a look at the data. Weekly pending salesThe latest weekly pending contract data from Altos Research

It’s mostly doom and gloom for real estate investors heading into 2025, according to a quarterly survey released this week by RCN Capital and CJ Patrick Co. Their Winter 2024 Investor Sentiment Survey showed that only 35% percent of investors consider the market to be “better” or “much better” than

With more than 153,000 people currently under evacuation orders in the Los Angeles area due to multiple wildfires, an estimated 10 deaths and thousands of structures burned, the reverse mortgage industry at multiple levels is mobilizing with a clear, overarching message: Impacted borrowers must get

Redfin has started 2025 with a round of layoffs. The Seattle-based brokerage company laid off 46 employees on Thursday.In a statement emailed to HousingWire, a Redfin spokesperson noted that most of the impacted employees were managers in the company’s headquarters, program and field leadership role

Less than 10 days into 2025, California is experiencing a multibillion-dollar wildfire disaster that is further shaking up the state’s already vulnerable insurance coverage. Rep. Maxine Waters (D), who represents a portion of the Los Angeles area that is impacted by the damage, is ready to reintrodu

Real estate and mortgage firms are stepping up to help housing professionals and the Southern California community as wildfires ravage the area. Here’s a roundup of the companies and people offering help, which will be updated with new information as it becomes available.Help for those in the commun

Today’s jobs report beat expectations, and in fact, the labor data was solid for jobs week, which means mortgage rates will stay elevated because it’s always about labor over inflation when talking about rates. Now, the labor market is getting softer from its torrid pace of job creation and wage gro

The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs announced that it will hold a confirmation hearing on Thursday, Jan. 16, for Scott Turner to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).Scott TurnerTurner was one of a flurry of cabinet-level and other leadership no

A reduction of 0.3% in home values and a slight increase in senior-held mortgage debt have led to the total amount of senior-held home equity dropping from its all-time high.This is according to the latest edition of the Reverse Mortgage Market Index (RMMI), a quarterly report compiled by the Nation

It’s no secret that stubbornly high mortgage rates and sinking inventory levels are stunting housing markets across the country, particularly in places where high home prices are already squeezing would-be buyers.But Bergen County, New Jersey, is taking it to another level. Inventory and new listing

Incenter Lender Services, a group of companies that help nonbank and depository mortgage lenders nationwide, announced this week the hiring of two new vice presidents. Kathleen Rose and Wayne Brown will join Incenter’s leadership team.Both executives will oversee national accounts, tapping into the

While the unemployment rate was up compared to the start of the year, the job market ended the year up, with 256,000 jobs added to the economy in December according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).Unemployment finished the year at a rate of 4.1%, down from 4.2% t

According to BatchService and ResiClub Analytics, there were approximately 1.2 million “pocket listings” or off-market real estate sales in the United States in 2024, with the vast majority happening in Texas and Florida. Pocket listings are more common in some areas of the country than others, yet

In 2019, Chris A. Williams had a problem. He was working two jobs — selling shoes at Foot Locker and cleaning cars at Enterprise — but he wanted more out of life. He was 20 years old. He tried college, but like many young Americans today, he decided the math didn’t work — too much debt and too few o

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in December released its 2023 Mortgage Market Activity and Trends report, which included a brief look at activity from the reverse mortgage industry based on Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2023.While the majority of the data largely excl

Mortgage verification services firm Xactus announced this week that it appointed Mike Brown, its former chief integration officer, as its new chief product officer.This hiring underscores the company’s commitment to technology and product innovation. Brown will oversee Xactus’ product life cycle fro

Many retirees have said they rely largely — and sometimes entirely — on Social Security benefits as their primary income stream in retirement. But in instances where these payments may not be enough to make ends meet, other options should be considered — and in the right situation, a reverse mortgag

This week, the Seattle City Council had its first meeting of 2025 and housing was a key topic of discussion. But if the meeting itself was any indication, determining a path forward for the city’s severe housing shortage will be a struggle as elected leaders attempt to ascertain a sustainable plan f

For decades, cities in the Midwest have declined due to an exodus of manufacturing jobs that changed the region’s nickname from the “Steel Belt” to the “Rust Belt.”While elected leaders from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders have proposed tariffs on industries whose jobs once sustained the region, the

In 2024, more people moved out of Illinois than into the Prairie State. According to the National Movers Study conducted by United Van Lines, 60% of moves in Illinois last year were outbound, which was the second-highest percentage of outbound moves among all states.The most popular reasons for relo