Severe storms, winds and flooding in South Dakota earlier this summer has led President Joe Biden to issue an official disaster declaration for the state, which includes assistance for borrowers of government-insured mortgage financing from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The Move–CoStar battle is heating up as Move, the parent company of Realtor.com, filed an amended complaint on Friday in its suit against the Homes.com parent company and James Kaminsky, a former Realtor.com employee who is now an editor at Homes.com.In the suit, Move alleges that in January 2024, K

The National Association of Realtors has made things a bit more official with Nykia Wright. In an email sent by President Kevin Sears to trade group members, obtained by HousingWire, NAR has decided to name Wright as its new CEO.Wright was named as NAR’s interim CEO in early November 2023, after lon

More than four in 10 distressed properties purchased at auction are in underserved neighborhoods with low incomes or high minority populations, neighborhoods that often have been overlooked and left behind.“Those areas that I’m now developing I grew up in. And I remember being in those areas without

Several real estate groups recently criticized the Consumer Federation of America’s support for uncoupled buyer and seller agent real estate commissions, writing in HousingWire that, “CFA has seemingly lost sight of its core purpose advocating for those most in need of consumer protection.” CFA has

Have lower mortgage rates already started to slow down housing inventory? I have a simple weekly growth model with the Altos inventory data: when rates are high, over 7.25%, inventory should grow between 11,000-17,000 weekly. This has happened six times this year and even though that would be an ave

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election, included initiatives to deal with surging housing costs in her economic plan announced Friday. She promised, if elected, to reduce “red tape” to build homes and provide tax incentives for first-time homebuyers.“

When mortgage rates logged their sharpest decline of the year last week following an underwhelming jobs report, data showed that refinance demand surged.Despite what seems like welcome news for loan originators, who have suffered through thinning margins for two years, refinance business has yet to

As discussed in previous reverse mortgage rate updates, the federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) is the dominant reverse mortgage in America. As a result, HECM has become synonymous with reverse mortgages.But did you know that nearly all HECMs originated today are variable-rate l

Although the U.S. housing market may have slowed during the second quarter of the year, investors did not take their foot off the gas. The number of home purchases by investors rose 3.4% year over year in Q2 2024, the largest increase since Q2 2022, according to a report published Thursday by Redfin

One key data line flagging a path to recession is the loss of residential construction workers. The number of workers who build single-family and multifamily homes and do remodeling work tends to decline before every recession as higher interest rates negatively impact the economy through housing.Wh

Compass CEO Robert Reffkin wants to achieve a 30% market share in 30 major U.S. cities. A new acquisition will get it closer to that goal in Austin.The eight-person Prospect Real Estate Team is taking its talents to Compass, adding a group that’s produced $1.21 billion in sales since 2018.“Our team

The co-founders of Ribbon want to bring artificial intelligence to home transactions.Shaival Shah and Wei Gan launched a new startup this week called Indigo, which uses AI to run advanced search portals. The Indigo transaction platform automates and streamlines communications, bidding processes and

With the deadline for the business practice changes outlined in National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement just days away, the trade group’s interim CEO sat down for a conversation with James Dwiggins and Keith Robinson, the CEO and CSO of NextHome, on

In this week’s episode of the Top Of Mind podcast, Altos Research President Mike Simonsen explores the housing affordability and supply crisis facing the U.S. and its major cities. Salim Furth joins Simonsen to share his expert opinions on the current housing crisis and the various factors that impa

Housing completions were yet again the only bright spot in housing starts data released Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).In July, privately owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.238 million units, down 6.8%

Real estate technology company Voxtur Analytics Corp. announced this week that Ryan Marshall was promoted to the role of CEO. He previously served as the company’s chief operating officer and chief product officer.“I am honored to take on the role of CEO at Voxtur,” Marshall said in a statement. “Wi

The American Real Estate Association, an industry trade group founded by Mauricio Umansky and Jason Haber, is launching its membership program.On Thursday, Umansky and Haber announced that the trade group is rolling out its membership plan for 2024 and 2025. Up until this point, the association has

For seniors who live alone and may not have easy access to public transportation, relatively simple tasks such as grocery shopping or medical appointments become much more difficult to complete.Volunteer and nonprofit groups can often step in to fill the void in these situations. Two examples are ha

While it might seem incredibly complicated to guide both owned brokerages and franchisees through the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement, Anywhere Real Estate views having both models under its umbrella as a blessing.“The beauty of a franchise