Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Scott Smith, interim CEO at Optimal Blue, to talk about the right tech investments to make now and how the company plans on keeping its customers for life. Sarah Wheeler: What differentiates your tech?Scott Smith: I think a differentiator is our position i

Experts from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Georgia are weighing in on recent federal attention that senior caregivers have received after President Joe Biden highlighted these issues in his State of the Union address last month. The experts say that adequately serving senio

As the real estate industry undergoes a significant shift in its commission structure, a recent Redfin survey reveals a lack of knowledge among homebuyers regarding their agents’ compensation. According to the findings, a significant portion of recent homebuyers remain in the dark about crucial aspe

Nothing was off the table when National Association of Realtors (NAR) President Kevin Sears joined NextHome CEO James Dwiggins and chief strategy officer Keith Robinson on this week’s episode of their “Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered” podcast. During the hour-long episode, they discussed everything

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Wednesday that it had entered into a cooperative endeavor agreement (CEA) to take control of the Indianapolis Housing Agency (IHA) alongside the City of Indianapolis. The move, which will effectively allow local and federal auth

Jamie Dimon evidently believes in the KISS principle when it comes to mortgage — keep it simple, stupid. In his annual letter to shareholders, the influential head of JPMorgan Chase wrote that “we can fix the housing and mortgage” markets. “For example, mortgage regulations around origination, servi

Rocket Mortgage Chief Information Officer Brian Woodring is departing the company to pursue other opportunities, multiple sources told HousingWire. The decision comes as the lender shifts its business strategy to embrace artificial intelligence (AI). Woodring joined Rocket in 2017 as chief technolog

Mortgage rates shot up today as the CPI data came in just a bit hotter today — 0.1% more than estimates on a month-to-month basis. That’s not much, but it’s high enough to take away one of the rate cuts we expected in 2024. I view rate-cut pricing being tied more to the 2-year yield than the 10-year

Finance of America Companies (FOA), parent company of industry-leading reverse mortgage lender Finance of America Reverse (FAR), released a new “investor update” this week to update shareholders and other stakeholders on different elements of its reverse mortgage business including its strategic ini

R New York, a brokerage boasting approximately 800 agents, has joined the American Real Estate Association, an alternative to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), according to The Real Deal. The American Real Estate Association’s membership increased by nearly 30% after the absorption of R Ne

HomeEquity Bank, the leading reverse mortgage lender in Canada and a Schedule I federal bank in the country, announced on Wednesday that its longtime president and CEO Steven Ranson will retire effective June 30.“We have achieved what I set out to achieve many years ago; to establish reverse mortgag

Mortgage brokers’ compensation is in the spotlight after a recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) test concluded that some financial institutions failed to prove that payments were “reasonably related” to the value of services provided. In its March Supervisory Highlights, the FDIC stat

Nominations for the 2024 Marketing Leaders award are open now through April 30. This prestigious accolade recognizes the visionaries, innovators and strategists who have set new standards of marketing excellence in mortgage and real estate. HousingWire is proud to have recognized a slew of industry

Mortgage demand increased slightly for the first time in four weeks, with a modest uptick in refinance applications leading the way. But don’t expect it to continue.Mortgage applications increased by 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ending April 5, according to the Mortgage Banker

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) have signed onto a memorandum of understanding to formally share information between each other related to nonbank mortgage companies.“The [MOU] establishes substantive information sharing protocols between

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (V.A.) announced on Wednesday morning a program to purchase defaulted V.A. loans from mortgage services and place them in its portfolio at a fixed 2.5% interest rate. The Veteran Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program attempts to prevent foreclosure actions

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering a ban on mortgage banks charging homebuyers for the lender’s title insurance policy, according to a report by Bloomberg.Lender’s title policies protect lenders from issues that may arise with the title of the property, but they are paid by the

Kansas City-based Heartland Multiple Listing Service (MLS) has announced a strategic integration with Down Payment Resource (DPR) to enhance accessibility to homeownership for residents across the Greater Kansas City area.DPR, known in the housing industry for its database and homebuyer assistance p

Last month, Northeast regional lender WSFS Mortgage released the results of a survey that measured reverse mortgage product sentiments. It found that more people seem to be aware of the potential value that a reverse mortgage could provide for older homeowners, including as a tool to age in place an

Keller Williams was named to an eighth class-action lawsuit that takes issue with alterations made to the brokerage’s profit-sharing program. In the past few weeks, seven agents formerly affiliated with Keller Williams — Jerri Moulder, David Bueker, Robert Hill, Kevin Ortiz, Edward Fordyce, Paul Dav