Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took a big step toward clearing the path for developers to build smaller apartment buildings more affordably. Whitmer signed Michigan’s single-stair legislation into law this week, a green light for developers to build multifamily housing up to six stories more economically, wi

Transaction activity slowed across much of the housing market as mortgage rates remained elevated, but metros where homes remain within reach of buyers continued outperforming higher-priced markets. Mortgage rates remained above 6.64% for most of the week, creating another headwind for housing deman

SERHANT. appointed Nick Janovsky director of luxury sales for Tampa, St. Petersburg and the Gulf Beaches, the company announced on Wednesday. Based in St. Petersburg, Janovsky brings more than $250 million in career sales volume across 340-plus transactions, according to the announcement. He was a t

National mortgage lender HighTechLending has rolled out major enhancements to its EquitySelect product line, expanding borrower eligibility, raising maximum loan-to-value ratios and widening access to low-payment qualification options for home equity loans. The changes, announced Wednesday, are effe

Building codes are ripe for change as policy analysts and the housing reform movement at large move beyond land use and zoning alone. After working through several hundred hours of building code reviews in Minnesota over the past decade, reforms are needed, even with our robust local adoption proces

On Monday, President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on most Canadian goods, raising questions about the potential impacts on homebuilders and residential construction costs.  The tariffs, which would take effect in 30 days if the United States and Canada can’t negotiate an agreement,

Few homebuilding enterprises look so voraciously at other homebuilding operators’ share of new-home sales in any given arena as present and future opportunity as does D.R. Horton. When those Horton flags flap in the dry summer wind, you can almost hear them as lips smacking in anticipation of a good

When Keller Williams announced its acquisition of the Jason Mitchell Group (JMG) earlier this month, Steve Murray, the co-founder of RealTrends Consulting, felt it was an historical moment for real estate companies with models similar to JMG, such as Mark Spain Real Estate, PLACE or Robert Slack Gro

Institutional investors are listing significantly more single-family rental homes for sale following passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, but economists and real estate professionals say the legislation is unlikely to dramatically reshape the national housing market. New data from Parcl

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is proposing a new structure, called Reinstatement Advance Payment (RAP), that would change how servicers document and service partial claims and payment supplements.  Under the draft, attributed to Joseph M. Gormley, who is performing the delegable duties of

Equifax will keep its $1 VantageScore 4.0 price in place through the end of 2027 as it pushes mortgage lenders to adopt the alternative credit score model, CEO Mark Begor told investors. The initiative was first launched in March, when the company also continued to offer free VantageScore 4.0 credit

Housing wealth among homeowners age 62 and older rebounded to a record $14.92 trillion in the first quarter of 2026 after declining in the previous two quarters, according to the latest National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) – RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index. The quarterly inde

Longtime Keller Williams executive Jay Papasan announced his decision to step down from his role as vice president of strategic content in a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday.  Papasan has been with Keller Williams since September of 2000. He said his decision to step down comes from a desire to focus on

Building a single home on each of the more than 300,000 empty lots listed for sale on Zillow in June could shrink the nation’s housing shortage by about 6.3%, according to new research from the listing platform. Zillow estimates the U.S. is short 4.7 million homes, a deficit it says is the main driv

For nearly two decades, consumers have had the ability to answer one of life’s biggest financial questions almost instantly: “What is my home worth?” Today, millions of homeowners monitor their home’s estimated value almost as closely as they monitor their investment portfolios. Anyone who has spent

The pandemic wrought financial havoc across the economy, but its impact on the housing market was significantly reduced due to a whole-of-government response that enabled millions of families to stay in their homes. The rapid deployment of forbearance, the ability to pause mortgage payments and a sl

Artificial intelligence has introduced hundreds of tools to the mortgage industry, but many lenders are still struggling with rising costs, fragmented workflows and inconsistent productivity. According to Siddhartha Agarwal, CEO of JazzX AI, the next phase of AI adoption isn’t about adding another a

The long game Was never about one Acquisition Viewed through a sharply narrowed lens of a single transaction, Holiday Builders adds another respected, cycle-tested, deeply regionally invested homebuilder to Stanley Martin Homes‘ growing portfolio. However, through the panoramic landscape lens of Dai

A new public-private partnership in Central Texas solves for a common stumbling block for homebuilders, who face having to balance home price affordability with the public infrastructure investments their projects often require. On Friday, the City of Buda, TX, located about 15 miles south of Austin

Compass International Holdings has introduced AI Assistant, a conversational agent embedded across its new Home Platform that lets real estate professionals describe what they want to do and have the system complete tasks on their behalf, the company announced Monday. The launch comes just weeks aft