IRS has targeted monetized installment sales as abusive, part of their Dirty Dozen tax scams and schemes. That means flagging these deals to the IRS or facing penalties.

Kofi Nartey, a top real estate broker with a client list of celebrities and prominent athletes, has joined The Real Brokerage as a national growth leader. In his new position, he will help build visibility for the brand, attract more agents as well as drive agent’s performance through coaching and development. “I will use my platform and national voice to draw more people not just to the industry, but to the opportunities to grow within the industry that The Real Brokerage presents,” Nartey told HousingWire in an interview.As part of his role at Real, Nartey will teach agents how to pitch the value proposition of The Real Brokerage. In other words, he wants to teach agents how to attract talents, rather than recruiting them. Kofi Nartey“If you’re doing something, and you’re doing it in the right way, and you’re doing it with a level of professionalism, a level of expertise, and a level of visibility, obviously, you’ll attract people,” said Nartey.Real’s co-sponsored revenue share program, which allows two agents to equally share in the commission split of an agent they attract to Real, aligns with his goal of sharing his expertise to help other agents grow their networks and be more successful. As part of his move to Real, Nartey is bringing his 12-member Globl RED team, which serves luxury clients in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, and developers worldwide from Side Real Estate, whose network he joined in 2020. He will continue to grow his team through The Real Brokerage network. Sharran Srivatsaa, The Real Brokerage’s president, said Nartey “is one of the most successful brokers in the residential real estate industry and an inspirational leader who shares our vision at Real of leaving the industry better than it was. Like Kofi, Real is fixated on giving agents the tools they need to realize their full potential, while ensuring that they have opportunities to build long-term wealth.”According to Nartey, the industry is headed towards virtual platforms, which helped push him to join Real. Virtual platforms allow for more agility, less overhead and greater networks, both national and international, he said.“The Real Brokerage was the best fit for where I am now in my career, as it relates to the economic model and also the ability to tap into and contribute to a platform that really puts the agent and the agent’s growth first,” said Nartey.Before starting a career in real estate in 2002, Nartey played college football at the University of California, Berkeley and went on to sign with the Oakland Raiders (now Las Vegas). He also worked as an actor. Prior to launching Globl Real Estate + Development, he built national sports and entertainment real estate divisions at Compass and The Agency. Nartey represented many athletes and celebrities and closed sales exceeding $1 billion in his career, The Real Brokerage said in a statement.“It’s nice to know that the leadership of The Real Brokerage has the pedigree to help facilitate, develop, create and support luxury real estate and the pursuit of luxury real estate,” he said.Real added 1,800 new agents during the first quarter of 2023, causing its agent count to surpass 10,000 for the first time, a 120% year-over-year increase. This increased agent count helped the brokerage record a 75% annual increase in transaction sides for Q1 2023 at 10,963 sides, an average of 2.7 transactions per productive agent.  

HSBC Bank USA on Tuesday disclosed that it is facing an investigation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for alleged redlining practices. The federal investigation is based on a complaint filed by the non-profit organization National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), HUD is investigating whether “HSBC Bank USA violated the U.S. Fair Lending Act by engaging in discriminatory lending practices in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in six U.S. metropolitan areas from 2018 through 2021.” The NCRC complaint includes six metropolitan areas: New York (NY), Seattle (WA), Orange County (CA), Los Angles (CA), Oakland (CA) and the Bay Area (CA). A spokesperson for HUD said the agency “Does not comment on investigations or potential complaints.” HSBC did not reply to a request for comments. A representative for NCRC said in a statement that when “NCRC or our members find evidence of redlining or any other form of lending discrimination, we take prompt action.” “We are always concerned by data that suggests unfair treatment of disenfranchised communities and individuals, and always glad to help ensure the appropriate authorities have an opportunity to review the facts and pursue any remedies they deem appropriate.” Per the mortgage tech platform Modex, HSBC originated about $2 billion in mortgages in the last 12 months. Purchases and conventional loans were more than 77% of the total. California and New York are the main markets for the bank. That was the second time HSBC was questioned about its mortgage lending practices by federal agencies.In 2016, the bank ended up paying a $601 million settlement to a series of federal agencies and nearly every state over charges that it engaged in mortgage origination, servicing and foreclosure abuses. In a separate but related settlement, HSBC paid $131 million to the Federal Reserve. According to the Fed, the penalty considers the circumstances of HSBC’s “unsafe and unsound practices and foreclosure activities.” U.S. regulators are active in investigating redlining cases. In June, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $3 million redlining settlement with ESSA Bank & Trust. It followed a $31 million settlement with City National Bank in January. In 2022, settlements were made with Trident Mortgage Co., Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary; and Lakeland Bank. 

Turkey Creek Ranch at 8210 Highway 145 comes with a three-story home built in 1994 on almost 29 acres of untouched land with a creek and a pond.

Despite a $35 million net loss in the second quarter, Zillow saw a slight annual increase in revenue to $506 million, beating Wall Street’s estimates. As a result, the company’s executives told investors and analysts that they were pleased with the firm’s second quarter performance, especially in touring, financing, and renting.“Zillow outperformed the broader industry for the fourth consecutive quarter as we navigate a tough real estate market,” said Zillow cofounder and CEO Rich Barton on the firm’s second-quarter earnings call Wednesday evening. “I’m pleased with our steady progress on improving and integrating our customer and partner experiences, especially in touring, financing, and renting. The housing super app is coming into focus, opening up significant transaction TAM for the company and our shareholders.”With the resilient but still slower housing market conditions of the second quarter of 2023, Zillow reported that traffic to its apps and site was at 226 million average monthly unique users, down from 234 million a year ago. Zillow executives attribute much of this improvement to a healthy top of funnel relative to the weak housing market, and consistent organic traffic to their apps and sites.Meanwhile, Premier Agent, Zillow’s residential segment, reported a 3% annual decrease in revenue, outperforming both the 22% drop in U.S. home transactions and the high end of the company’s expectations. It also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of outperformance, noted Barton.  According to the executives, the company was able to deliver a better-than expected number of connections to Premier Agent partners, and had strong performance relative to the macroeconomic tailwinds in housing. Zillow’s mortgage arm, Home Loans, on the other hand, recorded a 17% year-over-year decline in revenue to $24 million. Purchase loan origination volumes in Q2 2023 grew 30% sequentially from Q1 2023 and 73% year over year from Q2 2022. Finally, rental revenue increased 28% year over year to $91 million as the company continued to see strong traffic and growth in multifamily properties.Although rival CoStar has made noise in overtaking Realtor.com in web traffic, Barton stressed that Zillow has remained the most-visited rental platform since May 2022, according to Comscore.Barton also touched on its fabled “housing super app.” He reiterated the five growth pillars of the app, touring, financing, seller solutions, enhancing our partner network, and integrating our services. “The expected output of this strategy is to grow our share of customer transactions from 3% to 6% by the end of 2025,” he said. Barton also presented Zillow’s product roadmap, touching on different updates and projects underway. He highlighted the launch of Listing Showcase by ShowingTime+  last June in select markets. The product, an AI-powered “super listing” available exclusively on Zillow, was made to allow listing agents to present their brand and properties in a distinctive manner.Zillow on Wednesday also announced the acquisition of Aryeo, a marketing media solution for agents and brokerages. Aryeo will become a part of ShowingTime+.Barton also spoke of Zillow’s partnership with Opendoor, which allows sellers on Zillow to request a cash offer from Opendoor, stating that it is now present in 25 markets, compared to 2 when they first launched in February. The company said it’s projecting third-quarter revenue of $458 million to $486 million.

Daryl Owen, the founder of top California independent brokerage Nationwide Real Estate Executives, is joining eXp Realty and taking 200 agents along with him.In 2022, his team closed $887 million in sales on 1,091 transactions, with an average home price of $740,000, eXp said in a statement Wednesday. RealTrends couldn’t independently confirm those figures; NRE has not submitted data to the RealTrends brokerage rankings since 2019.In a statement, Owen said he grew NRE from one agent in 2011 to 1,000 agents less than a decade later. He built his independent brokerage by attaching it to his real estate school.“It’s one of the reasons why I like eXp. I have all this talent and all these students that I can plug into eXp systems,” Owen said in a statement.In addition to the brokerage, Owen also owns a property management company, an escrow firm, a commercial real estate arm and a design-and-construction firm.According to eXp, Daryl Ramon Casaus, an eXp agent, was key in the recruitment process.“We looked at other companies to merge or buy us and ultimately we went with eXp. It’s our mission to be a vehicle of opportunity for our people. As a guiding principle to our decision, eXp feeds into this mission.”Owen cited the brand’s revenue share model, network size and collaboration opportunities as reasons for making the jump.In the most recent RealTrends 500 rankings, eXp was the largest brokerage in America by transaction sides at 397,138 and $159 billion in sales volume.

Government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae this week released new updates to its appraiser independence requirements (AIR), and also established new property data independence requirements (PDCIR) simultaneously. Fannie Mae published a new frequently asked questions (FAQ) document related to AIR this week.Lenders typically use appraisal management companies (AMCs) to transfer the compliance burden associated with AIR. AIR is designed to “safeguard the independence, objectivity, and impartiality of appraisers and other Independent Parties throughout the valuation process for 1 to 4-unit residential properties,” according to Fannie Mae.The policies help determine proper conduct regarding the independence of the appraisal entity during the mortgage origination process. The changes announced on Wednesday aim to accomplish three tasks, Fannie Mae said in its latest Selling Guide update.The first is “to clarify that mortgage brokers, LOs production staff are not allowed to order appraisals” or to even be involved in the collateral valuation process at all. The AIR update now lists these entities as “restricted parties.”The second task is to clarify that appraisers, AMCs and appraisal firms “all fall under the same protections and are referred to as ‘independent parties,’” according to Fannie Mae. The final task is to “improve readability and clarity through reorganization of the content and other improvements.”The Selling Guide also details the intent of PDCIR, which is “to address property data collector independence requirements similar to those in AIR for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans,” the document said. “The PDCIR is effective for loans with application dates on and after Nov. 1, 2023.”Brian Zitin, CEO of valuation software company Reggora, said the new requirements “will have important implications for nearly every major retail, wholesale and brokerage ordering appraisals — especially when it comes to how they are interacting with AMCs.”He added: “It was already established and well understood that various sales-related staff should have no influence over the selection of an individual appraiser,” Zitin told HousingWire. “That’s why, for the many lenders managing a panel of appraisers directly, a separate appraisal desk that has reporting lines independent of loan production, is responsible for the selection of a given appraiser on an order, whether it be by utilizing an automated algorithm enabled by the appraisal technology provider (such as Reggora) or by manually selecting the appraiser.”However, one of the major changes brought about by these policy revisions is that the AMC will be “treated in a similar manner to an appraiser in this regard,” Zitin said. “Meaning, anyone on sales staff — LOs, Branch managers, mortgage brokers or even processors who are partially paid based on loan volume — cannot directly order with a specific AMC or appraiser.”Among some lenders today, it is a common practice for LOs, branches or mortgage brokers to have designated or preferred AMCs and can order them directly, but this new AIR policy change “makes clear that this is not an allowable practice,” Zitin said.This leads to two primary takeaways that Zitin observes: that the usage of modern appraisal management platforms will become “more of a necessity in order for lenders to stay in compliance;” and that AMCs’ “viability will be based on appraisal quality and service versus their ability to build relationships.”Fannie Mae made waves in March when it included more options for property valuations, saying that they are “moving away from implying that an appraisal is a default requirement.” Those options include value acceptance (formerly appraisal waivers), value acceptance plus property data and hybrid appraisals. Fannie Mae approved six vendors for its controversial new valuation initiative a few days later.

Dallas-based Pinnacle Realty Advisors, the world’s pioneering Brokerage-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, is expanding into the California real estate market. The subscription-based cloud brokerage model, which started in Texas, will now be available to residential and commercial agents in California, ranking as the second strongest real estate market in the US, behind Texas.“We are proud to offer agents a platform that unlocks vast opportunities for single agents and teams seeking autonomy over their brand and business,” said Sam Sawyer, CEO of Pinnacle Realty Advisors in a statement. To spearhead their growth in California, the firm appointed Michael Locke as the new Director of Growth for the region. Locke’s extensive experience in the industry, including notable roles at Side and HomeLight, positions him as a valuable asset in providing unparalleled services and support to agents in California.Deniz Kahramaner, the agent leading the Atlasa team, is the first team addition in California. With an impressive sales record and a high ranking by RealTrends in San Francisco. He shares his perspective, stating, “Their Brokerage-as-a-Service platform combined with their wide knowledge of the region empowers me and my team to take control of our brand and allocate resources wisely, focusing on what truly matters for our specific business.”Established in 2020, Pinnacle Realty Advisors is a cloud-based real estate brokerage company that offers the world’s first BaaS “Brokerage-as-a-Service” model for agents. This content was generated using AI and was edited by HousingWire’s editors.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Wednesday announced a new collaboration with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) designed to increase the housing industry’s awareness of appraisal bias. The partnership, which will be unveiled “in the coming months” according to HUD, will focus on education, outreach, and other efforts to tackle appraisal bias and discrimination in U.S. housing and home property valuation.The official launch of the partnership is slated to take place in October, and will include materials including online training for counselors, public roundtable discussions on bias and discrimination, distribution of educational materials and appraisal-related training. Promoting fairness in the housing market is the broader goal, according to HUD.“Owning a home provides a path to the American dream,” said HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge in the partnership’s announcement. “Yet, Black and Brown people have consistently had their homes under-valued because of racial appraisal bias, locking them out of opportunities to build generational wealth. This partnership is a bold step toward remedying appraisal discrimination, closing the wealth gap, and achieving racial equity.”NAREB is currently holding its 2023 annual convention in Houston, where Fudge served as keynote speaker for its opening ceremony on Wednesday morning.HUD offered additional details about the content of the content and materials that will be distributed.“Specifically, training sessions will include discussion of strategies to combat appraisal bias; best practices for housing counselors to help clients impacted; and available resources that can support housing counselors and their clients,” the announcement said.In terms of the public roundtables, HUD’s Office of Housing Counseling and National Fair Housing Training Academy will work with NAREB to host regional events nationwide to bring attention to the ways that appraisal bias has impacted certain specific regions of the country, while also intending to build public-private partnerships and share information that can help housing counselors assist affected people.The Biden administration has made combating bias in housing a key fixture of its policy priorities at HUD and several other agencies. In June, a coalition of federal agencies announced proposed rules that would crack down on the use of automated valuation models (AVMs), with additional comments on the measure added both from the White House and Vice President Kamala Harris specifically.

Mobility Market Intelligence (MMI), a data intelligence and market insight tool provider for the mortgage and real estate industries, has acquired Bonzo – a relationship management and mortgage marketing platform.Ohio-headquartered Bonzo will operate as an independent service provider that is led by the current leadership team, which includes co-founder and president Jason Perkins, co-founder and COO/CRO Miles Miller, and CEO Chad Jampedro.Customers of MMI and Bonzo will benefit from a list of the two tech platforms’ integrated services and features, MMI said in a release announcing the acquisition. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.“MMI’s acquisition of Bonzo is the next logical step in the path we’ve been pursuing for the past year or more, which is to deliver cost-efficient, best-in-breed solutions to the mortgage industry in a consolidated, easy-to-use, integrated environment,” MMI founder and CEO Ben Teerlink, said in a statement.Founded in 2018, key features of Bonzo include a campaign builder to conduct personal and customized outreach at scale; messaging that supports voice, video and text; an ad builder for Google and Facebook; and a pipeline dashboard to organize the sales process. The company has more than 2,000 clients, according to its website.MMI – established in 2008 and headquartered in Utah – provides tech solutions for mortgage and real estate professionals that allows buyers to search out and view properties on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) through its MobilityRE app.Real estate brokerages – including Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, Century 21, Keller Williams and RE/MAX—have purchased subscriptions and thousands of real estate professionals and homebuyers are now using the services, according to MMI. MMI is currently used by more than 450 enterprise customers – including 20 of the top 25 lenders in the country, the company said. The company in April named Brian McKray as its director of product development.

Engel & Völkers, the global luxury real estate brand, just partnered with Dilbeck Real Estate, one of Southern California’s top real estate teams. Approximately 400 Dilbeck agents and support staff will operate under the Engel & Völkers brand. Additionally, nine office locations will convert to Engel & Völkers shops. The nine office locations are in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, including Burbank, San Marino, Camarillo, La Canada Flintridge, Glendale, Encino, Pasadena, Santa Clarita and Westlake Village. Under the leadership of Mark Dilbeck, the company’s majority owner since 1998, the indie brokerage achieved $1.04 billion in sales volume last year, according to the RealTrends 500 rankings. Dilbeck was #373 in the nation by sales volume last year, and its agents averaged $2.99 million in volume. Dilbeck ranked as the 178th largest independent brokerage in America in 2022 and nine of its agents cleared $16 million in sales volume last year, according to our rankings. Under the arrangement with Engel & Völkers, Dilbeck will retain partial ownership and oversee the day-to-day operations of Los Angeles and Ventura county locations. They will focus on strategic expansion, recruiting, retention, advisor growth, and productivity. Meanwhile, Paul Benson, from Engel & Völkers, will gain an ownership stake of the new business. “For Engel & Völkers, growth doesn’t come at any cost,” said Anthony Hitt, president and CEO, Engel & Völkers Americas. “As a culture-driven company, every new business opportunity, whether a large merger, brokerage partnership or individual real estate professional joining the brand, is approached with the intent not simply to help us grow, but with the expectation and responsibility to further the ethos of the brand and our philosophy toward exceptional client service, as well as helping our advisors grow with us.”Dilbeck Real Estate provides Engel & Völkers with a specialized market knowledge of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. As a result, the luxury brand will now have a total of 15 locations in the greater Los Angeles area.  “The real estate industry has changed significantly since the inception of Dilbeck Real Estate more than 70 years ago,” said Dilbeck. “The competitive landscape is completely different, and with so many options for today’s consumers and real estate professionals to choose from, it became clear that we needed to affiliate with a large, established player in order to bring the business into its next era of growth. The tools and resources that Engel & Völkers provides will help our advisors secure more listings and advance professionally, and nothing excites me more than knowing that we’ve found a partner that shares similar values. This partnership will truly make our business stronger.”

Freddie Mac generated $2.94 billion in net income in the second quarter, up 41% from the first quarter and 20% year-over-year. Like its larger government sponsored enterprise cousin Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac’s second quarter was boosted by rising home prices. Executives on Wednesday said home prices rose 2.4% through the second quarter and are forecast to inch up another 0.8% by year’s end. As such, Freddie freed up $537 million it had in loss reserves, contributing to its larger profit over the prior quarter. “The second quarter saw single-family home prices stabilize, influenced by strong demand, higher residential mortgage rates, and limited homes for sale,” Freddie CEO Michael DeVito said in a statement. “Renters continue to be cost burdened as rents rose in the face of softening multifamily property prices. Freddie Mac remained focused on its mission and delivered a solid quarter, helping 372,000 buy, refinance, or rent a home, the majority of them affordable to low- or moderate-income borrowers and renters.”Purchase loans represented 89% of Freddie’s business in the second quarter; just 11% came from refinancings. Here are some additional highlights from the second quarter call:Net revenues totaled $5.3 billion, down 1% year-over-year, as lower net interest income was partially offset by an increase in non-interest income.Financed 258,000 mortgages, with 55% of eligible loans being affordable to low- to moderate-income families, and enabled 102,000 first-time homebuyers to purchase a home.New business activity of $83 billion in single-family in Q3, down 40% year-over-year due to lower volume.Single-family mortgage portfolio reached $3 trillion, up 3% year-over-year, as portfolio growth has moderated since rates began climbing.Freddie Mac completed approximately 20,000 single-family loan workouts.Roughly 62% of its single-family mortgage portfolio is covered by credit enhancements.Multifamily new business activity came in at $13 billion, down 13% year-over-year.Multifamily mortgage portfolio in Q2 was $427 billion, up 3% year-over-year.Freddie Mac’s net worth reached $41.96 billion, up from $39 billion a quarter ago.

New York-based Rithm Capital executives see surging rates and increasing capital requirements for banks as an opportunity to acquire diversified assets and operational platforms at a time when the parent company of New Rez and Caliber plans to spin off its mortgage business.  “If you think about where we are in the cycle, interest rates are at some of the highest levels we’ve seen in 20+ years, capital requirements in the banking system are headed higher, we are in a period of time where unlevered returns on most of the assets we invest in are between 8% and 12% on an unlevered basis,” Michael Nierenberg, chairman, CEO and president of Rithm Capital, said in a call with analysts. “This period of time, from an investment perspective, is some of the best environments we have seen in years. The time is now. While we are a mortgage REIT, I like to think of us as an asset manager operating as a REIT.” Nierenberg spoke to analysts after Rithm announced Wednesday that it delivered a $357.4 million GAAP net income in the second quarter of 2023 — higher than the $68.9 million the prior quarter. Earnings available for distribution reached $297.9 million in the second quarter, compared to $171 million in the previous quarter.In June, Rithm invested $145 million to purchase $1.4 billion of consumer loans from Goldman Sachs and purchased 371 newly built single-family rental properties from Lennar. In July, the company acquired 200 newly-built townhomes from Dream Finders Homes and announced the acquisition of Sculptor Capital Management for $639 million. Rithm had 1.8 billion of total cash and liquidity to support its acquisitions at the end of the second quarter. “Subsequent to quarter end, we announced the acquisition of Sculptor Capital Management. This acquisition helps accelerate our growth in the alternative asset management space, as Sculptor’s $34 billion of AUM complements Rithm’s $7bn of permanent equity capital and $30+ billion balance sheet,” Nierenberg said. “With the introduction of new capital rules being instituted on banks and the highest level of rates seen in 20+ years, the investing environment has not been this good in years.” Bank regulators last week released a proposal to increase capital requirements for banks under the Basel III regulation. Rithm executives, who said the market is at a transition point in tightening from monetary to regulatory, estimate that regulations open up over $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in funding needs with $170 billion in additional capital requirements. Assets impacted include mortgages, funding to corporates, market-making and trading intermediations and fee-based businesses. Mortgage business Rithm’s mortgage business delivered a combined pre-tax income of $326.9 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared to $164 million in the previous quarter. Originations returned to profitability, with $8.7 million in pre-tax income from April to June. Volumes increased to $9.9 billion in the second quarter, higher than the $7 billion in the previous quarter. However, gain-on-sale margins decreased to 1.25% in Q2 2023, from 1.61% in Q1 2023, due to “channel mix and overall market conditions,” the company said. “We don’t need to originate a unit to do volume. We want to originate units that are core to our business, where we are doing something that is going to make money for LPs and shareholders. So, whether we do an extra billion dollars in origination in a channel, or a billion dollars less in a channel, we care about one thing, obviously servicing our customers and then driving profitability for our shareholders and LPs,” Nierenberg said. Rithm’s mortgage production is expected to be between $8 billion and $10 billion in Q3 2023. The company recently filed a confidential S-1 to spin off its mortgage business. Nierenberg said the separated business may include all the origination operations and most servicing assets, but some MSRs may stay back. He said Rithm does not plan “to turn around and just sell down the entire thing” but wants flexibility with a listed company. “With where mortgage companies are trading, I don’t know that anybody trades at a significant premium at this point. And quite frankly, we just think the timing is right now with the scale and what the team has done around with the New Rez brand and obviously the Caliber acquisition.” Servicing contributed $357.3 million in profits during the second quarter. The company’s mortgage servicing rights portfolio (MSRs) totaled $598 billion in unpaid principal balance (UPB) as of June 30, 2023, down from $603 billion as of March 31, 2023. According to Nierenberg, Rithm continues to move mortgage servicing rights from some of its subservicers back in-house. However, the executive anticipates “there’s limited upside for us” regarding MSR values, so while Rithm monitors where rates are, the company will start putting “more hedges on against that asset as we go forward.”After the earnings release, analysts at BTIG said they “Continue to see value in the equity, which could offer the optionality to participate in a spin off of the originator/servicer while owning a growing and re-purposed asset manager at a potentially attractive valuation.”The company’s stock was trading at $10.20 on Wednesday afternoon, up by 1.54% after the earnings report. 

For all the confusion and volatility that the pandemic caused the mortgage industry, it was clear that the near-zero interest rates were always going to be temporary. After many warnings, The Fed finally made its move in March 2022. Its aggressive inflation-crushing policy extinguished the greatest refi market in history – these days, nearly 90% of residential mortgage originations are purchase loans.In April 2022, HousingWire published a feature about which lenders were well positioned to capitalize on the transition to purchase, and which companies would struggle. In this week’s edition of DataDigest, I’m going to examine which lenders have performed the best in purchase since the first quarter of 2022. For this exercise, I’ll be relying on Inside Mortgage Finance data and looking at origination volume, purchase market share percentage and the lender’s overall mix.According to IMF’s data, United Wholesale Mortgage was the top purchase lender in the first three months of 2022. UWM originated $19.1 billion in purchase mortgages, good for 5.4% of the purchase market. The wholesaler’s mix was 49% purchase, 51% refis, about average. Next up? Pennymac, which originated $17.3 billion in purchase mortgages in the first quarter of 2022. The lender commanded 4.8% of the purchase market, and purchases represented 52.2% of its mix. And here’s the rest of the top 25 in Q1 2022 and Q1 2023: var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1690992604319'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.minWidth='600px';vizElement.style.maxWidth='870px';vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.minHeight='697px';vizElement.style.maxHeight='777px';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.minWidth='600px';vizElement.style.maxWidth='870px';vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.minHeight='697px';vizElement.style.maxHeight='777px';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1690992542326'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.minWidth='600px';vizElement.style.maxWidth='870px';vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.minHeight='697px';vizElement.style.maxHeight='777px';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.minWidth='600px';vizElement.style.maxWidth='870px';vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.minHeight='697px';vizElement.style.maxHeight='777px';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); The data shows that a clear winner is UWM, which has pulled out all the tricks of the trade to juice its purchase business over the last year. UWM ended the first quarter of 2023 with a 7.7% share of the purchase market and nearly identical origination volume at $19.2 billion. While Pennymac topped UWM in both market share percentage (8.2%) and purchase volume ($20.6 billion), virtually all of its purchase business is buying loans through the correspondent channel. It’s a low-margin business and quite a different animal than retail and wholesale, though Pennymac should be given kudos for snagging market share from big banks. And what would a mortgage ranking be without Rocket Mortgage? In the first quarter of 2022, Rocket Mortgage originated $12.5 billion in purchase mortgages and captured 3.5% of the purchase market. Only 23% of its origination volume was purchase, in line with servicer/refi specialists Freedom Mortgage and Mr. Cooper. In the first quarter of 2023, Rocket originated $9.4 billion in purchase mortgages and its share of the purchase market increased to 3.8%. About 56% of the lender’s origination volume was purchase; only Mr. Cooper’s share at 52% was lower. So while Rocket did improve both its share of the purchase market and its mix, it was outpaced by arch-rival UWM and is still more reliant on refi business than its competitors. Let’s break the chart down further. In April 2022, we wrote that lenders with call center-heavy business models would likely struggle to adapt to the changing purchase market, which is heavily reliant on real estate agent referrals. By contrast, lenders with distributed retail and broker-reliant models would perform well. That has largely been true, but not entirely. I would have expected Guaranteed Rate, Fairway Independent Mortgage, Guild Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage and Movement Mortgage to increase their purchase market share percentages in the year since the rate hikes went into effect. Instead, Guaranteed Rate slipped from 3.1% purchase market share in Q1 2022 to 2.6% in Q1 2023. Fairway dropped from 2.4% to 2.2.%; Guild 1.1% to 1.0%; and CrossCountry 1.7% to 1.6%. Movement increased its purchase market share to 1.6% in Q1 2023 from 1.4% a year prior. Other notable changes: Homepoint generated $5.6 billion in purchases in the first quarter of 2022, but was all but defunct by spring of 2023. Much of the wholesaler’s business went to UWM. Can UWM keep that business going forward? Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, which respectively had 4.7% and 3.5% of the purchase market in Q1 2022, both pulled back heavily on residential mortgages. They each ended the first quarter of 2023 with a 2.2% share of the purchase market. JPMorgan will likely climb the rankings in the coming quarters after having absorbed First Republic, which ended the first quarter of 2023 as the 23rd largest purchase lender in America. And don’t look now but U.S. Bank and AmeriHome – heavyweight correspondent players – grew market share, too.NewRez/Caliber commanded 4.0% of the purchase market after the first quarter in 2022, but a year later it declined to 2.3%. The firm has leaned into its robust servicing business, which has insulated it from the origination market’s chill. Its parent company Rithm Capital has also been greatly diversifying its business and is considering spinning off its mortgage business.  The homebuilder lending companies took full advantage of the frozen existing home sales market. DHI Mortgage, the lending arm of D.R. Horton, originated $4.5 billion in purchase mortgages in the first quarter of 2022, good for 1.2% market share. A year later, DHI Mortgage originated $5 billion in purchase mortgages in Q1 2023 and owned 2.0% market share. Lennar Mortgage had a similar story – its market share increased to 1.3% from 0.8% a year prior. Other big purchase market winners include Planet Home Lending, which has grown to become a top government correspondent lender. Planet ranked as the eighth-largest purchase lender in America in the first quarter of 2023 with $5.7 billion in purchase origination volume, capturing 2.3% of the market. It wasn’t even in the top 20 a year prior. The company picked up Homepoint’s correspondent business and has been also looking to acquire MSRs; in June it picked up a $10 billion portfolio of Ginnie loans. LoanDepot fell from the 10th-largest purchase lender in America in the first quarter of 2022 with 2.2% market share to the 17th largest a year later with just 1.4% market share. Still, it has repositioned its business for the purchase market – 72% of its origination volume in Q1 2023 was purchase, up from 37% a year prior. After several quarters of financial losses, there are signs pointing to improvements at the California lender. In our weekly DataDigest newsletter, HW Media Managing Editor James Kleimann breaks down the biggest stories in housing through a data lens. Sign up here! Have a subject in mind? Email him at james@hwmedia.com.

Zillow Group‘s new-construction listings will be automatically syndicated to Redfin. The deal between the listing platforms comes as new construction listings form roughly 30% of the housing sales market.The partnership is aimed at expanding the reach of homebuilder listings on Zillow, allowing Redfin’s brokerage customers to explore a broader range of new construction for sale, the two companies said on Tuesday.“Zillow’s Community pages, in particular, help buyers understand the benefits of a new-construction home and give home builders a place to highlight all the amenities within a new-build community,” Owen Gehrett, vice president and general manager of new construction at Zillow, said in a statement.“The partnership with Redfin extends this unique and valuable resource to a wider audience. It benefits home builders by expanding their reach to additional home buyers,” Gehrett added.Zillow and Redfin’s partnerships come at a time when buyers are increasingly turning to new construction due to a rate lock-in effect caused led by high mortgage rates.New single-family home sales rose 23.8% in June from a year ago while the market saw 28% fewer new listings added during the same period.With inventory of existing homes dwindling and buyers’ demand for new construction rising, one-third of single-family homes available for sale were newly built homes – marking a record-high share, according to a Redfin analysis. “This (Zillow partnership) is a win-win-win for our customers, agents and the builders who advertise with Zillow, who will now reach the homebuyers on Redfin,” Adam Wiener, Redfin’s president of real estate operations, said.“The partnership provides a new revenue opportunity while allowing us to focus on what we do best, helping customers buy and sell homes with local Redfin agents,” Wiener added.Zillow, the country’s top real estate listing platform, recorded a $22 million net loss in the first quarter of 2023. Its business model relies heavily on revenue from real estate agent advertising, and it’s been a sluggish housing market.  Traffic to its apps and site remained flat compared to a year ago and other metrics including – Premier Agent and Zillow Home Loans – were not as strong. Despite weak financial earnings, executives said they will focus on making the home-buying transaction more seamless for the remainder of 2023.Real estate brokerage and listings platform Redfin was also in the red in Q1 — reporting a $60.8 million net loss, an improvement on the $90.8 million lost in Q1 2022. While executives at Redfin noted that the company is headed in the right direction, the firm is unlikely to get in the black in Q2 – with net loss projected to be between $35 million and $44 million.

Stavvy, a fintech company specializing in digital and remote collaboration for lending and real estate companies, acquired Brace, a digital mortgage servicing platform.Terms of the deal were not announced.With the acquisition, servicers and homeowners looking for mortgage assistance will have access to a streamlined platform that allows them to interact on their terms, fostering increased transparency and improved operational efficiencies, Stavvy said on Tuesday announcing the deal. “Stavvy and Brace’s unified services are set to deliver an unparalleled solution, encompassing every critical stage of default servicing – from the initial homeowner inquiry to the ultimate resolution,” Kosta Ligris, CEO and founder of Stavvy said in a statement. Homeowners can now apply, submit documentation, track progress, receive a prompt decision, and electronically execute relevant documents, the Boston, Massachusetts-based fintech said. Founded in 2018, Stavvy works to increase efficiency and transparency in real estate and mortgage lending. Its platform offers eClosing functionality, including eSign, digital notarization, and video conferencing designed for real estate and mortgage professionals.In line with its goal to provide clients with digital closing solutions, Stavvy formed a partnership with WFG National Title Insurance Company (WFG) to provide the company and its customers with eClosing technology solutions in May. Stavvy has partnerships with Guaranteed Rate aimed at driving digitization in title and settlement agents to real estate professionals; and loss mitigation and loan modification solution provider Covius to offer RON and eSignature capabilities for all loan mitigation products, regardless of recording requirements. In 2021, Stavvy landed a $40 million Series A funding led by Morningside Technology Ventures, which it planned to use to triple its staff by the first quarter of 2022.Stavvy went through a growth period in 2021 when it integrated with ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass Digital Lending Platform and became a MISMO-certified Remote Online Notarization provider.Culver City, California-headquartered Brace was founded in 2017 by Amr Mohamed and Eric Rachmel and has received a total of about $30 million in funding, according to its website.Companies that provided funding include Canvas Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that had previously invested in real estate startup Flyhomes in 2019, as well as real estate investment marketplace Roofstock.

Fannie Mae netted $5 billion in profits in the second quarter, up $1.22 billion from the first three months of the year. Executives attributed the swollen profits to the continued strength of home prices, which have risen 5% in the first six months of the year.In fact, Fannie Mae is no longer predicting a decline in home prices in 2023. The government sponsored enterprise‘s forecast now calls for a 3.9% home-price increase this year, though a recession is still in the cards. “The economy has remained more resilient than we expected earlier in the year, but we believe it is still on a decelerating path and additional drags are likely forthcoming,” Chryssa Halley, Fannie’s chief financial officer, said on the second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. “While noting the probability of a soft landing may have increased of late, our economic and strategic research group expects the economy will enter a modest recession in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year.”Here are some highlights from Fannie Mae’s second quarter:Single-family conventional acquisition volume was $89.2 billion in Q2 2023, up 32% over the first quarter’s $67.5 billion. Purchase acquisition volume, 45% of which was for first-time homebuyers, increased to $76.4 billion from $56.5 billion in the first quarter. Refinance acquisition volume was $12.8 billion in the second quarter of 2023, up from $11 billion in the first quarter of 2023.Fannie Mae provided $104 billion in liquidity to the mortgage market in the second quarter of 2023.Average single-family conventional guaranty book of business in Q2 2023 declined by $1.4 billion from the first quarter of 2023, driven by acquisition volumes being lower than loan paydowns during the quarter. Credit characteristics for single-family conventional remained strong, with a weighted-average mark-to-market loan-to-value ratio of 51% and a weighted-average FICO credit score at origination of 752 as of June 30, 2023.Single-family serious delinquency rate decreased to 0.55% as of June 30, 2023 from 0.59% as of March 31, 2023.Average charged guaranty fee, net of TCCA fees, on single-family conventional remained relatively flat at 46.8 basis points as of June 30, 2023, compared with 46.6 basis points as of March 31, 2023.Fannie’s net worth increased to $69 billion, up from $64 billion a quarter ago. Fellow GSE Freddie Mac will disclose its second quarter earnings on Wednesday.

The appropriations committees in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate last week put forward their versions of the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) appropriations bills. The House version features nearly $2 billion less funding for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) than its Senate counterpart, which could set the stage for a drawn-out reconciliation process.The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is tracking the developments related to the T-HUD bills, telling its members that the gulf between both versions as they relate to HUD spending could lead to issues, on top of the re-emerging concern that a debate between the legislative branch and the White House could lead to a government shutdown later this year.“The House is slated to advance individual spending bills at funding levels well below the negotiated limits of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, causing a nearly $2 billion delta between the House and Senate T-HUD bills,” MBA said in a member update.A comparative analysis of the House and Senate versions of the bill published by the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association (PHADA) concluded that the Senate bill is broadly more generous in its funding allocations for HUD programs. The House version, meanwhile, calls for “deep cuts” in certain housing programs, PHADA said. In total, the House version calls for $90.243 billion in T-HUD spending, while the Senate version calls for $98.931 billion.In its update to members, MBA described the nature of its work related to T-HUD appropriations and its current priorities.“MBA has once again worked closely with House and Senate appropriators to both secure funding for targeted federal housing investments and enhance oversight of federal agencies’ actions through committee report language,” the association said. “MBA worked with key appropriators to help secure commentary calling for accountability from HUD regarding the operations of FHA’s multifamily lending program in the committee report. Both bills fund the administrative costs of Ginnie Mae and FHA, and the Senate bill includes $100 million in grants to support inclusive zoning.”The debate regarding the FY 2024 budget is expected to begin in earnest once the House and Senate return from their August recess. The markups of the appropriations bills are the first step toward eventual full-year funding levels, but general disagreements about government spending pervade the debate which could raise the specter of another war of words that could bring about a government shutdown.“House floor action on all 12 individual appropriations bills – including its version of a T-HUD bill – remains uncertain,” MBA said in its update. “With Congress unlikely to reach [an] agreement on government funding before September 30, 2023, legislators will almost certainly need to pass a ‘stop-gap’ Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government operating beyond October 1, 2023.”Such CRs routinely push the budget debate to the very end of the year, but there is the possibility of a government shutdown in October, according to a recent economic policy analysis by the Washington Post.“The debt ceiling deal, reached in May by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), specified that most of the federal government should be funded at essentially flat levels for the next two years,” the Post article said. “But some House Republicans say that bipartisan agreement only means the government won’t spend more than the caps — and that spending less is just fine. Many GOP leaders are pushing to limit funding for the 2024 fiscal year to what the budget was in 2022, which would mean a $115 billion cut that Democrats reject.”

More than 2,200 different multifamily lenders provided $480.1 billion in new mortgages for apartment buildings with five or more units in 2022, a reduction of around 1% when compared to 2021 levels. This is according to an annual report of the multifamily lending market compiled and released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).One-third of active multifamily lenders made five or fewer loans over the course of 2022, according to MBA. The association characterized the market as generally healthy, despite challenges that faced lending industries broadly last year.“Multifamily borrowing remained strong in 2022, largely as a result of lending by banks,” said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s head of commercial real estate research. “Beginning in last year’s third quarter, rising and volatile interest rates, uncertainty about property values, and questions about some property fundamentals led to a fall-off in borrowing and lending across commercial property types, including multifamily.”While capital sources of lending fell, the amount by which it fell was almost offset by activity seen from banks, Woodwell explained.“Most capital sources saw a significant decline in lending activity in 2022, but bank activity increased by an almost equal amount,” he said. “It’s unlikely that this momentum is occurring this year, given current evidence that banks have tightened underwriting standards and borrower demand has weakened.”In terms of dollar volume, the greatest amount (42%) of the $480.1 billion in new mortgages for apartment buildings with five or more units went to depositories, MBA said.“The top five multifamily lenders in 2022 by dollar volume were JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Walker & Dunlop, Berkadia, and Capital One Financial Corp,” MBA said.Data from the report is sourced from both MBA and data released by the U.S. government under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).

The Swann Group, led by Rachel Swann, has joined Coldwell Banker Realty in Northern California from Compass. The five-person team is known for its luxury property business in San Francisco and in Northern California’s wine country. Swann’s team closed $101 million in sales volume in 2022, according to America’s Best Real Estate Professionals ranking on RealTrends. It ranked 90th in sales volume among small teams nationwide. “We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Coldwell Banker for the continued expansion of our team. As we grow, we wanted to partner with a brand that had the infrastructure, footprint and brand presence to support us and our clients without disruption,” said Swann in a statement.This move will allow The Swann Group, with more than $500 million in sales over the past decade, to work closely with other Coldwell Banker offices, including local franchises as the group grows based on client migration patterns.Kamini Lane, president and CEO of Coldwell Banker Realty, added:“The Swann Group is one of the definitive leaders in the Northern California market, and we are so proud to welcome them to Coldwell Banker,” said Lane. “Teams like Rachel’s are consistently making the move to Coldwell Banker to leverage our strong infrastructure, marketing support, and resonance that our brand has with consumers.”