President Trump has made it clear that he wants to address housing challenges, including the lack of housing supply and rising prices. In an executive order signed Monday night, Trump ordered the heads of all executive departments and agencies “to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with appl

New contracts for home purchases are coming in very low this month. We counted 10% fewer home sales for the week than the same week a year ago. In the fourth quarter of 2024, sales were coming in at 5% to 10% more than the year prior. Those sales gains have evaporated and even reversed. Buyer activi

Latest update: Jan. 20 at 9:15 pm central time: added specific information about emergency price relief for housing.What are President Trump’s priorities for housing in his second term? That’s the burning question for professionals in real estate, mortgage, title, appraisal and homebuilding — and th

A comprehensive report on homeowners insurance released by the Treasury Department this week outlined the cost of climate challenges on homeowners. Notably, the report found that homeowners in areas with the highest risk of perils paid 82% more for homeowners insurance than those in ZIP codes with t

Voters delivered a Republican trifecta in Washington, D.C., but a razor-thin House majority and the Senate filibuster will put some limits on what is legislatively possible for President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress. The President and financial regulators will have a greater ability to deregula

Cybercrime losses rose to a record high of $12.8 billion in 2023, according to the  FBI’s Internet Crime Report, and 2024 saw more of the same. Consider these stats: FundingShield reported that 45.5% of loans processed in Q4 2024 had issues that lead to wire fraud risks. NDP Analytics reported that

In this week’s episode of the PowerHouse podcast, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez talks with Lower CEO Dan Snyder about the digital lender’s recent acquisition of Neat Labs, its in-house tech development efforts and coaching programs for top producers.This conversation has been edited for length

The time has come to highlight game-changing real estate professionals who adhered to the gold standard of brilliance in 2024. RealTrends Verified has opened the submissions period for its 2025 rankings, alongside a series of big-time enhancements. This year’s rankings mark a new chapter in the jour

Inaction is easy. It’s quiet; unwritten; immune from critique. It sits undone; confidently static.But if buyers and sellers were compelled to transcribe their inaction, it would read like a sociopath’s diary entry:“We could have watched you grow up, but your grandpa and me weren’t willing to give up

The sight of beautiful houses in Los Angeles transports you to an idyllic version of the city found in classic Hollywood movies. But the harsh realities of its pricy housing market more resemble the city’s dark underbelly reflected in a David Lynch LA noir film. And the wildfires ripping through Los

Mortgage rates fell last week after a brutal few months of rising rates. The question now is whether rates can keep going lower, or if last week was just a pause in the mortgage rate storm before the spring home-buying season gets into full swing.10-year yield and mortgage ratesMy 2025 forecast incl

As the dust settles from the confirmation hearing of Scott Turner to serve as the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are logging their reactions in official statements and social media posts ahead of an expected Senate vo

A notice implemented into the reverse mortgage servicing process that is designed to flag potential foreclosures if they are in a federally declared disaster area could prove to be beneficial for any borrowers currently impacted by the Los Angeles-area wildfires, according to a servicing industry ex

Purchase mortgage applications for new homes rose 8.9% year over year in December 2024, according to a report released Friday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Application volume decreased by 3% compared to November.MBA’s Builder Application Survey for December monitors application volumes

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week that Mark Steven Diamond, who was accused of “bilking elderly homeowners in a reverse mortgage and home repair scheme,” was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.Diamond was cr

Compass is strengthening its presence in the Nutmeg State. On Friday, the largest brokerage in the country by sales volume announced that The Jennifer Leahy Team will be leaving Douglas Elliman to join the Robert Reffkin-helmed firm.Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, the team is led by Jennifer Leahy

Today’s housing starts data exceeded estimates; however, a closer examination of the report with the builder confidence reveals that the recent rise in mortgage rates, approaching 7.25%, has negatively affected builder sentiment. Since late 2022, our analysis indicates that mortgage rates in the 6%-

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) this week published Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2025-06, which codifies “updates to FHA’s permanent loss mitigation options based on learnings from its temporary COVID-19 policies and feedback received on the draft policies” from a proposal published this past Nove

The wildfires ripping through Los Angeles are on pace to be the most destructive in U.S. history, as one estimate concludes that property damage from the Palisades and Eaton fires could exceed $45 billion.When they’re finally extinguished, the city and its residents will have to sift through the dev

Seattle-based WaFd Bank, which has offered home loans for more than 100 years, announced Thursday in an earnings report that it will exit the single-family mortgage lending business. WaFd president and CEO Brent Beardall said in a LinkedIn post that the move will involve layoffs for about 8% of the