The state of Montana has been more heavily promoting its state-based Reverse Annuity Mortgage (RAM) program for seniors. Unspent funds allocated to the program can be put to use by assisting the state’s older residents with reverse mortgage financing at a relatively low interest rate when compared t

Unsold inventory of homes for sale has been on the rise all year. It hasn’t turned the corner yet — inventory rose across the country this week — but at less than 1% rate. There are some signs that inventory growth is slowing with newly lower mortgage rates and the end of the summer. In the years be

Compass is already one of the biggest brokerages in New York City — and it just got bigger.The Zweben Team, a high-producing group in Manhattan and Brooklyn, have left Douglas Elliman to join Compass at its headquarters in Manhattan. Led by Carolyn and Paul Zweben, the team has closed $800 million i

A majority of Americans are seriously concerned that their retirement will be negatively impacted by the rising costs and uncertainty associated with sudden, unexpected and more frequent extreme weather events taking place across the country. This is according to the 2024 Annual Retirement Study fro

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%