Refinance applications picked up as mortgage rates fell last week, but purchase loan activity had only a small gain, according to data released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).The MBA’s survey — which covers 75% of all retail residential mortgage applications in the U.S. — found

Adrianne Todman, acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), visited with local leaders in Cincinnati this week to talk about ways to address an affordable housing shortage in the city and across the state of Ohio, according to local reporting by the Cincinnati Ci

The Real Brokerage isn’t tapping the brakes on its rapid expansion.During its second-quarter 2024 earnings call on Wednesday, the company said it added almost 3,000 agents from April through June, a 70% year-over-year rise and a 250% increase compared to Q2 2022.The ballooning agent count pushed bro

Single-family rental (SFR) investors are worried about the rising cost of home insurance, but the majority expect to buy more properties in the next year as mortgage rates cool and home-price growth subsides. That’s the conclusion from a survey of 235 single-family landlords in late June and early J

A little over a month after the Batton 2 commission lawsuit defendants filed motions to dismiss the suit brought by homebuyers in Illinois, the plaintiffs have shot back.In responses filed on Monday, the plaintiffs argue that the court should not grant the defendants’ motions. The motions filed by C

The typical American home seller pays a 2.55% commission to the real estate agent hired by their home’s buyer. That’s down from an average of 2.62% in January, before the NAR settlement was announced in March.This is according to Redfin, which analyzed MLS data of rolling four-week periods through J

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said Tuesday on the company’s second-quarter 2024 earnings call that he expects business to improve when the housing market speeds up after mortgage rates come down.But what is the alternative if rates don’t come down?“Great question — Plan B is drink our own urine or our com

California-based mortgage lender loanDepot reduced its financial loss in the second quarter of 2024 while still feeling the impacts of a January cyberattack. During the three-month period, the company increased its volumes and margins while implementing an efficiency program and selling mortgage ser

Attorneys for Ginnie Mae have responded to Texas Capital Bank (TBC) over the government’s motion to move the case to a different venue. They say that the bank’s own filing on the matter avoids the key issues that the government sought to raise regarding the original clause that specifies where any r

Older Americans who seek out younger roommates to stay on top of high housing costs is not a new concept, but there is evidence to suggest that the trend is growing more popular. This is according to a recent podcast episode hosted by Boston-based NPR affiliate WBUR.Jennifer Molinsky, director of th

At the start of 2024, CEO Leo Pareja did not think eXp Realty would find itself in the real estate forms business, but eight months into this year, things look a little different.In March 2024, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) settled the nationwide commission lawsuits and agreed to severa

Mortgage industry executives are on alert amid the global stock-market meltdown caused by fears that the Federal Reserve may have kept the federal funds rate too high for too long, which could bring the U.S. economy into recession.Tensions in the bond markets have provoked a decline in mortgage rate

The downward movement in mortgage rates over the past few months accelerated last week as a cooler-than-expected jobs report and indications of a Federal Reserve rate cut led to a steep drop in loan pricing.At HousingWire‘s Mortgage Rates Center on Tuesday, the 30-year conventional loan rate average

A highly anticipated piece of political news arrived Tuesday morning as Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate in November’s presidential election, with Harris having clinched the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican nominee and former President Do

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and its former CEO, Steve Brobeck, have a long history of advocating for policies that protect consumers. However, in recent efforts to curb real estate professionals, the CFA has seemingly lost sight of its core purpose: advocating for those most in need of

Lower continues to make moves designed to support its expansion efforts, hiring former Waterstone Mortgage executive Dustin Owen as its new divisional sales leader and senior vice president of growth.Owen, who is based in the Orlando area, spent the past 16 years at Waterstone, most recently as its

The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) have submitted a joint letter to Ginnie Mae acting president Sam Valverde, offering their thoughts and perspectives on the government-owned company’s proposed supplemental Home Equity Conversion Mort

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) has signed a $57.8 billion state budget for 2025, which features several provisions designed to assist the state’s senior residents with health care, food assistance and aging-in-place provisions like home-based care. This is according to announcements by Healy’s

Seller impersonation fraud is on the rise. A study conducted by NDP Analytics found that 28% of title companies experienced at least one seller impersonation fraud attempt in 2023, and in April 2024 alone, 19% of firms experienced at least one of these attempts. The study, which was released on Mond