• More than 25% of retired investors are paying down mortgage, credit card debt

    More than 25% of retired investors are paying down mortgage, credit card debt,Chris Clow

    Over a quarter (26%) of retired investors continue to pay off their mortgage, and precisely one-quarter of the cohort are continuing to pay down credit card debt, according to a new survey from the Nationwide Retirement Institute.The U.S. retirement population is getting older at a faster rate and a

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  • Hallelujah! HUD finally updates, expands 203(k) program

    Hallelujah! HUD finally updates, expands 203(k) program,Chris Clow

    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Tuesday announced that it has published updated policies for its 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance Program, in an effort to “modernize the program and enhance its usefulness for individuals and families seeking affordable financing

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  • FHLBank Chicago adopts VantageScore 4.0 model

    FHLBank Chicago adopts VantageScore 4.0 model,Chris Clow

    The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBank Chicago) and consumer credit scoring system VantageScore announced on Tuesday that the bank is now accepting mortgage collateral using VantageScore 4.0, an updated version of the scoring system using trended credit bureau data.“[M]ember financial instit

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  • Lamacchia Realty continues acquisition spree with Berkshire Dream Home

    Lamacchia Realty continues acquisition spree with Berkshire Dream Home,Brooklee Han

    Massachusetts-based Lamacchia Realty is continuing its expansion. The brokerage announced Tuesday that it has acquired Dalton, Massachusetts-based Berkshire Dream Home for an undisclosed sum.Berkshire Dream Home was founded in 2014 by Andy and Sarah Perenick. According to the release, in was the top

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  • Mortgage rates hold steady despite softer labor market

    Mortgage rates hold steady despite softer labor market,Flávia Furlan Nunes

    Mortgage rates held steady over the past week despite recent signs of relief from the labor market, according to HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center. In large part because of the lack of clarity as to when the Federal Reserve will begin cutting the benchmark rate, mortgage rates remained above the 7

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  • CoStar pulls two Homes.com ads after Move challenges traffic numbers

    CoStar pulls two Homes.com ads after Move challenges traffic numbers,Brooklee Han

    CoStar Group is withdrawing two of its Homes.com advertising campaigns after two Fast-Track SWIFT rulings from the BBB’s National Programs National Advertising Division.The two challenges were brought by Move, Inc., the parent company of rival Realtor.com. Fast-Track SWIFT is an expedited process fo

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  • SFR investors drive up rents, but don’t cause gentrification: Philadelphia Fed

    SFR investors drive up rents, but don’t cause gentrification: Philadelphia Fed,Jeff Andrews

    Institutional investors in single-family rental (SFR) houses cause rents in a neighborhood to increase quickly, but their entrance into a neighborhood doesn’t cause gentrification. That’s the conclusion from a working paper released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The paper exam

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  • 12 proven real estate scripts that boost confidence & earn more business

    12 proven real estate scripts that boost confidence & earn more business,Ashley Harwood

    As a broker and real estate coach, I’m always surprised when new agents tell me they don’t want to use real estate scripts. A script is just a predetermined question or response that helps guide a conversation closer to your desired outcome. Knowing what you’ll say in advance on a call, at an open h

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  • Owning Manhattan? How much business SERHANT.’s agents really do

    Owning Manhattan? How much business SERHANT.’s agents really do,Brooklee Han

    Since launching in late June, Ryan Serhant’s latest reality TV venture “Owning Manhattan” on Netflix, has become quite the phenomenon. Despite debuting on June 28, the show cracked Netflix’s top-10 most streamed shows in the U.S. for the week ending on June 30. The show stars Serhant, who is no stra

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  • Treasury Dept. proposes rule to expand oversight of homes purchased near military facilities

    Treasury Dept. proposes rule to expand oversight of homes purchased near military facilities,Chris Clow

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday announced that it has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to expand the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)’ authority to review real estate transactions near military installations by foreign buyers.CFIUS is an inter-a

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  • NRMLA president talks HMBS 2.0 term sheet and its potential impact

    NRMLA president talks HMBS 2.0 term sheet and its potential impact,Chris Clow

    At the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) Eastern Regional Meeting in May, Acting Ginnie Mae President Sam Valverde said that the government-owned company planned to release a term sheet for a newly proposed Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Securities (HMBS) program s

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  • Housing market sees more price cuts as inventory continues to grow

    Housing market sees more price cuts as inventory continues to grow,Mike Simonsen

    Nationally, the housing market indicators have been slow for several months now. There have been a few markets; however, that have defied the national trends where inventory has stayed tighter and demand keeps rolling in. Available inventory of unsold homes in the U.S. is 40% more now than last year

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  • CHLA calls on CFPB to take action against trigger lead calls

    CHLA calls on CFPB to take action against trigger lead calls,Chris Clow

    The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) on Monday submitted a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra, urging the agency to more forcefully go after trigger lead solicitations. To cement the point, CHLA is calling such solicitations “junk calls,” echoing the

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  • Restoration of historic Frank Lloyd Wright home complicated by reverse mortgage

    Restoration of historic Frank Lloyd Wright home complicated by reverse mortgage,Chris Clow

    An historic home in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1903 is in serious need of repairs and renovations, but an existing reverse mortgage loan is complicating the process of initiating the work. This is according to original reporting by Crain’s Chicago Busin

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  • Consumers expect home-price growth to slow down: The Fed

    Consumers expect home-price growth to slow down: The Fed,Jeff Andrews

    Despite a spate of reports showing the cost of housing increasing, consumers have a slightly rosier view of future home-price growth.That’s according to a new consumer survey from the Federal Reserve that shows respondents believe that home-price growth will be 3%. That’s down from 3.3% in last mont

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  • Newrez imposes another round of layoffs

    Newrez imposes another round of layoffs,Flávia Furlan Nunes

    Top-five mortgage lender Newrez, owned by asset manager Rithm Capital, has imposed another round of layoffs affecting 265 employees in Colorado and Arizona, per documents sent to state authorities.That’s the third round this year, following the acquisition of Computershare Mortgage Services and its

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  • Banc of California selling $2B in DSCR loans

    Banc of California selling $2B in DSCR loans,James Kleimann

    Roughly eight months after acquiring PacWest Bancorp in a rescue deal, Banc of California is selling roughly $2 billion in business-purpose residential mortgage loans, according to Bloomberg.PacWest had already sold the servicing on the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) loans, which were originated

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  • The housing market is better positioned for lower mortgage rates

    The housing market is better positioned for lower mortgage rates,Logan Mohtashami

    Now that we are halfway through the year, we can see that active inventory in America is growing, unlike what happened in 2023. This is precisely what the doctor ordered for the housing market. In March of 2022, we only had 240,000 active single-family homes available for sale, leading me to call th

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  • Vishal Garg ruled to pay $5.5M in a decade-long lawsuit

    Vishal Garg ruled to pay $5.5M in a decade-long lawsuit,Flávia Furlan Nunes

    A New York jury found Vishal Garg, CEO and founder of digital mortgage lender Better.com, liable for breach of fiduciary duty and conversion in a decade-long lawsuit filed by his former partner, Raza Khan. Garg intends to appeal. The court ordered Garg to pay $5.5 million to Educational Investment &

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  • Move’s trade secret lawsuit is a ‘PR stunt,’ says CoStar’s Andy Florance

    Move’s trade secret lawsuit is a ‘PR stunt,’ says CoStar’s Andy Florance,Brooklee Han

    To Andy Florance, the CEO of CoStar Group, the trade secret lawsuit Move, Inc., the parent company of listing portal rival Realtor.com, recently filed against his firm is all a “PR stunt.”“Effectively, you create a bogus story and you use a relatively junior person as a pawn and you get a story out

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