Justin Caplan joins Movement Mortgage as growth director

Movement Mortgage has a new East Coast growth director, according to a press release from the company on Wednesday. Justin Caplan is taking on the role. He is tasked with leading and supporting market expansion, along with strengthening recruiting and leadership development. Caplan, who has 30 years
Read MoreZillow Zeitgeist 2025: How America searched for homes this year

Century 21 expands presence in Idaho

Century 21 Real Estate has expanded its presence in Idaho’s Magic Valley through the affiliation of Twin Falls-based Gateway Real Estate. The brokerage — now operating as Century 21 Gateway — has been owned and operated since 2010 by Nathan Lyda, a Twin Falls native. Lyda entered the real estate ind
Read MoreERA Real Estate affiliate announces North Texas acquisition

ERA Real Estate affiliate Sprout Realty ERA Powered announced its acquisition of Dallas-based 24Fifteen Realty, expanding its presence into the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and neighboring Waco, Texas. The acquisition includes two offices and nearly 100 agents. Following the transaction, the brokerag
Read MoreWhy Texas builders are betting on backup batteries for new homes

On March 4, 2025, a windstorm cut across Texas and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes. Outside Dallas-Fort Worth, the pattern was the same as the storm swept through one of Lennar‘s new communities: the grid went down, the neighborhood went dark. But 46 homes in that same community—
Read MoreSupreme Court denies REX’s request to rehear petition

The Supreme Court will not be taking up Real Estate Exchange (REX)’s appeal of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in REX’s long-running antitrust suit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Zillow. The nation’s highest court denied REX’s rehearing request in a ruling on Monday.
Read MoreICE taps Bob Hart to lead mortgage technology division

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) on Tuesday named Bob Hart as president of its ICE Mortgage Technology division. Hart will succeed Tim Bowler, who will transition to ICE’s fixed income and data services division, where he will focus on index development and financial institution infrastructure. The l
Read MoreMidwest dominates Zillow’s most popular housing markets of 2025
Home shoppers in 2025 gravitated toward more affordable, midsized U.S. cities, with Midwestern markets accounting for most of the country’s most popular places to buy, according to new data released by Zillow. Rockford, Illinois, ranked as the most popular housing market in the country, moving up fr
Read MoreWhy the Fed isn’t worried about the jobs data
The unemployment rate reached 4.6% today! Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve perceives current conditions as stable, allowing for a policy stance slightly above neutral since labor market deterioration has not yet occurred. Since late 2022, I have consistently argued that the Fed shifted its approac
Read MoreFreddie Mac appoints Kenny Smith as new CEO

Freddie Mac announced Tuesday that its board of directors has selected Kenny M. Smith as the company’s CEO. The move is effective Wednesday and Smith will also serve as a member of the board. Michael Hutchins, who assumed the interim CEO role in March 2025 following the departure of Diana Reid, will
Read MoreHome improvement contractors remain cautiously optimistic

Even as higher material costs, labor constraints, economic uncertainty, and spottier consumer spending trends weigh on current renovation and remodeling projects, home improvement contractors remain optimistic. The Q4 Contractor Activity Tracker, released by The Farnsworth Group and Home Improvement
Read MoreShared housing reforms gain traction as cities address affordability

Boarding and lodging houses played an important role during American industrialization. Could they make a come-back? Rural people and immigrants relied on them when they sought jobs in rapidly urbanizing cities and affordable housing was scarce. Cities zoned them largely out of existence over the p
Read MoreMidwest markets surge to the top of Zillow's 2025 rankings

PadSplit expands co-living services to 4 new cities

Co-living marketplace PadSplit is expanding into four new U.S. markets: Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Sacramento and Nashville. Founded in 2017, PadSplit operates in more than 35 markets and has listed more than 28,000 rooms, housing 65,000-plus people. The company said it focuses on access and flexibi
Read MoreStudy finds Zillow home estimates improve buyer, seller outcomes

A new study found that Zillow’s automated home valuation tool, the Zestimate, improves pricing efficiency in residential real estate transactions and delivers measurable benefits to buyers and sellers like. The research, published in Marketing Science — a peer-reviewed journal of the Institute for O
Read MoreFlorida property insurance market is rebounding from 2022 low point

ALIRT Insurance Research released a report this week finding that Florida’s homeowners insurance market has stabilized after years of financial strain — following legislative reforms adopted in late 2022 and early 2023. The 2025 Florida Domestic Property Insurer Market Update concludes that the mark
Read MoreOpendoor names Lucas Matheson president, Christy Schwartz CFO

The executive team switch-ups at iBuyer Opendoor are continuing. On Monday, the firm announced the appointments of Lucas Matheson as president and Christy Schwartz as chief financial officer. Matheson most recently served as the CEO of Coinbase Canada. Prior to this, Matheson spent five years in a
Read MoreHomebuilder confidence ticks up but remains low

Homebuilding executives remain downbeat, citing a range of current conditions marked by buyer hesitancy, economic uncertainty, shrinking profit margins, increased use of incentives, and high costs. However, homebuilders whose primary focus is the strained entry-level buyer segment face the biggest h
Read MoreInside Pennymac’s Texas expansion and its push for top mortgage talent

Pennymac cut the ribbon on a new facility in Carrollton, Texas, on Friday, which will become the company’s largest corporate office, eventually housing more than 1,800 employees. The move consolidates two offices in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex while also giving the company room to grow. Pennymac
Read MoreMRED challenges Zillow’s claims of imminent listing feed disruptions

The spat between Zillow and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) continues on. Over the weekend, the Chicago-based MLS sent an email, obtained by HousingWire, to members warning them that the listing portal’s industry relations team is contacting MRED subscribers and allegedly threatening to contact thei
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