Essam Elsafy, founder of The Elsafy Team, has quietly become one of Wisconsin’s most successful real estate leaders, guiding his team to top statewide rankings. The Whitefish Bay–based group, now nine members strong, ranked No. 3 among Wisconsin medium-sized teams by sales volume in 2024, according

Credit report prices for mortgage lenders will increase by up to 50% in 2026, despite regulatory efforts to boost competition and recent pricing shifts by some players, resellers told HousingWire. It will mark the fourth consecutive year of higher costs.  The increase is tied to credit reports that

Compass’s preliminary injunction hearing in its antitrust lawsuit against Zillow continued throughout this week, before finishing up on Friday. The hearing, which is being held in New York City under the auspices of U.S. District Court Judge Jeanette Vargas, will be used to decide Compass’s motion s

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani won after campaigning on expanding rent stabilization to improve housing affordability. When he becomes mayor in January, Mamdani will face a lawsuit challenging New York’s rent stabilization law. A group of New York City landlords sued, arguing that the law

A $7 million settlement agreement with Greystar Management Services was announced by California Attorney General Rob Bonta — part of a coalition of nine state attorneys general pursuing antitrust claims tied to RealPage software. The settlement requires Greystar to stop using software that employs c

A new HousingWire Data deep-dive confirms widening affordability gaps and rising inventory in previously constrained markets — as well as strong regional patterns that favor the South for balance and the Midwest for price relief. Pittsburgh continues to stand out as the nation’s most affordable majo

Older Americans hold more than $14 trillion in home equity — nearly half the size of the U.S. economy. And while seniors can benefit from tapping their equity through a reverse mortgage product, they can also use the loan proceeds to help family members who might be struggling to afford homeownershi

As someone who’s spent decades in the mortgage trenches—and as one of the owners of a $1 billion independent mortgage banking company—I’ve seen a few sunrises and sunsets in this industry. The 2008 crisis. Conservatorship. Waves of QE. Worsening LLPA’s. Adverse market fees. The pandemic housing chao

At The Builder’s Daily Focus on Excellence Conference in Denver, we had a chance over breakfast to discuss what we were seeing in off-site housing. While we have come at this from different angles and have seen different aspects of it, we reached a similar conclusion. Both of us have believed for ye

Keller Williams Realty Atlanta Partners has entered into a strategic partnership with Southeast Mortgage of Georgia — linking the state’s largest real estate franchise with its largest non-bank mortgage lender. Leaders say the agreement is intended to streamline the home buying and selling process b

For almost 40 years of training real estate agents, one truth has stood out above the rest: memorized scripts don’t move people. In fact, they can actually hold you back and hurt your business. I’ve long been called the “godfather of metaphors and analogies,” and for good reason — it’s the basis of

Onity Group, the parent company of PHH Mortgage Corp. and its reverse mortgage arm, Liberty Reverse Mortgage, announced this week that it has chosen to stop originating reverse mortgages. Instead, Onity said it’s selling almost all of its reverse mortgage business to Finance of America (FOA). PHH is

Compass adds the Dianne Van Volkenburg Team to its Great Falls, Va., office — bringing more than 80 years of combined experience in residential and land transactions, subdivision work, acquisitions and new construction. The team is led by Principal and Owner Dianne Van Volkenburg. The 2025 RealTrend

The idea for proptech firm Unlisted came to founder and CEO Katie Hill after she fell in love with a neighbor’s house and approached him about potentially buying it if he ever decided to sell. “It caught my eye and the only thing I could do was walk across the street one day when my neighbor was out

The U.S. housing market continues to show signs of cooling as listing prices ease and inventory levels remain steady, according to most recent HousingWire data. As of Nov. 14, the median list price stood at $429,900, while new listings are entering the market at a median of $395,000. Homes are spend

Existing home sales posted another positive year-over-year print in October, marking the 4th straight month of year-over-year growth. Earlier in the year, I predicted that existing home sales would perform better than expected amid elevated mortgage rates. Since we were working with some of the lowe

When South Carolina’s Charleston Naval Shipyard closed in 1996, the decision led to significant job losses and economic shock for the local community. North Charleston spent years crafting redevelopment plans for the 2,800-acre site and its collection of historic buildings. Now, the city is seeing s

A system designed for purposeEvery mortgage market is patchwork. Rules, products, and features exist because of past events, a crisis, a policy choice, or a market failure. The result is a structure that reflects history more than design. That doesn’t make it bad, but it does mean we carry baggage t

The plaintiffs in the Taylor Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) suit filed against Zillow in mid-September filed an amended complaint on Wednesday.  The amended complaint contains testimony from a dozen anonymous current and former Zillow-affiliated loan officers and agents that corrobora