The federal government is launching a campaign on Zillow to help provide housing counseling services to more Americans.The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Tuesday also will publish a new final rule in the Federal Register to expand accepted communication methods for counsel

Keller Williams‘ legal worries just got a little lighter. On Friday, the real estate franchisee and the plaintiffs’ counsel in the Mcfarlane suit reached a settlement agreement for the lawsuit related to the firm’s recently abandoned changes to its profit-sharing program.In an email, Keller Williams

The James Dwiggins-helmed firm NextHome is the newest real estate brokerage to settle the commission lawsuits. The firm notified the court of its settlement agreement on Tuesday in the consolidated Gibson and Umpa suits suits via a brief filed last week.The filing does not note how much NextHome has

At the end of August, Guild Mortgage announced a suite of products under the name “Flex Payment Mortgage,” which includes Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) reverse mortgage products alongside refinances, proprietary jumbo options and HECM for Purchase (H4P) loans.Jim Cory, managing director of

Like all of the other settlements so far, plaintiffs’ attorneys in the ongoing real estate agent commission lawsuits have asked a court for one-third of the settlement amounts agreed to by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and HomeServices of America.In a filing in the Sitzer/Burnett suit o

The country’s largest wholesale lender, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), has launched a broker training program that will teach individuals to become licensed mortgage originators. Dubbed “BrokerX,” the five-week program will provide existing brokers with a “streamlined solution” for training and li

Recipients of the federal Social Security benefits program are on track to receive a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2025, a smaller increase than in recent years as the bite of inflation loosens its grip.A forecast released last week by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) arrived just ahead

Real estate and mortgage professionals: Your voice matters! Fill out the 5 minute survey today!Each quarter, HousingWire will tally the results and compile a report to gauge the market and provide you with valuable market trends, opportunities, and challenges.There is much to learn about the challen

In 2024, the United States has already battled a year of extremes from tornadoes, hurricanes and flash flooding. Watery catastrophes have become far more and condo flooding is on the rise. September tends to be the most active month of the hurricane season. Of storms recorded in the Atlantic over ti

In what has become a familiar fall ritual, mortgage lenders are increasing their conforming loan limits months ahead of the FHFA’s official announcement. On Friday, Pennymac joined Rocket Pro TPO in announcing an increase in their conforming loan limit to $802,650 — before the expected increase by t

An often misguided premise I see on social media is that lower mortgage rates are doing nothing for housing demand. That’s ok — very few people are looking at the data without an agenda. However, the point of this tracker is to show you evidence that lower rates have already changed housing data. So

Optimism is a prerequisite for success as a salesperson, and real estate professionals have it in spades. At the Tom Ferry event last month and at the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) going on right now, this attribute is on display everywhere. Speakers are motivat

At the National Association for Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) L’Atitude conference on Friday, an AI expert showcased AI use cases for agents using tech tools that have improved by leaps and bounds this year — even in the last few days. I’ve interviewed AI experts for the last year, hel

Cindy Chance, the CEO of the Appraisal Institute, was terminated during what she described as a “secret board meeting” on Thursday night that she was excluded from. The Appraisal Institute now faces a backlash from members who support Chance, a veteran nonprofit leader who joined roughly a year ago

Vetted by HousingWire  |  Our editors independently review the products we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission.At the recent Keller Williams Mega Agent Camp, the shaky economy was a common topic of conversation. Most people used hushed tones and euphemisms to describe

At the end of August, the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) announced that it had relaunched its Reverse Mortgage Insurance & Tax Payment Program (ReMIT), which originally began in 2019 and expanded in 2020 before being halted at the end of 2021.Tikisha Wilson, director of single-f

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a new report that estimates the benefit payment schedule of the Social Security program, saying that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will “decline to zero” in fiscal year 2034 and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund will do th

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) this week published a newly proposed Mortgagee Letter on its Single Family Drafting Table, which would align mortgage borrowers and originators in their understanding of how much is owed on a partial claim.Partial claims are designed to offer assistance to mo

Realtor.com has hired an experienced entrepreneur for its marketing team, as Christine Jacobson has joined the company as senior vice president of B2B marketing.“We’re thrilled to welcome Christine to the Realtor.com team,” Mickey Neuberger, the company’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement