Top-10 mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate has filed a lawsuit against retail rival New American Funding over poaching. But this isn’t your standard poaching lawsuit: G-Rate alleges that NAF has wooed at least 30 employees since early 2023 via illegal loan officer compensation practices. Despite the ris

On Jan. 26, HousingWire will host a virtual debate between Michael Ketchmark, the plaintiffs’ attorney in the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit, and Anthony Lamacchia, CEO of Lamacchia Realty and an outspoken advocate for Realtors, to discuss the arguments and the outcome of the trial. The recent la

Slowing job growth doesn’t mean a recession, but today’s jobs report tells me that the significant job gains we were accustomed to in the early part of the COVID-19 recovery period are ending, which ties nicely to how I thought labor would recover after COVID. Even though the headline number on the

San Diego Association of Realtors, which operates one of the country’s largest multiple listing service, has new leadership following the departure of alleged fraudster Mike Mercurio. Real estate industry veteran Saul Klein is taking over as the CEO and director of SDAR’s wholly-owned San Diego MLS,

A date for the final approval conference for RE/MAX’s and Anywhere’s settlement agreements in the Sitzer/Burnett, Moehrl and Nosalek commission lawsuits has finally been set.The conference is slated for Thursday, May 9, 2024, at 10 a.m., according to a text entry on the Sitzer/Burnett court docket o

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) faces a potential loss of roughly $7 billion in receipts in 2024, and a failure by Congress to come to terms on certain spending agreements could force across-the-board cuts to non-defense spending of roughly 5-to-9%.This is according to a letter published th

California-based Pennymac Financial Services has hired Kristy Dickey, a former executive at Citizens Bank, as first vice president of TPO sales.Dickey will be responsible for growing the lender’s broker division and support its brokers and  non-delegated partners, the firm said.A total of five addit

The seniors who are often the parents of Generation X and Generation Y (millennials) could become a pronounced expense for their kids in the coming years, but adult children also want to see their parents successfully age in place.This is according to a commentary from Sarita Mohanty, president and

Since its founding in 2015, remote online notarization (RON) platform Proof, formerly known as Notarize, has helped sellers and buyers close $347 billion worth of real estate transactions, according to an announcement on Friday.While the firm is pleased with this milestone, it has its sights set on

Scott Fava has returned to Compass after an almost five-year absence, the brokerage announced on Thursday. Fava is joining Compass from NestSeekers.“We could not be happier to welcome Scott and his team back to Compass and help them accomplish all their business growth and goals,” Gordon Golub, Tri-

When assessing December’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) volume data for December 2023, Reverse Market Insight (RMI) used a choice word as the title for its commentary: “thud.”Amid an already challenging operating environment observed throughout 2023, both HECM endorsement volume and HECM-ba

Title insurance giant First American Financial reported progress on restoring its systems from a pre-Christmas cybersecurity incident.First American has fallen victim to data theft after a perpetrator exfiltrated data and encrypted data on certain non-production systems in late December. “First Amer

Detroit-based Rocket Companies, parent of Rocket Mortgage, has named Jonathan Mildenhall to its newly created chief marketing officer position, responsible for the marketing and communications teams for all the company’s brands.Mildenhall will create and unify a “compelling voice for all businesses

Older Americans are forced to navigate a series of serious financial challenges compounded by their needs for both housing and later life care. While home equity can certainly be a beneficial tool for some seniors to deploy, it will not always be a definitive answer for every senior’s needs.This is

In the first week of 2024, mortgage rates continued to stick around the mid 6% mark.The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.62% as of Jan. 4, a slight increase from the 6.61% rate recorded on Dec. 28, according to Freddie Mac‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey released on Thursday. The 15-year fixe

After a 2023 of real estate brokers saying they feel “neutral” or “pessimistic” about the housing market, some 48% of those surveyed for the Q1 2024 HousingWire BrokerPulse survey are optimistic that the next three months will be positive.In fact, some 60% says that interest rates will go down in th

Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with George Brady, loanDepot’s chief information officer, to discuss the company’s evolving tech strategy and how he thinks long-term about tech in a rapidly changing environment.Sarah Wheeler: You joined loanDepot in 2021 from Capital One. What drew you into t

Mortgage tech firm Blend aims to court more lenders as it now supports Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter (DU) early assessment enhancement with a direct integration from Blend’s soft credit pull function.DU early assessment gives lenders more options for their pre-qualification process in DU. Lenders

Lawmakers in Florida are getting creative when it comes to trying to solve their state’s homeowner’s insurance challenges.Due to the recent uptick in the number and severity of hurricanes facing the Sunshine State, many insurers and reinsurers have made the decision to leave the state. According to

Los Angeles-based rental management software provider RentSpree successfully passed an audit regarding its data protection strategy, obtaining the System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type II compliance. SOC 2 is regarded as the premier data security standard for Software as a Service (SaaS) pro