Real Estate (Page 8)

Mortgage applications increased 1.7% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)’s weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending May 8.

On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 2% compared with the previous week.

The refinance index decreased 1% from the previous week and was 28% higher than the same week one year ago.

The seasonally adjusted purchase index increased 4% from one week earlier. The unadjusted purchase index increased 4% compared with the previous week and was 7% higher than the same week one year ago.

“Mortgage rates were generally higher last week, with the 30-year fixed rate at 6.46%, its highest level in five weeks,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist. “Purchase applications were higher over the week and 7% ahead of last year’s pace, with all loan types showing increases in purchase activity, as potential homebuyers shrugged off the current economic and mortgage rate uncertainties and returned to the market.

“Refinance applications declined slightly, led by conventional and VA refinancings, and accounted for a little more than 40% of applications last week, the lowest share since July 2025.”

The refi share of application activity decreased to 40.8% of total applications, down from 42% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity remained unchanged at 8.8% of applications.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) share of total applications increased to 17.9%, up from 17.7% the week prior. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) share remained unchanged at 14.9%, as did the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) share at 0.5%.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($832,750 or less) increased 1 basis point to 6.46%, and rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $832,750) increased 1 bps to 6.48%.

The average rate for 30-year fixed mortgages backed by the FHA increased 4 bps to 6.16%, while rates for 15-year fixed mortgages remained unchanged at 5.83%. The average rate for 5/1 ARMs jumped 10 bps to 5.70%/

Xactus Mortgage Intent Index

Xactus‘s Mortgage Intent Index — which analyzes aggregated, anonymized credit-pull activity across the Xactus Intelligent Verification Platform — increased to a reading of 137.4.

“Despite a modest increase in the 30-year mortgage rate, mortgage intent rose approximately 1.5% week over week,” said Thomas Lloyd, Xactus’ chief strategy officer. “While the increase is encouraging amid ongoing market volatility, the intent volumes continue to face headwinds, coming in roughly 3.85% below the same week in 2025 and approximately 2.1% lower than the same week last month.”

Lloyd also remarked that the latest reading also marks a second consecutive week of annual declines.

This post was originally published on here. 

People can sense when unedited AI is being used as content. Let me show you what I mean. Here’s what happens when someone plugs “write about mortgage marketing trends” into one popular AI tool without a second thought:

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, mortgage pros struggle to stand out. Old-school marketing isn’t enough anymore. It’s an unprecedented challenge—standing out in a sea of sameness. The secret? Authenticity vs. automation. While AI provides scale, it can’t build the human trust essential for long-term client relationships. 

Successful marketers use tech to enhance, not replace, genuine connection. 

At the end of the day, clients choose people they trust over algorithms.

See what I mean?

The AI tells

That paragraph might as well be wearing a name tag that says “Hello, I’m AI-generated content and my creator didn’t bother editing me!”

As Exhibit A, I present to you the setup. “In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape” is AI’s favorite way to start just about anything. It’s the written equivalent of clearing your throat before speaking. It says nothing. It means nothing. And if you spend any time at all reading business content on LinkedIn, you’ve seen it a hundred times.

Then we get the dramatic pivot with the em dash. “An unprecedented challenge—standing out in a sea of sameness.” That’s AI trying to sound profound. It’s creating tension where none needs to exist.

And look, this one bugs me personally. I used to love em dashes. I even use them when I talk because I interrupt my own thoughts constantly. But now? Now I have to ration them like they’re going out of style because the second you use more than one or two, everyone assumes a robot wrote your content. Thanks a lot, AI. You’ve ruined one of my favorite punctuation marks. 

Even if they can’t quite put a finger on it, most people sense that AI uses em dashes constantly. Every other sentence gets a dramatic pause for no particular reason other than AI thinks it sounds more sophisticated that way.

Next up: the contrast framing. “Authenticity vs. automation.” “Successful marketers use tech to enhance, not replace, genuine connection.” They’re both classic examples. AI absolutely loves to position everything as a battle between two opposing forces. It’s like every piece of content needs to be a cage match.

And finally, there’s the inevitable single-sentence paragraph at the end. “Because at the end of the day, clients choose people they trust over algorithms.” Peak AI drama right there.

What you’re actually telling your audience

I’m guessing you’re not trying to announce to everyone that you can’t write your own marketing content. Yet that’s exactly the message you send when you post AI’s raw output without touching it.

Your clients can spot this stuff. Maybe they can’t explain precisely what feels off, but they can certainly recognize it doesn’t sound like you. They’ve seen this exact style from a dozen other people this week.

We know that the mortgage and title industries run on trust and personal relationships. The most successful pros become the expert someone calls because they’ve repeatedly demonstrated the judgment and experience to understand their situation. So when you publish generic AI content, you’re basically telling people that you value convenience over connection. I’m betting that’s not the impression you’re hoping to make.

What editing actually looks like

Now, here’s what should have happened to that opening paragraph.

Get rid of the throat-clearing. We don’t need to be reminded that digital stuff exists. Drop the manufactured drama. Say what you actually mean in the way you’d actually say it. Maybe include something specific from your work. Consider using a real example that shows you know what you’re talking about.

Finally, write like you’d talk to someone across the table instead of reading word for word from a corporate presentation. Take the bones AI gave you and build something that’s actually yours.

When it sounds real

Let’s say you’re actually trying to write about mortgage marketing trends. Here’s how that might read if someone in the industry wrote it themselves:

“I’m seeing a lot of loan officers posting the exact same content about rate changes lately. And they’re using the same format and the same talking points. I really don’t care to read the same post from seven different people who all sound like they copied each other’s homework.”

That’s a genuine observation. The author is presenting something original. You can see (hopefully) that it has a perspective and sounds much more like a person who works in this industry every day.

How to actually use AI

Look, I get it. AI can help you get words on a page when you’re staring at a blank screen. It can organize ideas. It can give you a framework to start with.

What it can’t do is replace the editing step. It can’t execute the part where you take that framework and make it reflect your actual knowledge and experience.

When AI hands you a draft, read it like you’re the prospect. Ask yourself some important questions such as would this make you want to work with the person who wrote it? Does it sound like someone you’d trust with a major financial transaction? Could anyone else in your market have written the exact same thing?

If that last answer is yes, you’re probably publishing a first draft that needed to be a fourth or fifth draft.

Here’s what happens next

Too many smart people who really do have something to contribute are, unfortunately,  using AI the lazy way. Copy, paste, publish, wonder why nobody cares. That means you have a real opening. So be the person who sounds like an actual person. Share observations from your real work and create content that couldn’t have come from anyone else.

People are exhausted by generic content. Even if they can’t quite put a finger on what irks them about it, they can smell it from a mile away. Instead, they truly want something genuine. They’re looking for something that demonstrates you actually know what you’re talking about rather than just knowing how to operate ChatGPT. So why not give them that?

Or, just keep posting robot-speak and wondering why your content isn’t landing. Totally your call!

Brian Rieger is the founder of True Impact Communications in 2008 to serve the mortgage and title insurance industries. 
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com.

This post was originally published on here. 

Homeownership is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools this country offers, and my path into the mortgage lending industry is an unlikely story that I could not be prouder to tell. In 2006, I was a methamphetamine addict living in an abandoned house, likely due for demolition, in Akron, Ohio. I had burned practically every bridge available to me. The mortgage industry was not on my radar; only survival.

I spent the better part of seven years in the grip of addiction. I survived situations and incidents that severely hurt or imprisoned nearly everyone else around me. I don’t know exactly why I was able to evade major consequences, and I’ve stopped trying to answer that question. What I know is that on one unremarkable day in 2006 – no dramatic rock bottom, no situational significance at all – I picked up the phone and called a mother I’d barely spoken to in years to ask if I could come home. She said yes.

Recovery was dark and harrowing. But I got through it. And once I did, I got a job pumping gas and running a cash register, where I discovered something I didn’t know existed within me, a drive and work ethic that had been ignited. I was going to run that gas station someday, I told myself. 

Well, I never did, because a few months later, a furniture store offered me a sales job, and I turned out to be pretty good at it. And then, like almost everyone in this industry, I fell backwards into mortgage lending. A recruiter told me the income a loan officer could potentially make. I didn’t need to hear much more than that. I wasn’t more talented than the next person, but I was determined to outwork everyone around me. That determination was the only advantage I ever had.

My career took a turn toward advocacy when I had the good fortune of working closely with Bill Cosgrove, who was the chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association at the time. Bill is one of the hardest working and most driven businesspeople I’ve ever encountered, but what struck me was that he directed that intensity not just toward building a company, but toward shaping the industry itself. He had a fierce belief that the people inside this business had an obligation to participate in the policies and guidelines that governed it. That’s not a value you absorb passively. I’ve been blessed to cross paths with so many incredible leaders that have deliberately instilled this mindset, and it has changed the trajectory of my career.

Today, I have the privilege of serving on the board of the Ohio Mortgage Bankers Association and the board of Habitat for Humanity in Cleveland, Ohio. I’m grateful to work at Huntington Bank, where our colleagues deliver on our purpose of making people’s lives better and strengthening the communities we serve every day. I’m now positioned to contribute to meaningful dialogue on things like credit bureau pricing reform, GSE guidelines and access to credit for first-time homebuyers in underserved markets, among many other issues. It’s work I take seriously because I observe and understand personally what it costs people when systems fail them. 

I’m not suggesting my history is the only reason I care about homeownership and the mortgage industry, but it’s a pretty strong corollary. I’ve recently started talking publicly about where I came from with the hopes of helping others. The response has been overwhelming, mostly from people who identified with or were encouraged by my story. I’m still figuring out how to tell my story in a way that’s useful. But what I do know is that the values recovery has given me – to show up, do the work, have integrity, own your mistakes, and not confuse your circumstances with your ceiling – are the same values that drive the best advocacy for this entire industry.

We still have enormous work to do to make homeownership genuinely available, not just to borrowers who fit cleanly into an automated underwriting box, but to people who took a longer, less linear road to get here. First-generation buyers. People who’ve been told no. People whose path to a down payment is superseded by the need to pay exorbitant rent or childcare costs.

I’m grateful for a lot of things. I’m grateful to the mother who said yes when she had every reason not to. I’m grateful to an industry that gave someone like me a chance to build a meaningful life. And I’m grateful for the opportunity to help make our communities and our industry better, for this generation and those who follow, and for all those who still see owning a home as a dream that we can help make a reality.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com.

This post was originally published on here. 

Less than a month after announcing its pending TopBuild for $17 billion, QXO’s business strategists outlined plans to integrate the company into its platform, drive higher profitability and accelerate organic growth across the combined business.

On Monday, QXO released an investor Q&A document that detailed the company’s growth strategy, as the Brad Jacobs-backed firm plans to grow annual revenue from $18 billion to $50 billion over the next several years, after a mergers and acquisitions spree in the past 12 months of about $30.3 billion for TopBuild and two other pivotal strategic and tactical puzzle pieces.

The document also dove deeper into the TopBuild acquisition, which was announced on April 19 and is expected to close by the end of Q3 2026. 

QXO specializes in residential and commercial roofing, siding, waterproofing products and other materials like lumber, trusses and gypsum. Once the TopBuild acquisition closes, the company will gain market share in the installation and distribution of insulation and related products such as gutters, garage doors, fireproofing and commercial roofing systems. 

How QXO plans to integrate TopBuild

TopBuild will be QXO’s third acquisition. The company previously acquired Beacon Roofing Supply in April 2025 for about $11 billion and closed on a $2.25 billion deal to acquire Kodiak Building Partners earlier this year. 

According to the investor Q&A, QXO acquired TopBuild to accelerate its drive for market share and to deepen its presence across the construction value chain. 

“The deal is an important next step in establishing QXO’s unique position for value creation. Beacon brought us scale in roofing and waterproofing distribution, and Kodiak expanded our reach into lumber and general contractor channels. Now, TopBuild brings a best-in-class presence in the insulation space, with well-run installation and distribution operations, installer labor and crew management, scheduling expertise, strong on-time job completion record performance and deep contractual relationships,” the document read. 

QXO’s technology-enabled growth strategyy centers on acquiring traditional distributors and integrating them into a unified AI-powered platform. Soon after the acquisition closes, TopBuild will merge with this platform, as QXO plans to have a single cohesive team across North America.

Jacobs believes that other operators in the fragmented building-products industry lack the technology and operational discipline needed to maximize productivity and service at scale. 

According to the document, QXO plans to “roll out out a fully integrated digital platform across the business in waves, with target completion dates of Q1 2027 for the Beacon operations and Q3 2027” for Kodiak and TopBuild. 

QXO’s growth roadmap also emphasizes both acquisitions and organic growth, with a goal of doubling the revenue of new acquisitions within five years through increased efficiencies.  

However, while the Beacon Roofing Supply acquisition presented an opportunity for operational improvement and margin expansion, QXO believes that TopBuild is already a very efficient, well-run business. As a result, QXO plans to retain the vast majority of TopBuild’s staff and top management. 

“This is not a headcount-reduction or cost-slashing strategy.”

QXO thinks that the value creation opportunity with TopBuild is strategic, driven primarily by cross-selling opportunities, stronger pricing discipline, private-label expansion and procurement scale. TopBuild’s roughly 22,000 daily job site visits were attractive because they will allow real-time visibility into project activity, customer demand, and inventory needs.

Additionally, the TopBuild acquisition will expand QXO’s installation services business, which generates strong returns. 

“Strategically, [installation services] put QXO on job sites every day. This direct, recurring presence improves our real-time understanding of customer needs. It shifts QXO from being solely a distributor to a more embedded operator with constructive commercial intelligence, stronger customer relationships, and a differentiated value proposition that includes bundled options.”

QXO’S focus on value generation

With TopBuild expected to soon integrate with QXO’s operations, the combined company anticipates generating mid- to high-single digit annual organic growth. 

Cross-selling and bundling offerings is a big part of this growth strategy. By combining roofing, waterproofing, lumber, siding, windows, doors, and insulation into a broader platform, the company aims to become a more complete supplier for both large homebuilders and small contractors. Customers, QXO says, increasingly want a one-stop-shop model that reduces friction and makes projects more efficient. 

“The cleanest adjacencies, where contractors already purchase across categories, include exterior or mid-tier products like siding, decking, insulation, doors and windows, and construction supplies, among others. There are also ample opportunities to gain profitable market share in roofing, waterproofing, and lumber. While we’re acquiring a meaningful share of the insulation market with TopBuild, we see opportunities to gain further share through cross-selling.”

QXO also sees a significant opportunity from procurement and operational efficiencies across its combined network. The company intends to shift volume toward the best-performing partners, while also leveraging digital tools to improve coordination across the supply chain. 

Jacobs had proven success in the logistics industry as the founder of XPO Logistics, GXO Logistics and RXO, and plans to apply lessons learned from those ventures to QXO’s strategy. The company, leveraging its larger scale, aims to optimize routing and inventory management while building a more efficient distribution network over time. 

QXO additionally believes that other operators in the fragmented building-products industry lack the technology and operational discipline necessary to maximize productivity and service at a large scale. 

Additionally, the company sees opportunities for for growth by selling more private-label products. QXO already has a private-label brand, TRI-BUILT®, for products in roofing accessories, ridge caps, underlayment and waterproofing, which is where they see the most opportunities. 

Private-label products, according to QXO can deliver gross margins as much as 50% higher than branded alternatives. It also means that customers can pay a lower price for a product with a comparable quality. 

The next phase of growth

QXO left open the possibility of further M&A activity, but additional acquisitions aren’t necessarily an immediate priority.

“Our primary organizational focus has shifted from M&A execution to integration, but that does not mean we are stepping away from M&A. We continue to evaluate attractive opportunities and will pursue exceptional transactions where we believe they are in the long-term interest of shareholders, including continuing TopBuild’s highly successful tuck-ins.”

However, integrating Beacon, Kodiak and TopBuild into an improved, uniform platform is the priority for QXO. The company has already made significant changes to Beacon to drive efficiencies, including the following:

• Cutting organizational layers by more than half, driving increased employee efficiency and developing new employee training programs. 
• Reactivating 25,000 dormant accounts with a new call center and hiring dedicated sales roles to attract new clients. 
• Centralizing procurement and improving pricing disciple. 
• Reducing costs by bringing select transportation in-house.
• Restructuring inventory management to keep high-demand products consistently in stock.

Why it matters for homebuilders and contractors

While the building products and distribution sector remains highly fragmented, the industry is expected to undergo increasing consolidation in the years ahead, led by the likes of QXO. 

With further M&A activity likely, this means that homebuilders and contractors could have fewer suppliers to choose from. However, these suppliers could become more reliable and offer customers a “one stop shop” experience with a variety of materials, supplies and installation services offered under one roof. 

QXO argues that the its unified platform offers homebuilders a “broader relationship that simplifies their sourcing of materials, supplies and logistics.”

The company is also betting that planned improvements will not only increase margins and profitability, but could also lead to better pricing, quicker shipping times and a better overall customer experience. 

Regardless, industry consolidation, especially among industry giants like The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Builders FirstSource and QXO, is likely continue in the years ahead.

This post was originally published on here. 

For generations, homeownership has been one of the primary ways Americans built wealth and passed it on to loved ones.

Now, financial advisers and housing experts warn that many older homeowners may be counting too heavily on their homes as retirement safety nets as they discover their properties sell for less than expected, according to a recent report published by The New York Times.

Americans ages 70 and older collectively hold about $13 trillion in housing wealth, according to an analysis published by Redfin in March.

But a more recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that older homeowners often receive lower prices when selling compared with younger owners — even when properties are otherwise similar.

The discount grows with age. Researchers found that an average 80-year-old seller could receive about 5% less than a 45-year-old homeowner, the Times report explained.

The consequences can be severe for retirees relying on home equity to finance a new home purchase, assisted living or long-term care.

“The real question is, where are they transitioning to?” Dan Sudit, a wealth adviser and partner at Crewe Advisors in Salt Lake City, told the Times. “It might not be a two-bedroom or a one-bedroom, but might wind up being a studio-type unit.”

Aging homes, aging owners

Housing professionals say one major factor behind the pricing gap is deferred maintenance.

Older homeowners are less likely to renovate kitchens and bathrooms, complete repairs or modernize interiors before listing their homes.

“Unless something’s broken, they don’t fix it,” Amy Bubes, a real estate agent in Atlanta, told the Times.

Outdated aesthetics can also deter buyers who already face affordability pressures.

“You’ve got the avocado bathtub and yes, the fridge works fine, but it’s harvest gold,” said Beverly Grace, owner of Grace Realty and Property Management in Seminole, Florida. “It all looks really wonderful to them, but they didn’t change anything to go with the times.”

Reverse mortgages still face resistance

Some industry professionals argue that reverse mortgages could help older homeowners unlock equity without rushing to sell — but the products continue to carry stigma decades after their introduction.

Michael Banner, a reverse mortgage educator and leader at American Pacific Mortgage, recently told HousingWire‘s Reverse Mortgage Daily that misinformation continues to limit the adoption of the HECM for Purchase program.

“This product is surrounded by more misinformation and half-truths than any other product in the history of the financial world,” Banner said. “There’s only one way to do it: education.

“It’s like annuities. Forty years ago, people didn’t trust them. Now they’re mainstream [because] you had the biggest insurance companies in the country with millions of agents, educating and pushing. It’s going to take us a while because we haven’t even started yet.”

Banner said reverse mortgages developed a poor reputation decades ago when the products carried higher costs and fewer borrower protections.

“The horror stories are real. But the truth is, at least for the last 16 years, it’s been a great product,” he said. “We protect the younger borrower, the surviving borrower, we protect the estates. Nobody can do what we do. But when was the last time you saw anybody say that, other than on a reverse mortgage group on LinkedIn?

“Last year, Realtors sold 5 million homes. I think I don’t have it in front of me, but I believe 16% or 17% of those homes were sold to people above the age of 62 — meaning 800,000 homes were sold to people above 62. I don’t remember how many reverse mortgage purchases we did. I think something like 300.”

Choosing certainty over risk

The New York Times said that older homeowners are also more likely to accept cash offers from investors or use private listings that bypass broader market exposure.

While those deals can simplify transactions, experts say they frequently result in lower sale prices. For some retirees, however, speed and certainty outweigh maximizing profit.

Bob Bozek, 73, and his husband, Dan Driscoll, 81, sold their condominium near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2024 — citing rising insurance costs, health concerns and increasing homeowners association fees.

“Even though what we settled for was lower than what we’d hoped for, it was cash in hand,” Driscoll told the Times. “We were so grateful.”

The couple moved into a smaller home in Maryland and said the reduced financial pressure was worth the compromise.

“We were lucky to have done it when we did,” Bozek said. “We still have friends down there and my goodness — the condo market fell completely.”

This article was written by Jonathan Delozier and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

New Rochelle embraced the abundance mindset long before the “yes in my backyard ” crowd made it cool.

Today, the city, 25 minutes north of New York City by train, is a reference point for how zoning reform and predictable approvals can speed mixed-income housing production citywide.

The city built on a 2015 rezoning that created a downtown overlay and moved away from traditional use-based zoning. Officials offered developers a clear playbook. Follow the form-based code, meet mixed-income and design standards and receive a streamlined approval in about 90 days. This predictability reduced entitlement risk and helped lenders back projects that might have stalled in slower, more discretionary systems.

“Our model creates predictability, creates developability, creates certainty, eliminates the political process and that discretionary land use approval process that you see in so many other municipalities, because we front loaded the requirements,” Adam Salgado, New Rochelle’s commissioner of development, told The Builder’s Daily.

The plan became a state model for housing reform after it brought thousands of new housing units. Thousands more are underway. New Rochelle’s plan could become a bigger national model for zoning success after being named a co-winner of the 2026 Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability in its Policy and Regulatory Reform category.

“It’s really supply-forward — let’s increase supply so we can make an impact on affordability,” Clark Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes and founder of Ivory Innovations, told The Builder’s Daily.

Overlay needed to revitalize moribund downtown

New Rochelle pursued the downtown overlay because its traditional zoning produced fragmented, underused parcels and left the city’s core underperforming.

“We knew we had underutilized our downtown,” Salgado said.

City leaders saw stalled projects, aging buildings and surface parking lots where walkable, mixed-use buildings could go instead. They wanted a predictable framework that could attract serious capital while still meeting community goals on design and affordability.

Officials also faced pressure to expand the tax base without overburdening homeowners. Concentrating taller buildings and higher density downtown offered a way to add jobs, retail and housing on infrastructure that already existed. The overlay encouraged mixed-income projects near transit, which helped justify public investments and gave the city leverage to negotiate benefits.

“One of the benefits of all this development is that we’ve gotten some infrastructure funds,” Salgado said. “The way we’ve structured a lot of the entitlements has given us resources to respond to some of the infrastructure upgrades, and sewers is one of them.”

The overlay flipped that script by publishing clear rules and timelines for compliant projects. Developers who followed the form-based code saw quicker approvals and fewer surprises, which made lenders more comfortable. Residents, in turn, could see what was allowed on each block and push for good design rather than fight every project.

Salgado said the city has authorized 11,047 units across 34 projects since 2015. Eight buildings are now open. Another 25 projects, totaling about 5,100 units, are completed and in leasing. Roughly 91% of those homes are occupied, and about 1,100 qualify as affordable, he said, meaning just over 20% of the new units meet affordability standards.

“We have one project under construction currently that’s basically affordable condominium projects,” Salgado said.

A model for state reform

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul folded New Rochelle’s results into her Let Them Build agenda, which she introduced as part of her 2026 State of the State address in January. It targets reforms to New York’s environmental review law to speed housing development.

The plan would exempt qualifying housing projects from lengthy State Environmental Quality Review Act reviews and set firm permitting deadlines. Those reforms are still tied up in debate over a $268 billion budget that is now late.

New Rochelle’s plan helped shape the environmental review piece.

Salgado said a “theoretical development scenario” supports the code by front-loading environmental review. It models impacts by category, instead of repeating the analysis for each project.

In making her case for reform, Hochul has pointed to New Rochelle’s new and future housing units as a proof point that saying yes to housing can expand supply while holding rent growth in check. State officials note that rent growth in New Rochelle fell about 5% from 2020 to 2023 as new apartments opened.

“It’s a supply side approach to affordability, to just moderate the market rate rental unit in the area,” Salgado said. “We’ve seen 2% and 3% rent growth over the last four years in New Rochelle compared to New York City, which is like in the double digits.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Broker Public Portal (BPP) and Realtors Property Resource (RPR) have announced a new collaboration that will integrate RPR’s Realtors Valuation Model into BPP’s Cribio consumer home search experience for participating MLSs and associations.

Under the agreement, MLSs and associations partnered with BPP may authorize the display of Realtors Valuation Model values on eligible off-market properties within their local Cribio-powered search experience.

Leaders said rollout will remain optional and controlled at the MLS level through a permissions and authorization process involving the MLS, Broker Public Portal and RPR.

RPR’s Realtors Valuation Model uses MLS listing information, off-market MLS data and publicly recorded sales data to generate estimated home values.

The valuation estimates will appear only on qualifying off-market properties in participating markets and will not replace MLS-sourced pricing on active listings, leaders added.

Liz Gunski, vice president of industry relations at RPR, said the integration is designed to support both consumers and Realtors while maintaining local oversight.

“By making the RVM available within an industry-owned consumer experience, participating MLSs can give consumers more useful home value context while helping Realtors stay connected to the conversations that matter,” she said. “This is not a one-size-fits-all rollout. It is an MLS-directed opportunity built around authorization, permission and trust.”

Broker Public Portal said the addition of valuation data strengthens Cribio’s effort to provide a consumer-facing search platform built around MLS data and Fair Display Guidelines.

“Cribio was created to show that the real estate industry can deliver a modern consumer search experience without compromising trust, transparency, or local control,” said Dan Troup, CEO of Broker Public Portal. “Adding the RVM gives participating MLSs a way to provide meaningful home value context inside an experience built to inform, not interrupt or sell. And just as important, decisions about how that data is displayed remain where they belong: with the MLS and the industry.”

The announcement comes as Cribio continues expanding through partnerships with MLS organizations across the country.

Current MLS partners include NorthstarMLS, MIBOR, Canopy, Doorify, MRED, RMLS Alliance, OneKey, MetroList, MichRIC and Greater Lansing Association of Realtors.

Tim Dain, CEO of NorthstarMLS, said the partnership reflects broader industry priorities around transparency and consumer experience.

“This collaboration reflects exactly where the industry needs to go,” he said. “Consumers want clear, useful information. MLSs want confidence in how their data is used. Brokers and agents want a search experience that supports, not competes with, the professional relationship. Enabling the RVM through BPP helps align all three.”

MLSs and associations interested in enabling the Realtors Valuation Model within Cribio can begin the authorization process through Broker Public Portal.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Two transactions. One structural shift.

Compass’s acquisition of Anywhere and Real’s $880 million deal for REMAX are not simply the largest brokerage transactions in recent memory. And, now add to that eXp’s acquisition of NextHome and together, they represent something the residential real estate industry has not seen before: the emergence of vertically integrated platform companies operating at national scale, with the agent count, capital structure and technology infrastructure to reshape how transactions get routed, financed, and closed.

When the REMAX deal closes, two corporate parents will control roughly half a million agents. That number alone does not capture the strategic intent. What matters is what sits underneath it: embedded mortgage products, AI-driven lead routing, revenue share programs designed to make agent departure economically painful, and portal partnerships that increasingly determine whose listings get seen first.

This is the airline model arriving in real estate. A consolidated distribution layer at the top. A long tail of competitors fighting for the remainder. And a shrinking middle that has not yet decided which direction to move.

The lead-flow realignment is the real story

Industry observers have focused on agent count and brand portfolios. The more consequential shift is happening in buyer-lead distribution. Two competing alliance structures are now in place. Compass, Rocket and Redfin have aligned their referral and financing pipelines. Zillow Preview has built a separate network anchored by REMAX, Keller Williams, and HomeServices of America.

The practical effect: Buyer leads generated by the largest consumer-facing platforms are increasingly pre-routed to agents and brokerages inside those alliances. Agents at non-affiliated brokerages are not locked out, but they face higher portal acquisition costs and less favorable lead quality at the margin. Over time, that math compounds.

This is not a crisis for independent operators today. It is a structural disadvantage that grows gradually, which makes it more dangerous than a sudden disruption. Gradual disadvantages do not trigger decisive responses. They just quietly erode market share until the window to respond has narrowed.

What the data says about agent retention

The assumption driving mega-brokerage recruiting is that agents follow technology and economics. Stock grants, AI tools, revenue share programs and embedded mortgage referral income are all designed to make the decision to join feel financially obvious and the decision to leave feel economically costly.

The assumption is partially correct. Producer-level agents do respond to equity and income-diversification opportunities. Compass’s selective use of negotiated equity deals for top producers and Real’s structured production-milestone program both reflect a sophisticated understanding of what moves high-GCI agents.

What the recruiting model underweights is the retention driver that consistently outperforms compensation in survey data: belonging. Agents who feel genuine community attachment to their brokerage are significantly less likely to entertain competing offers regardless of the financial terms.

That finding holds across brokerage size and market type. It is also the one variable that does not scale. A 35,000-agent platform cannot manufacture the feeling of a brokerage where the owner shows up to your closing celebration.

Independent brokerages that understand this have a durable structural advantage the capitalization tables of Compass and Real cannot replicate. The ones that do not understand it will keep losing agents to stock grants they cannot compete with.

The middle tier faces the hardest decision

Regional brokerages with a few hundred to a few thousand agents sit in the most structurally precarious position in the current market. Too large to operate with boutique agility. Too small to fund enterprise-grade technology development. Large enough to be attractive acquisition targets for private equity roll-up strategies currently active in the sector.

The strategic options are clearer than they may appear. Operators who choose independence need to compete on the variables where scale is a liability: decision speed, commission program flexibility, regional brand equity, and cultural cohesion. Technology gaps can be largely closed through vendor partnerships and cooperative purchasing. What cannot be purchased is organizational identity.

Operators who prefer affiliation have real options. Network models like LeadingRE provide referral infrastructure and training without requiring brand surrender. Franchise models with lighter technology mandates preserve operational flexibility while closing the perceived capability gap with mega-brokerages.

Operators who are considering exit should note that acquisition interest in strong regional independents remains active. The Howard Hanna model — quiet, strategic acquisition of well-run independent brokerages — has demonstrated that patient capital is available for quality operations. Selling from a position of strength, before the next consolidation wave compresses valuations further, is a legitimate strategic choice.

The one option that does not work is inaction. Waiting for the consolidation dynamic to stabilize before deciding is itself a decision — one that forecloses the better options over time.

The market signal independents should not ignore

Every major consolidation cycle in distribution-heavy industries produces a counter-market. As the airline industry consolidated, premium independent carriers and regional operators found durable niches built on service differentiation and route specificity. As hospital systems consolidated, independent practices that leaned into patient relationships and transparency found that a meaningful segment of consumers actively sought them out.

Real estate will follow the same pattern. The post-settlement environment has already increased consumer sensitivity to agency relationships, fiduciary obligations and MLS exposure practices. As Compass and Real build integrated platform experiences optimized for transaction volume, a segment of sellers and buyers will specifically want the alternative: a locally owned, full-MLS, fiduciary-clear brokerage with deep market knowledge and no embedded financial conflicts.

That is not a consolation market. That is a positioning opportunity. The independents who communicate that value proposition clearly — to consumers and to agents — are going to find that the consolidation of the industry’s center actually strengthens the case for choosing them.

The mega-brokers will compete on scale, integration and embedded finance. The rest of the field competes on transparency, expertise, and trust. Those are not soft values. They are durable competitive advantages in a market where consumers are paying more attention to how their transactions are structured than at any point in the past decade.

Half a million agents under two roofs is a remarkable concentration of market power. It is also the clearest possible signal that differentiation — not consolidation — is the only viable path for everyone else. The operators who read that signal correctly and act on it now will look very smart in five years. The ones who wait to see how it plays out will have fewer options when they finally decide to move.

Darryl Davis, CSP, is a nationally recognized real estate speaker, coach, and author of three McGraw-Hill books. He has trained over 600,000 real estate professionals worldwide and leads the POWER AGENT® Coaching Program. Learn more at darrylspeaks.com.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.

To contact the editor responsible for this piece: tracey@hwmedia.com

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Branch manager Austin Baker and his Houston-based team, Lasso Lending, have joined Supreme Lending, bringing more than $100 million in annual loan production to Supreme’s platform.

The move deepens Supreme Lending’s presence in the Houston metropolitan area, one of the nation’s most active and competitive housing markets, according to the company’s announcement.

Baker entered the mortgage industry in 2010 and has focused his career on serving borrowers across Texas and in other states. Over the past several years, his 10-person team has scaled to more than $100 million in annual loan production through multiple market cycles while maintaining a strong client satisfaction record.

The group, previously operating as Bonck & Baker Mortgage Group, rebranded earlier this year to Lasso Lending to emphasize a more team-driven, client-focused identity. The brand is built around the idea of helping borrowers “capture” homeownership in a fast-moving market.

“From the beginning, our goal was to build a team that could handle any loan scenario and make it feel simple for the client,” Baker said in a statement. “We’ve grown by focusing on our process, our products, our speed, and ultimately, by treating our clients the way we would want to be treated if we were in their shoes. Partnering with Supreme gives us the scale, support, and product depth to take all of that to the next level.”

The team brings experience across purchase, new construction, refinance, jumbo and complex self-employed borrower scenarios.

Baker said the decision to change platforms came as his former business partner, Jonathan Bonck, decided to run for Congress, prompting a broader review of long-term strategy and alignment.

“When my business partner, Jonathan Bonck, made the decision to run for U.S. Congress, we started considering a platform shift,” Baker said. “We knew it had to be with a company that would elevate what we already did well, while adding products and support where we were lacking. Beyond that, we knew we also needed alignment with leadership, for both culture and long-term vision. We looked coast-to-coast, and only Supreme checked all of our boxes.”

Supreme Lending leaders framed the hire as part of a broader strategy to grow through experienced, market-tested producers.

“From the first few conversations, it was clear this was a team that truly gets it,” said Sarah Middleton, chief growth leader at Supreme Lending. “The way Austin leads, the way his team shows up for clients, and the consistency they’ve built across every kind of market — that doesn’t happen by accident.”

Scott Everett, founder and CEO of Supreme Lending, added: “This is how we’ve always grown — you find people who have already built something the right way, and you get behind them. Austin and his team know how to win, they take care of their clients, and they do it consistently. Our job now is to give them the platform to do it at an even higher level.”

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Earlier this month at the company’s Ignite conference, Sagent executives unveiled new artificial intelligence capabilities embedded in the Dara platform, positioning AI as a central tool for mortgage servicing operations and compliance management.

The new capabilities were showcased during a May 5 session titled “AI in Mortgage Servicing.” The panel featured Sagent President Sridhar Sharma, chief product officer Shane Leonard, chief technology officer Omer Farooque, chief compliance officer Matt Tully and senior vice president of customer success management Monika Peltz.

Sharma said AI within Dara is designed to be flexible, allowing servicers to use Sagent’s built-in agentic frameworks or integrate their own AI systems.

“We have built agentic AI frameworks inside of Dara that you’re able to train, customize and deploy within your ecosystems,” Sharma said. He added that the platform can also connect directly with external AI agents through what he described as an MCP server architecture, enabling “agent-to-agent” communication between systems.

That flexibility, Sharma said, allows servicers to blend internal and external AI tools for functions such as call-center operations or private mortgage insurance removal workflows, depending on organizational needs.

Farooque said the system is built around three principles: discipline, responsibility and practical application.

“We know that this is a very heavily regulated industry and for that, we need to make sure that the human in the loop is the one that is able to make sure that whatever actions are taken are done in a responsible oversight manner,” Farooque said.

A major focus of the presentation was Dara RegIQ, a compliance tool designed to automate the monitoring and interpretation of mortgage regulations. Tully pointed to servicers who are facing a growing regulatory burden, citing more than 8,800 combined rules, investor requirements and industry guidelines.

“Change is constant,” Tully said. “It’s a challenge for you as a servicer to keep on top of it, and it’s a challenge for us as a technology provider to make sure that we’re delivering things on a timely basis.”

He said Sagent’s legacy regulatory change process often required weeks of manual review across product, engineering and compliance teams. RegIQ, powered by AI, is designed to reduce that timeline to hours by continuously scanning updates from agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration.

The system links regulatory updates directly to product features within Dara, allowing teams to see which parts of the platform are affected by specific rule changes.

“There’s nothing else like this in the industry,” Tully said.

Executives also demonstrated “Ask Dara,” a natural language interface that allows users to query loan portfolios in real time.

Leonard said the tool replaces traditional reporting workflows that often relied on analysts or static systems. “Yesterday, we would call our analyst or we would send an email,” he said. “Today, we can just ask Dara.”

In a live demonstration, the system identified loans in loss mitigation, categorized modification types and provided loan-level details, including borrower and property information.

Leonard said the platform includes more than 3,000 data fields and is designed to make complex servicing datasets more accessible.

AI-driven workflow automation and auditability

Executives emphasized that all AI-driven actions within Dara are fully auditable and designed to maintain human oversight, particularly in regulated environments.

Leonard said users can also trigger workflows directly from AI-generated results, such as flagging missing documentation or creating loan conditions that route tasks to operational teams.

Every action, he said, is logged and traceable at the loan level.

“There is no black box,” Leonard said. “Everything that has happened here is an auditable thing within the system.”

Farooque added that the system is designed to learn from user behavior and can incorporate external data sources, including call-center and system performance data, into its analysis.

The executives framed Dara as a unified servicing ecosystem intended to modernize legacy mortgage infrastructure and reduce manual workflows across compliance, data analysis and customer operations.

“We want to be at the very beginning, so you can train your teams, anticipate, and update your policies and procedures,” Tully said of regulatory change detection.

This post was originally published on here. 

The lawsuit that prompted Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson to issue a warning letter to Mortgage Connect last week has dealt the company a significant legal blow.

As the FTC scrutinizes Mortgage Connect for deploying “unjustifiable noncompetes,” a Pennsylvania judge ruled that the company’s contract was so “sweeping” and “overbroad” that it’s completely unenforceable. This dual pressure indicates Mortgage Connect is facing intense heat from courts and federal regulators alike.

On Monday, Judge Mary C. McGinley denied the company’s motion for a preliminary and permanent injunction.

In the case, filed in 2025, Mortgage Connect sought to enforce a confidentiality agreement signed in August 2022 by Melissa Harvey, a former senior vice president. Harvey, who previously oversaw the company’s single-family rental and mortgage default divisions, left the company in May 2025 to join First Title, a smaller competitor and co-defendant, as vice president of operations.

Neither Mortgage Connect nor First Title immediately replied to HousingWire‘s requests for comment.

Judge McGinley deemed the noncompete contract‘s one-year duration reasonable but struck down its nationwide geographic scope, which would have restricted Harvey from virtually any activity in the mortgage industry.

“The restriction prevents Harvey from working anywhere in the United States in the industry that has been her livelihood for her working life,” McGinley wrote. 

Regarding confidentiality, the judge noted that Harvey returned all Mortgage Connect documents and devices upon her departure, with no evidence that she retained, misused or shared proprietary information. Furthermore, Harvey did not create Mortgage Connect’s proprietary software (E-Connect) and lost access to it when she resigned.

The court also found no breach of customer nonsolicitation clauses. Harvey’s role was deemed operational, not client-facing.

“In the mortgage services industry, customers are not exclusive; the customer base is largely known throughout the industry or is otherwise readily identifiable through public sources,” the judge noted, adding that no other Mortgage Connect employees left for First Title.

In light of the case, the FTC urged Mortgage Connect to review and potentially discontinue restrictive covenants that may violate federal antitrust laws.

“Mortgage Connect may have broadly deployed unjustifiable noncompete agreements in employment contracts with potential adverse effects on workers and competition,” Ferguson said in a statement.

The FTC launched a Joint Labor Task Force in February 2025 to prioritize enforcement against deceptive, unfair and anticompetitive labor-market practices.

The Mortgage Connect lawsuit also includes counts of breach of contract and tortious interference against Harvey and First Title.

This post was originally published on here. 

LiveBy, a data platform serving brokerage websites and agent marketing platforms across North America, has partnered with Repliers to bring expanded boundary, school and demographic data tools to real estate technology companies using the Repliers API platform.

The integration allows Repliers customers to activate LiveBy’s location intelligence tools as a single add-on, helping developers and brokerages deliver more localized home search experiences powered by neighborhood, school district and demographic information.

The companies said the partnership addresses a longstanding challenge in real estate search technology — the lack of accurate boundary data tied to how consumers actually search for homes.

According to the companies, standard MLS location metadata is often incomplete, while broader mapping services do not typically provide the neighborhood and school attendance boundaries buyers use when searching for homes.

The new integration introduces six location data types through Repliers’ existing API infrastructure, including counties, cities, ZIP codes, neighborhoods, schools and attendance zones and school districts.

“Buyers don’t search by latitude and longitude. They search by the neighborhood their friends live in and the elementary school their kids would attend,” said Matan Gill, vice president of product at LiveBy. “Getting that data right is what separates a search experience from one that frustrates to one that converts. We built LiveBy to be the source of truth for local real estate context, and our partnership with Repliers puts that data into the hands of the proptech teams building the next generation of real estate products.”

The platform also includes demographic data tied to each boundary type and allows developers to query multiple location layers through a single API call.

School attendance zones will include lists of eligible schools for residents within those boundaries, allowing homebuyers to view school information directly alongside property listings.

Repliers said boundary data has been one of the most requested additions to its platform as brokerages and proptech companies seek more intuitive and localized search experiences.

Patrick Arlia, co-founder of Repliers, said the partnership gives customers access to advanced location tools without requiring extensive development work.

“Our customers have been asking for reliable boundary data for years, and LiveBy is the best in the industry at it,” Arlia said. “Getting powerful features into our customers’ hands quickly is what we’re all about, and this partnership is a perfect example of that. Now our customers can launch more intuitive, more visual search experiences in minutes, not months, without any of the heavy lifting.”

The companies said the add-on is available immediately for existing and new Repliers customers through the subscription platform.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

As part of HousingWire’s Editor’s Choice awards spotlight series, we’re spotlighting past Women of Influence honorees whose careers, leadership and insights continue to influence the industry. This series offers a closer look at the experiences and decisions that have shaped their paths.

Teresa Palacios Smith, chief inclusion and engagement officer at HomeServices of America and HSF Affiliates, shares how taking risks, embracing leadership opportunities and advocating for greater access and inclusion helped shape her career in housing.

Smith was recognized as a 2025 Woman of Influence for her leadership in advancing inclusive practices across the housing industry and expanding programs focused on housing equity, fair housing and community engagement.

The Woman of Influence recognizes women leaders making a meaningful impact across mortgage, real estate and homebuilding. Nominations for the 2026 Women of Influence awards are open now through May 31.

HousingWire: What are you most focused on right now?

Teresa Palacios Smith: I’m focused on ensuring that inclusion is not treated as a standalone initiative but as a business strategy that is embedded into how we operate every day. In a shifting market, this means equipping leaders and agents with the tools to serve a broader, more diverse consumer base while maintaining the highest standards of professionalism and fair housing compliance. It is about expanding opportunity while strengthening performance.

HW: What’s one leadership lesson you’ve learned that more people in this industry should understand?

Palacios Smith: Leadership is not about titles; it is about influence, accountability and consistency. One of the most important lessons I have learned is that your actions will always speak louder than your words. People are paying attention to what you prioritize, what you invest in and how you show up every day.

It is easy to talk about values, but real leadership is demonstrated through consistent action, especially when it is not easy. Showing up, staying committed and leading with integrity even in challenging moments is what builds credibility over time.

The most effective leaders do not just set expectations, they model them. They create environments where people feel seen, supported and empowered to succeed because those behaviors are reflected in how they lead.

That is where trust is built, and ultimately, where real performance and innovation come from.

HW: Looking back, what experiences most prepared you for the leadership role you’re in today?

Palacios Smith: My life experiences prepared me just as much as my professional ones. Growing up as the daughter of immigrant parents, and often serving as the translator and advocate for my family, taught me how to navigate systems that were not always designed for everyone, and how to find solutions even when there was not a clear road map.

Throughout my career, I was often the only Latina in the room. I chose to see that not as a limitation but as a responsibility to bring perspective, build bridges and help create space for others. Those moments strengthened my confidence and shaped how I lead today.

Professionally, from selling homes and guiding buyers to working in relocation, international services and helping families settle into new communities, I have seen firsthand the full housing journey. That experience, along with working with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development buyers and individuals navigating financial and systemic barriers to homeownership, gave me a deeper understanding of access and opportunity.

Together, these experiences shaped how I lead, with perspective, purpose and a responsibility to open doors for those coming next.

HW: What’s one decision that changed the trajectory of your career?

Palacios Smith: Choosing to step out of my comfort zone and invest in my growth before I felt fully ready. At the time, I had built a strong foundation in real estate, but I knew that if I wanted to lead at a higher level, I needed to develop skills and experiences beyond my day-to-day role.

I made the intentional decision to volunteer and get involved outside of my core responsibilities, taking on leadership opportunities that stretched me and helped me build the confidence, relationships and perspective I would later need in the corporate space. That meant raising my hand for things that didn’t come with a title or a guarantee but that ultimately opened doors I couldn’t yet see.

At the same time, I chose to lean into diversity, equity and inclusion work before it was widely understood or embraced in our industry. It wasn’t the obvious path, and there were moments of uncertainty, but I recognized that the future of housing would require us to think differently about leadership, access and opportunity.

Looking back, those decisions — to take risks, to grow beyond my role and to align my work with purpose — completely changed the trajectory of my career.

HW: What advice would you give to the next generation of women working toward senior leadership roles in housing?

Palacios Smith: Don’t wait until you feel fully ready. Step into opportunities before you have all the answers. Confidence is built through action, not perfection.

Be intentional about building relationships and finding mentors who will both support and challenge you. And if those opportunities are not available within your organization, look outside of it. Volunteering in industry organizations can help you develop leadership skills, build your network and open doors you may not even see yet.

This post was originally published on here. 

Zillow has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and Compass, alleging the Chicagoland MLS and the nation’s largest brokerage conspired to withhold listing data and pressure Zillow to carry private “hidden” listings nationwide, according to a company announcement.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday in federal court in Chicago, accuses MRED and Compass of coordinating to threaten Zillow’s access to the Chicagoland listing feed unless the portal agreed to display Compass private listings across the United States. Zillow said this conduct amounts to an unlawful group boycott and abuse of monopoly power under the federal Sherman Antitrust Act.

Zillow alleges that MRED and Compass are colluding to protect and expand private listing networks that keep some homes off public portals and restrict visibility to buyers working with certain brokerages.

Alleged scheme escalated after April 2025

According to the complaint, the alleged scheme escalated after April 2025, when Zillow adopted its Listing Access Standards, which Zillow said were aimed at restricting “hidden” or private listings on its platforms. Zillow contends Compass responded by urging multiple MLSs to cut off Zillow’s data feeds unless it reversed those standards.

In April 2026, MRED and Compass announced a partnership to expand MRED’s private listing network nationwide. The arrangement allowed Compass agents across the country to input listings into MRED’s system. Zillow alleges that the explicit aim was to shield these listings from “pro-transparency” platforms and extend MRED’s leverage beyond its Chicago-area footprint.

By early May 2026, MRED allegedly demanded that Zillow reinstate Compass private listings in markets hundreds of miles outside MRED’s traditional service area. On the same day, Zillow says, the technology provider that distributes MRED’s listing feed threatened to terminate Zillow’s access entirely if it did not comply. MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen chairs that distributor’s board, a dual role Zillow cites as evidence that the threat and its enforcement mechanism were coordinated.

Zillow says the message was clear: Either allow Compass private listings nationally or lose access to all Chicagoland listings. The company’s filing cites public social media comments by a Compass agent and a response from Compass CEO Robert Reffkin as evidence that Compass knew MRED’s control over the local data pipeline could be used as leverage against portals that enforce stricter listing standards.

Alleged effort to go beyond Chicago

The complaint describes a broader effort to align MLS policies across regions. Zillow says a May 11 email from a Compass executive to the CEO of a North Carolina-based MLS urged that organization to “rigorously enforce existing policies that prevent the rise of off-MLS databases” by May 20, which Zillow characterizes as a push to cut off portals that exclude certain private listings. In exchange for complying with the request, Zillow claims Compass offered to keep its listings exclusively within that MLS’s territory. 

Compass also announced partnerships with Realtracs, a Tennessee-area listing feed provider and The MLS/CLAW in California over the past few weeks. Those entities adopted rules that bar platforms from excluding listings based on a participant’s identity, broker or agent, mirroring the policy shift at MRED, according to the lawsuit.

The suit alleges MRED agreed to use its control over Chicagoland listing data as “a weapon” against portals that did not carry private listings, in exchange for Compass subsidizing MRED membership costs for up to 100,000 Compass agents nationwide. Zillow says this could triple MRED’s size and expand its ability to impose rules on portals and other industry participants outside its traditional market.

An ongoing spat

Friction between Zillow, MRED and Compass began over a year ago, intensifying after Zillow’s roll out its Listing Access Standards, which Compass filed a since abandoned antitrust lawsuit over. According to the complaint, Reffkin contacted at least eight regional MLSs, arguing that MLSs should “discipline” Zillow for those rules by blocking the portal from IDX and VOW feeds if it did not reverse course.

Zillow alleges that MRED leadership signaled early willingness to act. In October 2025, Jensen allegedly warned Zillow that MRED would cut off its data access if the portal applied its transparency standards in the region and MRED later revised its rules to support that stance.

The complaint also points to broader industry effects. By February 2026, after MRED rewrote its rules but before the formal MRED–Compass nationwide partnership was announced, Zillow says Redfin dropped a similar set of transparency standards just prior to Compass announcing its mutually exclusive deal with Rocket and Redfin to publish its coming soon listings on Redfin. 

Zillow is asking the court to block MRED from enforcing its revised rules and from cutting off Zillow’s data access. It is also seeking treble damages and attorneys’ fees.

“The writing is on the wall,“ the complaint states. “If defendants’ unlawful conspiracy is not enjoined, defendants will work to ensure no portal dares to enact similar policies to ensure transparency in real estate.

“Compass and MRED — two competitors in Listing Creation and Distribution — cannot conspire to boycott a competitor’s access to Chicagoland listings. And MRED cannot use its monopoly power over those listings as a cudgel to prevent a competitor from effectively competing in Chicagoland or beyond.”

In an emailed statement a Compass spokesperson said Zillow was “punishing agents for merely following their clients’ lawful instructions on how they want their homes marketed.”

“Compass believes homeowners should have the right to decide how to market their homes. The industry is evolving to give consumers more choice and we support that progress,” the spokesperson added. “We remain committed to advocating for homeowner choice and an open, competitive marketplace.”

MRED did not immediately return HousingWire’s request for comment.

This article was written by Brooklee Han and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

A consistent theme emerged from the first-quarter 2026 earnings season: higher mortgage rates and macroeconomic volatility are dampening second-quarter expectations.

Several large lenders remained profitable during the quarter, benefiting from mortgage rates that were roughly 50 basis points lower than current levels while they continued to invest heavily in artificial intelligence and other technology. But other lenders are still burning cash, and the recent shift in the macro backdrop is creating fresh challenges heading into the second quarter. 

Refinance activity surged across the industry, while purchase volumes were flat or lower as elevated rates continued to weigh on affordability. Large servicing portfolios helped generate fee income, but swings in mortgage servicing rights (MSR) valuations introduced significant earnings volatility. 

HousingWire‘s analysis includes Rocket Companies, UWM Holdings, PennyMac Financial, loanDepot, Better Home & Finance, Rithm Capital (Newrez), JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

Rocket posted its strongest profit in four years and guided Q2 2026 adjusted revenue to a range of $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion. That compares to the $2.82 billion it reported in Q1, signaling a more cautious outlook despite its dominant market position.

“Obviously, what happened later in the quarter is that a major conflict in the Middle East exploded,” CEO Varun Krishna told analysts. “With the war, oil prices went up, inflation pressure increased, and then rates moved up. And that certainly changed some of the trajectory as we moved into Q2.”

According to Krishna, the industry still expects a seasonal pickup in the second quarter, but the period may ultimately resemble Q1 more closely than originally anticipated. Although the environment has shifted, it’s still healthy as underlying demand remains resilient, he said.

Brian Brown, Rocket’s chief financial officer, added that mortgage rates are now about 50 bps above their February low points. Meanwhile, homes are taking longer to sell, averaging 51 days on market — the longest stretch since 2019. “The spring homebuying season is off to a slow start,” Brown said.

Pivoting to HELOCs

To navigate the second quarter, lenders are shifting their product strategies, aggressively expanding home equity line of credit (HELOC) offerings, and prioritizing cost controls and pricing discipline over raw origination volume growth.

Better guided second-quarter loan volume to a range of $1.575 billion to $1.725 billion, similar to the $1.64 billion it reported in Q1. The company said the higher-rate environment is shifting consumer demand away from refinances and toward HELOCs. Mortgage rates offered through Better’s platform rose from about 5.75% to well above 6.5% in recent weeks.

“This is causing consumers to get stuck in the middle of the funnel, hesitating to lock in at a higher rate, particularly if they feel the rate increase is temporary due to the situation in the Middle East,” founder and CEO Vishal Garg told analysts. “With our partners’ help, we are converting some of these customers who need cash now to HELOCs.”

Garg noted that while HELOCs carry smaller balances than refinances, they generate significantly higher gain-on-sale margins — averaging 6% to 7%, compared to roughly 2.5% for direct-to-consumer mortgages. Better reaffirmed its goal of reaching adjusted EBITDA breakeven by the end of Q3 2026.

Executives at loanDepot, meanwhile, cited “geopolitically driven market volatility” as the primary headwind facing the company, with margin compression already evident in the first quarter. The lender widened its net loss to $54.9 million, and it filed a $250 million shelf registration to preserve capital flexibility.

“The geopolitical environment created a sharp increase in interest rates during the first quarter, and we originated fewer higher margin FHA, VA and HELOC loans, and originated more conventional loans, both effects compressing our margin,” CFO David Hayes told analysts. “Higher interest rates during the quarter also generated wider negative fair value marks on our mortgage servicing and trading securities, contributing to lower revenue.”

Servicing swings

Servicing — traditionally a hedge against weaker production — also weighed heavily on some earnings reports. PennyMac, for instance, recorded a $177 million increase in MSR fair values, driven primarily by interest rate changes, but that gain was offset by $221 million in hedge-related fair-value losses and costs.

PennyMac chairman and CEO David Spector said the company expects a smaller originations market as rates move higher, although he expressed confidence in generating attractive adjusted returns on equity through 2026. The California-based lender and servicer reported adjusted net income of $117.7 million for the quarter ending March 31.

At United Wholesale Mortgage, servicing strategy remains central as the company works to bring more of its portfolio in-house while battling CrossCountry Mortgage LLC to acquire Two Harbors Investment Corp.

UWM’s origination engine slowed from the prior quarter, but the company maintained margins and remained profitable, delivering what executives described as the second-best quarter in company history.

Chairman and CEO Mat Ishbia said he expects expenses to remain flat or decline even as origination volume grows. Over the next five years, UWM is targeting at least $1.3 trillion in originations. Beyond lending revenue, Ishbia projected 20% to 25% growth in “other revenue” tied to ancillary products and artificial intelligence initiatives.

Multichannel lender and servicer Newrez managed macroeconomic dynamics better than peers through hedging strategies and a diversified business model. Michael Nierenberg, CEO of parent company Rithm Capital, said the firm remains “confident the current conditions create compelling opportunities” through its diversified owner-operator model.

Newrez reported pretax operating income of $273.7 million in Q1 2026, up from $249.1 million in Q4 2025. The figure excluded a $23.1 million mark-to-market MSR loss, hedge impacts and other non-operating items.

“While market competition continues to pressure gain-on-sale margins, we maintained pricing discipline and did not chase market share,” Newrez President Baron Silverstein told analysts during the company’s earnings call.

Nonbank lenders continue to gain market share as large banks retreat further from the mortgage business.

JPMorgan Chase’s origination volume hit $13.7 billion in the first quarter, down 14% from the prior quarter and up 46% from the same period last year. Similarly, Wells Fargo originated $6.3 billion from January to March, down 16% from the prior quarter but up 43% compared to Q1 2025.

Flávia Furlan Nunes reported and wrote this article with drafting assistance from HousingWire Automation, an editorial tool that helps transform announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Brokerage leader Albert Meggers has launched two large Southern California offices under the NextHome brand, bringing nearly 200 agents onto the franchise’s new large-office model following its acquisition by eXp World Holdings.

NextHome, a national real estate franchise and subsidiary of eXp World Holdings, said it is expanding its Southern California footprint with two coastal brokerages: NextHome Coastal Estates in Oxnard and NextHome Central Coast in Pismo Beach.

The offices, announced Monday, are the first to open under NextHome’s large-office franchise structure and collectively launch with almost 200 agents serving California’s Central Coast and Ventura County markets, according to the company release.

Meggers, who owns both brokerages, has more than 20 years of experience in real estate business development. In 2006, he helped introduce a national real estate franchise into the Los Angeles market and later expanded it across Central California. That operation grew to 14 offices with more than 1,200 agents and held dominant market share in multiple regions, the company said.

The Pismo Beach location will operate as NextHome Central Coast, led by broker-in-charge Jay Peet. The Oxnard office will do business as NextHome Coastal Estates, led by broker-in-charge Omar Velazquez.

James Dwiggins says launch is a sign of the future

NextHome president James Dwiggins said the launch underscores how the new franchise structure is aimed at experienced operators who want more control over their model and systems.

“NextHome has built something genuinely differentiated in the franchise space — a model that puts the operator first and a culture that agents are proud to be part of,” Dwiggins said in the announcement.

Meggers framed the move as a response to rapid change in the residential brokerage business, where commission lawsuits, shifting agent preferences and tighter margins are pressuring traditional models.

“Real estate is going through a period of punctuated change, and we have a voice in shaping the future based on who we affiliate with,” Meggers said.

NextHome’s large-office model offers multiple technology and operational setups under a single franchise agreement. NextHome said the approach is designed to reduce overlapping systems, streamline brokerage operations and give leaders more flexibility in how they scale.

Meggers’ move comes just days after eXp announced its acquisition of franchisor NextHome. The cloud-based firm framed the acquisition as a way for it to provide agents with “maximum optionality” across the company’s platform. 

“This multi-model approach serves the full spectrum of real estate entrepreneurs on a single, unified global platform that empowers every agent to grow their business on their own terms,” Leo Pareja, the CEO of eXp Realty, said during the firm’s earnings call Monday morning.

This article was written by Brooklee Han and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

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President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post Monday night, urged Congress to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. 

In the post, Trump doubled down on his support for a ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes. The Senate’s version of the bill includes a provision that would prohibit investment firms that own 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing more homes. 

“As I said at my State of the Union Address on February 25th, the American Dream of Homeownership is under attack. For example, Rachel Wiggins, a mom of two, from Houston, placed bids on 20 homes, and lost all of those bids to gigantic investment firms that bypassed inspection, paid all cash, and turned those houses into rentals, stealing away her American Dream — She was devastated! Stories like this are why I signed an Executive Order to ban large Wall Street Investment Firms from buying up single-family homes,” Trump wrote. 

Legislation in limbo

The U.S. House passed its version of the legislation on February 9 by an overwhelming 390-9 vote. The U.S. Senate then passed its version of the bill by an 89-10 margin on March 12. 

However, the legislation has been in limbo for the past two months, largely over a controversial provision included in the Senate bill at the last minute. 

That provision, Section 901, would ban institutional investors that own 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing additional single-family properties, other than manufactured housing. On a more controversial note, while it would provide an exemption for build-to-rent (BTR) communities, it would mandate that new BTR communities be sold to individual homeowners within seven years. 

Industry stakeholders say that the uncertainty caused by Section 901 has largely frozen capital flow into new BTR construction. If it passes into law, these stakeholders warn that Section 901 would essentially kill the BTR industry as we know it and reduce rental supply, therefore pushing up rents. 

Opposition to this provision among members of the House is a key reason why the legislation has stalled. In April, a bipartisan group of 76 representatives, specifically the Real Estate Caucus and the Build America Caucus, signed a letter urging House leadership to remove or substantially alter Section 901. 

Representatives from organizations that advocate on behalf of the BTR industry told HousingWire’s The Builder’s Daily that most of their advocacy efforts have been focused on the House. Penetrating the Senate has been much harder, as many Senators don’t want to revisit their bill and make changes. 

Trump signals support for institutional investor ban

Politico reported last week that Trump privately raised concerns over Section 901, indicating that he would like to see a carve-out for the BTR industry. According to Politico, he was close to sending out a post voicing his objections to the provision, but he ultimately held off. 

Trump didn’t include any of these objections in last night’s post, in which he seemed to throw his support behind the U.S. Senate’s version of the bill. 

“Also, in my speech, I called for Congress to save the American Dream of Homeownership, and ban these purchases, PERMANENTLY! Senators Bernie Moreno and Tim Scott have worked to ensure my call becomes a reality, and have a bill which has passed the Senate with nearly 90 votes. I am asking Congress to pass that Bill, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which would ensure that homes are for people, not Corporations,” Trump wrote. 

Trump has repeatedly signaled his support for a ban on institutional ownership of single-family homes. However, many housing advocates argue that such a ban is misguided and wouldn’t improve affordability in any meaningful way. According to John Burns Research and Consulting, investors that own 350 or more single-family homes own only 0.7% of America’s single-family housing stock. 

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Figure Technology Solutions reported first-quarter net income of $45 million as the blockchain-based lending marketplace nearly doubled revenue and more than doubled consumer loan marketplace volume year-over-year.

The company said on Tuesday that its consumer loan marketplace volume rose 113% year over year to $2.9 billion in the quarter ended March 31. Figure Connect volume climbed 237% to $1.6 billion.

Net revenue increased 98% to $167 million from $84.5 million a year earlier. Adjusted net revenue rose 92% to $166.8 million.

The company posted diluted earnings per share of 18 cents, compared with a loss of 1 cent per share in the year-ago period. Net income margin reached 27%, compared with a negative 0.7% margin a year earlier.

Adjusted EBITDA surged 192% to $82.7 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 49.6% from 32.6%.

CEO Michael Tannenbaum said the company’s results reflected continued growth across its blockchain ecosystem and lending marketplace.

“We delivered exceptional first-quarter results, headlined by 113% year-over-year growth in our Consumer Loan Marketplace and the addition of a record 80 new partners,” Tannenbaum said in a statement.

“Revenue was up 92% and adjusted EBITDA margin at 50% as we continued to see the benefits of our capital-light marketplace, Figure Connect, in the financials,” Tannenbaum continued. “Figure Connect grew to 56% of volume, up from 54% last quarter.”

Tannenbaum said Figure saw growth across all channels, “most notably new partners, depository activity, business purpose, and partner growth via Figure Connect.”

“The more volume that flows through Connect, the less we rely on balance sheet intermediation,” he said. “The model becomes more capital light, and our margins become more durable.”

Figure said ecosystem volume increased 136% year over year to $3.7 billion, while its net take rate improved to 3.8% from 3.6%.

The company ended the quarter with $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, excluding restricted cash, and $504 million in loans held for sale.

Figure said its blockchain ecosystem also expanded sharply during the quarter. YLDS in circulation, Figure’s blockchain-based yield-bearing digital asset, grew to $598 million in circulation as of March 31, up from $3 million a year earlier. The company said matched offers on its Democratized Prime platform reached $368 million.

During the quarter, Figure added 80 new partners, bringing its ecosystem total to 387 active partners. The company also signed Flagstar Bank, which it said is expected to launch on the platform in the second quarter.

Tannenbaum said the company expects partner growth to continue driving origination volume gains this year.

“We’re firing on all cylinders in terms of partner acquisition,” he said. “I do think it is indicative of a really strong pace of consumer loan marketplace volume growth that we continue to see into 2026.”

Figure said it continued expanding its small- and medium-business (SMB) and business-purpose lending channels. The SMB channel reached nearly $60 million in quarterly volume, while debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) and residential transition loan (RTL) products grew 70% from the prior quarter.

“These two products, often used by real estate investment businesses, represent a roughly $100 billion addressable annual origination market,” Tannebaum said during the call. “In Q1, we saw 70% growth from both of these products, and we expect this to be a focus going forward. Last quarter, I dubbed 2026 the year of the first lien. Today, I’m pleased to share that first lien volume now accounts for 20% of our total, up from 19% last quarter.”

The company also discussed its March 2026 release, Figure Forge, a platform designed to fractionalize whole loans into single-dollar participation units tied to decentralized finance markets.

For the second quarter, Figure projected consumer loan marketplace volume between $3.8 billion and $4.1 billion.

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The Real Brokerage announced that Chartwell Realty has joined the company, adding 150 agents and significantly expanding Real’s footprint across the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The move increases Real’s local agent count to more than 450 and further strengthens the company’s position in one of its fastest-growing regional markets.

Over the past two and a half years, Real has steadily expanded its Kansas City presence and now includes several of the market’s top-performing teams as part of its network.

Founded in 2007, Chartwell Realty is led by President Brant Elsberry and Vice President Robb Murry. The brokerage said it closed roughly 1,200 transactions in 2025 totaling roughly $500 million in sales volume.

“From a cultural standpoint, Real is a strong fit for our organization,” Elsberry said. “By aligning with Real, our agents will benefit from best-in-class technology, education and a platform that allows them to grow their businesses more efficiently while continuing to operate in an entrepreneurial environment.”

According to the Kansas City Business Journal, Chartwell ranks as the top independent full-service brokerage in the local market and the 13th largest brokerage overall by sales volume.

The company operates three offices serving the greater Kansas City area.

Jason Cassity, chief growth officer of Real, said the addition reflects the company’s continued success in attracting high-performing brokerages and teams.

“Brant and his team have built one of the most respected independent brokerages in the Kansas City market,” he said. “This addition meaningfully strengthens our presence in Kansas City and underscores Real’s continued momentum in attracting top-performing agents and teams across the market. Chartwell’s commitment to agent development, training and technology aligns closely with Real’s mission, and we’re excited to welcome them.”

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

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National real estate analytics and data solutions company Clear Capital announced on Tuesday its acquisition of Restb.ai, an artificial intelligence-powered computer vision company serving the real estate and valuation industries, as it looks to expand its property data and analytics capabilities.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and a company spokesperson confirmed that the acquisition closed on May 7.

The acquisition adds Restb.ai’s image recognition and property data enrichment technology to Clear Capital’s suite of products, which includes CubiCasa, a digital floor plan and virtual tour platform the company acquired in 2021.

Clear Capital said the combined technologies will allow customers to better analyze property valuations, floor plans, property condition and other housing characteristics, to improve transparency and speed up real estate and mortgage decisions.

Modernizing the valuation landscape

“Joining forces with Restb.ai allows us to modernize the valuation landscape,” Clear Capital CEO Duane Andrews said in a statement. “By embedding AI-driven property intelligence into our valuations and mobile floor plan technology, we’re increasing accuracy of decision-making for housing finance.”

Restb.ai’s technology will be integrated across Clear Capital and CubiCasa platforms, while the Restb.ai brand will remain in place, the companies said.

“Each one of those companies is going, from a customer point of view, to operate like a separate unit, just like CubiCasa,” Andrews said during a conversation with HousingWire, adding that each of the entities will embody the phrase “iron sharpens iron.”

Both Andrews and Xavi Hernando, CEO and co-founder of Restb.ai, described the integration as aiming to eliminate industry blind spots and provide better insights.

“Clear Capital shares our vision for turning visual property data into trusted, decision-ready intelligence,” said Hernando. “This empowers Restb.ai with additional resources to accelerate innovation while continuing to support the customers, partners and brands that have made us a leader in AI-powered computer vision for real estate.”

Antoni Costa, chief operating officer of Restb.ai, said the companies’ combined technologies are expected to help real estate professionals improve workflows and align buyers, lenders and properties more efficiently.

“We found the right partner to continue this journey,” Costa told HousingWire. “And with the right partner that has resources [and] that same culture and same way of understanding how we want to treat customers…success looks like [it’s] starting to materialize some of the those products, those services, those operations that we wanted to actually do, but we didn’t know how to do it, because we were lacking of these kind of resources before.”

Jeff Allen, president of CubiCasa, said the integration will expand the value the company provides to the broader real estate ecosystem.

“By integrating with Restb.ai, we’re excited to create even more value to the MLS and real estate ecosystem,” Allen said in a statement. “With this combination, we can provide additional value and capabilities to the real estate industry with the same five-minute scan.”

The acquisition follows Clear Capital’s July 2025 investment from GTCR, which the company said was intended to support expansion of its technology platform, valuation offerings and acquisition strategy.

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Mortgage delinquencies eased in March, but higher-severity stress remained elevated, even as U.S. home prices posted their strongest monthly gain in nearly two years, according to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)’s May 2026 Mortgage Monitor released Monday.

The national mortgage delinquency rate on first-lien mortgages fell to 3.35% in March, down 37 basis points (10%) from February. The decline aligned with typical seasonal patterns, which often see strong improvement as borrowers use tax refunds and seasonal cash inflows to catch up on payments.

ICE said March is historically the strongest month for seasonal improvement in mortgage performance.

Early-stage delinquencies (borrowers who are one or two payments behind) fell 12% during the month, while serious delinquencies (defined as 90 days or more past due) declined by 4%.

Despite the monthly improvement, the delinquency rate remains 14 bps higher than a year earlier, which the Mortgage Monitor attributed in part to lingering effects from last year’s hurricanes and wildfires. The March reading is still 56 bps below the average for that month during the early 2000s — and 63 bps below the level recorded at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Higher-severity stress, however, remains a concern. ICE said 154,000 more borrowers are now 90 or more days past due or in active foreclosure compared with the same period a year ago.

The increase was driven almost entirely by Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, which rose by 164,000 and now represent a record 55% of all seriously past-due mortgages nationwide. Delinquency volumes declined in conventional, whole loan and privately securitized mortgages, while those for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loans rose 2%.

Overall, 1.6% of active mortgages are now seriously past due, up 26 bps, or 20%, from a year earlier. That rate remains slightly above levels in the early 2000s but are about 7% below March averages from 2018 to 2020.

ICE said seasonal trends typically continue to ease serious delinquencies through May, which could help reduce near-term volumes.

The credit data comes alongside broader housing market strength, with ICE reporting U.S. home price growth of 0.32% in April on a seasonally adjusted basis. That’s the strongest monthly gain in nearly two years, equivalent to a 3.9% annualized rate. Annual home price growth also ticked up to 0.9%.

“Home price growth accelerated in April as softer interest rates raised the ceiling on borrower affordability,” said Andy Walden, ICE’s head of mortgage and housing market research. “While a 0.32% monthly increase may not sound like much, when annualized, it’s equivalent to home prices appreciating at nearly 4% if sustained over a 12-month period.”

Walden said the key question as the spring home purchase season marches along is whether that momentum can hold as interest rates trend higher.

Home price gains were widespread, with 90% of U.S. markets posting increases in April, and 70 of the 100 largest markets recording year-over-year gains. The Northeast led the way on a regional basis, while all 30 markets with annual declines were in the South and West.

First-time buyers accounted for more than half of purchase loans closed in March, the highest share since 2020, while refinance activity surged to $242 billion in the first quarter, the strongest figure since early 2022.

Refinances represented 44% of all originations, the largest share in four years. Rate-and-term refinances made up 60% of refi activity, with borrowers lowering their monthly payments by an average of $257 after a 97-bps rate reduction.

The report also found that mortgage processing times continued to improve. The average purchase loan closed in 36.8 days in March, the fastest pace on record since tracking began in 2019.

“The recent mortgage trends highlight the importance of giving lenders and servicers the tools to respond quickly to changing borrower needs and market conditions,” said Bob Hart, president of ICE Mortgage Technology.

“From helping first-time buyers navigate financing to supporting refinance opportunities and proactively managing portfolio risk, timely data and integrated technology are critical.”

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Mortgage credit availability decreased in April, breaking a three-month streak of easing standards, according to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) released Tuesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The MCAI is based on underwriting criteria and borrower eligibility factors — including credit scores, loan types and loan-to-value (LTV) ratios — from more than 95 lenders and investors. MBA combines this data, provided via ICE Mortgage Technology, using a proprietary formula to produce the index.

The MCAI fell 0.4% to a reading of 107.9 in April. A decline in the index indicates tighter lending standards, while an increase signals looser standards. The index is benchmarked to 100 in March 2012.

The Conventional MCAI decreased 0.6% in April, while the Government MCAI — which includes Federal Housing Administration (FHA), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) loan programs — was unchanged.

Within the conventional segment, the Jumbo MCAI fell 1%, and the Conforming MCAI rose 0.5%.

“After three months of increases, mortgage credit availability decreased slightly in April as lenders tightened up on conventional loan programs with high LTV and low credit requirements,” Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist, said in a statement. “Some of this tightening also impacted super jumbo loan programs, which resulted in a decline in the conforming jumbo index. Offsetting some of the April decline was a small increase in non-QM programs, a segment of the market that continues to grow.”

Kan added that “overall, credit availability remains tight by historical standards, but mortgage originations activity has recently been impacted by mortgage rates, housing inventory and the economic environment.”

The flat reading on the Government MCAI suggests that underwriting standards for FHA, VA and USDA products held steady in April, while conventional programs saw more selective tightening, especially for higher LTV ratios and lower credit scores.

The 1% decline in the Jumbo MCAI indicates lenders pulled back somewhat on jumbo offerings, including super jumbo loans, even as conforming credit availability improved modestly. For originators, this points to relatively more friction for higher-balance borrowers than for those seeking conforming loans.

The April data confirms that credit conditions remain restrictive compared to pre-2010 levels, with the limited expansion in non-QM programs partially offsetting tighter conventional standards.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

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California Regional MLS (CRMLS) released results from a survey of agents who have sold at least one property since Jan. 1 — showing broad support for the Clear Cooperation Policy among active listing professionals.

The survey found that 58.3% of respondents support the policy, including 38.73% who said they are “extremely supportive.”

Another 12.5% identified as neutral, meaning more than 70% of respondents were either supportive of or open to the policy. Meanwhile, 17.24% said they were “not supportive at all.”

According to CRMLS, many respondents emphasized the importance of equal access to listings and broad market exposure for consumers.

Several agents used the survey’s open comment section to voice concerns about private listing networks and off-market marketing practices.

“Private networks and keeping listings from the MLS does a disservice to the client,” one respondent wrote.

Another commented, “Important everyone gets an opportunity at the same time to see a property. Don’t like private networking groups.”

Other agents pointed to the role of the MLS as a centralized marketplace.

“I’m in favor of Clear Cooperation… It’s important for MLSs to remain the central repository… not the fragmentation we’re seeing,” one respondent stated.

Supporters of the policy also highlighted the competitive advantages of wider listing distribution.

“The better we cooperate with each other, the more our industry grows in harmony,” one respondent said.

“It definitely serves the client most if the property is exposed to as many buyers as possible,” another added.

A separate respondent wrote, “The more eyes on a property, the more opportunities… and the seller gets the most money.”

Calls for refinements, not elimination

While nearly 30% of respondents selected lower support ratings, CRMLS said written comments often reflected support for the policy’s intent while suggesting operational changes.

A common concern involved the current one-day timeline requiring publicly marketed listings to be entered into the MLS. “One day is too short of time,” one respondent said and others echoed that sentiment.

Among respondents who identified as neutral, many still expressed support for fairness and consistent enforcement standards. “Feels fair to require a listing be marketed to everyone at the same time,” one respondent commented. One neutral respondent added, “I think the premise is good but the enforcement is poor.”

Industry debate continues

CRMLS said the survey aligns with that approach by gathering perspectives from agents currently active in the marketplace.

Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS, said the results reinforce the industry’s understanding of transparency and cooperation.

“This survey confirms what we continue to see across the marketplace — real estate professionals understand the value of transparency and cooperation,” he said. “The Clear Cooperation Policy is not a restraint on competition — it’s what enables it. It ensures listings are available to the full marketplace, creating more opportunity for buyers and better outcomes for sellers.”

CRMLS also emphasized that the policy establishes what it described as a baseline level of fairness by ensuring publicly marketed listings are accessible through the MLS system.

The organization said it remains open to refining implementation details while preserving the policy’s broader goals.

“An open marketplace benefits everyone,” Carter added. “When information is shared broadly, it strengthens competition, supports fiduciary duty, and ultimately delivers better results for consumers.”

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

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When Ben Schachter, the president and broker of Boca Raton, Fla.-based The Signature Real Estate Companies, heard about the Spirit Airlines shutdown, he knew he had to do something to help those in the community impacted by the closure. 

“We do business with people from all over the state, and we’ve worked with dozens of Spirit Airlines employees over the years. The entire South Florida community was devastated to see such a big, national employer collapse, and I began thinking about all of these people in South Florida now out of work,” Schachter said. 

While Schachter said the area’s economy is quite strong, he felt it wasn’t strong enough to suddenly absorb thousands of people into new roles.

“Suddenly you’ve got over 10,000 people that are out of work that now may or may not be able to make their mortgage or rent payments,” Schachter said. “So, I looked at how this would impact our business and how we could help.” 

In addition to operating a brokerage, Schachter also owns a real estate school, so he decided to create a scholarship program for former Spirit Airlines employees interested in getting their real estate license. 

“I said we can give these people scholarships and that would accomplish two things: perhaps some of them would find a replacement career or bring in some income while they are out of work and second, by helping them find a source of income, we can hopefully keep them in their homes and not flood the market with listings due to them being unable to afford their homes or having to move to find work.” 

Over 70 people joined the program so far

While Schachter typically runs licensing classes in person or via live Zoom classes, to meet the needs of former Spirit Airlines employees he is offering the class online, allowing people to work at their own pace. The course is free for those impacted by the Spirit Airlines shutdown, however students will have to pay for their license application fee, exam fee and fingerprinting fee. Additionally, those who use the scholarship program will be required to join Schachter’s brokerage for one year after obtaining their license, where they will earn a flat 70% commission split. 

As of Monday afternoon, Schachter said over 70 people had signed up for the scholarship program. 

Schachter’s Signature School of Real Estate also offers other training and education programs, which he said will help scholarship program graduates navigate the business of real estate well after obtaining their license. 

Schachter said this scholarship program shows just how confident he is in the quality of training and education he offers agents. 

Selling isn’t for everyone

But while some people may believe this is an easy way to make money, Schachter warned that selling real estate is not for everyone.

“A lot of people get into real estate because they like houses or they love interior design, but at the end of the day this is a sales position. You are selling people the single most expensive item they will most likely ever transact, so you have to have tremendous interpersonal skills and be comfortable selling,” Schachter said. “And it takes your own willingness to work hard and your own self-starting motivation and if you couple that with the right company that offers the right training, support, tools and technology, then there can be plenty of business to be had.” 

Given their experience in customer service, Schachter feels real estate could be a great career for a flight attendant or a gate agent who has suddenly found themselves without work. 

“If somebody comes with intelligence, professionalism and a driving deep work ethic, we can help them with the right education, the right support, the right technology, the right tools to be successful. There’s no instant gratification in this business, so I am one of the few brokers that is highly highly supportive of people having a second stream of income,” he said. “You are many months away before cashing that first check. However, once you build a pipeline and you cash that first check, then you can continue replenishing that pipeline and generate a steady stream of income, but this is not a quick fix.” 

Still, Schachter is hopeful that his scholarship program will help at least some former Spirit Airlines employees in South Florida regroup after suddenly losing their jobs. 

“My brokerage owns a 501(c)(3) charity, Signature Gives Back, and we require that every single one of our agents do a minimum of 10 hours of community service per year. It is having this community mindset that caused us to think of Spirit and how we can help these thousands of unemployed individuals find suitable alternate income,” Schachter said. “I’m really proud of what we are doing and how our team is trying to help these people.”

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Cotality has launched Broker Listing Exchange, or Cotality BLX, with Keller Williams and HomeServices of America as the first firms to implement the system, according to an announcement on Tuesday. 

Cotality BLX is an enterprise listing management and distribution platform that gives brokerages more direct control over how listings are created, standardized and syndicated across MLSs and portals, according to the announcement.

“Cotality Broker Listing Exchange provides the stable, mission-critical foundation brokerages and affiliated agents need to navigate change with confidence,” Kevin Greene, general manager of real estate solutions at Cotality, said in a statement. “We are proud to provide the rails that keep listing data moving seamlessly and securely for the entire industry.”

The Irvine, Calif.-based property data and analytics firm, which says it supports 80% of real estate transactions in North America, said Cotality BLX is designed as a single, branded environment where brokerages can manage listing data from pre-market through closing, determine which MLSs, portals and partners receive the listing and apply brokerage and channel-specific policies and professional standards at the point of data entry. The tool is powered by Cotality’s CoreAI technology and uses Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) standards and embedded business rules to help keep data consistent and compliant throughout the listing lifecycle.

“Our priority is making sure our agents and brokerages control their listing content from the moment it’s created — not after it’s been distributed and returned to them,” said Chris Kelly, president and CEO of HomeServices of America. “As the landscape evolves, ownership, access and flexibility around listing data will define competitive advantage.”

Chris Czarnecki, the CEO and president of Keller Williams added that reducing duplicate entry across platforms and creating a more centralized experience helps agents save time and “gain greater control over their listings while creating maximum exposure opportunities for their clients.”

“We heard clearly from agents and franchise owners that managing listings across multiple platforms creates unnecessary friction in an already fast-moving business,” Czarnecki said in a statement. 

One-to-many gateway

For brokerage leaders, Cotality BLX is positioned as a “one-to-many” gateway that allows them to set and adjust listing distribution strategies in one place. The company said this can help reduce dual-entry friction and ensure that exposure is optimized across chosen channels while preserving brokerage sovereignty over listing content.

Cotality said more than 1 million agents already use its underlying technology daily, which it argues should shorten the learning curve and support faster enterprise rollout of BLX. The platform is natively integrated with all MLSs that use Cotality’s Matrix system, creating a turnkey experience for those users. Cotality also plans to work with other MLS vendors to plug BLX into their systems and maintain a standardized on-ramp for listing data industrywide.

Cotality president and CEO Patrick Dodd framed the launch as part of a broader effort to balance MLS transparency with brokerage control.

“Cotality has always believed that a healthy industry depends on a strong, transparent MLS and the sovereignty of the brokerage,” Dodd said. “With Cotality BLX, we aren’t just giving brokers a tool to operate in today’s new marketplace; we are providing a solution that enables compliance, safeguards data and helps preserve the professional standards that our industry and consumers expect.

Cotality is partially owned by Stone Point Capital, which made a strategic investment in Keller Williams in March of 2025.

This article was written by Brooklee Han and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

If you want to understand where the mortgage industry is headed, spend a few days listening to lenders at gatherings like ICE Experience, HousingWire’s The Gathering or Texas MBA’s annual convention when they are not presenting, not pitching and not on panels. Spend time in the hallways. At the booths. In the quiet conversations between meetings. That is where the real story emerges.

Across industry conferences, thousands of mortgage professionals are gathering to talk about the future. But what stands out for us has been that these conversations are not speculative; lenders are actively working through how to do it. They are asking how to implement solutions next quarter. They are not stalling to wonder if costs need to come down. They are figuring out where to remove them without increasing risk. This is a market that has shifted from planning to execution.

Efficiency is no longer optional

For the past several years, efficiency has been a recurring theme in our industry. But in 2026, it is no longer a talking point. It’s a demand. Margins remain tight. Volumes are uneven. Teams are expected to do more with fewer resources. This combination leaves little room for inefficiency.

What we’ve heard repeatedly during the past months is that lenders are not waiting for better conditions. They are adapting to the realities of the current market. That means rethinking workflows, reducing manual touches and finding ways to move loans through the pipeline faster without compromising compliance or data quality. The question is not whether to invest in efficiency. The question is how quickly it can be achieved.

AI has found its role

Artificial intelligence dominated conversations in 2025, but lately the tone has matured. A year or two ago, the conversation centered on disruption. Would AI replace roles? Would it fundamentally reshape the industry? Now, the focus is far more practical. Lenders are looking at AI as a tool, not a replacement. They are targeting specific use cases. Reducing manual data entry. Improving consistency in decisioning. Accelerating processes that historically put a drag on loan production.

Just as important, there is broad agreement that a human element remains essential. The phrase “human in the loop” comes up frequently, and for good reason. Mortgage lending is a regulated, high-stakes business. Accuracy matters. Accountability matters. Borrower trust matters. AI can handle routine tasks, but lenders still want experienced professionals overseeing the process, validating outcomes and managing exceptions. That balance between automation and human oversight is where real progress is happening.

Cost pressure is driving smarter decisions

The one topic matching efficiency in lender urgency has been cost control. Lenders are scrutinizing every part of their operations, and credit is a natural starting point. It is often the first step in the origination process and one of the most visible cost centers.

What is changing is not solely the desire to reduce costs, but also how lenders are approaching the challenge. They are asking more detailed questions about when credit is pulled, how often it is used and how it fits into the broader workflow. They are exploring alternative credit strategies and looking for ways to eliminate redundant steps.

At the same time, there is a clear understanding that cost reduction cannot come at the expense of risk management. Cutting corners is not a strategy. The goal is to spend smarter. That means using better data, improving timing and integrating credit decisions more effectively into the overall loan process.

The verification problem everyone knows

For all the progress the industry has made, one issue continues to surface again and again: verification. Income, employment and tax verification remain fragmented. Multiple providers. Multiple systems. Multiple formats. That fragmentation creates friction at every stage of the process. It introduces delays, increases the potential for errors and complicates compliance efforts.

Lenders talk openly about the challenges. Reconciling inconsistent data. Managing different turnaround times. Navigating workflows that do not connect as seamlessly as they should. None of this is new. What is new is the sense of urgency around solving it.

There is a growing demand for solutions that bring verification together into a more unified, consistent experience. Faster is important. But so is transparency. So is auditability. In a market where efficiency is critical, fragmentation is no longer acceptable.

Automation is moving toward the top of the list

If there has been one theme rising fast to join those above, it has been workflow automation. Not as a future initiative. Not as a pilot program. As a current priority. Lenders are looking at the entire loan lifecycle and asking where manual work can be reduced or eliminated. Credit. Verification. Processing. Underwriting. The goal is not merely speed, but consistency.

When data flows seamlessly between systems, the need for re-entry disappears. Errors decrease. Turn times improve. Teams can focus on higher-value work instead of repetitive tasks. Automation is also closely tied to the borrower experience. Faster processes are not just operational wins. They are competitive advantages.

Borrowers expect responsiveness. They expect transparency. And increasingly, they expect a process that feels as efficient as the other digital experiences in their lives. 

Forward-thinking lenders are telling us that meeting those expectations is not optional.

A market moving forward

Taken together, the themes from our Q1 conversations with lenders point to a market that is pragmatic and focused. Lenders are not waiting for ideal conditions; they are building more efficient operations now. They are making decisions that reflect the realities of today’s environment, not the hopes of tomorrow.

For solution providers, that creates both an opportunity and a responsibility. Innovation matters, but it has to be practical. It has to integrate into existing workflows. It has to deliver measurable improvement, not simply new features.

Speed matters, and so do reliability and transparency. Lenders are not looking for isolated tools. They are looking for cohesive solutions to reduce complexity and support better outcomes across the entire loan process.

Our industry understands its challenges, and it understands the tools available to address them. What matters now is the effective implementation of those tools. In the months ahead, successful lenders will be the ones who move quickly, adapt continuously and focus on building systems to support both efficiency and accuracy. Here’s how they’ve said they will get it done: they will invest in automation where it makes sense. They will use data to make smarter decisions. And they will continue to value the human expertise that ensures quality and trust.

Jeff Gentry is chief revenue officer of Service 1st, where he leads national sales strategy and enterprise partnerships across mortgage, consumer and commercial lending. 
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com.

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The built-to-rent industry has been plagued by regulatory uncertainty over the past couple of months, but AMH, the nation’s premier BTR builder, with a portfolio of more than 60,000 rental homes, reported that 2026 started with strong demand and an improving supply picture. 

During the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call in February, AMH executives noted that the BTR industry faced an oversupply of new homes. As a result, leadership laid out plans to reduce deliveries and increase dispositions in a bid to align supply with demand. 

Since then, AMH executives noted progress in resolving the supply glut, despite lingering imbalances in many Sun Belt markets. The company also reported “record” demand during parts of the spring leasing season, along with revenue gains and positive momentum in rental rates. 

Nevertheless, regulatory uncertainty continues to obscure the business outlook, so much so that those policy questions took center stage in discussions on the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call held last Thursday.

Regulatory hurdles cloud the picture

Much of the Q&A between AMH strategic executives and Wall Street equity research representatives related to Section 901 of the U.S. Senate’s version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the Senate on March 12. Section 901 would ban large institutional investors with 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing additional single-family properties, other than manufactured housing. It would also require new BTR communities to transition to individual ownership within seven years.

Section 901, while not yet enacted into law, has already largely frozen capital investment into the BTR sector. This is a trend that AMH executives took note of. 

“I think some of the uncertainty that we’ve seen this year has really put a pause on a lot of the transaction market. What we have seen, though, is more of a willingness from some of the mid-size operators to discuss ways that they could partner with us. Nothing’s happened because of this kind of overhang, but we do believe that it could create some opportunity going forward,” AMH CEO Bryan Smith said on the call. 

The result of this regulatory limbo, Smith said, is a reduction in new supply breaking ground over the past couple of months. 

“It definitely has affected supply. It’s been widely discussed…what we’ve seen this year on capital coming into the space. I think it’ll have a probably a more immediate effect on the build-to-rent projects. I believe a lot of them that were in sight will get completed, but it’s changed people’s outlook,” he explained. 

If the bill and its Section 901 pass, it will likely have enormous implications for the BTR industry, potentially impacting supply and leading to higher rental rates. 

“As I spoke of earlier, anything that restricts supply is gonna be bad for housing affordability. The existing rental units that we have will maybe be looked at with a premium. We’re optimistic, though, that that won’t be the final outcome,” Smith said. 

Matching new supply with demand

During AMH’s Q4 2025 earnings call in February, executives noted that they planned to scale back new construction in response to an excess supply of new BTR units, which weighed on rental and occupancy rates. This overhang of new supply was particularly pronounced in the Sun Belt. 

In 2025, AMH delivered 2,300 homes, but going into 2026, the company forecasted deliveries to decline to 1,900 homes. 

The company delivered 539 new homes last quarter, roughly equal to that of a year ago, but construction is likely to ebb through the balance of the year. This is part of a concerted effort to recalibrate supply with demand. 

According to executives, the supply picture measurably improved over the last few months, but an imbalance remains in certain markets.  

“There’s still some standing inventory in some parts of the country that needs to be consumed, and the rate at which that gets consumed is gonna vary market by market, depending on how much is there and what the demand profile for those particular areas looks like. We still see heavy inventory in Arizona and Texas, and it’s gonna take a little bit longer, probably, to work through some of the supply there,” AMH Executive VP and COO Lincoln Palmer said. 

AMH has its own fully integrated, in-house development program that builds and manages its own communities. This gives the company flexibility to ramp up or scale back starts depending on market conditions and demand. 

“We have the flexibility to flex up or flex down in response to current market conditions. In this case, some of the regulatory uncertainty and cost of capital considerations have driven us to [a lower] output expectation for ‘26. As we go through and things get worked out in Washington, depending on the outcome, there may be really nice opportunities that could provide a catalyst for the development program,” Smith explained. 

Strategically utilizing dispositions 

During that earlier February call, AMH executives also detailed plans to increase dispositions of non-core assets. This vision partially reflects an effort to align supply with demand, but also signals a shift in the company’s strategy. 

AMH was founded in 2012, and initially bought a significant number of homes through the MLS. Over the last few years, the company has rotated through its existing home portfolios and now predominantly builds its own inventory. As a result, many older homes acquired in AMH’s earlier years are now considered non-core assets that are eligible for disposition.

Last quarter, AMH sold 710 non-core homes, an increase from 416 a year prior. These homes are generally older, have smaller-than-average square footage, and typically have lower rents and smaller rental yields than the rest of the company’s portfolio. 

Selling off these assets enables AMH to focus on its newer homes, while generating cash flow for other core aspects of the business. The 710 non-core dispositions last quarter generated roughly $199 million in net proceeds. 

“Each and every quarter, as homes vacate, we can inspect them and finalize the decision as to whether or not they are appropriate disposition and capital recycling candidates,” AMH CFO Chris Lau said, explaining that dispositions allow the company to “optimize the portfolio at a super granular unit-by-unit level.” 

Leveraging strong demand to build rental rates and occupancy

Executives noted strong demand among would-be renters during Q1. Rents and other single-family property revenues increased 2.8% year-over-year, and the company posted an average occupied days percentage of 95.1%, roughly equivalent to the industry average. 

While for-sale homebuilders had to employ generous incentives and price discounts to push sales during the early days of the spring selling season, AMH experienced record demand. The company doesn’t offer incentives for its rental properties and aims to match new deliveries with demand. 

“Seasonal demand picked up as expected in the back half of the first quarter, despite a slightly later start this year. This resulted in record leasing volumes for March and continued momentum through April,” Smith said. 

During the previous earnings call, AMH leadership stated they were prioritizing occupancy over rental rates, indicating they were willing to be flexible on pricing to achieve high occupancy. Now, the focus is on building momentum in both rate and occupancy, as occupancy typically moderates in the back half of the year. 

“We’ll take this first half of the year to capture as much rate and occupancy as we can. Then, as we’ve talked about in the past, we will control the controllables and hold as much of that occupancy as possible,” Palmer explained. 

What’s on the horizon?

The overhanging uncertainty caused by the proposed Section 901 of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act has already impacted the BTR sector. While the provision has generated uncertainty, AMH leadership notes that the supply picture, from their perspective, has improved. 

For now, there isn’t as much new construction happening in oversaturated Sun Belt markets, although it will likely take time for the supply-demand picture to fully correct itself. 

It’s not yet certain when or how the regulatory uncertainty will correct itself. For now, AMH is working to align new deliveries with demand, while selling off older, underperforming assets that no longer make strategic sense for the operator’s portfolio. 

This post was originally published on here. 

There is a word being used right now to scare real estate professionals into surrendering their judgment and independence.

That word is private.

It’s being used like magicians use abracadabra, hoping nobody notices what the other hand is doing. We’re told private listings will harm consumers and undermine fair housing. That they are the “dark pools” of real estate.

It sounds serious. But it’s a sham.

While you’re looking at the word “private,” the other hand is quietly transferring control of an entire profession from the people who do the work and the clients who pay the check, to a handful of institutions that own neither the homes nor the careers, but would very much like to keep telling both how to behave.

Strip away the rhetoric and this debate isn’t about hidden homes or consumers or fair housing. It is about who gets to decide how American homes are marketed. Two answers exist, and only two. Either the homeowner who paid for the house, and the local professional the homeowner trusts, get to decide. Or the MLSs, NAR, and the big home search portals get to decide.

It’s really that simple. Anyone telling you otherwise is pulling an abracadabra on you.

Nobody is hiding anything

I don’t know a single agent, broker, or company in this debate who wants to hide listings from buyers. Not one.

The fight isn’t about whether buyers learn about or have access to see a home. It’s about how, when and through what channels the home reaches them. That is a craft question, a judgment call that has belonged for 100 years to the seller and the local expert that seller hired. Calling that “private” is like calling a Ferrari launch “secretive” because the car isn’t parked at the corner gas station the day it’s announced.

The word they don’t want you to use

They want you focusing on the word “private.” They don’t want you realizing it’s actually “control.”

Already, the MLS dictates what must not appear in your photos (your face, your sign or anything identifying you as the agent), which photo must lead (the front exterior), what the description can’t do (identify you, point to a property website, or include a call to action) and what fields must be filled out.

It fines you if you don’t surrender the listing within one business day of any marketing activity. Now read that list back and tell me, with a straight face, that this debate isn’t really about control.

Who works for whom?

Here is a question every real estate professional in America should ask this week. Who pays the check that funds the industry?

The answer hasn’t changed in 100 years. The seller does. List side. Buy side. In most transactions, all of it comes out of the seller’s proceeds. Without the seller’s home and the listing agent’s work, the MLS, Zillow, Realtor.com and NAR don’t exist. They are vendors and trade groups. Useful ones, in some cases. But vendors all the same.

There is no other industry in America where the vendors get to dictate to the people who own the product, and to the professionals those owners hire, exactly how the product may be marketed. Imagine telling a homebuilder which brochures she may print. It would be absurd. Yet, in real estate we’ve quietly accepted exactly that arrangement, and we’re now told that questioning it makes us enemies of the consumer.

Rob Hahn was right

Rob Hahn made the most honest observation in this entire debate, and almost nobody on the other side wants to engage with it. If you really want to know what is best for consumers, take down the rules. All of them. Let agents and brokers experiment. Let some sell every home on every portal from minute one. Let others build private buyer networks and run a strategic launch. Let buyers and sellers vote with their wallets. Whichever approach wins, wins, because it actually delivered for the people paying the bill.

We already have oversight

Real estate professionals don’t need the MLS or Zillow or NAR to police them. We already have an authority for that, in every single state, the real estate licensing and oversight authority. All 50 states have one, and every one of them has, as its number one statutory mission, the protection of the public.

Agents who misrepresent properties, double-cross clients, discriminate or violate fiduciary duty get investigated, fined, suspended or stripped of their license. That is where professional accountability lives. With the government, where it belongs. Not with a vendor.

On fair housing

In addition to having personally listed and sold thousands of homes, I am a real estate attorney. I take fair housing seriously, and so does every reputable agent and broker I know.

Fair housing law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status. It does not require any specific marketing channel. It never has. Conflating a strategic marketing decision with a fair housing violation isn’t a legal argument. It’s a rhetorical bomb dropped to end conversations.

If a homeowner says, “Greg, I want you to list my home, but first offer it to my neighbors and a few people in my circle who I know would love it,” that is the homeowner’s right. No buyer in America has a moral, legal or constitutional claim on any particular house.

Only one side can win

This debate has only one ending. Either the institutions consolidate their grip and write the rules from here forward, in which case your judgment as a professional, and your client’s right to choose, become whatever they decide. Or the professionals and their clients reclaim that authority, and the institutions return to being what they were meant to be: useful tools, hired and fired at the discretion of the people they serve.

There is no version where both happen. The MLSs and portals aren’t asking for a seat at the table. They already have one. They are asking for the table itself.

Greg Hague is a 50-year real estate veteran and attorney. He is the founder of 72SOLD and was recently appointed Director of Home Sales Strategy for the Compass International Holdings family of real estate brands.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.

To contact the editor responsible for this piece: tracey@hwmedia.com

This post was originally published on here. 

PropLogix has launched PropOptix, a new sales outreach platform designed to help title companies identify and connect with real estate agents based on real-time market activity.

The company said the platform is intended to help title professionals move beyond broad cold outreach and generic email campaigns by using listing activity and market signals to guide more targeted engagement with agents.

“Title companies are always looking for better ways to stay in front of real estate agents, but most teams are still stuck guessing who to contact and when,” said Jesse Biter, CEO of PropLogix. “PropOptix gives them a smarter way to act on real market activity and turn that activity into relationships.”

According to PropLogix, the platform monitors listing activity, evaluates context around transactions and helps trigger personalized outreach opportunities for title sales teams.

Leaders said the goal is to reduce the amount of time spent building prospect lists while increasing direct conversations with agents.

PropOptix expands on PropLogix’s existing suite of title and due diligence services, which include municipal lien searches, HOA estoppels, tax certificates, surveys and related transaction support products.

The company said the new platform extends that operational support into business development by helping title companies create more predictable and timely sales outreach.

“It is not just engagement,” said Jack Rebel, vice president of PropOptix. “We are seeing clear indicators of revenue impact within the first month. Title teams are starting new agent conversations, creating new relationships and tying real business opportunities back to the outreach happening through PropOptix.”

PropLogix said early deployments of the platform have produced measurable engagement results, including 20% to 30% engagement rates during the first 30 days of campaigns and response rates two to three times higher than traditional outbound outreach methods.

The company also said users have reported generating dozens of new agent conversations within the first 45 days while maintaining more consistent multi-touch follow-up with prospects.

PropOptix currently integrates with HubSpot workflows, with additional CRM integrations in development, according to the company.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Bright MLS has launched Bright Promote, an in-platform advertising tool that lets real estate agents create and run digital and mail marketing campaigns directly from Bright Listing Management as soon as a listing goes live, the company announced Monday.

The North Bethesda, Maryland-based multiple listing service said Bright Promote is its first MLS-built advertising solution and is fully integrated into the listing management workflow used by its subscribers. Rather than requiring additional logins or third-party tools, the new product sits inside the existing system where agents enter and manage listings.

“Agents should be able to market a new listing quickly and professionally, without adding complexity to their workflow,” Brian Donnellan, the president and CEO of Bright MLS, said in a statement. “Bright Promote gives subscribers an easier way to turn a new listing into a live advertising campaign at the moment visibility matters most. It is another example of how Bright is building practical tools that solve real business needs for real estate professionals.”

Within Bright Listing Management, agents can use Bright Promote to set a campaign budget, apply branding and activate a digital or mailer campaign in a few clicks. The tool automatically pulls listing details and photos to generate ad creative tailored to each channel, according to the announcement. 

At launch, Bright Promote includes:

• Direct integration with Bright Listing Management so agents can promote listings without leaving the platform
• Campaign activation on Facebook and Instagram when a listing is created or updated
• Controls for budget, branding and lead destination
• Real-time performance insights to help agents monitor and refine campaigns

Bright Promote is positioned to support multiple stakeholders in the listing process. Agents gain a faster path to broader exposure; brokers and team leaders get a built-in marketing option that can help drive consistency and efficiency; and sellers get professional promotion from day one of a listing, the company said.

Bright Promote is available now to Bright MLS subscribers through Bright Listing Management.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

It has been less than a year since Opendoor’s stock skyrocketed on the heels of a post made by hedge fund owner Eric Jackson on X, which ultimately led to the resignation of its CEO and Kaz Nejatian taking the helm. According to Nejatian, things at the iBuyer have vastly improved since he took over in September of 2025. 

“When it comes to contracts, this was our single best quarter since 2022,” Nejatian said during Opendoor’s Q1 2026 earnings call with investors and analysts last Thursday. “Cohorts are performing better, resale velocity is improving, and we’re scaling growth.”

According to Opendoor, its Q4 2025 and January 2026 acquisition cohorts “have the best combination of margin, margin stability and resale velocity of any corresponding cohort in company history (excluding the COVID-era),” and each of those four cohorts are “selling faster than any corresponding cohort since COVID.” Additionally, Opendoor claims that acquisition contracts have doubled quarter-over-quarter and are back to 2022 levels, while aged inventory has been cut from half of its inventory book to one-tenth of its total inventory. 

This ‘isn’t an accident or small scale luck,’ says Nejatian

During the firm’s last earnings call with investors and analysts, Nejatian highlighted the October 2025 homes purchased as an example of what Opendoor 2.0 was capable of doing. Although this was not Opendoor’s largest cohort of properties by volume, it was double the size of those a few months prior. Nejatian argues that by continuing this trend during the rest of Q4 and into Q1, it shows that October was not just luck, but rather a trend illustrating that Opendoor is on track to increase its acquisition size. 

“Four consecutive months tell us something October alone could not. This isn’t an accident. This isn’t small scale luck. Mortgage rates are still far too high and the listings are at all-time highs. But in a housing market that was supposed to break us, our cohorts are delivering,” Nejatian said. “October wasn’t a fluke. It was just the first month we could see it. We’ve now sold through over 80% of the October cohort and our trends have continued. Margins for our core cash products have come down only 90 basis points from where they were at 10% sold to over 80% sold. Last year, that same journey cost us over 260 basis points. So we’ve seen about a 3x improvement.”

Financial results don’t paint the same picture

Despite the improvements highlighted by Opendoor’s executives, the financial results aren’t painting the same picture. During the first quarter of 2026 Opendoor recorded $720 million in revenue, down $433 million from a year prior, while net loss jumped from $85 million in Q1 2026 to $173 million in Q1 2026. In addition, the number of homes sold during the quarter fell from 2,946 homes a year ago to 1,921 homes, while the number of homes purchased fell by 1,135 homes annually to 2,474 homes. But as executives highlighted, the number of homes in inventory at the end of the quarter was down 3,660 homes from a year ago to 3,420 homes. Executives also noted that Opendoor entered into contract on over 5,000 homes, twice as many as in Q4 2025 and three times as many as in Q3 2025. 

Even with the drop in revenue and increase in net loss, Nejatian remains positive about “Opendoor 2.0,” noting that its contribution margin has increased every single month since the firm bottomed out in September and October, November, December and January. 

In the past, Nejatian said Opendoor made “made directional bets” based on where the company assumed home prices would be going in the next few months. When the company got their predictions wrong, it did things like widen spreads and slow down acquisitions in order to stave off additional damage. 

“Every defensive move was the thing that was actually killing us. We were playing prevent defense when we were down by a touch down. So of course, we were losing. We widened the spread to protect ourselves, but in doing so, we changed their funnel,” Nejatian said. “We changed the thing that was making the company work. We got worse homes. Worse homes meant worse margins. Worse margins went back into the model. The system got more conservative and spreads widened even more. We didn’t just have a risk that we could not calculate. We actually built a machine that amplifies it. Every move made everything worse. That was our fatal flaw.”

Old model caused company to slow down

According to Nejatian, this “old model” caused the entire company to slow down. In order to change things, he said the company didn’t just improve the pricing model, but it changed the question the pricing model was meant to answer. 

“A year ago, the most important input into every decision was our home price appreciation forecast. Today, it’s how fast we can sell the home we’re looking to buy. Market makers do not win by being right about direction. They win by controlling their exposure to being wrong. They win by being right about time,” he said. 

Some of the timeline improvements, according to Nejatian, are due to a series of products the firm launched during the quarter, including the acquisition of title firm Doma’s escrow division, a rebuilt offer page for sellers, a portable assessment schedule for sellers that allows them to get their home assessment done when they want, the launch of Opendoor Mortgage in Colorado and the tripling of the Cash Now, More Later product. 

As Nejatian and his team look to achieve adjusted net income profitability on a 12-month go-forward basis by the end of the year, he is remaining positive about what the future holds for Opendoor. 

“When I joined Opendoor, I did it because homeownership matters,” he said. “It is the single thing that leads to better families, better neighborhoods. When people buy a home they love, they’re buying a share in this country. We don’t buy homes at Opendoor to hold them. We buy them so we can get them into the next family faster, with less friction at a better price. And every family we help move is a family that puts down roots. It’s a neighborhood, we’re getting better. It’s children that get to grow up in a home that their parents love. Faster is what this company was built to do.”

This post was originally published on here. 

“Our first quarter results exceeded our revenue expectations as agent productivity continues to increase,” said Leo Pareja, CEO of eXp Realty. eXp World Holdings reported strong first quarter results as the company continued to emphasize agent productivity and operational efficiency — while moving to broaden its business model through the acquisition of national franchise brand NextHome.

The company reported first quarter revenue of $1 billion, up 5% year-over-year from $954.9 million, while adjusted EBITDA rose 88% to $4.1 million.

Operating expenses declined 3% to $84.1 million, reflecting cost-cutting measures implemented over the past year. Real estate sales volume increased 5% to $40.7 billion — while transaction sides climbed 2% to 91,598.

Agent count on the eXp Realty platform grew 1% year-over-year to 82,332 agents and brokers as of March 31.

“We have always been a company built by agents, built for agents, and this quarter we’ve taken a meaningful step in broadening that mission,” says Pareja. “The addition of NextHome creates maximum optionality across our platform.

“This multi-model approach serves the full spectrum of real estate entrepreneurs on a single, unified global platform that empowers every agent to grow their business on their own terms.”

Chief Financial Officer Jesse Hill said the company’s profitability improvements were driven in part by streamlining efforts initiated in 2025.

“More recently, we executed the strategic NextHome acquisition using cash on hand and zero debt,” he said. “Moving forward, we remain committed to maintaining our financial discipline, with an acute focus on continued operational efficiency and cost management.”

NextHome acquisition expands options

The acquisition of NextHome marks a significant strategic shift for eXp, which built its brand around a cloud-based brokerage model.

The addition of a franchise platform gives the company access to brokerages and agents that may not have previously aligned with eXp’s structure, leaders said.

NextHome has more than 500 franchisees across the United States and will continue operating its franchise brand within the eXp ecosystem.

During the earnings call, Pareja described the acquisition as a way to broaden the company’s appeal to independent brokerages, franchise operators and larger office structures looking for alternatives in a changing industry landscape.

“We have over 87,000 agents,” Pareja said. “We hope to attract more top tier franchisees, as many of them woke up in the last 12 months owned by a new entity that may not be reflective of their views on the industry when it comes to consumers and transparency. Previously, we missed out on attracting indies and entire offices suited for the franchise model, but now we can welcome them.”

He said eXp already sees momentum from brokers exploring alternatives to traditional franchise systems — pointing to the addition of a California broker operating in California’s Gold Coast region.

Hill said the franchise structure also provides a different financial profile from eXp’s traditional brokerage operations.

“Franchise offers very predictable, recurring revenue over the multi-year terms and the contracts,” he said. “Then, they typically have higher gross margins, as well, especially NextHome. (It’s a) very asset light, very aligned to the eXp model, even though we’re slightly different in the offering between franchise and brokerage.”

Building a ‘multi-model’ platform

eXp World Holdings founder and CEO Glenn Sanford framed the acquisition as part of a broader effort to position eXp as a diversified operating platform for agents and brokers.

“With the acquisition of NextHome, eXp World Holdings has evolved into a borderless, multi-model leader,” Sanford said. “This strategic move, punctuated by our new ticker ‘AGNT,’ reflects our position as a forward-thinking operating platform built to power the modern agent. By integrating a best-in-class franchise vehicle into our technology-driven ecosystem, we are providing the infrastructure for agent entrepreneurs to scale without the traditional friction of brick-and-mortar overhead.”

Sanford added that the acquisition strengthens the company’s long-term resilience by diversifying the types of businesses and agents it can support.

“This evolution makes our entire network more valuable for everyone, creating a more durable organization designed to thrive throughout any market cycle,” he said.

Executives repeatedly emphasized the idea of “optionality” during the call — arguing that the addition of a franchise model allows eXp to serve agents ranging from solo producers to teams, independent brokerages and franchise operators.

Pareja said the company deliberately targeted a growing franchise organization rather than a legacy brand experiencing contraction.

“We specifically went for a young, growing, well recognized, highly rated franchise system,” Pareja said. “I see this opportunity where these companies that are legacy players, that are now owned by new ownership, are seeing contraction, and that created a massive opportunity for us.”

Focus on productivity and retention

Executives also highlighted continued gains in agent productivity and retention among top-performing agents.

According to the company, agents on teams are 78% more productive than individual agents — while 41% of new agents joining eXp during the quarter were affiliated with teams.

Pareja said retention remains strongest among high-producing agents.

“We continue to see high retention rates among the most productive agents, with attrition in the low- to mid-single digits with agents with over eight transactions a year,” he said. “For agents with transactions over eight transactions per year, the more productive an agent is, the less likely they are to leave.

“Of the nonproductive agents that left eXp in the first quarter, 66% of them left the industry altogether.”

The company projected second-quarter revenue between $1.36 billion and $1.45 billion and reaffirmed its full-year outlook of $4.85 billion to $5.15 billion in revenue.

Executives acknowledged continued macroeconomic uncertainty but said company plans remain focused on disciplined growth, technology investments and multi-model recruiting opportunities.

“The more that we can expose agents to how to think better and how to operate better, it just raises, for lack of a better term, the consciousness of the entire organization,” said Sanford. “[It does that] in a way where we’re again more aligned, more connected [and have a] shared vocabulary and shared ways of doing things that just kind of reinforce themselves.

“For me, I always think about the fact that eXp, really, has been historically a personal development company that just happens to sell real estate.”

This post was originally published on here. 

As part of HousingWire’s Editor’s Choice awards spotlight series, we’re spotlighting past Women of Influence honorees whose careers, leadership and insights continue to influence the industry. This series offers a closer look at the experiences and decisions that have shaped their paths.

In this feature, Kim Hoffman, CMB, AMP, President of Mortgage Connect Risk Solutions, reflects on the experiences that shaped her leadership journey, her perspective on AI and the lessons she hopes the next generation of women in housing will carry forward.

Hoffman was recognized as a 2019 and 2024 Women of Influence honoree and was also named a 2025 Vanguard winner for her leadership and impact across the mortgage industry.

Women of Influence recognizes the leaders making a meaningful impact across mortgage, real estate and homebuilding. Nominations for the 2026 Women of Influence awards are open now through May 31.

HousingWire: What’s one decision that changed the trajectory of your career?

Kim Hoffman: Shortly out of college I was working for a division of Chrysler when I was nominated and accepted to their formal credit program. I lived in Houston and the program was in Florida. I was so scared, but I knew this 18-month program would dramatically change my life, so I packed my car, hugged my mom like it was the last time I’d see her and drove through my tears for two days and started the program. It was the hardest thing I had done to that point, and WOW was it worth it. This taught me the hard things pay off the biggest, fear is your head and you can do anything you set your mind to. This experience taught me my limitations were self-imposed and risks are experiences that open the world to you!

HousingWire: Looking back, what experiences most prepared you for the leadership role you’re in today?

Kim Hoffman: I’ve been doing this for 40 yrs and happily say even the rough experiences were lessons worth learning!

Once I learned we are each the CEO of our careers, and I didn’t leave my career to chance. I took the big risks, I knew I’d figure it out and did, I learned from one of leaders that you’re never fully prepared for next role, you lean it and learn it. If you wait until you’re fully ready, its too late! Go for it! The more challenging the role the more exciting and interesting they were. It may have a meant a transfer or company change, but this never scared me, the lack of challenge and growth scares me. I’m ridiculously curious and always learning. I believe what got me here won’t get me there and thus continuously pursued the knowledge to keep moving forward.

Effort doesn’t pay the bills and doesn’t create value, results do. These two pillars are my anchors.

HousingWire: What are you most focused on right now in response to broader industry shifts?

Kim Hoffman: I am completely enamored [with AI]. Having hired up and reduced according to cycles, I think we have a real chance to flatten the ups and downs. I also believe the borrower and employee experience will be dramatically improved with the adoption and deployment of AI. I just completed an AI program at Kellogg Business School, and my organization has begun our AI journey. I find this to be the most exciting time in the mortgage industry! Of course, we have be thoughtful and responsible as we venture forward but I see a very different and improved future for our industry.

HousingWire: What advice would you give to the next generation of women working toward senior leadership roles in housing?

Kim Hoffman: Be Fearless! The mortgage industry is limitless for us! We get to help people become homeowners, grow wealth, and create communities. This is an amazing industry and mission and during this journey we get to grow beyond our wildest dreams. My favorite quote by Thoreau sits on my desk, ‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams and live the life you’ve imagined,’ and the mortgage industry gave me the life I imagined!

Click here to nominate a 2026 Woman of Influence.

This post was originally published on here. 

Mat Ishbia’s plan to expand the public float and trading liquidity of UWM Holdings Corporation has come to an end as the company pursues its acquisition of Two Harbors Investment Corp., a deal designed in part to address long-standing investor concerns about the company’s tightly held share base.

The share sale program, implemented in 2025 in response to investor feedback, helped increase UWMC’s average daily trading volume to more than 16 million shares and expanded the company’s public float by more than 135 million shares since June 2025, according to a company statement.

The sales were conducted under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan by SFS Holdings Corp., the entity controlled by Ishbia. SFS remains the company’s largest shareholder, holding about 1.3 billion shares outstanding.

According to SEC filings, SFS’s ownership stake declined from roughly 90% at the end of 2024 to about 83% at the end of 2025. A registration statement tied to the 10b5-1 plan allowed SFS to resell up to 150 million shares of UWMC Class A common stock.

In a statement, the company said SFS “believes it has done its part as the controlling shareholder to respond to the requests of the investment community by selling shares without regard to the stock price since June 2025.”

UWMC shares were trading at $3.26 on Monday morning, down 3.4%. SFS terminated the plan effective Friday, the first day of UWM’s open trading window since December 2025.

The company, which went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in 2021, faced pressure from investors to broaden its shareholder base and improve stock liquidity.

Increasing a company’s public float typically attracts more institutional investors and improves trading dynamics, which can lower the cost of capital and increase flexibility for future transactions.

The decision to halt the structured share-sale program comes weeks after UWM’s unsuccessful all-stock bid for Two Harbors, which was also intended to improve UWMC’s float.

Pro forma estimates indicated the transaction could have increased UWMC’s public float to roughly 500 million shares, up from about 268 million at the end of 2025. The acquisition also would have nearly doubled UWM’s mortgage servicing rights portfolio by adding approximately $176 billion in unpaid principal balance, bringing the total close to $400 billion.

With UWMC shares under pressure, UWM later revised its proposal to include a cash component valued at $12.50 per share –while preserving the option for holders to elect 2.3328 UWMC shares per Two Harbors share. Rival CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM) currently has a competing bid valued at $12 per share.

The shareholder vote is scheduled for May 19th.

This post was originally published on here. 

Blackstone announced on Monday that Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (BREDS) launched a lending platform aimed at providing more capital and flexibility to U.S. homebuilders, with a stated goal of enabling the construction of more than 50,000 for-sale homes annually.

The platform, supported by BREDS portfolio company Brio Homebuilder Solutions and other third-party partnerships, targets a key pain point for builders: access to consistent, scaled capital in a market constrained by higher rates, tighter bank lending and persistent supply shortages.

Blackstone’s announcement comes as the U.S. faces a structural housing deficit. According to the announcement, fewer homes are being built today than in 1960, even though the nation’s population has nearly doubled in that time. Builders have increasingly turned to nonbank capital providers as regional banks retrench and construction and development loans become harder to source and more expensive.

“America needs more homes, and we are proud to be part of the solution,” Tim Johnson, global head of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, said in the announcement. “Our homebuilder lending platform will help deliver thousands of new homes across the United States, directly addressing the critical housing supply gap in communities where people want to live.”

The homebuilder lending initiative builds on Blackstone Real Estate’s broader exposure to U.S. housing. Its portfolio company, Tricon Residential, has developed or is developing roughly 64,000 single-family homes and home sites. 

April Housing, another Blackstone Real Estate portfolio company focused on affordable housing, is on track to become the largest preserver of affordable housing in 2026, according to the announcement. April and Blackstone have already preserved the affordability of more than 3,000 apartments and invested over $300 million in community upgrades through a resyndication program.

Why this matters for homebuilders

For homebuilders, the new platform signals another large-scale entrant into the construction and development finance market, at a time when pipeline decisions often hinge on capital availability as much as demand. Institutional lenders like Blackstone can offer multi-year, programmatic relationships that may be attractive to operators looking to build at volume or expand into new markets.

As traditional bank construction financing remains constrained, large-scale debt platforms such as BREDS are positioned to fill part of the funding gap for a for-sale product. For private and regional builders, understanding the underwriting standards, hold periods and partnership structures of new institutional lenders like Blackstone will be critical when planning lot acquisitions, starts and multi-year community pipelines.

This post was originally published on here. 

loanDepot has filed a $250 million shelf registration statement, giving the company flexibility to issue a range of securities over time to raise capital, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday.

The announcement came days after the Irvine, California-based mortgage lender reported a net loss of $54.9 million in the first quarter, compared to a loss of $32.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2025.

According to the company, the net proceeds may be used for “general corporate purposes,” including debt repayment, acquisitions, working capital, capital expenditures and investments in subsidiaries.

The filing is a shelf registration, meaning the company can sell securities on a continuous or delayed basis without submitting a new registration for each offering. The registration covers Class A common stock, preferred stock, debt securities (senior or subordinated), warrants, depositary shares, purchase contracts and units.

A significant shift in the company’s stock structure occurred in February — the five-year anniversary of its initial public offering — when Class C and Class D super-voting shares, which carried five votes per share, automatically converted into Class B and Class A shares, respectively. The conversion effectively eliminated the company’s dual-class super-voting structure.

As of early May, loanDepot had 231,707,950 shares of Class A common stock outstanding and 106,115,949 shares of Class B common stock outstanding.

In the filing, the company said a small group of large stockholders continues to control the company, which could create conflicts with the interests of minority shareholders. loanDepot shares were trading at $1.34 on Monday morning, down 4.3% from the previous close.

loanDepot, the fifth-largest retail-focused nonbank mortgage originator and the ninth-largest overall retail originator in 2025, originated $7.7 billion in loans during the quarter, down 5% from the prior quarter.

During the company’s earnings call, founder and CEO Anthony Hsieh said loanDepot continued to benefit from investments in growth and efficiency initiatives despite a “volatile market environment.”

loanDepot reentered the wholesale channel in early 2026 after exiting the business in 2022. The company also recently announced a partnership with Figure Technology Solutions that is expected to lower production costs, improve the customer experience and accelerate loan closings.

Flávia Furlan Nunes reported and wrote this article with drafting assistance from HousingWire Automation, an editorial tool that helps transform announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Zillow and Redfin’s legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and attorneys general from Virginia, Arizona, New York, Connecticut and Washington will continue. 

Last Thursday, a Virginia-based U.S. District Court judge denied a motion to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit the two online listing portals filed in mid-January. 

Originally filed as two separate lawsuits in late September 2025 before being consolidated in late November, the lawsuit claims that the multifamily rental syndication deal executed by Zillow and Redfin in early 2025 was tantamount to Zillow simply paying Redfin $100 million in exchange for it no longer competing in the multifamily rental listing space. 

This ruling comes after the parties held a hearing regarding the motion back in late February. 

In their motion to dismiss, the defendants argued that since the case involved a two-sided advertising platform, the plaintiffs’ have filed to properly allege a market encompassing both sides and that their geographic market definition is not correct as housing markets are local. Zillow and Redfin also argued that the plaintiffs failed to allege that the two firms have “sufficient market power to harm competition.”

In his order, the judge recognized that while online listing platforms do involve a two-sided marketplaces, he finds that the “pro-competitive justification for anti-competitive conduct relied on by defendants” only applies to two-sided platforms where the owner of the platform owner must simultaneously make sales to both sides of the platform, which is not the case with an internet listing service. Regarding the alleged anti-competitive impact of the agreement, the judge wrote that “given the fact-intensive nature of these claims, much of which involve factual assertions and considerations outside of the Complaint itself,” the plaintiffs have alleged facts that make their antitrust claims plausible. 

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Redfin wrote that the firm “strongly disagrees” with the FTC’s allegations.

“Redfin remains confident we will be vindicated by a court of law. Our partnership with Zillow has given Redfin.com visitors access to more rental listings and our advertising customers access to more renters,” the spokesperson wrote. “By the end of 2024, it was clear that the existing number of Redfin advertising customers couldn’t justify the cost of maintaining our rentals sales force. Partnering with Zillow cut those costs and enabled us to invest more in rental-search innovations on Redfin.com, directly benefiting apartment seekers.”

Zillow did not immediately return HousingWire’s request for comment. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Ellington Financial Inc. reported first-quarter net income attributable to common stockholders of $95.5 million, or 78 cents per share, as strong reverse mortgage origination volumes and securitization activity boosted results.

The Old Greenwich, Connecticut-based mortgage REIT said adjusted distributable earnings totaled $66.5 million, or 55 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31. Book value per common share rose to $13.56 from $13.16 at the end of 2025.

CEO Laurence Penn said the company generated “excellent results even as market volatility rose,” citing broad-based contributions across its investment portfolio and its reverse mortgage business, Longbridge Financial.

Penn said on the company’s earnings call that the quarter reflected “strong performance across our diversified portfolio,” despite rising volatility and widening credit spreads in March.

“Ellington Financial delivered an exceptionally strong first quarter in terms of both GAAP net income and adjusted distributable earnings, even in the face of rising market volatility and widening credit spreads,” he said.

Penn added that adjusted distributable earnings “widely exceeded” the company’s dividend, with ADE reaching 55 cents per share during the quarter.

Longbridge posted net income of $57.5 million during the quarter, up sharply from $16.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. Longbridge originated $515.4 million in new reverse mortgage loans during the quarter, a 52% increase from the same period a year earlier.

Penn described Longbridge’s performance as “an absolutely standout quarter,” citing near-record proprietary reverse mortgage origination volumes, market share gains in HECM originations and strong gain-on-sale margins.

“Net income at our Longbridge segment not only set a quarterly record, but it actually surpassed its 2025 full-year net income by a wide margin,” Penn said.

The company said Longbridge also benefited from gains tied to a proprietary reverse mortgage securitization, servicing income and a $17 million litigation settlement payment.

CFO J.R. Herlihy said during the call that Longbridge’s outsized contribution prompted the company to raise its quarterly guidance for adjusted distributable earnings to “the 45-cent-per-share area,” still above the company’s dividend run rate.

Ellington participated in seven securitization transactions totaling more than $2.8 billion during the quarter, compared with $1.1 billion across four transactions in the first quarter of 2025, Penn said.

“These higher volumes are facilitating larger deal sizes,” Penn said, noting that average non-QM securitization size nearly doubled year over year.

Co-Chief Investment Officer Mark Tecotzky said the company’s securitization scale has improved liquidity and reduced reliance on short-term repo financing.

“By replacing short-term repo financing with match-funded non-mark-to-market debt issued through our securitizations, we have gone a long way toward better insulating our portfolios from market shocks,” Tecotzky said.

Ellington’s adjusted long credit portfolio increased 4% from the prior quarter to $4.27 billion as purchases of non-QM loans, agency-eligible loans and residential transition loans offset loans sold into securitizations.

The company reported total equity of about $1.96 billion as of March 31, up from $1.87 billion at the end of 2025. Its recourse debt-to-equity ratio remained at 1.9-to-1, while overall debt-to-equity stood at 9.0-to-1.

Penn said the company also continued to strengthen its balance sheet during the quarter by raising $117 million in common equity and redeeming higher-cost preferred stock.

“Our goal is to create a virtuous cycle, where issuing long-term unsecured debt and using some of the proceeds to replace short-term debt improves our credit ratings and thereby makes additional unsecured debt issuances even more attractive and lowers our overall funding costs,” Penn said.

This post was originally published on here. 

Dream Finders Homes’ now-public pursuit of Beazer Homes – after two previously rejected private offers – is a headline-grabbing hostile bid.

It is also the clearest signal yet that the next phase of U.S. homebuilding consolidation is accelerating into a more furious and motivated battle over scale, operating leverage, land strategy and local market dominance, as the industry’s near-term selling environment has rarely looked more taut, uncertain, and margin-sensitive.

This morning, Dream Finders went big and loud with an unsolicited all-cash proposal to acquire Beazer Homes for $25.75 per share, valuing the transaction at approximately $704 million, a roughly 40% premium over Beazer’s prior closing price.

BZH (BZH) stock price jumped over 22% to $23 on Monday during pre-market trade; DFH (DFH) also rose ~4%., as the announcement hit the wires.

What the announcement means eclipses the latest offer price and even the final outcome between the would-be acquirer and the reluctant acquisition target.

Beazer in play

Dream Finders’ decision to make the offer public – complete with a dedicated transaction microsite, SEC filings, and financing support disclosures – officially puts Beazer “in play” and transforms what had been a private courtship into a public pressure campaign aimed simultaneously at Beazer shareholders, Wall Street, land and capital partners and the broader homebuilding M&A marketplace.

 “As a top 10 shareholder, we are concerned that if Beazer continues to operate on a standalone basis, the company will further erode shareholder value by executing a suboptimal operating and capital allocation strategy, an inefficient cost structure due to limited scale, and incurring excessive build costs, driven by an unsuccessful product strategy,” Dream Finders founder and CEO Patrick Zalupski said in a provided statement, zeroing in on the urgency of scale in the current business and housing market environment. 

Hyperscale – particularly at a deep local operational scale – may increasingly determine which homebuilders can sustainably outperform amid a prolonged cycle of affordability stress, slower absorption rates, elevated incentives and structurally higher operating costs.

It means boxing out rivals of all sizes and capital structures for a bigger slice of an at-least temporarily shrinking pie.

Dream Finders’ growth arc

Dream Finders has spent the past several years since its 2021 IPO adding puzzle pieces precisely for this moment.

The company’s growth model has consistently centered on an asset-light, land-light, lower-leverage operating philosophy, combined with an aggressive sales culture, rapid market-entry expansion and eight opportunistic acquisitions. Its acquisition of Liberty Communities last year underscored a strategy focused on strengthening local market density and operating efficiency rather than simply adding geographic dots on a map.

Beazer, meanwhile, offers strategic value in today’s environment: established positions in 17 metros across attractive Southeast, Midwest/Central, Northeast, and Southwest/West markets; public-company scale; community count; operational infrastructure; and a platform large enough to materially improve Dream Finders’ national standing.

Whether or not DFH ultimately succeeds, its willingness to pursue a top-25 public peer in an openly hostile manner marks a lightning-rod moment in the evolution of homebuilding consolidation. This goes beyond an opportunistic tuck-in acquisition and more into the realm of an emerging arms race for operational heft.

The SEC materials released Monday add another important dimension to the story: persistence and confidence.

According to the filings, Dream Finders previously made two higher-priced acquisition proposals that were rejected before taking its bid public. The disclosures also attempt to preemptively neutralize any concern around financing certainty – traditionally one of the strongest defenses against unsolicited offers.

Dream Finders stated that Kennedy Lewis Investment Management has provided a “highly confident” letter tied to land-bank financing associated with the transaction, while Goldman Sachs and BofA Securities each provided letters expressing high confidence that acquisition financing can be arranged in capital markets.

Materials also note that Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, BofA Securities, Zelman & Associates and Vestra Advisors are acting as financial advisors to Dream Finders, Foley & Lardner is acting as legal counsel and Edelman Smithfield is acting as strategic communications advisor.

That financing structure itself is telling.

It reflects how deeply intertwined today’s homebuilding consolidation environment has become with institutional capital providers, land-banking platforms, private credit markets, and alternative asset managers. These days, homebuilding M&A is no longer simply a story about builders buying builders. Increasingly, it is a story about ecosystem-level capital deployment and infrastructure capabilities.

The M&A moment

Let’s take a moment to unpack this broader context.

For much of the past 18 months, Japan-based housing conglomerates have dominated headlines around U.S. homebuilding consolidation. Sekisui House acquired MDC Holdings. Sumitomo Forestry acquired Tri Pointe Homes. Daiwa House Group has continued to expand through U.S. platforms and acquisitions, closing last week on its purchase of United Homes Group.

Those transactions reflect global capital’s conviction that the long-term U.S. housing undersupply remains a compelling investment thesis – especially in light of their own domestic housing market stagnation – despite near-term operational volatility.

But Dream Finders’ move underscores that the pool of aggressive acquirers remains wide and deep.

Public-company peers are now openly hunting scale. Large private regional builders continue seeking expansion opportunities. Institutional investors and global asset managers  – including firms such as Apollo Global Management and JPMorgan Chase – are increasingly intertwined with land finance, capital formation, and operating partnerships across housing production.

The competitive map is fluid, and the urgency behind consolidation motivations on both the buy- and sell-side may be reaching new highs.

Today’s market conditions help explain the itch to grab more share now.

Homebuilders face a business environment in which a slower sales pace, elevated incentives, affordability pressures, insurance costs, tariffs, labor constraints and consumer hesitation are compressing operating visibility. In that environment, scale increasingly creates advantages that smaller or thinner operators struggle to replicate.

Bigger builders can spread overhead more efficiently. They can negotiate more aggressively with suppliers and trade partners. They can allocate capital across markets more dynamically. They can maintain absorption pace through flexible incentives. They can secure better financing terms. They can invest more deeply in technology, AI-driven operations and customer acquisition systems.

Most importantly, they can build deeper local market share density – a critical advantage in an environment where operational efficiency increasingly depends on concentrated scale rather than on sprawling geographic fragmentation.

Balance of power shift

That may be the signal strategic implication of Dream Finders’ pursuit of Beazer. The future competitive battleground in homebuilding may not simply belong to the homebuilders with the most lots or the largest balance sheets. It may belong to operators capable of achieving dominant local execution density inside the markets that matter most. Land light and land right.

Dream Finders appears willing to make an aggressive bet. Now the question shifts to Beazer’s board, shareholders and perhaps other potential suitors.

Once a public builder is formally put into play, the strategic implications rarely remain isolated to a single transaction. Rather, the flashpoint tends to ripple across boardrooms, capital providers, land sellers, and executive leadership teams throughout the industry.

And in today’s environment, where, at least on the surface and for the moment, the homebuilding market is over-capacitized with overhead-guzzling organizations, those ripples may just be getting started.

This post was originally published on here. 

UWM Holdings Corp. (UWM) raised its unsolicited offer to acquire Two Harbors Investment Corp. on Monday, proposing $12.50 per share in cash or 2.3328 shares of UWMC stock as it seeks to derail a pending merger with CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM).

In an open letter to Two Harbors stockholders, UWM said it will submit a revised proposal to the Two Harbors board that increases the cash component from $12 to $12.50 per share, with no cap or proration. Investors could alternatively choose stock consideration at a fixed exchange ratio of 2.3328 UWMC shares per Two Harbors share. The competing CCM agreement values Two Harbors at $12 per share, all cash.

In its letter, UWM said it previously proposed cash elections of $11.30, $12 and now $12.50 per share, while maintaining a stock option, without meaningful response from Two Harbors’ directors.

UWM also argued that its deal structure reduces and defers some management compensation at Two Harbors, which it says allows more value to flow to stockholders. By contrast, UWM said, the CCM deal structure would trigger roughly $35 million of immediate cash payouts to Two Harbors management at closing.

“The board has a duty to maximize value for stockholders, not to choose a path that puts more in the pockets of management,” UWM wrote in the letter.

Pontiac, Michigan-based UWM has made fiduciary duty a central theme, arguing that the Two Harbors board should run a process that surfaces the highest available price rather than preserving the CCM deal. Two Harbors’ board has previously said UWM’s proposals were not reasonably likely to lead to a superior transaction under its merger agreement with CCM, according to UWM.

Two Harbors, a New York-based mortgage REIT that invests primarily in agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and mortgage servicing rights, is scheduled to hold a special stockholder meeting on May 19, 2026, to vote on the CCM transaction. UWM is soliciting proxies to oppose that deal and push the board to negotiate with them instead.

UWM said it could close a transaction about two months after signing, citing its national regulatory relationships and active mortgage licenses in all 50 states.

CCM and Two Harbors said the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust review has been completed on their deal, and all required state mortgage licensing filings have been submitted, with 35 of 53 approvals obtained. The companies expect the transaction to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Two Harbors stockholders.

The negotiations with CrossCountry Intermediate Holdco, an affiliate of CCM, include $3.4 billion of committed financing: a $2 billion secured facility and a $1.4 billion unsecured commitment from Citi. UWM said it’s supported by a committed, unsecured $1.3 billion bridge facility from Mizuho Bank Ltd.

This post was originally published on here. 

Real estate firm Huntington & Ellis has launched Smart by h&e, a proprietary artificial intelligence platform built in-house to support agents across every stage of a real estate transaction, the company announced on Friday.

The tool is trained on the brokerage’s internal standards, Nevada-specific practices and compliance workflows. It is designed to help agents simplify contract language for clients, draft professional offer and negotiation communications, manage transaction timelines and generate marketing content such as listing descriptions, open house promotions and social media posts.

Craig Tann, CEO of Huntington & Ellis, said the brokerage developed the platform to address the operational strain that comes with higher production and more complex deals.

“We built this out of necessity, not trend,” Tann said in a statement. “As our agents grew their production, we saw too many moving parts in transactions, inconsistent communication quality and time being lost to repetitive administrative work. The real question we set out to answer was: how do we make every agent operate like a top 1% agent, consistently, efficiently, and safely?”

Smart by h&e functions as a real-time assistant tailored to how agents work in the field, according to the company.

Since rollout, adoption across the firm has been rapid, the company said. Early internal feedback suggests the tool is most heavily used as a “sounding board” for contract and negotiation language.

“Agents are telling us it feels like having broker-level support available on demand,” Tann said. “That clarity and confidence translate directly into stronger communication, smarter decisions and better outcomes for clients.”

Huntington & Ellis positions Smart by h&e as the foundation of a broader technology strategy focused on trimming friction from “lead to close” while preserving a high-touch service model.

“Technology will never replace the agent, it enhances the agent,” Tann said. “Our long-term vision is to build systems that strengthen decision-making, improve efficiency and allow our agents to deliver an even higher level of service at scale. Smart is not about AI alone. It represents a broader commitment to raising the standard of what it means to be an agent with us.”

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty has acquired Madden Group, a New Hampshire brokerage serving the Seacoast region and nearby markets, and opened an office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The Portsmouth office is Gibson Sotheby’s first outside Massachusetts.

Jennifer Madden, former principal owner and managing broker of Madden Group, will join Gibson Sotheby’s as vice president for New Hampshire.

Madden Group serves also serves clients in Massachusetts and southern Maine. Its short-term vacation rental division, Rising Tide Rentals, will continue operating under its current name.

“Jenn has built a brokerage that reflects many of the values we’ve prioritized as we’ve grown: a boutique culture, close collaboration, and a deep commitment to the communities it serves,” said Larry Rideout, chairman and founder of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty.

“This builds on a business already active in New Hampshire, where our agents have long served clients from Newburyport and across coastal New England, and Jenn’s team is an exceptional cultural fit.”

The acquisition expands Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty’s presence in northern New England as the company continues operations in coastal Massachusetts and nearby markets.

“In an industry that has experienced significant change in recent years, our continued growth reflects the stability of our company and the strength of the advisors who choose to build their businesses here,” said Colleen Barry, CEO of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty.

“We’re excited to support Jenn and her team through the Sotheby’s International Realty network, connecting their clients to buyers and sellers around the world.”

Madden said the acquisition will allow her team to maintain its regional focus while gaining access to broader resources.

“Since 2010, we’ve built our business on trust, local expertise, and strong relationships across the Seacoast region,” she said. “Joining Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty allows us to pair that foundation with the support and global reach of the Sotheby’s International Realty brand, elevating what we can offer our clients while continuing to serve the communities we know best.”

Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty reported $4 billion in 2025 sales volume.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

For reverse mortgage lenders, the secondary market is a complex balancing act of liquidity, interest rates and government regulations.

The industry continues to grapple with challenges stemming from the Ginnie Mae HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (HMBS) program’s 98% buyout requirement, a rule some say contributed to the 2022 bankruptcy of Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF). With the highly anticipated HMBS 2.0 program currently stalled, lenders are increasingly relying on private-label securitizations to fund these mandatory buyouts, manage balance-sheet stress and launch proprietary products.  

“The demand for private-label proprietary securitizations is growing, and is as strong as it is for the asset-backed security sector more broadly,” said Tim Wilkinson, vice president of capital markets at Longbridge Financial. 

In an exclusive interview with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily, Wilkinson said that while positive, a reliance on private securitization leaves the market vulnerable to sudden shifts in investor appetite.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Flávia Furlan Nunes: The HMBS program requires issuers to repurchase aging reverse mortgages from securitizations. What is the rationale behind this buyout rule?

Tim Wilkinson: The Ginnie Mae HMBS program has a requirement that once the loan balance hits 98% of the maximum claim amount, the issuer is required to repurchase that loan from the HMBS pool. This dates back to when the program was first launched in the 1980s, so that it would be the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) who was likely managing the servicing of these loans at the period of time when there was most likely to be a maturity event, particularly related to borrower death.

My thought would be that it would allow for the FHA-directed servicer to make judgment calls related to the best way to proceed when that loan became due and payable, to ultimately balance the needs of the borrower and the heirs with the economics of what happened to that property. That has just been carried through.

Nunes: Do you believe this is one of the main reasons for financing and balance-sheet stress among reverse mortgage lenders?

Wilkinson: The issue, obviously, depends on when that loan is originated and at what point it will hit the 98%. Given that a lot of times the prevailing product is a floating-rate product, interest rates will dictate the period of time at which that 98% threshold will be reached.

Particularly for RMF — which bought quite a few seasoned loans from various places and resecuritized them, or took over the issuer status on those — they had a disproportionately large number of these loans relative to their servicing book at large.

But the issue was compounded by, in theory, all active loans are accepted by FHA on assignment under a claim type. But there have been problems at certain times due to various issues with FHA bandwidth, or sometimes when the FHA has moved their vendors, that has resulted in the time frame for a loan to be accepted for assignment to extend.

While roughly 9% of loans that hit the 98% are in active status, as soon as you start to have any meaningful number of assignable loans that you can’t assign in quick order, that starts to really increase the liquidity needed to fund those buyouts.

For a while, it all went well, in large part because there was a private-label market for buyout HECM deals. That market has since sort of returned. We see a number of market participants — Finance of America and Onity Mortgage in particular — making use of the ability to put primarily non-assignable loans into a securitization structure that the market receives quite well.

In 2022, there just wasn’t the investor demand. It was not viable to issue those securitizations. The economics just didn’t pencil out. That perfect storm is ultimately what led to RMF’s demise. It had been a noted issue in the industry well before that.

Nunes: One of the attempts to change this reality was the HMBS 2.0 program. What is the status of this program?

Wilkinson: The industry and the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) have proposed a variety of options to address that liquidity need. Most recently, the one that had gotten a lot of traction was previously referred to as HMBS 2.0, which would allow for these bought-out loans to be put into a new Ginnie Mae securitization, very similar to the existing HMBS, to provide that liquidity.

Investors essentially always have an appetite for government-guaranteed securities, so you don’t have to deal with the market dislocations having as much of an impact. And then spreads are generally much tighter and more consistent.

Ginnie Mae put out a final term sheet nearly two years ago. The expected progress has stalled on that. The latest understanding is it’s not likely that it will move forward in its current form, which leaves the industry in the situation it had faced beforehand, where it’s reliant on the shorter time frame credit facilities and warehouse banks to fund these loans. Then, longer term, once there’s a critical mass, to do private-label securitization.

The other issue with private-label is you need to cover the rating agency costs, the legal costs and the distribution from a broker-dealer community; you need to have well over $100 million of collateral before it starts to pencil out. This means that unlike the HMBS program, where you can have a handful of loans go into a single pool, particularly for the smaller issuers, there isn’t the ability to access that liquidity.  

Nunes: Is this also impeding new entrants to the market?

Wilkinson: It’s definitely something that people look at as an impediment. I would argue that it’s probably second to, or at least further down the list relative to, the true sale treatment. The majority of the large audit accounting firms are of the opinion that the HMBS structure does not satisfy the requirements of a true sale — therefore, it gets grossed up as secured financing on balance sheets. This is particularly problematic to certain potential entrants into the market like regulated banks. That issue, I know firsthand, has certainly stopped potential participants from even looking at becoming Ginnie Mae issuers themselves.

Nunes: Do you see other lenders struggling in the current landscape due to secondary market pressures as RMF did a few years ago?

Wilkinson: There’s been the ability to get either secured financing through warehouse lines or credit facilities, and the demand and the execution on the buyout deals has been strong. The issue isn’t as pressing as it was a few years ago, but it could quickly turn if market conditions, particularly on the private securitization side of things, were to worsen.

We know it has been a challenge in the relatively recent past for some people to fund those buyouts. I’m not aware of anyone at this immediate time where that’s the case.

Nunes: Will the request for information (RFI) from regulators bring any potential changes for the HMBS program?

Wilkinson: We have yet to see any formal response on that RFI from FHA or Ginnie. That may give some guidance as to what the potential next steps are in terms of HMBS 2.0 potentially being tweaked and rebranded, or alternative proposals to provide some of that liquidity for the loans toward the end of their life.

In NRMLA’s response, they looked at the program with the term sheet that was provided as final, looking at potentially making some changes to allow a larger amount of the buyout loans to be eligible for that program, reworking it slightly, and advocating for a slightly different approach. There are also other suggestions made about the potential for issuers to retain the servicing beyond that 98% assignment to FHA, which would both provide potential sources of liquidity but also help FHA with having the responsibility of dealing with those loans and managing servicing practices.

Nunes: Looking at the space for proprietary reverse mortgages, how are securitization volumes and investor spreads trending compared to the broader mortgage market?

Wilkinson: The demand for private-label proprietary securitizations is growing, and is as strong as it is for the asset-backed security sector more broadly. As there has been larger volume and more entrants into that private securitization space, the investor base has grown. 

The spreads on the various tranches have tightened well beyond what we’ve seen more broadly in the industry, in the mortgage space, which is indicative of greater acceptance and investors generally becoming more comfortable with the space. It’s still niche, but there’s a robust demand from investors. We would expect that to continue.

Nunes: How do private-label securitizations compare to the HMBS program when it comes to execution costs and overall production volume?

Wilkinson: It would always be anticipated that the Ginnie Mae HMBS program would be the lowest cost of financing or liquidity for reverse mortgages, but we’ve seen spreads tighten on both HMBS and proprietary.

There are other structural differences. HMBS allows for tail pools. Currently, there isn’t as clean of a mechanism in private securitizations to handle things the same way, which requires reserve accounts that make the private securitizations less efficient.

In Q1 2026, the size of the proprietary market eclipsed that of HECM. There isn’t clear data on proprietary volumes. Not all issuers of private-label deals make them public; it’s a little more opaque. It’s important to note that the average proprietary loan is three to four times the size of a HECM loan. If you look at it by loan count, you’re still seeing HECM and HMBS represent the majority of production.

Nunes: Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, do you expect to see overall growth across the private-label and HMBS markets?

Wilkinson: We will definitely see growth relative to 2025. For some of the largest issuers on the private-label side, the details of their securitizations aren’t readily available, but looking at the other active issuers in the private-label space, we’ve seen Mutual of Omaha as a new entrant at the end of last year and the beginning of this year.

We saw in the first couple of months of 2026 that the HMBS issuance volume for new loans was very low. With the April issuance, which will reflect March volumes, we’ll see an uptick from that low level. With HECM, because of the direct mechanism where the 10-year Treasury rate dictates the principal limit factor — which is not as direct on the proprietary side — you definitely see HECM volumes ebb and flow depending on where interest rates are.

If we were to see a material rally in the 10-year Treasury, sending it down below a 4% yield, we’d see an increase in HECM volume. If there was a continued rally, you would start to see HECM retake the majority of the market.

A pretty good mix between the HECM program and private-label is welcome. It allows the market to adapt to changing macro circumstances and also potential policy changes from D.C. We anticipate that in 2026, we’ll probably see growth and innovation on both the existing suite of proprietary reverse mortgages and products that are designed to serve older Americans but don’t necessarily fall into the reverse mortgage box.

The HECM and HMBS market is essential to the industry, but I do not anticipate it to grow in any meaningful way unless there are either significant policy changes or we see a vastly different rate environment.

This post was originally published on here. 

When I started in the security technology industry two decades ago, we were selling VCRs with tape-based recording systems that lasted less than a week before you had to swap out the cassette and write on it with a marker. That was only 23 years ago. The transformation from where I started to now is nothing short of incredible. For residential builders, understanding where this technology is headed is a competitive necessity.

The top three trends I’m seeing reshape the builder technology landscape in surveillance and smart security are real-time monitoring, integrated systems, and smart access control. Take a look as I dive deeper into each.

Real-time monitoring as a standard feature

The era of purely reactive security is over, 28% of consumers currently utilize AI for person or package detection. Traditional systems were expensive, inaccessible to most homeowners, and designed to do one thing: record footage no one ever watched unless something went wrong. Today’s systems function more like a personal assistant than a surveillance tool.

Modern security alerts homeowners when a package is delivered, notifies them when someone enters the driveway, and flags unusual activity in real time, all via mobile device. This shift from reactive recording to proactive intelligence is no longer a luxury feature. Builders are now incorporating real-time monitoring capabilities into homes at virtually every price point. In a market where even entry-level buyers expect connectivity, smart security has become table stakes.

The backbone of this shift is the Internet of Things (IoT). Just as smart thermostats, connected light switches, and wireless cable boxes have become standard in new construction, security systems must now intercommunicate with every other digital device in the home. A system that operates in isolation simply isn’t competitive anymore.

Integrated smart home systems with behavioral analytics

Smart home technology has undergone its own dramatic evolution. Recent surveys indicate that two-thirds of homeowners say they want a connected home. 

Not long ago, a fully integrated system required tens of thousands of dollars in hardware plus weeks of on-site programming by a specialist,  just to automate lights, thermostats, and entertainment systems. Today, those same capabilities come pre-installed in homes well below the million-dollar mark, and homeowners can configure them through intuitive apps with minimal technical knowledge.

What makes the latest generation of integrated systems genuinely exciting is behavioral analytics, or the ability for your security and automation systems to understand occupancy patterns and adapt accordingly.

Here’s a practical example: a camera detects a homeowner pulling into the driveway. The system recognizes that no exterior lights are on, no one is home, and the arrival is imminent. In response, it turns on the exterior lights, adjusts the thermostat to the homeowner’s preferred temperature, and opens the garage door,  all before the driver steps out of the car. In reverse, the system detects that no one is home and automatically powers down lights, climate systems, and other running appliances. It’s not just convenience, it’s meaningful energy efficiency.

Builders adding integrated systems to new construction aren’t just selling a home, they’re selling an experience.

Smart access control: The end of the physical key

Smart locks are one of the fastest-growing categories within the builder segment, and for good reason – 74% of home buyers want smart doorbells in their homes. Biometric locks, those using fingerprint readers or facial recognition, are replacing traditional keys entirely. For families, this means children never have to remember a key, and for homeowners with service providers coming and going, it means a fundamentally new approach to access management.

Consider the practical implications: when a housekeeper, dog walker, or contractor no longer needs a physical key, the security calculus changes completely. Access can be granted or revoked instantly from an app. Time-limited codes can be issued for specific windows and deleted the moment they’re no longer needed. There’s no rekeying, no worry about copies being made, and no cost involved beyond a few taps on a smartphone.

This functionality has also made smart locks particularly valuable for homeowners who rent their properties short-term. The ability to issue unique, time-stamped access codes to guests and revoke them automatically at checkout, is a practical advantage that’s driving adoption well beyond the luxury segment.

The takeaway for builders

What ties all three of these trends together is accessibility. Technologies that once required significant capital investment and technical expertise are now deployable in homes across virtually every price tier. Builders who integrate smart security, home automation, and smart access control into their standard offerings are responding to real buyer demand and differentiating themselves in an increasingly competitive market.

The shift from VCR to mobile-first, AI-assisted security didn’t happen overnight. But looking at where the industry stands today versus where it was even a decade ago, the pace of change is accelerating. For builders, the question is no longer whether to incorporate these technologies, it’s how quickly they can make them a seamless part of every home they deliver.

Matt Sailor is the CEO of smart surveillance platform IC Realtime.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com.

This post was originally published on here. 

The administration has proposed cutting the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) from $324 million to $119.5 million in fiscal 2027, a 63% reduction from the level Congress enacted for 2026. The justification centers on waste, fraud and abuse, along with a push to redirect capital toward rural communities. That framing misses the point.

If the goal is accountability, then enforce it. If the goal is efficiency, then measure it. Cutting the program at this scale does neither. It reduces capacity without fixing the underlying issues that critics are pointing to.

This is not a cost-cutting decision. It is a structural decision about how capital reaches parts of the market that do not fit neatly into standardized underwriting models.

CDFIs translate complexity into capital

CDFIs are often described as community lenders, which is accurate though incomplete. They operate as intermediaries between borrowers who fall outside conventional credit frameworks and the capital that ultimately funds those loans. In many cases, they are doing the work that allows a loan to be understood and accepted by the broader market.

“CDFIs have been remarkably effective at leveraging Fund dollars to drive private investment in the communities they serve, which has created strong bipartisan support for them and the Fund in Congress. But their true superpower is their expertise in serving borrowers who are often overlooked by larger lenders because they are more challenging to underwrite.”

— Sam Valverde, former Acting President of Ginnie Mae

That is the part of the system this proposal is weakening.

Why standardized credit models leave gaps

The U.S. credit system runs on consistency. Credit scores, income verification, collateral valuation and increasing cash flow data create a shared language that lenders, insurers and investors rely on to evaluate risk. When that language is clear, capital moves. When it is incomplete, capital pulls back or reprices.

FICO has been the trusted signal at the center of that system for more than 30 years. Capital markets, mortgage investors, insurers and securitization desks have priced risk off that signal through multiple cycles because it has remained consistent and broadly predictive. That consistency is a primary reason U.S. mortgage liquidity has held through changing economic conditions.

The industry is expanding that language. Alternative credit models and new data sources are entering the system. Expanding access does not mean abandoning discipline. The system still depends on a clear and trusted signal to function. CDFIs operate directly in the gap between what the system can clearly measure and what it cannot, and this proposal removes their capacity to do that work.

“There is a clear mismatch between who could qualify for assistance and who actually uses it. DPR data shows just 16.9% of FHA borrowers used down payment assistance in 2024, even though nearly 80% could likely qualify. Better data is key to closing that gap.”

— Brad Cardwell, Down Payment Resource

Borrowers may have limited credit history or income that does not show up cleanly in traditional documentation. Loan sizes may be smaller, and the economics may not justify the fixed costs of a large institution. None of those conditions automatically implies a higher risk. They require more work to interpret.

The market is already moving beyond traditional underwriting

Cash flow underwriting is becoming central to this shift. A growing share of American workers earn through multiple income streams, including platform income, gig work, contract income, small business distributions and rental income. Traditional W-2-based underwriting captures less of that reality each year. CDFIs have practical experience evaluating repayment capacity when standard tools produce an incomplete picture.

The oversight argument doesn’t match the data

The idea that this sector lacks discipline does not hold up under scrutiny. Nearly half of the roughly 1,400 certified CDFIs are regulated banks or credit unions supervised by federal examiners. About 93% of the industry’s $446 billion in total assets sits inside those regulated institutions.

Major ratings agencies have priced CDFI credit directly. S&P has issued investment-grade ratings to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, along with Enterprise Community Loan Fund and Clearinghouse CDFI. Fitch has assigned A+ to Capital Impact Partners. The Treasury Office of Inspector General’s most recent audits of the $1.75 billion CDFI Equitable Recovery Program found the Fund followed GAO Green Book principles and made no recommendations for corrective action.

BY THE NUMBERS

$324M → $119.5M  The proposed FY27 CDFI Fund budget, a 63 percent reduction.

$8-to-1  Private capital mobilized for every federal CDFI dollar, per Treasury.

$17.6 billion  Total project capital produced by the Capital Magnet Fund from $556.6 million in federal grants.

$2 billion  Bank of America’s investment across 250 CDFI partners.

$30 billion  Capital deployed by LISC, a single CDFI intermediary, since inception.

The federal dollar is not the capital. It is what pulls private capital into transactions that would otherwise not clear.  Treasury’s figures show roughly $8 of private capital mobilized for every $1 of federal investment. Few federal programs operate with that level of efficiency. Cutting it by 63% is not a targeted adjustment. It is a reduction of one of the more effective capital channels in the system.

The reduction does not remove demand. It constrains the mechanism that translates that demand into financed transactions. Banks will continue to lend, but the focus will shift toward cleaner, “easier to underwrite loans”. More complex deals will slow down, get repriced or not move forward.

Reform the program — don’t shrink it

There are legitimate issues worth addressing. Performance reporting across the sector is uneven, and conventional metrics do not always translate cleanly to institutions that rely on sustained borrower engagement. That should be fixed. Performance should be measured consistently, reported transparently and enforced. Institutions that fail to meet standards should not receive support.

Treasury already has the authority to revoke certification, terminate undisbursed funds and recapture past grants. Those tools exist and should be used. A 63% funding cut does none of that. It does not improve oversight. It does not strengthen performance. It removes capital from a system that is already leveraging private investment at scale.

CDFIs are not large enough to move the overall mortgage market. They are critical in how the system handles complexity at the edges. Reducing their capacity does not eliminate that complexity. It shifts it back into institutions that are not structured to handle it or leaves it unserved.

The goal should be a stronger CDFI Fund, not a smaller one. That means better data, tighter oversight, faster enforcement and clear consequences for institutions that fail. Misused funds should be recovered. Underperforming institutions should be removed.

A 63% cut moves in the opposite direction. It removes a function the credit system relies on to reach borrowers outside standardized models and strips capital from one of the more efficient public-private mechanisms in community development. This proposal does not fix what is broken. It removes what is working.

Eric Lapin is a principal at FinFusion Consulting, focused on strategy across credit markets and emerging financial technology.

This post was originally published on here. 

Builders are entering 2026 with growing pressure to improve efficiency while navigating rising costs, affordability challenges and slower margin growth. In today’s competitive environment, the conversation around AI in homebuilding is shifting from broad experimentation to practical operational use cases. Builder confidence fell to 34 points, the lowest since September 2025, underscoring the ongoing difficulties many developers are facing.

The pressure to be profitable is also accelerating interest in technologies that can improve operational performance across the business. At the same time, AI adoption in construction and homebuilding is accelerating. Rowan Build’s 2025 AI adoption report found that 82% of large construction firms plan to increase AI investment budgets, while 94% of mid-sized companies are either implementing or exploring AI strategies. 

The real challenge isn’t data collection

But despite growing interest in AI, many builders are still operating with disconnected systems across design, sales, estimating and construction. The challenge is no longer collecting data. Most builders already have valuable operational information embedded across home plans, lot configurations, specifications and workflow documentation.

Most builders already have valuable operational data within their business, from home plans and lot configurations to specifications and workflow documentation. The larger issue is how to connect and activate that information across departments. 

Builders are hitting the limits of disconnected workflows

As builders look for greater efficiency, many are running into the limitations of fragmented operational systems. Plans, options, permitting and field execution are often managed across separate tools and teams, creating inefficiencies that compound at scale.

Builders continue to face labor shortages, elevated material costs and affordability pressures, forcing many companies to evaluate operational waste more closely. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) data, 67% of builders reported using sales incentives in late 2025, while 40% reported cutting prices, further increasing pressure on profitability. As a result, the industry is increasingly recognizing that AI alone is not the answer if the systems underneath remain fragmented.

AI in homebuilding is moving from experimentation to operational

The conversation around AI in homebuilding is no longer centered on whether builders should adopt AI. Instead, the focus is shifting toward where AI can create practical operational value.

Builders are already emerging as some of the most active AI adopters, according to the Times. Construction-related industries have adopted AI tools and are experimenting with integrating them into their day-to-day operations. That includes areas such as project planning, scheduling, documentation, lot configurations and construction workflows. 

According to Houzz research, more than one-third of construction and design firms have already implemented AI solutions, while 66% believe AI will significantly transform the industry within the next five years. 

The broader trend suggests builders are prioritizing AI built into the business rather than bolted onto existing processes. Centralized homebuilding intelligence and real-time visibility across design, sales and construction are becoming increasingly important as builders look to scale more efficiently.  

What operationally connected builders are starting to achieve

Across the industry, builders adopting more connected operational systems are beginning to report measurable gains in speed, visibility and margin recovery.

Some builders are shortening plan production timelines and reducing permitting delays by creating more connected workflows between design and construction teams. Others are reducing field errors and drafting rework that often stems from disconnected plan management. Faster operational coordination is also helping some builders improve sales readiness and accelerate market entry timelines.

The opportunity may become even larger over the next several years. AI in the construction market could grow from roughly $13 billion in 2026 to nearly $28 billion by 2031, reflecting how quickly builders and contractors are adopting operational AI.

Operational AI starts with connected data

As builders continue to explore practical AI in homebuilding applications, the companies making the biggest gains in homebuilder operational efficiency may not be the ones adopting the most AI tools. Instead, they may be the builders creating a centralized operational foundation where home plans, specifications, lot configurations and workflows are connected across the business.

Platforms like Higharc reflect how builders are beginning to unify home data, workflows and operational intelligence into a more connected system, allowing AI to become part of everyday operations rather than a separate layer added on top.

This post was originally published on here. 

Strong financial results for Realtor.com operator Move underscored solid earnings for Move parent company News Corp during the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, which ended March 31.

During the quarter, News Corp recorded a 9% annual increase in revenue to $2.19 billion, which it attributed to growth in its digital real estate services, Dow Jones and book publishing segments. The firm also reported a 13% yearly increase in net income, which came in at $121 million. 

Revenues at Move were up 10% annually to $148 million. This marked Move’s sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth. 

“The Renaissance of Realtor has really preceded the recovery of the overall U.S. housing market, which remains subject to vicissitudes of mortgage rates,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson told investors and analysts during an earnings call Thursday afternoon.

“Now we, and obviously aspiring property owners are, subject to a certain extent, to the whims and wisdom of the FOMC and their rulings, but what this accelerating revenue increase at Realtor — and we’ve had successive quarters of double-digit increases in revenue — tells you is that the team has done an extraordinary job in building the base, sorting out the software and is also benefiting from targeting higher premium homes, which of themselves bring higher premiums and building on the successful expansion into adjacencies, including seller, new homes and rentals.” 

Move CEO Damian Eales wrote in a blog post about the firm’s earnings results that they were due to time spent executing on the company’s product road map. 

“In March, we launched the Realtor.com app in ChatGPT to simplify the pre-search stage of homebuying and reach a new incremental audience for our clients. We also unveiled the Realtor.com Market Clock, which gives professionals and consumers a clear, visual read on whether a local market favors buyers or sellers,” Eales wrote.

“On the industry side, we are seeing strong early momentum behind Realtor.com+ with continued MLS signings and strong agent adoption.”

News Corp also highlighted Realtor.com’s user traffic in its earnings release on Thursday. 

Comscore data shows that monthly average visits to Realtor.com for Q3 2025 were 261 million, representing 31% of the market. Meanwhile, internal Realtor.com data showed that the average monthly unique users for the firm’s website and mobile sites were 66 million during the quarter, relatively flat compared to the same period in 2024. Despite this, the company said lead volume from the site rose 6% annually. 

“We remained the second most visited U.S. real estate portal, according to Comscore,” Eales wrote. “We also increased our lead in engagement — Realtor.com averaged 5.3 visits per unique user, compared to 4.8 in Q2, outperforming Zillow by 1.5x (3.5 visits/UU), Redfin by 1.8x (2.9 visits/UU), and Homes.com by 2.8x (at 1.9 visits/UU).”

Looking ahead, News Corp executives are excited about the runway they see ahead for Realtor.com.

“Revenue for existing home sales are now at a 20% higher level than they were in 2022, and the reason I’m calling out 2022 is because it was kind of the high-water mark from a housing perspective,” Lavanya Chandrashekar, chief financial officer at News Corp, said on Thursday’s call.

“But you can imagine that with this much higher revenue per house now, as the real estate market comes back, as Robert mentioned, we are positioned to really take full advantage of it.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Housing is a top political priority for Americans, and voters overwhelmingly support federal action to address housing affordability, according to a new poll from the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

The poll found that 83% of voters believe that Congress should take action to make housing more affordable. Meanwhile, 89% of respondents agree that the House of Representatives and the Senate should work together to pass a bill aimed at lowering housing costs and building more affordable homes. 

The online poll of 1,000 registered voters, conducted in partnership with Advocus Partners, The Tarrance Group and Avenue Solutions from April 28-30, also found that the cost of housing is a crucial issue to voters, with 79% saying that it is an extremely or very important issue to them. Notably, 91% of respondents between 18 and 44 said that the cost of housing is extremely or very important. 

Nearly eight in ten (78%) of voters say that housing is their biggest expense, including 88% under the age of 45. More than half (57%) agree that housing costs make it difficult to meet their other financial obligations, but that share jumps to 76% among voters under 45. 

Roughly nine in ten (88%) of voters agree that it’s harder to buy a house now than ever before. Among younger voters, the share of respondents agreeing with that sentiment is nearly unanimous. 

The results signal that housing is a top priority for voters, regardless of political affiliation. 

“When you get that 80%-plus range, you’re really looking at a broad spectrum of voters,” Brian Nienaber, vice president at The Tarrance Group, said in an interview. “This is an issue that they’re experiencing on a personal level.”

Broad support for quick federal action

According to the poll, 63% of voters said they would be more likely to vote for a representative or senator who voted for or helped pass a federal housing bill into law. 

“Housing costs are at the top of voters’ minds, and the poll that you have received confirms it. People across the country are feeling the pressure, and they want Congress to respond,” said Dennis Shea, executive director of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

There is broad bipartisan support for some of the main provisions included in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. The poll asked voters about four key provisions:

• 84% support expanding access to affordable home financing, including new and reformed lending programs.
• 77% support reforming federal rental assistance and other housing programs to more effectively help families afford housing.
• 76% support streamlining federal regulations to reduce costs and delays in building new homes.
• 65% support incentivizing state and local governments to change zoning and land-use policies to allow for more housing construction.

While the poll didn’t ask voters about how closely they are tracking housing legislation, Shea believes most of the respondents had little awareness of the current housing legislation in Congress.

“I would posit that voters are not aware that there is existing legislation or what’s going on in Congress, or at very small levels, for those who are most attentive and focused on the issue,” he said. 

Voters support institutional investor ban

The poll asked respondents if they support a ban on institutional investors that own 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing more homes. With broad bipartisan support, 70% of voters say they support such a proposal. 

But 31% of those who said they support such a ban signaled that they would be less supportive if the law could reduce housing supply. 

While the housing industry is generally supportive of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, stakeholders are concerned about Section 901 of the Senate’s version of the bill. 

Section 901 would ban institutional investors that own at least 350 single-family homes from purchasing more, with the exception of manufactured housing. While it would exempt renovate-to-rent projects and existing build-to-rent (BTR) communities from immediate disposition, it would also mandate that these homes be sold to individual homeowners within seven years.

Developers and investors say that Section 901, if passed, would be devastating to the BTR industry. The uncertainty caused by the proposal has already frozen capital flow into new BTR construction, but a bipartisan group of 76 members of Congress signed a letter in April urging House leadership to remove or substantially alter Section 901. 

Despite the housing industry’s objections to Section 901, there is near-universal agreement that the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act has many other positive provisions. 

“The good news is that there’s real momentum right now. Serious, substantive bills are moving in both chambers, and the public is squarely behind them. We haven’t seen this kind of alignment on housing legislation in a long time,” Shea said. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC has named veteran brokerage executive Mary Lee Blaylock president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates, where she will oversee strategy, engagement, operations and growth for a network of about 93,000 agents across more than 50 countries and territories, the company announced Friday.

The appointment comes as Coldwell Banker advances its “One Coldwell Banker” brand strategy, which aims to align company-owned operations and affiliates under a unified platform. Kamini Lane will continue as president and CEO of Coldwell Banker Realty, the brokerage-owned operation under the Coldwell Banker umbrella, according to the announcement

Blaylock brings more than 30 years of residential real estate experience, most recently as president of brokerage for Sotheby’s International Realty. In that role, she led U.S. company-owned brokerage operations and supported thousands of affiliated agents who generated billions of dollars in annual sales volume, according to the announcement.

“I am honored to step into the role of president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates to serve this extraordinary, storied network,” Blaylock said in the release. “I have long admired Coldwell Banker’s legacy in the industry, and I’m looking forward to further investing in the strong, unified culture that defines this brand.”

Liz Gehringer, president and CEO of Compass International Holdings, the parent of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, said Blaylock’s background positions her to successfully lead the firm through a slower sales market and shifting agent expectations around technology and support with an emphasis on operational discipline, cross-network consistency and growth.

“Mary Lee is a proven, customer-first leader with deep credibility across brokerage, luxury, and the dynamics of our evolving industry,” Gehringer said in a statement. “She understands what it takes to support our affiliates with a rare combination of operational rigor and authentic connection with the people at the center of our business.”

Before joining Sotheby’s International Realty, Blaylock served as senior vice president at HomeServices of America, Inc., where she led enterprise-wide transformation initiatives across multiple companies and brands. She was previously president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, one of the largest residential brokerages in the country by sales volume.

Earlier in her career, Blaylock helped found HomeServices Relocation, LLC, adding relocation services experience to her brokerage background.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Last year, New Hampshire lawmakers jumped on the bandwagon of state legislatures targeting a worsening housing shortage by mandating that local governments permit multifamily housing in commercially zoned areas.

The effort sought to boost housing supply and improve affordability by stripping away local zoning authority.

Local governments, true to the state’s “live free or die” motto, didn’t give up the fight.

This year, lawmakers introduced a bill to repeal the year-old mandate outright. Cooler heads prevailed in the House, where a committee rewrote the bill into targeted fixes. They aimed to mollify municipal critics without gutting the underlying reform.

House Bill 1010 passed the full House in February after lawmakers amended it. The New Hampshire Senate Commerce Committee followed suit on April 30. The bill now awaits a full Senate vote.

It is one of several 2026 bills aimed at refining New Hampshire’s wave of pro-housing legislation. Lawmakers in Concord are also considering changes to accessory dwelling unit rules and parking requirements.

New Hampshire’s case syncs with a pattern playing out across the country. State legislatures enact sweeping housing preemption laws to override local zoning, only to return the following session to patch gaps that municipalities exploit or challenge. The cycle of legislate-then-revise has become a defining feature of the national pro-housing movement, as local governments push back against what they call an erosion of their authority.

In Florida, lawmakers have amended the Live Local Act three times since its 2023 passage, each time tightening language that local governments had exploited to delay or block projects. In Connecticut, a governor vetoed his own administration’s housing reform bill after suburban officials mounted opposition, and then signed a compromise into law. The lesson from statehouse to statehouse is the same — passing the law is the easy part.

Resistance from below

New Hampshire, like much of the country, faces a housing shortage that has pushed rents and home prices out of reach for many residents. Last year’s legislation aimed for a practical solution. It sought to convert dying malls and vacant office space into apartments, allowing developers to build by-right without seeking local approval.

Supporters called it a practical tool for targeting underused commercial corridors. Critics, including the New Hampshire Municipal Association, argue the law moved too fast and left local governments exposed to litigation over vague definitions and infrastructure gaps.

“Top-down mandates without local buy-in often face sustained resistance, lawsuits, and workarounds that can undermine their intent,” the NHMA noted in a January paper on the law. “Building broader coalitions around comprehensive housing strategies fosters more durable and sustainable change.”

New Hampshire is not a home rule state. Whatever local zoning authority municipalities have is granted by state lawmakers. Under the Dillon Rule, what is given can be taken.

The NHMA frequently cites a quote from a senator who opposed last year’s legislation.

“We gave these towns permission to set zoning,” the senator said. “And now, like Lucy with the football, we’re trying to take it back.”

Fixing definitions of multifamily housing

The original law did not adequately define “multifamily residential development” or account for whether existing infrastructure could support new density, according to the NHMA. The amended bill adds infrastructure review requirements and tightens definitions.

It also changes the term “multi-family residential development” to the more widely used “multi-family dwelling,” aligning the statute with standard zoning terminology.

The NHMA supports HB 1010 as amended, describing it as making “significant positive updates” that will “clarify the statute and head off potential litigation.”

Housing Action NH initially flagged the bill as a threat, saying a full repeal would eliminate the ability to build multifamily housing in commercial zones. It shifted to a neutral position in February after the amended version gained traction. The group noted in a newsletter that the “amendment makes technical changes to clarify implementation standards without undermining” the current law.

This post was originally published on here. 

The warmer weather and longer days are finally here and that means everyone is thinking about the hottest looks for summer. For real estate brokerage companies, it seems like the new must-have accessory for summer 2026 is a franchise operation. 

On Thursday, a little over a week after The Real Brokerage announced its acquisition of real estate brokerage franchisor REMAX, and roughly five months after Compass closed its acquisition of Anywhere, eXp World Holdings announced its acquisition of franchisor NextHome for an undisclosed sum. 

In response to the news, eXp’s stock price rose slightly on Thursday, jumping from $6.52 per share on Thursday morning to $6.99 per share on Friday morning after the acquisition announcement. This is markedly different from the market’s reaction to Real’s acquisition of REMAX, which saw the firm’s stock price drop from $2.68 per share to $2.02 per share immediately following the announcement. As of Friday morning, nearly two weeks after the announcement, Real’s stock price was hovering between $2.20 and $2.10 per share.

Industry analysts attribute these differing reactions to a variety of factors involved in the two acquisitions and weigh in on whether this is the future of the industry.

Why eXp and NextHome are a good fit

“We know that eXp is a very healthy financial organization and they have the capital to get behind this and do something with it and they are acquiring a smaller franchise entity,” Craig McClelland, a partner at McClelland and Hahn, said. “They are not biting off more than they can chew by any means and nobody is going to question if eXp can operationalize around NextHome and facilitate keeping it together. Combining eXp with NextHome, means that NextHome has the chance to really explode — whether that is by bringing in other franchise models or just organic growth. That is why this is exciting and why it has a different flavor.” 

Steve Murray, the co-founder of RealTrends Consulting, agrees. 

“eXp can provide NextHome with capital, technology and systems that could rapidly expand the growth of NextHome without hurting themselves and I don’t think eXp is done, they still have a lot of dry powder, but Real doesn’t. They kind of spent it all in one go with REMAX,” Murray said. 

In addition to this acquisition being the right size for eXp, McClelland sees a variety of other reasons to be excited by this deal.

“The talent is aligned, the cultures are aligned, I have a hard time finding a negative on this one,” McClelland said. “If Leo [Pareja] and James [Dwiggins] put their heads together, which I am sure they are, I don’t see a reason why they can’t go big with this. eXp is very well positioned to do this, they are acquiring some great talent, so the question is where are they going to go next with this? Everyone has been waiting for eXp to jump into the game and how they are jumping in, I think, is extremely intelligent.” 

Murray sees many of the same benefits for eXp through this acquisition that McClelland does.

“I think it was a great move by both parties. They get a good franchise system that is already in the market and on top of that they get one of the brightest and most energetic young leaders in the industry in James Dwiggins and no one should underestimate the value of talent.” 

Providing more options for agents

Although Tom White, a stock analyst at D.A. Davidson, was a bit surprised by the announcement, he also feels this was a smart move for eXp, especially when it comes to the firm’s financials. 

“If you look at eXp’s model, they are marginally profitable because they are keeping very little of the economics for themselves because they have revenue share for the agents,” White said. “I feel like the franchise model is more profitable for the parent company and it has this appealing cash flow, which can improve the financial profile of eXp.” 

Additionally, White noted that providing more options for agents and brokers, by allowing them to either be part of a cloud-based national firm or affiliate or start their own franchise, is not a bad thing either.

While all of the large scale acquisitions the industry has witnessed over the past year may have felt a bit surprising, industry analysts agree that this is just another tool brokerage companies use to grow, except it isn’t one we have seen many large firms use in a while. 

“Everybody is acting like this is a new thing, but if you look back at Cendant  [the predecessors to Anywhere Real Estate] and HomeServices, back in the day they were doing a lot of acquisitions and roll ups,” McClelland said. “This isn’t new to the space — it is a healthy way to expand a brokerage company and it is being leveraged in a unique way now.” 

Is this the future?

But when it comes whether or not a franchise operation is the new must-have for brokerages, industry analysts are split. 

“I think this 100% where we are going,” McClelland said. “The profile of a publicly traded national brokerage has changed. And it seems that the components of that, is that they have to have the brokerage-owned shop, they have to have the franchise arm, the leads department, internal technology — and we are starting to see that develop and be necessary to have a significant valuation on the public market.”

For White, growth and profitability are two the primary things investors look for and if acquiring franchisors can help a company achieve these two goals, that would explain why they have become popular acquisition targets. 

“With these cloud-based platforms, if even at scale they couldn’t be really profitable, then maybe it is worthwhile for them to explore other offerings and structure for their agents,” White said. “We’ll see if this enables them to grow more, but we’ll have to wait and see if this strategy provides that combination of growth and meaningful profitability.” 

Murray, however, doesn’t believe the recent spate of franchisor acquisitions signifies any particular trend.

“I think all of these guys are just looking at a different vehicle to help them grow as fast as they want to,” Murray said. “Everyone says Robert Reffkin bought Anywhere so he’d have more listings for private exclusives. No, Robert just wants a company worth at least tens of billions of dollars and he is not going to get there organically.”

While these analysts may disagree as to whether or not this is the latest trend for publicly traded brokerage companies, they do agree that this is not the last major consolidation the industry will see. 

“This is definitely phase one of everything,” McClelland said. “I have been saying all along that this is just the beginning and we are walking into much bigger consolidation that is coming.” 

This post was originally published on here. 

Roomvu, a platform for residential real estate agents and brokerages, announced an expansion of its Autonomous Visibility System, a tool designed to automate online marketing and content distribution for real estate professionals.

The company said the updated system is intended to address challenges in maintaining consistent local marketing efforts by automating content creation and distribution across digital channels.

According to Roomvu, the platform uses artificial intelligence to generate a two-week content calendar using MLS listings, market data and local news. The system also includes personalization features that allow agents to create branded video content using a photo or short video clip.

“Every agent knows they should be marketing consistently — the problem is they stop after two weeks. They take a class, get inspired, post for a few days, then a deal comes in and it all falls off,” Roomvu CEO Sam Mehrbod said.

“The gap was never knowledge, it’s consistency. Roomvu closes that gap with a system that auto-generates content from live MLS data, personalizes it with the agent’s voice and face, and deploys it across every channel whether they log in or not. We didn’t build a marketing tool. We built a system that does it for them.”

The platform distributes content across multiple digital channels, including LinkedIn, X and Instagram Stories, according to the company.

Roomvu also said its Engage system uses multilingual AI tools to respond to leads through phone calls, text messages and emails.

“Roomvu brings you great visibility and shows you to be a subject matter expert in your field and location,” said Richard Silver, senior global real estate advisor at Sotheby’s International Realty Canada. “It’s an excellent choice for anyone looking to scale their authority.”

Roomvu said the platform has expanded beyond residential real estate to offer marketing tools for mortgage brokers, insurance agents and financial advisers.

The company said more than 350,000 professionals use the platform. Roomvu also reported that users save an average of 65 hours per month using the system and that 49% of consumers interacting with its AI receptionist perceive it as human.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Benutech has launched two predictive analytics products aimed at helping real estate agents and mortgage loan officers identify potential home sellers and refinance candidates before they enter the market.

The products, SellScore and RefiScore, are available through the company’s TitleToolbox platform.

“SellScore and RefiScore give our clients the ability to stop guessing and start closing,” Brian Fox, vice president of business development at Benutech, said in a statement. “Most platforms rely on off-the-shelf demographic data, but our algorithm uses a weighted system of behavioral indicators and historical trend-mapping.

“We don’t just tell you who lives somewhere — we tell you what they’re likely to do next. That’s a fundamental shift in how real estate professionals can approach prospecting.”

According to the company, SellScore is designed to identify homeowners who are statistically likely to list their homes within six to 12 months. RefiScore is intended to help loan officers identify households that may be candidates for refinancing based on market and behavioral factors.

Benutech said the tools rely on a proprietary analytics system that evaluates thousands of data points to generate probability scores. The platform also includes a feature called Pattern Recognition, which the company said identifies life-stage changes and behavioral trends that may indicate a homeowner is preparing to buy, sell or refinance.

“The real estate professionals who win in today’s market are the ones who show up first,” Fox said. “SellScore and RefiScore let you focus your budget exclusively on the top five or ten percent of households most likely to transact, instead of blanket-mailing entire ZIP codes. The ROI difference is dramatic.”

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Real estate investor and educator Jackie Coffey has launched the Jackie The Happy Investor App, a web-based platform designed to help novice investors evaluate residential real estate deals without relying on access to a multiple listing service (MLS).

Coffey posts investor content to an audience of more than 107,000 followers on TikTok under the name Jackie The Happy Investor. The new platform allows users to analyze properties, review comparable home sales and estimate after-repair values by entering a U.S. property address.

The platform provides nearby comparable sales data, including property addresses, distance, bedroom and bathroom counts, and sale prices.

It also includes a calculator based on the industry-standard “70% rule,” which investors commonly use to estimate whether a property may be profitable after renovation costs, Coffey said.

“I know what it feels like to need information you can’t get — and to watch deals slip away because you don’t have MLS access or a Realtor on speed dial,” she said. “I built the tool I wished existed when I started. Now everyday investors have it for $37.”

Additional features include a directory called Find My Team, which connects users with investor-focused service providers, including real estate agents, contractors, mortgage lenders, title companies, attorneys and accountants by ZIP code.

The platform also stores users’ property searches and includes an artificial intelligence assistant trained on Coffey’s investing methods to answer questions about financing, rehabilitation costs and deal structure.

Additional tools include a renovation cost estimator that adjusts pricing based on local markets and mobile applications for iOS and Android devices.

The company also offers directory listings for contractors, real estate agents, title companies and other vendors for a monthly fee.

Coffey said the platform was created to address what she describes as an information gap for new investors entering the real estate market.

“The information gap is the single biggest reason new investors fail,” she added. “The pros have tools that cost hundreds a month. Beginners have guesswork. That’s what I’m fixing.”

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning mortgage services provider Mortgage Connect about its use of noncompete agreements, urging the company to review and potentially discontinue restrictive covenants that may violate federal antitrust law.

Friday’s letter, signed by FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson and addressed to Mortgage Connect’s outside counsel, was a reaction to information made public in ongoing litigation in a Pennsylvania state court. 

“FTC staff has reviewed public materials from your client’s lawsuit seeking to enforce a noncompete agreement against a former worker and the competitor who hired her,” Ferguson wrote. “These materials indicate that Mortgage Connect may have broadly deployed unjustifiable noncompete agreements in employment contracts with potential adverse effects on workers and competition.”

Representatives for Mortgage Connect did not immediately reply to HousingWire’s request for comment. 

According to Ferguson, evidence in the legal case suggests that Mortgage Connect requires all of its employees to sign noncompetes “without regard to the employee’s role or responsibilities.” But such blanket restrictions can burden workers, as well as smaller and new competitors, he added.  

Ferguson also questioned whether the company’s stated reasons for using noncompetes (including the protection of confidential information, goodwill, reputation and employees’ specialized skills) could instead be addressed through less restrictive tools — for example, with nonsolicitation and nondisclosure agreements. 

The court filings indicate Mortgage Connect already relies on these narrower restraints and that the employee at issue did not receive specialized training, the letter read.

The FTC did not take a position on the merits of the lawsuit and did not declare Mortgage Connect in violation of the law. Founded in 2008, Mortgage Connect is based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania.

The warning letter is the latest in a series of actions signaling the FTC’s increased scrutiny of labor market practices, including in mortgage and real estate services.

Ferguson cited feedback the agency has received from mortgage industry participants who described noncompetes as “a huge problem” that reduce the pool of candidates and “hold loan officers, branch managers, and other employees hostage year after year.” This deters moves to competing mortgage firms and potentially chills recruiting efforts.

In February 2025, the FTC launched a Joint Labor Task Force to prioritize enforcement against deceptive, unfair and anticompetitive labor-market practices. In April 2026, it ordered Rollins Inc., one of the nation’s largest pest control companies, to stop enforcing noncompete agreements against more than 18,000 employees nationwide.

The agency has also pursued cases involving pet services and amenities management companies over labor restraints.

Flávia Furlan Nunes reported and wrote this article with drafting assistance from HousingWire Automation, an editorial tool that helps transform announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Blend Labs Inc. delivered a profitable first quarter and expanded its customer base while issuing a conservative outlook for the months ahead due to shifting macroeconomic conditions.

The company reported non-GAAP operating income of $4.1 million for the quarter ending in March, a significant improvement from $0.7 million during the same period last year, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Its GAAP operating loss also narrowed to $5.1 million in Q1 2026, compared to a loss of $8 million in the same period last year.

CEO Nima Ghamsari told analysts on Thursday that the company “came in higher on revenue and non-GAAP operating income than expected.” Blend also signed 15 new deals and delivered a pipeline increase of more than 40% year over year as of the end of March.

“But the world has shifted underneath us in those two months: increased global conflict, inflation, and rising mortgage rates. That leads me to be a little conservative in the short-term numbers,” Ghamsari said.

Blend’s total revenue for the first quarter was $30.8 million, up 15% year over year. Breaking down the business lines, software platform revenue reached $28 million (up 15%), while professional services revenue accounted for $2.9 million (up 16%).

The company’s Mortgage Suite performed particularly well, generating $17.2 million in revenue — an 18% year-over-year increase. Funded loans on the platform reached 187,000, surging 29% from the previous year, with the economic value per funded loan landing at $84.

Autopilot and Background Agents

A major highlight for the quarter was the March launch of Blend Autopilot, an artificial intelligence-based agent for mortgage lenders. As of Monday, 65 lenders had activated the tool, with 22 running it live in production. The agent has already processed more than 7,000 applications during its preview phase, and the company plans to introduce paid tiers starting in June.

“The paid tiers are where the full product lives — what we call underwriting intelligence — where Autopilot is reading the documents, taking real action on the loan file, running calculations, reconciling its guidelines, and driving the work forward,” Ghamsari said. “Over time, our intent is to move the paid tiers of Autopilot to a per funded loan model, just like the rest of our mortgage suite.”

Internally, Blend is also reaping the benefits of AI. The rollout of its internal Background Agents has boosted engineering productivity by more than 150% in 2026 compared to 2025, based on the number of pull requests generated by the team.

“Together, I believe these two pillars (Autopilit and Blackground Agents) give us a path to see 10% to 15% incremental growth already for us in 2027 on the top line, and more efficiency and speed as a company internally,” Ghamsari said.

Blend ended the quarter with $59 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities with zero debt. The company also repurchased 11.2 million shares during Q1. It estimates its 2025 market share at 17%.

“As we look into 2026, we expect a market share headwind of 100 basis points, primarily reflecting the volume roll-off of one large customer that we have discussed previously,” said Jason Ream, the company’s head of finance and administration.

“On the macro side, the spring housing market started on stronger footing than many had expected, supported by improving affordability and slowly rebuilding inventory. That said, the recent rise in mortgage interest rates adds uncertainty to the outlook.”

Blend expects its Q2 non-GAAP operating income to land between $5.5 million and $6.5 million.

This post was originally published on here. 

Financial results for the first quarter of 2026 at REMAX Holdings, the parent company of franchisors REMAX and Motto Mortgage, reveal that The Real Brokerage is acquiring a company that continues to lose money and domestic agent count, with more than $400 million in outstanding debt.

Announced Friday, REMAX’s Q1 2026 earnings results show that the firm recorded a 5.7% annual decline in revenue during the quarter to $70.2 million. According to the release, revenue excluding marketing funds was down 4% annually to $2.2 million, which the company attributed in part to a 4.7% decline in organic revenue. 

REMAX also reported a net loss of  $9.7 million for the quarter, up from a net loss of $2 million in Q1 2025. Additionally, REMAX’s adjusted free cash flow was -$5.429 million during the first quarter. 

At the end of Q1 2026, REMAX had $107.1 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand and $436 million in outstanding debt. In addition, despite total agent count rising 2.1% from a year prior to 149,192 agents, U.S. agent count was down 4.8% annually to 47,443 agents.

Internationally, Canadian agent count was up 2.8% to 25,849 agents and other international agent count was up 6.7% to 75,900 agents. 

Due to the recently announced proposed acquisition by Real, REMAX did not hold an earnings call with investors and analysts, and no comments were provided along with the financial release. 

In response to Friday’s earnings release, Real’s stock price fell from $2.23 per share at the close of market on Thursday to $2.13 per share as of mid-morning Friday. Just prior to announcing its acquisition of REMAX, Real’s stock was trading at $2.68 per share.

REMAX’s stock also fell Friday morning, dropping from $11.06 per share at close of market on Thursday to $10.71 per share as of mid-morning Friday. Despite this decline, it’s still well above REMAX’s share price of $7.99 per share just prior to the announcement of the Real deal. 

Real has said it anticipates that the acquisition, which is still pending regulatory review, will close during the second half of 2026.

This post was originally published on here. 

HousingWire reports on the quarterly earnings of publicly traded mortgage, real estate and homebuilder companies, offering a glimpse into the financial performance of key players in the housing market. Earnings results have been released for the first quarter of 2026; here’s a rundown of what’s happening at the major lenders, brokerages, builders, listing portals and title firms.

Mortgage

Q1 2026 earnings

• Rocket beats earnings guidance with strongest quarterly profit in four years May 7
• Better cuts costs, expands HELOC push amid mortgage market volatility May 7
• UWM posts Q1 profit, Ishbia slams Two Harbors board in M&A battle May 6
• loanDepot cites market volatility, lower margins in wider Q1 loss May 6
• PennyMac Q1 earnings: Strong mortgage production offsets weaker servicing results May 5
• Onity Group cuts 2026 ROE outlook as servicing losses weigh on Q1 May 5
• ICE reports record revenue of $3B, profit of $1.4B in Q1 2026 April 30
• Freddie Mac reports strong Q1 as lower rates drive refinance growth April 30
• Fannie Mae trims expenses, posts $3.7B profit in Q1 2026 April 29
• Newrez sticks to pricing discipline, lifts Q1 earnings even as mortgage volume falls 18% April 28
• Big banks see mortgage volumes fall as CEOs spar over capital proposals April 14

Real estate

Q1 2026 earnings

• Real CEO Tamir Poleg on the value of the REMAX acquisition May 7
• Zillow bets on pre-marketing to unlock new growth May 6
• Compass posts strong Q1 following Anywhere acquisition May 5
• CoStar Group, Homes.com surge in Q1 — CEO welcomes end of activist ‘distraction’ April 29

Homebuilding

Q1 2026 earnings

• Millrose Properties one-year report card, Q1 2026 earnings May 6
• Green Brick leverages industry-leading margins to drive optionality May 4
• Smith Douglas Homes prioritizes pace over price, plays the long game April 30
• Why LGI Homes is the clearest read on entry-level buyer math April 30
• Century’s spec and land optionality model zigs as others zag April 27
• PulteGroup targets margin stability through an upward mix shift April 24
• Ashton Woods puts pace over margin in a choppy housing market April 1
• KB Home pivots to its build-to-order strengths, but not without risk March 25

Past reports

Mortgage

• Better boosts loan volume in Q4 but is still chasing profitability March 13
• Blend rides mortgage rebound in Q4, dismisses ‘SaaSpocalypse’ fears March 11
• Finance of America’s 2025 profit soars 175% behind $2.4B in originations March 11
• loanDepot reports $108M loss in 2025 even as volume, margins improve March 10
• Figure posts fivefold profit growth, revenue spike of 49% in 2025 Feb. 27
• Longbridge nearly doubles Q4 profit as parent Ellington reports weaker performance Feb. 26
• Rocket grows revenue to $6.7B, expands market share in 2025 Feb. 26
• UWM originations rise 17% to $163B as refi wave lifts 2025 volume Feb. 25
• Opendoor returns to mortgages with beta launch Feb. 24
• Onity Group reports record earnings in 2025, expands servicing portfolio to $328B Feb. 13
• Freddie Mac’s profit falls 10% in 2025 as credit-loss provisions rise Feb. 12
• Fannie Mae trims costs, boosts MBS purchases to post $14.4B profit in 2025 Feb. 11
• ICE posts strongest mortgage tech quarter in three years, adds UWM to MSP Feb. 5
• PennyMac under scrutiny as stock drops 33% post-earnings Feb. 3
• Newrez fuels Rithm Capital’s 2025 profit and servicing growth Feb. 3
• PennyMac reports Q4 profit of $107M as origination growth offsets MSR runoff Jan. 29
• Onity Group raises $200M in debt, reports strong estimated Q4 earnings Jan. 27
• Wells Fargo’s Q4 2025 earnings miss estimates as mortgage profits decline Jan. 14
• JPMorgan kicks off mortgage earnings season with higher origination volume Jan. 13
• Figure’s marketplace accelerates with $2.5B in Q3 volume Nov. 14
• Better posts Q3 revenue of $44 million boosted by partnerships Nov. 13
• Longbridge has record quarter for proprietary volume, posts $8.6M profit Nov. 7
• loanDepot’s Q3 loss narrows as revenue climbs 14% Nov. 6
• Blend Labs reports shrinking mortgage revenue even as its partnerships gain steam Nov. 6
• Onity’s reverse business turns a profit as margins climb Nov. 6
• UWM delivers $41.7B in Q3 volume amid ‘rate rally’ Nov. 6
• Guild sees Q3 revenue surge to $307.4M ahead of Bayview transaction Nov. 5
• Finance of America’s Q3 loss contrasts with sharp rise in adjusted income Nov. 5
• Intercontinental Exchange posts record Q3 earnings Oct. 31
• Rocket’s integrations of Redfin, Mr. Cooper lift Q3 results above forecasts Oct. 30
• Newrez posts best monthly mortgage volume since 2022, seals Wells Fargo deal Oct. 30
• Freddie Mac’s earnings slowly ticking back up amid credit losses Oct. 30
• Fannie Mae ups ante with $3.9B in net income Oct. 29
• PennyMac eyes high-coupon MSRs, broker channel growth Oct. 22
• PennyMac posts Q3 profit of $181M, fueled by servicing strength Oct. 21
• Big banks beat Q3 earnings expectations, with modest growth in mortgages Oct. 14
• Guild’s profit rebound and rising refi recapture bolster Bayview bid Aug. 11
• Blend Labs narrows Q2 losses, announces new head of finance Aug. 11
• loanDepot shakes up retail and JV leadership after Hsieh’s comeback Aug. 8
• With Hsieh in the driver’s seat, loanDepot posts revenue of $283M Aug. 7
• Better’s losses are shrinking. It could break even by late 2026 Aug. 7
• UWM swings back to profitability in Q2 amid surging volumes, margins Aug. 7
• FOA reports $80M profit, buys out Blackstone’s equity stake Aug. 6
• Reverse mortgages offer resilience for Onity in latest earnings report Aug. 5
• ICE posts $851M profit in Q2 2025, raises revenue guidance Aug. 1
• Rocket returns to profitability in Q2, yields early benefits from Redfin deal July 31
• Freddie Mac’s profits fall 14% in Q2 as credit loss provisions climb July 31
• Fannie Mae posts $3.3B profit, tops $100B net worth despite earnings dip July 30
• Rithm Capital delays Newrez public listing, eyes M&A opportunities July 28
• Mr. Cooper stays profitable despite major subservicing exit in Q2 July 23
• PennyMac, the top dog in correspondent, says its broker business is booming July 22
• JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo see mortgage volumes surge in Q2 (but not profits) July 15
• Better leans on AI, sees first profitable month since 2022 May 13
• Blend talks Rocket-Mr. Cooper deal, will exit title biz May 9
• Rocket shifts focus to integration after Q1 growth in originations and M&A May 8
• Finance of America posts a profit, beats funded volume estimates in Q1 2025 May 7
• loanDepot’s Q1 revenue jumps 23% as Hsieh prepares to take the wheel again May 6
• Lower rates spur refis at UWM, hit MSR valuations in Q1 May 6
• With big changes underway, Freddie Mac’s earnings report shows financial growth May 1
• Liberty Reverse parent Onity praises Q1 earnings performance, proprietary product launch April 30
• Fannie Mae posts 29th straight quarter of profitability amid GSE shakeup April 30
• Rithm eyes M&A, but won’t sacrifice earnings April 25
• How Mr. Cooper plans to power Rocket’s homeownership flywheel April 23
• Pennymac’s profits shrink, but servicing portfolio now stands at a massive $680B April 22
• BofA, Citi warn of slower growth ahead as mortgage business softens April 15
• JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo feel the mortgage squeeze in Q1, hope for deregulation April 11

Real estate

• Real Brokerage posts $2B in revenue in 2025 as business strategy gains traction March 4
• eXp’s quiet flex: Higher productivity in a shrinking agent market Feb. 25
• Opendoor posts $1.3B loss in 2025 but sees path to profitability Feb. 20
• REMAX posts higher 2025 net income despite U.S. agent drop Feb. 20
• Zillow returns to profitability in 2025 as mortgage and rentals drive growth Feb. 10
• Realtor.com Q2 revenue rises 10% as visitor traffic outpaces rivals Feb. 6
• Fathom Holdings reports 38% revenue growth, ancillary service expansion Nov. 17
• Title insurance revenue rises for Big Four firms in Q3 2025 Nov. 10
• eXp World Holdings reports strong Q3 2025: revenue growth, agent retention success Nov. 7
• Opendoor hits reset: The iBuyer goes full founder mode with new CEO Nov. 7
• Douglas Elliman’s revenue drops amid ‘transitional year’ Nov. 5
• Compass leans on Christie’s acquisition playbook ahead of Anywhere merger Nov. 4
• Anywhere reports Q3 revenue growth, moves closer to Compass merger Nov. 4
• RE/MAX sees Q3 profit rise despite revenue dip, talks AI and franchise programs Oct. 31
• Zillow focuses on consumers, agents to fuel future growth Oct. 30
• Real Brokerage reports strong Q3 results, previews major tech innovation Oct. 30
• CoStar can’t stop talking about Zillow as Homes.com growth surges Oct. 29
• Fathom eyes more growth after stronger Q2 Aug. 13
• Title’s Big Four post mixed-bag Q2 2025 results Aug. 11
• Real Brokerage posts record revenue, positive net income in Q2 Aug. 7
• Zillow wants to be the hub for consumers and agents Aug. 6
• Opendoor turns to agents in the hunt for profitability Aug. 6
• Douglas Elliman doesn’t want private listings to be the norm Aug. 4
• Agent count a bright spot for eXp in Q2 2025 July 31
• Compass posts record performance in Q2 July 30
• Has RE/MAX broken its U.S. agent count slump? July 30
• Anywhere sees ‘units up, prices up’ in July as luxury sales surge July 29
• CoStar earnings ‘boosted’ by growth of Homes.com July 23
• CoStar begins its journey of ‘meaningful self-help’ May 15
• Fathom stays optimistic about agent compensation plan even as losses mount May 13
• Robert Reffkin on Compass’s pre-marketing strategy: What’s the downside? May 8
• Major title insurers post strong Q1 earnings, fueled by commercial real estate deals May 8
• Will the real Tamir Poleg please stand up? May 8
• Zillow posts strong Q1, touts listing transparency and app traffic May 7
• eXp posts steady Q1 earnings, reinforces Clear Cooperation stance May 6
• Redfin reports falling revenue, higher losses in Q1 2025 May 6
• RE/MAX posts another loss, but CEO insists it can ‘get back to growth’ May 2
• Homes.com grows with increased agent adoption, consumer demand April 29
• On private listings, Anywhere will be on the right side of history, CEO says April 29

Homebuilding

• Contrarian Smith Douglas leans into its system, goes for market share March 13
• Green Brick Partners stands out with high margins, land-heavy approach March 3
• Hovnanian recalibrates amid a shift to a higher-margin mix Feb. 26
• Champion Homes beats expectations with varied product mix, brand power Feb. 5
• Beazer pivots to a mix-shift into higher-margin homes after a Q1 loss Feb. 3
• Pulte sharpens its segmentation focus in a push to resecure margins Feb. 2
• Why M/I Homes is spec-heavy ahead of the spring selling season Jan. 29

This post was originally published on here. 

CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM) once again raised its bid for Two Harbors Investment Corp., matching UWM Holdings Corp.’s rival offer.

The companies amended their agreement to increase the all-cash consideration to $12 per share, up from $11.30, as the mortgage REIT’s board continues to recommend the deal. The negotiations with CrossCountry Intermediate Holdco, an affiliate of CCM, include $3.4 billion of committed financing: a $2 billion secured facility and a $1.4 billion unsecured commitment from Citi.

The new price represents a 70-cent increase from the $11.30 per share agreed to in February and a 21% premium to Two Harbors’ “unaffected” share price on Dec. 16, 2025, the day before UWM announced its original acquisition proposal for the REIT, according to the company.

UWM is offering $12 per share or 2.3328 shares of UWMC Class A common stock, with no cap or proration on the amount of cash. Its offer is supported by a committed, unsecured $1.3 billion bridge facility from Mizuho Bank Ltd.

“The CCM transaction delivers a fixed-price all-cash consideration to every TWO stockholder — automatically and without election — with committed financing, no financing contingency, and a clear path to close in the shortest timeframe,” Bill Greenberg, TWO’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

According to Greenberg, UWM’s default stock consideration is currently worth only $7.88 per TWO share based on UWMC’s closing trading price on May 7, 2026.

Ron Leonhardt, CCM founder and CEO, said that its offer represents “one of the highest multiples paid for a mortgage REIT.”

“From the outset, our focus has been on certainty — our agreement is signed, our $3.4 billion financing package is fully committed, and we are already more than halfway through the required regulatory approvals,” Leonhardt said in a statement. “We are committed to closing this transaction.”

In a call with analysts this week, UWM Chairman and CEO Mat Ishbia said its proposal is focused entirely on the value of the REIT’s “pristine” servicing book and its shareholder base, not its leadership team.

“It’s very clear that their management team and their board… is maybe playing some games, doing things because they realize that we don’t see any value for them specifically,” Ishbia said. “We’ll see how it shakes out for us.”

Stockholders are set to vote on the deal at a May 19 special meeting.

Two Harbors said the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust review has been completed on the CCM deal and all required state mortgage licensing filings have been submitted, with 35 of 53 approvals obtained. The companies expect the transaction to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Two Harbors stockholders.

This post was originally published on here. 

As part of HousingWire’s Editor’s Choice awards spotlight series, we’re spotlighting past Women of Influence honorees whose careers, leadership and insights continue to influence the industry. This series offers a closer look at the experiences and decisions that have shaped their paths.

In this feature, Amy Butler, Executive Vice President of National Sales at Northpointe Bank, shares her perspective on leadership, growth and the decisions that shaped her career in mortgage banking. Butler’s experience is reflected in her leadership style that is grounded in adaptability, a strong team culture and a willingness to step outside her comfort zone to drive impact.

Butler was selected as a 2025 Women of Influence honoree for her role in launching a unified national sales strategy that improved cross-regional alignment, strengthened collaboration between departments and elevated overall performance.

HousingWire: What’s one decision that changed the trajectory of your career?

Amy Butler: Leaving a 17-year career in mortgage insurance to move into retail mortgage banking was the decision that changed everything. It was uncomfortable and honestly a little scary—I was stepping into a space where I had a lot to learn and prove. There were definitely some bumps along the way, but it gave me a seat at the table in a different way. It allowed me to contribute more directly, build teams, and have a tangible impact on growth. Looking back, it reinforced that the biggest growth comes from the moments that feel the most uncertain.

HousingWire: What past experiences most prepared you for the leadership role you’re in today?

Amy Butler: That transition into retail mortgage banking prepared me more than anything else because it forced me to adapt quickly, listen more, and lead through action. Beyond that, I’ve always believed in rolling up my sleeves and doing the work alongside my team. Building trust, communicating clearly, and being consistent—especially during challenging moments—are what prepared me to lead at scale. I’ve also learned that creating an environment where people feel valued and heard is just as important as driving results.

HousingWire: What are you most focused on right now—either within your organization or in response to broader industry shifts?

Amy Butler: Right now, my focus is on building and sustaining a strong, scalable culture as we continue to grow. With a distributed team across the country, alignment, communication, and transparency are critical. At the same time, the industry is evolving quickly, so we’re focused on recruiting the right talent, retaining top performers, and making sure our teams are equipped to succeed in a changing market. Growth is important, but how you grow—and who you grow with—matters even more.

HousingWire: What’s one leadership lesson you’ve learned that more people in this industry should understand?

Amy Butler: You can’t be everything to everyone—and that’s okay. The most effective leaders and organizations know who they are, what they stand for, and operate with clear principles. When you build a culture grounded in character, accountability, and transparency, you naturally attract the right people. Winners attract winners. At the end of the day, character wins.

HousingWire: What advice would you give to the next generation of women working toward senior leadership roles in housing?

Amy Butler: Know who you are and what you bring to the table—and don’t be afraid to take risks that push you outside your comfort zone. Some of the most defining moments in my career came from stepping into the unknown. Also, seek out environments where your voice is valued and where you can truly contribute. Surround yourself with people who challenge you, support you, and hold a high standard. And when you get the opportunity to lead, lead by example—be direct, be fair, and create space for others to succeed.

Nominations for HousingWire’s 2026 Women of Influence award are open through May 31.

This post was originally published on here. 

The mortgage industry is very good at watching signals.

We watch rates like hawks. We track consumer sentiment all day long. We buy tools to tell us when to lock, when to float, when to sell, when to hedge and when to blink. 

We invest in technology to improve speed, accuracy and workflow. We spend plenty on marketing to capture the consumer at the top of the funnel and even more trying to keep them engaged through the process.

In other words, we have built an entire ecosystem around watching what moves the market.

But there is one force that can increase costs, disrupt operations, reduce access to credit and confuse consumers — and somehow it still gets treated like an afterthought.

Mortgage advocacy. Or maybe more specifically, policy.

Policy is a business signal, not background noise 

That is the irony. We obsess over market volatility but too often ignore regulatory volatility, even though it can hit just as hard — and sometimes harder. It affects consumers, access to credit and ultimately, the bottom line.

If rates move 50 basis points, everyone pays attention. If a bill moves through Sacramento that changes how forbearance must be administered during a declared emergency, half the industry shrugs until legal sends around a memo and operations start sweating.

That is backward.

Policy is not background noise. It is not just politics. It is a market signal. It is a business signal. And if you are not treating mortgage advocacy like part of your strategy, you are essentially driving while staring in the rearview mirror and calling it a business plan.

That is why I keep coming back to the same idea: Innovation in our industry cannot just mean better technology, faster workflows or shinier AI tools. Innovation also has to include advocacy.

Because if we want smarter laws, better outcomes and workable consumer protections, then the people writing the rules need input from the people who actually understand how the system works.

And right now in California, two bills moving through Sacramento are a perfect example of why that matters. 

California’s latest bills show why mortgage advocacy matters 

Let me be clear at the outset: California Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) supports helping homeowners in times of crisis. We support disaster relief. We support policies that protect borrowers. Full stop.

But support for consumers should never mean support for policies that sound good and fail in practice. Those are not the same thing.

Assembly Bill (AB) 1842 and AB 1847 are both intended to expand mortgage relief during emergencies. The intent is understandable. The problem is that intent, by itself, does not run a servicing platform, align investor rules or create a clear path for a borrower trying to understand their options during a crisis.

AB 1842, the California Emergency Mortgage Relief Act, would expand existing disaster mortgage rules statewide any time a state of emergency is declared by either the Governor or the federal government. It would also impose new obligations that go well beyond current law.

AB 1842 could create conflict, delay and cost 

On paper, that may sound proactive. In practice, mortgage servicing does not operate on vibes. It operates within a highly structured framework governed by federal law, investor requirements and contractual obligations. When you drop an additional layer of state-specific requirements on top of that structure, you do not create clarity. You create conflict.

AB 1842 would apply these requirements even in cases where the federal government has not issued an emergency declaration. That raises the likelihood of misalignment with federal agency guidance. The bill also adds timelines, notices, reporting requirements and compliance obligations, many of which already exist at the federal level in some form.

So now, instead of helping a borrower quickly, servicers may be forced to reconcile overlapping frameworks during the exact moment when speed and clarity matter most. That is not streamlined relief. That is a compliance obstacle course.

And as if that were not enough, AB 1842 creates a private right of action for technical violations. Also, as AB 1842 is currently read, a residential mortgage loan shall not be sold, assigned or otherwise transferred to another owner or managed by another mortgage servicer without the borrower’s written consent.

When legal risk rises, consumers pay the price 

Accountability matters. But in a system this complex, a private right of action tied to technical compliance errors is like threatening to sue the pilot for turbulence while ignoring the thunderstorm. It may feel satisfying on paper, but it does not make the flight safer. What it does do is increase legal risk, increase operational hesitation and increase costs. And when costs and risks increase, access to credit has a funny way of moving in the opposite direction.

That impact does not stop with servicers. It flows through the broader market and eventually lands where it always lands: on the consumer. That is not a minor drafting issue. That is a flashing warning light.

AB 1847 may promise relief it cannot deliver 

Then there is AB 1847, which focuses specifically on borrowers impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires. This bill would extend forbearance from 12 months to as much as 36 months. Again, the goal is understandable. We all want homeowners to recover. But wanting something and being able to operationalize it are not the same thing.

In many cases, servicers cannot offer extended forbearance beyond what the investor who owns the loan permits. If state law requires relief that investor guidelines do not allow, then we are creating a statutory promise that may not be deliverable in practice. And that is where good intentions become dangerous.

Because from the borrower’s perspective, the distinction between “required by statute” and “allowed by investor” is not just technical. It is deeply personal. It shapes expectations, recovery planning and trust. If the state tells a borrower one thing, but the actual loan structure only allows another, that is not relief. That is confusion dressed up as policy.

This is exactly why mortgage advocacy must become a bigger part of how our industry thinks about innovation.

Real relief starts with systems that already work 

We are more than willing to invest in systems that help us monitor rates, capture leads and automate tasks. Good. We should. But if we are not equally committed to educating lawmakers on what can and cannot work in mortgage servicing, then we are leaving one of the most consequential variables in our business to chance. That makes no sense. Especially when the better path is sitting right in front of us.

If we really want disaster relief policies that help consumers, then we should be building on systems that already work. That means aligning with existing federal disaster relief programs, improving borrower outreach and education and focusing on the real barriers that slow recovery — things like permitting delays, rebuilding bottlenecks and the gap between insurance proceeds and actual reconstruction costs. In other words, let us solve the actual problem.

Because asking servicers to administer relief that conflicts with investor rules is like asking a contractor to rebuild a house with no permit, half the materials and instructions from three different architects. It is not innovation. It is confusion. And borrowers deserve better than confusion.

Mortgage advocacy is a strategic function 

The broader lesson here is simple: Mortgage advocacy is not a side project for trade associations and government affairs teams. It is a strategic function. It is operational risk management. It is market intelligence. And if done correctly, it is one of the most important forms of innovation our industry has.

At California MBA, we are committed to working with policymakers to get this right. Not to block relief, but to build relief that is clear, implementable and capable of delivering what it promises.

Because in the end, the goal is not to pass bills that sound compassionate.

The goal is to create outcomes that actually are.

Paul Gigliotti is the President of the California MBA.

This post was originally published on here. 

Across the country, roughly 65% of households are priced out of the median-priced new home. Incomes have not kept pace with elevated home prices and higher mortgage rates, putting homeownership further out of reach for millions of Americans.

For those who can afford a new home, many don’t want to spend 40% of their income on housing, and are likely waiting for rates and prices to drop. Many prospective buyers are waiting longer and longer until their finances are more secure; the average age of a new homebuyer is over 40 years old.

For younger and lower-income buyers, the challenge is even greater. They are entering a market defined by historically high interest rates and a limited supply of affordable homes. Many of the entry-level housing options that helped previous generations build wealth simply aren’t available today.

The frustrating part is that solutions to the affordability crisis are within reach. But federal policy, housing finance, and construction practices have been slow to adapt and are overlooking tools that have historically helped address these exact challenges.

One of the biggest drivers of the affordability problem is the lack of lower-cost housing options. Today, roughly 97% of newly built single-family homes in the United States are traditional “stick-built” homes. Alternative forms of housing, such as manufactured, modular, and kit-built homes, remain significantly underutilized, difficult to permit, and often stigmatized as inferior.

The stigma is ironic, considering that manufactured and kit-built homes have historically been a bedrock of affordable construction since the first half of the 20^th century. In fact, some of the most sought-after homes in valuable housing markets today began as kit-built properties. San Francisco’s iconic Craftsman bungalows, for example, were originally ordered through catalogs and assembled on site.

Another, less discussed element of our housing crisis is the historic societal shift away from multi-generational housing. Most homebuyers are looking to house themselves, their domestic partner, and any children they have, but this was not the norm for most of human history, where parents, grandparents, and children all lived under a single roof. When large, multi-generational households are an option, it shifts buying trends, and household culture, in a healthy direction. 

Not only do young prospective buyers have additional opportunities to build equity before buying their own homes, but seniors are more integrated into their families and can live healthier, happier, less expensive lives without the need for costly senior care. With supply tight and the population of homeowners across the nation aging, multi-generational living needs serious consideration as an option for homeowners. The multi-generational model becomes even more feasible if regulations on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are lifted.

Yet even if culture shifts, construction methods diversify, and supply expands, the affordability question is still heavily shaped by the cost of financing. In today’s high-rate environment, mortgage rates are locking many otherwise qualified buyers out of the market. Additionally, wage growth has been greatly outpaced by inflation, almost doubling living costs since COVID. 

Historically, policymakers have used tools to help address this challenge by increasing liquidity and lowering borrowing costs. One of those tools is quantitative easing (QE), which includes the strategic purchase of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Following the 2008 financial crisis, and again during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve used this approach to stabilize housing markets and bring down mortgage rates. In fact, QE has historically been the only effective lever to increase mortgage affordability. It’s also historically yielded profits for the Federal Reserve with minimal downside.

While the Federal Reserve has historically played the central role in these purchases, other federal housing finance institutions could also help support market stability. Agencies such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) can help maintain liquidity and keep mortgage markets functioning efficiently by directing the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to conduct, strategic, pre-announced purchases of MBS that align with their guidelines. This will help avoid creating the same conditions that precipitated the 2008 housing crisis. In addition, the U.S. Treasury, through its authority under the Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements, has the ability to raise the level of MBS they are able to purchase and hold. 

Importantly, today’s environment does not require the scale of intervention seen during past crises. Strategic, measured actions, combined with policies that expand housing supply, can make a meaningful difference.

The housing affordability crisis did not emerge overnight, and it will not be solved with a single policy change. It will require a combination of smarter housing construction, diversified housing types, and responsible financial tools that support access to mortgages.

If we are serious about restoring the American pathway to homeownership, we must be willing to use every tool available. By expanding the types of homes we build and ensuring mortgage markets remain accessible through thoughtful, sustained intervention, we can bring a new generation of buyers back into the market, and strengthen the foundation of the American housing economy in the process.

Stan Holland is the President of Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com.

This post was originally published on here. 

A borrower in forbearance gets the wrong information about their reinstatement options. It came from an automated servicing communication, routed through a system nobody fully owns and nobody fully monitors. By the time someone catches it, hundreds of borrowers have received the same message. Some acted on it. 

Now there’s a reporter making calls. 

Who speaks? What do they say? Who decided the system would handle that communication in the first place? 

This is the AI crisis scenario mortgage isn’t preparing for. Not a rogue algorithm making loan decisions. Something quieter and more insidious: a system operating exactly as designed, at scale, with consequences nobody anticipated and no communications infrastructure to manage them. 

The playbook assumes a person  

Every crisis playbook assumes a human decision-maker somewhere in the chain. Someone made a call. You can trace it, contextualize it, own it. You can build a response around accountability because accountability has a face. 

AI dissolves that. Responsibility spreads across product managers, data teams, compliance officers, and third-party vendors whose contracts don’t include the word “crisis.” When something surfaces, the question of who decided becomes genuinely difficult to answer. That’s not a philosophical problem. It has financial and reputational consequences attached, and the mortgage industry is accumulating exposure faster than it’s building the capacity to manage it. 

The risk is already deployed  

Underwriting gets the attention in this conversation. That’s not where the near-term risk sits.

The live surface is servicing communications, fraud detection models, automated valuation tools, customer-facing chat systems, document processing. Deployed today, at scale, with limited public scrutiny and almost no communications governance around them. 

Automated valuation models carry fair lending exposure that mirrors the underwriting conversation without triggering the same legal sensitivity. A valuation that patterns differently across geographies is a story. If a model produced it and the company can’t explain how, that story writes itself. 

Customer-facing chat systems are a category of their own. When a borrower gets wrong guidance from an automated system about a payment plan, a modification, or a fee dispute, the company owns that guidance regardless of how it was generated. The communications exposure doesn’t follow the technology architecture. It follows the customer relationship. 

Your vendor isn’t your spokesperson  

Most mortgage AI isn’t proprietary. It’s licensed, embedded, or layered onto platforms built and maintained by third parties. The contractual relationship runs to the vendor. The accountability relationship runs to the borrower, the regulator, and the reporter outside your headquarters. 

“Our vendor’s system generated that communication” is not a crisis response. It’s an invitation to a worse story. The company whose name is on the mortgage statement owns the narrative, whether the technology agreement says so or not. 

This is the piece of AI governance almost nobody in this industry has thought through. Vendor contracts address liability. They don’t address what you say on day two when the story is running and your vendor’s PR team isn’t returning calls. 

Why governance alone won’t save you  

The mortgage industry knows how to build governance structures. Model risk management frameworks, audit trails, compliance documentation, fair lending testing. These exist because regulators demanded them and the industry responded. They are necessary and they are not sufficient. 

Governance is designed to answer questions after the fact. Who approved this model. What data trained it. When did the anomaly first appear. Those answers matter in an examination.

They don’t help you on day one of a news cycle when a reporter has a borrower on the record and your communications team is hearing about the incident for the first time. 

The gap isn’t technical and it isn’t legal. It’s organizational. Communications is treated as a downstream function in most mortgage companies, brought in after the position has already been set by legal and compliance. That sequencing works for routine matters. It fails under pressure, because the window for shaping a narrative closes faster than most organizations expect, and the first position you take publicly is the one you’re stuck defending. 

There’s a second gap that’s specific to AI: the people who understand how the system works and the people who speak for the company are rarely the same people and rarely in the same room. When a journalist asks a specific question about how a valuation model weights certain inputs, or why an automated servicing message went to borrowers who shouldn’t have received it, the answer exists somewhere in the organization. Getting it into the right hands fast enough to matter is a coordination problem most companies haven’t solved because they haven’t had to yet. 

That changes when the first significant AI-related crisis hits a mortgage company publicly. And it will. 

The window is narrowing  

AI deployment across mortgage servicing, valuation, and customer communications is accelerating. Regulatory posture is unsettled but directional. Consumer advocates and plaintiff attorneys are already paying attention to how these systems behave at scale. 

The companies that navigate this well won’t be the ones with the most sophisticated models. They’ll be the ones that understood, before the story broke, that narrative risk is a distinct category of risk with its own exposure and its own requirements. 

Most companies in this industry haven’t made that determination yet. The window to do it on their own terms is open. It won’t stay that way. 

Mitch Cohen is the founder of ClearLine, a crisis communications readiness platform for mid-market organizations. He has 25 years of experience in strategic communications across fintech, data, and regulated industries.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com.

This post was originally published on here. 

eXp Commercial announced that Mario Alvarez Jr. has joined the firm.

Alvarez brings more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate and more than $1 billion in career gross transaction volume, according to the company.

He is based in southern California and is active across the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley, Coachella Valley and High Desert markets.

Alvarez Jr. said the decision was driven by alignment with the firm’s structure and long-term strategy.

“Joining eXp Commercial was a strategic decision driven by alignment,” said Alvarez. “The platform delivers advanced commercial real estate tools and innovative technology that elevate how we serve clients. More importantly, it fosters a truly collaborative environment — one that extends across the United States and internationally — creating meaningful opportunities to scale. Coupled with experienced leadership that actively partners with advisors, eXp Commercial provides the foundation to build lasting, generational wealth for both our business and our clients.”

Before joining eXp Commercial, Alvarez served as a market leader and managing director at Marcus & Millichap, where he oversaw 50 agents and managed a portfolio with more than $5 billion in listed inventory nationwide. He completed approximately 415 transactions spanning hospitality, multifamily, retail and industrial properties.

His prior roles also include executive vice president at NAI Capital and managing director at Newmark, where he focused on private capital retail investment sales.

Leo Pareja, CEO of eXp Realty, said Alvarez’s background aligns with the company’s strategy of attracting experienced producers.

“Mario pairs a massive $1 billion track record with a rare entrepreneurial spirit that is exactly what we look for at eXp,” said Pareja. “His deep roots in Southern California and his unwavering commitment to empowering those around him make him a tremendous asset to the culture we are building. In this business, proximity is power, and bringing a leader of Mario’s caliber into our tribe will only accelerate the success of everyone around him.”

The company said Alvarez’s move reflects a broader trend among senior commercial real estate advisors toward brokerage models offering greater autonomy, equity participation and technology-driven infrastructure.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Carrington Mortgage Services and mortgage technology firm Valon announced on Thursday a strategic partnership that includes Carrington adopting Valon’s servicing platform and acquiring Valon Mortgage, adding to its servicing portfolio of about 800,000 loans.

The companies said the deal is aimed at modernizing Ginnie Mae servicing technology and expanding Carrington’s position as one of the nation’s largest independent mortgage servicers. According to Inside Mortgage Finance’s Top Primary Servicers, Carrington ranked 19th nationally as of the fourth quarter of 2025.

Carrington’s current portfolio contains more than 998,000 loans, representing more than $211 billion in unpaid principal balance (UPB), according to the company. The 800,000 loans being added represent approximately $197 billion in UPB, Valon confirmed to HousingWire. The portfolio is “primarily made up of loans for which Valon serves as the subservicer.”

The acquisition of Valon Mortgage is in partnership with a private equity investor, Carrington said, and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. The company declined to confirm the investor.

Under the partnership, Carrington will implement ValonOS as its core servicing platform.

The transaction builds on Carrington’s recent acquisition of Reliance First Capital, and it reflects the company’s broader strategy to grow its servicing platform and expand relationships with mortgage owners and investors. Financial terms of the transaction with Valon were not disclosed.

ValonOS is a modern alternative to legacy servicing technology that consolidates workflows, loan data and compliance logic into a single, AI-enabled system of record. For Carrington, the platform is expected to reduce manual reconciliation, speed borrower resolutions and streamline compliance across both government and conventional loan portfolios.

“We’ve seen what Valon has accomplished in a remarkably short period of time, and we believe they represent the future of Ginnie Mae servicing technology,” Andrew Taffet, CEO of The Carrington Companies, said in a statement. “Combining Carrington’s operational depth and government lending expertise with Valon’s technology will produce not just the most sophisticated Ginnie Mae servicer in the country, but the most efficient.”

Government mortgage servicing has long been viewed as one of the industry’s most operationally complex businesses because of agency requirements, investor reporting obligations and borrower assistance programs.

Carrington said its Ginnie Mae expertise will help shape how ValonOS supports government servicing workflows, agency reporting and loss-mitigation programs. The companies confirmed that the portfolio is not exclusively tied to Ginnie Mae but includes a mix of loan types across Valon’s subservicing platform, including conventional loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as home equity lines of credit (HELOCs).

“The Valon platform is not just Ginnie, so the focus is not specifically Ginnie, but broader servicing operations. Carrington is going to help Valon to further develop their Ginnie Mae servicing technology as ValonOS is implemented, given their expertise with these loans,” the companies told HousingWire.

Valon CEO and co-founder Andrew Wang said the partnership would help establish ValonOS as a leading platform for government mortgage servicing.

“Their expertise will make ValonOS the definitive platform for the most complex corner of the industry, and our technology will give Carrington the infrastructure to do what they already do best — at even greater scale,” Wang said.

For Valon, the transaction marks a shift away from operating a mortgage servicer and toward an exclusive focus on technology development.

Valon president and co-founder Linda Du said the company built Valon Mortgage to validate its servicing technology under real-world conditions before expanding into a broader software provider.

“This transaction is structured to let us do what we always intended: go all-in as a technology company,” Du said. “We’re not exiting the mortgage industry. We’re choosing to power it.”

In February, Rithm Capital announced an expanded partnership with Valon Technologies and said it will use Valon’s AI-native mortgage servicing platform to service more than 4 million homeowners.

A spokesperson from Valon said that the acquisition does not impact Rithm’s partnership.

“Carrington’s acquisition of Valon Mortgage allows Valon to turn its full focus towards operating as a technology company serving the broader mortgage ecosystem. This means continuing to develop ValonOS and seeing broader adoption of it across the industry,” the spokesperson clarified.

This post was originally published on here. 

California-based Thomas James Homes (TJH) announced last week that Steve Schlageter has stepped up as the company’s new CEO, after joining the firm as COO in 2024. 

The builder, known as the largest single-lot, infill homebuilder in the nation, was founded in 2006 in Southern California. Since then, the company has expanded into the San Francisco Bay Area, and more recently into the Seattle and Phoenix markets. Over the last two decades, TJH has delivered over 1,400 homes and is on track to deliver another 200 homes for customers this year. 

Schlageter sat down with HousingWire’s The Builder’s Daily to discuss the firm’s strategy and what the company’s next phase of growth may look like. 

A focus on premium, infill lots

TJH focuses exclusively on single-lot luxury builds in highly sought-after, centralized neighborhoods that have typically gone years or decades without new construction. The homes, which sell in the $3 million to $8 million range, target the high-end of the market. This strategy, Schlageter said, has worked well. 

“The beauty of our businesses is that we’re at the center of the bull’s-eye, so there’s really always demand there. The prices can fluctuate a little bit, but not nearly as much as they do when you get out to where people are developing new communities. So we really are insulated from a lot of the supply-demand imbalances that happen nationally, just because of where we build and the nature of demand in those areas.”

Roughly one-third of the business involves build-on-your-lot projects, which typically entail a teardown of an existing house in favor of a larger new home. This is a popular option in wealthy, established neighborhoods, which often have an aging housing stock. 

The remaining two-thirds of the business is tied to company-owned lots. This includes a mix of spec homes and “buy and build” projects, where customers buy early in the process and customize homes during construction.

Bringing a production mindset to infill projects

There is high demand for new homes in central, affluent neighborhoods, but small, local custom builders often handle these infill rebuilds. TJH, Schlageter said, brings a “production mentality” with production-level systems and operational efficiencies to single-lot projects, enabling greater consistency in pricing, timelines and execution.

“No one’s developing communities in these areas. It’s all built out already. So the only opportunity to live in a new home is to do what we do, and we are just better at it than the competitor.”

This emphasis on approaching infill development with a production mentality was part of what attracted Schlageter to TJH. He previously cut his teeth in production homebuilding at PulteGroup, where he worked in various roles such as Raleigh division president, VP of strategic planning and SVP of operations and strategy. 

“My career at Pulte was very focused on operational excellence and making the divisions and the business work at scale. And it was a lot about community development, picking the right rings to develop.”

Schlageter brings that production mindset to TJH’s central infill locations, neighborhoods he refers to as “evergreen demand pockets.”

“I appreciated that there’s an opportunity here to bring efficiency and to bring scale to this business. I started here as a consultant, and just fell in love with the business model, and here we are.”

Thomas James Homes’ next phase of growth

TJH has built about half of its houses in Los Angeles County, and continues to maintain a large presence there. The builder is playing a noteworthy role in rebuilding Los Angeles’ fire-damaged Pacific Palisades neighborhood, with 30 customers under contract and 20 additional customers that could go under contract soon. 

In addition to Los Angeles County, TJH has turned to other markets for growth opportunities. The company opened its Northern California division in 2018 and launched operations in Seattle and Phoenix earlier this decade. 

Drawing on lessons from his time at PulteGroup, Schlageter has prioritized operational excellence and a disciplined approach to market expansion. The goal is to ultimately expand TJH into more states and cities in the future, but for now, the focus is on bolstering operations in existing markets. 

“To be frank, we’ve spent the last, probably two to three years, really honing the business model. It’s hard to go into a new market and compete with people who have been building there forever. It took us a minute to really figure out how to make the business model work. So we haven’t been as focused on growth over the past two to three years as we have on operational efficiency and discipline. Now that we’ve got that, we expect, as we look into ‘27, ‘28 and ‘29, that’s where we’ll start seeing the growth.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Rocket Companies reported its most profitable quarter in four years as artificial intelligence initiatives, a larger servicing portfolio and recent acquisitions helped the Detroit-based firm grow market share despite a choppy mortgage backdrop.

The Detroit-based company reported net revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter ending March 31, up from $1.1 billion in the same period a year earlier. Adjusted revenue rose to $2.82 billion, up from $1.36 billion in Q1 2025, and exceeding the high end of the company’s guidance range.

“This quarter shows the model is working,” CEO Varun Krishna said during the company’s earnings call. “We delivered a strong performance in a volatile market. … Rocket is no longer the same company that it was three years ago. The shape of our business has not just changed — it has fundamentally evolved.

“We are not waiting for the market to normalize. We are building a company that can win in the market we have.”

Adjusted net income totaled $422 million, compared with $80 million in the first quarter of 2025, while adjusted EBITDA increased to $738 million, up from $169 million. Diluted earnings per share were 10 cents, compared with a loss of 8 cents a year ago.

“In Q1, we beat guidance, expanded EBITDA margins and grew market share in both refinance and purchase,” Rocket president and chief financial officer Brian Brown said during Thursday’s earnings call, crediting the record quarter to margins that expanded to 26%.

Rocket generated $49.4 billion in total net rate lock volume during the quarter and $44.7 billion in closed mortgage origination volume. Excluding correspondent lending, the company originated $37.8 billion in closed loan volume with a gain-on-sale margin of 3.22%.

The company generated more than $1 billion in servicing fee income during the quarter, supported by a servicing portfolio that reached $2.1 trillion in unpaid principal balance across 9.4 million loans as of March 31.

Total liquidity stood at $9.4 billion, including $2.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents. The company also had access to $2.3 billion in undrawn lines of credit and $4.4 billion in available mortgage servicing rights and advance lines of credit, its press release noted.

“Closed loan volume from our servicing portfolio hit an all-time high, with 54% of refinance closings coming from existing service clients,” Brown added.

Rocket’s direct-to-consumer segment, Rocket Mortgage, generated $2.23 billion in total revenue during the first quarter, up from $793 million a year earlier. Adjusted revenue rose to $2.11 billion from $1.05 billion, while contribution margin increased to $1.15 billion from $407 million.

Brown provided an update on Rocket’s origination capacity. In 2024, Rocket reported that it had the capacity to originate up to $150 billion without adding fixed costs.

“We now have up to $300 billion of origination capacity with several hundred fewer production team members than we had back in 2024. We’ve done this two years ahead of schedule, while actively reducing fixed costs through synergies,” Brown said.

For Q2 2026, Rocket forecasts adjusted revenue between $2.7 billion and $2.9 billion.

Key Q1 accomplishments

Rocket said integration efforts tied to its acquisition of Mr. Cooper are progressing ahead of schedule. More than half of the servicing portfolio has been migrated to a unified platform, and the company said it expects to achieve its planned $400 million in expense synergies by the end of 2026, a year earlier than originally projected.

“Integration is not putting logos next to each other; it is making the company work better, faster and with more force,” Krishna told investors on Thursday. “In 2025, we built the foundation, we expanded the ecosystem, we strengthened the platform, we widened the top of the funnel, we improved distribution. In 2026, we are bringing it all together across search, origination, servicing, data, and of course, artificial intelligence.”

The company also highlighted investments in AI-powered prospecting tools for loan officers. Rocket said the technology now handles top-of-funnel prospecting and outreach tasks that previously consumed about two hours per day for LOSs, helping drive double-digit increases in conversion rates. The company said its latest AI initiatives added an incremental $1 billion in monthly volume during the quarter, matching gains from the previous quarter.

Rocket’s home equity and jumbo loan businesses more than doubled year over year in the quarter, while Redfin’s monthly active users rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier. The company said digital purchase mortgage leads tied to Redfin more than tripled since Rocket acquired the platform in July 2025.

Rocket also highlighted several technology and distribution initiatives during the quarter, including the February launch of Rocket Pro’s “Power Play” program, which offers mortgage brokers up to 100 basis points in pricing credits through a partnership with Compass.

The company also expanded use of its Rocket Pro Navigate broker platform and Jupiter loan origination system, which is available to brokers at no cost.

This post was originally published on here. 

California-based Thomas James Homes (TJH) announced last week that Steve Schlageter has stepped up as the company’s new CEO, after joining the firm as COO in 2024. 

The builder, known as the largest single-lot, infill homebuilder in the nation, was founded in 2006 in Southern California. Since then, the company has expanded into the San Francisco Bay Area, and more recently into the Seattle and Phoenix markets. Over the last two decades, TJH has delivered over 1,400 homes and is on track to deliver another 200 homes for customers this year. 

Schlageter sat down with HousingWire’s The Builder’s Daily to discuss the firm’s strategy and what the company’s next phase of growth may look like. 

A focus on premium, infill lots

TJH focuses exclusively on single-lot luxury builds in highly sought-after, centralized neighborhoods that have typically gone years or decades without new construction. The homes, which sell in the $3 million to $8 million range, target the high-end of the market. This strategy, Schlageter said, has worked well. 

“The beauty of our businesses is that we’re at the center of the bull’s-eye, so there’s really always demand there. The prices can fluctuate a little bit, but not nearly as much as they do when you get out to where people are developing new communities. So we really are insulated from a lot of the supply-demand imbalances that happen nationally, just because of where we build and the nature of demand in those areas.”

Roughly one-third of the business involves build-on-your-lot projects, which typically entail a teardown of an existing house in favor of a larger new home. This is a popular option in wealthy, established neighborhoods, which often have an aging housing stock. 

The remaining two-thirds of the business is tied to company-owned lots. This includes a mix of spec homes and “buy and build” projects, where customers buy early in the process and customize homes during construction.

Bringing a production mindset to infill projects

There is high demand for new homes in central, affluent neighborhoods, but small, local custom builders often handle these infill rebuilds. TJH, Schlageter said, brings a “production mentality” with production-level systems and operational efficiencies to single-lot projects, enabling greater consistency in pricing, timelines and execution.

“No one’s developing communities in these areas. It’s all built out already. So the only opportunity to live in a new home is to do what we do, and we are just better at it than the competitor.”

This emphasis on approaching infill development with a production mentality was part of what attracted Schlageter to TJH. He previously cut his teeth in production homebuilding at PulteGroup, where he worked in various roles such as Raleigh division president, VP of strategic planning and SVP of operations and strategy. 

“My career at Pulte was very focused on operational excellence and making the divisions and the business work at scale. And it was a lot about community development, picking the right rings to develop.”

Schlageter brings that production mindset to TJH’s central infill locations, neighborhoods he refers to as “evergreen demand pockets.”

“I appreciated that there’s an opportunity here to bring efficiency and to bring scale to this business. I started here as a consultant, and just fell in love with the business model, and here we are.”

Thomas James Homes’ next phase of growth

TJH has built about half of its houses in Los Angeles County, and continues to maintain a large presence there. The builder is playing a noteworthy role in rebuilding Los Angeles’ fire-damaged Pacific Palisades neighborhood, with 30 customers under contract and 20 additional customers that could go under contract soon. 

In addition to Los Angeles County, TJH has turned to other markets for growth opportunities. The company opened its Northern California division in 2018 and launched operations in Seattle and Phoenix earlier this decade. 

Drawing on lessons from his time at PulteGroup, Schlageter has prioritized operational excellence and a disciplined approach to market expansion. The goal is to ultimately expand TJH into more states and cities in the future, but for now, the focus is on bolstering operations in existing markets. 

“To be frank, we’ve spent the last, probably two to three years, really honing the business model. It’s hard to go into a new market and compete with people who have been building there forever. It took us a minute to really figure out how to make the business model work. So we haven’t been as focused on growth over the past two to three years as we have on operational efficiency and discipline. Now that we’ve got that, we expect, as we look into ‘27, ‘28 and ‘29, that’s where we’ll start seeing the growth.”

This post was originally published on here. 

A bill overriding local zoning authority to allow housing on idle Southeast Florida golf courses drew little public attention during Florida’s legislative session.

When the Infill Redevelopment Act passed, warnings over problems it could cause bubbled up, but only in limited circles. It passed in March without a single “nay” vote in the Senate and overwhelmingly cleared the House.

The bill landed on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk this week, and now what were isolated warnings have flared up into threats of lawsuits as homeowners fear their million-dollar views of golf course greens and fairways will disappear.

“You’re going to see a lot of angry voters,” Steve Geller, a Broward County commissioner and former state senator, told The Builder’s Daily.

The bill is the latest in a series of state laws that have made Florida a national example for stripping local governments of zoning authority in the name of housing affordability – a pattern that has sparked lawsuits and resistance from counties and municipalities statewide.

A narrow law impacting three counties

Sponsored by Miami state Sen. Alexis Calatayud, the bill explicitly bars local governments from adopting or enforcing any ordinance, regulation or law that “restricts, prohibits, or otherwise limits” residential development on qualifying parcels. A staff-level administrative approval is all the law demands.

Qualifying land must be a minimum of five acres of environmentally impacted land in a county with a population exceeding 1.475 million and at least 15 municipalities. Those thresholds limit the law’s reach to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The bill’s most detailed section addresses former recreational facilities – specifically naming golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools and clubhouses. Developers seeking to build on such sites must prove that the facilities have been idle for at least 12 consecutive months, pay double the applicable parks and recreation impact fees, and notify adjacent property owners by certified mail.

Those neighbors have 90 days to purchase the land at a price capped by law before the developer can proceed.

Critics warn the peril may outweigh the promise. Insurance defense attorney John Riordan of Kelley Kronenberg in West Palm Beach told the Insurance Journal the legislation “is likely to generate several categories of litigation, including insurance coverage disputes, construction defect/toxic exposure claims, mass tort litigation, and government preemption challenges.”

Calatayud has argued the bill does not remove existing environmental cleanup requirements and only removes zoning barriers that have driven up costs for developers and homebuyers.

A pattern of pushback

DeSantis signed the Live Local Act in 2023 to fund workforce housing and streamline development as a housing crisis emerged from the state’s nation-leading population growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the state has also become a litmus test for local government pushback. Hillsborough County sued the state in March, arguing Live Local is unconstitutional because it undermines local land-use control and violates due process.

Developers have sued municipalities that rejected Live Local projects. In late March, a Broward County judge ruled in favor of Hollywood’s decision to reject a proposed 17-story beachfront tower under Live Local rules.

Keith Poliakoff, the developer’s attorney, told The Builder’s Daily that the developer filed a notice of appeal but is awaiting a decision on a motion to reconsider.

To counter local government resistance, state lawmakers have tweaked Live Local three times. The 4.0 version passed earlier this year.

Defining the affordability challenge

“The Legislature finds that this state’s urban areas lack sufficient land for the development of additional residential uses, which has led to a shortage of supply,” the bill states.

The Atlantic Ocean borders Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach to the east and the Everglades and state wildlife management areas to the west, with their northern and southern edges largely built out. To build needed housing, that means building up, Geller said.

Idle golf courses are among the last large, undeveloped parcels left in those counties. Palm Beach County touts itself as Florida’s Golf Capital, with more than 150 courses. Broward and Miami-Dade have roughly 40 or more each.

Florida golf courses typically cover about 170 acres for an 18-hole course, according to a 2021 report by smart growth advocacy organization 1000 Friends of Florida. At that size, the bill puts more than 50,000 acres in play for possible redevelopment.

Golf courses would have to cease operating to unlock any of that land. Golf was a dying sport before the pandemic, causing financial trouble for courses nationwide. Many closed. The sport gained renewed interest during the pandemic, but how long that lasts remains an open question, Geller said.

“We do have an affordable housing crisis in Southeast Florida,” Geller said. “We are typically battling with Orlando over who is the most unaffordable in the nation.”

But he said the answer to the affordability crisis isn’t to take away local government control.

This post was originally published on here. 

As mortgage rates and home prices continue to strain homebuyers, states are rapidly expanding programs aimed at making homeownership more affordable.

Housing affordability pressures remain severe nationwide. As of May 1, the median price for a U.S. single-family home sat at $449,038, according to HousingWire Data.

Prices vary sharply by state, with Hawaii remaining the most expensive at a median of $1,224,998 — 173% above the national figure. Massachusetts ranks second at $832,450, followed by California at $799,000.

According to Down Payment Resource, there were 2,679 homebuyer assistance programs nationwide as of early 2026. The organization reported that most are operated by state housing finance agencies, municipalities and nonprofit groups.

Data also showed more than half of all down payment assistance programs are structured as second mortgages, often with deferred payments or forgiveness provisions. Many provide direct assistance for down payments or closing costs — two of the largest barriers facing first-time homebuyers.

Middle-income buyers increasingly targeted

Programs are increasingly expanding aid beyond low-income workers and toward members of the middle class struggling to enter the housing market.

In Massachusetts, the state recently highlighted a zero-interest loan program offering up to $25,000 in assistance for eligible first-time buyers. The loans are repaid only when the home is sold or refinanced, according to details from the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency.

In North Carolina, eligible buyers can receive up to $15,000 through a deferred second mortgage program. Information on the program is available through North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, which administers the program.

California continues operating one of the nation’s highest-profile affordability efforts through its Dream For All shared-appreciation program. The initiative can provide up to 20% of a home’s purchase price in exchange for a share of future appreciation, according to the California Housing Finance Agency.

States experiment with new financing models

States also are increasingly using layered financing models that combine state aid with federal loan programs, mortgage tax credits and nonprofit grants.

Programs commonly include forgivable loans, deferred-payment second mortgages and below-market interest rates designed to reduce monthly housing costs and upfront expenses.

In Florida, the state housing agency offers fixed-rate mortgages paired with down payment and closing-cost assistance through multiple programs targeted at first-time and workforce buyers.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco also recently expanded middle-income down payment assistance programs in several Western states — allowing eligible borrowers to receive up to $50,000 in support.

Housing finance agencies increasingly describe these efforts as necessary stopgap measures while broader housing supply shortages persist.

Education requirements remain common

Many state assistance programs require applicants to complete homebuyer education courses before receiving aid.

Housing agencies say the courses help reduce default risks by teaching buyers about budgeting, mortgage terms and long-term homeownership costs. Programs frequently direct applicants to federally certified counseling agencies or online education platforms.

Freddie Mac now operates a searchable platform that aggregates more than 1,000 state and local assistance programs nationwide.

Economists caution that while down payment assistance can help buyers overcome upfront financial barriers, it does little to address the broader housing shortage that continues driving prices higher in many markets.

Still, as affordability pressures intensify, homebuyer assistance has moved far beyond the scope of poverty relief — growing into an economic strategy to preserve broad access to homeownership.

This article was written by Jonathan Delozier and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

At this week’s Reverse Mastermind Summit in Tennessee, Gabe Bodner of OneTrust Home Loans gave a detailed presentation on how reverse mortgage originators can achieve better marketing results. A key takeaway is that loan officers need to build a support system for these tasks rather than trying to go it alone.

Bodner joined OneTrust in late 2024 and has more than 20 years of industry experience, with prior stops at Fairway Home Mortgage and Cherry Creek Mortgage. HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily was at the summit to capture his remarks, which are summarized below and edited for clarity.

‘I believe we are the product’

I’m here to talk about personal branding, but I took note of a couple things from this event already. Shannon Hicks talked about being curious versus being able to explain the product. Dan Hultquist said the secret is personal relationships. Christina Harmes talked about storytelling. Lisa Moriello talked about the importance of taking responsibility and owning your business.

George Vrban talked about building trust and that’s almost entirely what my presentation is about. Selling is about a transfer of positive energy — and to feel good about the product you sell, you should have trust, energy and consistency. Here’s the reality: In today’s market, especially with reverse mortgages, we’re not just selling a product. I believe we are the product.

No one, I assure you, is closing a reverse mortgage because of the rate sheet. No top producer in this room is winning a deal because they’ve got the best rate. They’re choosing you because they’re trusting you to guide them through this process, which can be complicated. The product can be complicated, and once again, they’re trusting you to guide them through this process.

In my opinion, the goal is to be remembered, trusted and referred to. That’s where branding comes in. So let’s start with something simple: Branding is not something new that you have to learn. It’s everywhere, every day, in our lives. What do you feel when you see the Nike logo? Action, motivation. What about Costco? You can’t get out of there without a huge amount of bulk items. Toyota? It’s all about reliability.

When you look at these brands and that feeling, it’s not complicated, and it’s truly happening whether you control it or not. That’s what branding actually is — it’s not the logo, it’s not the colors, it’s the feeling that people have and what they actually expect from you.

Most of us don’t have the luxury of a big bank’s brand name. Loan officers at big banks borrow trust from that brand. But for us as reverse mortgage loan officers, not only do we not have trust, there’s also distrust in both our product and us as people. So we have to establish that trust — and we have to establish it immediately.

How to get the ball rolling

Let me give you a very simple, three-part framework. Don’t overcomplicate this. It’s really about three things: visibility, consistency and credibility. If people don’t see you, you just don’t exist. If you show up differently every single time, no one remembers you. And with credibility, if people don’t trust you, none of it actually matters.

If I ask your top referral partner how they would introduce you to a prospective client, what do you want them to say? You offer the lowest rates? Absolutely not. For me, I want people to say I’m educational, relationship driven and straightforward. What are your three words? If you have not defined them, you need to.

This is where people get stuck, because they think they have to do everything. I started with a weekly newsletter. You can repurpose content. I take my weekly newsletter and I create a podcast. I also use that newsletter to write for my local newspaper. After a year and a half of writing for the paper, I took all that content and wrote a book.

You do not have to do everything at once, but you do have to pick one or two things and do them consistently. Here’s the other key: Do what you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy writing, don’t start writing, because you’re not going to be consistent. If you don’t like being in front of a camera, don’t start doing YouTube videos, because you’re not going to be consistent. Do what you enjoy that will allow you to be consistent.

Why are most loan officers not doing all of this? People don’t have time or marketing support. They don’t know where to start. They don’t have systems. They might have company compliance concerns.

There’s a lot of people in this room, I believe, who can help you get where you want to be. You need website support, advertising, social media, CRM systems, content creation. REVERSE plus and Reverse Focus have great technology and great support. When this is in place, branding actually becomes relatively simple. It allows you to be consistent and ultimately scale your business to a place where George Vrban has gotten.

The question is, are you being intentional about your brand or is the market defining it for you? In my honest opinion, the LOs who will be successful in the next five years won’t be those with the best interest rates. It will be the people who are known and trusted.

This post was originally published on here. 

For many real estate agents, creating polished video content once required expensive equipment, editing expertise or hiring outside production teams. But Mirage, an AI-driven, on-demand video production company, is helping to make these hurdles a relic of the past.

CEO and co-founder Gaurav Misra sat down with HousingWire to detail the significant popularity gained in the real estate space by Mirage — with its Captions platform offering automated editing, AI-generated captions, avatars and property-tour creation tools.

Real estate has become one of the largest user segments for Captions, as the platform exports roughly 40,000 videos from the sector each month, according to the company. In April, Mirage launched Cappy, a texting-based AI video editor that allows users to create and edit videos by sending prompts, photos and clips through a phone number interface.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Gaurav Misra: A lot of (use of Captions by real estate agents) in the beginning circled around market updates, social media posts, stuff like that. People want to keep a pulse on social media and keep posting stuff so they can keep the audience engaged on what’s happening in the neighborhood and what the trends are.

More recently, we launched this product around property tours. So this was just about a couple of weeks ago where we wanted to see whether people will be more willing to create actual property tours through AI-augmented technology.

Obviously a big issue there is, you don’t want to misrepresent the property. You don’t want AI to come up with something that isn’t there.

Jonathan Delozier: We recently published an article about that exact thing.

Misra: Yep, nobody wants to do that. People don’t want to actively misrepresent anything, and we don’t want to accidentally enable that for anybody either.

We had make a lot of effort to figure out, how do we make a video that’s very representative of what the property actually is while also elevating the production, so it looks better than what you might be able to record on your iPhone? And it needs to look professionally produced with amazing camera movement, great transitions and stuff like that.

Delozier: When did you really start to gain traction in real estate?

Misra: (Real estate was) our biggest audience from the beginning, when we started the app. The first feature we had on making it easy to create videos was adding captions. That’s why the app is called Captions. That in itself was pretty popular for real estate from the beginning.

We have other large segments — things like faith, for example, and fitness — but real estate is the largest one. I think it’s because a lot of real estate agents are trying to be seen, right? They’re trying to be seen everywhere and that’s a big part of how they’re selling.

One Captions user shared their experience with HousingWire.

“I was competing with an agent who has 30% of the sales in the neighborhood,” said Peter Ripa, a real estate professional at Coldwell Banker Realty. “The videos opened the door to building trust and consideration. I would not have received the call or listing presentation opportunity without the professional videos I was able to create with Captions.”

Delozier: Say you’re an agent, you have 10 or 15 minutes between showings, and you’re by no means any sort of editing expert. What’s the creation process like with Captions?

Misra: The whole premise of our application is, we don’t want you to edit the video. We don’t want you to spend the time pressing buttons on a small screen with your thumbs and trying to figure it out. Almost all editing software apps that are out there focus on giving you a lot of control — a lot of buttons and a lot of stuff to learn. For real estate agents, this is a means to an end. They’re not trying to become an editing expert. They want to market. They want to get in front of people.

More recently, we were thinking, how do we make this even more accessible to everybody, where you’re really on the go and you don’t have the time to download apps and stuff like that? How can you do it then?

We came up with this idea of a texting-based version of the application, where we have a number and you can just text the number a bunch of pictures and the prompt, and it will respond back with the video put together for you. It responds just like a person who will make jokes and say normal things. So you can talk to it.

One thing that’s really taking off right now are more generative effects. Say you’re selling a plot of land but also want to help people imagine what you could possibly build on it, or what you could do with it, how you could utilize it.

If we have a bunch of photos of the property, can we kind of virtually reconstruct it and allow people to film within this virtual environment, where they can take the camera different places and take different types of footage of the property without actually being there? Those are some of the things we’re thinking about.

This post was originally published on here. 

For most people, the foreclosure crisis is a distant memory.

Foreclosure activity, in fact, has been unusually low since the government implemented a national moratorium and an unprecedented mortgage payment forbearance program at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Five years later, foreclosure activity is still about 30% lower than it was in 2019, but appears to be gradually working its way back up to pre-pandemic levels. Much of this increased activity is being driven by deteriorating loan performance in the FHA portfolio, a situation being closely monitored by mortgage industry analysts and default servicing professionals.

In fact, half of all seriously delinquent mortgage loans – loans 90 or more days past due – are FHA loans, despite the fact that FHA loans make up only about 11% of all active mortgages. And this may only be the tip of the iceberg: there are signs that FHA loan delinquencies and defaults might get worse in the months ahead.

Is there a perfect storm gaining steam and about to hit the pool of FHA loans?

Storm clouds forming

FHA loans generally have higher delinquency and default rates than conventional loans, but the performance gap between these two loan types has seldom been as wide as it is today. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association Q4 2025 National Delinquency Survey, 4.26% of all mortgage loans were delinquent but not in foreclosure at the end of the year. But conventional loans had a near-record low level of delinquency at 2.89%, while FHA loans were past due at a much higher rate of 11.52% – the highest delinquency rate (excluding the COVID period) since 2012.

More troubling is that delinquent FHA borrowers are becoming more seriously delinquent and doing so more frequently than their conventional counterparts. In its April 2026 Mortgage Monitor, ICE reported that severe delinquencies – loans 90 or more days past due or in foreclosure – had increased by 25% over the past four months.

The report noted that “FHA loans have accounted for more than 80 percent of the recent increase, with seriously past due FHA volumes up by more than 40 percent over that span.”

In the same report, ICE also mentioned that FHA defaults had increased by 12% during those four months, and that “cure rates,” delinquent loans that are restored to current status, were down by 40% for all loans since Q3 2025, but down by about 70% among FHA loans.

Mortgage servicers know the reason for this: The FHA revised its loss mitigation policies on Oct. 1, 2025 in two critical ways.

First, it removed the option of exercising multiple partial claims that borrowers (and servicers) were using, which had been providing delinquent FHA borrowers a way to tap into their home equity to catch up on missed payments. A predictable cycle was happening: borrowers became delinquent; exercised a partial claim; were reclassified as “current” instead of rolling into late-stage delinquency; then they missed future payments and became delinquent again, and exercised another partial claim. Wash, rinse, spin, repeat.

In this process, FHA loan performance looked better than it actually was, but the FHA closed this loophole in October, limiting borrowers to one try at loss mitigation every 24 months. The FHA also implemented a three-month trial period, requiring borrowers to make on-time payments during that period in order to qualify for a permanent loan mod. Both of these rules have resulted in FHA delinquencies increasing significantly.

But changing market dynamics suggest that the worst is yet to come.

Rough seas ahead

Because borrowers with FHA loans can take out a mortgage with as little as a 3.5% down payment, they generally start out with less equity than conventional borrowers. FHA borrowers, often first-time homebuyers, also typically have higher debt-to-income ratios, lower credit scores and lower cash reserves.

None of these factors necessarily makes FHA borrowers an unacceptably high risk; but they do limit the borrowers’ ability to escape a foreclosure if they find themselves in financial distress, or if market conditions take an unexpected turn.

Imagine a scenario where these FHA borrowers unexpectedly found themselves in a situation where monthly home payments suddenly increased dramatically at the same time as home prices fell.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine that scenario because it’s taking place today.

High concentration. High risk.

FHA borrowers, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, are heavily concentrated through the country’s Southern states. Over 20% of all mortgages in Oklahoma and Mississippi are FHA loans, as are more than 16% of mortgages in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico. Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, South Carolina and Kentucky at over 13%, have a slightly lower concentration of FHA borrowers, but are still higher than the national average.

The reason this is relevant is that metro areas in all these states have experienced falling home prices since the market peak in 2022. Florida and Texas – which each account for over 10% of all FHA mortgage loans – have seen home prices decline between 10 and 20%, likely putting many FHA borrowers effectively underwater on their loans.

But the risk isn’t limited to just those two states: according to data from Zillow, of the 89 major metro areas where home prices declined from March 2025 to March 2026, 53 were located in the states with a high percentage of FHA loans.

Meanwhile, the price of homeownership for those borrowers has risen dramatically. Homeowner’s insurance rose by 8.5% in 2025, following an 18% increase in 2024. Cotality reports that property taxes have risen by over 15% since just before the pandemic. Those rising insurance premiums and property taxes have caused escrow payments to soar by 45% nationally since 2019 – and they now account for over 40% of monthly mortgage payments in many markets (in 10% of markets, escrow payments are higher than the borrower’s principal and interest payments).

But wait! There’s more.

The New York Fed also reports that student loan delinquency rates are also unusually high in the Southern states – every state mentioned above as having a high concentration of FHA mortgages has student loan delinquency rates above 25%, except Florida and South Carolina, which are both just below that rate.

It’s the definition of a “perfect storm” for homeowners with FHA loans: higher monthly payments, falling home values, negative equity, debt collection on student loans and more restrictive loss mitigation options. While we’re still very unlikely to see a massive flood of foreclosures, we’re very likely to see a much higher number of FHA borrowers go under than we have in the past few years.

What this means for industry professionals

The implications for mortgage servicers – and the attorneys, collection agents, process servers, field service firms and other professionals who support them – are obvious. It’s time to anticipate a higher volume of delinquent loans, with a higher percentage of those loans ultimately defaulting and going into foreclosure.

While it will be important to explore all available options to help borrowers avoid a foreclosure, it will also be critical to stay up to date with changing loss mitigation and foreclosure procedures from the FHA and from each of the states where the default volume is likely to increase later this year. And to be ready to inspect, appraise, secure and ultimately bring back to market any homes that aren’t sold at the foreclosure auction.

For real estate agents and brokers, there may be listing opportunities with FHA borrowers who can pursue a short sale – or with homeowners who may still have enough equity to participate in a traditional sale – in order to avoid going through a foreclosure. And there may be an uptick in the number of REO homes to list from HUD, so make sure to be in touch with the asset managers who assign those listings.

This post was originally published on here. 

Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, are no longer a fringe housing concept. They are becoming a more practical option for homeowners facing affordability pressure, still-constrained housing supply and the mortgage-rate lock-in effect.

In 2025, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that households earning $75,000 annually could afford just 21.2% of active listings, well below balanced-market norms. Realtor.com also reported that, although inventory improved, the number of homes for sale in July 2025 remained 13.4% below pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, Freddie Mac found that nearly 6 in 10 borrowers have a mortgage rate at or below 4%, while the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) estimated that mortgage-rate lock-in reduced fixed-rate home sales by 57% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and prevented 1.33 million sales between the second quarter of 2022 and the fourth quarter of 2023.

Together, those forces are making it more attractive for homeowners to invest in the properties they already have rather than move. For home equity lenders, that shift is worth watching closely.

The reasons homeowners build ADUs are varied. Some want to create space for aging parents or adult children. Others are looking for rental income or a way to make better use of their existing property. Whatever the motivation, the project is often more substantial than a typical home improvement job, and that changes the financing conversation. ADU projects frequently reach six figures and are increasingly being financed, at least in part, through home equity products such as HELOCs and home equity loans. That matters because ADU-related borrowing can look different from more routine home equity activity.

First, the loan sizes are often larger. A borrower financing an ADU is not usually replacing a roof or remodeling a bathroom. They are adding functional living space, which may require a more meaningful capital commitment. In a lending environment where balance growth and revenue per loan remain important, that alone makes the segment notable.

Second, ADUs may affect collateral in ways that other projects do not. ADUs can increase a property’s nominal value by adding living space and, in some cases, income-producing potential. The Journal of Light Construction’s 2025 Cost vs Value Report shows that ADUs deliver the highest average nominal home value among 28 common remodeling projects. This does not eliminate underwriting risk, but it does suggest that ADU projects may create more room for lenders to support larger extensions of credit while remaining within policy thresholds.

There is also a longer-term relationship angle. Rental income from an ADU can strengthen a borrower’s financial profile over time, potentially creating future borrowing opportunities. For lenders focused on lifetime customer value rather than one-time transactions, that possibility is significant.

Still, ADU financing is not simply a bigger version of a standard home improvement loan. It can introduce operational and valuation complexity that many lenders are not fully set up to handle today. There are two ways to approach this. In the more common model, lenders underwrite based on the home’s current value and treat the ADU purely as a use of proceeds. In the second, lenders consider the property’s future value after the ADU is completed, which may require plans, contractor estimates or even rental market analysis.

That distinction has real business implications. A lender that relies only on as-is valuation may be able to serve some ADU borrowers, but it may also constrain loan amounts or exclude borrowers whose qualification depends on the projected post-completion value of the property. By contrast, a lender that can support more flexible valuation and documentation workflows may be better positioned to serve a broader range of ADU scenarios. This is where the ADU conversation shifts from product innovation to operational readiness.

Most lenders do not need a brand-new loan product to participate in this segment. What they may need is the ability to distinguish between different ADU use cases, align documentation requirements accordingly and route loans through workflows that match the project’s complexity. In practice, lenders that can tailor internal program logic, valuation steps and supporting services to the specifics of an ADU project may be better equipped to serve borrowers without adding unnecessary friction to simpler loans.

More broadly, ADU financing may be a preview of where home equity lending is heading. Borrowers are increasingly using familiar products for more complex financial goals, whether that means expanding a home for multigenerational living, creating rental income or unlocking value without giving up a low first-lien mortgage rate. The lenders that stand to benefit may be the ones that recognize this evolution early and adapt their processes to support it.

In that sense, ADUs are not just another lending niche. They are a case study of how borrower behavior is changing and how home equity lenders may need to adapt.

Ramiro Castro is Chief Product Officer at home equity lending technology provider FirstClose. 
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com.

This post was originally published on here. 

Resident, a Los Angeles-based luxury real estate brokerage, has expanded into Napa Valley as the firm looks to capitalize on growing demand for lifestyle-oriented housing markets.

The move marks the company’s first expansion into northern California wine country and comes as more buyers seek properties that function as both primary residences and retreat-style living environments, leaders said.

Founded by Jon Grauman and Lauren Grauman, the company reported more than $200 million in closed and pending transactions and more than 50 deals completed or under contract in 2026.

“Napa has always been deeply personal for us,” said Jon Grauman. “As we spend more time here and build our life in this community, it became clear there was an opportunity to introduce our design-driven approach to how homes are marketed and experienced.”

Resident said its Napa Valley operation will mirror the approach used in Los Angeles, focusing on cinematic marketing branding and collaboration with local agents developers and homeowners.

Lauren Grauman said luxury buyers increasingly expect a more immersive and service-oriented experience.

“We’re seeing buyers prioritize lifestyle and environment in a much more meaningful manner,” Lauren Grauman added. “In markets like Napa, there’s a growing expectation that the real estate experience feels more like hospitality — from how a home is presented to how clients are guided through the process.

“For us, this expansion isn’t just about entering a new market — it’s about becoming part of the fabric of Napa.”

The company cited research pointing to continued strength in second-home and hybrid living markets since the pandemic, particularly in regions offering outdoor amenities, lower density and proximity to major metropolitan areas.

Resident said its expansion will also be documented through its in-house media platform, including The Resident Series, a digital show focused on the company’s growth and luxury listings.

The Napa initiative is expected to include coverage of high-profile transactions in the region, including representation tied to properties at Auberge Resorts Collection’s Stanly Ranch development.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Lane McCormack has been named president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida, according to an announcement on Thursday from HomeServices of America.

McCormack, a veteran real estate executive with more than 28 years of industry experience, joins the Northwest Florida brokerage from Ansley Real Estate/Christie’s International Real Estate. She spent seven years at Ansley, most recently as CEO and qualifying broker, where she helped scale operations and expand the firm’s presence in the luxury segment, according to the company announcement.

“Lane is a dynamic and visionary leader whose experience and reputation in the luxury space makes her uniquely suited to lead Beach Properties of Florida,” said Chris Kelly, CEO of HomeServices of America. “Her ability to grow organizations, develop talent and deliver exceptional results aligns perfectly with our long-term strategy and commitment to excellence.”

In her new role, McCormack will oversee Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida, a brokerage focused on coastal and luxury properties from the Forgotten Coast to the Emerald Coast. The firm operates in a market that has seen sustained high demand from second-home buyers, investors and move-up purchasers, even as higher mortgage rates and affordability pressures have cooled many inland markets.

Before joining Ansley, McCormack held multiple senior leadership roles within the HomeServices of America network, including managing broker at Prudential Georgia Properties (now Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties) and senior vice president and managing broker at Harry Norman, Realtors. She has also been active in industry leadership as president of the Atlanta Realtors Association. 

“I am honored to return to HomeServices of America and lead Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida,” McCormack said in a statement. “This organization has an incredible reputation, and I look forward to working alongside our talented professionals to build on that legacy, grow our presence in the luxury coastal market and support our agents in achieving new levels of success.”

Her appointment also enables a leadership shift elsewhere in the organization.

Jimmy Burgess, who previously led Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida, will focus full time on his role as chief coaching officer of HomeServices of America, where he is developing coaching initiatives for the company’s national network of brokerages and franchisees.

“Jimmy has already made a meaningful impact across HomeServices of America and the broader industry through his passion for coaching and agent development, and this next step allows him to extend that impact even further,” Kelly said.

This is the second executive appointment HomeServices of America has announced in the past two days. On Wednesday, the firm named industry veteran Jason Waugh as successor to HSF Affiliates CEO Vince Leisey, with a leadership transition expected to begin in 2027.

This article was written by Brooklee Han and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

As more Americans juggle caring for aging parents while supporting their own children, reverse mortgage professionals are increasingly navigating emotionally complex family dynamics that can determine whether a loan proceeds or stalls.

That reality is the focus of an upcoming webinar sponsored by the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA). “The Influence Factor: Family Dynamics in Reverse Mortgages,” will be led by Barbara Cripple, national sales training manager at Finance of America.

Families often enter reverse mortgage discussions with concerns centered on the home, inheritance and overall loan costs, Cripple said in an interview with HousingWire‘s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD).

“The most common concerns adult children raise usually center around three things: the home, the inheritance and the cost,” Cripple said. “Those are legitimate concerns and should be discussed directly.”

Cripple noted that reverse mortgages are loans secured by the home and come with ongoing borrower obligations, including payment of property taxes and homeowners insurance, maintenance and continuing to occupy the home as a primary residence.

“If those obligations are not met, the loan can become due and payable,” she said.

Adult children also frequently worry about how much home equity may remain for heirs over time as loan balances grow, Cripple told RMD. But she added that many concerns stem from outdated or incomplete information about the product.

“Today’s reverse mortgages include important consumer protections, but they are not risk-free and they are not right for everyone,” Cripple said. “The best conversations happen when families look at the facts together.”

The webinar will also focus on the role of the “sandwich generation,” referring to adults who are simultaneously caring for children and aging parents, and how these pressures shape borrower decision making.

“In sandwich generation households, adult children are often balancing caring for their own kids while also supporting aging parents,” Cripple said. “That creates added pressure and sometimes urgency in financial decisions.

“You’ll often see role reversal, where the child feels responsible for protecting the parent, which can lead to them dominating the conversation or second-guessing decisions,” she added. “At the same time, the parent may be trying to maintain independence and avoid feeling like a burden.”

These “competing needs,” Cripple explained, can complicate the decision-making process. Emotional barriers — including fear, anxiety and guilt — also frequently emerge during reverse mortgage discussions and only make the process more complicated.

“Adult children may fear making the wrong decision or regretting it later,” she said. “Borrowers may fear losing independence or being seen as financially unstable.”

Rather than immediately focusing on product education, Cripple said reverse mortgage professionals should first acknowledge emotional concerns and build trust.

“The key is not to rush into education, but to acknowledge emotion first,” she said. “Let people feel heard. … Decisions like this are not made on math alone; they’re made on emotion, trust and family influence.”

Cripple said families also commonly misunderstand how reverse mortgages work, including a belief that the lender immediately takes ownership of the home or assuming the loan automatically eliminates inheritance.

“The reality is more nuanced,” she said. “A reverse mortgage is still a loan secured by the home, so it has real obligations and risks, but the borrower remains on title as long as they meet the loan requirements.”

This post was originally published on here. 

The MLS/CLAW has updated its Internet Data Exchange (IDX) policy and will add Compass International Holdings’ full active listing inventory to its system, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

The policy changes are designed to preserve a “fair marketplace” for listings and shield members from third-party platforms that could limit listing visibility or harm client outcomes, according to Annie Ives, CEO of The MLS/CLAW.

The MLS/CLAW said it will continue to offer listing-entry flexibility, including its MLS Exclusive (MX) status. MX listings are available only to MLS members and can remain in that status for the entire life of the listing. While a property is in MX, days on market and price history are not recorded, although both appear once the listing is sold.

Under the revised approach, Compass International Holdings’ real estate professionals — along with all members of The MLS/CLAW — will be able to manually enter premarketed listings as MLS Exclusives. The MLS/CLAW will also receive Compass’s full active listing inventory, further consolidating local market data for participating brokers and agents.

Opening MX to Compass’s premarketed listings and refining IDX rules gives listing brokers more control over where and how listings appear while still keeping inventory within the MLS ecosystem.

For brokerages and agents navigating post-commission settlement changes and growing scrutiny of off-MLS marketing, clear rules around exclusive statuses and IDX displays are increasingly important for risk management and client transparency.

Membership in The MLS/CLAW is open to any real estate professional nationwide with an active license through the California Department of Real Estate. The MLS/CLAW serves more than 16,000 agents and brokers in Southern California, from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway, and operates its own internally developed listing and software platform.

This is the third MLS that Compass has announced a partnership with in recent weeks. In April, Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and Tennessee-based Realtracs announced they had secured nationwide listing feeds from Compass International Holdings.

This article was written by Brooklee Han and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

eXp World Holdings Inc. has acquired national real estate franchise NextHome, Inc, according to an announcement on Thursday. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Through this acquisition, eXp is adding a full franchise option alongside its cloud-based brokerage model.

Reflecting the acquisition, eXp said it will begin trading under a new Nasdaq ticker, “AGNT,” on Friday.

The Bellingham, Washington-based holding company for eXp Realty, FrameVR.io and SUCCESS Enterprises, said in an announcement that the deal is designed to turn its existing infrastructure into a “multi-model platform” that can support different brands and business structures under one global umbrella.

NextHome, which has more than 500 franchisees across the U.S., brings a proven franchise system into the eXp ecosystem at a time when many large brokerages are exploring different models and franchising options through mergers and acquisitions. According to the announcement, NextHome will continue to run the franchise brand within the eXp platform.

“We’ve moved from being a single brokerage to being the Global Operating System for Real Estate,” Leo Pareja, CEO of eXp Realty, told HousingWire.

According to Pareja, the acquisition provides eXp’s agents with “unmatched referral power,” the ability to attract new talent and the opportunity to build a legacy.

“We’ve removed the compromise. Whether a recruit wants cloud scale or a franchise, our agents now represent a parent company that offers the premier solution for both,” Pareja said.

For housing professionals, the combined platform is positioned to function as a choice between models — operating under eXp Realty’s cloud-based brokerage with aggressive splits, revenue share and equity incentives, or building a branded franchise under NextHome’s system and “humans over houses” culture. That flexibility could matter more as agents and teams reassess where to affiliate in the new brokerage environment.

“In a shifting market, resilience is the ultimate competitive advantage. By diversifying our model, we’ve created a more robust company — one that gives our agents more ways to serve clients and more tools to grow their business,” Pareja said. “Our agents can walk into any listing presentation backed by a platform that’s built for today’s market and positioned for where this industry is going.” 

James Dwiggins, Co-CEO of NextHome, said in the company’s announcement that “joining forces with eXp World Holdings is a natural evolution” of NextHome’s mission. Dwiggins told HousingWire that the deal “couldn’t have been a better fit for today’s real estate environment.”

“Our brokers and agents now have access to a massive referral network of agents and listing inventory that mid- to smaller-sized companies simply won’t — especially if a private listings war ensues. Finally, consumers care about the experience they have with their agent,” Dwiggins said. “NextHome and eXp share some of the most productive and successful agents in the business, and eXp’s size and scale will give our people access to technology, global reach, and an infrastructure powered by one of the most productive real estate companies in the world. It’s a win / win for everyone.”

The two leaders see the merger as a “perfect cultural” fit.

“Culture and a commitment to putting the consumer first. NextHome has always been about ‘Humans Over Houses,’ and Leo and his team have been even more outspoken than we have when it comes to protecting the consumer and the industry. Everything they do is rooted in transparency, disclosure and thinking about what’s best for the people buying and selling real estate,” Dwiggins said.

eXp framed the combined company as a “multi-model leader” where independent agents, teams and franchise owners can plug into shared technology, services and a cross-brand referral network. For brokers and team leaders, the key strategic shift is that the same parent company will now support both a cloud brokerage and a franchise system, potentially allowing movement between structures as business needs change.

“Built by agents, for agents”

The ticker change from EXPI to AGNT on the Nasdaq Global Market will take effect at the market open on May 8, 2026. The company’s CUSIP number will remain the same and existing shareholders do not need to take any action in connection with the change, the company said.

eXp said the new ticker is meant to reflect its focus on empowering independent agents and brokers through a technology-driven, cloud-based platform. 

“We’re not reacting to the market; we’re building ahead of it,” Pareja said. “Trading as AGNT reflects something deliberate: we’re evolving beyond a single brokerage model into a multi-platform business. This acquisition means that no matter where the market shifts, we have a model that fits the moment. And in this landscape, our competitive edge remains our DNA. We are and always have been built by agents, built for agents. And no matter how an entrepreneur chooses to build, they have a home within our ecosystem. We aren’t just surviving the change; we are the ones defining it.”

Pareja is no stranger to the franchise brokerage model, serving as a broker for Keller Williams earlier on is his career. He told HousingWire that his time at Keller Williams gave him a “deep respect for the power of branding and local ownership,” but it also showed him the “limitations of the traditional franchise model in a digital world.”

“Re-engaging with franchising now isn’t about going backward to the old way; it’s about evolving. We’ve taken the best of the franchise culture, the community and the local pride and plugged it into a premier cloud-based operating system. It’s not franchising as it was; it’s franchising as it should be,” Pareja said.

In 2025, eXp Realty agents closed 343,091 transaction sides totaling $155.56 billion in sales volume, earning it the No. 1 and No. 3 ranks nationwide in the 2026 RealTrends Verified Rankings for sides and volume, respectively. 

This acquisition comes as other national brokerages, including fellow cloud-based firm The Real Brokerage, enter the franchising space through acquisition. 

This article was written by Brooklee Han and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

As part of HousingWire’s Editor’s Choice awards spotlight series, we’re spotlighting past Women of Influence honorees whose careers, leadership and insights continue to influence the industry. This series offers a closer look at the experiences and decisions that have shaped their paths.

HousingWire reached out to Rachel Treadwell, Chief Valuations Officer at Nationwide Property and Appraisal Services (NPAS), to hear her perspective on leadership, valuation trends and the importance of staying connected to the realities of the field.

Treadwell was selected as a 2024 Women of Influence honoree for her leadership in developing NPAS’s Quality Control program, her ability to connect operational execution with client needs and her broader impact on advancing appraisal practices.

Leading from experience

For Treadwell, effective leadership starts with understanding the work at a ground level.

“The experiences that most prepared me for the leadership role I’m in today came from actually doing the jobs of the people I now lead,” she said.

That hands-on experience continues to inform how she leads teams and makes decisions.

“It helps me make more practical decisions. I’m not just thinking strategically, I’m thinking about how those decisions will play out in execution for my team and my clients.”

Staying close to the field

In the appraisal space, Treadwell emphasizes that strong leadership requires more than tracking metrics.

“You can’t lead effectively from the desk view—you have to lead from the field perspective, too.”

While turn times and compliance benchmarks matter, she notes that they don’t capture the full complexity of the work.

“The real insight comes from understanding what it actually takes to complete an appraisal—access challenges, property complexities, varying lender requirements, regulatory changes and shifting market conditions.”

That perspective allows leaders to set more realistic expectations and build stronger relationships with appraisers—ultimately improving outcomes for clients.

Advice for the next generation

Treadwell encourages future leaders to take a broader view of the housing ecosystem.

“Invest in understanding the business end-to-end. The more you understand how different parts of the housing ecosystem connect, the more confidently you can lead across teams and influence outcomes at a higher level.”

She also highlights the importance of building strong professional relationships.

“Strong sponsorship and honest feedback are often what accelerate careers—not just hard work alone.”

Nominations for HousingWire’s 2026 Women of Influence award are open through May 31.

This post was originally published on here. 

Executives at Better.com said the conflict in Iran is causing some borrowers to delay closing on mortgages, prompting the company to lean more heavily on home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) to sustain origination volume.

At the same time, the New York-based digital mortgage lender continues to cut costs in an effort to meet its goal of reaching profitability by the end of the third quarter, even as it continues to report EBITDA and net losses.

Parent company Better Home & Finance Holding Co. posted a first-quarter 2026 net loss of $70 million, compared to a $51 million loss in the first quarter of 2025, a 39% increase. Its adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to $19 million, about half of the $36 million loss it posted in the same period last year.

The lender grew Q1 2026 loan volume by 89% year over year to approximately $1.64 billion, with half of originations flowing through its Tinman AI platform. 

By product, refinance volume reached $854 million in Q1 (52% share; +542% year over year), compared to $588 million for purchase loans (36%; +2% year over year) and $203 million for HELOCs (12%; +30% year over year).

CEO and founder Vishal Garg said the company entered 2026 with “strong momentum,” but amid the prolonged conflict in the Middle East, mortgage rates for consumers on the company’s platform rose from 5.75% to well above 6.5% over the past few weeks.

“This is causing consumers to get stuck in the middle of the funnel, hesitating to lock in at a higher rate, particularly if they feel the rate increase is temporary due to the situation in the Middle East,” Garg said.

“With our partners’ help, we are converting some of these customers who need cash now to HELOCs, but for those looking just for savings per month, we are in a waiting pattern where we will go back to them with a lock as soon as rates come back down.”

HELOCs carry lower loan balances than refinances, but they generate higher gain-on-sale margins, Garg said. Gain-on-sale margins for HELOCs average 6% to 7%, compared to 2.5% for direct-to-consumer loans and 3.5% for originations through partner NEO Home Loans.

The macroeconomic environment is also affecting the company’s Q2 2026 guidance. Better projected loan volume of $1.575 billion to $1.725 billion from April through June, reflecting slower growth than previously expected, and total net revenue was estimated at $53 million to $56 million.

The company guided to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $12.5 million to $14 million for the second quarter and reaffirmed its target of reaching adjusted EBITDA breakeven by the end of Q3 2026.

“The timing for reaching that level will depend in part on the macro environment, and the pace of rate normalization, but the operating model continues to move in the right direction,” Loveen Advani, Better’s chief financial officer, told analysts.

Better has continued work to improve its financial position through measures like a $69 million underwritten public offering, $25 million in planned annualized cost reductions, an increase in warehouse capacity to $850 million and an active sale process for its U.K.-based bank.

The company ended Q1 2026 with approximately $136 million in cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and net assets held for sale.

This post was originally published on here. 

Urban new-construction homes are both scarce and significantly more expensive than existing properties, even as builders lean heavily into suburban development and manage prices to meet weaker demand, according to a Q1 2026 report from Realtor.com and the National Association of Realtors.

The median listing price for new-construction homes came in at $449,373 in Q1 2026, essentially flat with a year earlier. Existing-home prices fell 0.9% year over year to $390,550, widening the national new-construction premium to 15.1%, up from 14% a year ago.

New homes now account for 19.3% of for-sale listings, nearly unchanged from 19.4% in early 2025, even as the existing-home market shows rising price pressure and slower inventory growth.

Builders cut prices more often than resales

For the second straight quarter, new homes on the market recorded a higher rate of price reductions than existing homes, the report said. That pattern, paired with flat overall new-home pricing, suggests builders are listing high and using cuts to find the market rather than allowing inventory to stagnate.

Time on market for new construction has held steady, though at a higher level than existing homes. Existing-home market pace continues to slow.

On a price-per-square-foot basis, the market has “normalized” after an unusual stretch in 2025 when existing homes were more expensive than new builds on that metric. In Q1, new homes commanded $217 per square foot, edging out existing homes at $216. The shift is driven largely by a $5-per-square-foot year-over-year drop in existing-home values, compared with a $1 decline for new construction.

For builders and lenders, that stability in the new-home segment stands in contrast with volatility in the resale market, even as construction firms face higher labor and materials costs and a buyer pool squeezed by mortgage rates and affordability constraints.

Nearly 80% of new builds are suburban

Realtor.com’s analysis of listings by “urbanicity” shows new construction is overwhelmingly a suburban story. Nearly 80% of new homes for sale are in suburban ZIP codes, compared with just over 55% of existing homes. Only 10.9% of new builds are in urban ZIP codes, versus 29.7% of existing homes.

By category, the distribution of properties for sale breaks down as follows:

• New construction: 1.2% rural, 79.8% suburban, 8% town, 10.9% urban
• Existing homes: 3.9% rural, 55.7% suburban, 10.7% town, 29.7% urban

The suburban tilt reflects the reality that large-scale new communities typically rise on the outskirts of metro areas, where land is more available and cheaper. Infill development on individual lots in dense urban cores remains far more difficult to deliver at scale.

Where urban new construction dominates, premiums soar

Nationally, urban new builds carry the steepest premium. The median listing price for new-construction homes in urban ZIP codes was $738,662 in Q1, compared with $414,000 for existing urban homes – a 78.4% premium.

By comparison, the new-construction premium in suburban ZIP codes is just 7%, with median prices of $427,900 for new homes and $399,900 for existing homes. Rural and town categories also show significantly smaller gaps:

• Rural: new $459,000 vs. existing $299,000
• Town: new $389,000 vs. existing $309,000

Seven metros stand out where a majority of new listings are in urban ZIP codes. These are large, dense markets with significant condo stock and limited greenfield land:

• New York–Newark–Jersey City: 69.6% of new-construction listings are urban; 106.8% new-construction premium
• Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach: 69.5% urban; 305.2% premium
• San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont: 68.9% urban; 30.1% premium
• Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim: 68.8% urban; 42.4% premium
• New Orleans–Metairie: 62.4% urban; 24.9% premium
• Urban Honolulu: 53.8% urban; 29.2% premium
• San Diego–Chula Vista–Carlsbad: 53.4% urban; 23.5% premium

In all of these metros except San Francisco, resale inventory is even more urban than the new-construction stock, underscoring that overall housing there is heavily city-centered. In San Francisco, however, the report notes that urban infill activity makes the new-home stock more urban than resales.

Where new homes are cheaper than resales

At the other end of the spectrum, 9 of the 10 metros with the lowest new-construction premium – including six where new homes are actually less expensive than existing homes – have an urban share of new-construction listings below 10%.

Those markets include:

• Cape Coral–Fort Myers, Florida: 2.9% urban new construction; -13.5% new-construction premium
• North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota, Florida: 12.2% urban; -7.7% premium
• Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos, Texas: 8.6% urban; -6% premium
• Pensacola–Ferry Pass–Brent, Florida: 7% urban; -5.7% premium
• Boise City, Idaho: 3% urban; -4.8% premium
• Greenville–Anderson–Greer, South Carolina: 9.2% urban; -0.5% premium
• Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, Florida: 4.8% urban; 2.6% premium
• Raleigh–Cary, North Carolina: 7.6% urban; 2.9% premium
• Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler, Arizona: 9.5% urban; 4% premium
• Jacksonville, Florida: 7.7% urban; 4.1% premium

In each of these metros, resale inventory is substantially more urban than the new-home stock, helping pull down the apparent new-construction premium. For example, in Austin, 29.6% of existing listings are in urban ZIP codes, more than triple the urban share of new construction.

That means that for buyers comparing new and existing options in these markets, the location trade-off is critical: new homes might be cheaper on paper, but they are more likely to be in exurban or peripheral suburban areas compared with the existing stock.

Urban premiums reach several hundred percent in some metros

The disparity between urban new homes and urban resales is most extreme in certain coastal and Sun Belt metros, where urban new builds can list for several times the price of existing urban homes.

The 10 metros with the highest urban new-construction premium include:

• Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach: $2,578,695 urban new vs. $459,000 existing, a 461.8% premium
• North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota: $1,639,990 vs. $408,000, a 302% premium
• Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater: $1,182,600 vs. $390,000, a 203.2% premium
• St. Louis: $575,000 vs. $189,950, a 202.7% premium
• Detroit–Warren–Dearborn: $511,180 vs. $185,000, a 176.3% premium
• Chicago–Naperville–Elgin: $889,000 vs. $329,900, a 169.5% premium
• Cincinnati: $699,950 vs. $260,000, a 169.2% premium
• New York–Newark–Jersey City: $1,510,000 vs. $699,000, a 116% premium
• Raleigh–Cary: $1,053,423 vs. $489,000, a 115.4% premium
• Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford: $684,000 vs. $320,000, a 113.8% premium

These markets span high-cost coastal hubs and lower-cost inland metros, pointing to broad-based demand for new product close to job centers and amenities, and the difficulty of delivering that supply.

Why it matters for builders, lenders and agents

For builders: The data underscores that new-home demand is stable but price-sensitive. Active price management is working to keep days on market in check, and there is room to compete on price in suburban and exurban locations, especially in metros where new-construction premiums are low or negative.

For lenders: A nearly 20% share of new construction in the for-sale market, combined with widening premiums, reinforces the need for products that can bridge appraisal gaps on urban infill projects and support buyers facing higher per-square-foot costs in city cores.

For brokers and agents: Advising buyers now requires a sharper focus on location mix. In markets like Austin or Cape Coral, “cheaper new construction” usually means longer commutes. In coastal metros with triple-digit urban premiums, agents will need to help clients weigh the value of new amenities against significant price jumps.

This post was originally published on here. 

For those wondering what the upside is for The Real Brokerage regarding its recently announced acquisition of REMAX, Real CEO Tamir Poleg has answers. 

“At its core, Real REMAX Group will unite an iconic real estate brand and franchise network with our innovative technology and the fastest growing major public real estate brokerage,” Poleg said during his firm’s Q1 2026 earnings call with investors and analysts Thursday morning. “Real has built the platform, the technology and the agent aligned community and economics. REMAX has the brand recognition, the global network and decades of trust with some of the most productive agents in the business.”

In combining these two entities, Poleg said he believes they can “create a platform that is genuinely differentiated and purpose built to be a leading presence in this industry for the next generation of real estate professionals and entrepreneurs.”

Poleg also views the 700,000 transaction sides closed by the REMAX network in the U.S. in 2025 as a “significant opportunity” to grow Real’s title and mortgage operations.

“We estimate a 1% attachment rate on One Real Mortgage across that addressable transaction base to generate approximately $25 million of high margin revenue for the combined company post closing,” Poleg said. “Similarly, we estimate a 1% attachment rate on title would generate over $10 million of revenue for the combined company. Our goal over time is to be much higher than 1% so you can see how these numbers can genuinely transform the P&L over time.”

Additionally, Poleg said he also sees an opportunity to leverage Real’s consumer-facing AI home search platform HeyLeo to further nurture and monetize the 1 million annual leads generated across REMAX.com and REMAX.ca.

“REMAX is a brand built on production. The average REMAX  agent closes over 10 transactions a year, roughly double the industry average,” Poleg said. “These are exactly the kind of high producing full-time professionals that our technology platform and ancillary businesses are designed to support.”

Separate brands with separate value propositions

Moving forward, Poleg said Real and REMAX will continue to operate as “separate brands with separate and distinct value propositions.” 

“If you are a REMAX agent who thrives working in-office, side-by-side with your broker owner and your team, that is not changing. What you can look forward to is access to new technology tools and services that REMAX built, which will be available to you upon closing,” Poleg said. “If you are a Real agent, you will continue to have all the flexibility and benefits of our model. These are complementary businesses, each serving different agents in different ways soon to be operating under one roof.”

Real executives said the firm is in the process of standing up its integration team, with COO Jenna Rozenblat being named as chief integration officer. 

Rozenblat said she is confident that the combined company will be able to deliver “significant value” at both the company and individual office level. 

“That confidence comes from our DNA. We have spent over a decade using technology to streamline brokerage operations at scale, building Reason, deploying Leo AI and automating workflows that used to require manual intervention. We know how to run a lean technology-enabled brokerage efficiently, and we know how to bring agents onto a platform in a way that enhances their businesses without disrupting what they have built,” Rozenblat said. “That experience is directly transferable to REMAX franchisees, and it is the foundation of our on-the-ground integration approach.”

Q1 earnings

In addition to discussing the REMAX acquisition, Real executives also discussed their firm’s Q1 2026 earnings Thursday morning. 

During the first quarter of the year, Real recorded $465.6 million in revenue, up 32% year-over-year. However, the firm still reported a net loss of $3.4 million, an improvement over the $5.0 million net loss recorded in Q1 2025. 

Real’s ancillary services also all posted annual revenue growth in Q1 2026, with One Real Title, the company’s state-based joint venture title operation, reporting 22% growth in revenue to $1.3 million, One Real Mortgage recording a 20% yearly increase in revenue to $1.3 million and Real Wallet recording a 246% annual revenue growth to $436,000. 

Regarding One Real Mortgage, Real said it currently employs 134 loan officers, but is “actively evaluating new lender partners to ensure we are offering clients a more comprehensive range of competitive financing options.” 

“I think mortgage is on the right track and we will continue to see that reflected in the numbers as the year progresses,” Poleg said. 

As for Real Wallet, while it is still early days, Poleg said the company is pleased with agent adoption of the product so far. 

“We are now seeing early data showing a direct link between Wallet adoption and lower agent churn,” Poleg said. “We’re still in the early stages of what Real Wallet can become, but I’m very excited to bring it to even more agents and following the REMAX closing.” 

Ancillary services

In regard to all ancillary services, Real executives announced on the call that during the quarter the company onboarded 34 full-time employees to fill roles previously performed by outside contractors.

“From a practical standpoint, bringing these roles in-house means our agents get better service, better support, and more hands-on local expertise,” Rozenblat said. “And importantly, our new full-time brokers are being incentivized not just on agent satisfaction, but also on driving ancillary attachment rates in their markets.” 

Looking ahead

Looking ahead, Poleg believes Real is well on its way to having a single platform for consumers to transact with and agents to run their businesses and finances through. 

“That is the platform we are building and that has been our vision since day one. We didn’t have to pivot to AI. We didn’t white label our way into Fintech. We’ve built the infrastructure transaction by transaction, agent by agent year after year because we knew that someday technology would catch up to the vision. That day has arrived,” Poleg said. “And with the REMAX transaction, we will soon have the network and the reach to bring it to life at a scale that we believe can transform how people buy and sell homes.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Loan Factory announced Thursday that it is launching fully automated mortgage originations through a partnership with Pylon, a move the companies say will streamline operations, lower costs and speed up closings.

The company said the partnership will allow it to originate loans directly on Pylon’s infrastructure, eliminating manual loan operations and reducing reliance on wholesale lenders.

The company originates more than $5 billion in mortgages annually through a network of 2,500 loan officers across 48 states. Loan Factory said it expects the partnership to increase loan officer production sixfold across its core origination channels.

“Partnering with Pylon enables us to cut out the middlemen and deliver rates that our competitors can’t match,” Loan Factory CEO Thuan Nguyen said in a statement. “It also allows us to deliver instant approvals and faster closings, all while lowering costs.”

In an interview with HousingWire ahead of the announcement, Pylon CEO Trent Hedge said that the partnership originated after several Loan Factory loan officers expressed interest in having access to the platform.

Nguyen said that the need for something new stemmed from frustration with “traditional lenders”, who Nguyen says are “very low tech.”

“They don’t even have an API or technology for us to work with,” he added.

Pylon, a mortgage technology company backed by investors including Peter Thiel, as well as venture firms Conversion Capital, QED, Citi and Fifth Wall, automates much of the loan origination process through a vertically integrated platform connected directly to capital markets. Hedge said Pylon’s “mortgage rails” automate functions including processing, underwriting, closing and loan delivery through API-based infrastructure, reducing reliance on wholesale and correspondent lenders.

“We flow those mortgages directly through to the true source of capital, rather than wholesale lenders and aggregators who mark those rates up… the result is a much lower cost of capital and a much lower cost to originate,” Hedge explained.

Pylon earns revenue through per-loan fees and software subscriptions, and currently focuses on conventional and jumbo loans up to $5 million. The company’s platform gives lenders access to rates that are 75 to 200 basis points lower than traditional channels while reducing origination costs.

Hedge said the company is planning to expand into FHA, VA and non-QM products.

Loan Factory said the integration will allow it to build a mortgage origination process centered on automation and artificial intelligence. The company already operates its own proprietary mortgage platform, called Tera, but said that legacy wholesale-lender technology has limited its ability to automate operations fully.

“Loan Factory is building an entirely new version of their platform around Pylon’s capabilities, and we think they’re going to get a lot more value because they’re building software products specifically for their loan officers and taking advantage of more of the automation,” Hedge said.

Nguyen is confident in what Pylon will do for the company’s price offerings. The company recently upped its Best Price Guarantee program from $1,000 to $2,000.

“With this program, we challenge the consumer to shop around, and if they can find any lender, any loan officer that has a better rate than us, we will pay the consumer $2,000,” he said, adding that Loan Factory has never had to pay out a customer.

This post was originally published on here. 

Vice Capital Markets has publicly released its Vice Capital Par Note Rate, a proprietary daily mortgage rate benchmark built from agency mortgage-backed security (MBS) prices that’s designed to give lenders and analysts a secondary market view of mortgage pricing.

The benchmark, available through an online tracker, provides daily data, long-term trend analysis and custom charting with history back to 2008, the company said in its announcement on Thursday.

Calculated each business day using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS prices across the coupon stack, plus standard base guaranty fees and servicing, the Vice Capital Par Note Rate reflects the note rate at which a 30-year fixed-rate loan could be sold at par into the agency market while retaining servicing.

Unlike rate measures based on locked loans or consumer offers, the Vice Capital benchmark is grounded in secondary market execution rather than borrower-specific pricing, such as discount points, lender credits or loan-level price adjustments.

“Mortgage rate metrics can serve different purposes depending on what users are trying to measure,” said Chris Bennett, chairman of Vice Capital Markets. “Many widely followed figures provide valuable insight into borrower activity and market sentiment. The Vice Capital Par Note Rate is designed to complement those views by offering a consistent, market-based benchmark for analyzing mortgage rate movement over time.”

Vice Capital has used the par note rate internally in its hedge models for decades. By making the data public, the firm aims to support more transparent and granular analysis of mortgage rate movements across the industry.

Through the online tracker, users can review daily weighted averages, analyze long-term trends and create custom charts across historical periods, the company said.

“By making this data publicly available, we’re giving the industry another lens through which to evaluate mortgage rate movement,” said Troy Baars, president at Vice Capital Markets. “We believe the Vice Capital Par Note Rate will serve as a valuable benchmark for lenders, analysts and other market participants seeking deeper insight into market trends over time.”

The launch comes as rate volatility, potential shifts in Federal Reserve policy and uncertain loan volumes continue to pressure gain-on-sale margins.

Founded in 2001, Vice Capital Markets is a mortgage hedge advisory firm serving independent mortgage banks, banks and credit unions nationwide. It has managed interest rate risk and execution on more than $1 trillion in MBS trades and mortgage-related transactions.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

MoxiWorks has released new updates to its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered RISE platform — designed to help real estate agents manage client relationships and improve follow-ups.

Changes expand the platform’s ability to combine marketing outreach and transaction execution into a single workflow for brokerages, teams and individual agents.

A new feature called Top 5 Contacts identifies five contacts each day for agents to prioritize based on engagement activity and relationship signals stored in their database.

The system also provides suggested next steps and prewritten messages that agents can review or send.

Kim Koraca — chief marketing officer at MoxiWorks — said the core problem in real estate remains effective follow-up and making it easy for agents to accomplish.

“We have the same issue as a tech company with enabling our sales team to be on top of their follow-up,” Koraca said during a call unveiling platform upgrades. “It’s just the way salespeople are.”

She added that a significant differentiator for RISE is overcoming technology adoption issues.

One customer with more than 800 agents saw 89 previously inactive agents begin engaging with tasks immediately after seeing what RISE could do, and 129 agents who had never engaged before began using the AI.

“The big outcome everyone’s talking about — how is AI actually making the industry productive versus it being another thing that you add into the mix,” Koraca said. “The differentiator for us is we’re looking to solve the problem of agent adoption because you need to adopt the technology to solve the problem of follow-up.”

Integration with marketing tools

MoxiWorks has added a two-way integration with Canva — allowing agents and marketing teams to create and launch campaigns using listing data from within the platform.

The update also incorporates Promote, a digital advertising tool powered by Evocalize, allowing users to run listing and brand campaigns across social media and advertising networks directly through RISE.

A mobile companion app that allows agents to access recommendations and contact priorities while away from their desks is also included.

Ashley Fidler — chief product officer at MoxiWorks — said the company focused on connecting workflow automation with AI to drive entire business processes.

“It’s not enough to just be able to find deals, win them, help people close and help people nurture their relationships,” Fidler said. “We have to actually tie the entire story together with automation and with AI that takes advantage of what we know about our customers and actually moves the needle for our customers.”

Fidler said the system includes proactive AI experiences that tell users the most interesting things in their database and an AI chat feature that allows them to take action.

She emphasized that RISE uses a scoring algorithm that considers all activity within the platform — including email views, property listing interactions and market context.

“One of the big things we’ve heard from a lot of our customers when they start using the product is that it really helps them find the things that they were missing in their databases,” Fidler said. “I was talking to a luxury agent the other day, and she was telling me that the biggest problem she has is she loses track of stuff. That’s one of the big things that we can help with — surfacing things out of your database.”

Future enhancements

RISE is available across North America, with additional updates planned throughout 2026.

Future releases will include market performance data, enhanced team functionality, including co-sharing and co-managing of contacts, as well as transaction integrations beginning with DocuSign this summer, the company said.

Koraca said the company is also introducing flexible pricing models that allow brokerages to mix starter and pro versions of the platform.

“Use what you need and don’t pay for what you’re not using, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all,” Koraca said. “Brokers are loving that model. They’re loving that concept, but they’re buying in now so as they grow their brokerage, they have flexibility in pricing.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Real estate franchisor NextHome has rolled out a new strategic growth model aimed at large, high-performing brokerages and multi-office operators that are struggling with rising technology costs, vendor sprawl and shrinking margins, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

The firm said the framework is built for operators that have already achieved scale but need a more sustainable way to run their businesses amid today’s market and regulatory pressures.

“Many large operators, particularly those within legacy franchise systems or long-standing independent models, have built incredibly successful businesses,” Charis Moreno, chief revenue officer at NextHome, said in the announcement. “But it’s becoming harder and more expensive to keep those businesses running profitably and smoothly through traditional models. We built this to help simplify the day-to-day so brokers can get back to focusing on their people, their culture, and the growth of their business.”

The model offers two technology paths under a single five-year agreement: a Full Tech Stack and a Lite Tech Stack.

“In today’s environment, every dollar and every hour matter,” Keith Robinson, co-CEO of NextHome, said. “Brokerage leaders are looking closely at where they’re spending money, where they’re losing time, and whether the systems around them are truly helping the business grow. We built this model to reduce some of that pressure and create a path that feels more sustainable long term.”

The Full Tech Stack option is designed to consolidate core brokerage systems into one environment, including CRM, marketing tools, CMA software, transaction management and other operational platforms.

The Lite Tech Stack is built for operators that want access to the NextHome brand, support and resources but either already have core technology in place or need to keep costs lower and avoid overlap.

“The future of real estate is not one-size-fits-all,” James Dwiggins, co-CEO of NextHome, said. “Large-office operators shouldn’t have to choose between scale and simplicity. Different brokerages have different needs, and we wanted to build something flexible enough to support their reality while still protecting the culture and independence that make those businesses special.”

As of year-end 2025, NextHome supported more than 550 offices and more than 5,000 agents nationwide. The network closed more than 30,000 transactions in 2025, representing approximately $11 billion in sales volume, according to the company.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Estridge Homes has broken ground on Millbrook, a 345-acre master-planned residential and mixed-use community in West Lafayette that will bring more than 1,000 new for-sale and rental homes to one of Indiana’s most active university growth corridors, the company announced.

According to the April 28 announcement, Millbrook is planned for approximately 580 to 600 single-family homes and more than 500 apartment units at full buildout, along with future retail, healthcare and neighborhood-serving uses. The multi-phase development is expected to roll out over five to six years, with initial home construction and sales slated for fall 2026.

The project sits in the West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County market, which has seen elevated demand driven by Purdue University, the Purdue Research Foundation, regional healthcare systems and major employers. For builders, Millbrook represents a large-scale, controlled-lot pipeline in a university-adjacent submarket where both for-sale and rental housing supply have lagged employment growth.

Estridge is taking a multi-builder approach, with Arbor Homes and Silverthorne Homes joining as community builders. The plan is to offer a range of product types, elevations and price points targeted to different life stages, from first-time buyers to move-up households and downsizing buyers. Specific pricing guidance and floor plans have not yet been released.

Site planning emphasizes preservation of natural topography, mature trees and open space, with a West Lafayette park-owned corridor running through the property to provide trail connections into the broader community. Amenities in design include an internal trail network, resort-style pools, fitness-oriented features, sports courts and flexible indoor and outdoor gathering spaces aimed at lifestyle and wellness programming.

The community plan also anticipates multifamily and mixed-use components. IU Health has already been announced as part of the broader vision, positioning Millbrook as a neighborhood-scale hub with healthcare services and daily conveniences within the master plan.

“Millbrook is being designed as more than a traditional subdivision,” Estridge CEO Clint Mitchell said in the release. “It’s a neighborhood where nature, daily life, and community come together — creating a more connected, grounded, and complete way to live, in an area that is becoming one of the most active and exciting growth corridors in Indiana.”

For homebuilders, master-planned communities like Millbrook can provide multi-year lot visibility and differentiated amenity packages that support premiums relative to scattered-lot building. For local governments and planners, Millbrook adds a significant tranche of entitled, phased housing supply that can help address affordability and capacity concerns as Purdue-related investment ripples through the region.

Founded in 1967, Estridge Homes has been building homes and developing “Signature Neighborhoods” across Indiana for more than five decades. Additional details on Millbrook, including builder lineups by phase, pricing, floor plans and amenity timing, will be released as development progresses.

This post was originally published on here. 

Nearly half of U.S. homeowners did not consider moving in the past 12 months, a sign of growing housing market inertia even as mortgage rates have eased from recent highs, according to a new study from home equity financing platform, Point.

The share of homeowners who said they did not consider moving rose to 48%, up from 41% two years ago, the study found.

At the same time, the reasons behind the slowdown are shifting. About 29% of homeowners who canceled moving plans cited life circumstances such as job loss, family changes or caregiving responsibilities, nearly double the 16% reported in 2024.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates have become a less prominent barrier. The share of homeowners citing rates as a reason not to move fell to 45%, down from 55% two years ago. That shift comes as weekly average mortgage rates declined by nearly 100 basis points over the same period, according to Freddie Mac data.

“For years, the story of housing gridlock has been about mortgage rates and home prices, but Point data shows something more fundamental is shifting beneath the surface: life itself is prompting people to stay put,” said Aaron Terrazas, an economist at Point. “Broader economic uncertainty beyond the cold calculus of interest rates has become a bigger barrier to mobility.”

Terrazas noted that uncertainty around jobs, family stability and the broader economy is changing homeowner behavior. “I think the reasons why people are locked in their homes are less and less around mortgage rates in the housing market, and more and more around all of the family and personal life stuff and some turmoil happening in the economy,” Terrazas said in an interview with HousingWire.

The decline in mobility is contributing to long-standing supply constraints in the housing market. With fewer existing homeowners listing their homes, inventory remains tight, limiting options for first-time buyers and reducing overall transaction activity.

Even among homeowners who still view mortgage rates as a barrier, expectations have tightened. About 83% now say they would need rates below 5% to consider moving, up from 64% in 2024.

“The reality is that life catches up, and people move past this psychological aversion to letting go of their mortgage rates. Life happens, and you can only stand waiting for financial conditions to improve for so long,” Terrazas said.

Rather than move, many homeowners are choosing to invest in their current homes. Nearly half (49%) of would-be movers say they plan to renovate instead, and 65% of all homeowners expect to complete some type of renovation within the next 18 months, the study found.

Common projects include bathroom remodels (31%) and kitchen renovations (27%). About 25% of homeowners plan to expand their homes by adding an extension, building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) or finishing unfinished space rather than trading up. More than one-third of renovation-planning homeowners expect to spend $30,000 or more on their projects.

“Renovation is a natural place to look when people can’t move up, for people who have been in their home for some time,” Terrazas said. “As the baby boomer generation moves into their mid to late 70s, I think we’re going to see a lot of those people choose to renovate and also have to renovate to adjust the situation to their physical needs.”

The shift toward renovation is colliding with a financing challenge. Roughly six in 10 homeowners say they need financing for home improvement projects, but many say traditional options are too expensive. Among those not planning to use a home equity line of credit or cash-out refinance, 33% cited high interest rates as a barrier.

“American homeowners are sitting on record levels of home equity, but a meaningful share of the population is locked out of accessing that wealth,” said Eddie Lim, co-founder and CEO of Point. “Whether it’s the inability to sell, or the inability to get affordable financing, traditional paths to home equity just aren’t working for a lot of people right now.”

Lim said that gap is where alternative equity solutions come in. “That’s exactly the gap home equity investments were designed to fill — giving homeowners a way to tap their equity without taking on new debt or monthly payments, regardless of where rates go.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Three women with prominent roles in the reverse mortgage industry took the stage Tuesday at the Reverse Mastermind Summit in Knoxville, Tennessee, sharing personal stories while converging on sales advice around the power of narrative, the importance of relationships with financial planners and the need for higher professional standards.

Christine Jensen of Fairway Home Mortgage opened the panel with a deep dive into how the Trump administration’s signature tax bill, passed last summer, has positively impacted mortgage insurance deductibility. Senior homeowners, she said, may be able to use these savings to capitalize on the HECM for Purchase program.

Christina Harmes of Barrett Financial Group followed with tips for connecting with clients and referral partners, stressing that emotional intelligence is a critically undervalued trait for loan originators. “The reverse mortgage sale is one of the highest trust sales that you could possibly be involved in,” Harmes said, adding that prospective borrowers are often afraid and human connection must come before numbers.

Lisa Moriello of loanDepot argued that loan officers need to “stop thinking like employees” and develop a business ownership mindset. At a time when Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements are averaging about 2,000 per month, the typical reverse LO is closing less than one deal per month, she said — a figure more akin to a “part-time job” rather than a career.

Jensen on tax deduction strategies

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed by President Donald Trump in July 2025 included a provision that made the mortgage insurance tax deduction permanent. According to U.S. Mortgage Insurers, about 40 million homeowners have used private mortgage insurance to purchase or refinance a home since 1957 — including 800,000 who bought a home with it in 2024.

Jensen walked the audience through a technical presentation she’d previously given to the Financial Planning Association, noting that the permanent deduction can be part of a powerful financial strategy for senior homeowners in retirement or planning for it. She also cited recent data from the National Association of Realtors showing that Americans over 60 make up nearly half of today’s homebuyers.

Jensen’s case study involved a hypothetical 72-year-old couple purchasing an $800,000 home with a down payment of $509,000, with roughly $314,000 of that amount financed through a HECM for Purchase loan. They also have a retirement account with a required minimum distribution of $63,000.

Using the reverse mortgage proceeds, they’re able to make no payments for two years while still accruing $63,000 in deductible mortgage interest and insurance. At that point, they can use the $63,000 distribution to make a lump-sum payment on the HECM. This fully offsets the taxable portion of the distribution and saves them $13,000.

Additionally, the couple could repeat the strategy every few years, with Jensen showing their total savings at roughly $27,000 after five years — an amount that exceeds their upfront costs for the reverse mortgage.

“I’ve got to tell you, when I showed the financial planners how this works, they had no idea that this was possible,” Jensen said.

Harmes: ‘It’s the connection that creates the relationship’

Harmes began her presentation with a deeply personal story about how reverse mortgages have the power to change and even save lives.

When she was a child, her grandfather sold his home and moved into an apartment rather than exploring financing options. After the move, he fell and broke his neck, wasn’t found for days, and the last six months of his life were “an absolute living hell,” she said.

Years later, when Harmes sold a reverse mortgage for the first time, her clients were already in a difficult position. The husband had recently been diagnosed with a serious illness and his wife was “terrified” of managing their home and finances alone. Harmes’s team helped the couple pay off a large debt, set up a monthly income replacement and establish a growing line of credit.

At the closing table, the wife embraced Harmes. “I could just feel the relief washing over her body. She knew she was going to be safe. She knew that at least the finances were going to be OK, even with whatever else she was facing,” Harmes said.

She advised originators to craft a personal origins story about why they got into reverse mortgages, then share it with every client and referral partner. For people new to the business, they should read books, find a mentor and not attempt their first loan without being prepared. Above all, she said, LOs should treat emotional intelligence as a skill to build over time as reverse mortgage clients are often facing difficult circumstances.

“Before you can cut through the static in their head, the worry, the fear … you need to be able to connect to your clients, and I have found the best way is storytelling,” Harmes said. “It’s the connection that creates the relationship, and it’s the relationship that creates the business.”

Moriello on goal setting and organic lead generation

After noting the “part-time” status of many reverse LOs, Moriello advised them to maintain a rolling three-month pipeline so they’re always looking ahead at new business rather than trying to shepherd every client through closing.

“Own your business. Decide what you’re going to do; decide what your goals are going to be. And you know what? Set the bar a little high. So what if you only get halfway there?” she said.

With many myths and misperceptions of the product still persisting, Moriello said LOs should never use the phrase “reverse mortgage” in their opening sales pitch. Instead, call it a “retirement opportunity” and lead with a benefits statement of 10 words or less. For example, when speaking with a financial adviser: “What if I can help you create a nontaxable stream of income for your clients in retirement?”

Moriello echoed some of Harmes’ remarks about community and relationship building. She has found that clients are often cultivated from grassroots efforts — like the grocery store or where your kids play sports. “I sat my rear end in an ice rink for six years while my girls played ice hockey,” she said. “I got more business out of that than any loan officer in my office did.”

She also recommended professional networking communities like ProVisors and the National Association of Divorce Professionals — the latter of which she described as “gold mine” for reverse mortgage referrals.

When it comes to time management, Moriello referred to the book, “212: The Extra Degree,” as a tool for turning small daily habits into meaningful long-term change and growth.

“One extra contact daily sparks more than 180 personal connections a year, so when you think that you had a good day, pick up that phone one more time,” she said.

This post was originally published on here. 

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) saw its origination engine cool in the first quarter compared to the previous three months, but the lender held the line on margins and remained profitable. Meanwhile, on the servicing strategy, UWM is steadily pulling more of its portfolio in-house as it battles CrossCountry Mortgage to acquire Two Harbors Investment Corp.

UWM closed $44.9 billion in mortgages in the first quarter, up 38.5% from the same period last year but 9.5% lower than the prior quarter.

Despite the dip in quarter-over-quarter volume, the company’s bottom line improved. Net income reached $170.4 million in the first quarter, up from a loss of $247 million in the same period last year and a profit of $164.5 million in the prior quarter, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings released Wednesday.

Revenue came in at $901 million, down from $945 million in the fourth quarter but well above the company’s guidance of $650 million to $850 million for the period.

In a statement, UWM Chairman and CEO Mat Ishbia said the quarter was the second-best of all time for the company. “The last time we delivered results of this magnitude, interest rates were nearly 50% lower,” he added.

The battle for Two Harbors 

In a 40-minute video answering questions previously submitted by analysts, Ishbia said UWM’s acquisition proposal for Two Harbors is focused entirely on the value of the REIT’s “pristine” servicing book and its shareholder base, not its leadership team.

He reiterated that UWM is willing to pay the equivalent of $12 per share but said Two Harbors’ board has never engaged with UWM’s offers. Ishbia framed recent competing bids from CCM as an effort by Two Harbors’ management and board to preserve their own roles, adding that UWM sees “no value” in retaining that leadership if a deal closes.

“It’s very clear that their management team and their board… is maybe playing some games, doing things because they realize that we don’t see any value for them specifically,” Ishbia said. “We’ll see how it shakes out for us.”

Addressing a question on UWM’s debt ratio, a concern raised by Two Harbor’s board, Ishbia noted that ratios can be temporarily elevated by hedging and balance sheet trades used to manage MSR risk. While those positions can make certain quarter-end metrics look worse than the underlying reality, he said they have already normalized somewhat.

Originations and servicing operations 

Refinance loans accounted for the largest share of UWM’s production in the first quarter at $26.3 billion. While that is more than double the volume recorded in the same period last year, it is down from the $30.7 billion posted in the prior quarter. Purchase volume came in at $18.7 billion, down from $21.7 billion year-over-year and $18.9 billion in the prior quarter.

Ishbia told analysts that roughly 12,500 brokers currently work with UWM, estimating that only 400 to 500 larger “all-in” shops do not. The primary growth opportunity, he argued, lies in expanding the broker channel itself by helping more originators transition into the broker space, rather than simply flipping existing high producers.

The company’s total gain-on-sale margin landed at 123 basis points in Q1, compared to 122 bps in the fourth quarter and 94 bps a year ago. Ishbia said he views current margins as being in the “right” range, though they could increase if rates decline. He did highlight recent market volatility — partly spurred by the U.S. conflict with Iran — which has occasionally forced the lender to issue up to five rate sheets in a single day.

On the servicing side, UWM ended the quarter with $229.5 billion in unpaid principal balance (UPB), down from $240.8 billion in the prior quarter. The weighted average coupon of the servicing book stood at 5.90% at quarter’s end.

Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods noted: “While operating trends were solid, servicing missed on derivative losses, which reduced the net mark on the mortgage servicing rights. This was a -$0.05 impact on earnings per share.”

Ishbia described the company as opportunistic regarding MSR sales, willing to sell when bids exceed UWM’s view of intrinsic value.

Looking internally, Ishbia said UWM continues “to move ahead of schedule with bringing servicing in‑house.” New loans are now going directly onto UWM’s proprietary servicing platform, while the entire portfolio is expected to be managed in-house by October 2026, ahead of the previously communicated timeline.

To support the transition, UWM has partnered with Black Knight and the fintech firm Bilt, alongside building its own internal technology.

UWM ended the quarter with $1.3 billion in available liquidity, including $424 million in cash and borrowing capacity.

Looking forward, Ishbia said he expects expenses to remain flat or decrease even as volume grows. Over the next five years, UWM is targeting at least $1.3 trillion in originations. In addition to origination revenue, he projected 20% to 25% growth in “other revenue” tied to ancillary products and artificial intelligence initiatives.

This post was originally published on here. 

HomeServices of America has named industry veteran Jason Waugh as successor to HSF Affiliates CEO Vince Leisey, with a leadership transition expected to begin in 2027, the company announced Wednesday.

HSF Affiliates is the franchisor of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices real estate network, which has been in expansion mode in recent years as large brokerage brands compete for market share and recruit top-producing agents in a slower transaction environment. The planned, multi-year handoff is designed to preserve continuity for franchisees while positioning the network for its next phase of growth.

Waugh returns to HomeServices of America with leadership experience on both the brokerage and franchise sides of the business. He previously led Prudential Northwest Real Estate prior to its acquisition by HomeServices and later served as president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate, where he helped build one of the brand’s flagship brokerage operations.

Most recently, Waugh served as president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates, one of the industry’s largest global real estate franchise organizations. In that role, he focused on franchise growth, brand strategy and network performance, according to the announcement.

“Jason brings a rare combination of brokerage leadership, franchise expertise and enterprise perspective that will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen and grow our network,” Chris Kelly, president and CEO of HomeServices of America, said in the announcement. “We are thrilled to welcome him back and confident in his ability to help guide HSF Affiliates into its next chapter following a thoughtful and deliberate transition with Vince Leisey later next year.”

The company said Waugh has been identified as Leisey’s successor as part of a multi-year transition plan. For now, he will be “selectively engaged in high-priority enterprise initiatives,” with a particular focus on HomeServices’ insurance segment.

Leisey will remain CEO of HSF Affiliates and continue to lead the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices franchise network through the transition period. After the change in CEO is completed, Leisey is expected to become chair of HSF Affiliates while remaining CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ambassador Real Estate.

“As previously shared, this transition reflects a thoughtful and deliberate approach to leadership continuity,” Kelly said. “Jason’s immediate engagement ensures a seamless path forward while positioning HSF Affiliates for sustained long-term success.”

Leisey framed the move as part of a longer-term strategy to keep the franchise system stable while preparing for the next market cycle.

“I remain fully committed to leading this network and building on the momentum we have today,” Leisey said. “At the same time, this transition has always been about positioning the network for long-term success. Jason brings the franchise network experience, perspective, and leadership needed for what comes next, and I look forward to supporting him when that time comes while continuing to stay closely connected to the incredible people and companies across our network.”

Waugh said he plans to spend the near term contributing to enterprise projects before working alongside Leisey and the HSF Affiliates team on the leadership transition.

“I’m honored to return to HomeServices of America and to contribute to several meaningful initiatives ahead of working alongside Vince and the HSF Affiliates team,” Waugh said. “The strength of this network is built on its people, its brand and its shared commitment to excellence. I look forward to building on that foundation and supporting our franchisees as we continue to grow together when the transition occurs.”

HomeServices of America and HSF Affiliates leadership said they expect Waugh’s experience and strategic focus to support further growth and performance for the global Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

A year ago, when Lennar completed the spin-off of Millrose Properties into a standalone, publicly traded REIT, the sheer size, root motivation and the complex nature of the pivot ushered in an era of land-banking unlike any before.

Global capital asset managers followed suit. Land-banking and asset-light or land-light business and balance sheet management began to fuse in many people’s minds into a single, inseparable notion.

The Millrose spin wasn’t simply financial engineering, particularly for Lennar, which had studied and pursued the strategy patiently for several years before triggering it.

It was a bet that land – the industry’s most capital-intensive, risk-layered input – could be separated, institutionalized and delivered back to builders as an on-demand service.

Equally important, it stemmed from a conviction that doing so would make a homebuilding enterprise a simpler, smarter, more nimble and more homebuying customer-focused organization.

One year in, Millrose CEO Darren Richman has no illusions about what had to be proven.

“All the components exist in nature,” he said in a one-on-one interview this week. “But the actual composition had never been done.”

That composition, Richman told us, had three tests: Could the Lennar “flywheel” function in real time? Could third-party builders adopt the model at scale?

The third is the hardest test, the one in all our faces now: How would the underlying land collateral perform through a downcycle?

So far, one year in, on each front, Millrose can point to validation.

The company cycled land in and out of Lennar’s portfolio “in the ordinary course,” dispelling early skepticism that the REIT was merely a repository for legacy or unwanted assets. It expanded beyond its anchor [Lennar] client, growing to 17 builder counterparties.

And in a housing environment Richman characterizes as “going on two years” of downcycle conditions, it has not seen a single option termination.

“We’ve been able to kind of prove out the story,” Richman said. “It’s going to continue to be a show-me story… but I think the market now views us with more credibility.”

The public company year-one report card

The numbers support that claim – at least on a first-pass, year-one report card.

Millrose reported Q1 2026 invested capital of approximately $8.7 billion, up from $8.5 billion at year-end, with 31% of that capital now deployed outside the foundational Lennar relationship.

Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) – a lens into the REIT’s recurring earnings power –came in at $125.9 million, or $0.76 per share, fully covering its dividend.

Liquidity stood at roughly $1.5 billion, with a debt-to-capital ratio under 30%, preserving dry powder for ongoing expansion.

Of equal note: growth is increasingly driven by repeat engagement and expanding wallet share among existing builder partners – a signal that Millrose is doing a good job of relationship-building and embedding itself operationally, not just transactionally.

Still, the tone from management on the Q1 earnings call was measured rather than celebratory. Richman emphasized “disciplined deployment,” “durable relationships,” and “predictable recurring earnings” – terms that tell of a company still ultra-focused on proving itself rather than declaring victory.

Industry pivot

For better or worse, another significance of Millrose’s first year is not just its own performance but what its sustainable, strategic role in homebuilding reveals about the direction of the broader industry.

From Richman’s vantage point, the broader industry is in a sped-up, tipping-point transformation: moving away from vertically integrated land-development-heavy models toward something closer to manufacturing.

Historically, he argues, many builders were “land development companies masquerading as home builders.”

Today, the leading operators are reorienting toward “velocity and volume” – controlling production cadence, managing costs and responding to customer demand in a way that resembles modern industrial systems more than traditional real estate development.

Abstract or theoretical, this is not. It is showing up in how homebuilders – small, medium, and large – behave in real time as they work to fuse complex, layered, multi-timelined workflows into a system.

As Richman noted on today’s Q1 2026 earnings call, homebuilders are simultaneously trying to:

• Maintain sales pace through incentives
• Protect balance sheets amid margin compression
• Preserve or grow community counts
• Reduce direct land ownership

“You cannot grow community count while also shrinking your balance sheet unless you have a capital partner like Millrose,” he said.

This is Millrose’s sine qua non value proposition: it is not simply capital access on better terms. It is alignment that drives continuous improvement of the operating model in the large-scale homebuilding end-to-end value stream.

The stress test

If year one proved the model can work, 2026 has acted as an unexpectedly rugged road test of whether it can hold up and capture opportunity under pressure.

The macro backdrop is far from benign. Homebuilders must contend with affordability constraints, obstinately persistent incentive use, margin compression and demand that management teams consistently describe as “choppy,” not to mention input cost uncertainty related to goings on in Iran.

The Q1 cadence– solid January and February activity followed by March softening tied to rate volatility and geopolitical concerns – captures the tricky, iffy fragility of spring selling’s moment.

Wall Street analysts on today’s earnings call pressed management on several fault lines:

• Whether capital constraints could limit Millrose’s growth runway
• The sensitivity of yields to falling base rates
• The durability of builder demand in segments like build-to-rent amid regulatory uncertainty
• The potential for margin compression to ripple into land demand, take-down, and walkaway decisions

Richman laid out his response in pragmatic terms. On capital, he acknowledged that the company is relying on its revolver and debt capacity “until the equity markets become accommodating.”

On demand, the message was consistent: near-term variability does not translate into a pause in long-duration land decisions, given structural imbalances nearly everywhere in vacant developed lots.

Builders, he emphasized, are making 3- to 5-year commitments today for communities that will deliver in 2028 and 2029.

Millrose’s long-term horizon is both a strength and a vulnerability within its operating and investment model.

Risks in view

Richman does not speak about risk as a trick question.

“The risk is when… a builder decides that they’re not going to exercise an option that’s under contract,” he said.

Despite structural protections like pooling, builders retain the ability to walk away – particularly in a severe, broad-based housing downturn. Pooling, he noted, “raises the cost” of walking away, but does not eliminate that option altogether.

The mitigation strategy is multi-layered:

• Focus on securing entitled land in supply-constrained markets
• Avoid speculative land positions
• Maintain conservative leverage (roughly one-third debt to capital)
• Use real-time data across a large portfolio to monitor performance

Perhaps most importantly, Millrose is betting on behavioral change within its customer base. Customers know they’ll need these lots and they’ll have to control them some number of months – 18, 24, 36 – before they need them.

Builders today, Richman argues, are more disciplined, more land-nimble and agile, and more likely to re-enter communities quickly once conditions improve. Even in a downside scenario, he believes demand for finished homesites will re-emerge, potentially allowing Millrose to remarket lots and recover value at or above book value.

Still, the open question remains: how resilient is that behavior under a protracted period of stress?

Land-banking’s horizon

Millrose’s first year answers the most immediate question skeptics posed in 2025: Can this model function in practice?

The answer, so far, is yes.

The Lennar flywheel is working. Third-party adoption is accelerating. The platform has operated through a soft housing environment without visible cracks. It’s just that harder questions are only now beginning to surface.

• How broadly will this model extend beyond large, well-capitalized public builders?
• How will it perform if demand softens further—or unevenly across markets?
• What happens if capital markets tighten just as builders seek to expand land pipelines?
• And, most fundamentally, does shifting land off the balance sheet reduce risk, or simply shift it in place and time?

Richman’s 2026-and-beyond ambitions for Millrose take a measured approach to current realities.

“You’re not going to see a revolutionary change in our behavior,” he said. “This is really about evolution and continued refinement.”

Millrose – and the land-banking, land-light, asset-light structural inflection it ushered in with its emergence – is not a one-year story. It is an evolving system – one that has already reshaped how most homebuilders think about land, capital, competition, and scale.

Let’s check in another year to see whether the system – and its key stakeholders’ interests – are not only innovative but also durable.

This post was originally published on here. 

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says its existing policies already align with new federal guidance allowing agents to discuss neighborhood crime rates and school quality without violating the Fair Housing Act’s prohibition on racial steering.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the new guidance last week, reversing Biden-era policies that led many real estate firms to remove or restrict such information. HUD’s announcement characterized past industry practices as restrictive — and accused NAR of imposing a “professional gag order” on members.

In an emailed response to HousingWire, a NAR spokesperson disputed that framing.

“NAR has never prohibited these conversations between agents and prospective homebuyers,” the spokesperson said. “NAR’s Code of Ethics, fair housing training and fair housing manuals explicitly allow members to discuss neighborhood information regarding crime and school data. For decades, NAR has emphasized that members share accurate, objective information, not opinions or hearsay. This is a risk management best practice.

“Some practitioners, misunderstanding the law or seeking to eliminate all risk, may have adopted the view, ‘it’s illegal to talk about it.’ That has never been NAR’s guidance.”

The NAR spokesperson added: “NAR’s current training and guidance generally align with HUD’s position that agents can and should provide prospective buyers with the information they seek on neighborhood crime and school quality, provided the information comes from an accurate third-party resource and is not subjective opinion. We believe it will be helpful to underscore among our membership that the law and our existing guidance supports these practices.”

The association may provide more information on the topic, the spokesperson said. “We may supplement existing guidance and training materials to provide additional best practices on how agents may comply with the law while providing consumers with the information they seek.”

Legal backing — and lingering risk

Attorney Robert Butters — a former NAR deputy general counsel and antitrust trial attorney in the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition — said HUD’s updated stance aligns with arguments he has made for years.

“The assumption behind preventing that kind of information included minority home seekers being less concerned about crime statistics than majority home seekers, which I never found to be logical,” he said. “It’s the same thing with schools. Do you mean that minority home seekers don’t care about the quality of the schools their children are going to attend? None of that made any sense to me.”

Butters said the prior reasoning required drawing tenuous inferences about how different groups interpret information — an approach he viewed as inconsistent with the Fair Housing Act.

At the same time, he cautioned that the new guidance does not eliminate legal exposure for agents or brokerages.

“There’s always a risk of being sued,” Butters said. “You open the door of your establishment, you’re taking on a degree of risk. The question is, what is your tolerance? I think the position will make it easier to defend the cases, if they come, and it may be a mitigating factor on potential plaintiffs for bringing the cases in the first place.

“They’re going to have to contend with the current HUD position on that, but you really can’t eliminate down to zero risk.”

He added that HUD’s interpretation, while influential, is not binding on courts — meaning judges and juries could still reach different conclusions.

NAR said its position continues to emphasize a distinction between what is legally permissible and what is professionally advisable — particularly when it comes to subjective commentary.

“Subjective commentary is not automatic evidence of discriminatory intent,” the spokesperson said. “But subjective commentary raises the risk that the agent will present biased information. Courts have held that statements about crime and schools, in some situations, can be deployed as ‘code words’ for race and evidence of discriminatory intent. That doesn’t mean that every time an agent shares an opinion, it’s discriminatory.

“NAR’s risk-management guidance helps ensure members are providing accurate, unbiased information. It is not a declaration that entire categories of speech are illegal.”

State laws complicate compliance

Butters said agents must also consider stricter state and local standards — which can broaden liability even as federal guidance becomes more permissive.

“Every state, indeed, and in many cases, localities, counties and municipalities, also have fair housing statutes, and many of those are broader in scope,” he said. “They extend protection, for example, to sexual preference and other protected classifications that go beyond what’s in the federal Fair Housing Act.”

Differences in judicial interpretation across jurisdictions could further complicate compliance decisions, even with HUD’s updated position, Butters added.

Still, he said the new federal guidance provides meaningful support for agents navigating those risks.

“This HUD pronouncement is is going to be helpful, even if you’re being sued under a state statute that that may be interpreted more broadly,” Butters said. “It’s better to be able to cite to this than not being able to cite to it, even if you’re in a state or municipal forum.”

As brokerages, listing platforms and agents reassess policies, the combined message from NAR and legal experts is nuanced — more flexibility, but not less responsibility.

This post was originally published on here. 

After years of pushing housing affordability reforms, Colorado legislators hit a wall — crashing up against the limits of how much zoning control they could strip from local governments.

This year, they sought to require most cities to allow single-family homes on lots as small as 2,000 square feet, about a third the size of typical lots in many locales. The bill passed the state’s House but stalled in the Senate in late April. A similar bill – requiring cities to allow owners to split lots – also passed the House before meeting the same fate.

Colorado has emerged as a national model for state-level zoning reform that pre-empts local governments.

That has come with a price. Home rule cities sued Democratic Gov. Jared Polis over an executive order threatening to cut them off from $280 million in grants, loans and tax credits if they did not comply with major housing reforms he signed into law two years ago.

Colorado’s struggle illustrates a defining feature of the nation’s housing debate: Party affiliation provides no immunity from political blowback.

A Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 15 last year, capping the minimum lot size cities can require at 3,000 square feet, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law in June 2025. Yet even in Texas, the bill drew fierce opposition from local governments. It’s the same local-control fights playing out in Colorado.

Seeking smaller lots for smaller, more affordable homes

Sen. Matt Ball, the bill’s Senate sponsor, opened an April 23 committee hearing on House Bill 1114 by acknowledging the need for lot-size reduction. He then quickly delivered the bill’s death sentence.

“I do want to say at the outset that we will hear witness testimony on this bill, and then I will be postponing it indefinitely,” Ball said.

A week later, Ball delivered the same message for the lot-split bill at the same Senate committee meeting, but without witness testimony. The arguments for smaller homes and density had already been made.

Knowing the HB 1114 was dead, proponents and opponents proceeded with testimony.

“If we used 2,000 as kind of a pre-bubble benchmark for home ownership rate and maintained it, we’d have 62,000 more owner-occupied units today,” Scott Cox, a Colorado-based home building consultant and a contributor to The Builder’s Daily, told the committee.

Cox noted that much of the legislative effort on housing — at both the local and state levels — targets rental rather than owner-occupied housing. “If we do not find ways to allow more single-family housing, we are guaranteed that those prices will continue to rise faster than the majority of the population’s ability to pay for it,” Cox said. “Detached homes will become, simply become a luxury good.”

Tim Lightly, CEO of the Colorado Association of Home Builders, noted that HB 1114 does not mandate smaller homes or smaller lots. “This represents one of the first proposals in a very long time to be truly free market oriented,” Lightly said. “It says we’re going to legalize a greater variety of housing and let the market determine where it works.”

Arguments for and against

Nationally, smaller homes draw support as a path to ownership for first-time buyers and empty nesters downsizing. AARP has backed smaller housing in states across the country for seniors choosing to age in place.

Echoing that theme, Kip Kolkmeier, a retired land-use attorney and former chair of the Lakewood Planning Commission, told the committee that he and his wife had to leave the city because smaller homes to downsize into simply did not exist. Kolkmeier said smaller lots reduce land costs — one of the biggest factors in home prices.

“People are clamoring for this,” he said. “This is what your constituents want.”

Not all municipalities agreed. City leaders in Lakewood, a Denver suburb, voted in new zoning maps for higher density and smaller homes last October, but voters repealed them in early April. Voters in several other municipalities across the state also rejected higher density in referendums in November.

Fear that density would destroy established neighborhoods carried the day. Cities repeated objections familiar to every statehouse, arguing that preemption ignores local needs and strips away planning authority.

“Cities are cool with top-down mandates as long as they’re the top, but the most local decision maker is the landowner,” Tim Pegg, with YIMBY North Metro, said in testimony. “I’m asking the state to protect landowners from overzealous local regulation that artificially drives up the cost of homes and lowers people’s quality of life.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Zillow Group started off 2026 with a strong financial performance in the first quarter of the year, recording an 18% annual increase in revenue to $708 million and a net income of $46 million, up from $8 million in Q1 2025. 

Chief financial officer Jeremy Hofmann attributes this strong performance to Zillow’s consistent execution of its strategy. 

“We’re helping people go beyond searching and finding and really starting to buy, sell, rent and close,” Hofmann told HousingWire. “So, we’re quite pleased with that and it shows up in the numbers.”

Despite a continued slow housing market and rising mortgage rates, Zillow’s residential revenue grew 8% annually to $450 million, while rental revenue grew 42% year-over-year to $183 million and mortgage revenue rose 56% from a year prior to $64 million.

Zillow attributed the annual boost in residential revenue to growth across Preferred, Zillow Showcase, the company’s suite of agent software tools, and the company’s New Construction marketplace, while the mortgage revenue jump was boosted by a 96% annual increase in purchase loan origination volume to $1.5 billion. According to Zillow, Zillow Home Loans is now a top-25 purchase lender in the country.

“All of this growth is proof points to us that the strategy is working well and we’re executing quite nicely and that we’re able to grow regardless of housing market conditions, which we’ve done now for three plus years and expect to continue to do,” Hofmann said. 

A new part of Zillow’s strategy this quarter is Zillow Preview, its pre-marketing offering for listings. In the seven weeks since the product first launched, Zillow has signed more than 60 brokerages onto Zillow Preview. 

“So many brokerages see value in public pre-marketing, and coming to Zillow is an opportunity to give value to everyone versus some others in the market that are gating inventory, putting inventory behind a registration wall, saying you have to sign up with a brokerage to see this inventory and Preview is the antidote to that. It is public exposure, and that is what people want,” Hofmann said.

Hofmann cited a recent Harris Poll survey that found that nearly 9 in 10 Americans would be interested in viewing pre-listed homes online if they were buying a home, and 85% of soon-to-be sellers said they’d be more likely to hire an agent who can pre-market their home to the broadest online audience.

Although the product is still in its early days, Hofmann said Zillow expects the product will be “incremental to the business” moving forward. 

As Zillow looks to the future, given today’s technology environment, AI is obviously front and center. As an early adopter of AI via the Zestimate, Zillow believes its experience with AI technology uniquely positions it to lead the housing industry into this new AI-focused chapter. 

“AI has been a core part of Zillow since its founding. The Zestimate was rudimentary AI and that was what we launched on 20 years ago,” Hofmann said. 

According to Hofmann, there is evidence of how AI is impacting Zillow’s business and its customers throughout its Q1 earnings, including a 70% increase in the Follow Up Boss user base, the nearly 100% annual increase in purchase loan origination volume, which Hofmann attributed in part to AI investments used to improve the experience for both the home buyer and the loan officer, and AI-mode, an AI assistant that takes buyers from search to close, which Hofmann said the company launched to 5% of users this quarter.

“I think the technology is still nascent versus where it’s going to be three, five, seven, and 10 years from now,” Hofmann said. “So, we are investing heavily as a result. There’s a lot that we have done, here’s a lot that shows up in our results today and we do feel like we’re just scratching the surface because we do think the technology gets more and more powerful. And the advantages we have with our brand, with our content, with our context, and our integration strategy put us in the pole position to really lead the way in real estate.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Compass International Holdings has appointed a longtime executive to lead its integrated services division.

Cory Perkins will oversee the unit, which focuses on combining services such as title, escrow and other transaction support into a more unified platform.

The appointment follows the planned retirement of Don Casey, who will remain involved with the business in an advisory role.

Perkins steps into a position he previously developed while at Compass, where he built out the integrated services division and helped expand the brokerage’s footprint across the United States.

In his new role, he will lead the combined services operations formed after the integration of Compass and Anywhere assets.

Perkins said the role centers on improving coordination across services that support real estate transactions.

“It’s a privilege to step into this role and work alongside the talented teams and storied brands that Compass and Anywhere have brought together into a single organization. With the best people and technology powering our integrated services businesses, we have the real opportunity to set the bar for service excellence in our industry. I couldn’t be more energized to kick off this journey in support of our real estate professionals and their clients.”

Compass Chairman and CEO Robert Reffkin said the company is focused on improving client experience through integration.

“The best companies in the world make client experiences better and more seamless at every step,” said Reffkin. “Cory has proven he knows how to build and scale integrated services that deliver real value to agents and their clients. He’s the right leader to lead our combined integrated services team and take them to the next level.”

Perkins brings experience in both real estate operations and venture capital, including time at First Round Capital.

During more than eight years at Compass, he helped lead expansion into more than 20 markets and supported the opening of more than 100 offices nationwide. He later developed the integrated services division, focusing on increasing adoption of title and escrow offerings among agents.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint against Veterans United Home Loans, owned by Mortgage Research Center, adding claims of “bait-and-switch” and misleading advertising tactics, according to court filings reviewed by HousingWire. 

The original complaint filed in February alleges the lender misled homebuyers into believing it is connected to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), while also distributing leads to preferred agents who, upon closing a home sale, pay the company roughly 35% of their commission. Agents who do not refer loans back allegedly stop receiving leads.

The plaintiffs claim Veterans United loans are more costly and carry higher interest rates than other lenders. The lender filed a motion to dismiss in April, saying plaintiffs failed to present “any concrete and particularized injury.”

The amended complaint filed on Monday, however, describes a “bait-and-switch” tactic in which the lender would initially offer artificially favorable, non-fixed terms during the shopping phase to attract borrowers, only to raise the costs and interest rates later at the “lock” phase.

Borrowers often proceed anyway, believing they’re dealing with the VA or because they have already paid money they will forfeit if they lose the house, the lawsuit states. Supporting documents from a confidential loan officer show a case where the rate increased by 0.25% in just three days despite market conditions improving.

“The mortgage market demonstrably improved during this three-day period by about .25%. Veterans United’s practice of blaming ‘market conditions’ for an increase in rates is demonstrably false,” the lawsuit states.

In response, Chad Moller, corporate communications manager at Veterans United, said the amended complaint “adds volume and hyperbole, not substance.”

“We intend to vigorously defend ourselves from these meritless claims,” Moller said. “Veterans United Home Loans and Veterans United Realty have never held themselves out as the VA or any other government agency.”

The company was founded and is run by three individuals with no military service records, the original complaint states. Moller adds that the lender’s name “was never a problem until a class-action attorney needed it to be.”

“We frequently tell our customers that we are not a government agency or part of the VA, and we appreciate the plaintiff’s class-action attorneys identifying in the complaint more than a dozen examples of where we do so,” Moller added.

The amended complaint brings 15 plaintiffs (up from three in the original) and eight claims (compared to four previously). These include two counts of Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) violations, violations of consumer protection laws in five states (Missouri, Illinois, New York, Ohio and Texas) and unjust enrichment. They also bring expanded testimonies from six confidential loan officers and five real estate agents.

The case is in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri against Veterans United, Realty Search Solutions, Realty Search Solutions Network (d/b/a Veterans United Realty) and Mortgage Research Center.

The plaintiffs are homeowners who obtained loans from Veterans United between 2018 and 2025. They are represented by Hagens Berman, who had clients in cases involving Zillow and Rocket Companies, following settlements tied to real estate brokerage commissions that totaled more than $1 billion.

This post was originally published on here. 

Construction project finance plays a crucial, time-sensitive role in residential construction, helping contractors, remodelers, and builders access funding draws throughout a project’s lifecycle.

Historically, however, the process has been inefficient, requiring lengthy review and approval timelines that cause delays and take attention and manpower away from other important tasks. 

“It’s just one of the most inundated, labor-intensive, inefficient processes that exists in construction,” said Thomas Schlegel, VP of Engineering at Built Technologies. 

While many companies have worked to improve the efficiency of construction draws, Built Technologies believes it has achieved a meaningful breakthrough in recent months with the full rollout of its Draw Agent.

How technology and AI can improve construction draw times

In residential construction, construction draw timelines typically run about seven business days. However, this process is gradually becoming much faster as companies leverage artificial intelligence to automate much of the end-to-end build-cycle data. Built Technologies, for example, now achieves an average construction draw timeline of three business days. 

The company shortened the construction draw process by replacing fragmented communication and workflows, such as emails, spreadsheets, PDFs, and hundreds of required documents, with a centralized platform that grants both lenders and borrowers access. 

This centralized system organizes essential documents such as invoices, lien waivers, inspections, photos, plans and budgets into one place. It also enables users to communicate directly with lenders, see outstanding requirements, submit draw requests and schedule third-party inspections. 

However, the biggest breakthrough for Built Technologies is its new Draw Agent, which the company announced in 2025 and fully rolled out earlier this year. The Draw Agent allows users to access simple construction draws within minutes. 

The Draw Agent activates when it detects a new draw and fully automates the draw review process in three modes. One of the Draw Agent’s biggest impacts is its automatic review times. According to Schlegel, it can often take 20 to 40 hours for a human to review a construction draw request. 

While most users are open to using AI in the review process, not everyone fully trusts the technology yet. As a result, the Draw Agent system rolls out to users in stages, gradually expanding its level of responsibility to encourage adoption and ease the transition from manual review to full automation. 

During the first stage, audit mode, the AI tool conducts a read-only analysis of the draw package, ensuring that all information is correct and consistent. 

As users become more confident in the Draw Agent’s abilities, they can transition to assist mode. Using assist mode, one can leverage the AI agent to complete select tasks like scheduling inspections or sending borrower communications, while still maintaining approval control.

The most advanced stage is automate mode, in which the Draw Agent independently completes and the full review and approval process, ultimately requiring very little user involvement other than complex cases. This tool ultimately enables approval within minutes. 

The Draw Agent technology was a major breakthrough, Schlegel said. He has been with Built Technologies for eight years, and has seen firsthand how quickly AI transformed the construction draw process. 

“Over that eight-year process, we’ve been making incremental improvements, roughly, say, every month or every quarter. Last year was a watershed moment for the capabilities of these models. They have gotten so good that now we are starting to trust them with more and more things,” he said. 

Benefits to contractors, builders and lenders

In April, Built Technologies announced that it partnered with U.S. Bank to offer construction loans. Other banks, like Citi, also utilize Built. Lenders, Schlegel said, have responded well to the use of AI in construction draws. 

“For the bank, that money, once those construction loans are originated, goes into a state that’s known as committed, but it is not funded. When the money is committed to a customer, you cannot use it for anything else, but until it’s funded, you’re also not collecting interest, and that’s part of why construction is considered so risky for a financial institution. If a lender can disperse money faster, they’re typically making more money,” Schlegel explained. 

According to Schlegel, nearly 185,000 contractors use the Built Technologies platform. For builders and contractors, the benefits of quick construction draw timelines are apparent, as it can speed up the overall construction process. 

“It’s a very cash flow driven industry, and the biggest risk to any project is that your builder has to go to another project to get paid. And very frequently, builders are using money from Peter to pay Paul, and that’s when things come sideways,” he said.

This post was originally published on here. 

Finance of America on Monday reported first-quarter net income of $35.2 million, swinging from a loss in the prior quarter as the reverse mortgage lender benefited from higher origination activity, improved operating leverage and gains tied to portfolio valuations.

The Plano, Texas-based company said it earned $1.93 per basic share for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $1.30 per share in the fourth quarter of 2025.

A year earlier, the company reported earnings of $3.17 per share.

Adjusted earnings were $1.10 per share, up from 69 cents in the previous quarter and 52 cents a year earlier. The company said adjusted earnings exceeded consensus analyst estimates.

Revenue totaled $120.1 million, up 62% from the fourth quarter but down 28% from the same period last year.

Funded loan volume increased 6% year over year to $596 million, though it declined 4% from the prior quarter. The company said volume accelerated during March as demand for home equity-based retirement products strengthened.

“From a production standpoint, we funded $596 million in the quarter, up 6% year-over-year,” said CEO Graham Fleming during the company’s earnings call.

In a separate statement, Fleming said, “The first quarter of 2026 was an outstanding quarter, with operational momentum in originations driving an acceleration in volumes and steady improvement in our financial results, liquidity, and capital position.”

During the call, Fleming addressed the pending PHH Mortgage Corp. deal, announced in November 2025. During Onity Group’s Tuesday earnings call, the parent company of PHH said it had revised its previously announced transaction with Finance of America and submitted the deal to Ginnie Mae for approval.

“Regarding the previously announced PHH transaction, the transaction has been modified to close in two distinct phases. The first phase, consisting of the origination, marketing of our products, and sub-servicing components, is expected to close in May,” Fleming told investors. “The second phase, which includes the purchase of HECM servicing rights, will follow as we continue to work with our primary regulator, Ginnie Mae, on the related approval.”

Performance by segment

Finance of America President Kristen Sieffert said first-quarter submissions — applications with completed supporting documentation — reached a record $918 million, up 20% from a year earlier.

“Submissions represent customers who’ve completed their application and provided all supporting paperwork,” Sieffert said. “They’re one of our clearest leading indicators of future funded volume and why we remain confident in our volume guidance.”

The company highlighted continued growth in proprietary reverse mortgage products, including its HomeSafe Second offering, which increased 32% year over year during the quarter. Finance of America also rolled out a new second-lien reverse mortgage line of credit product aimed at homeowners seeking to preserve low-rate first mortgages while accessing home equity.

Fleming said proprietary reverse mortgage products are expanding the addressable market beyond traditional government-insured HECMs by serving younger borrowers and offering higher balances and alternative structures.

“These proprietary products significantly expand the market by making reverse mortgages available to borrowers aged 55 and older in certain states, compared to age 62 for government-insured products,” Fleming said.

The company said Americans age 62 and older now hold about $14.6 trillion in home equity, which management views as a long-term growth opportunity for the reverse mortgage sector.

Finance of America’s retirement solutions segment, which includes its reverse mortgage origination business, generated $67 million in revenue, up 29% from a year earlier. Pretax income in the segment rose to $10 million from $3 million a year ago.

The company’s portfolio management segment posted pretax income of $36 million, compared with a $4 million loss in the previous quarter. Revenue in the segment rose to $66 million from $16 million in the fourth quarter, helped by improved portfolio economics and higher accreted yield.

Finance of America ended the quarter with $108 million in cash and cash equivalents, up 108% from a year earlier. Total equity increased 11% year over year to $438 million, while tangible equity rose 43% to $268 million.

The company also completed the repurchase of Blackstone’s equity interest in Finance of America in February.

This post was originally published on here. 

Having spent meaningful time with Veev’s leadership team four years ago, including deep strategy discussions and a formal dialogue around a potential Chief Strategy Officer role, I’ve had a firsthand view into both the ambition behind the model and the friction points that have challenged its execution.

Anthony Carroll’s recent departure from Veev, Lennar’s bold wager on off-site construction after only two years as CEO, marks more than a C-suite shuffle or a specific company in flux.

Rather, Carroll’s exit highlights a broader reckoning, namely prefab housing’s persistent struggle to scale beyond hype and achieve reliable execution.

In an industry desperate for speed amid labor shortages and rising costs, Veev’s leadership turnover underscores a fundamental mismatch: revolutionary tech without a locked-in business model.

From unicorn hype to rescue mission

Veev launched in 2008 as an Israeli startup and pivoted to prefab in 2017, introducing its “Closed Wall System” pre-engineered panels, promising 30% faster builds and less waste.

By 2022, founders Amit Heller, Ami Avrahami, and Dafna Akiva had secured $650 million in funding, earning unicorn status at a $1.5 billion valuation. The pitch thrilled investors: industrialized homes to fix America’s housing crunch.

Reality struck in late 2023. Funding evaporated amid high interest rates and construction delays. Vendors went unpaid, projects stalled and headcount plummeted from 450 to 50. Heller exited amid the chaos, leaving a leadership void. In December 2023, Lennar swooped in with a bridge loan and an acquisition, aiming to integrate Veev’s tech into its massive home and neighborhood development and construction ecosystem, which handles 80,000+ closings annually. 

Anthony Carroll, a technology and energy-sector business leader and former Powin president, stepped in as CEO in June 2024 to operationalize Veev as a capability within that ecosystem. Twenty-three months later, he’s moved to FTC Solar’s presidency with a $700,000 salary, 200% bonus potential, and $900,000 in sign-on cash.

This didn’t happen in a vacuum.

Veev’s post-rescue era has been marked by serial instability, with Carroll’s April 2026 departure amplifying doubts. Lennar bet big, but Veev remains adrift, neither fish nor fowl in a market favoring proven building trade-fueled site-built volume.

The identity crisis: supplier or builder?

Veev’s core tension boils down to a strategic and operational identity crisis: Is it a tech supplier selling panels to third-party builders, or a fully integrated homebuilder?

It has tried both models and succeeded at neither. As a supplier, Veev faces brutal economics. Factories churn out heavy, specialized panels that demand precise logistics and skilled on-site assembly.

Early pilots faltered. Lennar’s 2021 Gramercy townhomes in California reverted to stick-built after delays and quality snags. Without captive demand, factories sit idle, inventory and overhead costs pile up, and margins erode.

A factory with 1,000-unit annual output sounds ambitious; without owned communities to absorb it, it’s a liability.

Heller’s original vision was builder-like: end-to-end control from factory to finished home. But execution exposed a critical gap: overreliance on unproven modularity in a labor-starved U.S., where construction trades continue to dominate.

Post-acquisition, Lennar tested Veev across scattered projects, but scaling eluded those efforts. Carroll’s mandate was stabilization, yet his brief stint suggests the model itself resisted fixes.

Execution flaws in the factory-to-field pipeline

Prefab’s promise of factory precision, slashing site time by 50%, stumbles on integration hurdles.

• Logistics Nightmares: Panels weigh 500+ pounds each, demanding specialized trucking and cranes. Weather, site access and sequencing errors compound risks.
• Labor Mismatch: U.S. crews untrained in modular assembly revert to familiar methods when issues arise, negating efficiencies.
• Demand Volatility: Builders order sporadically; factories need steady runs. Veev’s Woodland, California plant hit bottlenecks, producing far below capacity.
• Cost Overruns: Initial savings vanish with rework. Industry data pegs prefab at 10-20% cheaper only at 5,000+ units/year. Veev never hit that rhythm.


Texas exemplifies the stakes. DFW’s growth corridors face 20-30% delays from labor gaps, per user-tracked builder data. D.R. Horton and Lennar lead with stick -built for predictability. Prefab could accelerate many takedowns in master-planned plays, yet unproven risks keep it sidelined.

The fix: close the integration loop

Prefab thrives only when vertically locked. Veev must evolve from a vendor to a home-building division.

• Secure Land Control: Leverage Lennar’s 100,000+ lot pipeline. Design communities around factory output.
• Guarantee Internal Demand: Commit 80% of production to owned projects. A 1,000-unit factory feeds 5-10 mid-sized Texas communities annually.
• Treat Factory as Division: No arm’s-length sales. Align incentives and factory KPIs tied to community absorption rates.
• Scale Predictably: Start regional: DFW plant for I-35W corridor, mirroring Levittown’s repetitive, land-rich model that built 30 houses/day post-WWII.

This self-fulfilling loop de-risks everything. Factories run hot; communities deliver on time; margins compound. It’s how homebuilding production pioneers such as Levitt & Sons dominated through control, not components. For land strategists eyeing Johnson County or Parker County, this unlocks off-site edges amid builder consolidation waves.

Lennar’s scale positions Veev perfectly. Pair it with lot option deals (earnest money, take-down milestones) and tax structures like MUDs/TIRZs, and prefab becomes a Texas growth weapon.

Otherwise, Veev remains a costly experiment.

Texas stakes: Why prefab can’t afford to fail here

DFW’s boom, led by D.R. Horton, Lennar, and Bloomfield Homes, demands speed. Production builders close 35,000 to 50,000+ units yearly in DFW, but labor shortages inflate costs by 15%+. Modular could shave 20% off cycles.

Yet builders hesitate. Site-built predictability trumps prefab’s “maybe” savings. Veev’s stumbles reinforce this: Gramercy’s failure lingers. In consolidation talks, integrated prefab could tip the scales with overhead via factory leverage.

Leadership lessons and the open door

Carroll’s pivot to FTC Solar, his board seat at Hitachi Energy’s PCP since 2025, and his new role as CEO have secured his future in infrastructure riches amid solar’s 40% growth outlook. Veev’s loss highlights the talent flight from unproven models.

Since Heller’s 2023 ouster, Veev has not cracked the code. The Chief Strategy Officer role in the operation, discussed in 2022 dialogues, is still open. Veev is an ideal opportunity to bridge land, ops and factory.

It remains unchanged after four years: steer Veev toward a homebuilder identity and embed prefab in Lennar’s machine.

Revival or relic?

Veev isn’t dead; Lennar’s resources dwarf Veev’s startup phase. But time is short. Leadership whiplash since Heller suggests the culprit is strategy, not people or their talent. Commit to the loop: land-factory-community. Texas awaits proof. The model’s potential endures. Will Veev seize it?

On a personal note

I am a huge Amit Heller fan. We first met four years ago, sparking a series of conversations and then candid interviews with him and the Veev leadership team. Our discussions about Veev’s strategy culminated in an invitation to spend a full day on-site at the factory and meeting with Greg Schott (then chairman of the board). We dove deep into the model’s potential, but ultimately diverged on direction.

I believed then, as I do now, that Veev could succeed at scale with targeted changes. I was genuinely eager to join as Chief Strategy Officer and drive it forward.

Yet after visiting with my friends David and Ian Fisher, who have owned door manufacturers and window makers, to unpack their hard-won lessons as materials manufacturers and suppliers, one truth crystallized: factory-built prefab only thrives at scale when you own the full ecosystem, from land acquisition to the homeowner’s move-in day.

Despite its sexy allure, Veev was not a bet I could make under its old strategy.

Ironically, Amit is now starting a new factory-built company called Neovi. His premise? Own the land and build by treating the factory as a homebuilder division instead of a supplier, which is exactly what we could have done at Veev.

This post was originally published on here. 

Deephaven Mortgage LLC has expanded its Equity Advantage HELOC product for wholesale and correspondent partners in 2026, doubling the maximum line amount to $1 million and broadening eligibility and geography, according to a company announcement.

The non-QM lender’s digital first- and second-lien HELOC now offers a maximum line of $1,000,000, up from $500,000, with a minimum of $50,000. The product is available to borrowers in Texas in addition to 44 other states and allows title vesting in an LLC for investment property owners.

The program also now permits co-borrowers, with a minimum co-borrower credit score of 620, and provides 2.50% lender-paid compensation to partners based on the full line amount. Deephaven positions these changes as a way for brokers and correspondents to compete more effectively in a HELOC market driven by record home equity.

“In a robust HELOC market, these changes empower our partners to meet the needs of more borrowers with flexibility and agility,” Tom Davis, chief sales officer at Deephaven Mortgage, said in the announcement.

Davis described current demand as a “generational opportunity,” citing strong homeowner equity levels and projections of roughly $600 billion in home renovation spending in 2026. With many borrowers locked into low-rate first liens, lenders across the industry are leaning on HELOCs as a primary way for consumers to tap equity without refinancing into a higher rate.

The Equity Advantage HELOC targets borrowers who may not fit traditional agency guidelines, including self-employed borrowers who cannot qualify with standard income documentation. Deephaven offers manual reviews of 12 months of personal or business bank statements as an alternative qualification method.

The product can also serve free-and-clear homeowners seeking cash for renovations or other goals, as well as borrowers looking to preserve their existing first-lien rate while accessing additional liquidity through a second lien.

Deephaven said it has structured the process around speed and support for its partners, including AVM options, a Quick Pricer for scenario evaluation, and the ability to obtain a full appraisal for second-lien transactions at the borrower’s request. The lender handles processing, underwriting, title, closing and funding internally.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is rolling out free 1-0 temporary rate buydowns on purchase loans alongside a new suite of home equity products aimed at helping brokers retain borrowers.

Effective immediately, the lender will cover the cost of 1-0 buydowns on both conventional and government purchase mortgages, issuing a credit to fully offset the expense. The offer—available on 8- and 30-year terms—runs through June 30. 

Under a 1-0 buydown, the borrower’s payment is calculated as if the interest rate were 1 percentage point lower in the first year. UWM’s structure gives borrowers a lower first-year payment at no additional cost to the borrower or the broker, with the lender credit covering the buydown.

Temporary buydowns have been one of the most widely used tools to manage payment shock in a high-rate environment, particularly on purchase loans. By removing the buydown cost, lenders give brokers another concession they can bring to sellers or listing agents and a way to differentiate in a market where rate competition is tight and margins are thin.

In a separate move, UWM also introduced home equity loans, offered as both standalone and piggyback second liens. The products provide a fixed rate and fixed term, funded in a single lump sum.

The loans allow debt-to-income ratios up to 50%, and range from $25,000 to $500,000. They’re available on primary residences, second homes and investment properties.

The standalone option targets homeowners looking to tap equity without disturbing a low-rate first mortgage—whether for renovations, debt consolidation or education costs.

The piggyback structure, meanwhile, can be used at purchase to avoid private mortgage insurance by keeping the first lien within conforming loan-to-value limits, or to sidestep jumbo financing by pairing a conforming first with a second lien.

Flávia Furlan Nunes reported and wrote this article with drafting assistance from HousingWire Automation, an editorial tool that helps transform announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.

This post was originally published on here. 

Across the United States, there are over 500 MLSs serving real estate professionals. While some MLSs share nearly identical rules and policies, there are still countless ways in which they differ, posing challenges for many brokers. 

As the National Association of Realtors (NAR) turns over more rule-making and enforcement power to local associations and MLSs, this problem is being exacerbated. And while there are plenty of examples of how rules differ from MLS to MLS, one of the most challenging for many brokers today is the wide variety of coming-soon listing policies.

While some MLSs, like the Pacific Northwest’s Northwest MLS (NWMLS), do not provide a coming soon status or an office-exclusive option for listings, others, like Canopy MLS in North Carolina, do not provide a maximum number of days a listing can be in a coming soon status. 

For brokers whose operations span multiple MLSs, this patchwork of rules surrounding coming soon listings can be incredibly frustrating. In March, eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja told HousingWire that the only reason his firm signed deals to syndicate coming soon listings to Realtor.com, Homes.com and ComeHome.com was because not all MLSs include coming soon listings in the IDX data feed. 

“If all the MLSs would just include the coming soon status listings in their IDX feeds and syndicate it to all the portals, then this would be a non-issue and none of us would have to do this,” Pareja told HousingWire earlier this spring. “I believe that part of the MLS’s role is to make sure that they are listening to their customers. I believe in the MLS system, and I think I have been one of the loudest advocates for having a third party that is agnostic making rules. I think it is super important in order for us to have collaboration as an industry, but if something is going in a certain direction, I’d prefer all of it to exist at the MLS input level and then we wouldn’t have to figure out how to do it ourselves.”

But listening to their subscribers is exactly what many MLS providers say they have done in order to arrive at this ragtag set of coming soon listing policies. 

In Northern New England, Chad Jacobson, the CEO of PrimeMLS, told HousingWire that he and his team believe the MLS’s policies should balance the needs of their customers with the expectations of today’s consumers. 

“Industry research shows that sellers often achieve better outcomes when their property is exposed to the broadest possible audience and our approach to Clear Cooperation supports that by requiring residential listings to be entered into the MLS within one business day of any public marketing, ensuring timely and equitable access,” Jacobson wrote in an email. “At the same time, we recognize that every transaction is unique, so our policies are designed to provide flexibility within a framework that prioritizes transparency, fairness, and professionalism, ultimately helping sellers gain maximum visibility, providing buyers with access to a more complete view of the market and enabling our customers to operate within a trusted, cooperative system.”

Under PrimeMLS’s policy, a property can remain as a coming soon for up to 10 days before the listing must go active in the MLS. While this is on the shorter end for coming soon time limits compared to other MLSs that limit, it is ultimately what PrimeMLS felt best balanced the needs of its members and their clients. 

However, if your brokerage serves clients across the East Coast, you may be a member of both PrimeMLS and Bright MLS, which covers much of the Mid-Atlantic. Although Bright MLS also allows for coming soon listings, the MLS does not provide any time limit, allowing listings to remain as coming soon for as long as the seller wants. 

In an emailed statement, Bright MLS president and CEO Brian Donnellan told HousingWire that his firm views “cooperation and professional access to listings as foundational,” but that times have changed and “the way listings are marketed and distributed publicly is evolving.” 

“Our policy development is driven by one goal: giving brokers more choice to compete in an increasingly complex marketplace,” he wrote. “Cooperation isn’t going away; it’s getting smarter and evolving to match how the industry works today.” 

Further south on the East Coast, giving brokers and their clients more choices has been exactly what Canopy MLS has focused on as it has changed and updated its Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) over the past year. 

In September 2025, Canopy MLS announced changes to its system, which included the adoption of the interpretation that one-to-one agent contact about a listing does not trigger CCP and that price changes to a listing in a coming soon status will not appear in the listing’s history. The MLS followed this up last month, launching its Listing Visibility Options.

Agents and sellers can now choose between three listing visibility options: public, limited exposure and firm exclusive. Listings can be moved to an option with broader exposure (e.g. from limited exposure to public), but they cannot be moved back to more restricted visibility. 

“The new options were designed to give sellers more flexibility and control how listings are marketed, while ensuring alignment with MLS rules and industry policies,” a spokesperson for Canopy MLS wrote in an email. “We believe these changes are an important step in providing more transparent and flexible listing options while maintaining compliance across MLS date use.”

The MLS frames these changes to its policy as providing its subscribers with greater flexibility in how they serve their clients. 

For Donnellan at Bright MLS, this innovation and variation in MLS policies, especially as it relates to coming soon listings, while frustrating to some brokers, is not a bad thing. 

“The era of heightened competition among MLSs has arrived, and that is a positive development,” Donnellan wrote. “Across the country, industry leaders are interpreting new policies through various lenses to determine what best serves brokers, agents, and consumers.”

Some MLSs, including Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and Tennessee’s Realtracs, have taken this competition a step further, partnering with national brokerages to feature listings from across the country and not just in their traditional service area, looking to turn themselves into a nationwide MLS option.

In late April, MRED announced that it was opening its multiple listing service, including its Private Listing Network (PLN), to any licensed real estate agent nationwide and that it had secured a nationwide listing feed from Compass International Holdings. Just a week later, Realtracs announced a similar deal with Compass and United Real Estate, stating in the announcement that it was in talks with other brokerages to obtain direct listing feeds. 

“Working with both Compass and United is part of our plan to help mend cooperation, create broker and agent choice and support brokerages nationwide,” a spokesperson for Realtracs wrote in an email to HousingWire. 

With some MLSs now opening access to brokers across the country, it remains to be seen how the diverse array of listing policies will hold up.

This post was originally published on here.