Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 22, 2024
Have we seen the bottom in mortgage rates for 2024 after a crazy roller coaster ride so far this year? My 2024 forecast had a mortgage rate range of 7.25%-5.75%. To get to the lower end of this range, we needed to see two things: the labor market getting softer and the mortgage spreads improving. This is the double-whammy impact, and that’s what has happened.
Real Estate News
SEPTEMBER 20, 2024
A new guide explains the types of compensation allowed (not an “open-ended amount or a range”), how buyers can ask sellers to pay and when it’s OK to walk away.
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Keeping Current Matters
SEPTEMBER 17, 2024
Mortgage rates have hit their lowest point in over a year and a half.
Inman
SEPTEMBER 18, 2024
Clelia Warburg Peters, Era Ventures' founder, is the first woman to raise an initial fund of this size in the real estate category. The fund will distribute capital across various stages of innovation.
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Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 27, 2024
The majority of homebuyers are still expecting sellers to cover their agent’s compensation, according to The Real Brokerage ’s August 2024 agent survey. This comes even as the business practice changes outlined in the National Association of Realtors ‘ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement have been implemented across the country. Real conducted its survey between Aug. 30 and Sept. 15, recording the responses of roughly 300 agents across North America.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 1, 2024
Have we seen the peak in housing inventory for 2024? The best part about 2024 has been that higher mortgage rates have created an inventory buffer, so if the economy gets softer and rates fall, we have many more homes to work with than we had in 2020-2023. I have consistently written that with mortgage rates above 7%, inventory should grow between 11,000-17,000 and this year it has happened six times perfectly in the channel.
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Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 7, 2024
Mortgage rates have made almost a 2% move lower from the highs of 2023. Now that the jobs week data is in, the question is: can mortgage rates go even lower? The answer is yes, but we will need more economic weakness, better spreads and a more dovish Fed. While the Fed can be old and slow, the bond market, thankfully, is doing a lot of the heavy lifting and has already priced in a lot of Fed easing policy.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 28, 2024
Housing demand is very seasonal, so the fact that our pending contract data is firming up lately just shows that lower mortgage rates have stabilized and firmed up demand recently. It will likely take mortgage rates to go under 6% and stay there for an extended period to get real sustained demand growth from record-low sales levels. However, considering the affordability challenges with the housing market , it’s good to see a flip in the housing data without rates getting under 6%.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 15, 2024
An often misguided premise I see on social media is that lower mortgage rates are doing nothing for housing demand. That’s ok — very few people are looking at the data without an agenda. However, the point of this tracker is to show you evidence that lower rates have already changed housing data. So, let’s review the data together. Purchase application data First, purchase apps is the fastest way to look for positive or negative data at higher or lower mortgage rates.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 23, 2024
Seller repurchases of Freddie Mac mortgages rose by $430 million in the second quarter of 2024, a 29.1% increase from the first quarter, according to an analysis of public filings by Inside Mortgage Finance. By contrast, sellers of loans through fellow government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) Fannie Mae repurchased $268.5 million in noncompliant loans during the same period, a 27.7% decline from Q1 2024.
Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant
Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 11, 2024
On this crazy day with the bond market, mortgage rates dropped to another yearly low after the CPI inflation print. How low? Mortgage News Daily came out with a shocking print of 6.11% mortgage rates for their top-tier borrowers, while HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center , which tracks actual loan lock data from Polly , is also at a year-to-date low of 6.44%.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024
Real estate agents have white-knuckled their way through more than two years of suffocatingly high mortgage rates that have stymied sales, choked off inventory and pushed home prices to new all-time highs. So what was the reaction from agents when the Federal Reserve surprised everyone by cutting rates by 50 basis points rather than the 25 that was taken as a given?
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 6, 2024
In 2022, I argued that the Federal Reserve won’t pivot until the labor market breaks. This means that the Fed will need to create such a slowdown in the labor market that nobody will question their action when they pivot. This is what I call the “cover cuts” policy. After today’s jobs report and the negative revision to this report and the previous ones, it is safe to say nobody outside of crazy people who want to see America go into a recession will question the Fed rate cut that will happen th
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 12, 2024
Home equity continued to rise in the second quarter of 2024 as residential properties with mortgages collectively gained $1.3 trillion in equity over the past year. But growth began to slow during these three months, according to the CoreLogic Homeowner Equity Insights report published on Thursday. The aggregate equity gain was 8% year over year, bringing total equity on mortgaged properties to more than $17.6 trillion at the end of Q2 2024.
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As the real estate market evolves, technology has become essential for success. According to NAR, only 26% of agents feel their brokerage provides the necessary tech tools and, as a result, agents seek teams and brokerages who prioritize technology investments! Whether you manage an established team or are forming a new one, this guide outlines key considerations and necessary applications to thrive.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 15, 2024
In what has become a familiar fall ritual, mortgage lenders are increasing their conforming loan limits months ahead of the FHFA’s official announcement. On Friday, Rocket Pro TPO and Pennymac both announced an increase in their conforming loan limits to $802,650 — before the expected increase by the FHFA in November. Rocket’s increase was effective Friday and Pennymac’s increase will be effective for new broker locks on Monday, Sept. 16.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024
The question from the housing industry after the Federal Reserve ’s half-point interest rate cut is simple — will this bring buyers back to the stalled housing market? A new report from Redfin suggests that it is already happening. The company analyzed mortgage rate-lock data from Optimal Blue and found that locks have risen 68% this week compared to one month earlier.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 18, 2024
The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday by 50 basis points (bps) to a range of 4.75% to 5%, turning an important corner in the central bank’s fight against inflation. The cut is the first since March 2020 after the Fed raised interest rates to a 23-year high point to cool the economy and quell inflation. With both inflation and the labor market cooling, economists and housing professionals alike had expected the Fed to cut borrowing costs in September, with the
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 3, 2024
With the calendar shifting to September and the next meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers only two weeks out, mortgage rates continue to recede and evidence suggests that borrowers are reacting to more favorable housing market conditions. At HousingWire ‘s Mortgage Rates Center on Tuesday, the 30-year rate for conforming loans averaged 6.60%, down from 6.64% one week ago.
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Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024
Like the traditional forward space, the reverse mortgage industry has been operating in an elevated interest rate environment for some time. While news of the Federal Reserve lowering its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points (bps) to a range of 4.75% to 5% will have wider economic ramifications in the government’s ongoing efforts to fight inflation, there are expected benefits to the reverse mortgage business as well as the demographic it serves: seniors on a fixed income.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024
The landmark antitrust lawsuit settlement agreed to by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in March has put the practices of real estate agents in the spotlight for both regulators and clients alike. Now, with agent commissions starting to decline, agents naturally want to convey the value of their services to buyers and sellers. New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta attempts to answer one question — can my agent get a better sale price on my home than a competing agent?
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024
Elevated mortgage rates have strained housing affordability for more than two years. With rates now falling — and more downward movement expected after the Federal Reserve ‘s recent interest rate cut — two new reports suggest that affordability is getting better too. The third-quarter 2024 housing affordability report from Attom says that falling mortgage rates, rising wages and slower home-price growth has made the expenses of buying and owning a home slightly more affordable.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024
In the six months since news of the National Association of Realtors ‘ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement broke, agent attitudes toward the settlement’s required business practice changes have only slightly improved. This is according to a study published earlier this week by real estate technology firm Clever Real Estate. Clever surveyed 516 real estate agents in late August and early September, after the changes were implemented on Aug. 17.
Speaker: Sarah Santa Ana, Real Estate Coach, Move4Free Realty
Networking is one of the crucial elements in every real estate organization's success. Both agents and real estate companies need to maintain robust networking links. This is why social media is essential for any real estate professional! Social media enables you to stay in touch with your present clients, maintain connections with your past clients, and engage potential customers and investors.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024
The American dream of homeownership is slipping away for many, as the gap between wages and home prices continues to widen. In the 1970s, home prices aligned more closely with income levels. Today, escalating real estate costs—particularly in high-cost areas—are pricing millions of Americans out of the housing market. One potential solution? Extending the traditional 30-year mortgage to 40 or even 50 years.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 5, 2024
Declining mortgage rates have yet to break the dam on the stalled housing market, but the sweet spot on rates that would get the market moving again is about 5%. That’s according to a new survey from Mphasis Digital Risk, which revealed that 42% of prospective buyers said a 5% rate would get them back in the market. An additional 27% said they’re targeting a 4% rate, while 20% say it’s 6%.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 18, 2024
After falling in July, housing starts were back up again in August, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In August, housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.356 million, up 2.9% month over month and up 3.9% compared to a year ago. The single-family sector was the sole source of thus increase, as multifamily starts were down 6.7% monthly and 6.2% annually to a rate of 333,000 start
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 23, 2024
In the real estate industry, referral fees have become a golden goose that stifles innovation, inflates the value chain, and ultimately harms both consumers and agents. Despite their prevalence, the current system is ripe for reexamination. The referral fee conundrum Referral fees are a familiar practice in real estate. Suppose someone with a real estate license identifies a potential homebuyer or seller.
Speaker: Trey Willard, Realtor/Team Leader at Keller Williams Realty, Inc.
In order to create continued success in today’s real estate market, realtors need to utilize an arsenal of technology that will increase their efficiency and presence on social media. Using technology to manage your prospects and tap into their needs through websites, social media, and other channels is critical for real estate success in 2022 and beyond.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024
More than 16 million Americans who are 65 or older are living alone, but the depth of their experiences is largely unknown. This is according to a recent story published by KFF Health News. “This slice of the older population has significant health issues: Nearly 4 in 10 seniors living alone have vision or hearing loss, difficulty caring for themselves and living independently, problems with cognition, or other disabilities, according to a KFF analysis of 2022 census data,” the story explained.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 4, 2024
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is rolling out a new 75 basis-point incentive program for conforming conventional and government-backed rate-and-term refinances. The program, dubbed “Refi75,” effectively replaces and expands on “Govy 125,” a 125-bps incentive that ended Tuesday for Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans (IRRRLs) through the U.S.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 18, 2024
Dawn Pfaff is a free-market evangelist, and that informs how she runs MyState MLS. The privately owned multiple listing service has taken a laissez faire approach since its launch in 2009, as it promises no fees and fewer rules than MLSs owned by Realtor associations. This manifesto has helped MyState develop a national footprint with listings for all types of properties, including single-family homes, manufactured homes, newly built homes, foreclosures and even land.
Housing Wire
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024
With home sale prices continuing to rise, wire fraud prevention firm CertifID announced Thursday that it is increasing its direct, first-party insurance coverage maximum to $2 million. This means that up to $2 million of a wire transfer verified by CertifID can receive direct, first-party insurance coverage. The company said this change is the result of increasing transaction sizes being processed by both residential and commercial real estate companies, and that it “is backed by the largest ins
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