Securing homeowners’ insurance is reshaping the homebuying process itself. Premiums are rising, carriers are pulling back from entire states and buyers are increasingly discovering, sometimes days before closing, that the home they plan to purchase is either too expensive to insure or cannot be insured at all. What was once a routine, last-step check is […]
Homeowners Insurance is Reshaping the Real Estate Transaction Read More »
To my shock, housing demand grew noticeably last week, even though the war with Iran continues and mortgage rates are higher today than before the war started. Last week was one of the more positive reports since I started writing the Housing Market Tracker at the end of 2022. Everything I want to see in
Housing demand shockingly positive even as the Iran war continues Read More »
With refinance activity constrained and purchase volume under pressure, lenders are being forced to rethink their sustainable growth plans. The answer is becoming clear: home equity. As millions of homeowners remain locked into low mortgage rates, they are turning to second liens and mortgages to access equity without disrupting their primary loan. Tom Davis, Chief
Home equity emerges as a generational growth strategy for originators Read More »
Proprietary reverse mortgages have gained a lot of traction over the past year and now account for more industry volume than federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs). With the help of loan officers Nathan Guerrero and Jackson Matheson, Tennessee will soon join the list of states to allow private-label reverse mortgages. Guerrero, a reverse
How two LOs helped champion proprietary reverse mortgage legislation in Tennessee Read More »
The fight over Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s sweeping housing reform agenda is intensifying as both sides harden their positions. Supporters and detractors by the thousands delivered their opening arguments Thursday at the first major hearing on Pritzker’s six-bill package. Pritzker’s BUILD plan seeks to lower costs by making construction easier and faster statewide. It would
Pritzker’s honor: Illinois housing reform fight intensifies Read More »
Confronting heavier incentives, price cuts, tepid demand and margin pressure, PulteGroup opened the year with a mix-shift pivot that leans more heavily on build-to-order and active adult sales. Pulte’s Q1 2026 earnings call, held on Thursday, indicates that the nation’s third-largest homebuilder by sales volume made progress on this goal, despite an added layer of
PulteGroup targets margin stability through an upward mix shift Read More »
The mid-spring earnings cycle has produced a common-language reality check for America’s public homebuilders: the operating backdrop worsened faster than many management teams expected. In such a context of nearly-universal challenge, doing less-worse may count as a win. Meritage Homes’ Q1 2026 numbers serve as a case in point Orders fell 5% year over year,
Meritage Q1 2026 shows why incentives are the new battlefield Read More »
The share of first-time homebuyers has fallen to 21% of all transactions — the lowest level since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) began tracking the data in 1981. For real estate agents, the shift is not a temporary blip. It’s a structural change reshaping how agents build their businesses, talk about value and prepare
First-time homebuyers’ shrinking presence — what it means for real estate agents Read More »
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has created the Office of Deed Theft Prevention, a new unit housed in the Department of Finance to coordinate citywide efforts to combat fraudulent property transfers, according to an announcement on Friday. “The theft of a home is the theft of a family’s future,” Mamdani said in a statement.
NYC launches new unit to combat deed theft Read More »
SoFi Technologies this week unveiled a new fully digital home equity line of credit (HELOC) experience, expanding its push into mortgages as more homeowners choose to tap equity rather than move. The company said the new HELOC offering will allow members to access home equity through an end-to-end digital process within the SoFi platform, with
SoFi rolls out end-to-end digital HELOC experience, advisory council Read More »