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September 2025

Elizabeth Warren presses Bessent on Fannie, Freddie IPO efforts

GSEs, Politics and policy, Secondary markets /

The top Senate Democrat with oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for more details about the Trump administration’s efforts to take the mortgage giants public.  The Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency have been holding meetings with housing advocates, think tanks and mortgage industry representatives this month […]

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Fannie, Freddie win for VantageScore causes pain for FICO shares

MBS, Originations, Politics and policy, Secondary markets, Underwriting /

Silvio Tavares waited years for news that finally arrived in July: government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would finally allow lenders to use something other than a FICO score to determine whether a customer is credit-worthy enough to buy a home. The wonky policy change, delivered via a social media post after years of

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a graph of a number of blue bars

Downsizing Without Debt: How More Homeowners Are Buying Their Next House in Cash

Downsize, Equity, For Sellers, Selling Tips /

If you’ve been thinking about downsizing to lower your expenses, be closer to family, or just make life easier, here’s a trend worth paying attention to: More homeowners are buying their next house outright, without taking on a new mortgage. And, if you’ve owned your home for a while, you may be able to do

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‘It’s complicated:’ brokers talk navigating MLS relationships at CMLS

Brokerage, California Regional MLS, CMLS, HWmember, MLS, MLS/Associations, Real Estate /

According to Craig Cheatham, the president and CEO of The Realty Alliance, if you were to assign a Facebook relationship status to the relationship between MLSs and brokers it would be “it’s complicated.”  “The MLS is at once the most valuable tool of the broker and, at the same time, it is the thing at

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Making the 7-day refi reality: Why now Is the time to modernize the mortgage process

Contributors, Digital mortgage, Mortgage, Opinion, Origination /

Imagine telling a borrower they can refinance their mortgage and close in just seven days. In 2025, that shouldn’t be a stretch – it should be the standard. We now live in a world of same day delivery for almost anything. But even though the technology exists to make the 7-day refi a reality, the

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New home sales shocked, but are these numbers legit?

Homebuilders, Housing Inventory, Housing Market, HWmember, Mortgage Rates, New Home Sales, U.S. Census Bureau /

Today’s report on new home sales printed one of the most surprising results I’ve seen in a while, showcasing significant growth. Now, we should have expected some growth in new home sales, given that mortgage rates have declined recently. In fact, each time mortgage rates have approached 6% since late 2022, new home sales have

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Median priced home requires an income close to six figures

Housing markets, REALTORS & HOMEBUILDERS /

A borrower today needs an annual income of just over $90,000 to comfortably afford what is now a nationwide record-high median priced home, according to Attom. That price rose to $375,000 in the third quarter, the property analytics firm said Thursday. Attom based affordability on what it takes to achieve a front-end debt-to-income ratio of

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Compass-Anywhere deal sparks MLS reckoning

California Regional MLS, CMLS, Compass, HWmember, MLS, MLS/Associations, National Association of Realtors, Real Estate /

For many in the multiple listing services (MLS) industry, Monday’s announcement that Compass was acquiring Anywhere served as a wake-up call of sorts.  Over the past year, Compass has worked to grow its stockpile of exclusive listings, but many did not consider the Robert Reffkin-helmed firm a serious threat to the MLS structure, due to

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loanDepot challenges class-action suit tied to LO comp rules, steering

HWmember, Lawsuit, Legal, LendingLife, Loan Officer, loanDepot, Maryland, Mortgage /

loanDepot has filed a motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit in Maryland alleging violations of loan officer (LO) compensation rules and borrower steering, arguing the plaintiffs failed to show they suffered a “concrete injury.” The lawsuit, filed in July by five borrowers who obtained mortgages from 2019 to 2021, claims loanDepot engaged in a “sophisticated,

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Baltimore launches $6.2B housing redevelopment effort

Affordability, Baltimore, Bank of America, City of Baltimore, Homebuilders, Housing Market, HWmember, JPMorgan Chase, Maryland, PNC, Real Estate /

Baltimore is embarking on what civic leaders call ‘the nation’s most ambitious housing redevelopment program’ — a 15-year effort that aims to turn around more than 37,000 vacant or at-risk properties and influence market conditions for another 33,000 homes and lots. The strategy is supported by $1.2 billion in public funding commitments and is expected

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