Tag: Housing Market
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Do Private Listings Hurt Senior Home Sellers?
Once a home is listed on the market, it shows up for sale on the popular real estate websites. That’s almost always best for home sellers and buyers alike. Are there times when a “pocket listing” makes sense? Yes, but that’s the rare case. We’ll explore that in a moment. The main thing is to…
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Fannie and Freddie Prepare to Count Crypto in Loan Approval Decisions. How Will the Market Respond?
In June 2025, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to map out how cryptocurrency could be counted as an asset for home loan applications. Borrowers could keep their crypto accounts. They would not need to convert assets into dollars to receive their loans. In a directive signed on June…
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Mortgage Fraud Risk Rises, as White House Moves to Banish the Watchdog
Mortgage applications with signs of fraud have increased more than 8% since this time last year. The news comes from the property analytics firm Cotality. The firm runs algorithms through applications, pinpoints possible fraud, and maintains the National Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index. Cotality notes that real estate fraud rises as more investors take out…
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Zillow Removes Climate Risk Scores From Home Listings
Zillow®, the online real estate powerhouse, has made a change on its website. And people are talking about it. Visitors no longer see a home’s risk score for climate factors like flooding or wildfire potential. Just last year, Zillow adopted calculations from First StreetTM, which assigns risk levels to specific homes. The risk scores rank…
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“The Debasement Trade”: Home Values Climb, But Is the Dollar Value Real?
On Wall Street, they call it the debasement trade. Here’s what the concept means. As the U.S. dollar loses value, some investors are moving their cash into things like gold and real estate. They’re trading…in favor of hard assets. Homes are “hard assets”, but are they actually holding their value? We all know the story…
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Thinking of Downsizing? Consider Costs Along With Benefits.
Thinking of downsizing? For some deed holders, it’s a fantastic choice. Just be sure you’re on the lookout for unexpected costs in today’s housing market. Here, we go through some scenarios so you can spot potential issues related to moving into a smaller place. Don’t let them catch you by surprise.
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Real Estate Update: Housing Agencies, States Suffer “Staggering” Blows in Shutdown
The U.S. federal government has been shut down for three weeks now. The impact on everyday life for many has been serious. What might not be obvious is the impact on federal housing agencies and state-based real estate industries. Sellers and buyers are feeling the effects as well. In some states, the impacts are outsized…
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Texas Law Restricting Foreign Buyers Chills Chinese Investment
Tonya Li works as a real estate agent in Austin. A Sotheby’s agent, Li has represented Chinese clients for the better part of a decade. Li reports losing 50% of her work after Texas enacted a new state law, banning certain foreigners from buying real estate. Texas Senate Bill 17 came into effect in September.…
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Passage From Deed to Deed: Rocket Mortgage® Now Offers Bridge Loans
Need to sell your home? Homes aren’t selling as quickly as they used to. But a bridge loan might provide some help with your buying-while-you-sell experience. This is the message from Rocket Mortgage®, which will now let you buy your next house now — before you transfer the deed to your current home. Let’s take…
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The Amazon of Housing? Opendoor Styles Itself as Ecommerce for Homes
Eric Jackson, a hedge fund manager who founded EMJ Capital, is an activist shareholder in the real estate tech company Opendoor. On social media, Jackson uses the hashtag #OPENArmy to draw attention to the company. Jackson has also targeted the rapper Drake in marketing stunts. He says Opendoor’s stock could be worth hundreds of dollars.…
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LGBTQ+ home buying challenges
The ranks of U.S. adults who identify as gay, bisexual, or gender nonconforming (LGBTQI+) has risen to a population of 31 million and counting. This increase is driven mainly by younger generations who have grown up in an era when self-expression has been unfettered by civil rights and the feminist and pride movements. Now, what…
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With a Million Homes Now on the U.S. Market, Why Aren’t Prices Falling?
This year, for the first time since 2019, a million homes are on the market. Listings are up more than 7% from last year, According to Realtor.com. Inventory is rising nationwide, with the southern and western parts of the country actually back to 2017-2019 levels! And homes are starting to linger on the market for…
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Tip Line Will Bust Lying Mortgage Applicants, Says Trump Administration (Before Going After New York’s AG)
The Trump administration believes mortgage fraud is out of control. So, federal officials now run a tip line, to get people to report suspicious behavior. The administration is so gung-ho about mortgage fraud that it’s even accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of filing improperly completed mortgage applications. That’s bullying, and the charges are…
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“Government Efficiency”: DOGE Firings Prompt a Wave of Home Selling in D.C.
The art of the deed transfer is going through some bizarre changes these days. We have the question marks over tariffs. And we’re watching all sorts of housing policies become targets of the Trump administration. In the midst of all the turmoil, are residents being pushed out of our key government city — by Elon…
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What’s Going On With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Many people acquire deeds by applying for conventional loans. When we say conventional, we mean loans supported by our country’s federal housing agency through two powerhouses of the mortgage world: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That’s why we keep current with news on the policy changes happening in that agency. And there’s a lot to…
