The housing market has been on a topsy-turvy roller-coaster ride in recent years that has been particularly neck wrenching since this past fall, fueled by stubbornly high inflation and a still-strong jobs market. In early November, 30-year fixed mortgage rates began a nosedive, declining from near 8% to below 7%
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Keller Williams was named to an additional class-action lawsuit that takes issue with alterations made to the brokerage’s profit-sharing program. On Thursday, James McFarlane filed a complaint aiming for class-action status in the U.S. District Court of Maine. McFarlane was associated with Keller Williams from 2004 to 2018. In the
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The former eXp Realty agent at the center of the firm’s current legal battles involving sexual assault allegations has filed his own lawsuit against the brokerage, which accuses founder Glenn Sanford of defaming him during the firm’s Q3 2023 earnings call in November 2023. In a suit filed on April
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While revenue rose at eXp World Holdings during the first quarter of 2024, the firm was still unable to turn a profit due to the challenging housing market. In Q1 2024, the company reported a $15.6 million loss compared to a net gain of $1.5 million in Q1 2023. Revenue
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The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) maintained its short-term policy interest rate steady at a range of 5.25% to 5.5% for a sixth consecutive meeting on Wednesday. “The Committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that
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Corcoran expanded its talent pool this week and welcomed three new faces — two in Nashville and one in New Jersey. Former National Football League stars Andy Levitre and Marc Mariani have joined Corcoran Reverie, an affiliate of The Corcoran Group, in Nashville. The duo will be part of the
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As more housing and mortgage authorities seek to expand the scope of homeownership to those who have never purchased a home before, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) are taking a step to more narrowly define the term “first-generation homebuyer mortgage,” according to a bulletin
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In an update to its selling guide, Freddie Mac announced Wednesday that it is expanding the use of attorney opinion letters (AOLs) in lieu of title insurance. Under the new selling guidelines, Freddie Mac said it would allow AOLs to be used on “loans secured by a unit in a condo
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Less than a week after HomeServices of America settled the home seller commission lawsuits for $250 million, the firm again finds itself in the crosshairs of antitrust litigation. On Monday, homebuyer James Lutz filed a class-action antitrust lawsuit in a U.S. district court in Florida, accusing HomeServices and its subsidiaries,
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As existing home sales dropped to the lowest level it has seen in nearly three decades in 2023, title insurance premium volume also took a hit. In 2023, the title insurance industry generated $15.1 billion in title insurance premiums, a 31% annual drop, according to the American Land Title Association’s
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Mortgage demand dipped last week as mortgage rates reached their highest levels since November 2023. Applications decreased by 2.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ending April 26, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey. “Inflation remains stubbornly high, and this trend is convincing
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More than 556,000 single-family homes were available for sale nationwide as of last Friday, according to the latest data from HousingWire sister company Altos Research. That puts the national inventory up 31.9% year-over-year, extending a 24-week streak of year-over-year increases. So are agents and brokers flush with home listings? Likely
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