8 Experts: Sky-High Housing Prices Won’t Fall
Today’s market isn’t like the boom-bust cycle leading up to the Great Recession: Tough loan standards are the norm, plus many factors have kept housing supply low.
HUD Rolls Out AI Platform to Fight Fraud in Grant Spending
Called Argus, the risk management platform’s artificial intelligence capabilities should reduce HUD’s time spent manually monitoring program grantees by over 75%.
Making the MLS More Transparent: NAR Committee Recommendations
NAR’s Technology Board made recommendations that will go into effect if approved by a Multiple Listing Service committee and NAR’s board. Among them: Participants can’t represent that their services are free, and listing ads can’t be sorted or filtered based on the level of compensation a cooperating broker offers.
To Some Thieves, a 3D Tour Is Like Online Shopping
A Faberge egg on the mantle? The location of a home safe? Agents should take steps to protect their sellers’ privacy and safety when they create 3-D listing tours.
Giving Money to a Real Estate Syndicator? Things to Know
A syndicator combines money from multiple investors for a single project. Due diligence requires consideration of at least nine things – but trust tops the list.
Appraisal Valuation Gap Uncovered in Minority Areas
A Freddie Mac study of 12M appraisals found that 13% of homes in Black neighborhoods were below contract price; in white tracts, it was 7.4%; in Latino it was 9.4%.
Mortgage Rates Up this Week, but Only a Bit
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.88% this week, a small increase from last week’s 2.86%. Freddie Mac credits foreign investors for keeping rates low.
Fla.-Owned Insurer: Losses and Policies Keep Growing
Citizens Property Insurance expects to exceed more than 1M policies sometime in 2022 – and private insurers will rack up more than 1B in losses by the end of this year.
Prefab Construction? Don’t Call It a Mobile Home
The industry has been fighting mobile-home thinking. With pre-fab, the entire home is built onsite after 50%-80% of individual elements are constructed offsite.
SEC Brings First Crowdfunding Fraud Case
Crowdfunding continues to grow as a way to invest in real estate, but the SEC alleges that some investors pocketed money intended for cannabis real estate purchases.