Redfin Corp. is shuttering its iBuying business and laying off workers for the second time in almost five months, as the likelihood of a prolonged U.S. housing slowdown continues to ripple through the industry.

It came as a surprise to many housing experts that Asian, Black and Hispanic homeownership rates all jumped last year by more than 2 percentage points, according to quarterly Census Bureau data.

The most recent cuts bring the company's total headcount reduction to over 1,000 employees this year.

The firms trimming payroll include lenders, a mortgage insurance giant, an iBuyer and an online notarization software provider.

Opendoor Technologies Inc. is laying off about 550 employees after higher mortgage rates cratered U.S. housing demand.

The Connecticut mortgage vendor announced that after an exhaustive process of evaluating all options, it has decided to "cease doing business."

Kristy Fercho, who's run the bank's home lending division since August 2020, will report directly to CEO Charlie Scharf and sit on the operating committee. Last year, she became the first Black person to chair the Mortgage Bankers Association, and she took the top spot in American Banker's Most Powerful Women to Watch this year.

The lender earlier this year also filed a poaching suit against CrossCountry Mortgage.

Major efforts are underway to eliminate discriminatory practices in property valuations.

Just because regulators have not initiated any enforcement actions since 2014 doesn't mean they aren't watching.

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Lender Finance of America, which reported steep losses in the first half of the year, is also reportedly mulling a massive staff reduction.

Why several rivals are suing the mortgage lender, and why it may not matter

Methods to combat the discrimination include lender disclosures explaining the process, industry guidance around reconsiderations of value, uniform 3D property scans and more automated valuation models easier to audit than manual valuations.

The move follows two consecutive quarterly losses for the REIT and comes just days after its sister non-QM lending business laid off 20% of its staff.

SPCPs are posed as an equitable housing solution but hesitation and confusion about them is persistent in the mortgage industry, housing finance experts said.

A whistleblower complaint on a $250,000 retention award for a Fannie Mae senior executive prompted the investigation of the Federal Housing Finance Agency's procedures.

The trade groups, including the American Bankers Association, allege the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau exceeded its authority by claiming discrimination in any financial product violates the federal prohibition on "unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices."

When voters in Oakland, Berkeley and South San Francisco receive ballots in the mail next month, they'll be asked whether their cities should be allowed to help build more desperately needed affordable housing.