Industries

The lucrative broker commission system at the heart of the residential housing market is facing unprecedented antitrust scrutiny from the Justice Department and two private class-action lawsuits that risk weakening the National Association of Realtors, the industry's powerful lobbying group.

The Department of Justice reached a $9 million settlement Wednesday with Westerly, R.I.-based Washington Trust over race-based lending discrimination and redlining in the state, saying the bank denied lending services to Black and Hispanic neighborhoods from 2016 to 2021.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a mortgage report based on statistics from 2022 and is looking for ways to simplify the refinance process while considering changes to mortgage servicing standards.

But a great deal of variation in distress levels were reported between individual markets and property sectors, according to two new reports.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said inflation relief from the housing sector is "in the pipeline" but some say strong underlying demand and an inadequate housing supply could disrupt future rate pauses or cuts.

Decreased availability of bank capital for new commercial construction helped slow activity from the previous nine quarters, according to a new report.

Anywhere Real Estate's agreeing to decouple seller and buyer agent commissions might lead to revolutionary revisions to the real estate sales process — or little to no change.

The FDIC is launching joint ventures to market $33 billion of commercial real estate loans from the failed Signature Bank, prioritizing its statutory obligation to preserve low-income housing availability.

A former insider wants the Federal Home Loan Bank System's regulator to require its 11 regional banks to balance members' liquidity needs with the system's public mission to fund affordable housing and community development programs.

The rate of increase cooled for the 14th straight month in June, dropping over 10% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

Residential starts increased 3.9% last month to a 1.45 million annualized rate, according to government data released Wednesday.

The Agency, a brokerage with a leading role in a Netflix show, names New American Funding their preferred mortgage provider, stripping that title away from CrossCountry Mortgage.

The cohort is outperforming the broader market — up more than 50% year-to-date versus the S&P 500's 18% gain. 

Denver-based Proprietary Capital, who offers a platform for institutional investors seeking returns from mortgage-related assets, agreed to purchase the New Jersey-based lender as it seeks to increase the number of opportunities it offers.

The sector is well-positioned for further volume growth into next year, analysts led by Anthony Pettinari said in a note to clients Monday.

"I do believe you'll begin to see some improvement, or increases, in new housing as we head into the back half of the year," Chief Financial Officer Jim Peters said in an interview. "We're hearing optimistic stuff from the builders we deal with."

Residential starts fell 8% last month to a 1.43 million annualized rate, according to government data released Wednesday.

Despite the improvement in sentiment, the homebuilder index remains below end-of-2021 levels, when mortgage rates were lower

Democratic senators including Banking Chair Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren want to restrict tax breaks for large corporate investors that buy local homes and often drive up costs.

With new construction activity at the highest level in more than a year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow tracker is projecting residential investment added 0.1% to growth in gross domestic product in the second quarter.