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1 week ago | 
rismedia.com | Deborah Kearns |Claudia Larsen
Denee Evans, CEO of the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS), announced Thursday that she will step down from her role at the end of the year after more than a decade leading the real estate trade group. The announcement was made in a message to CMLS members on Thursday, with Evans describing the decision as both personal and professional. “After more than a decade of working together, this is a deeply personal and meaningful moment for me,” Evans wrote to members.
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2 weeks ago | 
kiplinger.com | Deborah Kearns
Harvard University recently announced that undergraduate tuition will be free for families earning $200,000 or less beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The university joins a growing number of institutions that are expanding financial access to higher education for families who would otherwise struggle to afford it. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania, for example, also offer free tuition for families earning less than $200,000.
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3 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Deborah Kearns
Digital mortgage lender Lower has acquired real estate portal Movoto in a move that shows a growing appetite for deals between mortgage companies and consumer-facing real estate platforms. The acquisition announced Tuesday combines Lower’s mortgage lending platform with the digital home-search reach of Movoto.com, which attracted more than 150 million visits in 2024.
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3 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Deborah Kearns
A lot of real estate brokerages talk about disrupting the industry, but few have executed on that promise like The Real Brokerage. The fast-growing, remote-first real estate company aimed to be a disruptor and upend the traditional way of running a brokerage. And they’re aiming to do it all with unprecedented speed.
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4 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Deborah Kearns
Compass, Inc, the nation’s largest real estate brokerage by sales volume, reported its revenue hit $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025, a jump of 28.7% year-over-year, brokerage executives announced Thursday during its Q1 earnings call. The tech-focused brokerage said the positive revenue growth was driven by a 27.8% increase in transactions year-over-year despite a 2.1% housing market decline.
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1 month ago | 
rismedia.com | Deborah Kearns
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), the nation’s largest mortgage originator, closed $32.4 billion in loan originations in the first quarter of 2025, up 17% from $27.6 billion during the same period a year ago, according to the company’s first quarter 2025 earnings report. While UWM (NYSE: UWMC) saw positive annual gains in loan originations, the lender posted a net loss of $247 million over the quarter, with lower fair value of mortgage servicing rights (MSR) to blame.
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1 month ago | 
rismedia.com | Deborah Kearns
Homebuyers can’t seem to catch a break on home affordability. On top of high home prices, mortgage rates and homeowners insurance, property taxes on single-family homes across the United States jumped 2.7% in 2024, reaching $4,172 per home, according to a new report from ATTOM, a property data and analytics firm. The total amount levied on single-family homes nationwide decreased to $357.5 billion, down 1.6% from 2023, even as the average tax bill per home increased.
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1 month ago | 
rismedia.com | Deborah Kearns
A federal judge has stepped in again to stop President Trump’s administration from firing more than 80% of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) employees after the agency announced a drastic reduction to its mission and scope of work.
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1 month ago | 
mortgageresearch.com | Deborah Kearns
The Bottom Line Paying title insurance usually falls on the homebuyer, but this can vary by location. Title insurance fees are a third-party closing cost you can shop around for — and negotiate with the seller on who foots the bill. Title insurance is one of those closing costs in a home purchase you don’t love spending extra cash on but are grateful for when issues crop up. Lenders require borrowers to take out a title insurance policy in case there’s an ownership dispute after closing.
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1 month ago | 
mortgageresearch.com | Deborah Kearns
The Bottom Line IPCs can substantially lower your out-of-pocket expenses at the closing table, but each loan program sets its own limits on how much sellers can contribute and what the funds can cover. Finding ways to reduce your upfront costs when buying a home can sometimes mean the difference between closing the deal and walking away without the home of your dreams. Interested Party Contributions (IPCs) are a powerful tool to help lighten the burden and make homeownership more affordable.
