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2 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, one of the largest independent brokerages in the country and a long-time critic of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), is choosing to defy NAR’s recent decision to affirm the controversial Clear Cooperation policy. The brokerage informed dozens of MLSs and NAR yesterday that it does not consider Clear Cooperation “binding”—though the rule has always been mandatory.
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2 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
Fannie Mae updated its housing market and economic predictions yesterday, tweaking nearly all the numbers positively in the wake of some encouraging data and federal policy shifts. In its latest assessment of the market, the mortgage giant predicted 6.1% rates by the end of the year—a precipitous drop from the current average of 6.8%—and a smaller decrease to 5.8% by the end of 2026. That is slightly better than Fannie Mae’s previous expectation of 6.2% in 2025, and 6% in 2026.
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2 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
Libby Cantrill (left), with Warren Kornfeld, (right) speaking at MBA’s Capital & Secondary Markets Conference in New York City on May 20. NEW YORK CITY—Changes to the GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) are here already, in the form of new leadership, policy shifts and evolving priorities under the new Trump administration.
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2 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate. Deep in the post-settlement era, most real estate professionals are concerned with the fallout of previously mandated policy changes. Even the Federal Reserve—not known for its timeliness—last week weighed in on the National Association of REALTORS®’ settlement.
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3 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
As nearly everyone has weighed in on the commission issue, with no real consensus on exactly how recent policy changes will affect real estate agent pay, the Federal Reserve (Fed) this week put out its own analysis—concluding like so many others have, that it is too early to make any predictions about the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) settlement in the long term.
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3 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
Deep into an affordability crunch, as one of the primary barriers to homeownership remains soaring costs, the urgent question is no longer where we are or how we got here, but where we are headed. A new study conducted jointly by Realtor.com® and the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) seeks to answer this question by separating metros into three categories—those that are improving affordability, those that are stuck, and those that are falling even further behind.
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3 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
scales of justice, gavel and small wooden toy house, working with documents, signing contract agreements. Real estate law concept. A lawsuit filed by a fired Appraisal Institute employee is alleging that over multiple years, the organization misreported test scores to regulators and state agencies, refusing to rectify issues when they came to light.
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4 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
After the Federal Reserve chose to hold rates steady at its meeting last week, sparking more criticism from President Donald Trump, Fed governors were once again out on the media circuit, seeking to explain their perspectives on the path forward as uncertainty continues to bloom regarding the state of the economy. In Iceland early Friday morning, Fed members Michael Barr, John Williams and Adriana Kugler addressed reporters and took questions at the Reykjavík Economic Conference.
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4 weeks ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
CoStar is significantly expanding its international footprint with an acquisition of the Australian portal Domain, one of the largest real estate consumer websites down under, according to regulatory filings yesterday. The deal was previously proposed months ago, with CoStar Group CEO Andy Florance telling investors earlier this year his company could bolster Domain to compete with REA, the dominant consumer portal in Australia, owned by News Corp.
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1 month ago | 
rismedia.com | Jesse Williams
Through a rollercoaster few months, as the new Trump administration has enacted—and then often swiftly withdrawn—harsh tariffs on countries around the world, the question of how housing markets will react is a murky one. While in the long term most experts agree that these new taxes will weigh on homebuilding, it is less clear how housing markets are responding in the near-term to a whipsaw stock market and growing economic anxiety.
