The ALTA Elite Provider Program recognizes service providers that demonstrate a strong commitment to supporting the title insurance industry and the professionals who serve consumers every day, ALTA CEO Chris Morton said in the announcement.
Good urbanism should transcend politics. Socialists and capitalists can walk the same neighborhood and agree it's a pleasant place to live. They can each appreciate the tree canopy, the corner café with people spilling onto the sidewalk, the mix of ages on bikes and on foot, the architectural details of older buildings, and so on.
The February PAPI declined over the month and is nearly 10% lower than a year ago, reflecting both reduced payments and steady income growth, Edward Seiler said. While affordability conditions remain challenging in many markets, these incremental gains felt across more than half of states are an encouraging sign for prospective buyers, particularly those seeking lower-payment options.
Ginsburg stated that treating builder business as a core pillar rather than a side channel reflects a broader industry shift. He believes a healthy balance of builders should be around 15% to 20% of the overall retail book of business.
Through Community Facilities Districts (CFD), Municipal Utility Districts (MUD), Public Improvement Districts (PID), Community Development Districts (CDD) and reimbursement districts (RD), builders can potentially shift infrastructure costs off their balance sheets and onto special districts that homebuyers ultimately absorb through property taxes without potentially adding debt to the builder's books.
HousingWire's 2026 Rising Stars honor industry leaders age 40 and under who are making an impact across mortgage, real estate and homebuilding. The honorees represent a range of roles and are recognized for driving innovation, supporting their organizations and contributing to broader industry progress.
The cost rose a lot following the pandemic. And some of that was supply chain issues that really increased the costs, and then they didn't quite come back down. And now tariffs are also impacting some products. These costs are part of the reason the amount of new rental housing stock is shrinking.
Across most states, it takes 18 to 36 months to raise an average FICO score to the 760 prime threshold, assuming an improvement of about 20 points per year. Mississippi and Louisiana require the longest timelines, with borrowers needing 4 years and 3.5 years of consistent progress, respectively. At the opposite end, Minnesota offers the fastest path, with an average timeline of just 0.9 years, due to a high statewide average score of 742.
Mortgage rates are near 6%, which means it costs builders less to do a buy-down, and because they sell homes as a commodity, they're trying their best to manage this cycle and their profit margins. This means selling a new home in recent years has been more of a calculation on how much builder credit they can and need to give.
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York show student loan and auto loan balances at record highs, while credit card balances have climbed to about $1.2 trillion. Delinquencies, particularly on credit cards, are also rising, with 90-day-plus late-payment rates for credit cards more than 12% higher than in prior years. Consumers are driving a lot of growth, but there are some signs of weakness for certain parts of the economy, Kan said, adding that these pressures could spill over into housing and mortgage performance.
Realtor Todd Luong of REMAX DFW Associates in Frisco said his recent experience reflects meaningful improvement for buyers, even if affordability remains strained. Here in the Dallas real estate market that I serve, affordability remains a challenge, he says. However, there is a significant amount of data showing that buyer conditions have improved over the past year and that buyers are gaining affordability ground. This should eventually increase housing demand to some degree as we head into the busy spring buying season.
APOR is baked into not only Dodd-Frank as a safe harbor against litigation which many lenders want to comply with and use for their business and pricing and risk but also there are a litany of 40 other statutes that are tied to APOR as it's described in Dodd Frank, over 27 states. Lenders frequently move ahead of formal rulemaking, Dunn added. You don't have to wait for the regulation to comply either, she said.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is deeply entrenched in the U.S. system. It benefits from decades of investor demand, a robust securitization framework and established insurance support. Once loan terms extend beyond 30 years, those structural advantages begin to erode. There is also a cost that often gets overlooked. A 50-year mortgage dramatically increases the total interest paid over the life of the loan. While monthly payments may appear more manageable, borrowers can end up paying nearly double the interest compared to a traditional 30-year mortgage.
This is important in that they'd stop them from buying properties but not necessarily saying sell off.' It's not banning them from owning properties. How it would do that is anyone's guess. What properties exactly are they talking about? I believe it's single-family, but it's also not exactly clear, because when people say single-family, they're often just talking about single-family detached homes. Single-family attached also exists, i.e., townhomes, so it could include those.
President Donald Trump put big investors who own single-family rental homes in the spotlight this week by announcing he wants to ban "large institutional investors" from buying more of this type of housing. Overall, major investors own only about 2 to 3% of the country's single-family rental housing stock, researchers have found. But they control a much larger share of the single-family rental industry in certain markets, particularly in the Sun Belt.
Introductory period: The initial fixed-rate phase before adjustments begin. Adjustment period: How frequently the rate can change after the intro period ends. Index: The benchmark interest rate used to calculate future rate changes. Margin: The lender's fixed markup added to the index. Initial cap: Limits how much the rate can increase at the first adjustment. Periodic cap: Limits how much the rate can change at each adjustment. Lifetime cap: The maximum interest rate allowed over the entire loan term.
