Author name: Ricky Vasquez

Teraverde, Stratmor clarify no merger took place

Teraverde and Stratmor want to make it clear that the proposed merger announced over a year ago between the two was never completed. The misconception, both Teraverde’s Jim Deitch and Stratmor’s Garth Graham said, came about from an artificial intelligence generated answer to a search engine question. The deal was announced last May at the […]

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DOJ quietly axes more redlining settlements with lenders

The Trump administration is moving swiftly to roll back Biden-era redlining enforcement. Federal courts in recent weeks have terminated five consent orders with mortgage lenders, which stemmed from redlining probes by the prior administration. The Department of Justice claimed those companies satisfied the terms of their settlements months and years before their expiration, freeing them

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NFHA: HUD using flawed data to justify funding cuts

The National Fair Housing Alliance is pushing back against claims by the Trump administration that it’s behind most of the nation’s housing complaints, defending its role as budget negotiations threaten its funding. In a letter to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, the NFHA argued that the administration was using “erroneous information” to justify

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Tariffs, immigration fears stoke housing cost debate

As President Donald Trump continues his push for tougher immigration enforcement and higher tariffs, Americans are increasingly split on how it will affect home prices, a survey from real estate firm Redfin found. In the survey, 51% of respondents agreed when asked if they thought that less immigration would lead to fewer construction workers and

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Elevated mortgage rates aren’t discouraging homebuyers

Why aren’t home sales crashing as they did in 2022? Right now we have elevated mortgage rates, trade war uncertainty, rising property taxes and home insurance, terrible consumer confidence data and a downgrade of the government’s debt, among other factors. But, housing demand continues to hold up, surprising people who can’t explain why home sales

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Seattle housing market wrestles with crippling affordability concerns

On the surface, Seattle’s housing market looks like any other in the country. The inventory of single-family homes for sale is up substantially year over year. New listings are up slightly, sales remain subdued and home prices aren’t moving much. That’s the story in the majority of housing markets. But Seattle is wrestling with a

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Comfortable city living usually requires a six-figure salary

Homeownership in many of America’s largest cities now demands a six-figure salary to sustain a comfortable lifestyle — with some regions requiring more than $300,000 annually. A new analysis by GOBankingRates ranked the top 50 U.S. cities by the income necessary to afford a comfortable standard of living, using factors such as average home prices,

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Americans are divided over housing impacts of immigration, tariffs

A new Redfin survey reveals sharp divides among Americans over how immigration and tariffs are affecting housing affordability, reflecting a complex and politically charged landscape. More than half of U.S. homeowners and renters (51.2%) believe that reducing immigration could worsen housing affordability by shrinking the pool of construction workers and limiting the number of new

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In Chicago, a reverse mortgage scammer left a lasting scar

Mark Diamond has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for his crimes against elderly homeowners, but the scars from the damage he inflicted across the Chicago metro area are still visible. A recent report from a local publication, the South Side Weekly, detailed one family’s struggle to recover from Diamond’s scams. Louise Minter

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