Four row houses in South Philadelphia share a wall. Their flood risk scores: 6, 4, 1, 3. This is real data from First Street, the climate analytics firm whose scores Zillow removed from over a million listings last month. The houses are on my block. They’re literally attached to each other, yet their risk profiles […]
Zillow was right to kill Climate RiskScores Read More »
On March 4, 2025, a windstorm cut across Texas and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes. Outside Dallas-Fort Worth, the pattern was the same as the storm swept through one of Lennar‘s new communities: the grid went down, the neighborhood went dark. But 46 homes in that same community—the ones with a
Why Texas builders are betting on backup batteries for new homes Read More »
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) on Tuesday named Bob Hart as president of its ICE Mortgage Technology division. Hart will succeed Tim Bowler, who will transition to ICE’s fixed income and data services division, where he will focus on index development and financial institution infrastructure. The leadership changes take effect Jan. 1, 2026. Hart joined ICE Mortgage
ICE taps Bob Hart as president of mortgage technology division Read More »
A new study found that Zillow’s automated home valuation tool, the Zestimate, improves pricing efficiency in residential real estate transactions and delivers measurable benefits to buyers and sellers like. The research, published in Marketing Science — a peer-reviewed journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences — concluded that Zillow‘s tool reduces
Study finds Zillow home estimates improve buyer, seller outcomes Read More »
The executive team switch-ups at iBuyer Opendoor are continuing. On Monday, the firm announced the appointments of Lucas Matheson as president and Christy Schwartz as chief financial officer. Matheson most recently served as the CEO of Coinbase Canada. Prior to this, Matheson spent five years in a variety of operational roles at Shopify where he
Opendoor names Lucas Matheson president, Christy Schwartz CFO Read More »
The portal wars may have a new entrant — and it isn’t one to shake a stick at. Google has begun testing a new advertising format in select markets that embeds for-sale home listings directly into search results. Listings are embedded only in mobile searches for listings in select markets, including Chicago, Denver and Austin.
Google enters portal wars with MLS listings in select cities Read More »
Title and settlement services technology provider Settlor has introduced a new integration with DataTrace. The connection allows Settlor’s users to access DataTrace tools directly within Settlor’s title production system — eliminating the need to switch between platforms. Integration gives users the ability to run automated title searches tied to specific properties and retrieve related documents
Settlor integrates with DataTrace to streamline title searches Read More »
Don Goettling, a nearly 40-year veteran of the mortgage and real estate industry, announced last week that he’s committing full time to his role as CEO of Momentum Builder, the company he co-founded in 2018. The organization, which provides resources for housing professionals — including coaching, workshops, events and technology tools — also oversees the
Don Goettling commits full time to Momentum Builder Read More »
As homebuilders face shrinking access, tighter reins, and higher costs from traditional local and regional banks for construction financing, Sitewire this week introduced two new AI tools, BudgetIQ and Permit IQ, to streamline pre-construction budgeting and permitting for small residential construction projects. The company, which facilitates private credit construction draws, a solution widely used by
Sitewire launches AI tools to streamline pre-construction risk review Read More »
Mortgage stakeholders are applauding President Trump’s latest executive order seeking to curb state-level regulation around artificial intelligence. Processing Content The Trump Administration will target state laws and challenge them in court, and withhold certain grant funding for states with AI laws it deems onerous, according to the order signed Thursday. The directive suggests existing state
Trump targets “onerous” state AI laws, wins lender support Read More »