Housing markets

Also, Wells Fargo, Finance of America entered into partnerships affecting real estate tax and cybersecurity solutions.

Follow-through has been weak, but there's hope lower mortgage rates could improve conditions, according to new housing reports from Redfin and MBS Highway.

With a scarcity of listings driving high home prices, both repeat and new purchasers are putting the most money down in decades, the report found.

The transactions grew between second and third quarter, with the new-home market seeing one of its largest surges in cash-buying in 13 years.

The share of residential property buyers that put themselves in the most optimistic category jumped notably in the latest edition of an RCN survey.

Public policy experts debated the effect of rising rates on the mortgage market, the impact on homebuyers and ways that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could exit conservatorship at the National Mortgage News Digital Mortgage Conference.

Even as Freddie Mac's survey put rates at their highest since December 2000, factors like rising oil prices and a government shutdown could slow the economy.

High mortgage rates and the lack of inventory for sale pushed the sector into a downturn twice recently - between May and November last year and in May of 2023 - according to First American

While the share is slightly lower than at the start of 2023, the market is not expected to slip back to lower pre-pandemic levels, CoreLogic said.

A shortage of listings has pushed up prices, boosting the total value of US homes to a record $47 trillion, Redfin reported.