Zillow and some of its top executives are being sued for allegedly making misleading claims in advance of the closure of its iBuying arm, Zillow Offers. Zillow shareholder Dibikar Barua filed a class-action lawsuit against the company in federal court in Seattle alleging that Zillow failed to tell shareholders it was struggling to accurately predict home prices. “Throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects,” the suit reads. It claims that Zillow did not disclose the “significant unpredictability in forecasting home prices” the company was struggling to overcome or its inventory backlog, both of which would have signaled to investors that…
As part of its efforts to protect affordable housing, Freddie Mac announced new tenant protections for Manufactured Housing Communities (MHC). The protections include renewable lease terms, written notice of rent increases, grace periods for late rental payments, and rights governing the sale of manufactured homes at MHCs. They are intended to protect people who own manufactured homes but pay rent on the property beneath them. “Manufactured housing communities often represent the most affordable multifamily housing option available in many areas, particularly rural areas,” said Debby Jenkins, executive vice president of Freddie Mac Multifamily. “We have been ramping up our tenant protections offering since 2018, and today we’re making these protections a requirement for all future transactions.” Restrictive zoning ordinances and…
In an effort to better represent the housing crisis as it affects renters and homeowners across America, Rent.com has created an interactive tracking dashboard for eviction and foreclosure information in the U.S. The pandemic has exacerbated financial pressure and housing security for millions of Americans, a problem that has come to a head since the Supreme Court ruled the national eviction moratorium imposed by the Biden administration was unconstitutional. At least 11 million renters are considered seriously behind on payments, and an estimated 3.6 million households could be evicted in the next few months. “While affordable housing has been debated for years, housing insecurity, wealth gaps and eviction trends have become more prominent during the pandemic,” the website reads. “As…
The FHFA’s Q2 House Price Index (HPI) saw its largest ever annual gain, with house prices rising 17.4% year-over-year, up from 12.6% in the last quarter. This surge in home prices breaks the previous record, set in Q1. The FHFA HPI measures the movement of single-family house prices by reviewing repeat mortgage transactions on homes whose mortgages have been purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac since January 1975. “During the second quarter, house prices peaked in June with an 18.8 percent growth rate compared to a year ago,” said Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “For the quarter, annual gains surpassed 20 percent in the Mountain, New England, and Pacific census divisions and…
Good Morning! Today is Monday, Aug. 30. Hurricane Ida made landfall in Lousiana yesterday, leaving more than a million people without power. The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan continues, despite multiple reports of American citizens being left behind. The EU seeks to block non-essential travel from the U.S. Millennial professionals are using their savings to take a break from working and explore new career paths. And in mortgage and housing news… Buying Power: Home buyers in June 2021 had 129% more house-buying power than in 2006, according to the June 2021 First American Real House Price Index. Experts Say: A Reuters poll of experts predicts that housing affordability is set to remain stretched or worsen in the next 2-3 years. Ida Makes…
In a speech at the annual Jackson Hole symposium, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank is likely to begin withdrawing some of its pandemic policies before the end of the year. Still, interest-rate increases won’t be coming overnight.
That means the Fed will likely begin cutting the amount of bonds it buys each month before the end of the year. But Powell stressed that these cuts should not be seen as indicators that rate increases are around the corner.
“The timing and pace of the coming reduction in asset purchases will not be intended to carry a direct signal regarding the timing of interest rate liftoff, for which we have articulated a different and substantially more stringent…
