Helsingborg-based proptech AI startup Proplab continues to build momentum. After opening up their platform for residential real estate this fall, the company has seen rapid growth, now with 100+ broker offices connected across Sweden, on top of their existing commercial property clients. Over the past months, Proplab has established a collaboration with a major brokerage chain and another one is now on the way in. Their traction is clear, revenues more than doubled from October to November this year.
Housing is a basic existential need and affects everything from a person's career chances to physical and mental health. At the same time, finding a suitable place to live can be hard in Germany and even harder for people who are not white Germans. That's according to a new study by the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM). It is the first comprehensive analysis of how racialized people people from ethnic and racial minorities are discriminated against in the housing market.
Six companies had their ratings affirmed, with the exception of Planet Financial Group, whose rating was downgraded to B from B+. The outlook for Provident Funding Associates improved from stable to positive, while UWM's outlook shifted to stable from positive. FOA received a positive outlook. These affirmations reflect continued franchise strengthening of the largest mortgage companies as the market has consolidated over the last three years, Fitch said in its report.
A crane rumbled into a neighborhood in Holbrook earlier this year carrying a factory-made house, complete with windows, doors, a bedroom, and a kitchen. Workers guided the box onto a concrete foundation in the backyard of a small single-family home with white siding. Within a few weeks, there was a pitched roof, kitchen appliances, and running water. And now a lot that previously held just one house has two.
Miller, who will serve as PLACE's new vice president of growth, began her real estate industry career in 2014 as a sales associate at the Souferian Group, before going on to form the Nikki Miller Team at Keller Williams. She also founded tech platform The Lead Syndicate, which was acquired by Movoto and integrated into Lever in 2024. She remained at Movoto after the acquisition, serving as vice president of Lever and agent platforms.
The system's software reviews each budget line and compares costs for similar projects in the specified geographic area. While this process can be done manually, automating it can save time and help builders obtain necessary construction finance draws faster, Sitewire CEO Bryan Kester tells The Builder's Daily/HousingWire. It saves you having to go to a GC, ask for a construction bid or estimate, and then just hope that it's correct. It's the opposite process. You would put it into our system, hit a button, and we'll tell you within 15 minutes
Builders often talk about uncertainty as if it were a temporary fog that had to clear eventually. Rates will decline, the Fed will pivot, pent-up demand will return, migration will pick up again, and the longstanding pattern of structural underbuilding will resume. The idea that the industry's biggest risks come from the outsideand that the outside world and its cyclical forces will eventually save themhas been one of homebuilding's most persistent forms of magical thinking.
With a focus on underperforming mall and high-cost locations, two store fronts in New York City have gotten the axe. For example, the Kay Jewelers at 446 Fulton Street in Brooklyn has permanently shuttered. Formerly located in Downtown Brooklyn, the high-rent, bustling retail area has seen a handful of other older and smaller jewelers shut down due to rising costs.
As a quasi-successful artist and small business owner, I am asked all the time: "Why don't you open a shop in Portland? People here love your stuff!" Here's why: commercial rent is insane and untethered from economic reality. There is simply no foot traffic in this relatively small city to justify these asking prices. After paying a landlord his sky-high rent, there'd be no margin left at the end of the month to pay myself, hire workers, or even buy toilet paper for the bathroom.
On the product side, Fannie Mae is introducing HomeStyle Refresh, which will replace HomeStyle Energy and expand financing options beginning March 31, 2026. The product allows borrowers to finance purchase or cash-out refinance transactions up to 15% of the as-completed appraised value for renovation costs, following standard loan-to-value requirements. Eligible uses include cosmetic and functional upgrades, disaster repairs, resiliency improvements and environmental remediation for issues such as lead, asbestos or mold.
"If you subscribe to our worldview that bringing superintelligence at scale at very low cost is going to be transformative, you try to figure out - how can I invest in that and take the least amount of risk?"
Selling a new build today isn't as simple as putting up a "For Sale" sign and hoping the right buyer walks through the door. The market is crowded, buyers are savvier, and expectations have shifted-people want to experience a property online before visiting in person. This is where strong digital marketing comes in. It's no longer just an option; it's a necessity for developers who want to sell new builds faster, reach the right audience, and maximize their return on investment.
The steps taken by FHA today to increase HECM loan limits provide greater flexibility for America's older homeowners to monetize their home equity as part of a comprehensive retirement plan to meet everyday retirement needs, Steve Irwin, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA), said in a statement. We appreciate the leadership at FHA for recognizing this critical need.
If you win, you win some money. And you earn a lifetime of bad reviews and negative referrals. If you lose, you don't win any money and you earn a lifetime of bad reviews and negative referrals, Hahn wrote. Does this buyer have friends? Family? Colleagues? People he knows at church? At the country club? Does the buyer have social media? How do you imagine this buyer will be telling the story of this $24,000 payment?
Oprah Winfrey is shrinking her real estate footprint in Montecito. The media mogul has sold four acres of her Promised Land estate-her primary residence for over two decades-for $17.2 million, as first reported by Siteline Santa Barbara. Though she began assembling the compound in 2001, the just-sold property was a more recent acquisition; Winfrey bought the Spanish Revival-style ranch from actor Jeff Bridges in 2019 for $6.85 million.
