Even so, the first-quarter data marked the 17th consecutive quarter that both the NAHB borrower survey and the Fed lender survey have been in negative territory. For homebuilders and developers, the alignment between the two series underscores that tighter credit is not anecdotal or lender-specific. It has been a broad, cyclical constraint on project pipelines since 2022, even as underlying demand for new homes has remained solid.
HousingWire and MAXA Designs recognized the companies redefining what strong branding looks like in today's housing market during the 2025 Exhibit Awards. Now in its fourth year, the Exhibit Awards program celebrates the marketing, branding and business development teams shaping the mortgage and real estate industry. Through a new collaboration with HousingWire, the program grew this year to include 13 total winners across both national and regional categories.
At 20 feet long and 8 feet wide, the Tulsi by Simplify Further Tiny Homes doesn't try to be anything it isn't. It has everything you need, and nothing you don't. That restraint is exactly what makes it work. While the tiny home market is crowded with builds that either sacrifice livability for aesthetics or pile on features that inflate the price tag, the Tulsi threads the needle - landing at a starting price of $35,000 for a fully functional, NOAH-certified home on wheels.
For more than two decades, Chattanooga has used payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements to reshape its downtown. But the tax-break tool that once helped fill the Tennessee River city with market-rate apartments has been retooled for a different purpose: mixing affordable and market-rate units. City officials say seven of every 10 renters are either rent-burdened or severely rent-burdened.
Fore Real focuses on four services: property tax appeals, insurance compliance, lease abstraction and tenant communications. Pegasus provided the use of data from its portfolio as a participant in the joint venture. Fore brought technical expertise, accumulated over its 4-year history as a private company.
Most lost deals in a brokerage are invisible. They don't show up in a report. Nobody flags them. They just never happen. A buyer reaches out, an inquiry comes in, and somewhere in the first few minutes the momentum is gone. The deal didn't fall through on price or inventory. It fell through in the gap between the inquiry landing and anyone doing something useful with it. That gap is what I want to talk about, because I think it's where most brokerage teams are quietly leaving money on the table.
The core issue is being able to prove an election outcome and prove decisions, not just trust that they were made right. And as simple as that sounds, up until TrueHOA, that was not on the market, not even close. You still had HOAs doing paper votes. They had paper proxies, quorum chasing and quorum harvesting. You could have a situation where the property manager just decides not to count people's votes. You had situations where votes will be counted in the back room, and whatever the outcome [was in favor] for the incumbents, obviously [that] would happen, and it just kept on repeating.
Accola opened his presentation by urging audience members to reject mediocrity and commit to a deeper purpose by serving as retirement planning experts rather than just reverse mortgage salespeople. He referenced an encounter from years ago with Zig Ziglar, the late author and motivational speaker, who helped him to understand that financial success in sales is a natural byproduct of having a genuine interest in improving others' lives. Accola said that Movement Mortgage looks to embody this concept through philanthropic efforts, including a national charter school network.
Mortgage applications increased 1.7% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)'s weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending May 8. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 2% compared with the previous week. The refinance index decreased 1% from the previous week and was 28% higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted purchase index increased 4% from one week earlier.
Prologis ( NYSE:PLD) raised its quarterly dividend from $1.01 to $1.07 in 2026, continuing a chain that has taken the payout from $0.58 in 2020 to $1.07 today. With Core FFO guidance of $6.07 to $6.23 and debt-to-EBITDA falling to 4.8x, coverage is comfortable. The logistics demand story remains intact, and the balance sheet has improved.
Linkhome Holdings Inc. has agreed to acquire Constant Investments Inc., dba Mortgage One Group, a move that will speed the national rollout of its AI-powered Cash Offer and Buy Before Sell programs. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Announced on Wednesday, the deal would give Nasdaq-listed Linkhome 100% of Mortgage One Group's equity interests, subject to customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close on or before July 1.
Toll Brothers has promoted Executive Vice President Seth J. Ring to president and chief operating officer, succeeding outgoing president and COO Robert (Rob) Parahus, according to a company announcement. Ring, a 22-year Toll Brothers veteran, will also join the company's board of directors. Parahus, who has been with Toll for 40 years, will retire from his operating role but remain as a senior advisor to support the transition and provide strategic counsel.
Home Depot delivered Q4 adjusted EPS of $2.72 against a $2.52 estimate, with revenue of $38.20B down 3.8% on a 13 versus 14 week calendar. Comparable sales rose 0.4%, and Pro demand plus SRS Distribution carried the quarter. CEO Ted Decker called underlying demand "relatively stable" after adjusting for storms.
Restaurants and discount dollar stores lead the way, with Dollar Tree opening 400 new stores and Starbucks opening 175. The growth across these industries is promising, even as other areas are still facing closures in the first quarter of 2026. But the same thing happened last year, with early 2025 closures evening out by the end of the year.
USRT tracks the FTSE Nareit Equity REITs 40 Act Capped Index, a market-cap weighted benchmark of U.S. equity REITs that excludes mortgage REITs and timber. The ETF holds names like Prologis, Welltower, and Equinix at the top of the book, with weights mirroring the broader listed real estate market.
That provision, Section 901, would ban institutional investors that own 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing additional single-family properties, other than manufactured housing. On a more controversial note, while it would provide an exemption for build-to-rent (BTR) communities, it would mandate that new BTR communities be sold to individual homeowners within seven years. Industry stakeholders say that the uncertainty caused by Section 901 has largely frozen capital flow into new BTR construction.
Mortgage credit availability decreased in April, breaking a three-month streak of easing standards, according to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) released Tuesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The MCAI is based on underwriting criteria and borrower eligibility factors including credit scores, loan types and loan-to-value (LTV) ratios from more than 95 lenders and investors. MBA combines this data, provided via ICE Mortgage Technology, using a proprietary formula to produce the index.
“The two greatest constraints we face are budget and available space and rarely do both align perfectly. Sometimes we have the square footage but not the budget to fully utilize it; other times the budget is there, but the space is limited in layout, functionality, or size. That tension has shaped how RREAF approaches fitness design across multiple recent projects.”
