Mortgage Insights

Plain-English guidance on rates, home buying, and refinancing from the The Lending Stars team.

Housing Industry News

Constant Contact launches marketing platform for real estate

Jul 29, 2026 · 2:52 PM HousingWire Automation HousingWire

Constant Contact has launched Constant Contact for Real Estate, a marketing platform that the firm said is designed for brokerages, franchises,…

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Housing Industry News

Mortgage applications fall 6.4% as 30-year rate hits 6.76%

Jul 29, 2026 · 2:41 PM Sarah Wolak HousingWire

Mortgage applications decreased 6.4% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)’s weekly mortgage applications…

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Housing Industry News

Foreign buyers purchased $45.3B in U.S. existing homes, NAR says

Jul 29, 2026 · 2:00 PM Brooklee Han HousingWire

Foreign buyers purchased $45.3 billion in U.S. existing homes from April 2025 through March 2026, a 19.1% drop in dollar volume and a 14% decline in the…

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Housing Industry News

Compass says Zillow exposure cut sale-to-list ratios by 1.3%

Jul 29, 2026 · 1:52 PM Brooklee Han, HousingWire Automation HousingWire

Homes that appeared on Zillow sold for 1.3% less, on average, than comparable listings that did not show up on the portal , according to new internal…

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Housing Industry News

Pennymac trims lending, fulfillment roles in layoff round

Jul 29, 2026 · 1:44 PM Flávia Furlan Nunes HousingWire

Pennymac imposed another round of layoffs ahead of its after-market earnings report on Wednesday, as the mortgage sector navigates a higher-for-longer…

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Housing Industry News

Fannie Mae Q2 net income hits $4B

Jul 29, 2026 · 1:07 PM Sarah Wolak HousingWire

Fannie Mae reported $4 billion in net income during the second quarter of 2026, a 7% increase from the prior quarter and a 20% increase from a year earlier,…

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Housing Industry News

Palo Alto SB 79 loophole begets a rush on new housing proposals

Jul 29, 2026 · 12:55 PM Richard Lawson HousingWire

City council members in Palo Alto, the center of California’s Silicon Valley, came up with a plan they hoped they might blunt a state law that took effect…

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Housing Industry News

Texas is growing up, smart builders will redesign for payment math

Jul 29, 2026 · 12:37 PM Scott Finfer HousingWire

Texas real estate is not running out of opportunity. It is simply becoming less forgiving of lazy assumptions, expensive land and undisciplined execution.…

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Housing Industry News

Louisville cannot solve a housing crisis while limiting who gets to build the solution

Jul 29, 2026 · 7:47 AM Nikki R. Lanier HousingWire

America has finally begun to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth: We don’t simply have an affordable housing funding problem—we have an affordable housing…

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Housing Industry News

I asked ChatGPT to pick a lender. Every loan officer should do the same.

Jul 29, 2026 · 7:00 AM Ryan Grant HousingWire

A few weeks ago, I opened ChatGPT and asked a question millions of homebuyers are about to start asking: “What’s the best mortgage company to get…

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