Steve Thompson is a staff reporter for RealtyWire, where he covers residential real estate, mortgage trends, home sales, housing market data, real estate finance, industry regulation, and the issues affecting Realtors, buyers, sellers, lenders, and property owners.
Before joining RealtyWire, Steve worked as a mortgage broker, giving him direct experience with the financing side of real estate transactions. His background in the mortgage business gives him valuable insight into how interest rates, lending standards, affordability, buyer demand, and regulatory changes influence the broader real estate market.
Steve brings a practical understanding of home sales, market analysis, real estate trends, financing issues, and the laws and regulations that shape residential real estate. His reporting focuses on making complex market and mortgage-related topics clear and useful for readers across the real estate industry.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Central Florida and currently lives in Orlando, Florida.
Steve Thompson 
Vantage Data Centers is exploring a stock listing at a roughly $100 billion valuation or a sale, Reuters and Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter — a deal that would be the largest data center IPO on record.
A newly formed resident group has filed a 16-count lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court seeking to halt construction of Nebius’s AI data center in Independence, Mo., alleging the city secretly rezoned land and pushed through more than $150 billion in tax-abated bonds without proper notice.
Record delinquent-tax sales in Cuyahoga County, 24,000 delinquent parcels in Mahoning County, and one-in-three homeowners behind in parts of Youngstown show how Ohio property tax bills have outrun relief efforts, even as the state rolls out an inflation cap, a reform task force, and a proposed valuation cap.
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate eased to 6.67% this week, down from 6.69%, as Freddie Mac says borrowers continue responding to even modest rate changes.
Elon Musk’s planned 100 million-square-foot Terafab chip factory in Grimes County, Texas has drawn organized opposition from residents worried about traffic, water use and rising costs.
A 1933 house on Edgewood Drive in Palo Alto’s Crescent Park sold for $9.42 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the San Jose, California metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 2005 house in The Currituck Club at the north end of Corolla, North Carolina, sold for $1 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Virginia Beach, Virginia metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 1968 house on a Diamond Head cul-de-sac sold for $3.42 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Urban Honolulu, Hawaii metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A remodeled 1998 house on a one-acre lot in northwest Bakersfield sold for $1.39 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Bakersfield, California metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A custom-built home in Southborough’s Parmenter Meadows neighborhood sold for $2.08 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales reported in the Worcester, Massachusetts metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
The five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Oxnard, California metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026, led by a $4 million 1915 residence in Santa Paula and four closings in Westlake Village.
A Craftsman-influenced house on Governors Point, built into the slope below Cheyenne Mountain, sold for $4 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Colorado Springs, Colorado metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 2017 Gulf-front residence at Vista Del Mar in Perdido Key sold for $2.88 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Pensacola, Florida metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 2017 house in the Clays Crossing neighborhood of Nicholasville sold for $1,800,000 to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Lexington, Kentucky metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A lakefront house in Poland led the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Youngstown, Ohio metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026, a group that combined for $3.69 million.
A 2001 bayfront residence on a Lemon Bay point lot in Englewood sold for $2,150,000 to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Punta Gorda, Florida metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 1987 hilltop house on about 21.9 acres in Millerton sold for $2,725,000 to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Poughkeepsie, New York metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 2006 estate in a gated Prospect enclave sold for $2.27 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Louisville, Kentucky metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A renovated four-bedroom house on nearly an acre in Reno’s Saddlehorn community sold for $2.25 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Reno, Nevada metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
An 1816 Federal-style house at 137 Liberty Street in Madison sold for $2.20 million together with a newly built barn, leading the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the New Haven, Connecticut metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
An equestrian estate on private acreage in Yukon sold for $1.50 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 2012 lakefront house in Pewaukee sold for $3.50 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
The life-science REIT priced $1 billion of long-dated subordinated notes at a 7.25% coupon, locking in financing costs as it works through a soft patch in lab-space demand.
The construction giant will build a 237,000-square-foot data center for an undisclosed existing client, the latest in a string of similarly sized contracts across Virginia and Georgia this year.
The forward-sale structured offering will fund a pending senior housing portfolio acquisition, extending a pattern of large equity raises the REIT has used throughout 2026 to grow without adding leverage.
A 12-acre estate in Hillsborough, Calif., has sold for $70 million, doubling the exclusive Peninsula town’s previous price record, to a buyer who works in the artificial intelligence industry, according to reporting confirmed Aug. 7. The sale ranks as the highest-priced Northern California home transaction of 2026. The property, known as Villa de Verano, sits … Read more
More than 2.5 million properties across the 10 most wildfire-exposed Western states face moderate or greater wildfire risk, with a combined reconstruction cost value of $1.4 trillion, according to a 2026 Wildfire Risk Report released Wednesday by Cotality. The findings underscore how wildfire exposure has spread well beyond California’s borders and into fast-growing metros across … Read more
A Severn River waterfront house in West Severna Park sold for $2.20 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Baltimore, Maryland metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 2021 estate on more than six acres in Brentwood’s Cartwright Close sold for $7,995,000 to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Nashville, Tennessee metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 2013 house on Lake Clara in the Ford Field and River Club sold for $3.80 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Savannah, Georgia metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
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