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 
The median single-family lot value fell to $59,000 in 2025 from $60,000 in 2024, NAHB’s analysis of Census data shows, ending six straight years of record highs even as some regions kept climbing.
The Census Bureau’s Q2 2026 Housing Vacancy Survey shows the national homeownership rate flat at 65.0%, while homeownership among adults under 35 fell to 35.2%.
Sun Communities reported second-quarter Core FFO of $1.84 per share, up 4.5% year over year, and agreed to sell its UK Park Holidays operations for roughly $1.04 billion as the manufactured-housing and RV community REIT narrows its focus to North America.
The National Fair Housing Alliance and Massachusetts Fair Housing Center sued HUD and Secretary Scott Turner in federal court, alleging a restructured funding program would cut off enforcement grants to more than 100 nonprofit fair housing organizations nationwide.
Redfin reports vacation-home mortgages rose 4.1% in 2025, the first increase since the pandemic peak, with 85.2% of loans going to high earners and West Palm Beach, Fla., leading the nation.
U.S. nonresidential construction starts jumped to a one-month record of $100.3 billion in June, powered by a surge in office and data center projects, according to ConstructConnect.
New York City halted construction at GFP Real Estate’s 222 Broadway office-to-residential conversion for unreported structural cracks, the second such stop-work order in a month.
Strada Investment Group paid $103 million, about $814 per square foot, for a 126,537-square-foot office building in San Francisco’s Design District.
San Francisco’s apartment vacancy rate has dropped to roughly 2.9%, its lowest level in about 25 years, according to CBRE data, as AI-driven tech hiring collides with one of the tightest new-construction pipelines in the country.
Bayview Asset Management and Springmont Capital, the Morgan family’s investment office, are acquiring a majority stake in commercial mortgage bank BWE, with CEO DJ Effler staying on and the deal expected to close this fall.
A Development of Regional Impact filing for a data center project surfaced this week in Troup County, Georgia, home to Google’s $8 billion Project Pegasus campus in LaGrange, though the applicant has not been publicly named.
National home prices rose 0.9 percent year over year in June 2026, the fastest annual pace since August 2025, according to First American Data & Analytics’ latest Home Price Index report.
Seniors housing and care M&A activity totaled nearly $3.9 billion in the second quarter of 2026, with assisted living properties accounting for the largest share of deals, according to LevinPro LTC data.
Hut 8 Corp. says it has fully leased its 1-gigawatt Beacon Point campus in Nueces County, Texas, after a second $9.8 billion lease brought total contracted value to $19.6 billion.
Colliers’ Q2 2026 Phoenix industrial market report shows vacancy falling to 8.7% as net absorption outpaces new supply, though the Southeast Valley submarket remains the metro’s weak spot.
OpenAI said it will invest $20 billion in a 3.2-gigawatt data center campus in Effingham County, Georgia, its first self-designed, self-built data center project.
Only 3,400 multifamily units are expected to be added to the Las Vegas Valley’s apartment stock in 2026, the lowest annual total since 2021, as tighter lending cools a pandemic-era building boom.
Manhattan’s median rent hit a record $5,295 in June 2026, up 8% year-over-year, according to The Corcoran Group’s June market report, as listings fell to a three-year low.
Keller Williams named five leaders, including a new head of divisions and co-heads of U.S. growth and attraction, in a leadership reshuffle aimed at accelerating agent growth and commercial expansion.
Miami-Dade recorded 24 home sales above $30 million in the first half of 2026, nearly double last year’s pace, overtaking New York and the Bay Area in ultra-luxury deal volume as wealthy buyers migrate to Florida, according to data from Analytics Miami cited by Bloomberg.
New home sales rose 1.6% in June to a 628,000 annual rate, Census and HUD data show, but the gain isn’t statistically significant and median prices fell 3.3% from May.
HUD’s 14-change FHA package streamlines appraisal reviews, eases 203(k) renovation draws and cuts duplicate paperwork — modest but real borrower savings.
The DOJ granted early termination of the HSR waiting period for Real’s proposed RE/MAX combination — one hurdle down, shareholder votes still ahead.
Pending sales in the cheapest 5% of listings rose 10.3% as inventory grew 12.2% — the entry level is loosening faster than the market at large.
Virtual staging is cheaper and faster, but physical staging can create a stronger in-person experience. Here’s how sellers should choose.
The FHFA index was flat in April — but regions ran opposite directions, from New England’s +1.0% month to the Mountain division’s -0.8% drop.
The median asking rent fell 1.5% year over year to $1,692 in June — the 35th straight decline — while weak permitting threatens future supply.
KW acquired Jason Mitchell Group — $5.9B in 2025 volume built on lender and portal referrals — adding a ‘teamerage’ engine to the largest agent network.
The median list price fell 2.5% year over year in June — a record decline — as sellers price realistically from day one and buyers respond with bids.
Bright MLS: June sales rose 7.3% as the Mid-Atlantic median hit a record $460,000 — with higher-income buyers doing the driving.
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