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Mortgage rates hit a three-year high, September’s Fed minutes showed most officials still expect another increase this year, and a record home-equity figure arrived with sharply slower growth. Plus HUD’s manufactured-housing proposal, Hurricane Isaias and four consolidation moves.
Equifax reported VantageScore 4.0 mortgage score pulls rose 230% from April to August 2026 and said it will hold the score’s $1 price through the end of 2028. It also launched a tool letting lenders pull a credit file with no score attached.
PLACE has agreed to buy Ardley, whose AI reads a lender’s servicing portfolio and pushes pre-structured loan offers to existing borrowers. Terms were not disclosed. It is PLACE’s second mortgage-technology purchase since Sept. 24.
A presidential memorandum dated Oct. 7 names a three-member committee to recommend whether there is cause to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over mortgage-document allegations, and sets a four-hour closed hearing at the White House on Nov. 5.
A privately held hospitality investor says it has bid $2 billion in cash for all 93 of Service Properties Trust’s hotels, a price it says exceeds the REIT’s entire market value. SVC had filed no response as of Oct. 9.
HUD published its Next Generation Manufactured Housing Action Plan on Oct. 7, 2026, a seven-part roadmap following the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act’s removal of the permanent chassis requirement. The most consequential item: a federal performance-based construction code for factory-built residential buildings of five or more units.
At eXpcon in Salt Lake City on Oct. 8, 2026, eXp Realty announced four things at once: Revenos Mortgage, a joint venture with top-five nonbank lender Newrez launching in early 2027; an MCP strategy that connects agents’ own Claude or ChatGPT accounts to their eXp data; eXp Ready, up to $50,000 of pay-at-close seller prep financing; and ShowGo, an internal marketplace for showing coverage.
Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance declared its initial cash liquidating distribution on Oct. 9, 2026: $4.10 a share, payable Oct. 29 to holders of record Oct. 20. The proxy had guided to $3.70 to $4.00, and puts total distributions at $7.75 to $8.50 a share through a liquidation expected by the first half of 2028.
The Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released Oct. 9, shows median net housing value at a record $230,000 β but the three-year gain was the slowest of any survey since 2013, while the share of families with debt payments above 40% of income hit its highest level since 2013.
Equus Capital Partners sold the 85-building, 1.25 million-square-foot Tucson Shallow Bay Industrial Portfolio to Catalyst Real Estate and Everview Partners, in what the brokerage called the market’s largest industrial sale by price on record.
eXp Realty’s chief executive now runs the parent company, and the same Oct. 8 announcement carried a Newrez mortgage joint venture, a $50,000 seller-prep program, a showing marketplace and an MCP-based AI strategy.
Freddie Mac’s survey average rose for a seventh straight week, to 7.40% from 7.28%, as 10-year Treasury yields held above 5.2% and mortgage applications fell 35% from a year ago.
Florida’s insurer of last resort stopped writing new coverage on Oct. 7, a day before Isaias became the season’s first hurricane and warnings went up from Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle.
A Redfin analysis published Oct. 8 models when the mortgage-payment-to-income ratio returns to August 2018 levels. Costs normalize soonest in San Jose, Austin, Oakland, Seattle and Portland, and not within a decade in 24 of the 46 metros studied.
Vesta said on Oct. 8 it raised $30 million led by Conversion Capital, with strategic money from Pennymac, New American Funding, Citi Ventures, nbkc bank, First American and FirstKey Mortgage. The company says AI agents and automated workflows now handle about 40% of tasks on its loan origination platform.
Century Communities said on Oct. 8 it acquired substantially all assets of HMH Lifestyles, L.P., which does business as HistoryMaker Homes, a Grapevine, Texas, builder founded in 1949. The deal triples Century’s Dallas-Fort Worth community count and replenishes a lot pipeline that shrank by more than 8,500 lots over the past year.
HUD’s fair housing office told Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf on Oct. 7 that it is investigating whether the bank’s 2017 and 2022 commitments to Black homeownership violated the Fair Housing Act, and demanded the bank preserve all records tied to its mortgage lending policies.
Erez Asset Management and founder Bruce Schanzer disclosed a 5.8% stake in Empire State Realty Trust in an Oct. 5 Schedule 13D, saying they have pressed the board on capital allocation and a potential strategic review of some or all assets.
C.A.R.’s 2027 forecast, released Oct. 7, projects 277,900 existing single-family sales and a $894,400 median price. It assumes a 6.6% 30-year mortgage rate, about two-thirds of a point below the current market.
Fair Isaac disclosed in an Oct. 6 SEC filing that it will cut about 15% of positions across the company, taking $27 million in severance charges, even as scores revenue grew more than 40% year over year.
Minutes of the Sept. 15-16 FOMC meeting, released Oct. 7, say most participants expected another rate increase would likely be appropriate by year end. Only two meetings remain, and Fed staff called mortgage credit somewhat restrictive.
Unlock MLS CEO Emily Girard told subscribers on Oct. 6 that the Austin, Texas, listing service will keep enforcing Clear Cooperation, rejecting a Compass demand backed by the threat of a federal antitrust suit.
The Dodge Momentum Index rose 2.4% in September to 288.0, but the gain came from hospitals and schools. Commercial planning fell 1.3% for the month and, excluding data centers, is down 14.9% from a year ago.
Tishman Speyer and The Cooper Union finalized a 150-year ground lease on the Chrysler Building on Oct. 7, with $235 million going into systems, facade and amenities. PSP Investments leads the equity, and the group is using no acquisition debt.
The 30-year fixed rate reached 7.49% in the week ending Oct. 2, its highest level in almost three years, and mortgage applications fell 4.2% as refinancing collapsed and FHA purchase demand dropped 6%.
An order list issued Oct. 5 invited the United States to file briefs in three petitions asking whether the National Bank Act lets national banks ignore state laws requiring interest on mortgage escrow balances β a question the Court sent back unresolved in 2024.
Funds affiliated with the merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners signed a definitive agreement to acquire the McLean, Va., senior housing operator from Canada’s public pension manager, with Sunrise’s executives taking a minority stake. Terms were not disclosed.
The nation’s largest wholesale mortgage lender said on Oct. 6 that it will obtain both a FICO score and a VantageScore 4.0 on every credit pull and qualify the borrower on whichever is stronger, taking the choice out of brokers’ hands.
CTO Realty Growth paid $103.0 million, or $189 per square foot, for Summit Woods Crossing in Lee’s Summit, Mo., a nearly full 545,000-square-foot power center, taking its 2026 investment volume to $439 million.
Realtor.com added RealAssist AI to Realtor.com+ on Oct. 6, automating client setup, summarizing daily client activity and drafting actions agents approve. The platform is live in 21 markets serving more than 192,000 agents.
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