Weekly Real Estate News Quiz: Think You're Up On The Biggest Headlines?
Almost one out of four home sellers (25%) in the U.S. have changed how their home is viewed in some capacity in order to account for the spread of coronavirus, according to a new survey released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Realtor.com is set today to introduce three new automated valuation models (AVMs), which will include home value estimates on listed homes and off-market properties, a reversal of the company’s former stance on only listing estimated valuations on off-market homes.
“We see a high level of interest from both buyers and sellers to understand their homes value,” Todd Callow, realtor.com’s vice president of product management, told Inman. “We, in the past, haven’t displayed it on a listing and deferred to an agent’s expertise.”
Although several Washington state real estate agents reported to Inman on Tuesday that business had generally been as busy as usual, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman discussed the palpable effects of coronavirus on the Seattle real estate market in a few recent blog posts.
Since the beginning of March, Kelman has noted a “significant drop in demand” from Seattle area homebuyers and sellers.
After hitting an all-time low last week, mortgage rates ticked slightly up this week, according to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.36 percent over the past week, up from last week’s 3.29 percent rate.
EXp World Holdings, the parent company for virtual cloud-based real estate brokerage eXp Realty turned its first profitable quarter in the fourth quarter of 2019 since the publicly traded company began trading on the NASDAQ exchange.
EXp reported $800,000 net income in the fourth quarter while revenue continued to explode.
As home prices rise, owners are able to benefit from growing home equity. The average homeowner with a mortgage gained $7,300 in equity by the last quarter of 2019, according to a new report released by property analytics provider CoreLogic on Thursday.
Vacation rental company Vacasa announced Wednesday that it has hired former OpenTable executive Mike Dodson to serve as its new chief revenue officer.
E.ventures has invested $60 million into Zumper in a round of Series D fundraising, according to a press release released Tuesday.
Privately held Zumper is a rental marketplace that connects tenants with landlords in an effort to technologically streamline rental applications, leasing and occupancy. The company wants to make renting as simple as booking a hotel.
Realogy, the nation’s largest real estate holding company, has been the real estate company hit the hardest by the stock market slowdown that’s followed the growing spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
The Dow Jones closed Wednesday down 5.87 percent, or 1,467 points. Realogy, meanwhile, was down slightly more than 13 percent, with shares ending the day just under $6. Its market cap — the total value of the company’s shares — closed the day at $685.1 million.
Detroit-based Keller Williams Platinum has vowed to offer free pre-licensing to many of the approximately 3,000 soon-to-be unemployed workers of a Michigan furniture and mattress company that on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and plans to close May 3.
Art Van Furniture, which boasts three locations in Michigan, filed for bankruptcy just days after disclosing that it would be liquidating its assets. Keller Williams Platinum swooped in to help sales associates currently working at the furniture stores.