Month: April 2026

As an industry, we tend to care about interest rates, especially mortgage rates. (A recent STRATMOR piece is titled, “Mortgage Rates Are Not Random.”) But there is a group of people much less sensitive to rates and represent competition to lenders. All-cash home purchases have remained structurally elevated since early 2023, averaging 28 percent of existing home sales, well above the post-2015 norm of 23 percent, and consistently exceeding that benchmark since late 2022. Affluent households,…

“This is the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl radiation disaster. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been there. It’s 11.” Ah, fun with numbers… The numbers are good at the Texas Mortgage Banker’s 110th Annual Convention in Austin, and the attendance is nearly 500. Attendance is solid at the simultaneous The Gathering. Rumors that all of them will be hopping on trains to attend next week’s Great River MBA Conference at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN are unverified. (Trains?…

“Why did the judge stop the merger of Duracell and Morton’s? He couldn’t allow a salt and battery in his court!” The big keep getting bigger: Real Brokerage announced that it is purchasing RE/MAX for $550 million, revealing that, including debt, the deal is worth an estimated $880 million. The name will be the Real REMAX Group (“a transformative opportunity to fuse REMAX’s strong brand equity with leading AI technology”) and it’s been reported that Motto Mortgage, owned by RE/MAX, will retain…

“You can’t blame anyone else if you fall in your driveway…it’s your own asphalt.” What happens if labor or materials become too expensive here in the United States? Despite the move toward rejuvenating the manufacturing-based economy in the United States by the current Administration, people will follow the money and go elsewhere, whether it be dental work, hair transplants, or… manufactured housing. With the high cost of home construction, more Americans are becoming curious about working…