I was at Inman doing the #lobbycon thing when Opendoor and Zillow both released their 2Q/2022 earnings. So I saw the news about the multi-year exclusive partnership on the iPhone, then couldn’t really look into it until the weekend. While there are other interesting tidbits in both earnings reports and the discussions from the management … Read more
It appears that Opendoor has preemptively caved in to the Federal Trade Commission, agreeing to a consent order. As is usually the case, the Complaint was filed along with the Consent Order agreement earlier today. I initially thought, “Oh wow, this is bad for Opendoor.” Then I read the Complaint and the Consent Order, and … Read more
Over the past few weeks, there has been a flurry of posts, articles, tweets, and other expressions of… what to call them… predictions? opinions? studies? that all drive to the idea that the US housing market is either collapsing already, or about to collapse. Because the Fed, you know? Raise rates on fiat dollars, and … Read more
In Fortune, we get this story about 40 regional housing markets that are super overvalued where home prices might fall over the next year: Among those “overvalued” housing markets, which ones are actually likely to see home prices fall? In order, Zandi points to these “juiced-up” regional housing markets: Boise; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Las Vegas; … Read more
In part 1, we covered legal and regulatory challenges to the real estate industry. In part 2, we covered the insane money printing that has devalued the dollar, and stuck the Fed into a corner with no options. But, thanks to rising inflation that no amount of book-cooking can cover up, the Fed has been … Read more
From my friend Kevin Oakley, I see this news on Twitter: Kevin Oakley on Twitter: “https://t.co/FTcmvQa2GX? @AliWolfEcon @robhahn / Twitter” https://t.co/FTcmvQa2GX? @AliWolfEcon @robhahn The linked article is a longtime mortgage broker Louis Barnes sounding the alarm: During the last forty-four years, my days have begun and ended with the mortgage market. Four painful moments stand … Read more
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve now seen, heard about, or personally experienced the market crash that happened and is happening right now. The crypto twitter is aflame. Reddit is a wasteland. Telegram and Discord are panicstricken. There’s a fair amount of dancing on graves, i-told-you-so and a fair amount of defensiveness. I’m … Read more
Suddenly, it’s become like legal issue week here at Notorious. I wrote about the entirely expected certification of class action status in Sitzer v. NAR yesterday. Today, I get emailed the opinion by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the PLS.com v. NAR lawsuit. If the class action opinion from Sitzer required reading tea … Read more
A number of readers have sent me the news and the actual opinion from the court hearing Sitzer v. NAR (Case No. 19-CV-00332-SRB), in which the court basically granted the plaintiffs everything they wanted. This is now officially a class action lawsuit, certified by the court, to include thousands, if not tens of thousands or … Read more