NerdWallet enters mortgage business with the acquisition of Next Door Lending

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1. NerdWallet enters mortgage business with the acquisition of Next Door Lending

NerdWallet, the personal finance company known chiefly for its website that provides consumers guidance on credit cards, loans and more financial products, is getting into the mortgage brokerage business with the acquisition of Next Door Lending.

Per the terms of the deal, NerdWallet is paying $1 million in cash for Next Door Lending’s outstanding equity interests. NerdWallet Chairman Tim Chen revealed during an earnings call last week that the deal, which closed on Oct. 1, is projected to add 1-2 percentage points of growth to the company’s fourth-quarter revenue.

2. New rules have little impact on commissions

Commissions paid to buyer’s agents have remained essentially unchanged since the new rules on commissions went into effect on August 17th. That’s from Redfin’s analysis of buyer’s agent commissions for October home sales which have already closed or are scheduled to close by the end of the month. Here are the key takeaways from Redfin’s report:

• The average buyer’s agent commission for homes sold in October was 2.34%, down just 0.01 percentage point (pp) from the 2.35% for homes sold in August when the new rules took effect.

• Buyer’s agent commissions have fallen 17 basis points since January 2023, when they averaged 2.51%.

• Interestingly, buyer’s agent commissions for homes listed under $500,000 rose from an average of 2.41% in August to 2.43% in October.

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3. More Nuggets

💬 How to navigate new FTC rules banning fake and incentivized reviews. (BankingDive)

💸 Who paid more in rent: Gen Z or Millennials? (New York Times)

🏘️ A Wall Street landlord bought your neighbor’s house. It’s a mixed blessing. (WSJ)

📈 MBA: Lending environment expected to improve. (NMP)

🏡 10 affordable cities poised to become million-dollar markets in a decade. (Realtor)

4. US adds only 12,000 jobs in October in final report before election

The US added just 12,000 jobs in October, the last snapshot of the employment market before election day, in a report heavily affected by the strike at Boeing and two recent hurricanes.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1%.

Dive deeper: White House blames jobs reports on hurricanes and labor strikes

5. Federal Reserve to cut rates by 25 basis points at next two meetings

The U.S. Federal Reserve will cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points on Nov. 7, according to all 111 economists in a Reuters poll, with more than a 90% majority predicting another quarter-percentage-point move in December.

Since the U.S. central bank kicked off its long-awaited easing cycle last month with a half-percentage-point reduction in the federal funds rate to a 4.75-5.00% range, news on the economy has been strong.

☀️ You’re all caught up. See you on Wednesday!

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