President of powerful realtors group is accused of sexual harassment

1. NAR harassment and retaliation revealed in NYT exposé

The New York Times released an exposé revealing allegations of a pervasive culture of sexual harassment, retaliation, and evasion at the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The report is based on interviews with 29 current and former NAR employees and former leaders, including 19 who claimed to have endured sexual harassment at work.

Specific allegations include inappropriate text messages, unwanted physical advances, and instances of retaliation against those who resisted or spoke up.

While NAR insists they've acted responsibly and addressed complaints appropriately, many of the interviewed employees expressed fear, intimidation, and a sense that concerns were brushed aside.

2. AmeriFirst files for bankruptcy

Retail lender AmeriFirst Financial Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, just two months after it got back into the forward mortgage origination business.

The Mesa, Arizona-based company listed estimated assets and liabilities as much as $100 million each, according to a filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Delaware.

RCP Credit Opportunities Fund is listed as the largest unsecured creditor in the AmeriFirst Chapter 11 case — with a claim of $17.9 million, court pleadings show. Other creditors in the AmeriFirst bankruptcy with unsecured claims exceeding $500,000 include – RCP Customized Credit Fund ($5.97 million) and Wells Fargo Bank ($1.1 million).

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3. Rent-price growth settles near pre-pandemic rate

Rents for single-family properties grew at the slowest pace in almost three years, according to new research from CoreLogic.

• U.S. single-family rents grew by 3.3% percent year over year, the lowest such gain since autumn 2020.

• Monthly rent growth was 1.1%, nearly identical to the pre-pandemic average of 1% for June.

• All four tracked price tiers saw annual rental gains decrease by about 10 percentage points since June 2022.

• Chicago led the nation for year-over-year rent growth in June 2023, at 6.6%.

These numbers represent a return to the historical rate seen in the decade before the pandemic. Yearly growth of single-family rents has fallen for 14 consecutive months.

"Annual single-family rent growth has returned to its long-term, pre-pandemic rate," said Molly Boesel, CoreLogic principal economist.

4. More Nuggets

🏡 New-home sales rise to the highest level in over a year. (Bloomberg)

🐂 Zillow is a full-blown housing market bull—predicting that U.S. home prices will jump 6.5% by July 2024. (Fortune)

⏬ Better's stock nosedives in Wall Street debut. (FastCompany)

🏘️ America's decades-long love affair with homeownership is holding back the economy, hobbling the Fed, and exacerbating a national housing crisis. (Axios)

5. Zillow launches 1% down mortgages

Zillow Group Inc. is offering mortgages with just a 1% down payment as it tries to attract house hunters facing the most-unaffordable market in almost four decades.

Through the program, an eligible buyer pays as little as 1% toward a down payment. Zillow Home Loans pays an additional 2%, bringing the total down payment to 3%, which is typically the minimum payment required for a conventional home loan. Alternatively, if buyers put down 3%, Zillow will contribute an additional 2%, bringing the total down payment to 5%.

Zillow is offering the new program in Arizona first before expanding to other markets. The company shuttered a similarly ambitious foray into home flipping in 2021 after steep losses.

6. July homebuyer affordability holds steady

Homebuyer affordability remained unchanged in July from June, according to the MBA Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI). The index measures how new monthly mortgage payments vary across time, relative to income, drawing from data from MBA’s weekly applications survey.

The national median payment applied for by purchase applicants was $2,162 in July, up $318 from a year prior but unchanged from June. Median earnings were up 3.7% compared to one year ago, but payments increased by 17.2%.

• The national median mortgage payment for FHA loan applicants was $1,854 in July, up from $1,824 in June and up from $1,461 in July 2022.

• The national median mortgage payment for conventional loan applicants was $2,197, down from $2,205 in June and up from $1,892 in July 2022.

“Prospective homebuyers continued to face challenging conditions in July, with elevated and volatile mortgage rates and low housing inventory serving as a formidable one-two punch that suppressed mortgage applications and sales activity,” Edward Seiler, MBA economist.

☀️ See you on Friday!

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