This Trending Now story features the most-saved living room photos uploaded to Houzz between Dec. 15, 2024, and March 15, 2025.Light neutral colors can make for cozy and inviting living spaces, but dark and dramatic rooms can be equally compelling. You’ll find examples of...

You don’t always need to tackle a massive renovation to get a yard that suits your needs and pleases the eye. Sometimes making over a few key features will do the trick. See how creative design moves involving plantings, pavers and patios took these yards from tired to revived without starting from...

Mortgage rates recently hit a year-to-date low, coinciding with ongoing market disruptions from tariffs. The more encouraging story, however, is that the spring season is shaping up positively for the housing market. Notably, purchase applications show growth both year-to-date and year-over-year. Additionally, our weekly pending contract data and new listings are trending positively compared to last...

Learn how to avoid surprise expenses and stay on budget during your next...

Following other recent proprietary product development news, Longbridge Financial announced on Friday the launch of a new variation for its private fixed-rate reverse mortgage offering. The Platinum Peak product suite aims to offer higher available loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, which are designed to translate into higher loan proceeds for borrowers, according to the announcement. The Peak variation also...

Office exclusives are becoming an increasingly significant segment of the Bright MLS marketplace, according to a recent Bright MLS study examining their impact on the broader housing market. While they previously accounted for only 2% to 4% of listings, that share surged to nearly 8% of new listings by February 2025. This shift is prompting real estate professionals and consumers alike to reevaluate...

Chip Stella, one of the broker-owners of Wellesley, Massachusetts-based Rutledge Properties, was not having the greatest start to his Friday morning.  “I got off the phone about 30 seconds ago from a call with one of my agents. We had a listing with a buyer under contract at $5 million, and he made the call this morning that he is pulling out, and it is specifically over his current ability to...

Reston, Virginia-based mortgage software company RETR announced this week that it has hired two new senior leaders to guide the company’s growth efforts. Heidi Iverson is the company’s new vice president of growth and Anthony Savala is the new vice president of sales. Both are joining the firm effective April 7, RETR co-founder and CEO Steven Wynands said. “We feel so lucky that Heidi and...

An illustration of a mortgage executive losing a top-producing LO who wishes to become a 1099 LO. Illustration made with ChatGPT A source called with what sounded like big news. One of the bigger players in the wholesale space was soon going to require that all broker LOs be paid as W2s. Doing so would close what he described as the “1099 loophole.”It turned out not to be true (nothing has changed...

Industry pros say these kitchen updates have the biggest return on...