Christopher Gallo, once one of the nation’s top mortgage loan officers, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in a federal court in New Jersey, according to court filings reviewed by HousingWire. Gallo entered the guilty plea to count one of the indictment — conspiracy to commit bank fraud — on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, withdrawing an...

FirstTeam Real Estate, a California powerhouse that reported $6.12 billion in 2025 volume across 5,978 transactions — good enough for national ranks of No. 34 and No. 67, respectively — has partnered with Purlin to deploy an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered operating system across the brokerage. The integration brings together PurlinOS, Purlin Close and Purlin Offer & Negotiate into a single...

LPT Aperture Holdings, the parent company of LPT Realty and Aperture Global Real Estate, has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock, the company announced on Thursday. The Lake Mary, Florida-based company said the filing was made on Form S-1 and that the size of the offering...

For much of the past decade, Meritage Homes has stood as one of public homebuilding’s clearest business use cases that thoughtfully designed, efficiently built entry-level homes could unlock homeownership for thousands of households who otherwise might have remained renters. The company’s strategy wasn’t simply to build smaller homes. It reshaped its land acquisition, product design, construction...

This California empty-nest couple envisioned their 1904 Dutch Colonial in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood as their forever home. To make that possible, they needed to modernize it for hosting their parents during extended stays and entertaining friends while preserving its historic...

Image Old-school real estate skills are going to be rewarded in the next few years, he...

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged Wednesday, signaling continued caution as policymakers balance solid economic growth against lingering inflation pressures fueled by energy costs and geopolitical uncertainty. The Federal Open Market Committee voted to maintain the federal funds target range at 3½% to 3¾%, leaving borrowing costs at their highest levels of the current policy cycle as...

PennyMac Financial Services on Wednesday reported second-quarter 2026 net income of $22 million, down 84% from a year earlier and sharply lower than its first-quarter net income of $82.3 million, as higher interest rates reduced mortgage production volume and weighed on profitability. The company’s weaker quarter came in tandem with layoffs by the Westlake Village, California-based mortgage lender and...

Cloze has introduced an Open House app for its Enterprise customers that automatically captures visitor information at property showings and feeds it into the company’s customer relationship management system, aiming to simplify follow-up with prospective buyers. The app replaces traditional paper sign-in sheets with digital check-ins that create contact records, log attendance and collect visitor...

Proprietary reverse mortgages, rather than government-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs), are driving the reverse mortgage industry’s recent growth, according to an analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data published Wednesday by New View Advisors. Total reverse mortgage volume rose from $6.25 billion in 2023 to $7.51 billion in 2024 and $9.65 billion in 2025, New View...