Existing-Home Sales Fell 2.0% in August While Supply Reached a Decade High
NAR reported 3.98 million annualized sales and 4.9 months of inventory, the deepest supply in more than ten years.
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Top real estate stories for September 23, 2026
Rents Have Risen Seven Months Straight and Are Still Below Last Year
Mortgage Rates Jumped 19 Basis Points in a Single Week to 6.95%
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Lodging REITs Returned 42.8% in the First Half While Apartment REITs Managed 8.3%
Illustrative residential architecture; not a property discussed in the article.
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A Federal Judge Blocked the Trump Administration's Bid to End a Redlining Consent Order Early
'A promise to reach substantial compliance in the future is not substantial compliance,' the judge wrote, keeping Provident-owned Lakeland Bank under oversight through September 2027.
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HUD's Inspector General Says Ginnie Mae Never Formally Assessed the Risk of Its Biggest Nonbank Lenders
A handful of nonbank issuers now dominate a portfolio that guarantees a share of more than $9 trillion in mortgage-backed securities, and the agency's own watchdog says nobody has run the numbers on what a failure would mean.
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The CFPB Asked the Public How to Rewrite Closing-Disclosure and Rescission Rules
A 22-question request for information targets TRID timing, the right of rescission and reverse-mortgage disclosures, implementing a March executive order on mortgage credit access.
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FHA's August Handbook Rewrite Redefined Employment Verification and Lifted an Arrearage Cap
The August 12 update to Handbook 4000.1 sets out three named forms of employment verification, removes the maximum-arrearage limit on Outside the Waterfall modifications and adds an appendix of automatic foreclosure-timeline extensions.
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Three Cities Won HUD's Biggest Public-Housing Redevelopment Grants This Year
Fayetteville, Gainesville and New Bern each secured roughly $25 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grants, part of a competition that drew at least 14 applicant cities.
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Chicago Housing Authority's Third Jobs Plus Grant Bets on Letting Residents Keep Their Raises
A $2.3 million, five-year HUD award at Wentworth Gardens pairs job placement with a rent-incentive mechanism designed to remove the disincentive to earn more.
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Idaho Legalised 1,500-Square-Foot Lots, Internal ADUs and Six-Storey Single-Stair Buildings in One Session
Four bills signed in late March and early April override local zoning across the state. All take effect July 1.
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Washington Landlords Must Now Tell Tenants If the Building Floods
Seven housing bills signed in Everett include a flood-risk disclosure mandate and a governor-requested law allowing homes in commercial zones.
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Wisconsin Cities Must Now Say Where They Expect Housing to Go — in Five-Year Increments
Act 173 turns the land-use element of a comprehensive plan from a statement of aspiration into a schedule with densities attached.
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Michigan Capped Institutional Landlords at 100 Houses and Created a State Housing Tax Credit
Bills signed at a 45-unit Grand Rapids development pair a LIHTC companion credit with a hard ownership ceiling on hedge-fund buyers.
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Hawaii Is Selling 99-Year Leases Instead of Land
Act 121 expands a pilot that separates the building from the ground beneath it, with 60% of units restricted to households at or below 140% of area median income.
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Philadelphia Widened Its Transit Zoning to a Quarter Mile — but Council Members Choose Which Stations Count
The opt-in structure makes this a different law from the transit-oriented development rules in Chicago, New York or Los Angeles.
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Texas Cut Renters' Insurance Rates 25% and Raised Inland Wind Coverage by Up to a Quarter
The FAIR Plan's approved 2026 filings move coastal and inland risk in opposite directions, effective September 1.
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New Flood Maps Take Effect November 13 in Communities Across the Country
Two Federal Register notices this summer finalised revised base flood elevations and floodway boundaries, with direct consequences for insurance and permitting.
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532 Homes Damaged: Mississippi Gets a Major Disaster Declaration for Tropical Storm Arthur's Remnants
Individual Assistance was approved for four Gulf Coast counties, Public Assistance for eight.
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Nevada's Deadline Passed July 1: Cities That Didn't Write ADU Rules Lost the Power to Restrict Them
AB 396 set a compliance date with an unusual penalty — non-compliance means accessory dwelling units become legal by right on every residential parcel.
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Arizona's House Voted 26-31 Against Exempting Historic Districts From Its Middle-Housing Law
A striker amendment turned a rural hospital bill into a historic-preservation carve-out. It failed twice on the floor, then died when the session adjourned.
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A House Bill Would Tie Conforming Loan Limits to Incomes Instead of Home Prices
The Sustainable Homeownership Act leads a three-bill package proposing a statutory route out of GSE conservatorship.
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FHFA Proposed Scrapping a Rule the Home Loan Banks Used Twice in Five Years
The agency wants to repeal 12 CFR Part 1272, which requires advance notice before a Home Loan Bank starts a new line of business.
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A Jury Convicted a Deed Thief Who Took Two Harlem Brownstones Worth $4.7 Million
One 2012 filing claimed a purchase price of $10. The true owner of a $2.9 million house ended up in a homeless shelter.
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