Rental Vacancy Rose to 7.6% in the Third Quarter as Homeowner Vacancy Held Steady
New Census figures show a higher share of vacant rental housing than a year earlier, while the apparent rise in homeownership was not statistically significant.
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The Estate Wire — real estate news for November 7, 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%
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HUD Lays Out a Seven-Step Path to Chassis-Free Manufactured Homes
The agency's Next Generation Manufactured Housing Action Plan begins implementing a new law that drops the decades-old steel chassis requirement, though officials say rulemaking could take more than a year.
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HUD Opens Comment Period on Inspection Scoring Changes Affecting Public and Multifamily Housing
A pre-published notice revises how new safety requirements are scored starting October 1, alongside corrections to the sampling and scoring tables inspectors use nationwide.
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White House Asks Congress to Cancel $56 Million in HUD Housing-Counseling Funds Days Before It Expires
A September 25 rescission request targets nearly all of the money Congress set aside for homebuyer counseling in fiscal 2025, using a timing tactic critics call a pocket rescission.
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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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