Home Buyer Aid, eClosing, Marketing tools; Texas Insurance Study; Spec Pool Price Volatility

Innovation, compliance, and affordability were key themes at this week’s Western Secondary. At the state level, for example, Kinder Institute report shows homeowners insurance has become a growing barrier to housing affordability across Texas. As Texas leaders search for ways to rein in soaring homeowner insurance costs, new research suggests premiums are playing an increasingly important role in housing affordability across the state. When homeowners’ insurance is factored into the cost of homeownership, nearly two-thirds of Texas households can no longer afford the median-priced home in their county. Nationwide, condominiums and townhomes have long served as the affordable entry point into homeownership, but rising HOA dues, higher insurance costs, stricter lending requirements, and mortgage rates are making attached homes less attractive to buyers. As affordability erodes, these properties are taking considerably longer to sell than detached homes. (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s ‘casts are sponsored by Optimal Blue. Optimal Blue’s Profitability Center unifies pricing, hedge performance, pipeline activity, profitability, and market intelligence into one personalized dashboard, giving mortgage lenders faster, more complete insights to make better capital markets decisions. Today’s has an interview with Hometap's Jeff Glass on the latest and greatest from the home equity space.) Lender and Broker Software, Products, and Services