Citing an issue in which families across Nevada do not have the resources to compete with institutional investors that buy up single-family homes, Rep. Susie Lee (D) has called on Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte to offer transparency when out-of-state landlords purchase foreclosed single-family homes.

Lee, who represents part of Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County, submitted a letter to Pulte on Monday in which she seeks “information about recent foreclosure activities and post-foreclosure dispositions in Nevada.” Lee requested data about how many foreclosures have taken place in Nevada over the past two years and information about how the foreclosures were processed.

Specifically, she’s seeking information about “participation of out-of-state corporate entities in post foreclosure dispositions of properties sold to third parties or real estate owned (REO) properties executed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and steps taken by the [FHFA] to protect local homeowners.”

Like much of the country, Nevada is facing a housing shortage. Lee told Pulte that the state’s supply and affordability challenges are being exacerbated by “corporate landlords and cash rich investors, many of which are based outside of Nevada, outbid[ding] working families for available homes and further jack[ing] up prices.”

Lee claimed that as many as 15% of these homes in Nevada are owned by such entities. She also mentioned, without providing a citation, that studies suggest that “corporate entities could own up to 40% of homes nationwide by 2030.” That finding is consistent with a 2022 report from Yardi Matrix.

Lee has requested several pieces of information from Pulte, including details about foreclosure sales that were sold to third-party buyers “at the courthouse steps.” She also asked whether the agency has a means of tracking in-state and out-of-state entities that participate in the foreclosure disposition process; what properties are excluded from a foreclosed “first-look” period; and whether any FHFA policies serve to protect local homebuyers through the process.

The housing politics of the state is unusual, as the divided government at the state level has led to disagreements between the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the Republican governor.

This is further complicated by the vast swaths of federal land in Nevada that federal lawmakers and other officials want to see repurposed for housing.

An old Victorian era house that somehow skipped the waves of gentrification that have overtaken Geelong West may finally be destined for that modern makeover.

The circa-1900 house at 109 Hope St was snapped up for $703,000 amid competition between four bidders at an auction on Saturday.

Wilsons Newtown agent James Wilson, who listed the 275sq m property with price hopes from $625,000 to $675,0000, said the auction took off after bidding reached the top of the quote range and he confirmed the property was “on the market”.

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“I was looking for an opening bid within the range and we ended up getting a bid at $625,000,” Mr Wilson said.

“It went in $10,000, $5000 and $1000 increments up to $675,000 and stalled a bit.

“Then I went in an sought instructions of the owners, then announced to the crowd that we’re on the market.”

Mr Wilson said it’s an attractive property, albeit it “needs a lot of work”.

“The street frontage was appealing to where people saw that they could improve the property, and I think get a pretty good result,” he said.

“A lot of the buyers were drawn to it because of the appealing Victorian frontage and also just the proximity to Pako and some of the amenities, which we had a mix of local buyers and the buyer that bought it was from Melbourne, looking to use it as a residence.”

The property sits on Hope St between Pakington St and Sparrow Park.

Records show the owners paid just $190,950 for the property in 2000.

Roll-top laminated kitchen benches and a textured wall feature above an open fireplace seem to be the only signs of work on the property in recent decades.

But the exterior is a period picture with an iron veranda behind a picket fence.

The new owners can work with ornate skirting boards, door architraves, high ceilings and fireplaces inside.

Mr Wilson said the four bidders were a mix of local builders, investors and owner-occupiers.

The Melbourne buyer intends to turn it into a residence, he said.

The post Buyer to breathe new life into cute Geelong West cottage appeared first on realestate.com.au.

The Trump administration has studied the possibility of turning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into public companies while keeping them under conservatorship — one of several alternatives still under consideration, according to a Bloomberg report published Tuesday.

The primary goal of the administration is to reduce the U.S. budget deficit and avoid any increase in mortgage rates — an outcome that could occur if conservatorship ends due to the loss of the government guarantee behind these entities.

This represents a shift in focus from Trump’s first term, during which he aimed to reduce government involvement in the mortgage market.

The idea was recently floated by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte in media interviews. An agency spokesperson confirmed it to Bloomberg, saying that studies are underway on how to take the companies public, including the option of doing so while they remain in conservatorship.

“In any scenario, we will ensure the mortgage-backed securities market is safe and sound and that there is no upward pressure on rates,” the spokesperson told Bloomberg.

In a Fox Business interview, Pulte said, “Maybe there’s a way to take these companies public and use these companies for what they are, which are assets for the American people.” On CNBC, he added that Trump “explicitly says he wants to take them public; he did not say he wants to privatize them.”

One downside to this approach is that investors may be unwilling to pay a premium for companies in which the government retains a large stake — an ironic outcome given the government’s goal of raising cash to reduce the deficit.

In a recent report, a group of JPMorgan analysts said they are still a “little flummoxed by Pulte’s comments.” If the goal is to sell off the Treasury stake, potentially raising hundreds of billions of dollars to pay down the U.S. debt, “we’d think that private investors would want the government’s involvement to be somewhat lighter than today,” they said.

“Utility-like regulation could be on the table, but a continued dominant government stake in the GSEs might raise concerns about policy changes under a (potential) new Administration,” they continued. “An exit from conservatorship could also be viewed as a way to reduce the risk of a political about-face later,” the analysts wrote. 

The analysts noted one potential option could be for the government to first convert its senior preferred stock to common equity, exercise its warrants and gradually sell off its majority stake in the private market over time. This would reduce the need for a large equity raise in the near term.

Trump has mentioned twice on Truth Social the possibility of releasing the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). On May 21, the president said he was giving “serious consideration” to doing so. And on May 27, he said the federal government would continue to provide an implicit guarantee. 

Industry executives have supported the administration’s focus on the GSEs while not necessarily advocating for an immediate release from conservatorship. Mat Ishbia, the president and CEO of leading lender United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), said the GSEs acting “private”‘ while remaining in conservatorship could be “the best of both worlds.” 

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac competing, innovating and doing different things with new leadership from Director Pulte is a big deal, and we’re already starting to see some of those positive things happening right now,”  Ishbia said in a video posted to YouTube on Monday.

Brown Harris Stevens will soon be without its longtime president, Hall Willkie. 

On Monday, the real estate firm announced that Willkie will be stepping down as New York City brokerage president, effective July 1. But Willkie’s journey with the firm is not over as he will serve as a full-time consultant. His consulting contract is for a six-year term.

Willkie, who has been affiliated with Brown Harris Stevens for 37 years, called the move “an active new chapter” and said it was not a decision he made “lightly,” he wrote in a letter to the company.

“My role may be shifting, but my passion for this company and this industry remains unwavering. I look forward to working closely with all of you in my consulting capacity, continuing to support our collective growth and success,” he wrote.

“Brown Harris Stevens will continue to be more than just a workplace for me — it remains a home, a community, and a lifelong endeavor. I feel fortunate to know that we will still all be working together. Thank you for your trust, your partnership, and your unwavering dedication to excellence. I look forward to this with great anticipation, and I am grateful to continue sharing the journey with all of you.”

Prior to joining Brown Harris Stevens in 1989, Willkie held management positions at Sotheby’s International Realty and Douglas Elliman. He began his real estate career at William Pitt Inc.

In addition to these roles, Willkie has also served as a governor of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and as co-chairman of the association’s board of directors, ethics committee and interfirm committee.

Kevin Kovesci, the firm’s West Side sales manager, and Itzy Garay, its East Side sales manager, will serve as co-presidents of Brown Harris Stevens’ New York City region.

“I look forward to my continued work with Hall, building on the incredible values he instilled at Brown Harris Stevens these past 37 years, and welcoming Kevin and Itzy as NYC co-presidents,” Bess Freedman, the CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, said in a statement.

“The new leadership structure allows Hall to focus on his passion for closely mentoring agents, while Itzy and Kevin help to shape and grow our New York brokerage. This is truly a win-win for everyone, and an incredibly exciting milestone for Brown Harris Stevens.”

Kovesci brings 30 years of industry experience into this role, having led Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy’s downtown office before joining Brown Harris Stevens in 2006.

Garay, who joined Brown Harris Stevens in 2020 through the Halstead merger, brings 20 years of experience. She has previously held management positions at Town Residential and Halstead.

“We are excited to work alongside Hall and Bess as NYC co-presidents in this new chapter at Brown Harris Stevens,” the incoming co-presidents said in a joint statement. “Hall has been and will continue to be an incredible mentor to our agents and executives, and we are fortunate to have him as a resource going forward.”

While reverse mortgages in the U.S. have struggled to push beyond their current market penetration rate for the past several years, their international equivalents don’t always have the same challenges.

Lenders in other countries who make use of home equity tapping in a similar way can have different perceptions and market activity in their territories — and some U.S.-based lenders have taken notice. But as the world keeps spinning, reverse mortgage players in other countries are making moves.

Canadian lender growth

Immediately to the north of the U.S. in Canada, the second-largest reverse mortgage provider — Toronto-based Equitable Bank — is seeing notable growth, according to a recent earnings report.

The company has managed to gain market share in the country’s relatively slow housing market, but a standout division for growth is reportedly the company’s reverse mortgage division.

The company’s “decumulation lending” division includes both reverse mortgages and insurance lending. It reached $2.5 billion CAD in volume (a little more than $1.8 billion USD) in the second quarter of 2025 that ended April 30. This constituted growth of 45% year over year and 8% quarter over quarter.

The bank attributed the growth to “broker support, value to borrowers of choosing Equitable Bank’s differentiated solutions and continued expansion of the available market as Canadians retire and realize the advantages of converting real asset-based equity into funds to live in place.”

Australian program mired in delays

In Australia, the news is less rosy. The government-sponsored reverse mortgage program known as the Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS) is encountering challenges in serving customers in a timely fashion, according to reporting by The West Australian.

The program “has been bogged down, with many applicants reporting delays dating back to last year,” the report explained. A government division called Services Australia oversees the government’s pension, Social Security and child support payments, which are delivered through a government payment processing service called Centrelink.

Annette Sinclair, a former Centrelink financial information officer now serving as an independent financial planner, told the outlet that the delays had been “significant.”

“While some go through reasonably quickly, the majority seem stuck in the system for at least two months — and often longer,” Sinclair told the outlet.

The outlet described a scenario provided by a reader in which they applied to the HEAS in December 2024. Their application was cancelled due to missing information. After resubmitting, the reader said several weeks went by before a complication with the home’s insurance led to a second cancellation — much to the reader’s frustration and concern.

“The HEAS is a low-cost reverse mortgage arrangement which allows senior Australians to tap into their home’s equity at a relatively low interest rate of 3.95%,” the outlet explained. “Like other reverse mortgages, only real property can be offered as security.”

There are private-label options without government involvement, but the rates tend to be much higher, so customers tend to prefer the government arrangement on a cost basis.

Hank Jongen, general manager for Services Australia, apologized to impacted customers through the outlet, saying that roughly 16,000 applications currently remain in the system.

“Processing times for the scheme vary because they are complex assessments,” Jongen said. “They also often require information from third parties, such as a valuation request, which can add time to claim finalization. We invest significant time training staff and right now, we’re training more staff on these claims to help people faster.”

New product in South Korea

Meanwhile, in South Korea, a lender recently introduced a new non-government reverse mortgage product, according to outlet Korea JonngAng Daily.

Hana Financial Group announced last week the launch of “Hana The Next Home Pension,” which is available to homeowners 55 and older. To enter into the agreement, the homeowner “entrust[s] their homes to Hana Bank and [will] receive fixed monthly pension payments from Hana Life for life, even after one spouse passes away,” according to the report.

The product recently gained regulatory approval and went on the market across the country last week. It has an effective limit that exceeds $881,230 USD (1.2 billion Korean won), the current ceiling for the government-backed reverse mortgage program.

It also maintains something akin to the U.S. industry’s nonrecourse feature while “surplus proceeds from a posthumous sale” are passed onto heirs.

Like a U.S. reverse mortgage, there are a variety of disbursement options including “a flat monthly amount, front-loaded payments or incrementally increasing payments.”