T3 Insight
Executive brief: articles and latest news
T3 Sixty’s monthly executive brief providing analysis on the most important trends and developments as well as a quick digest of the most notable news in the industry.
The industry has so many stories, blogs, press releases and announcements each month that we all struggle to digest the information and distinguish between truly meaningful developments and hype or advertisement.
With T3 Insight, T3 Sixty analyzes developing trends, provides new brokerage industry best practices, and creates new perspectives on recent developments in technology, leadership, and organized real estate, in a monthly executive brief. It helps executives understand how the industry is changing in real time.
Each monthly executive brief also includes a composite of latest news and current articles under the title “What We’re Reading.”
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
Have a question? Connect with our executive editor, Paul Hagey.
No ads. No pay-to-play.
Articles
Individual deep dive topics that T3 Sixty explores as part of the monthly executive brief
The articles listed here are an alternative view of the composite monthly brief. This offers an easy way to view recent, chronological, articles.
[
May 2023
]
Determining the number of real estate brokerages is not straightforward, but is an important exercise to understand the market.
[
May 2023
]
In this Mega 1000 breakout, T3 Sixty analyzes the 2023 Mega 1000 by average 2022 transaction side price and placed them into the following three categories: Entry Level, Mid-Market and Luxury.
[
May 2023
]
The Real Brokerage is the nation’s fastest-growing brokerage. This article dives into some of the elements of its model that have contributed to its rapid rise into the U.S.’s 18th largest brokerage
[
April 2023
]
T3 Sixty does not identify independent brokerages in its Real Estate Almanac rankings or consider them separately for its industry research and analysis. Here’s why.
[
April 2023
]
The 2023 Mega 1000 reveals how production continues to concentrate among the nation’s largest brokerages. This article presents a digest of the data behind that trend.
[
April 2023
]
The Mega 1000 provides countless data and information to help industry leaders digest where the industry is and is heading. In this video presentation, T3 Sixty provides an overview of the 2023 report and dives into some of the key takeaways from the sixth annual release.
[
March 2023
]
Among the U.S.’s five largest brokerages, Douglas Elliman Realty recorded the highest 2022 average sales price by far. In this post, readers will gain insight into the brokerage’s philosophy and approach in a video interview with CEO Scott Durkin.
[
March 2023
]
The newest technologies will have significant impacts on culture and business. This article serves as a brief digest of the emerging trends, insights and major themes from the tech track of the 2023 SXSW event.
[
March 2023
]
To shed more light on the release and the process for building the 2023 Tech 200, Travis Saxton, head of T3’s technology consulting division, and Paul Hagey, T3 Sixty’s editor-in-chief, curated a conversation about its development. This article presents a video recording and additional key details of the release.
What We’re Reading
Notable industry articles curated with T3 Sixty’s perspective
Every month T3 gathers most important news across all companies, brands and regions and created an executive summary for quick and easy review.
- Article available on Real Estate News
CoStar Group CEO Andy Florance shared some details about the future of his commercial listing behemoth in the residential space in a wide-ranging interview. One of the takeaways included how the company will focus and expand in the residential industry with Homes.com. Homesnap, which CoStar acquired in 2020, will become Homes Pro to support the central Homes.com brand the company will focus on building.
- Article available on Realtor.com
A recent report from Realtor.com shows that small investors continue to be very active in the market even as the share of investor purchases eases from levels reached during the pandemic. The share of purchases by large investors (those with at least 50 properties) declined in 2022 and accounted for about 14 percent of investor purchases, down from a peak of 32 percent in mid-2022. Investors were most active in the Midwest and the South due to a combination of affordability and strong rent growth.
- Article available on Inman
Fannie Mae expects home sales to be ‘subdued’ in 2023 due to a limited inventory of homes for sale. Homebuyer demand continues to support home prices, although prices, measured at the national level, are expected to soften starting in the second half of 2023. Fannie Mae forecasts home price declines on a year-over-year basis through 2024 with the strongest downdraft in the second quarter when prices are forecast to fall 2.6%.
- Article available on Inman
NAR reported that April membership was down 0.66 percent compared with the year before, the first year-over-year decline since the Great Recession in 2008. Membership numbers show that there were 1.54 million Realtors in April, a decrease from 1.58 million at the end of 2022. NAR forecasts that membership numbers to fall further and expects to tap reserves next year to make up the gap between operating costs and revenue.
- Article available on CBS News
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has adjusted the loan-level price adjustment (LLPA) fee which is a fee charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on mortgages that they underwrite. It is based on a homebuyer’s credit score and the size of the down payment. The adjustment, which went into effect on May 1. The LLPA fee for some buyers with lower credit scores or smaller down payments will decrease and increase for other buyers with higher credit scores or larger down payments. NAR was against the overhaul arguing that it would raise the costs of mortgages when affordability is a top concern for many buyers.
- Article available on Real Estate News
The NAR Board of Directors approved a proposal to increase 2024 dues by 4% and tie future increases to the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. That will push dues next year to $156. Dues increases will be capped at 4%, however. The move comes as NAR faces annual deficits due to rising expenses and declines in membership. With the $45-per-year consumer advertising fee, Realtors now pay $201 in dues to the national association. As costs increase, the level of scrutiny of the association from brokerages and agents will likely increase.
- Article available on Real Estate News
The Real Brokerage reported $107.8 in Q1 revenue, an increase of $10 million from Q4 and a 75 percent increase compared to one year earlier. Its agent count, at more than 10,000, was 120% higher than the year before. The company noted that a consumer-facing app aimed at streamlining the mortgage process will be in beta testing within a few weeks. The company also announced the launch of Real Signature, a proprietary alternative to third-party signature platforms.
- Article available on New York Times
College-educated workers are leaving large coastal cities at an increasing rate and moving to other, lower cost, parts of the country. This pattern was accentuated by the pandemic and work-from-anywhere but increasingly the cost of living, notably housing, is shifting the balance so that places like San Francisco, Washington and New York are now seeing a rising net outflow of well-educated residents. On balance, a few other large metros, mid-size cities and rural areas are gaining college-educated residents who have packed up and relocated.
- Article available on New York Times
Buyers are grappling with high prices, rising interest rates and low inventory, while sellers face price peaks and the prospect of higher mortgage rates on their next home. The effect is a topsy-turvy market in which both buyers and sellers face significant hurdles to meet their real estate needs. In times like these, brokers and agents need to provide savvy advice and insight to clients to successfully realize their real estate goals.
- Article available on Real Estate News
CoStar Group, which owns real estate portal Homes.com and real estate agent marketing tool Homesnap, reported first quarter revenue of $584 million, a 13% increase from the same period in 2022. Its net income of $87 million in the quarter represented a slight decrease from $89 million in first quarter 2022. The company, which acquired Homes.com in May 2021, reported that Homes.com achieved 27 million unique visitors in March, more than 4X the 6 million it had when it acquired the portal. The company has expressed big plans for the portal as it reworks the product into its well-established advertising-based portal playbook. https://www.realestatenews.com/2023/04/25/costar-beats-expectations-increases-revenue-by-13