Following a path previously laid out by the likes of Zillow and Redfin, and taking a page out of the playbook of Opendoor, Offerpad, and others, Keller Williams is about to start buying and selling houses. Next month, Keller Williams will launch an iBuyer offering, which it is calling “Keller Offers.”

The government has made mortgage credit more readily available in the last few months than it has been at any point over the last 10 years, a new report from the Urban Institute shows. According to the report, the level of mortgage credit available for loans backed by the FHA, VA, and USDA was higher during the fourth quarter of 2018 than it was during any quarter since 2009.

Over the past 10 years, Hispanics counted for 62.7% of net U.S. homeownership gains – and that trend isn’t expected to die down soon. There are several things that lenders can do in order to reach this expanding market, according to Marisa Calderon, National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals executive director and 2018 HousingWire Women of Influence winner.

Homeowners have a nice stockpile of pent-up wealth in their homes and home prices continue to appreciate. And, it seems that every quarter a new startup emerges promising to disrupt the home equity space by giving homeowners a better, faster, cheaper or even debt-free way to tap into the wealth in their homes. And yet, so many Americans appear to be reluctant to take this route. What gives? We talked to a number of experts for their take.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced this week that it is issuing new rules for down payment assistance on mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Click the headline for a full breakdown of which rules are changing and why.

A shortage of entry-level homes will stymie the housing market this year, nullifying much of the impact of lower mortgage rates, according to a forecast by Diane Swonk, Grant Thornton chief economist. "The housing market will tread water in 2019 as supply constraints and affordability problems offset any gains from slightly lower mortgage rates," Swonk said.

Prosper, a longtime player in the personal lending space, announced plans in November to enter the mortgage arena with a digital HELOC product that promised to disrupt home equity lending. But there's a chance these plans could be put on hold. The SEC announced Friday that Prosper has agreed to pay a $3 million fine to settle charges that it misled to investors by reporting inflated returns.

In this installment of Marketer Intel, we talk with Keosha Burns, head of public relations at Chase Home Lending, on the challenges of reaching new buyer groups, specifically Millennials. Keosha built her career in Washington, D.C., joining the industry at the Financial Services Roundtable, then working for nearly five years as the senior manager of media and external relations at Fannie Mae. In her current role at Chase, she leads PR strategy and has an extra passion for first-time homebuyers.