A federal judge in Maryland denied a motion Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit brought against Bank of America and Safeguard Properties Management by the National Fair Housing Alliance, 19 fair housing organizations and two homeowners for alleged fair housing violations. According to the judge, the facts presented allow for a “reasonable inference that the defendants violated anti-discrimination provisions of the Fair Housing Act.”

Earlier this month, Oregon’s legislature passed House Bill 2001, a measure that will require cities of more than 10,000 people to permit duplexes in areas currently zoned for single-family usage. The bill, which received bipartisan support, is set to go before Gov. Kate Brown, D-OR, who is expected to sign it, therefore positioning Oregon as the first state to ban single-family-only zoning. If passed, Redfin claims the measure could have a significant impact on Portland's housing market.

Chris Heller shocked the housing world last year when he stepped down as CEO of Keller Williams to become the CEO of mellohome, loanDepot’s attempt to serve as a true one-stop-shop for “buying, financing, and improving homes.” But now, less than 18 months later, Heller is leaving mellohome and loanDepot behind for OJO Labs, a real estate technology start-up whose flagship product is an AI-based conversational assistant that is currently being used in the real estate industry.

Five months ago, word circulated that Liberty Home Equity was on the brink of releasing a proprietary reverse mortgage product, looking to take part in the explosive growth this market has seen in the last year. And now the talk appears to be true, as the reverse mortgage division of Ocwen Financial announced the launch of EquityIQ on Friday, making it the sixth HECM lender to bring a non-agency reverse mortgage to market in the last 18 months.

Ditech Holdings announced last month that it had entered into an agreement to sell its reverse mortgage business, but now one of its big-named clients is formally objecting to the sale. Bank of America, which has a reverse mortgage servicing agreement with Ditech subsidiary Reverse Mortgage Solutions, filed a motion in court Thursday objecting to the deal as it currently stands, claiming that it “threatens to abandon the thousands of elderly borrowers” whose reverse mortgages are being serviced by RMS.

Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that slashed the cost of upfront mortgage insurance for first-time homebuyers who underwent counseling before taking an FHA loan. But while the push for greater financial literacy is a worthy cause, it’s unlikely to boost FHA’s share of the mortgage market, Capital Economics said in a recent report, calling the premium cuts “too small to halt the downward trend in the FHA market share.”

China’s currency controls, as well as international tensions between the U.S. and a slew of countries traditionally thought of as our allies, are putting a crimp on America’s real estate market by thwarting demand from foreign homebuyers. Purchases by Chinese people, the biggest share of foreign purchasers, plummeted 56% in the 12 months ended in March, while British home purchases tumbled 48%.

Recent reporting by Bloomberg suggested that the Trump administration may be wavering on pursuing widespread reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in advance of the 2020 election due to the potential economic impact of those reforms on voters. Now, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria now says it’s possible that the GSEs may remain in conservatorship until 2024, at least.