In a significant step toward modernizing the mortgage closing process, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on July 11, 2025, that Westcor Land Title Insurance Company, the nation’s largest independent title insurance underwriter, has joined Fannie Mae’s Title Acceptance Pilot as a second vendor alongside Doma Title Insurance. Partnering with X1 Analytics and Mortgage Connect LP, Westcor aims to deliver a title insurance-backed product that balances cost saving

Zillow, the online real estate marketplace giant, has filed a motion in federal court to transfer CoStar’s copyright infringement lawsuit from New York to the Western District of Washington. The motion, submitted earlier this month, asserts that the Seattle-based company believes the case has little connection to New York and was filed there by CoStar in a strategic move to gain legal advantage. The case is shaping up to be one of the most closely watched legal disputes in th

On September 30, 2025, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a significant update for the real estate industry: the effective date of the Residential Real Estate Final Rule has been officially extended from December 1, 2025, to March 1, 2026. This 90-day extension gives Title Agents, Settlement Attorneys, and closing professionals more time to prepare for implementation. However, with an average 60-day contract-to-closing window, the industry’s real-worl

In a move that could have wide-reaching implications for the U.S. housing market, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit challenging a $100 million agreement between Zillow and Redfin, alleging that the deal illegally eliminated competition in the rapidly growing multifamily rental advertising space. The lawsuit, filed in October 2025, accuses the two real estate tech giants of colluding to divide the rental advertising market , resulting in higher prices for

In a move poised to upend long-standing industry norms, analytics and credit-scoring leader FICO (NYSE: FICO) has announced a bold new distribution model: the FICO® Mortgage Direct License Program. Under this plan, tri-merge resellers — which aggregate credit data from the three major U.S. credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) — may now compute and distribute FICO Scores directly to mortgage lenders and brokers, bypassing the bureaus as middlemen. The result: greater