The Dual Mind View

Interest rates, home values, and consumer demand are only one part of the story. Part 2 of 3. In Part 1 of this series, I summarized the recent rise of home equity investments, or HEIs, as a response to a very specific market moment. Homeowners accumulated enormous housing wealth during the home price run-up of 2020 and 2021. Then interest rates rose sharply, turning the traditional ways of accessing that equity into much less attractive options. Selling meant giving up a low

A Niche Product Goes Mainstream Part 1 of 3. Homeowners today are sitting on enormous housing wealth, but that does not mean they can easily use it. For millions of borrowers, the traditional ways of tapping home equity have become far less attractive. Selling means giving up a low-rate mortgage. Refinancing often means replacing it with a much more expensive one. And for borrowers who do not fit clean underwriting boxes, even a HELOC may be out of reach. That mismatch has cr

Featured in HousingWire History doesn’t repeat itself, but it frequently rhymes. In the years before the 2008 mortgage crisis, financial “innovations” promised to unlock homeownership for millions. Each new product was marketed as pro-consumer and pro-efficiency, yet each gradually eroded the information needed by the people downstream who were pricing risk. The crisis produced a generation of regulatory reform premised on one simple lesson: when the information underlying cr

Business Insider has a smart piece today on the rise of fractional homeownership startups. As long as we continues to see record prices on top of constrained supply, alternative ownership and financing models are not a sideshow; they’re the next phase of the market. It’s also important not to lump all of these models together: Fractional ownership (e.g., Ownify and similar platforms) slices the equity in a home into shares, often via an LLC. The resident buys in over t

They really had no choice. And got most of what they wanted anyway.

Start looking at Georgia. The Senate Passed An Institutional Investor Ban. The Final Version Will Look Very Different. The Senate’s 89–10 vote isn’t the end of the story. The real fight will happen in conference — and Georgia’s legislature may already be pointing to the compromise. Last week the Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act by an overwhelming 89–10 margin, attaching a provision that would prohibit “large institutional investors” from owning more than

Institutional investors vertically integrate. The debate over institutional ownership of single-family homes continues, with new legislation on Capitol Hill and in statehouses from Georgia to Nevada aimed at restricting the practice. Invitation Homes , the nation’s largest single-family rental REIT with roughly 82,000 homes across the Sun Belt, is steering into the skid rather than fighting the tide. In January, the company acquired Atlanta-based ResiBuilt by Invitation Home

Pennsylvania joins the list of states looking to regulate the financial products. Millions of homeowners are sitting on equity they can't touch without giving up a mortgage rate they'll never see again. The market built a product to solve that. As Real Estate News reports , state legislatures are now saying "not so fast." Two pieces I wrote last week are converging in real time. The Fed's Philly district data showed the local housing market slowing because of low inventor

Illinois and Hawaii join the list of states that may mandate public marketing of homes for sale. Featured in HousingWire . RELATED ARTICLE: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anthonyvmannino_realestate-housing-regulation-activity-7432149693645815808-ygu7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAALkMOwBQlmMPP--r3LCOOmdMvrhuVzvy5I

The Center for Real Estate Technology and Innovation weighs in with a report on January 2026 venture capital investments. In: Integrative solutions; fewer but bigger deals. Out: Stand-alone SaaS; early-stage companies.

Small problem; many solutions. Wall Street vs. Main Street: the "Institutional Ban" That Isn't, But May Work Anyway (maybe) In just a few weeks, President Trump's promise to "stop Wall Street from competing with Main Street homebuyers" has gone from slogan to an emerging policy architecture, and it turns out there's more than one way to skin a cat. What's Past is Prologue: the Ro Khanna bill. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has been fighting "Wall Street landlords" for years with ver

Another suit from Hagens Berman, the firm that brought you Sitzer/Burnett. Much like programs run by Zillow and Realtor.com , this one involves referral fees through paper real estate brokerages, allegedly tied to mortgage referrals.

February 2-5, 2026 Hilton NYC I positively love the idea of STUPID goals. S.T.U.P.I.D. Goals: Strategic Transformational Unrealistic Purpose-Driven Innovative Dynamic The Regional Housing Divide: Overcoming Challenges: An inspiring story.

Tying Realtor membership to MLS access is a lawsuit waiting to happen. The smarter MLSs are opening up access and adjusting prices accordingly. t

Analysis from Brad Hunter in Forbes

Great idea, but the science isn't ready for primetime. Not only are the property scores inconsistent, they are grossly misleading to consumers. Featured in

If you never ran a mortgage company, it's likely you never heard of OptimalBlue. But a good chunk of the business uses it to price mortgages.

M&A on the Agenda Advice for Founders Choosing the Right Tech