Latest news with #RocketHomes
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
5 Tourist Towns To Buy Property in While Tariffs Are High
International tariffs have made visiting the United States more expensive, causing a steep drop in foreign tourism, especially from Canada and Mexico. According to Oxford Economics, the U.S. saw a 31.9% decline in Canadian visitors and a 23% drop in Mexican visitors in March 2025, compared to previous years. This trend has led to a $64 billion loss for the U.S. tourism industry, with experts predicting that travel numbers may not fully recover until 2029. Discover More: Read Next: For property investors, these changes have created rare opportunities in iconic tourist towns. As demand softens, prices and inventory are shifting, especially in destinations that once relied on foreign visitors. Below, we explore five towns where these trends have opened doors for buyers, and we link directly to the latest housing data. North Myrtle Beach is a classic example of a market in transition. According to Rocket Homes, the median home prices rose 3.4% year-over-year to $398,002 in April 2025. However, not all segments are seeing gains: one-bedroom homes dropped 5.4%, and two- and three-bedroom homes also saw slight declines. Inventory is up 6.3% from March, with over 1,000 homes on the market and nearly 87% of properties selling below asking price. This is a clear sign buyers have more negotiating power. Homes are taking longer to sell, averaging 128 days on the market. These trends, combined with ongoing new construction and Myrtle Beach's enduring appeal, creates a great opportunity for those looking to enter a coastal market before international tourism rebounds. Find Out: Gatlinburg remains a favorite for domestic tourists, even as international visits have slowed. The average single-family home price is around $400,000, with prime cabins fetching over $600,000 due to strong short-term rental demand. The town's population is growing, and more buyers are entering the market, drawn by the promise of steady rental income and Smoky Mountain views. While some longtime residents are cashing out, new zoning changes and the conversion of older motels into modern vacation cabins are expanding investment options. The local market is expected to see moderate growth, making Gatlinburg a smart choice for those seeking both lifestyle and rental returns. Dauphin Island's real estate market is bucking the national trend, thanks to strong domestic demand. While European tourism has dipped, new ferry connections and infrastructure upgrades are attracting regional buyers. The median home price jumped 10.2% year-over-year to $490,000 in March 2025, with four-bedroom homes up 18%, per Rocket Homes data. Furthermore, inventory has also surged — 160 homes were for sale in March, a 52% increase from the previous month, giving buyers more choices. Off-beach cottages often sell 20% below similar Gulf Coast properties, and the area remains a buyer's market, with homes staying on the market longer and prices more negotiable. The town's glacier access and year-round outdoor activities continue to draw steady interest from adventure-seeking Americans, even as international ski tourism dips. According to Ownwell, the median home value is $445,350, and property taxes are higher than the national average (1.26% effective rate). However, the area's unique appeal and limited inventory keep demand steady. Direct flights from Seattle have made Girdwood more accessible to West Coast buyers who are avoiding international trips. The local municipal council has approved tax breaks for rental property upgrades, which will remain in effect through 2026. Despite recent tariff impacts, Girdwood's 10-year average price growth remains strong at 5.4%. This continues to draw investors looking for both rental potential and future appreciation. Truro, on Cape Cod, is seeing both volatility and opportunity. Data from Rocket Homes showed the median home price rose 4.7% to $944,500 in April 2025. However, the increase was not uniform with all kinds of houses. Five-bedroom homes dropped 38% year-over-year, and inventory jumped 19% month-over-month. Conversely, one-bedroom homes soared 50% in price, reflecting shifting buyer demand. Despite a 12% decline in European summer rentals, domestic visitors keep occupancy high, and recent flood-control projects have boosted buyer confidence. Sellers are offering flexible terms, and the market remains favorable for buyers as the area prepares for an eventual rebound in international tourism. More From GOBankingRates Surprising Items People Are Stocking Up On Before Tariff Pains Hit: Is It Smart? Clever Ways To Save Money That Actually Work in 2025 Sources: Oxford Economics, 'Inbound travel to US in steep decline' Rocket Homes, 'North Myrtle Beach Market Report' Rocket Homes, 'Dauphin Island Market Report' Ownwell, 'Girdwood, Anchorage County, Alaska Trends' Rocket Homes, 'Truro Market Report' This article originally appeared on 5 Tourist Towns To Buy Property in While Tariffs Are High
Los Angeles Times
05-03-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Consumer agency drops Zelle lawsuit against big banks in latest legal pullback
In the waning days of the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a series of lawsuits against financial companies it accused of running roughshod over the public. Now, the agency under a new interim director is rapidly withdrawing those cases and others, with the CFPB most recently filing a motion this week in Arizona federal court to drop a December lawsuit against payment app Zelle and its big bank backers. The lawsuit accused the company that operates the app on behalf of a consortium of banks — including defendants Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America — of rushing to launch the service to compete with Venmo and other payment apps. Without adequate consumer safeguards, Zelle users experienced $870 million in fraud-related losses, it alleged. 'We welcome the CFPB's decision to drop its lawsuit against the Zelle network. As we've said before, this lawsuit was without merit, and legally and factually flawed,' said a spokesperson for Early Warning, the Scottsdale, Ariz., company that operates Zelle for the banks. The CFPB moved to dismiss the case in a brief legal filing and has not issued a statement explaining its decision, but the move is the latest in a series of case dismissals and other actions intended to rein in the agency since Biden appointee Rohit Chopra was fired by Trump on Feb. 1. The agency did not respond to a request for comment. Acting chief Russell Vought — also Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget and a leader of the administration's mission to downsize the federal government — has ordered staff to stop all 'supervision and examination activity' and has sought to reduce the agency's funding, saying in a tweet: 'This spigot, long contributing to CFPB's unaccountability, is now being turned off.' The CFPB filed a lawsuit in January against Capital One Financial Corp., accusing the financial services company of cheating customers out of $2 billion in interest payments, but the agency dismissed the case last month. The CFPB similarly withdrew a case it filed against Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, a company owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, which it accused of trapping mobile home buyers into unaffordable loans that cost them fees and penalties and even the loss of their homes. Other lawsuits that have been dropped include cases against student loan servicer Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which was accused of collecting on loans in bankruptcy; Heights Finance, which allegedly engaged in illegal 'loan churning' to generate more fees; and Rocket Homes, one of the country's largest home lenders, which was accused of illegal kickbacks. When the Rocket Homes case was dropped last month, the lender called the suit 'an empty claim brought forth by former CFPB director Chopra for the sole purpose of seeing his name in headlines during the final days in public office.' Rick Claypool, a researcher at Public Citizen, said it was expected that the Trump administration would seek to pull back from aggressively prosecuting financial companies accused of wrongdoing, but not to such an extent. 'What has happened is that it is played out with somewhat shocking speed and recklessness, with whole categories of corporate enforcement being dropped and paused,' said Claypool, author of a report released Wednesday, which calculated the administration halted or moved to dismiss investigations against 89 corporations across multiple federal agencies. The consumer group last month joined with other advocacy groups and a federal union in filing a lawsuit against the CFPB and Vought challenging what it calls the 'unlawful dismantling' of the agency, which was established by an act of Congress. During the first Trump administration, the agency issued payday lender rules that consumer groups considered weaker than what the CFPB had proposed under the Obama administration. But it also pursued enforcement actions against banks, including reaching a consent order with Citibank, which agreed to pay $335 million in restitution to customers over allegations it violated Truth in Lending Act violations. While Vought is currently running the agency, President Trump has nominated attorney and former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. director Jonathan McKernan to be its chief. During his confirmation hearing last month, McKernan pledged to 'implement and enforce the federal consumer financial laws and perform each of [the agency's] other statutorily assigned functions' — even as Vought has reportedly sought to cancel the lease on the CFPB's headquarters. Chopra, in an interview last month, said opposition to the agency stems not only from traditional banking and lending firms, but from big Silicon Valley tech companies that want to get into the finance business. 'We know that their tentacles are all over, and many have significant aspirations in banking, lending and payments,' Chopra told Drop Site News, specifically mentioning Google, Apple and Facebook, which attempted to launch its own currency, Libra, several years ago. He also noted that Elon Musk — who tweeted in a November post on X 'Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.' — wants to turn the social media site into a payments platform. 'I think it's reasonable for Americans to wonder why he is targeting this little agency. And I think a lot of the opposition is coming from tech conglomerates, because ... the agency has been a speed bump in their plans,' he said. There has been at least one enforcement that Vought said the CFPB will pursue — a lawsuit against online lender MoneyLion, which was accused by the agency in 2022 of violating the Military Lending Act by overcharging on loans to service members and their dependents. MoneyLion has denied the allegations. The Associated Press and Bloomberg contributed to this report.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The CFPB just dropped a bunch of its own lawsuits as the agency's future hangs in limbo
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau abruptly dropped five of its own lawsuits against companies it had accused of victimizing customers on Thursday as the political and legal battle over the Trump administration's efforts to radically downsize the agency raged on. The abandoned cases included actions against major corporate names such as Capital One Financial, the country's ninth-largest bank, and the real estate referral site Rocket Homes. Others targeted a major student loan servicer and a pair of consumer lenders. Activity at the CFPB has been largely frozen thanks to a stop-work order by Trump officials, who appear to be targeting the watchdog for potentially crippling cuts. Last week, it dismissed a case against the online lender SoLo Funds, raising concerns among Democrats and consumer advocates that the administration might begin unwinding much of the agency's legal docket. 'There are certainly indications that they intend to dismiss a large number of cases, if not all cases,' said Eric Halperin, who resigned as the CFPB's head of enforcement earlier this month after serving in the Biden administration. He noted that the agency had canceled its contracts with expert witnesses, who are essential to proving cases in court, while its work stoppage has made it impossible to move suits forward. CFPB lawyers did not explain their decision to drop the cases in their court filings, and the agency did not respond to a request for comment. All five cases were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they could not be revived in the future. The moves are in some ways unprecedented for the agency. Until this month, the CFPB had only ever dismissed one of its own lawsuits without first obtaining some sort of relief for consumers, former officials told Yahoo Finance. That occurred under the first Trump administration in 2018, when then-acting Director Mick Mulvaney ended a suit against the payday lender Golden Valley Lending. The case, however, was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could have in theory been brought again. Several of the suits that the CFPB moved to end on Thursday were filed under former Director Rohit Chopra after Trump's November election victory. The regulator sued Rocket Homes in December, alleging that it had illegally provided real estate agents with kickbacks in order to steer customers toward its sister lender, Rocket Mortgage. In early January, it sued Berkshire Hathaway-owned Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance, a mobile home lender it accuse of illegally trapping customers in loans they couldn't afford to pay. The CFPB filed its case against Capital One less than a week before Trump's inauguration, claiming the bank had cheated customers out of $2 billion by advertising a high-yield savings account that in fact paid very little interest. Republicans and industry groups had criticized the timing of those suits as politically motivated, arguing that Chopra was attempting to bring controversial cases at the last moment before the new administration could have a chance to replace him atop the agency. Many expected that those suits might be dropped. But not all of the cases the agency has dismissed were filed during the lame duck. On Thursday it moved to scrap a May lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a student loan servicer it accused of collecting on debts that had been discharged in bankruptcy. It also ditched an August 2023 case against Heights Finance, a high-cost installment lender the agency said had abused borrowers. In theory, some states attorneys general could try to file their own modified versions of the dismissed lawsuits, since they're statutorily empowered to enforce the same consumer laws as the CFPB. But it's unclear how many would have the manpower or resources to do so. The move to drop cases comes amid a high-stakes legal battle over the CFPB's future. Last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked Acting Director Russell Vought from laying off any additional staff, after a union representing the agency's employees filed suit claiming he planned to fire as much as 95% of its workforce. In a filing this week, Vought claimed he simply intended to run a 'more streamlined and efficient bureau' capable of meeting its 'statutory responsibilities.' The CFPB, which was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act in response to the housing bust and financial crisis, has long been a target for Republican critics, who've accused it of using heavy-handed tactics and stretching its legal authority. But it has become a particular focal point for Elon Musk and his DOGE push; the billionaire has said he wants to 'delete' the CFPB. On Thursday, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren pushed Jonathan McKernan, Trump's nominee to permanently head the bureau, on whether the agency would continue to enforce the law under his leadership. "I'm fully committed to following the law fully and faithfully. That includes each of the statutes,' he said. Jordan Weissmann is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance.
CNN
27-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
Consumer watchdog quits cases against firms accused of ripping off consumers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau abruptly dropped cases on Thursday against multiple companies that had previously been accused of hurting consumers. Court filings indicate that the consumer watchdog has decided to dismiss lawsuits previously filed against Capital One, Rocket Homes and a student loan servicer. The decision to abandon the cases demonstrates the hands-off approach to regulation from the Trump administration, which has scrambled to sideline the CFPB in recent weeks in an effort led by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump-appointed officials have ordered staff to halt all work – including fighting financial crime. Now the CFPB is dropping multiple cases it had previously pursued. The moves come the same day as Jonathan McKernan, President Donald Trump's pick to head the CFPB, faces questions from US senators during a confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill. In a Thursday filing in US District Court, the CFPB filed a notice of a voluntary dismissal of its lawsuit against Capital One. It's a dramatic shift from January 14, when the CFPB, then led by former President Joe Biden-appointed officials, sued Capital One for 'cheating millions of consumers' out of interest rate payments. Regulators accused Capital One of failing to pay more than $2 billion in interest to holders of its high-interest savings accounts – a claim that the company denied. A separate filing Thursday indicated the CFPB voluntarily dismissed a case against Rocket Homes, a unit of Rocket Companies, and The Jason Mitchell Group real estate brokerages. In December, the CFPB had accused the group of an illegal kickback scheme to steer mortgage applications to Rocket. Shares of Capital One and Rocket Companies climbed more than 1% Thursday morning, even as the S&P 500 dipped slightly. In a third filing, the CFPB on Thursday dropped its case against Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a student loan servicer that does business as American Education Services, or AES. In May, the CFPB sued the student lender, alleging it hurts student borrowers by failing 'to recognize that some private student loans are discharged in bankruptcy.' As a result, the CFPB said, some borrowers paid thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars on student debt they did not owe. The decision to drop cases was foreshadowed by the fact that the CFPB recently canceled contracts with multiple expert witnesses it had hired in cases against companies accused of hurting consumers.
