Title Insurance Changes Could Save Homeowners
The Trump administration is moving to reduce title insurance costs for homeowners, an issue with particular significance in New York, one of the nation's largest and most expensive title insurance markets. "Title insurance is often very redundant, and we're doing everything we can to ensure that the safety and soundness of the market is there, while at the same time getting rid of these redundant, unnecessary title policies," Pulte said. Pulte questioned why homeowners refinancing only several years after obtaining title insurance should necessarily pay for the process again.
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Mortgage rates climb for 5th straight week, pushing average rate on a 30-year home loan above 7%
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate rose this week above 7% for the first time since January 2025, the latest affordability setback for prospective homebuyers following a five-week run of rate increases. The weekly average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate home loan rose to 7.03% from 6.95% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.30%.
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ICE wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in rapid push to expand detention capacity, government watchdog finds
In a single day in January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent more money than it had on any other day in either of President Trump's terms, federal spending records show. The agency advanced billions to Chicago Title Insurance in escrow to acquire detention facilities, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.
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Search and exam is still mostly manual in an automated industry. But why?
Nearly every step in a real estate closing has gone digital over the past decade. From buyers signing disclosures on a tablet, to notaries working remotely, to lenders running automated underwriting models that clear a loan file in minutes. We've certainly come a long way in automating the process. And yet, search and exam, the process that determines whether a property can transfer clean title, has mostly stayed where it was 20 years ago: An examiner working through county records by hand, or a team overseas doing the same thing at a lower hourly rate.
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