October 2021 – Page 4

Economic Growth Again Revised Downward Due to Supply Chain and Inflation Concerns

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Mortgage Rates Expected to Rise Slightly in 2022 as Fed Gradually Removes Monetary Accommodation Global supply constraints continue to cap economic output amid growing inflationary and consumer-spending concerns, according to the October 2021 commentary from the Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group. For the third consecutive month, the ESR Group revised downward its full-year 2021 real gross domestic product (GDP) growth projections from 5.4 percent to 4.9 percent due to its more pessimistic view of the speed at which current supply chain disruptions will resolve, as well as its upwardly revised inflation projections and expectation that services-related consumer spending will take longer to return to a more historically normal level. Annual inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, is expected to finish 2021 at 5.7 percent, up from the previously projected 5.4 percent, due primarily to elevated energy prices domestically and abroad. To fend off persistently higher inflation, the ESR Group expects the Federal Reserve to announce plans to begin tapering its asset purchase program by the end of the year, and it now projects the first federal funds rate hike to take place in the fourth quarter of 2022. The ESR Group also highlighted the ongoing impact of supply chain disruptions on housing, including on home price growth and mortgage rate expectations vis-à-vis higher inflation. The ESR Group forecasts mortgage rates to average 3.3 percent in 2022, up from last month’s projection of 3.1 percent, as benchmark interest rates are expected to rise due to increased inflation expectations and a projected tightening of monetary policy. While the ESR Group expects home price growth to decelerate moving into 2022 as the housing market cools from its recent highs, it did revise upward its home price growth forecast by 1.8 points to 16.6 percent for 2021 and 2.3 points to 7.4 percent for 2022, as measured by the FHFA Purchase-Only Index, in large part due to persistently tight inventory levels. New single-family home construction remains in high demand but is hindered by many of the same supply constraints, including the availability of both materials and skilled labor, both of which the ESR Group expects will remain obstacles to the delivery of new homes well into next year. “While we still view the supply chain disruptions and, to a lesser extent, labor market tightness as largely transitory, we now expect both to last even longer than we’d previously forecast – and also likely longer than the Federal Reserve anticipated,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Combined with our expectation that inflation will run above-target over the forecast horizon, we foresee growing clamor from market participants for the Fed to begin tightening monetary policy: first by tapering asset purchases and then, in the fourth quarter of 2022, by raising the federal funds rate target range for the first time since December 2018.” “Even a modest tightening of monetary policy would of course impact housing, but we expect the effects to be largely muted given current market conditions,” Duncan continued. “Mortgage rates may rise in response to the tighter environment, but we expect the severe shortage of homes for sale to remain the primary driver of strong house price appreciation through at least 2022, limiting interest rate effects on home sales and home prices. Right now, we forecast mortgage rates to average 3.3 percent in 2022, which, though slightly higher than 2020 and 2021, by historical standards remains extremely low and supportive of mortgage demand and affordability.” Visit the Economic & Strategic Research site at fanniemae.com to read the full October 2021 Economic Outlook, including the Economic Developments Commentary, Economic Forecast, Housing Forecast, and Multifamily Market Commentary. To receive e-mail updates with other housing market research from Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group, please click here. Opinions, analyses, estimates, forecasts, and other views of Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research (ESR) group included in these materials should not be construed as indicating Fannie Mae’s business prospects or expected results, are based on a number of assumptions, and are subject to change without notice. How this information affects Fannie Mae will depend on many factors. Although the ESR group bases its opinions, analyses, estimates, forecasts, and other views on information it considers reliable, it does not guarantee that the information provided in these materials is accurate, current or suitable for any particular purpose. Changes in the assumptions or the information underlying these views could produce materially different results. The analyses, opinions, estimates, forecasts, and other views published by the ESR group represent the views of that group as of the date indicated and do not necessarily represent the views of Fannie Mae or its management. About Fannie MaeFannie Mae helps make the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and affordable rental housing possible for millions of people in America. We partner with lenders to create housing opportunities for families across the country. We are driving positive changes in housing finance to make the home buying process easier, while reducing costs and risk. To learn more, visit:fanniemae.com | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Blog Fannie Mae Newsroomhttps://www.fanniemae.com/news

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Sharestates, a leading real estate technology platform designed to support and accelerate the redevelopment of residential housing has expanded its sales leadership and dramatically expanded its sales team to capitalize on demand from its investors. Beginning this quarter, the recent sales hires will extend Sharestates regional presence in targeted high growth areas, and build on the firm’s origination capabilities, which have surpassed $3 billion in total volume. Billie Adams joined Sharestates as Vice President of National Loan Origination to lead the company’s regional expansion plans. “This is an excellent opportunity to lead an expanding regional sales team with strong loan growth and great credit quality,” Adams said. Billie brings over 10+ years of experience in sales and management for leading national mortgage lenders including Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. David Young joined Sharestates as Vice President Correspondent and Strategic Partnerships to launch these new initiatives. He said, “I’m looking forward to building a strong correspondent and strategic partnership channel alongside the growing regional direct sales team, broker, and Sharestates’ impressive inside sales team.” David also brings over a decade of experience in sales, executive management, and business development along with extensive knowledge of the correspondent lending channel as the former VP of National Development and Wholesale Lending for RCN Capital. Jason Redding also joined Sharestates as Senior Director of Inside Sales to lead and expand the company’s remote sales organization. “I achieved success in my last role at OnDeck by growing an exceptional inside sales team and believe those skills will complement Sharestates’ effort to build a multi-channel loan origination system.” Jason’s 10+ years of sales experience in the business purpose loan industry will buttress the team’s regional expansion plans with a best-in-class inside sales team under his leadership. In addition to these key new hires, Sharestates has added six regional directors of sales to the team, broadening the firm’s presence in more than ten targeted regional markets across the country. Sharestates Co-Founder and Chief Sales Officer Raymond Y. Davoodi said, “Sharestates has, from inception, grown to become a private lender with $3 billion in high-quality credit and performing loan origination volume by taking a customer-centric approach. With the addition of Billie, Jason, David, and our new seasoned lineup of regional directors we have an opportunity to offer the same high-level, white-glove customer service to more real estate developers, brokers, and correspondents across the country. We are confident that our participation in the revitalization movement of real estate in the U.S. will help meet the growing demand for our loan products to institutional and retail investors. We are very excited to announce the growth of the Sharestates family with this monumental onboarding of vision and talent!” Building on its past success before these new hires, Sharestates bolstered its end-to-end lending operations by adding staff across its credit, underwriting, processing, and loan servicing teams to ensure the best customer experience. Sharestates executive leadership team expects this momentum to carry forward into the fourth quarter of 2021 and beyond with more growth initiatives to follow. About Sharestates Sharestates is one of the fastest-growing national private lenders focused on non-owner-occupied residential and commercial properties. The company creates customized lending solutions for real estate investors and developers. Sharestates has successfully funded over $3 billion in projects nationwide and has the broadest loan programs available in the market with competitive pricing. Sharestates funds loans from $100k to $20mm on residential (SFR 1-4), multi-family, mixed-use, and commercial properties. Its loan programs include residential bridge, fix & flip, new construction, portfolio, and rental loans. As a partner to its developers, Sharestates manages the servicing of all loans it originates through successful repayment to ensure the needs of its developers are met throughout the loan lifecycle. Sharestates was founded by real estate veterans and its success is attributed to a strong leadership team, ease of use, sensible underwriting practices, and a relationship-focused lending strategy. Sharestates partners with direct borrowers and brokers. Sharestates is one of many related real estate businesses managed by the executive team that exists to accelerate the redevelopment of residential housing. Collectively, the unique capability of each related business allows Sharestates to provide an end-to-end solution for its customers. In doing so, it creates a more positive borrower experience, better controls credit risk, and successfully monitors the loan through its entire lifecycle. To learn more visit www.Sharestates.com.

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Property Meld announced that it has expanded its relationship with HomeRiver Group, the nation’s largest provider of third-party property management services for single-family and small multifamily properties, with over 27,000 properties under management in 28 states. “Deepening our relationship with HomeRiver Group is yet another splendid example of an industry that’s moving forward. We know that the renter experience is critical, but so is maximizing the NOI for HRG’s customers… and maintenance is one of the greatest levers to do that,” said Ray Hespen,” CEO and Co-founder of Property Meld. “We are excited to partner with HRG to make meaningful movement in the realm of property maintenance.” “Expanding the application of Property Meld’s state-of-the-art technology across our national platform will further enhance communication, efficiency, and oversight within our already exceptional internally and externally performed maintenance, turn and rehab operations,” said Matt Robbins, Senior Vice President of Operations for HomeRiver Group. About Property Meld Property Meld is a smart maintenance solution for property managers that provides efficiency and oversight for all your key players. From scheduling to follow-up, we streamline your entire maintenance process giving you the ability to manage more with less. It’s time to increase revenue and resident satisfaction with Property Meld. Related Links www.propertymeld.com

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Dwellsy.com data shows Apartment rents down 2.3% nationwide To the surprise of many, the general rise in rental home prices is not actually reflective of the entire market. This year’s overall rent increases are coming solely from single-family rentals, while apartment home rental prices are actually decreasing. The price of apartments nationwide has actually decreased by 2.3% since January. According to Jonas Bordo, CEO & Co-Founder of Dwellsy, “Due to COVID19, renters want more space and control over access to their homes, and this has led to substantial new demand for single family rentals. The supply of these properties is relatively unchanged–maybe even down, due to the hot single-family sales market–so rent for this asset type has gone through the roof in 2021.” Dwellsy’s data shows that single family rental prices are up by 15%, driving an overall increase in median rent by 9.6%. While the national numbers are surprising, local numbers vary dramatically between local markets. For example, Santa Rosa, CA in Sonoma County, the rent price of single-family homes went up 10% month over month, while the rent price for apartments was down 3%. This exemplifies the national market trend of single-family homes driving up the overall price of rentals. However, in Los Angeles, CA, we noticed the complete opposite trend, where apartments are in such high demand that their prices are skyrocketing, while the single-family home rentals in the city decrease in price. The median rental price in LA has increased 7% since January. What’s happening in your market? As the largest home rental listing platform in the country, with over 12 million listings, we have access to unique data on rental trends and housing affordability across the country. Our data helps renters identify the most and least affordable rental markets and view individualized rental market trends based on location as prices of apartments and single-family home rentals continue to fluctuate during the ongoing pandemic. We have broken this data down regionally across the US so you can see the trends in rental housing and affordability in your area. If you are interested in learning more or would like to make a media inquiry, please reach out to info@dwellsy.com or visit https://industry.dwellsy.com/newsroom. About DwellsyDwellsy is a home rental platform where renters can find houses, townhomes, condos, and apartments—for rent. We are different from other sites because we don’t charge any listing fees, lease fees, nor lead fees. None. Dwellsy offers the benefit of organic search results that put the renter front and center. If you are looking to find a rental to call home, check out our inventory of apartments and homes for rent. SOURCE Dwellsy.com

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Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ: ASPS), an integrated service provider and marketplace for the real estate and mortgage industries, announced that homebuyers and real estate investors can buy properties marketed on Equator.com and Hubzu.com by converting cryptocurrency into dollars with ForumPay, a leading cryptocurrency payment and conversion service, that makes it easier for buyers to choose cryptocurrency as a source of funds to purchase real estate. Buyers who select Premium Title, an Altisource affiliate, as their title and escrow provider will be given an option to purchase property using cryptocurrency. If that option is selected, buyers will be directed to the third party ForumPay website where their cryptocurrency will be converted at a fixed rate and their funds will be wired directly to Premium Title or the closing attorney, where required. Until recently, the only feasible way to buy real estate with cryptocurrency was to convert the cryptocurrency into a government currency like U.S. Dollars, transfer that money to a personal account, and wire the funds the traditional way from a bank to an escrow agency. Through its arrangement with Altisource, ForumPay is offering an easier process where cryptocurrency is converted at a fixed rate and the funds are wired directly into a Premium Title escrow account, bypassing the need for buyers to hold the funds in their own bank account or place a wire themselves. Holders of cryptocurrency can buy any property on or off the MLS, Equator.com or Hubzu.com by selecting Premium Title as their title and escrow company and sending their Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum or Bitcoin Cash to a ForumPay wallet for conversion. “We are thrilled to announce our arrangement with ForumPay,” said Michael Jansta, SVP of Marketing, Altisource Marketplaces. “This is a game-changing functionality at the cutting edge of crypto adoption. When the value of cryptocurrencies surge to the upside, there are many investors who look to diversify some of those gains into other asset classes. We are overly excited that Equator.com and Hubzu.com are the first marketplaces where homebuyers and real estate investors of all types can use their converted crypto to buy homes and investment properties.” Altisource strives to stay ahead of the curve with respect to real estate technology and is proud to be the first company to provide buyers the option of using cryptocurrency to fund real estate purchases. Altisource remains focused on driving ever-increasing advances in real estate technology. Altisource has an affiliated business relationship with ForumPay and Premium Title Services (“PTS”). Altisource does not own or control ForumPay. About Equator.com® Equator.com is an online real estate marketplace with a special focus on Single-Family Rental investing. By aggregating foreclosure sale properties, bank-owned properties, short sale properties, auction properties, and select active listings on the MLS, Equator.com enables real estate investors to search for Single-Family Rental opportunities by a variety of metrics, including estimated cash flow, gross yield, and net yield. Investors also benefit from powerful rental performance calculators pre-filled with property and market data for additional investment analysis, due diligence, and estimation. Equator is part of the Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ: ASPS) family of businesses. For more information, please visit equator.com. About Hubzu® Hubzu is a leading online real estate marketing platform. Since 2009, Hubzu has facilitated the sale of over 229,000 homes in the United States via its transparent online marketing and auction process. Licensed agents and brokers use the Hubzu platform to market and facilitate the auction of properties for their clients. Home buyers benefit from Hubzu’s search tools and automated and transparent bidding process to find and purchase new homes. Hubzu is part of the Altisource® Portfolio Solutions S.A. family of businesses. Additional information is available at Hubzu.com, Facebook and LinkedIn About Premium TitleTM Premium Title is a national provider of title and settlement services to the mortgage and real estate industry. Premium Title issues title insurance and performs closings for refinance, reverse mortgage, HELOC transactions, REO and non-default purchase and sale transactions, and bulk single-family purchases and refinances. Our customized solutions integrate directly with leading loan origination software, helping create efficiency in the closing process. Premium Title is part of the Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ: ASPS) family of businesses. About Altisource® Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ: ASPS) is an integrated service provider and marketplace for the real estate and mortgage industries. Combining operational excellence with a suite of innovative services and technologies, Altisource helps solve the demands of the ever-changing markets we serve. Additional information is available at altisource.com. Source: Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A.

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Through its automated data capture and delivery platforms, the first PropTech franchise emerges from a likely source, MooveGuru. For five years MooveGuru has been perfecting the consumer experience during their moving process, now the robust platform supports consumers throughout the homeownership lifecycle. Its latest endeavor, YourHomeHub, is the first consumer portal that is “Everything Home” – meaning it allows homeowners to manage both the financial details and physical elements of their home. The consumer can monitor extensive information about their home and local market conditions, store important documents, generate accurate estimates for home repairs and find a local contractor for over 1,000 different home service categories. The platform is provided by real estate professionals who give this powerful homeowner resource to their customers – at no cost to them. Real estate professionals also receive exclusive marketing opportunities to their spheres of influence, which prevents competitors from engaging with their most coveted contacts from the dashboard. All of this is packaged into a unique franchise opportunity for existing MooveGuru partners, which include Real Estate brokerages, Lenders, Title and MLS’s. Nine states have been sold with 14-unit franchises pending. Scott Oakley, CEO and founder of MooveGuru notes, “We are garnering a lot of interest from our Broker and Lender relationships. Three of our first franchisees all own multiple businesses in the real estate space and are looking for another ancillary revenue stream.” One of the first Regional Developers is Unique Realty Services which is headed by 35-year industry veteran Dave Collins and former COO of the ERA brand. Dave stated, “I reconnected with Scott after a precipitous LinkedIn message. We met in Atlanta a couple weeks later and I immediately knew they had a winning strategy that we needed to be part of.” The platform won’t officially launch until Mid-November 2021. Kathleen Kuhn, a 35-year veteran of the home services franchise sector, and EVP of Strategy and Franchising for MooveGuru, commented, “We knew our platform was needed and that industry leaders would appreciate what a gamechanger it is, but we did not anticipate we would close so many territories before we made any official announcement. To learn more about a Your Home Hub Franchise and available territories, please email franchise@yourhomehub.com or visit yourhomehub.com. About MooveGuru MooveGuru Inc. is based in Roswell, GA. In 2016 the company launched a free mover engagement program to real estate agents and brokers with the idea of connecting home buyers and sellers to convenience and savings on moving services. Using just-in-time delivery through artificial intelligence algorithms, MooveGuru Inc. ensures consumers receive agent-branded savings and convenience from national and local retailers and utility connections as they step through the relocation process. Today, more than 1500 brokerages, 300,000 agents, and millions of homeowners are connected to the MooveGuru and YourHomeHub platforms.