COVERAGE INFORMATION:

California Department of Real Estate (DRE) NEWS CLIPS service coverage:

Monday through Friday (except state holidays) each week includes electronic format articles retrieved from newspapers or news services that report real estate related news in California and some national services. Coverage is for California newspapers that are available electronically via the Internet - and any significant related breaking news.

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Top Stories

Falling Home Prices Aren’t Yet Fixing The Affordability Problem

CZARINNA ANDRES, National Mortgage Professional
Housing affordability deteriorated for the fourth consecutive month in June, according to the latest Real House Price Index from First American Data & Analytics. Affordability nevertheless remained approximately 5% better than it was a year earlier. The monthly reversal comes as national home price growth slows and outright declines spread. Nominal home prices increased just 1.1% from a year earlier in June, while prices declined in 22 of the 50 largest markets tracked by First American.

L.A. County sues State Farm over its handling of wildfire claims

MELODY PETERSEN, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles County announced Monday that it had filed a lawsuit against State Farm General after hundreds of victims of last year’s devastating wildfires complained that their claims had been delayed, denied or underpaid.
The lawsuit alleges that State Farm engaged in illegal and deceptive business practices that kept victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires from receiving what they were entitled to under their policies.
County officials said their investigation into the complaints found unreasonable delays in processing claims, as well as “systematic underpayments.”

National News 

Mortgage Rate Shock Stalls Housing Market as 8-Month Growth Streak Collapses

SNEJANA FARBEROV, Realtor.com
Stubbornly high mortgage rates finally took their toll on buyer demand in August, snapping an eight-month streak of pending sales growth even as sellers slashed prices.
The share of listings in pending status fell 0.2% from a year ago, marking the first negative readout since November 2025, according to the latest Realtor.com® monthly housing market trends report released on Wednesday. 
A sale is listed as pending when a seller has accepted an offer from a buyer, but the deal has not yet closed. The pending home sales rate is a crucial indicator of the housing market's health because it helps predict the rate of finalized home sales a month or two later.

California News

When is it safe to return home after a wildfire? California becomes first state to pass standards

EVAN BUSH, NBC News
After a wildfire fills a house with smoke, when is it safe to return? With a pair of bills passed Monday, California is poised to become the first U.S. state to set standards for that contamination risk.

Southern California landlords in price-cut mode this summer

JONATHAN LANSNER, Whittier Daily News (Subscription)
It’s a swell summer for bargain-hunting renters in Southern California. Numerous landlords are facing increased competition to fill vacant units thanks to a modest burst in new construction, which is giving renters more options. Plus, demand may be weak as a shaky economy convinces some folks not to seek their own place.

AI wealth is creating a 'mansion shortage' and upending San Francisco's housing market

JENNIFER LUDDEN, NPR
SAN FRANCISCO — On a recent Sunday, 30-year-old Collin Russell was desperately visiting open houses, looking to buy a place in the city that his wife is from. They left two years ago so he could go to graduate school, and they moved back to San Francisco in June, just as the housing market here has exploded.
"I couldn't have timed it worse, honestly," he lamented after touring a condo in the affluent neighborhood of Presidio Heights.
He has a solid income from a new job. But finding a two-bedroom home within their budget these days has felt impossible.

Industry News 

Why a bill to juice condo construction died even though California lawmakers voted for it

BEN CHRISTOPHER, CalMatters
A bill that supporters hoped would kickstart California’s moribund condo industry and boost the scarce number of entry-level homeownership opportunities, died under mysterious circumstances at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday after failing to get a final vote before the end of the legislative session.
Assembly Bill 1903 by Oakland Democratic lawmaker Buffy Wicks would have changed the way that disputes between homeowners and builders over purportedly shoddy construction are resolved in a way the bill’s author hoped would result in fewer defect lawsuits and less developer skittishness around building condos.

Real Estate Technology 

Homebuyers are asking AI for agent recommendations. Here's how it decides who to pick

BOBBY KERR, Inman (Subscription)
Ask ChatGPT to recommend a real estate agent in your market. The names that come back aren’t random, and nobody paid to be there. AI assistants build shortlists from public data — mostly your Google presence — and the same few agents in each market keep winning, while everyone else is invisible.

Property News 

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Resources, Webinars, and Other Items of Interest 

Real Estate Wire Fraud Is Evolving: Is Your Brokerage Ready?

DINA CHENEY, NAR Realtor News
Cybercrime in real estate reached new heights last year, according to the 2025 edition of the FBI’s annual IC3 report. There were more than 12,000 real estate–related complaints, with real estate losses totaling $275 million (up from about $174 million in 2024 and $145 million in 2023).