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.

Friday, August 21, 2026

Top Stories

The Bay Area is ‘exporting’ the housing crisis to the rest of the state, report finds

DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA, San Francisco Chronicle (Subscription)
Concern about housing has risen most acutely for residents in the Central Valley and the Shasta regions, as well as, to a lesser extent, larger swaths along the Oregon and Nevada borders. However, in coastal regions like the Bay Area the sense that housing is a paramount problem is actually declining, the researchers found, as people who can afford the region’s high housing costs are increasingly the only ones left living here. 

With Buyers Firmly in the Driver’s Seat, Home-Purchase Cancellations Hit Highest Level in Nearly 3 Years

DANA ANDERSON, Redfin News
Nationwide, 14% of home-sale agreements that went under contract in July fell through–the highest share in nearly three years on a seasonally adjusted basis and up from 13.7% a month earlier. Contract cancellations are rising a bit because buyers have the power: The number of U.S. homebuyers dropped to a record low in July, and there were a near-record 51% more sellers than buyers in the market.   

National News 

New-Home Mortgage Demand Slips Despite Widespread Builder Incentives

CZARINNA ANDRES, National Mortgage Professional
Mortgage applications for newly built homes lost ground in July, another indication that builder incentives are struggling to overcome buyers’ sensitivity to elevated mortgage rates. The July estimate marked the third monthly decline in four months and fell below the average annualized pace of 664,000 recorded during the first six months of 2026.

Mortgage Rates Fall to 6.65%, but Bond Market Turmoil Signals Higher Rates Ahead

JAKE KRIMMEL, Realtor.com
The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell two basis points this week to 6.65%, right in line with our expectations. But in a 48 hour period when the bond market has moved this much, it’s worth remembering that the Freddie number is a backward-looking average of mortgage rates over the past week. Today’s print is best understood as the base level from which mortgage rates may push higher next week amid market volatility.

California News

Data centers’ deep political unpopularity enters debate over CEQA reform measure

ANDREW GRAHAM, Sacramento Bee (Subscription)
Opponents of Proposition 45, which creates new rules under the California Environmental Quality Act for some building projects, are arguing the so far well-polling ballot measure would grease the skids for the construction of data centers, which poll very badly.

With rents surging, developers race to build San Francisco apartments again

J.K. DINEEN, San Francisco Chronicle (Subscription)
A former Mission District Laundromat. A shuttered car wash in the Lower Haight. An abandoned excavated foundation on Fifth Street that filled with so much rain water that neighbors called it Lake SoMa. After a six-year freeze on construction, residential developers are finally scrambling to deliver new market-rate housing to an overheated market that has the nation’s fastest growing rents, soaring home prices, single-digit vacancies and next to no new inventory.

How to save $2,000 a month in L.A.: Rent

ANNIKA DUNEJA, Los Angeles Times (Subscription)
Some Los Angeles-area renters may carry a secret shame of not owning their homes, but maybe they should be bragging. Right now, renting is a much better deal. People in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area looking to get into a smaller home on average would save more than $2,000 a month by renting rather than buying, according to the latest estimates from Realtor.com. That’s a lot of potential savings to invest and hold until interest rates and home prices cool.

Industry News 

Better sues former CEO as battle over board turns ugly

AJ LATRACE, Inman (Subscription)
Better Home & Finance has sued founder and former CEO Vishal Garg, escalating a rapidly deteriorating dispute over control of the mortgage company less than three weeks after his departure as chief executive. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, accuses Garg of violating federal securities laws as part of an effort to replace five directors and return to a leadership role at the company he founded.

NYC renters sue Compass over alleged monopoly, inflated rents 

AMIE FISHER, Real Estate News
Two Manhattan renters are suing Compass, alleging that the brokerage's expansion and its strategy to pull listings from StreetEasy violate federal and state antitrust laws. The complaint claims that Compass' domination of the New York City rentals market has led to inflated rent prices and caused them to be "deprived of a normal functioning market."

Real Estate Technology 

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Property News 

What it took to finally build housing on some of the nation’s most in-demand land

JULIE Z. WEIL, Washington Post (Subscription)
In one of the nation’s most extraordinarily housing-constrained cities, where demand keeps pushing rents and sales prices to dizzyingly higher levels, people are finally moving into new apartments and condominiums on a 576-acre patch of land the U.S. Navy abandoned nearly 30 years ago.

In Case You Missed It 

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Resources, Webinars, and Other Items of Interest 

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