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.

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Top Stories

Home Prices Increased in 80% of Metro Areas in Second Quarter of 2026

National Association of Realtors
“Home sales increased despite mortgage rates rising. This testifies to the potential housing demand building up from steady job and income gains,” said NAR Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun. “Sales rose in three of the four major regions, with the South leading the way due to faster job growth. The Northeast was the exception, held back partly by slower job growth and faster-appreciating home prices, which hurt affordability.”

In Menlo Park housing fight, Bonta sends a potential warning to California cities

LAURA WAXMAN, San Francisco Chronicle (Subscription)
After nearly two years of legal conflict over one of Menlo Park’s largest proposed developments on the former Sunset Magazine headquarters site, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sided with the developer, saying the city violated state housing law in its effort to stop the project. The letter does not order Menlo Park to approve the project, known as Willow Park. But it clearly shows the state rejecting the city’s approach and could significantly weaken its legal arguments as the dispute moves forward. 

National News 

Homeowners Associations Are Foreclosing on More Residents

VERONIC DAGHE, Realtor.com
Money is getting tighter for America’s hundreds of thousands of homeowners associations, and they are extending a shorter financial leash to their residents. HOAs are getting more aggressive about pursuing people who rack up unpaid dues, skipping informal grace periods to make up the payments and turning delinquent accounts over to lawyers.

Kelley Blue Book Homes opens to consumers in 11 states 

MEGHAN ROOS, Real Estate News
Just a few weeks after moving into the home valuation business, Kelley Blue Book is officially opening its new service to consumers in several U.S. states, with plans to complete the platform's national expansion by early 2027. The brand known for assessing the value of new and used vehicles said Kelley Blue Book Homes is intended to give consumers confidence while seeking a value estimate for their home.

California News

California’s $627,000 equity in mortgaged homes ranks No. 2 in US

JONATHAN LANSNER, San Jose Mercury News (Subscription)
There’s a huge cushion between what a typical California homeowner with a mortgage owes and what their property is worth. That gap is what’s called a homeowner’s equity – the byproduct of down payments, housing appreciation and swings in loan balances. By this math, the average equity across the Golden State at the start of 2026 was a stunning $627,000 for mortgaged homes.

All-cash home sales weren’t common in San Francisco. Not anymore

CHRISTIAN LEONARD, San Francisco Chronicle (Subscription)
Historically, San Francisco’s high home prices have kept all-cash purchases uncommon, at least compared with the rest of the U.S. After all, very few buyers have enough money to buy a $1.8 million house outright. But that’s starting to shift.

Industry News 

Zillow lays off around 7% of its employees in latest layoff

TAYLOR ANDERSON, Inman (Subscription)
Zillow laid off over 500 employees on Tuesday morning in the second round of layoffs this year, CEO Jeremy Wacksman announced in an email to staff. The cuts, which come a day before the company is set to share its second quarter earnings on Wednesday, are part of the company’s “disciplined approach to cost management across the company,” Wacksman said in the email.

Real Estate Technology 

Will AI Replace Loan Originators? Yes And No

JOE RYCHALSKY, National Mortgage Professional
The future does not belong to AI. It does not belong to the people who ignore AI either. It belongs to the ones who let the technology handle the mechanical and routine so they can go all in on being unmistakably, irreplaceably human.

Fraudsters finding new ways to evade rental listing safety checks 

DAVE GALLAGHER, Real Estate News
A property management firm is sounding the alarm about rental listing scams, warning that bad actors are becoming more sophisticated in the methods they're using to place fake rental listings on real estate platforms and convince would-be renters to submit security deposits. 

Property News 

The Spaceship Home From “Portlandia” Just Landed on the Market for $975K

GRACE BERNARD, Dwell
Tucked into Portland’s Mount Tabor neighborhood, the Eyebrow House began as a modest 1941 Cape Cod home before Yale-trained architect Edgar Papazian transformed it into one of the city’s most distinctive residences.

In Case You Missed It 

No stories today

Resources, Webinars, and Other Items of Interest 

No stories today