Despite advances in technology promising speed and convenience, the complex and often confusing homebuying process leaves many buyers overwhelmed and reliant on expert guidance to navigate it successfully. 

- Cotality’s From House to Home survey found that there was an overarching lack of confidence in the homebuying process.  

- Expert advice and professional guidance remain crucial to help buyers navigate the process with confidence. 

- Technology and AI-driven platforms aim to streamline the process by anticipating preferences and speeding things up.  

Find out more at Cotality.com/insights

Demographics are set to redefine what homeownership looks like in the decades ahead.

- Current housing challenges are causing a competitive market: high prices, low inventory, and limited affordability.

- Builders face today’s housing shortage, but real opportunity lies in designing homes for tomorrow and future generations.

- Cotality projects a large growth in multi-generational households due to aging populations and the implications for senior housing.‍

Find out more at Cotality.com/insights

This episode explores the UK’s long-standing experience with energy performance data and retrofit strategies, offering valuable insights for improving home energy efficiency.

• The UK has been collecting detailed energy performance data on over 65% for decades, enabling precise property-level modeling that many other countries lack.

• Successful retrofit strategies emphasize the importance of long-term planning, data-driven decision making, and tailored approaches for homeowners, landlords, and local authorities.

• Government policies and incentives, including lessons from past programs like the Green Deal, play a crucial role in driving energy efficiency improvements and can inform future approaches in countries like Australia and the U.S.

Find out more at Cotality.com/insights

AI is becoming more involved in the homebuying process, but disconnected systems are leaving buyers confused and looking to people in order to rebuild trust throughout the process.

- Buyers are entering the homebuying process stressed and looking for guidance. Technology has promised speed, but it hasn’t delivered confidence.

- Trust in technology doesn’t map neatly to age or buyer stage. It has to do with AI literacy.

- People still want people to bridge gaps, build trust, and lead to confident decisions.

Mortgage fraud cases haven't surged dramatically, but subtle shifts in tactics and technologies are reshaping the industry.

- Under the umbrella of purchase fraud, transaction fraud risk, such as undisclosed agreements between the parties and down payment fraud, is making waves.

- While New York has long been the top state for fraud risk, California ranks in third-place, but the Golden State did show a double-digit increase in risk from the prior year.

-Fraud can delay transactions, increase costs, and even prevent first-time buyers from securing deals, eroding trust in the market.

In this episode

2:35 – An overview of fraud risk in the U.S.

5:22 – How has the rate of occupancy fraud changed over the past year

8:23 – Why is mortgage fraud so difficult to detect and how can it be mitigated?

10:35 – Has automation opened the door to new mortgage fraud vulnerabilities?

13:44 – How can big data and advanced analytics help with fraud detection?

17:53 – Erika Stanley goes over the numbers in property market in The Sip.

19:29 – How can regulation help with fraud detection and mitigation?

In the second episode of Beyond the Buildings' three-part sustainability series with Cotality Australia, guest host Eliza Owen delves into this often-overlooked but increasingly pressing issue: energy efficiency in Australian homes.  

But why is energy efficiency coming into the public conversation now? And what’s driving this shift?  

To unpack these questions, Owen is joined by two industry leaders shaping the future of energy-smart housing. Cecille Weldon, founder of WeldonCo Advisory & Future Agent and creator of the award-winning Livability Real Estate Framework, and Tim Lawless, Research Director at Cotality Australia, are breaking down which energy-efficient investments are beneficial for homeowners and why these upgrades will influence the direction of Australian housing.

In this episode: 

2:55 – Why is energy efficiency becoming a critical factor in the property market?

5:30 – What are some of the key energy efficiency features that buyers and renters should look out for when trying to find a home?

7:12 – How can renters and buyers make their homes more energy efficient?

9:30 – What are some common misconceptions about energy efficiency?

15:29 – How will the role of energy efficiency evolve in the property industry over the next decade?

19:05 – What or who has the greatest potential to drive widespread energy efficiency in the residential market?

21:40 – Erika Stanley looks at the numbers in the housing market in The Sip. 

23:45 – What key findings about energy efficiency reveal about the evolution of Australia’s housing stock?

32:02 – How is technology changing the way we assess and understand energy resilience across the market?

Find out more at Cotality.com/insights

The ripple effects of unaffordable—or unavailable—insurance reaches beyond individual households and is distorting entire housing markets.

— In the U.S. and Australia, increasing natural disasters are putting pressure on governments and homeowners to find safe and affordable housing solutions.

—Data is providing key insights to help identify and prioritize mitigation measures for particularly vulnerable communities.

—Environmental pressures have altered natural disaster response over the past decade, and there are a few things the U.S. could learn from Australia's approach.

In this episode:

2:37 – How have recent natural disaster events in the U.S. and Australia shifted how we understand environmental risk?

5:47 – How has natural disaster response changed in the last 10 years, and what role does data play in disaster response?

9:53 – How is the property industry keeping up with the increasing severity of natural disasters?

14:31 – Where are the biggest opportunities to build smarter, safer communities?

17:45 – Erika Stanley goes over the numbers in property market in The Sip.

18:50 – Why is it becoming more difficult to insure high-risk homes?

20:56 – How can better data and insights help insurers mitigate risk rather than exit the market.

25:22 – What is one change that could effectively help insurers prepare for environmental risk?

This episode of Beyond the Buildings host Maiclaire Bolton Smith and Cotality’s Assistant Vice President of Product Marketing Tom Larsen explore the escalating crisis in homeowners insurance, revealing why premiums are rising and what it means for homeowners and insurers nationwide.

Discover why some states are hit harder than others, how government insurance programs can remain sustainable, and what new innovations might offer hope for homeowners.

- Insurance costs are climbing non-coastal states like Oklahoma and Texas, pressuring the long-term affordability of homeownership.

- Billion-dollar natural disasters, shifting risk tolerance, and more expensive reinsurance is transforming how insurers are pricing — and providing — policies.

- Explore why this routine homeownership policy has become a barrier to homeownership.

Most federal land is west of the Rocky Mountains, but not all of it is primed for residential development. Explore how the right parcels of federal land could be a powerful lever in addressing America’s housing shortage.

- Untapped federal land seems like endless possibilities, but without infrastructure, development costs could negate efforts to create more affordability.

- The growing bipartisan interest in land-use reform has made federal land a potential solution. Cotality identified areas where development potential and need for housing intersect.

- Zoning and local politics will influence whether this solution is unlocked or blocked.

Learn more about what's happening in the housing market at cotality.com/insights.

Florida’s proposal to eliminate property taxes sounds like a radical affordability solution — but what would it actually cost? In this episode, Maiclaire Bolton Smith and Chay Halbert unpack the financial, political, and social tradeoffs behind this bold move.

• Eliminating property taxes would gut funding for schools and public services, forcing states to consider more inconsistent funding alternatives like sales tax hikes.

• Florida’s affordability crisis is already pushing people out of major cities like Miami, and this proposal could deepen inequality.

• Replacing lost revenue isn’t as simple as it sounds — and may create more complex issues than it solves

Florida on the Brink: https://www.cotality.com/insights/articles/florida-on-the-brink

Meet Cotality: https://www.cotality.com