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46 Industry Updates From mergers and acquisitions to cutting-edge tech tools and solutions, here's the company news the industry is talking about this month. NEW WESTERN GROWS U.S. AFFORDABLE HOUSING SUPPLY New Western, a national private marketplace for fix-and-flip residential investment properties, has announced that the company has made homeownership accessible for more Americans by growing U.S. housing inventory by 6,540 units to date in 2022. Without building a single home, New Western accomplished this increase thanks to its data, advanced knowledge of local markets and its business model, which includes obtaining inventory from among the 16 million vacant homes across the United States, as well as other off-market properties for less than $250,000 on average. As a result, homes that are purchased through New Western's marketplace and later renovated sell for up to 31% less than new builds. New Western's growth in 2022 is driven by its expansion into 10 new markets for a total of 50 locations nationwide, including its newest office in Washington, D.C., where New Western has set a goal to revitalize almost $1 billion in properties in that region over the next five years. New Western identified the District of Columbia and its surrounding cities as a strong opportunity for investors because of the need locally for a disruptive force in the residential real estate market: e median sale price of a single-family home in Washington, D.C., in July, was $1.153 million, and just 98 homes sold that month, down 19% from July 2021 from Redfin. With 81.8% of homes in the D.C.-metro area alone built before 2002, New Western will help address the affordable housing crisis in the D.C. area by returning aged and distressed homes to the market. "Our rapid growth continues to enable us to improve the quality of opportunity that New Western provides, especially as we launch into one of the largest metropolitan markets in the United States," said Kurt Carlton, Co-Founder and President of New Western. "D.C.-area home prices have been rising for 13 consecutive years. We are in a unique position to deliver much needed inventory to this market and look forward to creating more affordable housing. I'd like to express my gratitude to all our employees for their hard work and commitment to deliver on this promise." New Western's model is growing residential housing inventory in the United States at a time when homeownership is increasingly out of reach for many Americans—due in part to low inventory and cost. Although housing inventory rose in May by 8%, that was the first monthly increase since June 2019. When compared to May 2020, active home listings have decreased by 48.5%, pushing prices up by record amounts in many cities from Realtor.com. "New Western offers substantial opportunity for sellers, buyers, and investors, as well as a positive impact in many neighborhoods. eir unique marketplace delivers value-add homes that would otherwise be unappealing to most residential homebuyers—something I really appreciate as a Chicago native," said Joan Kaufmann- Stube, Managing Broker of Circled Squared Real Estate in New Lenox, Illinois. "In addition to the great value New Western brings to the real estate ecosystem, one of the main reasons I recommend New Western's marketplace to my investor clients is because their inventory is available on a first-come, first-served basis, eliminating bidding wars, and increasing investor profitability." Fueled by more than 100,000 active investors and the belief in making real estate investment more accessible, New Western's fierce momentum has positioned the company to acquire 10,000 properties and nearly $5 billion in transaction volume by the end of 2022. VOXTUR TO ACQUIRE BLUE WATER FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES Voxtur Analytics Corporation, a tech firm creating a more transparent and accessible real estate lending ecosystem, has announced that its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Voxtur Analytics US Corporation has executed a purchase agreement for the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding membership interests of Blue Water Financial Technologies Holding Company, LLC. Blue Water delivers SaaS-based solutions to investors trading mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) and whole loans to improve profitability, reduce risk, and increase liquidity of mortgage asset portfolios. Blue Water's core analytic capabilities and advanced technology solutions are critical elements in an end-to-end mortgage asset solution. Blue Water's platform is actively used by originators, and spans pricing, trading, commitment, pre-funding quality control, transfer, due diligence, and servicing oversight of various types of mortgage assets. e acquisition will bring Voxtur's technol- ogy suite to the secondary market, providing a natural attachment point and synergistic opportunities to both client bases. Founded in 2018, Blue Water has a revenue compounded annual growth rate of 262% from 2019 to 2021. Additionally, Blue Water generated positive net income for 2020 and 20211.