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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 78 December 2025 J O U R N A L WALL STREET BANKS ASSESS FALL- OUT FROM SITUSAMC HACK W all Street Banks are trying to determine the extent to which the banks were affected after hackers stole data from a company they used for real-estate loans and mortgages. The banks are trying to determine what was taken and which banks were affected, Yahoo Finance reported. New York-based SitusAMC said that account records and legal agreements related to some of its 1,500 clients had been affected by the hack. "The incident is now contained, and our services are fully operational," SitusAMC said in a statement. "No encrypting malware was involved." SitusAMC said it discovered unauthorized access to its systems on Nov. 12 and said that within a few days it warned customers that they could be affected. JPMorgan Chase and Citi were among customers that were sent a broad batch of notifications to customers by SitusAMC that their data might be affected by the hack. The company said it was not clear immediately which of its clients had their information accessed by the hack- ers and said the investigation is ongoing. Yahoo Finance said that spokes- people for JPMorgan Chase and Citi declined to comment. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the hack, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible for it. "While we are working closely with affected organizations and our partners to understand the extent of potential impact, we have identified no opera- tional impact to banking services," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. "We remain committed to identifying those responsible and safeguarding the security of our critical infrastructure." ZILLOW REMOVES CLIMATE DATA FROM LISTINGS SITE L ast year, real listings site Zillow began displaying the risks from extreme weather for more than 1 million home sale listings on its site. No longer, the company said. Zillow, the nation's biggest listings site, quietly removed that feature recent- ly, the New York Times reported. The website previously published climate risk ratings using data from the risk-modeling company First Street, whose scores sought to quantify each home's risk from wildfires, wind, floods, extreme heat, and poor air quality. The Times said that real estate agents complained the ratings hurt sales. Some homeowners protested the scores but found out there was no way to challenge the ratings, according to The Times. Zillow stopped displaying the scores in November after complaints from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, which operates a private database funded by real estate brokers and agents, The Times said. Zillow relies on that listing service and others around the country for its real estate data. California Listings Service Raised Flood Risk Accuracy Concerns The California service is one of the largest in the nation and it raised con- cerns about the accuracy of First Street's flood risk models, The Times reported. "Displaying the probability of a spe- cific home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property," said Art Carter, Califor- nia Regional Multiple Listing Service's chief executive officer. California, in particular, is known for its weather extremes. In mid-November, for example, Cal- ifornia was soaked by two Pacific storms in just a few days' time, Weather.com reported. The first was accompanied by an atmospheric river that triggered flash flooding, rockslides and some debris flows in the Los Angeles Basin and other locations. The website said while atmospheric rivers can be beneficial—with lower elevation rainfall to suppress wildfire risk and mountain snow to build up snow- pack that refills reservoirs in the spring and summer—they also can be dan- gerous, with heavy rainfall that triggers flooding, rockslides, and debris flows off areas recently burned by wildfires. Zillow spokeswoman Claire Carroll said in a statement that the company is still committed to providing consumers with information that helps them make informed decisions. Real estate listings on Zillow now display hyperlinks to First Street's website where users can view climate risk scores for a specific property. Predicting where fires, floods, and other disasters pose and increased risk is a tricky proposition, particularly as the planet warms making some houses more vulnerable—and might sell for less. In fact, First Street's models have shown that millions more properties are at risk of flooding than government estimates have suggested. Redfin, Realtor.com, Homes.com and other real estate websites display similar First Street data alongside ratings for factors such as walkability, public transportation, and school quali- ty, The Times reported. SMALL INVESTORS DOMINATE AS IN- VESTOR PURCHASES HOLD STEADY I nvestor activity stayed steady through mid-2025. In the second quarter, investors bought about 11% of all homes sold, roughly the same as last year, according to Realtor.com. Overall home sales dropped about 4%, but investor purchases slipped only 3%, giving investors a slightly bigger piece of the market. At the same time, investor sales slowed. They sold around 216,000 homes in the first half of the year, down