USDA ends temporary loan eligibility for non-U.S. citizens

🌅 Good morning, Thursday! Today, we’re looking at an update to a USDA loan program, a Fannie Mae board member who resigned after just one day, and more.

Today's newsletter is 699 words — a 2.5-minute read.

1. USDA ends temporary loan eligibility for non-U.S. citizens

​The USDA Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program has announced the immediate termination of the temporary authority that allows some non-U.S. citizens to be eligible for a guaranteed loan.

This temporary authority, initially communicated on April 29, 2022, is no longer valid as of March 18, 2025.

The USDA has indicated that Chapter 8 of Handbook 1-3555 will be updated to reflect these changes. Additionally, a Job Aid to assist in determining eligibility will be available in the USDA LINC Training and Resource Library.

2. Google is moving into Austin’s Sail Tower this year

Austin’s “Sail Tower” has been empty since 2022. But by the end of the year, Google will move into the downtown office building it agreed to lease in 2019, KVUE reported.

The tech giant had delayed moving employees into the 35-story, 804,000-sqft building after the pandemic. Google didn’t provide a specific timeline but confirmed its plan to move in later this year. The full-building lease expires in 2038.

Industry experts are hopeful that return-to-office mandates from major companies like Google will boost the office real estate market, which has suffered since the pandemic made remote work the norm.

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3. Catch up quick

🤖 AI boom could spark a Texas land rush and raise demand for homes. (Realtor.com)

📉 Expect lower mortgage rates to energize home buyers and sellers. (Zillow)

⚠️ Fed leaves rates unchanged, notes higher uncertainty. (Axios)

⚖️ REX petitions for a rehearing in a lawsuit against NAR, Zillow. (HousingWire)

👋 Musk ally Stanley abruptly resigns from Fannie Mae's board after one day on the job. (Bloomberg)

🧑‍🚀 Fun read: NASA astronauts return to Earth after more than nine months in space. (NBC)

4. Defrauded investors file $1B class-action suit against CrowdStreet

CrowdStreet, a real estate crowdfunding platform based in Austin, has been hit with a $1B class-action lawsuit from customers alleging their investments should be undone and returned to them because the company violated securities laws.

The suit, filed by three victims of the Nightingale Properties fraud perpetrated via the CrowdStreet platform, claims the firm operated for years as an unregistered broker-dealer, selling and marketing securities and collecting fees without taking the proper steps to protect investors.

The investors are asking the District Court for the Western District of Texas to revoke more than $1B in investments made before 2023. The suit names former CrowdStreet CEO Tore Steen and former Chief Investment Officer Ian Formigle as defendants, claiming they designed a scheme to operate outside of regulated investment markets.

5. Texas homeowners to build smaller properties on smaller lots

A bill that would give Texas homeowners the freedom to build smaller properties on smaller lots passed the state Senate on Wednesday, in a victory for lawmakers trying to remove barriers to affordable housing.

The proposed legislation, Senate Bill 15, would eliminate city-mandated lot sizes greater than 1,400 square feet for new neighborhoods, giving property owners the freedom to determine the size of the lot and the property.

Senate Bill 15, wants to prevent Texas municipalities with populations over 90,000 in larger counties—those exceeding 300,000 residents—from enforcing minimum lot size requirements for single-family housing developments on tracts of at least five acres that have not yet been platted.

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