This might look like a regular tWiRE episode… but it's not.

Today you're listening to the show get built in real time while we're live. Headlines, research, prompts, scripts, thumbnails, even the AI work in the background — you get the chaos, the process, and a full weekly real estate news breakdown all at once.

Here's what we're hitting while we build it in front of you:

• Zillow vs Everybody: RICO Charges & Portal Power Plays Zillow Flex is now facing RICO allegations, with claims it steers buyers toward Zillow Home Loans and squeezes extra profit from financing. At the same time, Zillow's listing-access ban just went through a four-day showdown in court. We'll talk portals vs MLS power, what this means for lead gen, and how visible your listings really are online.

• Referral Fees & "Consumer Choice": eXp Makes a Move eXp rolled out new referral fee disclosures and a consumer-choice-style framework. We'll connect it to the bigger transparency fight: who gets paid, when, and how clearly that's explained to buyers and sellers.

• Sellers Are Ghosting the Market Delistings are jumping at the fastest pace in nearly a decade as sellers pull homes instead of cutting prices. We'll look at where this is happening, how it shows up in your MLS, and what to tell the "I'll just wait for spring" crowd.

• Prices Up, Inventory Down, Luxury Pulling Away Existing home sales ticked up, but supply is slipping again. Luxury home prices are up about 5.5% year over year — roughly triple the pace of non-luxury — even with soft demand. We'll dig into why high-end buyers are still moving and what that gap means for everyone else.

• Rural America's Affordability Squeeze New data shows the affordability crisis is now accelerating fastest in rural markets. "Move to the country, it's cheaper" is not a guaranteed strategy anymore. We'll talk about what that means for builders, buyers, and small-town markets.

• Bigger Conforming Loan Limits in 2026 Fannie and Freddie are cleared to back loans up to $832,750 next year in many areas (more in high-cost markets). We'll hit what that does for move-up buyers, jumbo vs conforming strategy, and how agents should be framing this for clients.

• Young Adults Moving Back Home (Again) More 18–34 year olds are back under their parents' roof. We'll connect the dots between rent, home prices, debt, and multigenerational living — and what that signals for future demand.

All of that happens while we show you the full behind-the-scenes workflow for tWiRE: live research, note-taking, story selection, headline framing, how AI helps, and how it all becomes a finished show for agents, buyers, and investors.

If you're a real estate pro, a serious buyer or seller, or just a housing-market nerd, this is your episode.

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