Better Mortgage has closed a $70 million funding round from American Express Ventures, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, as well as existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs, and Pine Brook. The new capital will support expansion and enhancements to its technology platform.

Better doubled operates in half of the states in the U.S. and originated $1.3B in mortgages in 2018, representing an approximate 300 percent increase from the prior year.

"Buying a home is one of the biggest financial life events that our customers experience, but the process is often full of pain points," said Lindsay Fitzgerald, managing director of Amex Ventures, the strategic investment group of American Express. "By building a mortgage platform to be fully digital from the ground up, Better Mortgage has reduced the complexity around the homebuying process. We're excited to support the next phase of growth."

Better will continue its expansion in 2019 with new technology investment, employee growth, and development of partnership channels. Since launching in January 2016, Better has funded more than $2 billion in loans, helping over 7,000 Americans buy or refinance their home.

It employs non-commissioned loan officers that put service over sales, lowering the costs of homeownership. Better is a direct lender that took the mortgage process online, digitizing and removing  inefficient aspects of the process. With

Pending home sales declined overall in December, but for the second straight month the West experienced a slight increase.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on home contract signings, decreased 2.2 percent to 99 in December, down from 101.2 in November, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“The longer-term growth potential is high. The Federal Reserve announced a change in its stance on monetary policy,” said Yun. “Rather than four rate hikes, there will likely be only one increase or even none at all. This has already spurred a noticeable fall in the 30-year, fixed-rate for mortgages. As a result, the forecast for home transactions has greatly improved.”

Also, year-over-year contract signings fell 9.8 percent, making this the twelfth straight month of annual decreases.

“The stock market correction hurt consumer confidence, record high home prices cut into affordability and mortgage rates were higher in October and November for consumers signing contracts in December,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR.

The four major regions experienced a decline compared to one year ago, with the South sustaining the largest decrease. The partial government shutdown hasn’t caused any obvious damage to home sales.

“Seventy-five percent of Realtors reported that they haven’t yet felt the impact of the government closure,” said Yun. “However, if another government shutdown takes place, it will lead to fewer homes sold. Some home transactions were delayed, but we now expect those sales to go forward.”

The Pending Home Sales Index in the Northeast rose 2 percent to 93.2 in December, 2.5 percent below a year ago. In the Midwest, the index fell 0.6 percent to 97.5 in December, 7.2 percent lower than the same period a  year earlier.

Pending home sales in the South fell 5 percent to an index of 109.7 in December, which is 13.5 percent lower than a year ago. The index in the West increased 1.7 percent in December to 88.4 and fell 10.8 percent below a year ago.

Twenty-five percent of home searchers looked to move to another metro area in the fourth quarter of 2018, up from 23 percent the year before, according to the migration report from Redfin.

The national share of home searchers looking to relocate has been increasing since Redfin began reporting on migration in early 2017 and now sits at its highest level on record. The latest migration analysis is based on a sample of more than 1 million Redfin.com users who searched for homes across 87 metro areas from October through December.

 San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Denver posted the highest net outflows in the fourth quarter. Net outflow is defined as the number of people looking to leave the metro minus the number of people looking to move in to the metro. A net outflow means there are more people looking to leave the area than people looking to move in, while a net inflow means more people are looking to move in than leave.

 In San Francisco, New York, Denver and Washington, D.C., outflows were up dramatically from a year earlier. Of all San Francisco Bay Area residents using Redfin, 24 percent were searching for homes in another metro, up from 19 percent during the same time period a year earlier.

Denver made the biggest move up the list from a year earlier, flipping from modest net inflows and outflows throughout 2017 to strong net outflows through late 2018. Last quarter, 24 percent of Denverites on Redfin.com searched for homes outside the area, up from 17 percent a year earlier.

 Seattle's net inflow surged to make it the fifth-most popular migration destination  in the fourth quarter, behind nearby Portland and the relatively affordable metros Sacramento, Phoenix and Atlanta--that have long dominated this list.

Although the number of home sales in Seattle was sharply declining at the end of the year (down 22 percent in December), search interest is still high. Washington State's lack of an income tax may be helping Seattle to continue attracting people, as new tax policies enacted just over a year ago favor areas where homebuyers can avoid hitting the $10,000 SALT cap.

"In both Seattle and Denver prices were growing rapidly in 2017 and early 2018 to the point that buyers backed off in the second half of 2018," said Redfin's chief economist Daryl Fairweather. "However, people looking to leave high-tax metros for a city with mountain views and top-notch hiking are more likely to pick Seattle over Denver because Washington State doesn't have an income tax. In fact, the top destination for Denverites looking to leave is Seattle."