4 reasons The Gathering by HousingWire will win Spring 2024

Spring is the new Fall when it comes to housing and mortgage conferences. The best lenders, real estate brokers, regulators, investors, and tech firms prioritize being face-to-face because they know this is when the best ideas and deals are born. There’s a long conference slate in the coming months, and The Basis Point team must choose our spots like everyone else. Here are 4 reasons The Gathering by HousingWire is on our Spring priority list this year.

1. HousingWire Has Its Sh!t Together

HousingWire (HW) was founded in 2008 by an entrepreneur named Paul Jackson, who sold it in 2016 to an investment company called Riomar Capital owned by Clayton Collins, a former investment banker who wanted to build a media empire. Key players include editor in chief Sarah Wheeler who has run HW’s fast, sharp coverage since 2013, WSJ sales veteran Jennifer Watson Laws who has run HW sales since 2016, and digital ad and operations whiz Diego Sanchez who joined in 2018 and quickly rose to company president. HW Media bought real estate brokerage data firm Real Trends in 2020, news site Reverse Mortgage Daily in 2021, and real-time housing data firm Altos Research in 2022, with Tracey Velt from Real Trends and Mike Simonsen from Altos retaining HW Media leadership roles. Managing editor James Kleimann added notable firepower to the newsroom in 2021. And Brena Nath, who began as a reporter in 2013, now runs HW Media’s subscriber and events businesses. At about 50+ people, HW Media is an organized machine majority-owned by an astute dealmaker and manager. The team is hungry, they care about the housing economy, and serve it responsibly.

2. Early Era Events Have Best Energy

I used to hate industry conferences but grew to love them after I got this advice: you must leave a conference with at least one relationship or idea that, if you act on it, will change the trajectory of your business or career. I’ve also learned that conferences in their early years are the easiest places to develop relationships because early-stage events are less routine and therefore less cliquey. The HW Media machine isn’t new to events, but The Gathering by HousingWire is a 2024 reset of their flagship event in 2 ways: (1) it’s combines mortgage-focused conference HousingWire Annual and real estate-focused conference Real Trends Gathering Of The Eagles, and (2) it moves HW’s flagship event from Fall to Spring. There’s no question April 21-24 in Scottsdale will have palpable early-era-event energy in a killer setting for networking.

3. C-Level Agenda & Attendee Expertise

Because The Gathering by HousingWire brings together mortgage AND real estate sides of the business, the attendee list and agenda is beyond stacked. Key real estate speakers include: CoStar CEO Andy Florance, Keller Williams CEO Mark Willis, RE/Max CEO Nick Bailey, The Agency CEO Mauricio Umansky, Compass M&A lead Chrissy Oliver, Anywhere Brands CEO and Sue Yannaccone (Anywhere is the parent company of Better Homes and Gardens, CENTURY 21, Coldwell Banker, Corcoran, ERA, and Sotheby’s). Key mortgage speakers include: Freedom Mortgage CEO Stan Middleman, Guild Mortgage CEO Terry Schmidt, loanDepot CEO Frank Martell, Lennar Mortgage and MBA Vice Chair Laura Escobar, Bank of America head of community lending AJ Barkley, and Flagstar mortgage president Lee Smith. Enough said.

4. Logan Mohtashami’s Hair

HousingWire lead analyst Logan Mohtashami and Altos Research president Mike Simonsen will lead economic and housing sessions with Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather and First American deputy chief economist Odeta Kushi. I’ll enjoy geeking out and live-blogging key takeaways (from The Basis Point’s consumer-first worldview of course), and you can be certain I’ll include technical analysis of Logan’s meticulously effortless hair. Also, Mike, bonus points if you can wrap Burning Man life lessons into your analysis 😉

Register For The Gathering By HousingWire

So register for The Gathering by HousingWire before the rooms run out.

The Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort & Spa is great.

We look forward to seeing you there!