Jody Godoy
(Reuters) – A group of U.S. senators asked federal antitrust executors to explain why they did not seek to stop Rockets from buying property listing platform Redfin, a $1.75 billion acquisition, and said the deal could increase costs for home buyers.
U.S. Senators, including leading Democrats on the Senate Banking and Antitrust Committee, include Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday to ask why they did not announce the merger in March.
Redfin shareholders plan to vote on Wednesday to approve the agreement.
Rocket announced plans to acquire mortgage service Mr. Cooper for $9.4 billion, only attracting further attention to the merger of the homebuying industry.
“These deals will combine the second largest mortgage sponsor, the largest mortgage provider and the third-visit real estate brokerage website in the U.S. to a massive vertically integrated Bantt that can reduce the choice of American households in the housing market and increase prices for American households,” the lawmaker said. ”
A Rockets spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gail Slater, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, and Andrew Ferguson, FTC chairman, said they would not hinder the legal merger, but said they would carefully review transactions that create anti-competitive effects for consumers or workers, in which Slater is called “the United States’ first strike back.”
The Redfin acquisition could allow the Rockets to use Redfin to turn to its real estate agents and mortgages, and use data on user behavior to increase mortgage rates.
Average house prices are 50% higher than the average price in 2019 before the 2019 common pandemic and are expected to continue to rise this year. The interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was 6.89% last week, reflecting pressure on Congress on large-scale tax and spending bills.
(Reported by Jody Godoy in New York; Editor of Christopher Cushing)
