Lew Sichelman

California's Realtors are urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign legislation that partly extends the state's protections against deficiency judgments to homeowners who have refinanced their properties.

Sales of new homes in California slipped again in June, according to the latest report from the state's builders.

After four consecutive months of increased sales, the market hit the skids in July, according to the local Realtor group.

By an almost five-to-one margin, mortgage brokers favor a direct line to whatever government-sponsored mortgage agency rises from the ashes of the mortgage meltdown.

Applicants for mortgage originator licenses who fail their federal and state exams do not do very well if they decide to take the tests over again.

California's Franchise Tax Board will cease accepting applications for the state's first-time existing home buyers' tax credit at midnight, Aug. 15, but will continue to take applications for the tax credit from buyers of new houses.

There's no question that distressed property sales wreak havoc with neighborhood price stability. But exactly how badly do short sales and foreclosures affect prices?

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is "very aggressively" looking to back multifamily properties, an executive with the Des Moines-based lender said Wednesday at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in San Francisco.

The sale of distressed assets has become one of the largest segments of the mortgage business, panelists at the Mortgage Bankers Association's Secondary Market Conference in New York agreed.

Federal Housing Administration Commissioner David Stevens called on the nation's largest trade group of real estate agents to pressure Capitol Hill in support of legislation to reform the government's housing insurance agency.

Reverse mortgages, which are made to homeowners 62 or older, don't require any payments until the home is sold. The product has been the subject of what the lenders say is misleading press coverage.

After a banner year, reverse mortgage production has fallen sharply this year, according to figures released last week by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Government National Mortgage Association's former president said the agency has become so big and important that Congress should make it independent from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The National Association of Home Builders is trying to line up its cash-strapped members with hard-to-find sources of financing.

The Beatles' "Good Day Sunshine" was blaring in the background shortly before the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention opened here this week, but it is anything but a good day for the housing finance industry, as speaker after speaker duly noted.

Nonbank mortgage companies that operate across state lines will soon be subject to the same coordinated oversight that banks have operated under for years.