Housing

The housing market has been improving but mortgage credit remains "stubbornly" tight on loans bought by the government-sponsored enterprises, according to a chief housing adviser at the White House.

The majority of first-time homebuyers plan to skip the starter-home step and move straight into the home that would meet their long-term needs, according to the Homebuyer Insights Report from Bank of America.

The agency's insurance-rate cut could spur the rehab of thousands of affordable units, but it's far from a total solution, housing advocates say.

Third Federal Savings and Loan in Cleveland has long offered mortgage refinancing in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Now it plans to offer purchase loans in those states.

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to sell its U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development mortgage origination business to Freedom Mortgage of Mount Laurel, N.J.

The government agency that guarantees securitizations of Federal Housing Administration-insured loans is testing a pool type that consists only of modified and reperforming loans.

Bankers are fighting back against a plan that would allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to invest in low-income housing tax credits, arguing they are critical for meeting Community Reinvestment Act requirements.

Five policy heavy-hitters issued a proposal this week to merge Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a single government corporation as a way to move beyond the conservatorships of the two government-sponsored enterprises.

Two senior GOP lawmakers are warning regulators against preferential treatment for housing advocates and nonprofits in sales of nonperforming, government-guaranteed mortgages.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency appears poised finally to allow principal reductions, but it's been nearly a decade since the mortgage crisis and underwater borrowers are much fewer thanks to higher home values.

The agency may finally be reaching resolution on whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow principal reductions, two years into Director Mel Watt's tenure as agency director and nearly a decade after the mortgage bubble burst.

The House passed a bill late Monday to extend foreclosure relief for military service members through the end of next year.

Todd Sherman, who with his brother Tyler Sherman co-founded mortgage software developer Motivity Solutions, has died.

The sheer volume of regulations adds time and expense to closings without much benefit when consumers’ main interest is to get funds as quickly as possible.

As servicers downsize their loss mitigation units, housing counselors are finding the companies' designated points of contact are less experienced, making it more difficult to get packages approved for troubled borrowers.

If the Federal Reserve raises short-term rates in June, market volatility will spur investors to buy long-term bonds, driving down the 30-year mortgage rate to around 3%, consultant Barry Habib argues.

W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital shut its doors after it was stuck with nonagency loans with TILA/Respa integrated disclosure issues that it couldn't sell.

While the $1.9 billion of bonds are not guaranteed by the government, most of the underlying loans could have been sold to Fannie and Freddie, and the transaction accomplishes the same thing as the GSEs' risk-transfer deals.

The Federal Housing Administration said Tuesday that it has revised its proposed lender certification requirements in an effort to provide more clarity and reassure lenders they won't be penalized for minor loan defects or mistakes.

Ginnie Mae needs more, and better-paid, staff to keep up with growing risks on nonbank seller/servicers, the watchdog agency head said.