Industries

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching a toolkit on Tuesday that will help consumers shop for a mortgage by finding the best rates in their area based on data the agency gathers from lenders.

Freddie Mac in the next month plans to approve three more lenders, including one bank, to make multifamily loans between $1 million and $5 million for GSE purchase and securitization, according to an official. Banks were not initially courted.

Home values have risen fastest in markets where institutional buyers bought up scores of foreclosed homes and then rented them out. But these investor have largely curtailed their buying, and may even be ready to start selling off more properties to profit from the run-up in home prices. That could be good news for first-time buyers.

Mortgage denials in 2013 were comparable to those recorded a decade ago, analyses of HMDA data show, challenging perceptions about how easy lending really was during the era of "pulse" loans and "fog-a-mirror finance."

President Obama is expected to announce a half-percentage-point reduction in the Federal Housing Administration's annual premium during a housing policy speech Thursday in Phoenix.

WASHINGTON — Lenders are moving too quickly to return to the loose underwriting standards that caused the housing crisis, according to a report released Tuesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt's decision Thursday to stand up the affordable housing trust funds sharply divided lawmakers along party lines, with Democrats welcoming the decision as overdue while Republicans denounced it as a mistake.

After a six-year delay, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will finally begin setting aside a portion of their revenues to fund the development of rental housing for low-income families.

Officials at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae all heaped praise on nonbank mortgage lenders for stepping up to provide loans for home purchases at a time when many banks have scaled back.

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman today announced the launch of a financial consumer education web app called AGScamHelp.

While banks have pretty much taken down the help wanted signs in their branches and loan offices, there is one position that many can't fill fast enough: the commercial real estate workout specialist.