Housing markets

Senate Democrats accused Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and his agency of failing to enforce fair housing laws.

As policymakers take another crack at housing finance reform, federal leaders and the housing lobby are once again perpetuating the false notion that ending government guarantees would cause the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage to vanish.

The agency should resist renewed calls to lower insurance premiums. Doing so would increase demand and raise home prices, negating any proposed benefits.

Here's a look at the 10 housing markets with the biggest gap between growth in home prices and wages that could indicate a housing bubble is forming.

Credit standards for commercial loans to medium and large firms showed some signs of easing over the last three months of 2017, even though demand stayed relatively unchanged.

Weak profits and the threat of false claims charges are keeping banks out of the market for loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The recently enacted tax reform bill is likely to encourage more consumers to rent instead of buy and tamp down the rapid rise in home prices.

The tax law is expected to eliminate 300,000 affordable housing units over 10 years in part because it will reduce the value of banks’ low-income tax credits, which finance half of all affordable housing units.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and four other Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee are insisting on a recorded vote by the full Senate for the nomination of Brian Montgomery as Federal Housing Administration commissioner.

The government-sponsored enterprises are at the heart of our housing finance problems, not the solutions.

For decades, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped working-class Americans get mortgages. That essential and powerful role in the national economy is fading.

The maximum loan amount for Federal Housing Administration mortgages will go up in more than 3,000 counties for 2018.

Conforming loan limits for mortgages bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will increase for the second consecutive year in response to the rapid rise in home prices, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

The battle lines are drawn between those seeking to protect the mortgage interest deduction and a legislative effort to greatly reduce its use. Hopefully, this is a battle that taxpayers will win.

Here's a look at the 12 housing markets with the largest percentages of mortgages over $500,000 — the new threshold House Republicans have proposed for the mortgage interest deduction in their tax plan.

The Fed’s new chief bank regulator wants to change “the tenor of supervision”; Ron O’Hanley, who was named president this week, will also take over as CEO by the end of 2018.

More FHA homeowners than expected are refinancing out of the program and into conventional mortgages, despite an increase in mortgage rates over the past year.

A House Republican tax proposal that infuriated housing groups and sent homebuilder stocks sliding would only have a modest impact on the market for new homes and could end up being a net positive for the industry, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts.

The CFPB's practice of "regulation by enforcement" forces mortgage companies to develop compliance standards based on the mistakes of their peers, rather than clear guidance from the enforcement agency, said David Motley, the new chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In a moment of rare unity, the Independent Community Bankers of America and National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions sent a joint letter to FHFA arguing to stop the GSEs' profit sweep.