Lew Sichelman

After years of sitting on the sidelines of the housing market, a growing population of millennials has begun to embrace the financial benefits of owning a home.

With refinance volume shrinking, some lenders are making up the difference by turning to alternative loan products for borrowers with lower credit scores.

Rising mortgage balances and home prices in Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data will be heartening for consumers that want to sell, but reflect challenges for those who want to buy.

Opes Advisors shows would-be borrowers how purchasing a house fits into their total financial picture, now and years into the future. Many of its loan officers are licensed investment advisors.

Many consumers without traditional credit scores have nearly identical risk profiles to those who can be assessed the conventional way, representing an untapped market, according to a report by VantageScore.

The jury is still out on whether new sports stadiums are economic engines for their communities. But when it comes to housing alone, new stadiums are a boon for local home sales, but don't always contribute to home price appreciation.

The next administration in the White House must act swiftly to move reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac off dead center, and Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer suggested that the model for a new secondary market is already in place.

When the limits on two of Bill Johnson's credit cards were lowered from $20,000 to $6,000, his outstanding balances jumped from a perfectly acceptable 20% to a dangerously high 66%.

Teardowns — in which builders or private individuals purchase an aging, outmoded house, then demolish it and replace it with a modern home that will suit today's homeowners — are currently on a tear.

Technology developed by SmartZip analyzes 2,000 variables about a housing market and its homeowners to help real estate agents and lenders identify consumers most likely to sell their house or need a new mortgage.