Lew Sichelman

The housing sector is once again proving to be “The Little Engine That Could.”

More than a third of all potential borrowers would be willing to pay a higher rate if the mortgage came with superior service, according to a new survey.

Strategic defaulters, beware. The feds are coming for you—not the FBI, but the Office of the Inspector General at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Six years after the bottom dropped out of the housing market, builders are finally starting to reclaim their traditional share of home sales, but challenges remain.

The “real” homeownership rate has fallen to its lowest level in almost 50 years.

FHFA auditors are in the process of identifying lenders which sold “materially deficient” mortgages to the GSEs and will bring civil damage claims against these seller/servicers.

Sales were as hot as the weather in Houston in July as they were up for the 14th consecutive month.

Overeager investors who bought multiple homes during the housing boom share some of the blame for the market’s eventual crash. Now they are being credited with playing a big part in reversing the downturn.

Sales in the top 50 master-planned communities accounted for roughly 5% of all new home sales last year.

Unlicensed origination activity by loan officers is occurring "at a surprising rate."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s highly anticipated proposed loan officer compensation rule is expected to be released Friday, but it won’t look anything like the agency’s original proposition.

The first baseline report detailing progress under the $25 billion servicing settlement will be issued by the end of the month, according to the independent monitor appointed to oversee the agreement between five major servicers and 49 states.

With the announcement of six new towers to be built in Hollywood, the number of high-rise condominium buildings now planned for South Florida now totals 56, according to the latest count by CondoVultues.

Western markets are catching the turnaround fever, according to the second quarter ‘Top Turnaround Town’ report from Realtor.com.

A new survey by Ernst & Young has found representatives of more than two dozen major building operations to be the most optimistic they’ve been in years.

NMN’s Lew Sichelman met with members of the Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals for a roundtable discussion on a variety of topics, including the state’s ongoing housing recovery.

In Origination News’ discussion with the officers of the Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals at its annual convention in Tampa, national housing correspondent Lew Sichelman asked how the changes to federal law have impacted the state’s education requirements and how conditions are in the various markets that make up this very diverse state.

With the addition of four new towers announced this week—two in South Beach and two others in downtown Miami—more than 8,600 condo residences have now been proposed for the tri-county South Florida region.

Home sales may be flagging a bit, but prices are rising and have been each and every month since January.

What's a mortgage loan originator to do when he discovers that one of the trade lines in an applicant's credit report actually belongs to a relative with a very similar name?