Compliance & Regulation

Home flipping, in which a buyer resells a property quickly for a profit, is on the decline as residential price gains slow and foreclosures dwindle.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has chosen a dozen firms involved in the mortgage industry for a pilot program looking at whether electronic fillings can improve the mortgage closing process.

Bank of America must pay a record amount for mortgage-related claims, but the accord still leaves questions about tax liability and other banks in the government's crosshairs.

Brian Moynihan has been in charge of Bank of America for nearly five years, and he has spent most of that time in lawyer mode, overseeing settlements worth $48 billion. He is generally praised for taking the bank to this point, but now comes the hard part: getting B of A to grow again.

Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante signaled more affordable FHA financing could be coming as the agency’s insurance fund improves.

A mortgage industry laden with government enticements has no choice but to honor a duty to serve its benefactor's affordable housing goals, claim the contributing authors of a new book.

The benefits of homeownership are often cited in policy debates, though it has some downsides. Following are the advantages and costs of homeownership for neighborhoods and communities, as summarized in a recent research paper by Jason Fichtner and Jacob Feldman at George Mason University.

Bank of America Corp. will pay $245 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it failed to disclose rising mortgage losses and the risks of bonds tied to home loans.

Bank of America Corp. will pay $16.65 billion to end federal and state probes into mortgage bond sales, the harshest penalty yet related to loans that fueled the 2008 financial crisis, the Justice Department said.

The CFPB's definition does not tell the full story, so real estate agents need to move with caution, no matter what kind of letter a consumer brings from a mortgage loan officer.