First time home buyers

A new marketing tool lets consumers start the mortgage prequalification process by sending a text message, providing would-be borrowers with credit and loan program details and offering lenders a low-cost source of leads.

Rising construction costs and a big drop in public funding is forcing an organization that builds inexpensive homes for low-income buyers in the Bay Area to sell them for higher prices than many of those people can afford.

By honing her ability to fix inefficiencies and identify new profit opportunities, Mary Ann McGarry broke down gender barriers and found success as CEO of Guild Mortgage. The key, she says, is remaining adaptable and collaborative without losing focus on end goals.

Baton Rouge-area home sales were 13.8% lower in November than the year before because of large sales drops in Ascension and East Baton Rouge parishes.

Cash-strapped lenders need to find a way to consistently fund marketing that resonates with more cultures if they really want to be able to replace lost volume by reaching underserved borrowers.

From Ohio to Utah, here's a look at the 12 housing markets with the highest percentage of millennial purchasers.

Tackling millennial hurdles has been top of mind for the mortgage industry, but the youngest non-homeowners have the smallest share claiming that qualifying for a mortgage will be a big challenge, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Ordinarily, declining property sales will cool the costs for housing. But existing-home sales have been underperforming their potential for 40 straight months and property values are still on the rise, according to First American Financial Corp.

Putting down 20% of the sales price has been the industry standard when buying a house, but less than half of consumers do that much, according to Zillow.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charged lenders slightly lower guarantee fees in 2017 for mortgages with riskier characteristics, according to a Federal Housing Finance Agency report.

The gap between supply and demand in the housing market is contributing to affordability constraints that are likely to limit homeownership long-term, according to Freddie Mac.

Mortgage credit available to consumers increased in November by 1.1% from the previous month as lenders offered more conventional products with expanded underwriting criteria, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

It's in lenders' best interests to show first-time homebuyers how to avoid overextending themselves, which is easy to do in a housing market short on inventory and long on big down payments, the CEO of Freedom Mortgage says.

Equifax is supporting mortgage lender customer retention efforts with a new tool that predicts the likelihood that a lead will apply for a loan within the coming months.

New financing options and better inventory have bolstered the manufactured housing sector. Is this the answer to lenders' purchase-market woes?

From Provo, Utah, to Dallas, here's a look at 10 housing markets with the youngest average consumer age.

Rising interest rates are holding back existing homeowners from listing their properties, driving the gap between existing and potential sales even as that disparity narrows, First American Financial said.

Housing prices in Colorado Springs continue to increase at one of the fastest rates in the nation, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors.

Consumers blame speculative home flippers and wealthy out-of-towners for soaring home prices, but the blame may be misplaced, given many economists' views about the broader factors at play.

After more than doubling local home starts in the last decade, don't expect Dallas-Fort Worth builders to increase construction by much in 2019.