First time home buyers

The home purchase loan share is up and closing times are down ahead of an expected healthy spring buying season, and declining mortgage rates could be a reason, according to Ellie Mae.

Canada's housing agency will spend up to C$1.25 billion ($943 million) over three years to take equity positions in homes bought by first-time buyers, part of a plan by Justin Trudeau's government to make housing more affordable for the youngest voters.

From the desert of the Southwest to all across Florida, here's a look at the 12 housing markets deemed best for first-time home purchasers.

During February, sellers listed just 4,355 properties across the metro, 14% fewer than last February, according to the Minneapolis Area Realtors.

The bank was fined $25 million for what the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said was an inability to provide the discounts to all who were eligible.

Manufactured and modular home lender Tammac Holdings is using $60 million in debt and equity financing from its new majority owner to fund construction loans.

Home sale prices posted their smallest annual gain since March 2012 and mortgage rates have declined, leaving bidders less inclined to race for a deal, but at the same time, a cooler housing market suggests more consumers may be willing to explore homeownership.

The Federal Housing Administration is moving forward with a long-delayed plan to reduce the term of the home warranty required for high loan-to-value mortgages on new houses.

Millennials make up the largest cohort of homebuyers, but a quarter of them don't even know their credit score, which could be a call for mortgage lenders to help them prepare to enter the housing market.

A city program that helps first-time homebuyers purchase affordable homes has received an additional $3.2 million in grant funding.

Millennial homebuyers took advantage of a winter lull in interest rates, using the opportunity to refinance their loans, according to Ellie Mae.

The conventional market recaptured a lot of the first-time homebuyers it lost during the financial crisis, but service members instead have increasingly stuck with loans insured by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Rises in the amount of low down payment loans and private mortgage insurance due to tight affordability led to the most first-time homebuyers since 2006, according to Genworth Mortgage Insurance.

A strong spring home purchase season is likely to further increase mortgage loan application defect risk, which already spiked in the past two months, according to First American.

Slower home price growth and cooled mortgage rates could bring buyers out in droves in 2019, according to NerdWallet.

House listings in the Twin Cities are on the rise, but first-time buyers are snapping them up as quickly as they hit the market, setting the stage for another competitive spring market.

From the gateway to the West to just below the Mason-Dixon Line, here's a look at the 12 housing markets with the highest percentage of homes affordable to millennial purchasers with median incomes.

Millennials are unfazed by the short supply of starter homes in a competitive market based on the rising share of December's purchase mortgages, according to Ellie Mae.

King County's cooling housing market has turned downright chilly as prices have dropped to their lowest point in two years — with the median home now selling for $116,000 less than last spring.

The number of homeowners participating in an expanding down payment assistance program offered by Wells Fargo and NeighborWorks could top 20,000 this year.