First time home buyers

Affordability remains a challenge for homebuyers, but barely any mortgage lenders attribute last year's sluggish home sales to insufficient consumer income or lack of loan products for new buyers, according to Fannie Mae.

Independent mortgage banks have been instrumental in filling the void left by banks that have retreated from the home lending market since the Great Recession.

More than one-third of millennials said saving for a down payment is the biggest hurdle to buying a house, but few seem to realize they don't need to put 20% down to get a mortgage, a recent survey found.

Home sales plunged in the Orlando, Fla., area in December as 2018 finished with fewer sales than the year before, and real estate agents warned that 2019 could be slower as well.

With the promise of jobs and fledgling tech scenes, five of the top 10 hottest housing markets for 2019 all reside in the South, according to Zillow.

Being a homeowner may not be the most cost efficient move in some areas.

Rising mortgage rates don't have as severe an impact on the first-time homebuyer market as they do for property values, according to a Zillow survey.

Residential lender and Warburg Pincus portfolio company Newfi Lending is helping tackle upfront costs for homebuyers with the launch of its 2-1 Buydown Program.

The standards for mortgage lending constrained in December, as a drop in conventional credit brought availability to its lowest point since February 2017, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

First-time homebuyers earn $30,000 more than their peers who didn't buy a house, and nearly $12,000 more than the country's overall median household income, highlighting affordability issues in current housing conditions, according to Zillow.

Older millennials and younger Generation Xers still feel the aftershock of the housing crisis, as more would rather invest in the stock market than real estate, according to Redfin.

Millennials comprise the largest cohort of homebuyers as most have entered their prime purchasing years, and they just might shake up migration patterns in 2019, according to First American Financial Corp.

Builder Taylor Morrison Home Corp. has launched a program that lowers the rate on its lending subsidiary's mortgages for two years through a new buydown program.

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.