Origination

The Spokane, Wash., real estate market remains extremely tight and active, with relatively few houses available, high demand and rising home prices mirroring national trends.

The city's decision to drop a lawsuit alleging predatory ending by Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup highlights the challenges municipalities face in taking on deep-pocketed financial institutions.

Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it will scrap an unpopular standard for so-called qualified mortgages, the big question is what will take its place.

With steady home price appreciation and falling interest rates, by some measures the shares of distressed mortgages existing in the market shrunk to record lows, according to Black Knight.

Default rates for prime jumbo mortgages will increase, but a strong economy and rising home prices will bail most borrowers and lenders out, Moody's said.

The prevention of wire fraud and cybercrime being perpetrated against the mortgage business is the latest passion for Regina Lowrie, longtime industry executive and the first woman to head up the Mortgage Bankers Association.

For people in their 20s and 30s, New Hampshire's home prices are rising as fast as their concerns over affording a place to live.

Negotiations went to the brink of a foreclosure trial for a Bradenton, Fla., mall, before a settlement was reached between the owners and the lender.

Home prices were up 3.9% annually in the San Diego metropolitan area in November, outpacing all other West Coast markets, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices reported.

Home sales were up in all three of the Greensboro-High Point, N.C., metropolitan area's counties of Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham.