Mortgage rates

After three weeks of holding fairly steady, average mortgage rates ticked up this week, ironically due to investor optimism that the Federal Open Market Committee will cut short-term rates, according to Freddie Mac.

The onset of summer typically comes with the largest volume of home sales, however exorbitant prices kept potential buyers at bay, according to Remax.

After a jump in May home sales, North Texas housing activity retreated in June.

Higher interest rates led to a 1.1% seasonally adjusted decline in mortgage applications compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Homebuilders' optimism increased as low mortgage rates fueled demand. However, affordability constraints and the continuing scarcity of construction workers and land parcels remain concerns.

Fannie Mae increased its mortgage origination forecast as lower interest rates, driven by economic uncertainty, will lead to more refinance activity, but other factors will continue to hold back home purchases.

Despite a significant rise in first-mortgage production due to lower interest rates, profits from home lending in Citigroup's retail banking division fell slightly in the second quarter.

After two strong months, applications to purchase newly constructed homes retrenched a bit as broader policy issues weighed on consumers, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

While mortgage rates remained unchanged this past week, further drops are possible as signs from the Federal Reserve point to a short-term rate cut at its next meeting.

With nearly half of homeowners renovating in the next two years, HELOCs stand as the most likely form of lending sought out by consumers, according to TD Bank.

Here's how rapidly the U.S. housing market has cooled: Buyers are now about four times less likely to face a bidding war than they were just a year ago.

A decline in refinancings led to a drop in mortgage application volume last week, even though purchase activity continues to rise, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Lenders who employ a technology stack that tracks, collects and analyzes homebuyer behavior will have a distinct advantage as application volume rises.

With affordability still an issue despite falling interest rates and harnessed home value growth, lenders further loosened credit standards in June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

While mortgage rate optimism kept consumer confidence about the home purchase market high in June, affordability worries pulled overall sentiment lower, a Fannie Mae survey said.

Rising affordability through declining mortgage rates brought more buyers to the table and cut down the national inventory of for-sale homes, according to Redfin.

Mortgage rates ticked up slightly this week with opposing trends in the stock and bond markets fighting for dominance, according to Freddie Mac.

Mortgage application activity was virtually flat from one week earlier, down just 0.1%, although there was a huge gain in Federal Housing Administration refinance volume, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Single-family home sales in the Rockford, Ill., region rose by nearly 11% in May thanks to declining mortgage rates and pent-up demand from winter, the Rockford Area Association of Realtors said.

The rate of annual home price appreciation rose again in May, offsetting the affordability gains from declining mortgage rates, according to CoreLogic.