Attom Data Solutions

Foreclosure activity is down nationwide from a year ago, but certain local housing markets are telling a different story.

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.

While the housing market perennially decelerates in the winter, it can be a wonderland for potential homebuyers, according to Attom Data Solutions.

While it's normally a time the market slows down for mortgage lenders relative to the rest of the year, this winter shouldn't be used to hibernate, according to Attom Data Solutions.

Housing policies are helping the number of vacant foreclosure homes drop, which could also mean homebuyers have been taking advantage of these properties as inventory continues to be constrained, according to Attom Data Solutions.

Home price appreciation is continuing to decelerate due to affordability concerns that are unlikely to let up even though recent market developments have put some downward pressure on mortgage rates.

Natural disasters are now the leading driver of lenders' foreclosure risk, with last year's hurricanes causing a rise in third-quarter filings in affected markets, according to Attom Data Solutions.

Here's a look at the 12 cities with the biggest gap between the current wages needed to buy a home and the historical average, a sign a housing bubble might be brewing.

Foreclosure starts increased 9% in August compared with July, slightly higher than the historic norm between the two months, according to Attom Data Solutions.

Mortgage origination volume continues to decline as homebuyers receiving loans bring more money to the closing table.

More flip-and-fix property buyers seek financing for their purchases as fewer distressed homes come on the market and sales margins narrow, said Attom Data Solutions.

A decade after a collapse in the housing market triggered the 2008 Great Recession, South Florida still has many homeowners who owe far more money than their property is worth.

July's year-over-year increase in foreclosure starts for 44% of the nation's metro areas is a result of looser underwriting standards and a sign of future growth in defaults, said Attom Data Solutions.

Foreclosures on Metro Orlando homes are up 23% from July 2017, though the numbers are still well below the peak of the recession, and local sales agents say there's not much impact in the market yet.

The gap between equity-rich homeowners and mortgage borrowers who are seriously underwater narrowed in the second quarter, highlighting the uneven nature of the housing market's recovery since the Great Recession.

Silicon Valley homeowners saw their wealth balloon faster than owners anywhere else in the country last quarter, according to a new study that underscores just how rich on paper property has made some residents here.

Baltimore had the highest share of distressed home sales of any city in the country, according to Attom Data Solutions.

Connecticut entered July with the fifth-highest rate of residential mortgages under foreclosure in the nation, according to a study of more than 360,000 foreclosures nationally over the first six months of the year.

Foreclosure filings plummeted in the first half of the year, but 40% of local markets saw foreclosure starts increase, with the last housing bubble no longer to blame for the growth, according to Attom Data Solutions.

With affordability down to its lowest level in nearly 10 years, average wages aren't enough to afford a home in 75% of local housing markets, according to Attom Data Solutions.