Coronavirus

The hot start to home sales in Lafayette Parish, La., and elsewhere in Acadiana has slowed due to the novel coronavirus and may continue for the next two or three months.

The agency has relaxed some reporting requirements and joined other regulators in encouraging banks to help borrowers, but pressure is building on the bureau to do more to aid consumers suffering financial hardship.

Social-distancing restrictions related to the coronavirus have hit hospitality employment particularly hard, and that presents a hiring opportunity for an online lender needing more help with consumer-facing work.

Commercial real estate lenders have to consider not only how they’ll weather the COVID-19 downturn, but whether worker and consumer habits have changed for good.

Impac Mortgage Holdings suspended all mortgage lending activity for a two-week period effective March 31, citing liquidity constraints at the company's secondary market counterparties as a result of the coronavirus.

As social distancing related to the coronavirus complicates work for appraisers, real estate agents and construction lenders, professionals turn to technology and, in some cases, ask consumers to pitch in.

An index of contract signings for the purchase of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly increased in February to a three-year high, representing solid housing activity that's likely to retrench because of the pandemic.

For the housing market in the Twin Cities, it's looking a lot like January as the COVID-19 pandemic puts a chill on homes sales in the metro.

Homeowners reeling from coronavirus-induced economic shock are already enduring extremely long wait times while trying to get relief. Legislation passed last week could worsen the logjams.

The real estate industry, struggling with coronavirus-linked limitations, got a boost with its sales business reclassified as an "essential" industry.

It doesn't appear that the slowing local and national economy has had much of an effect on the Missoula, Mont., real estate market yet, which has been a seller's market since the end of the last recession.

Mortgage technology efforts have historically been behind the curve, but some recent responses to the coronavirus highlight instances where it rises to the occasion.

The impending wave of loan delinquencies because of the coronavirus hurt private mortgage insurer earnings, but the companies will still have sufficient capital, a Keefe, Bruyette & Woods report said.

As the world practices social distancing to counteract spreading the virus further, it forces lenders to move as close as possible to an all-digital model, as quickly as possible.

One of the largest U.S. mortgage firms catering to riskier borrowers slashed 70% of its workforce, signaling a deep slowdown in that business.

The government is cushioning the impact of the coronavirus on consumers, but independent mortgage bankers need funding to deal with increased levels of servicing advances because of forbearances.

Residential estate brokers and agents are scrambling to determine what Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's emergency order means for their industry.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reiterated Thursday that he wants U.S. financial markets to remain open even as the coronavirus fuels wild volatility, while adding that he's focused on helping mortgage firms expected to be hit hard by the pandemic’s spreading economic pain.

Title underwriters won’t be hit as hard by the coronavirus as other insurers, but related economic changes will challenge them, Fitch Ratings said, in assigning a negative outlook to the sector.

The reprieve from mortgage data collection was among several changes to the agency’s supervisory and enforcement procedures to help firms responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.