Data and information management

Mortgage rates fell for a fourth week, reducing borrowing costs for homebuyers during the key spring selling season.

Fannie Mae cut its forecast of industrywide home purchase lending for 2014 to $710 billion from $732 billion, underscoring the housing industry's struggles despite overall positive signs for the economy.

Mortgage applications climbed for the third consecutive week as a drop in interest rates spurred refinancing.

Increased overhead to support back-office compliance is driving up origination expenses to the point that mortgage bankers lost nine basis points on the loan origination function during the first quarter, preliminary Mortgage Bankers Association data show.

Congressional inaction on debt forgiveness provision leads to more foreclosures.

The housing recovery is continuing, albeit at a more sustainable pace, the brokerage giant says.

The trade group is now predicting $1.05 trillion of volume for this year as unemployment and tepid wage growth hold back homebuying.

Realtors expect sales of previously owned homes will fall short of last year's total.

A rally in the mortgage-bond market may send home-loan rates to the lowest in almost a year, bolstering a slowing real estate recovery.

Confidence among homebuilders dropped in May to the lowest level in a year, showing the residential real estate market may be slow to recover after an unusually harsh winter.

Mortgage applications increased during the week ending May 9, driven by a jump in requests for refinancings, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Home prices nationwide jumped by 11.3% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to an analysis released Tuesday by CoreLogic.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. reported a decline in first-quarter profits driven largely by the early refinancing of agricultural securities.

Prices for single-family homes climbed in 74% of U.S. cities in the first quarter, fewer than a year earlier, as the nation’s housing rebound cools.

D.R. Horton said it paid $210 million for the homebuilding operations of Crown Communities, the largest residential developer in the Atlanta area, where new-home demand is still recovering from the recession.

Mortgage rates for 30-year loans fell to a six-month low, reducing borrowing costs for homebuyers as the property market cools amid a slow economic recovery.

Mortgage debt held by the elderly has soared over the past decade, driven in part by the foreclosure crisis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a report.

Mortgage applications increased 5.3% for the week ending May 2, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations fell by 45% in the first quarter from the previous quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

It looks like average credit scores have fallen, but only if you examine GSE and FHA originations separately, the think tank's researchers say. When they are combined, the average holds steady.