Economy

When Andy and Amy Isaacson looked at buying a home in Palo Alto, Calif., for their expanding family, the least expensive one they could find was $1.5 million.

Ben Franklin famously said the only things certain in life are death and taxes. One Wisconsin loan officer has found one more.

Regulatory infighting over bond loans offered by down payment assistance programs has the potential to curtail lending to first-time buyers and do real damage to homeownership.

Interest rates for conventional purchase mortgages fell month-over-month in July, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported.

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities continued to moderate in June, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data released Tuesday.

Lenders who use the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Housing Service's Single Family Housing Guarantee Program will pay less beginning in October.

In just a few years, a popular mall with high-end anchor stores and boutique retail tenants can fall into substandard property condition, leaving commercial mortgage bond investors with outsized losses on their exposure to these properties.

The mortgage application forms from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should make for stronger loans, according to an analyst at Moody's Investors Service.

Cities and states across the Midwest experienced some of the largest home price gains in the country in June, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

Fitch has taken a slightly dimmer view of Midland Loan Services' ability to workout distressed commercial mortgages.

U.S. acquisitions have buoyed profits at Canada’s biggest banks, whose domestic economy is sluggish and possibly on the verge of a housing crisis. The banks are expected to pursue more M&A in the U.S. if that problem persists.

PHH Corp. will lose nearly a third of its subservicing portfolio as HSBC Bank agreed to sell the mortgage servicing rights on 139,000 loans.

Home values rose for the 48th consecutive month in July, but not enough to close the gap with the peak set in 2007, according to Zillow.

Equifax and TransUnion have stopped selling traditional credit reports, forcing lenders to buy their new, more expensive "trended" data reports that mortgage investors aren't using yet.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced the extension of the Home Affordable Refinancing Program through September 2017 as well as the creation of a new program for those with high loan-to-value ratios.

Mortgage rates held steady from the previous week, while still remaining near their all-time record lows, according to Freddie Mac.

Nonbank lender Guaranteed Rate has scored a naming rights deal with the Chicago White Sox.

Concern around billionaires from abroad creating a price bubble by sheltering wealth in U.S. real estate is nothing more than hype caused by market commentators for the sake of ratings and page clicks.

The Los Angeles City Council joined Los Angeles County in trying to get California Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency for the problem of homelessness.

"Graceful" may not be the first word that comes to mind when thinking about last year's "Know Before You Owe" disclosure implementation, but one Texas loan officer has a different perspective.