Economy

Sales of previously owned homes climbed in May to the highest level in more than nine years, indicating that demand for residential real estate remains robust.

In something of a cruel irony, homebuilders are finding constraints on construction financing easing, but little in the way of quality lots on which to put up their houses.

Home prices rose 5.9% in April from a year earlier as job growth spurred competition for a limited number of listings.

Title agents reported an average increase in closing costs of $184 per transaction during the second quarter, according to a report from First American Financial Corp.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is now offering sellers the option to have the company underwrite the whole loans it purchases.

The Federal Reserve warned that prices in the commercial real estate market may have run up too far too fast.

Lennar Corp., the second-largest U.S. homebuilder, reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates as the improving job market helped boost sales.

The decline in homeownership can be stopped, and even reversed, by taking action on credit access, better evangelizing for down payment programs and offering borrower counseling.

The current upcycle the housing market is in should continue for at least two more years, according to Fitch Ratings.

Commercial real estate prices may fall as much as 5% in the next 12 months amid tightened regulations, a wall of debt maturities and property sales by publicly traded landlords, Pacific Investment Management Co. said in a report Monday.

The mark of an excellent salesperson is the ability to progress even in challenging markets. Here's a look at the loan officers featured in the Top Producers Rankings who logged increases of more than 75% of their previous year's dollar volume of mortgage originations.

After four years of crammed open houses, heated competition and dizzying price gains that sent the median cost of a home to $1.2 million, San Francisco's real estate market is starting to lose steam.

Fannie Mae has released the details of its next sale of nonperforming loans, including the fourth "community impact" pool the government-sponsored enterprise has offered.

U.S. prosecutors have abandoned their case against Angelo Mozilo, a pioneer of the risky subprime mortgages that fueled the financial crisis, after a two-year quest to bring a civil suit against him.

The market for existing-home sales is underperforming its potential by 2.8%, according to First American Financial Corp.'s Potential Home Sales model for May.

New-home construction was little changed in May, a sign the residential real estate industry will add little to economic growth in the second quarter.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans think that something can be done to address problems related to housing affordability — and they want the presidential candidates to talk about it.

Confidence among homebuilders climbed to a five-month high in June, signaling the residential real estate market may have some scope for a pickup, according to a National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo survey.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage saw interest rates fall to the lowest level in three years as expectations for the Federal Reserve's June meeting and Britain's potential exit from the European Union drove investors to the safety of U.S. bonds.

Costs for finishing Fannie Mae's new headquarters have increased $36 million without the knowledge of the Federal Housing Finance Agency employee responsible for monitoring the project, the agency's inspector general claims.