Economy

At the onset of the millennium, house flippers — people who purchased imperfect homes, renovated them and resold them at a profit mere months later — ran rampant in U.S. housing markets.

The mismatch between demand for new homes and the supply threatens to drive up prices and dampen lending.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is launching a 10-day social media campaign, #HARPNow, to alert struggling homeowners in 10 states that they can still refinance via the program before it expires at yearend.

It took an average of 50 days to close a residential mortgage loan in January, an increase of four days since new regulations took effect, according to Ellie Mae.

Markets in the Sun Belt and California are expected to have the best conditions for the sale of multifamily properties this year, according to Ten-X.

Mortgage applications rose last week, with refinancings surpassing 64% of all applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Real estate and rental marketplace Zillow is rolling out a new national ad campaign helmed in part by an Academy Award-winning filmmaker.

New-home construction unexpectedly cooled in January, indicating there is a limit to how much gains in residential real estate will boost growth at the start of 2016.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of New York posted an increase in fourth-quarter profit, citing higher levels of member prepayment.

Home equity portfolios have shrunk at banks, but credit unions and nonbank lenders like loanDepot helped fuel the surge in home equity lines last year.

Waterstone Mortgage Corp. has introduced a zero-down, 7/1 adjustable-rate mortgage with a 20-year amortization.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has launched a new initiative, called the Fair Housing Enforcement Program, aimed at targeting discrimination in rental and home sale transactions.

There is concern that a decline in condo pricing could create loan problems similar to those that cropped up before the financial crisis. Bankers in the area, however, believe foreign investors would take the biggest hit.

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The cost of capital and regulatory compliance has convinced the top four banks that making home loans to American families is not worth the risk.

Confidence among homebuilders dropped in February to a nine-month low as potential buyers stayed away, interrupting the steady progress residential real estate had built over the course of 2015.

The Chicago, Des Moines and Cincinnati FHLBs have grown their life insurance company membership the most in recent years.

Low borrowing costs and rising home values are just two of several reasons why owning a home is far less burdensome than it was a decade ago.

Investors continue to demand additional yield for exposure to defaults on loans insured by the Fannie Mae.

Fannie and Freddie have been selling pools of delinquent mortgages at auction to the highest bidders. Community groups say the Federal Housing Finance Agency should be giving preferential treatment to nonprofits and community development financial institutions.