Economy

For commercial real estate investors, the good times may be over.

Contracts to purchase previously owned homes unexpectedly fell in November, confirming that the industry lost momentum toward the end of the year.

"The allegations of discrimination and predatory practices raised by the reporting are obviously very concerning to the bureau," a CFPB official said Tuesday.

Mortgage application defects reached a record low in November, according to First American Financial Corp.

RAIT Financial Trust said it closed on its fifth commercial real estate collateralized loan obligation.

Technology hubs overlapped with the nation's hottest housing markets in 2015, according to a ranking by online brokerage Redfin.

Surging prices have almost closed off the new-home market to young buyers like Brandon and Quincey Lindemann. But the Denver-area couple has found a way in.

Home values in 20 U.S. cities rose at a faster pace in the year ended October as lean inventories of available properties combined with steadily improving demand.

The strong recovery in commercial real estate has enabled borrowers to resolve a lot of problem loans made before the financial crisis, but Fitch Ratings continues to expect no recoveries from "hope notes."

A proposal issued two weeks ago by the FHFA calls on the two government-sponsored enterprises to identify opportunities to increase their purchases of small multifamily properties in rural areas, sparking some concern among lenders.

Manhattan's luxury-home market is losing its luster.

After lenders and their technology providers spent much of 2015 implementing the TILA-RESPA integrated disclosures, forthcoming compliance audits and a government-sponsored enterprise plan to start collecting data from the new forms will tell if those efforts truly paid off.

Changes to the tax code approved by Congress may set the stage for increased privatization of real estate investment trusts, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings.

Property Assessed Clean Energy loans have been available in Florida since 2010, but lending, as well as securitization of these loans, has lagged far behind California largely due to a series of lawsuits challenging the program's validity.

Interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages remained largely unchanged this week, according to Freddie Mac.

Bill de Blasio's plan to create apartments for New York's poor and middle class has come under fire from community leaders who say that what developers and the mayor call "affordable" remains out of reach for those in need.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are telling lenders that they are willing to retain loans with defects if they believe the defects are minor and can be fixed. But Freddie is one-upping Fannie by offering to retain such loans without charging lenders a fee.

Senior citizens' equity in their homes rose by about $147 billion to $5.76 trillion, from the second quarter to the third quarter, according to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.

The price of the loans underlying commercial mortgage-backed securities increased modestly from October to November, according to DebtX.

The rising number of Chinese buying U.S. homes could be a boon for investors with a stake in residential mortgages.