Economy

Almost seven years after the financial crisis, bond investors are rediscovering their appetite for new debt tied to the housing market.

The homebuilding industry enjoyed its best two months in more than seven years as it headed into its busiest season, even as it began work on fewer houses last month following an April surge.

Casey Crawford went from playing on a team that won the Super Bowl to running a mortgage company that he expects to originate almost $8 billion in U.S. home loans this year.

U.S. Bancorp has contributed $75,000 to the production of a video series that discusses the importance of having access to safe, stable housing.

The decline in foreclosures and short sales is contributing to the dearth of housing inventory, complicating the prospects for home buyers feeling the pinch of tight credit and lenders that need purchase mortgages to supplant refinancing once interest rates rise.

Freddie Mac is planning its fifth risk-sharing transaction of the year.

RealtyMogul.com said it reached agreements for a total of $250 million in capital, which it will use to offer new products.

Down payments decreased in size in the first quarter, as mortgage lenders loosen underwriting requirements in the quest for higher volume, LendingTree said in a report.

Southern California homebuilders Standard Pacific and Ryland Group said they agreed to merge, creating a company with about 74,000 home sites and resources to expand.

A new Department of Housing and Urban Development policy will make it easier for servicers to transfer certain reverse mortgages back to HUD instead of foreclosing on widowed nonborrower spouses.

Transactions involving residential mortgage-backed securities should include a manager to improve accountability, Fitch Ratings has recommended.

Life insurers increased their rate of investment in mortgages in 2014, according to a Fitch Ratings report.

A decade after home sales peaked, 15.4% of owners in the first quarter owed more on their mortgages than their properties were worth.

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro touted the Federal Housing Administration’s recent improvement on Thursday, saying it was on a trajectory to hit its statutory minimum and had recently seen a "significant uptick in refinancings."

Private mortgage insurers see deeper coverage of GSE loans as a way to expand business, while lenders hope it could lead to a reduction to guarantee fees.

Redwood Trust's latest residential mortgage securitization, Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2015-3, is backed by a slightly larger percentage of loans that fall outside of new ability-to-repay rules.

Home equity in the first quarter rose to $11.7 trillion, the highest since 2007, according to a Federal Reserve report.

Ocwen Financial's sale of mortgage-servicing rights should generate sufficient liquidity for the Atlanta company to meet its debt-payment obligations, Moody's Investors Service said.

Mortgage rates jumped to an eight-month high, making home purchases costlier as investors prepare for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

A bipartisan group of Senate Banking Committee members is urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to make risk-sharing a higher priority for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.