Economy

A new book by the American Enterprise Institute's Peter Wallison reveals how a government push to lower credit standards brought about the housing crisis — and why a new effort to expand homeownership could inadvertently set the stage for a fresh disaster.

Freddie Mac will offer its first external 55-day participation certificate pass-through security, the government-sponsored enterprise announced Monday.

The gap between rental costs and household incomes will continue to rise unless a new home supply ramps up, according to a study by the National Association of Realtors.

Housing starts slumped in February by the most in four years as bad winter weather in parts of the U.S. prevented builders from initiating new projects.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp.'s earnings fell in the fourth quarter to $8.9 million, down from $13.4 million during the same period in 2013.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group helped fuel a bubble that led to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, an attorney for the Federal Housing Finance Agency said at the opening of a trial over defective mortgage-backed securities.

Confidence among homebuilders unexpectedly fell in March to an eight-month low as prospective buyers were in little rush to shop for properties ahead of the busier spring selling season.

The sale of $16.7 billion in nonperforming loans by the Department of Housing and Urban Development Department helped the owners of about 16,700 homes avoid foreclosure, the agency said.

An expected rush of refinancings of Federal Housing Administration loans could force some mortgage servicers to take writedowns in the first and second quarters, but they have more incentive than ever to keep borrowers in the FHA program instead of letting rivals lure away their customers.

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate this week would make it easier for consumers to secure financing to purchase manufactured housing.

Ed DeMarco, the former chief regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warned that efforts under the Obama Administration to expand access to credit could risk repeating mistakes that led up to the crisis.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis is again admitting mortgage-investment firms as members, even as the overseer of the government-chartered system of 12 regional lenders considers barring such companies.

Getting a home loan is easier now than a year ago, according to the Zillow Mortgage Access Index.

Nomura Holdings Inc. will defend claims by a U.S. regulator that it sold defective mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the 2008 financial crisis, becoming the first bank to take such a case to trial.

The Federal Reserve will not raise rates in June, while mortgage rates could fall this year as the dollar gets stronger and oil prices remain low, mortgage industry consultant Barry Habib said at a mortgage conference.

Manhattan's smallest apartments are fueling big gains in rents.

Negative attitudes in Washington toward the mortgage industry are starting to thaw, yet devising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's exit from conservatorship or charting the future of housing finance reform still will be tough.

Mortgage rates rose to the highest levels this year as job growth gained momentum.

Real estate investment trust ZAIS Financial Corp.'s acquisition of privately owned mortgage company GMFS proved to be highly dilutive to earnings.

Proposals for stiffer capital requirements will reduce the number of mortgage servicers, which in turn will cut access to credit, mortgage-company executives said at an industry conference on Wednesday.