Housing

Freddie Mac on Thursday reported strong fourth quarter and year-end profits driven by a surge in demand for both home purchase and apartment loans.

Lenders see their outfits growing where experts are predicting market decline, despite statistical dissonance. Having a plan to weather the downturn is the key to their growth.

Residential mortgage delinquencies dropped in the fourth quarter, as employment numbers improve and housing prices increase, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

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.