Housing

The San Francisco Bay Area housing market has seen values that have risen to unsustainable levels, according to Fitch Ratings.

The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index fell 1.7 points to 81.5 in January, reflecting the effects of decreasing housing affordability.

Mortgage credit availability decreased in January, on a decline in some Federal Housing Administration and conventional offerings, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Genworth's U.S. mortgage insurance business earned $179 million in 2015, but the parent company lost $615 million as it still has problems with its long-term care insurance product.

Mortgage lenders are ramping up marketing and point-of-sale processes, in order to prepare for an environment in which home sales are expected to cool down, according to a new report by Stratmor Group.

Housing policy focused on government guarantees and the 30-year mortgage hasn't done much to help low- and middle-income homeowners build wealth.

Buying remained better than renting in certain situations, but members of the millennial generation continued to have reasons to rent instead of buy, according to Zillow.

Mortgage rates for 30-year loans fell to the lowest level since late April, reducing borrowing costs as the housing market enters its key selling season.

The month of November could be foreshadowing of the prediction made by Weiss Analytics that fewer homes would gain in value this year.

More than 1 million homebuyers qualified for a mortgage in the third quarter, the first time since the financial crisis that lenders reached such a threshold, according to research by the Urban Institute.