Housing

The U.S. housing market continues to slowly stabilize, according to Freddie Mac's latest Multi-Indicator Market Index.

Purchases of new homes jumped in August to a seven-year high as Americans took advantage of historically low mortgage rates.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's method for detecting disparate impact discrimination can overestimate potential bias, resulting in higher payments for lenders cited by the agency, according to internal CFPB documents.

Senior home equity rose by $117 billion in the second quarter, compared to the previous quarter, according to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.

Mortgage applications rose 14% on rate decreases, compared to one week earlier, on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Sept.18, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Although new HMDA data shows no negative effects from CFPB mortgage rules that went into effect last year, industry representatives argue it isn't showing the full picture.

The housing market is edging off a slow recovery in spite of high depreciation rates concentrated on the East Coast and Midwest, according to Zillow's August Real Estate Market Report.

While Congress has been unable to pass housing finance reform, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have done a good job of adhering to some of the spirit of recent bipartisan legislation, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

Ginnie Mae may soon raise its liquidity and cash requirements for independent mortgage banking firms since it seems almost certain that Congress won't increase the agency's budget for fiscal year 2016.

First-mortgage originations to subprime borrowers have risen by 30.5% in the first five months of 2015, compared to the same period last year.