Underwriting

Understanding how consumers pay their debts over time is expected to widen access to credit for consumers recovering from financial problems or who were hard to score before. Just how many it will benefit is an open debate.

An increased level of home-purchase mortgage applications led to continued improvement in the U.S. housing market in December, according to Freddie Mac.

The inventory of homes for sale in the U.S. declined in January, while home prices continue to rise, according to Zillow.

Meaningful rules encouraging Fannie and Freddie to do more with manufactured housing would allow more lenders into the market and make pricing more competitive.

Law enforcement authorities raided the headquarters of United Mortgage Trust in Grapevine, Texas, on Feb. 18, seeking documents related to the company's management.

Bank of America on Monday will launch a 3% down payment home loan in partnership with Freddie Mac, but the bank will not retain any risk if the loans default. That’s because it will immediately will sell the loans and servicing rights to Self-Help Federal Credit Union, a Durham, N.C., community development lender that's on a mission to put more low- and moderate-income families into homes of their own.

The government-sponsored enterprise was enthusiastic about launching the 97% loan-to-value product when it announced it in December 2014. But it has yet to become a sizable part of Fannie's business.

Financial gyrations have kept long-term interest rates lower than expected and that could be good for the housing market.

The mismatch between demand for new homes and the supply threatens to drive up prices and dampen lending.

Home equity portfolios have shrunk at banks, but credit unions and nonbank lenders like loanDepot helped fuel the surge in home equity lines last year.