Mortgages

Expectations of economic growth paint a sunny picture for summer home buying with consumer confidence near an 18-year high, but borrowers' mixed view of their income prospects could compound affordability constraints.

Increased use of the digital mortgage process contributes to improved closing times, but falls short when it comes to borrower education, according to a TD Bank survey.

The Pittsburgh City Council has given preliminary approval to a plan for distributing $10 million in 2019 from an affordable housing fund.

As the bond market drives yields down because of the economic turmoil, mortgage rates moved in concert, dropping below 4% for the first time since January 2018, according to Freddie Mac.

Contract signings to purchase previously owned homes unexpectedly fell in April, adding to signs the housing market is struggling to regain momentum.

Chattanooga home prices rose only about half as fast as the country as a whole in the past year and were nearly 27.5% below the U.S. average the first quarter of 2019, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Many banks have already scaled back home lending or even left the business. With profit margins shrinking, inventories of homes at crisis levels and competition from nonbanks intensifying, that’s unlikely to change.

Mortgage prepayment speeds may rise with the strong U.S. rate rally, and that may be cause for alarm for mortgage investors.

BSI Financial agreed to pay a $200,000 fine along with restitution to settle allegations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that it mishandled mortgage servicing rights transfers for loans in the loss-mitigation process.

Wells Fargo hired two seasoned veterans for their mortgage technology and data security expertise amid a digital era for financial industries.

Freddie Mac uncovered a growing number of fraudulent school records and work histories in California, where Fannie Mae also has noted increasing instances of falsified employment information.

With the starter home inventory shortage pressuring first-time homebuyers to act, four out of five millennial purchasers lament at least one aspect of their mortgage, according to Zillow.

The large number of overleveraged commercial mortgage-backed securities loans coming due in 2019 is likely to cause the payoff rate to drop an additional 9 percentage points by December, a Morningstar report said.

First-time homebuyers face growing competition from out-of-state investors and corporate landlords looking to capitalize on Boise's increasing rents.

Michigan has an estimated 239,000 manufactured homes, which comprises about 5% of the state's housing stock, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The number of renters is growing three times faster than homeowners as would-be homebuyers increasingly are priced out of the market.

Consumer worries over the direction of the U.S. economy affected mortgage application activity this past week even as interest rates remained flat or declined, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Mortgage lending has a long way to go before most people associate it in any way with virtual reality.

First American Financial Corp. tumbled the most in nearly eight years amid concerns that a security flaw at the title insurer may have allowed unauthorized access to more than 885 million records related to mortgage deals going back to 2003.

The exurbs were the only area that posted annual growth in new single-family home permits in the first quarter, highlighting an ongoing affordability battle for homebuyers and builders looking for land, according to the NAHB.