Mortgages

The standards for mortgage lending constrained in December, as a drop in conventional credit brought availability to its lowest point since February 2017, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Average mortgage rates continued the downward spiral that started before Thanksgiving and in the past week that finally boosted mortgage application activity, according to Freddie Mac.

North Texas homebuilders eased off construction in the fourth quarter as some buyers took a break from the housing market.

Stable home prices and fewer homes changing hands in the Las Vegas Valley caused housing values to plateau last month, according to the valley's leading real estate association.

Lennar Corp., the first big homebuilder to report in this earnings cycle, surged after its chairman said buyer traffic improved in December as mortgage rates declined.

Movement Mortgage is purchasing the entire retail production division of Lennar's Eagle Home Mortgage subsidiary, although the homebuilder will still have a home finance business on its books.

Consumer lending should also be a bright spot, while mortgage lending could be suppressed by rising rates and tight housing supplies.

First-time homebuyers earn $30,000 more than their peers who didn't buy a house, and nearly $12,000 more than the country's overall median household income, highlighting affordability issues in current housing conditions, according to Zillow.

The agency wants mortgage servicers to extend special forbearance plans to those affected by the partial government shutdown and evaluate borrowers for loss-mitigation options.

Continual declines in the refinance share of mortgage originations led to prepay rates dropping to their lowest levels since 2009, according to Black Knight.

Cascade Financial Services has become the only manufactured housing loan-focused servicer currently rated by Fitch, adding signs of a rebound in factory-built home financing that could lead to new private securitization.

Consumers reacted in a big way to falling interest rates as mortgage applications increased 23.5% from one week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

What goes up must come down. At least that was true in 2018 for Oahu's home market, which ended the year with record annual median prices for single- family homes and condominiums but saw slowing sales in December and for the full year.

As buyers grow nervous and tired, home prices in Philadelphia are slowing.

The mortgage industry faces myriad questions and challenges in 2019. Here's a look at 12 executives who will be behind the waves being made this year.

More consumers fell behind on their loans in the third quarter of 2018, even as average wages rose and the unemployment rate fell to a 50-year low.

The government shutdown is not just affecting federal agency employees' ability to make their mortgage or rent payments, it could take them out of the home buying market, Zillow said.

Lagging construction, rising interest rates and the broader economy don't really bode well for buyers of commercial real estate, but most CRE lenders still expect originations to increase in 2019, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The strong economic headwinds from last fall facilitated a declining loan delinquency rate across the country, though areas hit by natural disasters had increased defaults, according to CoreLogic.

Tampa Bay's housing market gained $22 billion in value last year but it's still worth less than it was at the peak of housing bubble in 2005-06.