Mortgages

Mayor Bill de Blasio's 10-year plan to build and preserve affordable housing units is credit neutral for New York City, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The government-sponsored enterprises just went a long way toward encouraging lenders to make more loans to borrowers with lower credit scores.

The agency is developing a new methodology for evaluating underwriting defects to give lenders a better handle on the risk posed by any given flaw in a loan file.

In a wide-ranging speech on Tuesday, new FHFA Director Mel Watt said he would not weigh in on the housing finance reform debate percolating in Congress, while also detailing what changes he plans to make at the agency, including encouraging more access to credit.

There will be enough grist for the NPL mill for at least three more years, industry insiders say.

Home prices nationwide jumped by 11.3% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to an analysis released Tuesday by CoreLogic.

Following two years in which its big-bank peers paid almost $2 billion to resolve fraud accusations by the Federal Housing Administration, Wells Fargo has decided it isn't giving up so easily.

Freddie Mac, which along with Fannie Mae has forced home lenders to buy back tens of billions of dollars of flawed mortgages, said the companies are loosening rules that made banks more cautious about extending credit.

Loan applicants will have to answer the question "What makes a place feel like a home?" to be eligible for drawing.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. reported a decline in first-quarter profits driven largely by the early refinancing of agricultural securities.

The buyouts will lead to prepayments of 5% or more for some holders of mortgage-backed securities. The loans were originated from 2005 to 2008, the heyday of interest-only loans.

The Senate Banking Committee will renew its markup of legislation to overhaul the housing finance system on Thursday, after abruptly postponing the deliberations late last month.

Lenders and loan officers are increasingly using social media to scout for customers, raising a host of compliance concerns, from preventing unauthorized use of brands to monitoring employee communications.

home in New York’s Hamptons on Further Lane, where comedian Jerry Seinfeld and hedge-fund manager Steven A. Cohen own estates, is up for auction in what will be one of the area’s biggest foreclosure sales.

Momentum continues to build for the fast-tracking of the foreclosure process on vacant, abandoned properties.

Prices for single-family homes climbed in 74% of U.S. cities in the first quarter, fewer than a year earlier, as the nation’s housing rebound cools.

Successful originators are not doing anything new or different, but are using tried and true techniques when it comes to building their business.

JPMorgan Chase said it will lay off more than 150 employees in its Garden City, N.Y., mortgage division, as part of a previously announced broader downsizing.

D.R. Horton said it paid $210 million for the homebuilding operations of Crown Communities, the largest residential developer in the Atlanta area, where new-home demand is still recovering from the recession.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency released a new monthly credit report to monitor the performance of commercial mortgage-backed securities.