Real estate

Builders started work on more homes than forecast in January after an upward revision to starts in the prior month, a sign construction was on a steady path entering 2017.

Homeowners are reaping the rewards of higher home prices, as the number of seriously underwater properties dropped by 1 million from one year ago, Attom Data Solutions said.

Nonbank mortgage company Cornerstone Home Lending has launched a new mortgage company as a joint venture with homebuilder Oakwood Homes.

There were 89 markets that had the all-time high in median sales price last year with these 10 posting the biggest percentage gain over 2015.

Home price gains accelerated in the fourth quarter, with increases reported in 89% of metropolitan areas, as competition heated up for a record-low supply of listings, the National Association of Realtors said.

A greater share of millennial women leveraged Federal Housing Administration loans than millennial men, Ellie Mae found in its latest Millennial Tracker report.

Home prices ended 2016 with yet another year-over-year uptick, according to CoreLogic.

The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index rose two percentage points to 82.7 in January, reflecting the more positive consumer outlook following November's presidential election.

A homeowner's equity position is one of the many factors that drive property transitions between owner-occupied and rental status, according to a study from the Mortgage Bankers Association's Research Institute for Housing America.

Renovate America, one of the largest providers of Property Assessed Clean Energy loans, is expanding into unsecured lending.

Home improvement lender EnerBank USA expects half of its loans will be originated on the app it built in-house, which promises near-instant approvals.

The homeownership rate for Hispanics increased for the second straight year, according to the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

A number of banks are tapping the brakes on commercial real estate lending, giving others an opportunity to make more loans at better terms.

For buyers in the most expensive housing markets, it now takes longer than it did a year ago for ownership to be more beneficial than renting, according to Zillow.

Companies whose financials have taken hits due to their holdings of mortgage servicing rights are in for a treat, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The title insurance business of Fidelity National Financial earned $231 million in the fourth quarter, up 60% year over year.

Home-buying demand continues to increase even as interest rates rise and the housing inventory shrinks, according to Redfin.

Home-price gains in 20 U.S. cities accelerated for a fourth month in November when compared with a year earlier, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data.

Existing home sales remained flat to begin 2017, as challenges crop up for the housing market in the year ahead, online marketplace Ten-X reported.

CIT Group's exit from its commercial air and reverse-mortgage-servicing businesses cost it heavily in the fourth quarter.