The National Association of Home Builder’s Housing Market Index (HMI) rose four points in January to 25, the fourth consecutive month of gains and the highest level for the index in more than four years. Bob Nielsen, the chairman

Mortgage applications and refinancings exploded with activity last week, with the financial options increasing by 23.1 percent and 26.4 percent from the week before, respectively, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Refinancings continued to

After several months of skewed home sales on account of 2010’s homebuyer tax credit, housing still finished strong in Houston for 2011, with single-family home sales increasing 7.2 percent in December year-over-year and 6.6 percent for all property types.

We reported last week on rumors that the government is planning a bulk sale program for its REO properties, a long-awaited initiative that would unload the roughly 250,000 properties in several large-scale fire sales with investors, who would maintain the properties

The appraisal process is one that has received continuous coverage in media outlets, ours included, namely in how appraisals often result in lower home values than the deals brokered by agents – and which often cancels the sale. A

A new report from Fannie Mae predicts optimistic home sales data for 2012,with forecasts projecting in new home sales a rise of 10.4 percent and for existing-home sales an increase of 3.5 percent, or, 4.74 million units, for the

A column recently published in the Chicago Tribune has called attention to one of the more understated – and successful – tax provisions passed by Congress in the wake of the housing bust, and the dangers posed by its Dec.

We’ve officially entered the home price index season for the month, and it seems like every day a new index is released with vaguely similar findings on the state of the housing market. CoreLogic’s Home Price Index (HPI), though,

A number of legislators in the House of Representatives are hoping that what worked for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will work at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Twenty-eight congressmen, led by Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat from California, have

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Wednesday released details on how its examiners will asses the inherent risk of subprime loans products offered by both private banks and mortgage lenders. Richard Cordray, the newly-appointed director of the CFPB, said in a

The latest foreclosure data from RealtyTrac would appear to be promising: the 205,000 foreclosures in December were the lowest monthly total since November 2007, the 1.8 million foreclosures for all of 2011 were a 35 percent decline from 2010

During the various budget crises of 2011, numerous federal programs were threatened with substantial cuts if not complete annihilation in the name of deficit reduction, and one of the more controversial suggestions involved alterations to the popular mortgage interest tax deduction

The FHFA, according to recent interviews, is considering changes to how the CEOs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are compensated, and are even surveying the salaries of other government employees in the process. Long a source of controversy,

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) is investigating the mortgage insurance practices of PHH Corp., specifically if the company violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, a regulatory framework the CFPB enacted on July 21, 2011. According to a HousingWire article,

New data from the federal government on mortgage originations suggests that, as previously predicted by scores of analysts and financiers, the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, will fall short of its modification goals when the program was launched

HARP 2.0, the official name given to the Home Affordable Refinance Program after a series of revisions in October, has been a factor in the housing market for more than four months now, and some analysts are predicting its