According to the new Mortgage Applications Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage applications decreased 0.8 percent from the week prior. Refinancing activity decreased by 1 percent, while purchase mortgages rose by 20 percent. Refinancing comprised 59.5 percent of all

It’s been more than a month since the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) guidelines came into effect, and so far, the industry hasn’t devolved into total chaos. But that doesn’t mean lenders still aren’t worried. Financial services company Wolters Kluwer

Houston schools were heavily represented in Newsweek’s recently released report “America’s Top High Schools 2015,” with 12 schools finding a place among the publication’s rankings. The schools were evaluated on a range of criteria, from graduation rate to the

Realty Associates has merged with Latter and Blum Inc., a real estate brokerage in Louisiana and the Gulf South. Now, Realty Associates has access to a network of 30 residential and commercial real estate brokerages that annually accumulates nearly 15,000

In September, single-family home prices, including distressed sales, jumped 6.4 percent year-over-year, according to CoreLogic. For more than a year, national home prices have followed a steady, upward trajectory toward long-term stability. CoreLogic Chief Economist Sam Khater described the last 15

Yesterday, Houston area residents went to the polls and voted to not elect a mayor, to continue as one of the only major metros in the state and country without a strong equal rights policy in the law books, and

There’s been a lot of political posturing as of late, with partisan pundits and presidential candidates butting heads over everything from tax strategies to affordable housing, but one issue that, surprisingly, has remained largely left out of the conversation is

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land is the market with the largest homes in the West South Central region, with a median new home size of 3,026 sq. ft., according to data from the National Association of Home Builders combined with home closing

Fannie Mae opts to use database for those without credit score Fannie Mae will no longer require physical pay stubs and tax data to verify a borrowers’ ability to handle a loan, according to The Wall Street Journal. Instead, Fannie

As 2015 draws to a close, how has residential construction activity in Houston compared with the previous year? Residential construction spending in Houston totaled $757 million in September, according to new Dodge Data & Analytics numbers. Although that is still among the

Houston was the seventh most-searched U.S. city for international buyers, according to realtor.com International. The countries that most frequently searched for Houston were the United Kingdom, Mexico, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. The United

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and Freddie Mac are ready to uphold their pledge from last year to extend lending to borrowers who do not qualify for traditional loans. Freddie even hinted that more low down-payment loan programs could possibly

For nearly a decade, the nation’s homeownership rate has been in decline. Since 2004, when homeownership peaked at 69 percent, the rate has fallen nearly 6 percentage points down to 63.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015, according

Housing continues to slow in 2015 Pending home sales were down 2.3 percent from August to September, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors. Closing out the month at 106.8, the Pending Home Sales Index

Single-family home starts are far below the long-term median – why? Builder confidence has posted repeated year-over-year gains in recent months, but the amount of single-family housing starts is not rising to match their confidence, according to a report by The Wall

The FHA’s reduction in insurance premiums may have led to a surge in demand The Federal Housing Administration’s effort to provide relief for homeowners through lower insurance premiums may have backfired, according to a MarketWatch report. The change, which went into effect