The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing a new set of rules that will change how mortgage servicers interact with their consumers. The proposed changes include clarifying billing statements and advance warning of interest-rate changes. “It’s time to

The Federal Reserve issued new policy guidelines to encourage banks to rent out more foreclosed properties and, in effect, bring the number of distressed properties down. According to Reuters, the central bank wrote a policy statement to Congress, suggesting

FHFA Acting Director Ed DeMarco gave tacit support to a principal reductions program for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in comments today before the Brookings Institute. DeMarco, long an opponent of the policy measure, said that under a revised

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury just released the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard for March, showing improvement in some areas from previous months. Raphael Bostic, an assistant secretary for

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has delayed a controversial credit rule that some saw as a major obstacle to homeownership. The rule, which we originally covered last week, would require lenders to analyze the creditworthiness of its borrowers with much

Housing inventory is substantially down for existing properties, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, DeptOfNumbers and HousingTracker. Using data from 54 metropolitan areas, HousingTracker has found that active listings in early April were down 20.4 percent

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase have pinpointed arguably the most notable impact of the FHA’s new credit rule – its affect on builders and first-time homebuyers. As we reported just last week, a new regulation from the the FHA is

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) added 13 more metropolitan areas to its Improving Markets Index (IMI), pushing the total to 101 cities. Representative of 35 states, the IMI, a unique survey of the nation’s best-performing urban area, has grown steadily

Banks are readying more than one million foreclosed properties for the real estate market in 2012, according to a new study by Moody’s Analytics. The sales will come amidst a turbulent foreclosure landscape. Prices for the 1.25 million REO

A new study by The Center for Housing Policy takes a detailed look at America’s older population and the housing needs those aging baby boomers will require. From the start, the study makes it clear that the number of Americans

The National Association of Realtors (NAR), spurred on by a better-than-expected early spring homebuying season, has modestly upgraded its economic projections for the next two years to better reflect the current economic climate – though as one analyst has

The main thrust of housing’s spring selling season is just around the corner, and in 2012, homebuying may be helped from a most unlikely source – rental rates. In the post-boom housing economy, renting has ascended to its most

Houston is a vast city composed of many neighborhoods, all of which differ by income, ethnicity and…land-use rules? According to a Houston Chronicle report, inconsistencies in building laws have for years granted construction firms leeway on the nature of their

CoreLogic released the findings of its latest Home Price Index (HPI) yesterday, highlighting the profound impact of distressed sales on the U.S. housing market’s makeup. Excluding distressed sales, home values increased 0.7 percent from January to February and decreased

Mortgage applications reversed a six-week trend last week and rose 4.8 percent, with prospective homebuyers and refinancings driving the increase. In addition, the refinance index, which measures refinancing activity, increased by 4 percent, and the purchase index rose 7.2

Back in January, the Treasury Department forcefully endorsed a potential principal reduction program from the FHFA, and the Wall Street Journal reports that the endorsement has placed newfound pressures on the agency’s director, Ed DeMarco, to act on the