What is the typical rate of appreciation for home values? What does an appraisal do? What about an inspection? And is PMI always necessary? Those and other questions were featured on a recent survey by Zillow, the popular MLS

Though credit unions and small community banks had little to no impact on the global financial crisis of 2008, representatives from the two banking sectors stated before the House Financial Services Committee today say that a maze of new

Broad legislation stemming from 2010’s “robo signing” foreclosure scandal may lead to the first case of mortgage write-downs since the housing market declined in 2008. According to a report from Reuters, negotiations between state attorneys general, federal regulators and

The housing market is a grand, influential sector of the global economy, one that ebbs and flows with overall economic performance. But even though the message remains consistent – fix housing, fix the economy – very few of the

The latest Residential Price Index from FNC Inc., released October 20th, indicates that U.S. residential home prices declined in August by a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.8 percent, despite high level of sales during the

David Woolley, a California licensed land surveyor and certified fraud examiner, is leading a new study in tandem with the Harbinger Analytics Group Real Estate Fraud Experts on the recently disbanded company, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS).  The topic

The Troubled Asset Relief  Program, or TARP, was a $750 billion infusion of cash into the U.S. financial sector, namely to banks addled by derivatives and other financial products. The largest recipients of TARP – Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Wells

The Sensible Accounting and Value Energy Act (SAVE), according to the Institute for Market Transformations, may cause lenders to take the energy bills of borrowers into account before setting their mortgage rates. The bill, co-sponsored by Senators Michael Bennett

Though the Pending Home Sales Index declined in September,  activity remains above a year ago, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). A forward-looking indicator that is based on contract signings, the index fell 4.6 percent

The Bipartisan Policy Center has announced a new, bipartisan Housing Commission tasked with conducting a top-down analysis of the U.S. housing market and its long term trends. Co-chaired by two former U.S. Senators and two former heads of the

The Houston real estate market is undergoing an interesting phenomenon. The apartments and housing sectors, long antagonistic in analysts’ eyes, are both on the rise. Single-family homes sales for September were up 16.9 percent from last year, while the Houston

After four straight months of declines, new single-family home sales in September were up 5.7 percent from August, an increase from 296,000 units to 316,000 units, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing

A multifamily project led by The Dinerstein Cos. and Coventry Real Estate Advisors will be moving forward now that the partners have closed on the acquisition. The project has been named Millennium High Street and will be located inside

The Galveston Housing Authority has announced its plans to rebuild some of the 569 public housing units devastated in Hurricane Ike three years ago. Under federal regulations, only half of the destroyed units can be

In a recent announcement, Mayor Annise Parker revealed plans to purchase the old Rufus Cage Elementary School, located at the intersection of Telephone Road and Baird Street. The building, which was built in 1910, is named after Rufus Cage,

The  Attorney’s Office of Harris County, Houston is prepping for a potential lawsuit with the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS), alleging that the noted company owes the county upwards of $11 million in unpaid mortgage filing