U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was on Capital Hill yesterday testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, and during his testimony made several faint mentions of pending housing programs and revisions from the Treasury Department. “We expect to move

Built by Morning Star Builders and marketed by the Prudential Gary Green Realtors Builder Marketing Division, the Houston Southern Living Showcase Home will be going on tour to benefit two local charities beginning

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced yesterday $28 million in grants – $243,179 of that due to a Houston organization – to fight and investigate housing discrimination and promote equal housing opportunities. Funded through the Fair Housing

CoreLogic released its latest Home Price Index (HPI), showing a slight decline in August by 0.4 percent that represents the first decline in four months. A tracker of home prices and contemporary to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller, the HPI

Lately, there hasn’t been much love for government loan mod programs. News has been swirling the past month that revisions are pending to the government’s underperforming loan modification programs, and sharp critiques have abound on the programs’ performance records.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the September edition of the White House’s “Housing Scorecard” yesterday, highlighting the positive trends in housing prices and refinancing options and other notable government initiatives. Raphael Bostic, a HUD

On Aug. 18, 2011, Freddie Mac released the results of its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), reporting that 30-year fixed rate mortgages had reached a new low at 4.15 percent, surpassing the previous low of 4.17 percent from

The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) prevailed this week in a software copyright lawsuit when the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, upholding a Fifth Circuit decision in HAR’s favor. The case, Real Estate Innovations Inc. v. Houston Association of

Sugarland’s Riverstone community has much to celebrate during its 10-year anniversary. The 2011 year-to-year sales up 35 percent, home sales this past August set an all-time record high, and it is listed among the top 20 selling communities in

Freddie Mac Senior Vice President Paul Mullings confronted negative perceptions on refinancing in a recent blog post, stating that refinancing by Freddie and other government agencies has saved homeowners not millions, but billions of dollars. “One thing I observed

Despite daily doses of apocalyptic news and forecasts, two prominent surveys on housing cut through the fog and show that even in a down market, housing remains a mainstay of the American Dream. The two surveys, one by Fannie

After an off week, mortgage applications bounced back to life the third week of September, increasing 9.3 percent on the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly study of the application market. Mike Fratantoni, the MBA’s vice president of research and

Construction spending rose 1.4 percent in August, a strong recovery after a disappointing 1.4 percent decline in July. According to data from the U.S. Commerce Department, building in August reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $799.1 billion, a

Serious delinquencies for single family homes, which are loans that are either in foreclosure or three month’s late on payments, declined for both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in August. For Fannie, the delinquency rate dropped to 4.03 percent,

Record-low mortgage rates and the most affordable housing market in 20 years are jump-starting investments in the mortgage markets, though financing remains tricky. Last week, the 30-year FRM fell to 4.01 percent, the lowest rate in the history of

The U.S. housing market has finally bottomed out, and after two years of flat growth, will begin a slow, steady recovery, according to former RealtyTrac vice president Rick Sharga. Sharga, who is now an executive vice president with Carrington