The seemingly never-ending debate on housing policy continued on Wednesday in Washington, as economists and policy analysts from a myriad of organizations testified before a Senate subcommittee on what to do about housing, particularly the 11 million borrowers who

Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors announced its new Multicultural-International Real Estate Division today. The division will be focused on servicing the needs of Houston’s growing multicultural population. “With the Asian and Hispanic population growing at three times the rate of

KeepSum, a website that attempts to bring the same bright, zany style of the gloriously successful Groupon to real estate, has just formally launched, beckoning Realtors to “save some, keep sum.” Functioning more on a business-to-business basis than business-to-consumer,

Consumer confidence is the name of the game for recently-implemented laws in Texas, which place new rules and restrictions on several areas of real estate with more to follow in 2012. The product of two laws passed earlier by

Early reports on Augusts’ Year Over Year (YOY) forecast have lead to competing forecasts between financial and economic analysts. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimated that home sales this July ran at a SAAR of 4.67 million, a

Pop star Rihanna is a good girl gone bad – at least when Beverly Hills real estate is concerned. The chart-topping singer is suing Prudential California Realty, the company that sold her a 10,000-square-foot mansion for $6.9 million in

Housing experts were none too kind to President Obama after his non-specific mention of housing in a major jobs speech last week, but it appears that his jobs bill, the more heavily promoted policy of the speech, does contain aid

The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), in collaboration with the city of Houston, is launching the “Houston Historic Districts Homefinder,” a new MLS that allows homebuyers to search for homes in a decidedly historical manner. “As a potential homebuyer,

Freddie Mac has finalized requirements on a new “Standard Modification,” a loan modification program for delinquent homeowners who did not meet requirements for the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Officially launching in January, the new program will begin

The Market Composite Index, a study of mortgage loan application volume that is compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association, rose 6.3 percent last week, bouncing back from a disappointing 4.9 percent decline the week before. Despite historically-low interest rates, mortgage

Keeping track of expense reports can be a grueling and time-consuming process. This was a particular problem for Tia Alexander, owner of the Texas real estate agency, the Crane Group. Alexander, who regularly accumulates massive amounts of receipts in

September is the National Association of Realtor’s “Realtor Safety Month,” and to coincide with the month, real estate website AgentGenius conducted surveys and interviews to assess Realtor safety in 2011. The site’s findings were both frightening and educational. Andrew

Continuing in its goal of creating universal lending documents for the mortgage industry, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has begun a fourth round of product testing this week, focusing on two different loans that appear on the same

In an unorthodox move that resists recent narratives on the supposed benefits of historically-low interest rates, Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher has come out against the monetary strategy, citing it as a probable reason for the economy’s sluggish

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the major delinquency rates for multifamily units fell in four of the five major investor groups, which includes FDIC-insured banks, life insurance providers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The rates

According to analysts at Barclays, a global financial services provider, the new housing plans recently announced by President Obama amount to a revamp of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), not an all-out expansion. Fears over the President’s comments