The Federal Housing Finance Agency ( FHFA ) announced today the first step in a new initiative to convent foreclosed properties (REO) in the hardest-hit metropolitan areas to rentals. The Real Estate Owned Initiative is a joint endeavor of the Departments

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey reported that mortgage applications as measured by its Market Composite Index were down 2.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended January 27 but increased

Home prices continued to fall in November according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released this morning. Both the 10-City and the 20-City Indices were down 1.3 percent in November compared to the previous month and for the second month

The Federal Housing Finance Agency ( FHFA ) issued a statement late Monday refuting a story from ProPublic and NPR that a complicated investment strategy utilized by Freddie Mac had influenced it to discourage refinancing of some of its mortgages. FHFA

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on Friday that it was extending the Home Affordable Modification Program ( HAMP ) for another year – through December 13, 2013 – and that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae would continue as financial agents for Treasury

The formation of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group tasked with investigating mortgage fraud is now official. The new office, which will be part of the Administrations Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF) was first announced

The Lender Processing Services (LPS) Mortgage Monitor Report for December show improvement in a number of the metrics it tracks. Many measures of delinquency rates are down, inventories are clearing in some states, and recent loan originations are “among

Like their home-building counterparts, remodelers who are members of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) are displaying more confidence in their industry than they have in years. The NAHB’s Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for the fourth quarter

New home sales declined by 2.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 307,000 units in December according to data jointly released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. November sales were revised down

Sales of distressed homes, those in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned (REO), accounted to 20 percent of all U.S. home sales during the third quarter of 2011 compared to 22 percent of sales in the second quarter according to information released