Housing markets

Mortgage companies that borrow heavily to keep their operations running may face financial pressure from coronavirus-related market volatility as it affects the valuations of collateral securing their financing.

For the first time since the start of the housing crisis, mortgage origination volume could top $2 trillion for three consecutive years, according to Fannie Mae.

Consumer sentiment about purchasing a home nears its record high as almost half of those surveyed said mortgage rates will stay at the current low levels, according to Fannie Mae.

The agency is sending a strong message that it won’t rush to end an exemption for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while also signaling longer-term changes that will affect all lenders.

The FHFA’s attempt to move some of its balance sheet into the private sector could leave investors with greater liabilities than they were initially told.

Mortgage rates ended the week little changed from the previous seven-day period and near historic lows for the year, according to Freddie Mac.

More than half of the third quarter refinance activity was the cash-out variety, with borrowers removing the most total equity from their homes in nearly 12 years, according to Black Knight.

Loan limits for most mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy will exceed $500,000 for the first time ever next year, and the maximum for most high-cost areas will be $765,000.

From product-specific variations in refinancing rates to pockets of depreciation in an otherwise healthy market, here are some details in housing-related data that highlight important underlying trends in the mortgage business.

With economic expansion expected to keep churning through at least the first half of next year, Fannie Mae upwardly revised its single-family mortgage origination outlook for 2019 and 2020.

A proposal by a single utility threatens to upend California’s sweeping mandate requiring solar panels on almost every new home.

The share of severely underwater mortgages shrunk by over two percentage points compared with a year ago, as these borrowers benefited from the rise in equity levels, Attom Data Solutions said.

Freddie Mac is now forecasting back-to-back years of $2 trillion in mortgage loan originations rather than a drop-off in 2020.

As lawmakers tackle Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, any revamp must lessen risk to the mortgage system and U.S. taxpayers.

The end of the qualified mortgage patch should further accelerate non-QM origination growth, but is the mortgage industry ready?

With the qualified mortgage patch expiring and a recession likely, wealth inequities that have hurt black and millennial homeownership could worsen, according to the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.

Property values recovered, and in some cases even surpassed housing bubble peaks, but the same can't be said for waning new construction activity, which won't return to historic norms for years, according to Zillow.

A swell of refinance demand amid a low mortgage rate environment pushed lender profit margin outlooks to the highest level since the first quarter of 2015, according to Fannie Mae.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said at an investor conference that the Trump administration's plan for Fannie and Freddie would provide more opportunities for financial institutions. He also called for an end to the U.S.-China trade war and weighed in on the prospect of interest rates falling to zero.

Mortgage debt climbed to a new peak of $9.4 trillion in the second quarter and the distribution across the U.S. varies greatly.