The latest foreclosure data from RealtyTrac would appear to be promising: the 205,000 foreclosures in December were the lowest monthly total since November 2007, the 1.8 million foreclosures for all of 2011 were a 35 percent decline from 2010

During the various budget crises of 2011, numerous federal programs were threatened with substantial cuts if not complete annihilation in the name of deficit reduction, and one of the more controversial suggestions involved alterations to the popular mortgage interest tax deduction

The FHFA, according to recent interviews, is considering changes to how the CEOs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are compensated, and are even surveying the salaries of other government employees in the process. Long a source of controversy,

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) is investigating the mortgage insurance practices of PHH Corp., specifically if the company violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, a regulatory framework the CFPB enacted on July 21, 2011. According to a HousingWire article,

New data from the federal government on mortgage originations suggests that, as previously predicted by scores of analysts and financiers, the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, will fall short of its modification goals when the program was launched

HARP 2.0, the official name given to the Home Affordable Refinance Program after a series of revisions in October, has been a factor in the housing market for more than four months now, and some analysts are predicting its

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) added 40 new metro areas to its Improving Markets Index (IMI) in its latest release yesterday, bringing to total number of cities to 76 across 31 states. Designed to track housing markets throughout

Strategic defaults, economic-speak for walking away from a distressed property, are not only on the rise but, according to some sources, an economically-feasible option for underwater homeowners. According to a survey conducted by Paola Spienza and Luigi Zingales, two

Not even a week after the Federal Reserve published an economic white paper urging government action on REOs, word has trickled out of Washington that the government, in cooperation with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is planning a pilot

Expectations for both homeowners and consumers rose in promising ways in December in the latest Fannie Mae National Housing Survey. According to a press release from the GSE, the percentage of Americans who said the economy was on the

Residential construction employment finished 2011 in positive territory, the first time that the sector has experienced gains in six years, according to new data from Calculated Risk’s Bill McBride. Not since 2005, when residential construction increased by an incredible

The CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI), the influential measure of home values that is used by the Federal Reserve in its analysis, came out earlier today, showing values in November continued their winter slide. A three-month weighted average of

Freddie Mac has announced new policies for unemployed borrowers that can grant the troubled homeowners up a year in breaks from their mortgage payments. According to a HousingWire article on the policies, which go into effect Feb. 1, Freddie

The mortgage insurance tax deduction, a commonly-used feature that can save homeowners to the tune of hundreds of dollars a year, could be a thing of the past, according to a new piece by HSH. First approved by Congress

New data from CoreLogic released yesterday shows an ever-present foreclosure market in Florida, evidence that the state is still feeling the blues (or reds, based on the chart) when it comes to distressed properties. According to a Real Deal analysis

Following in the steps of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac has eliminated a major restriction to borrowers seeking to refinance with existing servicers. Beginning yesterday, borrowers now have no credit score requirement for refinancing, as long as they have at