Ten Questions on the New Mortgage Rules

By Nick Timiraos Regulators issued new mortgage rules on Thursday designed to prevent a return to lending practices that cratered the housing market and brought the financial system to its knees during the past decade. Here’s a look at some frequently asked questions:...

Best Housing Markets for 2013

In the past 12 months, home prices have skyrocketed in some major U.S. cities. In Phoenix, according to real estate information site Trulia, asking home prices increased by 26.9 percent between November 2011 and November 2012. Of course, that’s after home prices...

Wall Street extends gains on “cliff” deal

By Gabriel Debenedetti NEW YORK | Wed Jan 2, 2013 2:44pm EST (Reuters) – U.S. stocks jumped on the year’s first day of trading, after Washington lawmakers cut a last-minute deal to avert automatic tax hikes that threatened to stunt economic growth. With...

MBS MID-DAY: Bond Markets Holding Their Own After Fiscal Cliff Deal

Jan 2 2013, 11:06AM MBS Live: MBS Morning Market Summary Referring to the 11th hour passage of a Fiscal Cliff bill as a “deal,” is an overstatement.  But it’s at least a “mini-deal,” or depending on how important semantics are to you, a...

Homes under contract hit 2.5-year high in November

NAR’s pending home sales index up 19 months in a row By Inman News, Friday, December 28, 2012. Inman News® Demand in the Northeast and West drove an increase in pending home sales in November to the highest level in 2 1/2 years. Pending home sales grew by 1.7...