MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.

Student-loan borrowers retreated from home buying for the second year in a row, outpaced in the mortgage market by young people who aren’t saddled with college debt, according to a report.

Melvin L. Watt, the overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is loosening rules that have forced banks to buy back billions of dollars worth of flawed home loans in an effort to spur the housing market.

Cash is keeping residential sales trudging along while mortgage lending plummets, hurt by rising interest rates and stiff credit requirements. Americans seeking a loan to purchase their first dwelling are increasingly shut out.

The FHA boosted its fees after a surge in defaults during the housing crash depleted its capital reserves. The increases, which have helped replenish the FHA’s coffers, have also prevented hundreds of thousands of first-time purchasers from getting FHA loans.

Want to buy a trailer park? Freddie Mac wants to give you a loan.

Tagged with: Freddie Mac

The homeownership rate in the U.S. declined to the lowest in almost 19 years as rising property prices and mortgage rates held back demand.

Pending home sales are again on the rise, for the first time in nine months, according to a new report by the National Association of Realtors.

A U.S. Senate plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the most thorough yet for winding down the two mortgage financiers, faces a first test this week with its authors making last-minute changes to gather more support.

The Association of Institutional Investors, whose members include Pacific Investment Management Co. and Fidelity Investments, is pushing lawmakers debating an overhaul of the U.S. home-loan market to create an “unambiguous fiduciary standard” for certain mortgage-bond trustees.

Want to buy Crestwood Court? The slow-going online auction for the now-defunct St. Louis County mall ends tomorrow.

Property-tax collections are rising at the fastest pace since the U.S. housing market crash sent government revenue plunging, helping end an era of local budget cuts.