The housing market is expected to make a positive contribution to gross domestic product for the first time in seven years in 2012, albeit a very modest one, according to Fannie Mae. The government-sponsored enterprise reported gross domestic product

By Stephanie Becerra Real estate photography has flourished into a powerful and lucrative industry despite the economic state, because selling houses is no different than selling products. Today, Realtors are highly cognizant that high-quality images not only sell homes,

How did existing-home sales look in January? Is Quicken Loans preparing to take the stand in the nation’s highest court? And could Illinois become even more smoke free? We look at the week’s top news (Feb. 20 – Feb.

A new Center for Housing Policy study on housing affordability puts an interesting twist on the endlessly contentious debate of renting and homeownership, looking at the topic not from the perspective of one versus the other, but with the reality

January was a month of contradictory results for single-family home sales, as the U.S. Census Bureau reports that though sales of the properties decreased by 0.9 percent from December, they increased by 3.5 percent from January

The news cycles have been awash in reports the last six months on the growing demand for rental properties in the U.S., but too often, renting’s success has been presented  as housing’s loss, a creation of the post-2008 market

Acting Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante hinted at further changes in the FHA’s mortgage premium system on Wednesday, referencing revenue models that would complement the recently passed premium hikes for the agency’s

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI), one of the leading economic indicators of future construction activity, reported positive numbers yet again in January, marking the third straight month that the index has been in such territory, according to the most recent press release from

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Acting Director Edward DeMarco offered a long-awaited vision for the U.S. mortgage market, sending Congress a new plan detailing a secondary mortgage market without the presence of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In his

Things have been pretty good for builders the last couple months. After two years of sideways growth, construction activity has been charting upward, builder confidence has been rising, and, in the most positive news of all, there have huge increases in multifamily originations,

Existing-home sales rose by 4.3 percent from December to January, marking the third time in the last four months that the key housing measure has shown monthly gains, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors

A lawsuit involving lender Quicken Loans began its arguments before the Supreme Court today, with the future of closing fees that lenders charge hanging in the balance. Officially called Freeman v. Quicken Loans Inc., the case originated in 2007, when

The state attorneys general mortgage settlement received almost immediate criticism from homeowner and housing advocates alike after its Feb. 9 announcement, with common complaints being the limited reach of the settlement and the numerous consumer groups that were either

Short sales have rightfully earned a reputation of being slow, plodding and, in some occasions, maddening, but a new bill introduced in the Senate yesterday seeks to cut through all the red tape and simplify the process. Brought before

Throughout 2011, housing inventory had been on a steady decline, a development that should be welcome, given the constant analyses on the excess housing supply as a result of boom-era overbuilding. As details emerge over the nature of those

The White House and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) are hard at work on a distressed housing program that would convert REO properties into investor-managed rental homes, and though the program seems to be going well in its initial