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According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, mortgage applications declined in the last week, though loan sizes are seeing record highs. Meanwhile, the average loan size for purchase applications has reached its highest level in the history of the survey at $280,500, coinciding with the trend in rising purchase activity for larger loan amounts.

According to Florida Realtors, the state's housing market reported higher median prices, more new listings, and a stable level of inventory in March. For 28 months in a row now, statewide median sales prices have risen annually for single-family homes and condos. "What we're seeing is a market we can live with," said Florida Realtors chief economist Dr. John Tuccillo.

As part of its "Know Before You Owe" initiative to streamline mortgage lending, CFPB released Wednesday the results of a year of research on the closing process, including comments collected from both consumers and market participants. The findings indicate frustration all around. Among consumers, the most common complaints the bureau saw dealt with the complexity and sheer amount of paperwork required to finalize a loan.

In the company’s second-ever Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi), analysts at Freddie Mac reported a national index value of -3.11, putting the U.S. market just on the “weak” side of a stable market (ranging from index values of -2 to 2). “Despite a slowdown over the winter months, the housing market continues to show improvement in most states, although at a somewhat slower pace,” said Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist at Freddie Mac.

The largest independent real estate company in the country, Long & Foster Real Estate, was named Affiliate of the Year in the large market category for 2013 by Christie’s International Real Estate.

The pace of new home sales plunged in March to their lowest level in eight months, driving down hopes of a seasonal renewal in housing activity. Monthly data released Wednesday by HUD and the Census Bureau shows sales of new homes last month plummeting 14.5 percent from February to an estimated seasonally adjusted yearly rate of 384,000. The last time transactions ran so low was last July, when they came to 383,000.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its monthly House Price Index (HPI) for February, revealing continued growth even as winter weather slowed the market. The broad measure of the movement of single-family home prices in this purchase-only index went up by 0.6 percent, according to FHFA, and with the exception of November 2013, marked nearly two straight years of increases.

According to Fitch Ratings' latest quarterly index, prepayment rates among U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) have declined to the lowest levels of the post-crisis era. Fitch Ratings' director Sean Nelson ...

Zillow’s Q1 Real Estate Market Report, released Tuesday, shows that home values across the United States are up 5.7 percent (to a national median of $169,800) compared to Q1 2013. This marks the 21st consecutive month that prices, compared year-over-year, have gone up. Even more encouraging is that home values in 527 U.S. cities that saw declines of 10 percent or more during the recession are either at their peak or soon will be.

According to survey results released Tuesday by independent home lender loanDepot, 56 percent of Americans who don’t currently own a home but would like to purchase in the near future say they’re not pursuing it right now “because they fear they won’t qualify for a loan.” Among current homeowners who wish to re-enter the market, 30 percent hold the same fear.