The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, is working on a real estate issue that gets to the core of the agency’s purpose: the often opaque and costly fees that buyers, sellers and refinancers are hit with at closings. The bureau is reviewing ways to bring more clarity and better disclosure to this process.

If you or someone you know has lost a job and are in danger of falling behind on mortgage payments, here’s some potentially important news: The two largest players in home mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are revising their policies on forbearance when unemployment interferes with a borrower’s ability to stay current on a loan.

How big a whack did your credit score take during the grim years of economic distress following the housing bust? Was it 20 points, 50 points, 100 points — or maybe no drop at all?

These are key questions affecting millions of potential home buyers who hope to qualify for mortgages as well as current owners looking to refinance. New res...Read More

As a combat veteran of World War II, I was moved by the Dec. 28 letter from an Iraq veteran who wrote of being disheartened by the Obama administration’s “hardly concealed rush” from Iraq. The writer has earned the right to questio...Read More

Could gloomy popular assumptions about how tough it is to get a mortgage be deterring large numbers of qualified people from even applying?

Could the same worries — I can’t come up with the big down payment I need, my credit scores are too low, my bank account has almost none of the reserves that lenders want to see — put a needles...Read More

After a year characterized by grumpy partisan gridlock, Congress came up with a Thanksgiving compromise that could change the mortgage choices of buyers and refinancers in more than 660 markets across the country: It raised maximum loan limits for the Federal Housing Administration while leaving loan ceilings untouched for Fannie Mae and Freddi...Read More

How do you fight back when an appraiser — often from another city and working for a small fee on behalf of a big bank — wrecks your sale, purchase or refinancing with a low-ball valuation?

It’s a serious problem in markets across the country. For example:

Do you have a big mortgage and good credit scores but not much equity — maybe you’re even underwater? Do you see little chance that your home’s market value will improve much during the coming three to seven years?

Remember the federal tax credit programs offering $7,500 and, later, $8,000 to first-time home buyers? The credits were designed to deliver a jolt to the reeling housing industry. And they did: More than 4 million people applied for and have received nearly $30 billion worth of credits.

When you apply for a mortgage to buy a house, how often does the lender ask detailed questions about monthly energy costs or tell the appraiser to factor in the energy-efficiency features of the house when coming up with a value?