Market Matters

Loosened Mortgage Rule Advances After SEC Drops Objection Source: Wall Street Journal Concerns about a down-payment requirement that could crimp access to credit and impede the fragile housing recovery led to a revised approach to mortgage rules that won’t hold borrowers to a 20 percent down-payment to get a loan (or lenders having to retain five percent of a loan's risk once it was packaged and sold to investors). Under the revision, regulators wouldn't require a down payment and would include a broad exemption for banks and other issuers of mortgage-backed securities from having to retain a portion of the credit risk on their books. Read the full story

Home Price Gains of 20% Vanish as Hottest Markets Cool Source: Bloomberg   For the first time in almost two years, none of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas had increases of more than 20 percent in residential asking prices last month. In light of softened demand from buyers, asking prices gained 8 percent last month from a year earlier, the slowest pace in 13 months. Read the full story

Why Renters Are Ending Up in the Suburbs Source: The Atlantic In fast-growing suburbs and exurbs, rentals are the major force driving growth—just not multifamily rentals. Due to an abundance of stock left over from the single-family housing boom (and the subsequent Great Recession), this housing stock is being opened to a new generation of suburban renters by investors who bought up inventory only to rent it out. Read the full story