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It’s now the third month straight that U.S. homebuilding has fell—considering the U.S. is currently in a housing shortage, this isn’t good news. According to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau, this is the lowest level housing starts have been at in eight months. The biggest drop in housing starts was in the South and Midwest, while the West slightly rose and Northeast stayed stagnant.

Lot and labor shortages are causing home builder confidence to falter—particularly in the single-family market. Builder confidence dropped two points in June, while overall construction starts fell 5.5 percent across the nation. Single-family production fell 3.9 percent in May, and multifamily declined 9.7 percent—nearly three times as much.

Home price appreciation rates are pretty disparate across the nation, according to a new report released on Friday. In fact, while 16 percent of U.S. markets saw housing prices jump 40 percent since the year 2000, another 30 percent of cities actually saw prices decline over the same period. Nominally, prices rose in 97 out of the nation’s 100 biggest metro areas last year. A result of high demand and tightening supply, affordability is on the downslope, too. According to the report, about 19 million U.S. households spent more than half of their annual incomes on housing in 2015.

As the mortgage industry attempted to digest the cumbersome alphabet soup of data standards and regulation, Fannie Mae innovated to deliver a recipe for certainty.

A former executive at Nomura, a financial holding company based in Japan, was found guilty of conspiracy on Thursday by a Connecticut jury. The defendant, Michael Gramins, allegedly added secret commission fees onto mortgage-backed security transactions he handled between 2009 and 2013, according to the verdict. Gramins wasn’t the only party involved—though he was the single person charged. The state’s case also named Nomura’s Ross Shapiro and Tyler Peters in the suit, which alleges the three defendants illegally added to their profit margins when handling RMBS transactions for their employer.

The ever-climbing housing prices don’t seem to be holding buyers back. In fact, according to recent data, three of the nation’s biggest cities—Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.—are all seeing steep sales inclines over the year. New data shows sales volume in Baltimore is up 10.2 percent since last May—a jump of more than $1.2 billion. In Washington, D.C., volume’s up 7 percent over the year, or $3.1 billion, and in Chicago, sales transactions rose 6.2 percent for the year. Days-on-market is another stat that has steep increase as of late. In Chicago, it fell from 87 to 77 over the year, while in Baltimore and D.C., it dropped to 19 and 10 days. Baltimore’s 19 days-on-market is the lowest monthly level the city’s seen in 10 years.

Many different factors come to mind when looking for a home. Good schools, commute time, low crime, and location of places of interest nearby bring overall convenience for the homeowner. A recent report examined the nation’s 100 biggest metros to determine where in the U.S. first-time homebuyers would find the most value.

housing prices are on the rise this summer selling season even though inventory is at an extreme low, according to a recent report. May held many records for the report including the rise in home prices. When over 1,000 buyers were asked what a 5 percent rate hike would do to their home buying plans, despite the recent rate hike, buyers overall feel their search won’t be affected.

The digital evolution continues, as not one but three major financial players make moves toward a more FinTech-driven future. In a two-day span, Morgan Stanley, Misys, and D+H all announced initiatives that could shape the trajectory of the industry. At its Tuesday's Financials Conference, Morgan Stanley, a financial services and wealth management firm, announced it will launch a digital mortgage platform in 2018. Meanwhile, Misys, a financial software provider, and D+H, a financial technology distributor, announced the two firms will merge to form Finastra. Finastra will be the third-largest FinTech company in the world.

When it comes to homeownership, things can get confusing. It was recently reported that almost half of homebuyers were unable to answer questions about key mortgage qualification criteria and consumers are in agreement that homeownership education is helpful and should occur earlier in the process. So what needs to be done in order to educate while not delaying closing?