In normal times, mortgage borrowers have to make a choice: Pay more up front, in the form of a point, and enjoy a roughly a 0.25% interest rate reduction. Or save money up front and accept a slightly higher rate. But when Joel Richardson, the Austin branch manager of mortgage banker PrimeLending, looked for a $1.6 million jumbo refinance loan for a client in May, the choice felt like it had been made by the lender. Mr....

Amid historically low rates, refinancing is hot—though it got doused with some cold water on August 12, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a significant new fee: All refinances backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , which the FHFA oversees, would be subject to the Adverse Market Refinance Fee, equivalent to 0.5% of the total loan amount, starting Sept. 1. The fee is intended to help cover at least $6 billion of projected losses incurred by the Covid-19 crisis, the FHFA said in...

Fresh off the $125 million sale of his Beverly Hills home, movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg is in contract to buy the Beverly Hills property of Estée Lauder Executive Chairman William P. Lauder for close to $30 million, according to people familiar with the transaction. A spokeswoman for Mr. Lauder confirmed the property was in contract for an undisclosed price, but said the deal isn’t expected to close for a few weeks. A spokesman for Mr. Katzenberg declined to say whether he was in contract...

“It was a very expensive proposition, and we asked, ‘are we doing the right thing?’ ” Mr. Bucher, 59, said of conversations with his wife, Corrine Bucher. Then the pandemic hit. Now Mr. Bucher is able to tape and record studio-quality segments for national Fox Sports shows and for his podcast. “There is no question that it has been a huge benefit to my career,” he said. Mr. Bucher’s renovation, with its focus on making him look and sound good on camera, may have once seemed specific to his...

Someday, years from now, a resident will wake up in their luxury condominium at developer Gregg Covin’s The Cedars Lodge & Spa in Hendersonville, N.C. They’ll make breakfast on the island in their big kitchen and sit on their heated balcony. They’ll walk out of their private entrance and use an elevator that serves only three other units. They’ll work out in a series of small exercise rooms and gather with friends at an outdoor restaurant in a glass atrium. Hopefully, Covid-19 will be a...