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As the housing market continues to pick up steam nationwide, one group of potential buyers has been noticeably absent.

According to senior economist Frank Nothaft of CoreLogic, the number of foreign buyers has plummeted recently, thanks in large part to the strengthening of the dollar.

Nothaft also pointed out, however, that exchange rates fluctuate on a daily basis, making it difficult to project what we should expect from foreign buyers over the next year or so. Especially with the current debt crisis in Greece, it’s nearly impossible to tell whether foreign buying will continue to decline, level off or increase.

“The uncertainties surrounding how the Eurozone will resolve the debt crisis in Greece has made it more difficult to project foreign currency movements,” he said.

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Although the luxury real estate market enjoyed a particularly fruitful year last year with a record breaking number of home sales, 2015 is proving to be a whole different ball game.

In the Hamptons, in particular, both sales and median prices are down compared to where they stood during this time last year.

According to a new report by Douglas Elliman Real Estate, the median sale price for a home in the Hamptons has dropped 6.5 percent over the last year to $849,000, while the number of homes sold is down 15.7 percent.

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With the enjoyment of summer comes the lure of investing in a beach-side property for many Americans.

As such, realtor.com has just released a list of the most and least affordable beach towns nationwide.

According to the site, the most affordable waterfront homes are located in Florida, Mississippi and New Jersey with Port Richey, Fla., taking the top spot. The least affordable locales, meanwhile, are in Northern and Southern California and New York, as Malibu, Calif., requires the largest pocketbook.

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U.S. District Judge Otis Wright ruled on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo that accused the mortgage lender of violating the federal Fair Lending Act by engaging in predatory lending practices.

According to Wright, there we enough “undisputed facts” to show that Wells Fargo did not violate any FHA rules.

Back in 2013, the city of Los Angeles accused Wells Fargo of luring minority borrowers into high-cost loans they couldn’t afford since at least 2004.

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When J.D. Power released the results of its customer satisfaction study for mortgage originations on Wednesday, there was a clear winner in Quicken Loans, which received 835 points on a 1,000-point scale.

But when it came to second place, the numbers were so close that both Bank of America and Chase claimed to have notched runner up honors.

As it turns out, however, the actual second place finisher was BoA with 807 points, followed closely by Chase with 805. And for what it’s worth, U.S. Bank was right on their heels with 802 points, good for a No. 4 ranking.

Image via flickr/Mike Mozart

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