Tag Archives: Valuation

Dashing hopes for a more moderate fall, existing-home sales rolled downhill by 3.5 percent in July, with single-family sales hitting a seasonally adjusted 4.67-million annual rate. The National Association of Realtors ascribed the new numbers to tight underwriting practices, a crimped credit supply, and sluggish job creation. The NAR, which released an existing-home sales report Thursday, held that single-family townhomes, condominiums, and coops dropped from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.84 million units over June.

Standard & Poor's debt downgrades rubbed salt in U.S. wounds over a dysfunctional political system, but now it may be the ratings agency's turn to blink in the negative spotlight. A New York Times story alleges that the federal government plans to investigate whether S&P played fast and loose with ratings for mortgage-backed securities before the Great Recession. According to the Times, the Justice Department has undertaken an investigation to determine whether S&P gave insufficient attention to the now infamous financial products.

Volatile markets and low home sales are colluding to force mortgage rates to historic lows and sellers to mark off home prices, making actual home purchases less expensive than renting in cities across the United States. Buying a home fell below renting costs in 74 percent of the country's 50 largest cities over July, with 12 percent of cities seeing higher price tags for apartments than for houses, according to real estate Web site Trulia. Bottom line: Peak numbers for home affordability make closing on rates a better deal.

Better credit and revenue health seem to be the influencing factors behind strong quarterly earnings reports from BOK Financial Corporation. The company├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós net interest revenue rose by nearly $4 million between the first and second quarters of this year, while revenue from fees and commissions also increased by over $4 million.

Fifth Third Bancorp had a great spring season, judging by the company├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós scorching second quarter numbers. The bank estimates its quarterly results were the best on record since 2007, and the dramatic, 58 percent increase in mortgage banking revenue between the first and second quarters of this year contributed heavily to the company├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós recent success. Total net income during Fifth Third's second quarter was $337 million, demonstrating a significant rise quarter-over-quarter.

ProTeck Valuation Services and American Mortgage Consultants are teaming up to deliver advanced real estate tools, and ProTeck will now provide real estate valuation and reconciliation via AMC.

Tech leaders a la mode and CoreLogic are teaming up. CoreLogic├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós ValuEdge platform will now connect with a la mode├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós Mercury Network to facilitate ValuEdge's Native XML appraisal data. CoreLogic's ValuEdge software targets streamlined appraisal process compliance, and the integrated plugin with a la mode will provide CoreLogic with additional quality control elements and advanced bundling for all reports.

The real estate information marketplace Zillow has expanded its database of homes, leveraging user-submitted data to add more than 25 million new home valuations generated from the company's proprietary Zestimate algorithms, which are Zillow's own market value estimates based on various details available about individual properties. The company says it now has data, Zestimates, and Rent Zestimates on more than three-quarters of all homes in the United States.