The newest Price Monitor report from Trulia shows asking prices are heating up along with the weather. The company reported a 10.7 percent year-over-year increase and a 1.5 percent month-over-month improvement. Trulia also tracked the 100 largest metro areas and revealed 99 markets experienced an increase in asking prices over the last year. According to Trulia's chief economist Jed Kolko, the increase in home prices and mortgage rates has added a significant cost to homeownership.
Read More »Fitch Analyzes GSE Credit Risk as Risk-Sharing Transactions Approach
In an effort to help investors "evaluate upcoming credit-sensitive securitization proposals from the GSEs," Fitch Ratings completed an analysis of credit performance data in a recent report.
Read More »Micoley.com to Host Online Auction for Illinois Properties
Micoley.com is hosting an online auction featuring 20 residential and multifamily properties in Northwest Illinois.
Read More »Butler & Hosch Acquires Assets from Former Prommis Subsidiaries
Butler & Hosch, P.A., a multistate law firm focused on the legal needs of the mortgage banking industry, purchased the majority of assets from three former subsidiaries of Prommis Solutions, which filed for bankruptcy in March.
Read More »60% of Homeowners Planning for Home Improvements
A recent survey by Zillow Digs found 60 percent of respondents have some kind of plan in the works for a home improvement project this summer. The median budget for homeowners who are planning projects was $1,200, though owners with children and those 54 years of age and younger plan to spend a bit more, with a median of $1,500. To get ideas for projects, online sources were the most frequently utilized, with 37 percent turning to the web for inspiration.
Read More »Report: Rising Rates No Threat to Recovery
While experts at Capital Economics don't believe the recent rise in mortgage rates will be enough to derail the recovery entirely, it does bring some difficulties with it.
Read More »Fannie, Freddie Rated as ‘Critical Concerns’ for FHFA
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) labeled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as "critical concerns" in the composite rating category for 2012. FHFA noted the GSEs generated positive annual income in 2012, a first since 2006, with Fannie Mae bringing in more than $17 billion in earnings and Freddie Mac reporting net income of $11 billion in 2012. Credit risk, though, remained a critical concern for the GSEs, unchanged from 2011. The report also noted that troubled assets are still at high levels.
Read More »HARP Refinances Stay on Pace in Q1
In March, the GSEs refinanced close to 100,000 loans through HARP, bringing the program total since the 2009 inception to nearly 2.4 million.
Read More »First Quarter Sees Significant Decline in Underwater Borrowers
Significant improvements in home values helped lift 850,000 borrowers out of negative equity in the first quarter, CoreLogic reported. Overall, 9.7 million borrowers, or 19.8 percent of all residential mortgages, were underwater in the first quarter of 2013, down from 10.5 million, or 21.7 percent of all mortgages, according to the data provider's estimate.
Read More »Analysts Forecast Price Gains, Wave Off Bubble Fears
The pace at which home prices are rising should moderate later this year, according to an analysis from Capital Economics.
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