Headlines

Guild Mortgage Company announced a new addition to its more than 200-branch network with the opening of its first office in the state of Arkansas.

In March, 63.4 percent of offers written by Redfin agents across 19 markets faced competition from other buyers, the national brokerage reported. While that percentage is up a few points from February—owing in some part to more favorable weather—it’s a full 10 percentage points down compared to March 2013.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, an award-winning diversified mortgage services company operating in the Dallas area, announced the promotion of veteran Eshna Ghosh to the newly created position of SVP of business development.

Even a slight drop in mortgage rates did both bolster February refinances through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported. Representing 21 percent of all refinances the GSEs completed in February, 26,964 HARP refinances were completed over the month, according to the FHFA's latest Refinance Report.

California-based LRES, a national residential and commercial financial services provider, announced the latest version of their DirectConnect framework.

In a report issued earlier this week, Fitch Ratings announced it is tapering its forecast for 2014 in acknowledgement of what has so far been a “subpar spring selling season.” Sales of both new and existing homes in March fell short of expectations, dashing optimistic projections of a rebound following the end of an unusually harsh winter. Housing starts also disappointed as homebuilders remain concerned about the shape of the market.

Average down payments for mortgages are on the decline, lending a little bit of relief for affordability-challenged homebuyers around the country. According to a report released this week by LendingTree, down payment percentages for 30-year fixed-rate purchase loans fell in the first quarter to an average of 15.78 percent, down from just higher than 16 percent in the last quarter of 2013.

On Thursday, RealtyTrac released its Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report, which showed modest gains in U.S. residential sales in March. The firm reported that March showed a 0.4 percent uptick in overall transactions compared to February and a full 8 percent increase over sales in March 2013. RealtyTrac’s data clashes with other reports released this week about March sales.

Collateral Risk Solutions (CRS), a specialist in value assurance since 2001, announced the launch of its new Desktop Evaluation service as a response to demand for a reliable and economic alternative to field appraisals.

Despite soft housing news, mortgage rates experienced a moderate increase ahead of next week’s economic policy update from the Federal Open Market Committee. According to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate came up to 4.33 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending April 24, up from 4.27 percent in the previous week.