The Federal Housing Finance Agency's monthly Home Price Index showed prices continued to inch up in September, climbing 0.2 percent from the prior month. September marks the eighth consecutive month in which prices have increased. However, even with consistent price gains, "a number of factors continue to affect the recovery in home prices such as stagnant income growth, high unemployment levels, lingering uncertainty about the macroeconomy, and the large number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline."
Read More »Beige Book Illustrates Economic Fractures
The economy, according to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, expanded "at a measured pace" in seven of the 12 federal reserve districts--Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco. There was also "a somewhat stronger increase in activity" in Minneapolis and St. Louis. However, Boston and New York showed slower growth and weaker conditions attributable to Hurricane Sandy, and Philadelphia reported "general weakness that was exacerbated" by the storm. According to the Beige Book, business leaders and others "expressed concern and uncertainty about the federal budget, especially the fiscal cliff."
Read More »Michigan AG Files Felony Charge Against Former DocX President
Lorraine Brown's legal drama continues as Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette announced the filing of a felony charge against the former DocX president. Brown is being charged with one count of conducting criminal enterprises (racketeering) for her alleged role in authorizing the fraudulent signing of mortgage documents filed in the state.
Read More »Companies Partner, Develop Cloud-Based Mortgage Valuation Software
Level1Loans and IntraPrise Solutions, Inc., announced a new joint venture to provide cloud-based mortgage valuation and other financial modeling software to owners and managers of mortgage and mortgage-related assets.
Read More »Survey: Americans Feel Less Financially Secure Than a Year Ago
Consumer sentiment regarding personal finances was down in November, indicating Americans foster a more negative perception about their own finances than they did last year, according to Bankrate's Financial Security Index. Bankrate measures financial security in five categories: debt, net worth, savings, job security, and overall financial situation. Net worth was the one category in which Americans seem to feel somewhat better than they did last year.
Read More »SharperLending, ARC Partner to Enhance Appraisal Services
SharperLending LLC announced enhancements to its Appraisal Firewall platform with a new technical integration to American Reporting Company (ARC).
Read More »Capdominus Reports Increased Commercial Financing in Q4
Colorado-based Capdominus, the largest Web-based capital markets platform for commercial real estate (CRE) finance, announced that the total volume of CRE financings on its platform has turned up sharply in the final months of the year.
Read More »Singer’s Beverly Hills Home, Soccer Field Lists for $3.6M
British crooner Robbie Williams has put his stateside pad in Beverly Hills, California, on the market. According to RealEstalker, Williams listed the expansive estate, which comes with its own soccer field, for $3.6 million.
Read More »NFCU Projects $10B in Mortgage Closings for 2012
In Virginia, Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) is celebrating the final weeks of the year with record closing volume. Recently announcing that the organization's total mortgage loan closings for October hit $1 billion, NFCU reported that year-to-date, it has made more than $8.3 billion in mortgage-related funding available to consumers.
Read More »October New Home Sales Dip, September Revised Downward
New home sales barely budged in October, dropping 0.3 percent to 368,000 after September's report was revised sharply downward from an original 389,000 to 369,000 the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected the report to show a sales pace of 387,000. Even with the slow growth in October, sales are up 17.2 percent from October 2011. However, the year-over-year gain was weaker than the 25.3 percent annual growth reported for September.
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