Santa Ana's Stearns Lending, Inc., a nationwide mortgage lending institution, announced its inclusion on Mortgagestats.com's list of the 2012 Top 20 Residential Lenders Ranked by Volume.
Read More »LRES Announces Enhancements to Vendor Portal Website
LRES announced new features to its vendor portal website intended to grant licensed appraisers the ability to manage their property appraisal orders more efficiently.
Read More »LPS: Home Prices Up 1% in February
Lender Processing Services' (LPS) Home Price Index rose 1 percent in February to $210,000, the company reported. Currently, prices are 20.6 percent below the June 2006 peak of $265,000. California cities dominated the top 10 list for metro area price gains, with 9 out of ten metros representing the state. Price decreases were also concentrated. According to LPS data, five out of the six states where prices fell month-over-month were in Connecticut.
Read More »Carrington Mortgage Services Extends 25-Day Loan Closing Program
In Santa Ana, California, Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC announced plans to extend its retail operation's 25-Day Loan Closing program. Under the program, Carrington commits to process any qualifying loan (from the time a file is submitted to underwriting to the time that it funds) within 25 calendar days, or the company will apply a closing cost credit of $500 to the loan once it closes.
Read More »Bank Failure Count Hits 10 to End April
This year's bank failure tally rose to double digits over the weekend with the collapse of two more federally insured institutions. FDIC announced the closing of Parkway Bank in Lenoir, North Carolina, and Douglas County Bank in Douglasville, Georgia, bringing the total number of bank closings this year to 10. While this year has been slower in terms of bank failures, April has seen the pace pick up, with more than half of the year's closings occurring this month alone.
Read More »Pending Home Sales Climb in March, Progress Slows
The National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose 1.5 percent to 105.7 in March, the highest level in almost three years, the group reported.
Read More »Slow Wage Growth Holds Down March Personal Income
Restrained by slow wage growth, personal income rose a disappointing $30.9 billion (0.2 percent) in March--half of what economists expected--as spending rose $21.0 billion or 0.2 percent, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Monday. Economists had expected income to improve 0.4 percent in February and spending to increase 0.1 percent. Personal income had improved $15.2 billion in February, largely on the strength of an $80 billion increase in dividend payments. Dividend payments in March increased by $4.5 billion over February.
Read More »Commentary: What’s Up (or Down) With Housing?
The numbers and headlines last week offered mixed signals: Existing-home sales dropped month-to-month as the median price increased, while another report showed new home sales fell as the median price increased.
Read More »Redfin: Sellers Showing More Faith in Market
According to responses collected by Redfin, 45 percent of sellers believe now is a good time to sell, up from just 22 percent in the first quarter and 15 percent in last year's fourth quarter. At the same time, 44 percent say now is a good time buy, down from 54 percent last quarter. Having survived the slower cold season, homeowners were also a little more optimistic about future home price increases. Seventy percent of those surveyed expect prices will rise "a little" in their area in the next year, while 15 percent anticipate prices will rise "a lot."
Read More »FHFA: Mortgage Rates, Loan Values Increase in March
Mortgage rates, loan values, loan terms, and loan-to-price ratios all rose in March, according to a report released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
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