News

In its latest market update, Zillow reported that the number of for-sale homes nationwide rose 15.8 percent year-over-year in October. While the increase may be welcome news for home shoppers in some of the country's most supply-starved metros, the number comes with a catch: The biggest gains were seen in the highest price tier of homes.

Solutionstar, a subsidiary of Texas-based Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, announced Friday it has entered into an agreement to acquire Experience 1, Inc., the holding company for Title365 and two other technology subsidiaries in a $36 million cash deal.

At the direction of their conservator, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced on Thursday updates to their life-of-loan representation and warranty framework in order to provide clarity for lenders regarding the potential risk for repurchase.

Delivering comments to a group of REO brokers and agents, Ed Delgado, president and CEO of the Five Star Institute, offered his take on how the stage is set for the mortgage sector in 2015. "There are several embedded risks in the mortgage market that pose future risk of performance that have yet to be expressed," Delgado remarked. "In effect, the market may not be recovering at the rate that we think it is."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed on Thursday an additional set of measures designed to expand foreclosure protections for mortgage borrowers.

In its Primary Mortgage Market Survey, Freddie Mac recorded the average 30-year fixed interest rate at 3.99 percent (0.5 point) for the week ending November 20, just down from an average of 4.01 percent last week. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.22 percent.

In its latest Origination Insight Report, released Thursday, mortgage technology provider Ellie Mae reported that refinancing activity accounted for 40 percent of overall mortgage volume in October, marking the highest level since March. Despite the increase in demand, lenders were able to improve their closing time on refinance loans.

Total existing-home sales in October, including single-family houses, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.26 million, up 1.5 percent from an upwardly revised estimate of 5.18 million in September, according to transaction data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Home flipping sales, or those in which a home is purchased and sold within 12 months, represented 4 percent of all single-family home sales in the United States in the third quarter, a decline from 4.6 percent in Q2 2014 and from 5.6 percent in the third quarter of 2013, according to RealtyTrac.

According to a report from Bloomberg, lawyers for both sides told a judge on Tuesday they’re doubtful about the chances of reaching an agreement on a suit alleging the bank fraudulently submitted loans for insurance through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).