News

According to Interest.com's 2014 Home Affordability Study, middle-income families can afford a median-priced home in fewer than half of the country's 25 largest metros as house prices and mortgage rates outpace wage growth. While home price gains have slowed to a more reasonable rate of 4 percent nationally over the past year, that increase is still well ahead of the 2 percent pickup in incomes.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported that 61.8 percent of new and existing homes sold from July through September were affordable to American households earning the median U.S. income of $63,900. That was down from the 62.6 percent of homes sold that were affordable to median-income earners in the second quarter.

According to data released Thursday by CoreLogic DataQuick, sales statewide—including all sales of single-family houses and condos—totaled 36,830 last month, up 1.4 percent from 36,316 in September. A year ago, sales in the Golden State came to 36,468, down 1.0 percent from the most recent data.

MBA released on Thursday its Builder Applications Survey for October, revealing an 8 percent monthly pickup in new home purchase applications after a flat September. Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the group, noted that the biggest increase came in applications for higher-priced homes.

loanDepot, one of the nation's largest nonbank mortgage lenders, is set to acquire super-regional mortgage firm Mortgage Master in a deal expected to close early next year, the companies announced.

Freddie's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, shows the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) coming in at an average interest rate of 4.01 percent (0.5 point) for the week ending November 13, just down from last week's average of 4.02 percent.

Mortgage finance customers in the last year rated their experience as a C-plus, according to a recent report from J.D. Power, with overall satisfaction averaging 786 on a 1,000-point scale. That compares to a rating of 771 in the company's 2013 survey.

Speaking at an investor conference in New York, BofA chief Brian Moynihan said his firm—frequently listed among the top five mortgage lenders in the nation—has little incentive "to try to create more mortgage availability where the customers are susceptible to default."

In a lawsuit filed earlier this week, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) charged Deutsche Bank National Trust Company with negligence in its role as trustee for 121 residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) trusts, leading to the collapse of five corporate credit unions.

Lewisville, Texas-based Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. has announced the hiring of Kal Raman, a leading technology executive, as CEO of the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Solutionstar.