News

U.S. employers added 214,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday morning. Economists had expected payrolls would increase by 240,000, a slight decline from September's preliminary estimate of 248,000 new jobs added.

The Legal League 100 Advisory Board met Wednesday in Washington, D.C., to plot the path forward for serving the default servicing and financial services legal community in the coming year.

International Document Services (IDS), a Salt Lake City, Utah-based mortgage document preparation vendor, announced the formation of an internal team with the sole function of developing and maintaining integrations between idsDoc, the IDS flagship document preparation system, and the company's third-party vendors.

Mortgage industry leaders gathered this week at the annually held National Property Preservation Conference (NPPC) to discuss some of the greatest challenges facing housing today and collaborate on how to tackle them head-on.

In its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, Freddie Mac reported the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) slid up to 4.02 percent (0.5 point) for the week ending November 6. It was the first time the 30-year fixed average measured above 4 percent in nearly a month.

According to a report released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the median price for an existing single-family home rose annually last quarter in 73 percent of the 172 major metros surveyed. That share was up slightly from the second quarter, when 71 percent of metros posted year-over-year gains.

In an analysis of housing affordability in 512 U.S. counties, RealtyTrac discovered that lowering the down payment for a conventional mortgage loan from 20 percent to 3 percent would still not translate to housing affordability for a majority of those with non-mortgage debt such as student loans or a car payment.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are set to send another $6.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury after posting a mild increase in profits for the third quarter. By the end of this year, the two GSEs, which have been in conservatorship since 2008, will have returned a combined $225.5 billion to taxpayers.

In a report released Thursday, real estate data firm RealtyTrac revealed that 33.9 percent of single-family home and condo sales last quarter were transacted in cash, down from 36.9 percent in the second quarter and flat from last year.

The number of jobs in the private sector increased by 230,000 from September to October, according to the latest report from ADP. October's growth was the highest since June and the second highest so far this year, said ADP's president and CEO, Carlos Rodriguez.