News

Redfin released its latest market summary, which sees the combination of sales, prices, foot traffic, and inventory as positive signs heading into the fall. "After an abysmal first quarter that drove a disappointing first half, housing will be playing catch-up for the year," said Nela Richardson, Redfin's chief economist. "Though it won't be a seamless transition, we believe the housing market is positioning itself for a stronger finish in the second half of the year."

In its monthly National Housing Report, RE/MAX observed another month-to-month climb in transaction levels, marking the fourth straight month of increases following a poor showing at the start of the year. All 52 surveyed metros reported monthly gains. While sales figures remain down nearly 2 percent compared to June 2013, the company says the year-over-year difference is the smallest one recorded year-to-date.

While the time it took to close a loan in June increased just slightly from the previous month, the closing rate reached a record high of 61 percent, according to Ellie Mae's Origination Insight Report. Among loans originated 90 days before the report, 60.7 percent closed in June, the report states. This is up from 57.8 percent in May. "Clearly, lenders are working harder than ever to convert and close loans," said Jonathan Corr, president and COO of Ellie Mae.

The CFPB this week proposed a new rule to allow consumers that post complaints the option to opine on the details on its public-facing database. The banking and servicing community is concerned at the idea, with the Consumer Bankers Association's CEO, Richard Hunt, commenting that the proposed system runs the risk of being too one-sided.

USRES, a management solutions provider for real estate assets, announced a new security enhancement to its proprietary Valuation Portal.

Freddie Mac released Thursday the results of its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, showing the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) coming in at an interest rate of 4.13 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending July 17. Bankrate.com's survey was similarly flat, with both the 30- and 15-year fixed averages falling 1 basis point each.

Market trends across the United States indicate a recovering real estate market—but not a bubble—according to the latest Home Value Forecast from Pro Teck Valuation Services. According to the forecast, the housing economy is in healthy rebound, so much so that even the markets showing the greatest appreciation are not near 2006 figures, when the market was at its historical peak.

In a conference call Tuesday,JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon took the time to single out FHA-backed lending as a source of risk for the megabank. "[T]he real question is should we be in the FHA business at all? We're still struggling with that," Dimon said. "Until they come up with some kind of safe harbors or something, we're going to be very, very cautious in that line of business."

According to a joint report from HUD and the Census Bureau, groundbreaking on new homes was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 893,000, a drop of 9.3 percent below May's revised annual rate of 985,000. Declines came on both sides of the market: Single-family starts came to a rate of 575,000, down 9.0 percent, according to the report, while multifamily starts fell 9.9 percent to a 318,000 rate.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's might be looking to strike a deal of up to $1 billion with the government to settle a suit filed last year, the Wall Street Journal reports. The suit alleges that S&P "knowingly and with the intent to defraud, devised, participated in, and executed a scheme to defraud investors" in collateralized debt obligations and securities backed by residential mortgages between September 2004 and October 2007.