News

A survey released by Redfin showed that nearly half the company's Northeast agents and about 40 percent of its Midwest agents believe competition among buyers will be far more fierce this spring. The bedrock of these beliefs lies in a combination of low inventory and an end to the winter hibernation among potential buyers in areas hit hard by the 2013-14 winter.

Single-family home sales dropped in Massachusetts last month, with inventory and seasonal factors fingered as the culprit.

A Florida bank has seen its residential loan volume grow more than 200 percent since automating its processes through OpenClose’s multi-channel lending automation platform, the origination technology provider announced.

Realtor.com released Thursday its list of the top markets for first-time homebuyers for the spring and summer seasons. To compile the list, analysts compared cities across five categories that have the biggest impact on buyers new to the market: list price affordability, time on market, employment rates, supply of inventory (and thus chances of competition), and—as the mantra goes—location, location, location.

Home prices increased over the month and year in February in the majority of the 42 counties reviewed in DataQuick’s latest Property Intelligence Report. Home sales increased in the majority of the large counties over the month but not over the year, according to DataQuick. “While we saw a slight uptick from the extremely low sales levels reported in January, total sales remain far below historical levels,” said Gordon Crawford, VP of analytics at DataQuick.

Freddie Mac released Wednesday its first Multi-Indicator Market Index, a gauge of market stability based on current levels of purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios, on-time mortgage payments, and employment. Based on a neutral, stable "0" point, the market in January sat at a score of -3.08, according to the index. However, that's still an improvement compared to the prior month and year.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Performance Report for Q4, independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks took in an average profit of $150 on each loan they originated, a record low. That number was down from $743 per loan in Q3. “Fourth-quarter production profits were at their lowest levels since [the] inception of the Performance Report in 2008,” said Marina Walsh, MBA’s VP of industry analysis.

In Tennessee, Churchill Mortgage announced the promotions of industry experts Pamela Kennedy, Nancy McMahan, and Jeanna Tidwell to key leadership positions.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the increase in real GDP last quarter mostly reflected positive contributions from consumer spending, exports, and nonresidential fixed investment. Those gains were partly offset by drags in federal government spending and expenditures on housing. The latest growth estimate was an improvement over BEA’s second report, which suggested 2.4 percent annualized growth.

In its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, Freddie Mac reported an increase of 8 basis points in the 30-year fixed average rate, bringing up to 4.40 percent for the week ending March 27. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac, explained the increase: “Mortgage rates rose following the uptick on the 10-year Treasury note after comments by the Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen indicated a possible increase in interest rates as soon as early 2015.”