News

The steady housing improvement seen in Illinois throughout 2012 is poised to continue in 2013, if January's numbers are anything to go on. According to the Illinois Association of Realtors, statewide home sales (including single-family homes and condominiums) totaled 8,502 in January, up 31.1 percent from 6,484 in January 2012.

Florida's housing market continued its upswing into the new year, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors. Statewide closed sales of existing single-family homes totaled 13,679 in January, up 11.7 percent year-over-year, the group reported. Meanwhile, pending sales--contracts signed but not yet completed or closed--for existing single-family homes rose 31 percent.

Interthinx's Predictive Analytics group published a white paper outlining recommendations for conducting stress testing on retail lending portfolios.

Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group is maintaining its outlook for slow and steady growth in 2013.

Fixed mortgage rates moved up just a smidgen this week, according to surveys from Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance jumped 20,000 to 362,000 for the week ending February 16, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected 359,000 initial unemployment claims. The spike in filings--the largest in three weeks--marked a reversal of what had been a downward trend in layoffs.

Mortgage application volume continued to decline last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 15. The survey's Market Composite Index, a measure of application volume, fell 1.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week. On an unadjusted basis, the index fell 1.0 percent. According to the MBA's measure, the average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.78 percent last week, the highest rate since August 2012.

Carrington Technology Solutions, LLC (Carrington) and Equator, a default servicing technology provider, teamed up to provide financial institutions, institutional investors, and large-scale property management companies with a single-family asset management suite created to maximize the performance of multiple-property portfolios.

WNC, a national investor in real estate and community development initiatives, announced Anil Advani rejoined the firm as SVP of private label funds. Advani is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with private label investors, as well as managing the closing process of WNC's private label funds.

MountainView Servicing Group, a provider of residential MSR sale and valuation advisory services, released its Enhanced Comparative SRP Analysis for secondary marketing.