News

The price premium attached to newly-built homes has fallen over the past six months, Capital Economics observed.

After having a banner week at the end of September, mortgage applications decreased to start October, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released a revised GSE Strategic Plan for the years 2013-2017 Tuesday.

Federal officials jointly announced Tuesday the results of the Distressed Homeowner Initiative, which is the first nationwide effort focusing on fraud schemes that targets struggling homeowners. Their efforts so far have led to 530 criminal defendants (including 172 executives) being charged in 285 federal criminal indictments. The cases involved more than 73,000 homeowner victims, and losses are estimated to be in excess of $1 billion.

Wells Fargo faces federal charges for alleged misconduct and fraud related to its role as a direct endorsement lender for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) over a span of more than 10 years. The civil lawsuit was filed Tuesday in a Manhattan federal court and alleges Wells Fargo falsely certified the credit and underwriting quality of thousands of FHA loans it originated which later defaulted, costing the federal agency hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hayden Christensen, most famous for his role in the modern interpretation of the Star Wars films, is selling his Los Angeles abode. The actor's posh pad, located in the Studio City area, sits on three-quarters of an acre and is listed for $2.65 million.

The directorship of the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) has appointed a new leader for the company. Naming Timothy L. Buzby as as president and CEO, Farmer Mac's board announced that the industry veteran's term was effective immediately.

Mortgage fraud reports dropped year-over-year by more than 40 percent in the second quarter even as total suspicious activity rose, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reported in a release. The network revealed 17,476 filers submitted mortgage loan fraud (MLF) suspicious activity reports (SARs) in the year's second quarter, a 41 percent drop from 29,558 reports during the same period in 2011. Reports related to MLF made up an 8 percent share of all SAR reports.

R.J. Arnett will be taking the reins at ICON Residential Lending as EVP of wholesale lending, the California-based originator announced. In his newly-created position at ICON, Arnett oversees the national sales force with a nationwide network of mortgage brokers.

Envoy Mortgage is expanding its business with the launch of its new National Builder Division platform. The independent, full-service mortgage banking firm wants to get in on the resurgence in the homebuilder market segment by offering targeted products and services to meet their specific needs.