Tag Archives: Attorneys & Title Companies

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is bringing down loan limits on single-family mortgages next year, HUD announced Friday. According to the announcement, FHA's revised ceiling for single-family loan limits will come down to $625,000 from $729,750. "As the housing market continues its recovery, it is important for FHA to evaluate the role we need to play," said FHA Commissioner Carol Galante. "Implementing lower loan limits is an important and appropriate step as private capital returns to portions of the market."

Valuations expert Craig Zielazny has jointed Platinum Data Solutions to help build out its automated valuation model (AVM) offerings, the company announced.

Freddie Mac's mortgage book of business declined at an annualized rate of 6.4 percent in October, marking the fourth consecutive month of declines.

Rising prices may be bringing some homeowners out from underwater, but tight credit will still preclude many traditional buyers from the market, according to a recent report from DataQuick.

Online marketplace Trulia released the latest findings from its Price and Rent Monitor reports, showing a shift in market trends as the housing market prepares for 2014. While price increases for the last few months have slowed down at the national level, numbers suggest the greatest drag is coming from the same markets that only a few months ago were giving the biggest boost to the market. "Price gains are cooling in 2013's hottest markets ... but heating up in markets that haven't been in the limelight," said Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko.

In St. Louis, Mortgage Returns unveiled a number of enhancements to its services, furthering the company's efforts to help originators maximize their return on investment (ROI) by marketing more effectively to customers, prospects, and referral partners.

The national unemployment rate sank from 7.3 percent to 7.0 percent in November, with 203,000 new jobs added to employer payrolls, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday.

Private mortgage insurers reported issuing more policies in October than in the month prior--but dollar volume decreased over the month, according to monthly numbers released by Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA). Member companies represented in the trade group's statistics reported issuing 38,908 insurance certificates for borrowers seeking to buy or refinance a home in October. At the same time, dollar volume on insurance written throughout the month totaled $8.7 billion, the lowest amount since May 2012.

Zillow expects conditions next year to be a bit friendlier to homebuyers--but that doesn't mean we'll necessarily see more owner-occupied housing, experts at the real estate marketplace say. Looking at ongoing trends, Zillow made four major predictions about the course of housing over 2014: a 3 percent increase in home values, a rise in mortgage rates to 5 percent, a clearer road to credit for borrowers, and a decline in homeownership to normal levels.

Joseph A. Smith, the monitor overseeing servicers' compliance with last year's National Mortgage Settlement, filed reports on how the institutions involved with the settlement are dealing with the agreement. "My testing confirmed six fails in the first quarter of 2013 and one in the second quarter of 2013," Smith said in a statement issued Wednesday, adding that the "banks are all taking action to address the failures through detailed corrective action plans."