Tag Archives: Investors

Redfin's Real-Time Bidding Wars report shows 58.3 percent of offers written by Redfin agents across the country faced bidding wars in September, down from 60.5 percent in August. Last September, 62.7 percent of offers faced competing bids. With competition diminishing, Redfin has also observed a fall in the number of homes selling at above asking price. On average across all tracked markets, buyers paid 0.4 percent below asking price (compared to 0.3 percent in August).

Depressed construction activity is expected to continue weighing down both housing and the larger economy, Freddie Mac predicts in its latest Economic and Housing Outlook.

Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS) announced that Paul Lee has been named CFO.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey shows loan application volume fell a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent for the week ending October 18.

While the government works toward GSE reform, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), a financial services provider; says reform for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) should also be a top concern.

Five federal agencies issued Tuesday a statement assuring creditors that they do not run the risk of being found in violation of fair lending laws should they choose to only originate qualified mortgages (QM) as defined earlier in the year. With creditors having to consider a balance of secondary market opportunities, capital requirements, and credit and liability risk, regulators say they expect there will be a need for most businesses to fine-tune their products in response--something they should be used to.

The Census Bureau put construction spending at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $915.1 billion in August, a slight increase over July's spending. On the private side, the Census estimated construction spending was at an adjusted rate of $640.5 billion, 0.7 percent above the revised July estimate of $636.1 billion. Private residential construction spending was $340.2 billion, a 1.2 percent increase from July and an 18.7 percent increase from August 2012.

Capital Economics is ready to acknowledge that rising mortgage rates may provide more drag than the firm's analysts first thought.

ValuTrac Software, a software solutions provider to the appraisal management and mortgage lending industry, announced the hiring of David Yavorsky as the company's new CIO.

The unemployment rate edged down to 7.2 percent in September as the economy added 148,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed in its monthly Employment Situation Report. The report, released weeks late as a result of the partial government shutdown, also showed revisions in job growth for July (down from 104,000 to 89,000) and August (up from 169,000 to 193,000).