Existing-Home Sales Show Strong Gain Existing-home sales rose unexpectedly while inventory declined, led by a surge of sales in the West, according to the National Association of Realtors. Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – jumped 6.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.74 million units in December... Full Story
Pending Home Sales Show Healthy Gain Pending home sales increased as more buyers took advantage of improved affordability conditions, according to the National Association of Realtors. Big gains in the South and Midwest offset modest declines in other regions. Full Story
Freddie Mac Launches New Workout Plan for High Risk Loans Freddie Mac said it is piloting a new Workout Strategy For High Risk Loans designed to keep more at-risk borrowers in their homes by employing third party servicers that specialize in servicing Alt A and other types of higher risk mortgages. Full Story
Equity Cash-Out At Eight-Year Low In the fourth quarter of 2008, U.S. homeowners cashed out $17.5 billion in home equity through the refinance of prime first-lien mortgages, the lowest amount since the first quarter of 2001, according to Freddie Mac's quarterly refinance review. Full Story
Home Buyer Tax Credit Will Create 255,000 Jobs, Study Shows The $15,000 home buyer tax credit, which is an integral part of the economic stimulus legislation adopted by the Senate, will result in nearly 500,000 additional home sales and create 255,000 new jobs in the year ahead, according to research conducted by one industry trade group. Full Story
Should You Advise Your Client To Pay Points? By Scott Messina How many times have you answered the question – "Should I pay points?" If you've been in the business for any length of time, it seems like you've answered this question a million times. However, based on some new research, perhaps you haven't always been giving the correct answer. Full Story
Interest
Rates and Origination Volume
The Mortgage Market This Week Tuesday, February 17, 2009 Mortgage Market Live After an early close on Friday, rates ended slightly higher than where they began the week. The week ahead will be abbreviated as the market remains closed on Monday in observance of President's Day. But even though it will be a short week, the economic calendar is still fairly active. So what's in store for rates? Read on to find out Full Story
Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Wednesday, February 25, 2009 The Mortgage Bankers Association released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 20, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 743.5, a decrease of 15.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 875.3 one week earlier. Full Story
Mortgage Rates Little Changed This Week Thursday, February 26, 2009 Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.07 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending February 26, 2009, up from last week when it averaged 5.04 percent. Full Story
Ellie Mae and Loan-Score To Integrate Platforms Monday, February 09, 2009 Ellie Mae Ellie Mae will be integrating Loan-Score's product and pricing solution, Power Pricer, with Ellie Mae's Encompass Mortgage Management Solution, Banker Edition. Full Story
S&P Slashes Thousands of RMBS Ratings Wednesday, February 04, 2009 Standard & Poor’s Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its ratings to 'D' on 737 classes of mortgage pass-through certificates from 516 U.S. subprime residential mortgage-backed securities transactions from various issuers. Full Story
