Shooting in ERA office

A gunman entered a real estate office in Seminole, Florida and opened fire a few hours ago, killing one person and wounding another before apparently killing himself, according to AP.

The incident occurred inside ERA Professional Realtors on Seminole Boulevard. A man inside was killed and a woman was wounded.

The gunman was found dead, a suspected suicide, according to AP.

A real estate agent who works out of the office said the company had a meeting Wednesday and "everyone was fine," according to the AP report.

E-Loan profits sink

Online consumer-direct lender E-Loan's profit plunged from $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2002 to just to $200,000 in the fourth quarter of last year due to a rapid decline in the mortgage refinance business, the company said today. The lender also announced the resignation and replacement of president and COO Joe Kennedy.  more...

BridgeSpan enters bankruptcy

BridgeSpan, a Texas-based mortgage technology company, has filed for bankruptcy.

The Frisco, Texas, corporation and its California title company subsidiary filed separate voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code with the U.S. Bankruptcy court in the Northern District of California in San Jose.

The bankruptcies are intended to facilitate a restructuring of the parent company's and subsidiary's businesses, the company said in a statement.  more...

OFHEO ups Freddie's capital requirements

Armando Falcon Jr., director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, today directed Freddie Mac to maintain a mandatory target capital surplus of 30 percent over its minimum capital requirement. The regulator also said the corporation must seek OFHEO's advance approval for certain corporate transactions and file weekly reports that include its projected capital position and other information.  more...

Mortgage rates rise on Fed speculation

Mortgage rates this week inched slightly higher on news the economy may be on a swift rebound, according to surveys conducted by mortgage buyer Freddie Mac and Bankrate.

In Freddie Mac's weekly survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.68 percent for the week ended today, up slightly from 5.64 percent last week.

The average for the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage this week is 4.97 percent, up very slightly from last week's average of 4.95 percent. Points on both the 30- and 15-year averaged 0.7.  more...

Illinois, Ohio set home-sale records

Home sales for 2003 in Illinois and Ohio shattered the previous year's record by an average 6.5 percent, according to surveys conducted by Realtor associations in both states.

Rounding out a banner year for home sales with December's figures up 1.8 percent, 2003 fulfilled the predictions of industry economists by breaking last year's record for sales of existing, single-family homes in Illinois. According to the latest survey by the Illinois Association of Realtors, a total of 120,674 sales have been reported year-to-date for 2003, up 5.3 percent from 114,601 sales in 2002.  more...

GMAC forms alliance with HMS National

HMS National and GMAC Real Estate today announced an alliance that enables GMAC Real Estate's more than 20,000 sales associates to offer the company's own branded home protection plan to their home-buying and -selling clients.  more...

California Realtors get 'safe-calling' kit

The California Association of Realtors today announced the launch of its Safe-Calling Compliance Kit for real estate professionals, which aims to help brokers and real estate office managers train their personnel to comply with the safe-harbor provision of federal do-not-call regulations. The safe harbor provision aims to help protect a business from lawsuits seeking to enforce violations for phone calls made to numbers listed in the national Do-Not-Call Registry.  more...

Overnight interest rates flat

Long-term mortgage interest rates were mostly unchanged Wednesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.19 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average dipped slightly to 5.33 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate remained at 4.62 percent. The 1-year adjustable was down slightly at 3.24 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 5 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  more...