Real estate rates break 6%

Long-term mortgage rates increased for the fifth consecutive week on brighter job market news and lingering inflation concerns, according to surveys conducted by Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com.

In Freddie Mac's survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.03 percent for the week ended today, up from last week's average of 5.98 percent. This is the highest the 30-year fixed has been since March 31 when it averaged 6.04 percent.  more...

Mortgage income tax deduction might be lowered

President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform next week is likely to propose a change in the deduction for home-mortgage interest that, if adopted by Congress, would have a drastic impact on regions with high housing prices, media reports said.

In a meeting Tuesday, the panel agreed to recommend lowering the limit, perhaps to the maximum mortgage that can be guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, according to reports.

Such a plan is not likely to pass Congress, reports said, but it could spark interest in changing the mortgage-interest deduction.

Fidelity buys LaSalle Bank's land trust business

Fidelity National Financial has acquired the land trust business assets of LaSalle Bank National Association, one of the nation's oldest providers of land trustee services, the company announced today.

Under the terms of the acquisition, the land trust business assets of LaSalle Bank will be merged into the current operations of Chicago Title Land Trust Co., creating the largest provider of land trustee services in the Eastern United States.  more...

Real estate survey reveals seller, agent views

Most home sellers and real estate agents agree that the asking price of the home should be set at 5 percent to 10 percent above what the seller would actually accept, according to a survey commissioned by RealEstate.com, which is owned an operated by LendingTree LLC.

The survey asked 500 recent home sellers and 100 active real estate agents about a variety of elements involved in selling a home.

About 65 percent of home sellers said that hiring a real estate agent to  more...

HUD extends no-down-payment mortgages to hurricane victims

The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday announced a new mortgage financing program that requires no down payment for people whose homes have been destroyed or damaged due to Hurricanes Katrina or Rita. In addition to requiring no down payment, potential homeowners can live anywhere they choose in the United States.  more...

New Web-based system launches for real estate loan servicers

LoanPerformance has released the beta version of TrueStandings Servicing, a Web-based analysis and reporting system for mortgage servicers, the company said today.

TrueStandings provides instant access to delinquency, prepayment and loan characteristics on more than 40 million active mortgage loans and offers additional access to a historical database of more than 100 million loans.

New features include:

• ZIP code-level reporting for more granular, localized analysis;  more...

Loan Runner launches sub-prime search engine

A new sub-prime search engine for mortgage professionals that provides multiple lenders' loan types, rates and yield spreads has launched.

The Loan Runner Loan Search Engine, a tool for brokers and originators, searches and analyzes sub-prime loan scenarios for numerous major lenders in seconds and displays all the loans, yield spread premiums and rates at once, the company said.

The search engineallows mortgage professionals to quote all loan types and rates for sub-prime clients and provides instant comparison from leadi  more...

Study: 40% of all U.S. residential properties have no mortgage

Nearly 40 percent of all residential properties in the United States, both owner-occupied and rental units are not mortgaged but are owned free and clear, a Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau study revealed today.

The new report, Residential Finance Survey: 2001, also said that because of the refinance boom and residential mobility, 60 percent of all mortgages in the United States for single-family properties originated within the four years prior to the survey.  more...

Overnight real estate rates tick higher

Long-term mortgage interest rates gained ground Wednesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield gained to 4.45 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.55 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate edged up to 5.13 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 4.15 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield advanced to 4.66 percent.

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