Cendant CEO increases stock ownership

Real estate franchise giant Cendant Corp. on Tuesday said its chairman and CEO Henry R. Silverman increased his stock ownership in the company by exercising about 5 million stock options that were set to expire on Jan. 22, 2006.

The transaction brings Silverman's overall direct share ownership in Cendant to 9.24 million shares, up from 8 million shares previously, and his option holding to 25 million options, which expire between 2007 and 2011, down from 30 million options.  more...

KB Home dives into high-density housing

KB Home today announced the creation of a new high-density and mixed-use division that will operate under the name KB Urban. KB Home, which delivered 31,646 homes in 2004 and is expected to deliver more than 38,000 this year, also announced it has named veteran real estate executive Jeffrey Gault as president of the new division.  more...

Fidelity earnings jump

Fidelity National Financial hit a homer in the third quarter, reporting net earnings of $1.21 per share, compared with $1.09 per share in the same quarter last year.

Increased title and escrow revenues drove the company's higher third-quarter profit.

Total revenue for the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company was $2.53 billion, compared with $2.16 billion for the third quarter of 2004. Total title and escrow revenue was $1.73 billion for the third quarter of 2005 versus $1.53 billion the previous year.  more...

Profits rise at First American

First American Corp., a provider of advanced property and ownership information, on Wednesday reported a rise in profit for the third quarter of 2005, aided by strong mortgage origination volume.

"The company's positive performance was affected by strong mortgage origination volume, particularly from purchase activity, as well as our ongoing commitment to maximize operating efficiencies, reduce costs and improve market share," said Parker S. Kennedy, chairman and chief executive officer of The First American Corp., in a statement.  more...

ZipForm launches concierge service for home utilities

ZipForm, a real estate technology company, has launched a new service called ZipFormConcierge to help homeowners set up new utility services when they move, the company announced today.  more...

Economic future bright through 2007, bankers' group says

A major national mortgage bankers' group projects "robust" economic growth through 2007 and says 2005 will be the third-biggest year ever, trailing 2003 and 2002, the group said today.

The Mortgage Bankers Association today released its three-year economic forecast update, projecting robust economic growth of around 3.5 percent through 2007.

Total residential mortgage production in 2005 will be $2.78 trillion, the third-biggest year behind 2003 and 2002, the MBA said.  more...

Bill to limit Fannie, Freddie entangled in dispute

A plan for tighter supervision of Fannie Mae is entangled in a dispute over whether money to house low-income people can go to community groups engaging in nonpartisan get-out-the-vote drives, Associated Press reported today.

The ban was recently attached to the legislation, which aims to put tighter controls of government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into effect. A House vote is expected on the legislation today.  more...

Industry sees first eMortgage guide

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, or MISMO for short, has released the first eMortgage Guide for the mortgage industry. The guide aims to educate the industry about eMortgage business, as well as high-level technical aspects of eMortgages and their benefits.

MISMO is a nonprofit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association.  more...

Wireless home data coming to a city near you

Tarasoft and Most Home Technologies today jointly announced the launch of a new browser-based wireless MLS service, Matrix Wireless, which gives agents instant access to multiple listing service property data on a variety of popular wireless devices including the Palm, Pocket PC and BlackBerry.  more...

Real estate purchases sink

Despite a drop in interest rates, overall mortgage applications fell 7.9 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey.

The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 7.4 percent to 466.4 from 503.9 the previous week whereas the refinance index decreased by 8.5 percent to 1,916.8 from 2,095.7 one week earlier.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 42.5 percent of total applications from 42.8 percent the previous week.  more...

Overnight real estate rates post gains

Long-term mortgage interest rates were up Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.53 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.64 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate climbed to 5.23 percent. The 1-year adjustable was down at 4.18 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.74 percent.

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

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...