Mortgage exec. considered armed fugitive

The owner of a San Francisco Bay Area mortgage company that allegedly defrauded lenders of more than $13 million has been sentenced to more than five years in prison, while the company's vice president remains a fugitive who is considered armed and dangerous by the FBI.

The fugitive, Edward Batayeh, 39, is accused in an indictment of "double banking" fraudulent loans by selling the same loan to multiple investors. 

Batayeh, the executive vice president and chief financial officer of CHL Mortgage Group in San Ramon, Calif., allegedly sent fraudulent loan packages includi  more...

Yahoo partners with 150 newspapers

Yahoo Inc. today announced partnerships with more than 150 daily U.S. newspapers to deliver search, graphical and classified advertising to consumers.

The new alliance will begin with recruitment advertising using Yahoo! HotJobs, and then Yahoo will start providing search, content and local applications across the newspapers' Web sites.

The arrangement is expected to boost exposure for newspapers' local content. Yahoo plans to offer its search tools to newspaper Web sites, as well as local products like Yahoo! Local listings, Yahoo! Maps and Event Listings.  more...

California's luxury home markets see modest price gains

Luxury home values posted slight gains in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco in the third quarter of 2006, as housing markets overall continued to see a slip in sales.

Values on homes worth more than $1 million were up 0.6 percent in Los Angeles from the previous quarter and up 5.4 percent from a year ago, according to an index released by First Republic Bank, a provider of wealth management and private banking services.  more...

Slow growth tops economic forecast

Although the economic outlook improved for the second straight month in October, sluggish real estate markets and weaker corporate profit growth will keep the economy on a slow track, The Conference Board reported today.

The U.S.  more...

Houston real estate posts best October ever

Real estate sales in Houston, Texas, were up for the 13th straight month in October compared to year-ago levels, as single-family sales and prices hit new highs for the month, the Houston Association of Realtors reported.

Total property sales -- which include single-family homes, townhomes, multifamily homes, country homes, high-rise properties and lots listed on the MLS -- registered 6,792 last month, up 6 percent from the same month last year.

Sales of new and existing single-family homes posted an October record at 5,600 units, up 7.3 percent from the year-ago total of 5,2  more...

Overnight real estate rates bounce higher

Long-term mortgage interest rates rose Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 4.6 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average gained to 5.74 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate edged up to 5.5 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5.34 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 4.69 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...

New scores gauge risk of borrowers with little or no credit

Fair Isaac Credit Services Inc. says a recent study of its FICO Expansion scores -- which are used to qualify borrowers who have little or no information on file with credit bureaus -- demonstrates they are a reliable tool for predicting risk, and match up closely with the company's traditional scores.

Fair Isaac created the FICO Expansion score in 2004, to augment what is now known as the "Classic FICO" score. The FICO Expansion score is intended to help lenders gauge the risk of about 20 percent of the population with thin or no credit bureau files.  more...