Katrina flood damage repairs may cost $10 billion

The cost of repairing the 95,000 properties in New Orleans damaged by floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina will total between $8 billion and $10 billion, according to a study released today by the Mortgage Bankers Association, a mortgage industry trade group.

The study used property level damage reports on more than 117,000 properties inspected in the city of New Orleans and applied repair cost estimates based on structure types, location, degree of damage, and current builder quotes.  more...

SoCal real estate sales hit 5-year low

The number of Southern California homes sold in January edged down to the lowest level in five years as many potential buyers decided to sit on the fence during the real estate market's off-season, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 20,085 new and resale homes were sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month, down 30.6 percent from 28,952 in December, and down 7.4 percent from 21,680 for January last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

A decline from December to January is normal for the s  more...

New Fed head says economy back on track

New Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered his first economic report to Congress, saying the economy has snapped out of an end-of-year lull and leaving the door open to higher interest rates in the future.

"The FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) judged that some further firming of monetary policy may be necessary, an assessment with which I concur," Bernanke said in his prepared remarks to the House Financial Services Committee.

Recent economic barometers on jobs, production, retail sales and other business activity in January "suggests that the economic expansion  more...

Fidelity predicts jump in earnings

Fidelity National Information Services expects higher pro forma earnings for the full year 2006, including its combined results with credit and debit processor Certegy, the company said today.

Fidelity forecast pro forma earnings per share of $1.50 to $1.55 compared with pro forma earnings per share of $1.28 a year ago.  more...

Real estate sales drop in nearly half of states

Existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, were at the third-highest pace on record in the fourth quarter of 2005, the National Association of Realtors reported today, though 23 states and the District of Columbia posted declines in sales.

The latest report on total existing-home sales shows that nationwide the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 6.9 million un  more...

Real estate purchases cool for third week

Overall mortgage applications fell for the third consecutive week in the Mortgage Bankers Association's latest survey, down 7.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week before.

The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 7.9 percent to 391.7 from 425.1 the previous week, and the refinance index decreased by 6.5 percent to 1,636.7 from 1,751 one week earlier.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 41.2 percent of total applications from 42.1 percent the previous week.  more...

Real estate marketing co. to send listings to Oodle

Point2 Technologies and Oodle today announced that development work on a real estate data feed from Point2Homes.com to Oodle Real Estate has been completed, and that the feed is now live.  more...

Kansas politico sentenced in real estate fraud

A former Kansas congressional candidate was sentenced Monday by a U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., to 15 months in prison for his role in an alleged mortgage fraud scheme, media reports said.

"I know what I did was wrong," the former Kansas congressional candidate said Monday at sentencing, according to the Kansas City Star.

Shortly thereafter, U.S. District Judge John W. Lungstrum sentenced Taff to 15 months in prison, saying that he had "debased the public's trust," the Star reported.

Lungstrum also sentenced co-defendant John D.  more...

Overnight real estate rates movin' on up

Long-term mortgage interest rates were up Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.61 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.86 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate increased to 5.48 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 4.58 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.59 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...