BlackBerry triumphs in preliminary patent office ruling

A preliminary ruling by the United States patent office yesterday undermined claims by a company whose lawsuit could shut down the BlackBerry service in the United States, the New York Times reported today.

Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry, said the decision meant that the patent office had twice rejected all five patents controlled by NTP that are related to BlackBerry la  more...

Real estate foreclosure activity rises in California

Foreclosure activity in California edged up in fourth-quarter 2005, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate information service.

Lending institutions sent 14,999 default notices to California homeowners from October to December, up 19 percent from 12,606 for the third quarter, and up 15.6 percent from 12,978 for fourth-quarter 2004, DataQuick reported.

Foreclosure activity hit a low during the third quarter of 2004, when 12,145 default notices were recorded. Defaults peaked in first-quarter 1996 at 59,897.  more...

Technology takes real estate stocks higher

Three real estate-and-technology stocks, Homestore, HouseValues and ZipRealty, and mortgage sector giant Fannie Mae pushed the Inman News stock index higher in January.

Homestore, the top performer in the index last year, opened 2006 with a one-month gain of 16 percent from $5.21 to $6.04 per share.  more...

22 more charged in Atlanta real estate loan fraud scheme

In Atlanta, 22 defendants were charged by a federal grand jury with conspiracy, bank loan fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in an ongoing legal action relating to a huge mortgage fraud scheme, media reports said Friday.

A 181-count superseding indictment, filed Jan. 26, expands the scope of prior charges to include more than 40 houses and more than 230 condominiums in metro Atlanta involved in the mortgage fraud scheme, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

The 22 defendants charged in the superseding indictment are: Marcus C.  more...

Inflation jitters push up mortgage rates

Mortgage rates continued climbing this week, according to surveys conducted by Freddie Mac and Bankrate.

According to Freddie Mac's, rates on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.23 percent, up from last week's average of 6.12 percent. Rates on the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.81 percent, up from 5.7 percent. Points on each type of mortgage averaged 0.5 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 5.87 percent, with an average 0.5 point, according to Freddie Mac.  more...

Fannie Mae goes off its diet

Fannie Mae's mortgage portfolio increased by an annualized 21.4 percent in December, its first growth in 14 months, the mortgage giant said Tuesday.

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Mobile GPS device tailored to real estate agents

Mobile Crossing and Pocket Real Estate are teaming up to provide a GPS navigation system with functionality designed for real estate agents, the companies announced today.

Thanks to technology from Pocket Real Estate, Mobile Crossing's new WayPoint Pocket Real Estate Edition combines turn-by-turn spoken directions with complete database access to the agent's multiple listing service out-of-the-box.

The WayPoint device also doubles as a Windows mobile PDA organi  more...

Real estate search site expands into 33 new markets

HouseValues Inc. announced today that it has added 33 more markets to HomePages, a property-search Web site.

The site features aerial maps and information about homes for sale, neighborhoods, schools, parks, recently sold homes, restaurants and other community features.

Launched about four months ago by HouseValues Inc., HomePages.com already covered the majority of the nation's housing markets in major metropolitan areas.

HomePages is now available to consumers i  more...

Overnight real estate rates gain ground

Long-term mortgage interest rates were back up Wednesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 4.56 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average edged up to 5.78 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate inched up to 5.36 percent. The 1-year adjustable was unchanged at 4.52 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.71 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...