Trial begins for former Homestore exec

Federal prosecutors, during opening statements Thursday in a criminal trial against former Homestore CEO Stuart H. Wolff, charged that Wolff was driven by "his ego and his greed" to artificially inflate the company's revenue numbers and deceive investors.

Wolff's lawyers, meanwhile, portrayed him as a "smart guy from Oklahoma," an electrical engineer with great ideas about the Internet but "not one lick of managerial experience" before his role at the company.  more...

Former lawmaker sues First American Title

A former New Mexico legislator filed a lawsuit against First American Title Wednesday that seeks to strike down parts of the title insurance law and regulations in New Mexico.

Max Coll, a former Democratic state representative, filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against First American and officials at the state Insurance Department and Public Regulation Commission. If successful, the suit could mean thousands of New Mexico residents who paid title insurance for mortgage financing could get money back.

First American says its practices follow state law.  more...

North Carolina real estate sales sizzle

Existing-home sales in North Carolina posted another month of double-digit gains in February, rising 17 percent from a year ago, the North Carolina Association of Realtors reported today.

According to statistics compiled by NCAR, 9,354 residential units were sold in February, up from 7,981 reported in February 2005.  more...

Consumer confidence rises

Consumer confidence rose in the latest survey largely due to gains among households with incomes above $50,000, and the majority of consumers expect the Federal Reserve to continue to raise overnight interest rates, according to the University of Michigan's Survey of Consumers.  more...

Freddie Mac to buy outside technology apps

"Speed to market is paramount," said Ed Albrigo, vice president of the enterprise program office at Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S.  more...

HomePages gets more MLS data

HouseValues Inc. announced today that it has forged agreements with 16 multiple listing services to feed property data to the company's HomePages.com site, a property-search site that includes mapping tools.

The group of MLSs joins dozens of other MLSs that already supply property data to the company, according to the announcement. HouseValues is a real estate marketing company that drives online consumer traffic to real estate professionals.  more...

Real estate speculation meets cyberspace

INREEX, the International Real Estate Exchange, allows investors to buy contracts based on their expectations for real estate prices. The exchange, which is based on House Price Index data published by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprises Oversight, allows users to purchase contracts that represent the average home price in a particular state or the country as a whole.  more...

Good inflation news bad for business

Although the Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index, a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America, rose one point in February to 39, it was still down from 41 one year ago, indicating the negative effect that low inflation has on the labor market.

In the last three months, help-wanted advertising increased in eight of the nine U.S. regions. Largest increases occurred in the West South Central (5.3 percent), West North Central (4.5 percent) and South Atlantic (4 percent) regions.  more...

New milestones toward e-mortgages reached

New milestones in the march toward electronic mortgage adoption, including guidance on implementation and an expanded certification program, have been reached, an industry standards organization said Thursday.

"This year promises to be a breakthrough year for eMortgage adoption," said Chip Register, chair of the eMortgage Workgroup for MISMO, which stands for Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.

MISMO has established industry standards to help in making mortgages electronic. It is a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association.  more...

Overnight real estate rates continue climb

Long-term mortgage interest rates were up again Thursday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.86 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average climbed to 5.97 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate edged up to 5.66 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 4.97 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield jumped to 4.9 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...