Mortgage delinquencies still high in hurricane areas

Nearly 76,000 homeowners in Louisiana and Mississippi were seriously delinquent on their mortgages at the end of December 2005, according to a preview of an industry survey to be released on Thursday.

National mortgage delinquency data from the Mortgage Bankers Association show that overall mortgage delinquencies 30 days past due in the two states have fallen since the month immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.

Overall mortgage delinquencies were 24.6 percent in Louisiana and 17.4 percent in Mississippi  more...

Florida Realtor survives hammer attack

A Florida Realtor fought back against her attacker after she was hit over the head several times with a hammer while showing a house, according to reports.

Janice Flasschoen, 56, a Realtor for Realty Xperts in Port Orange, Fla., who is recovering from the attack, required stitches and suffered cuts and bruises.

Balazs Kris Gombos, 30, a convicted felon from South Daytona, Fla., reportedly had arranged to meet Flasschoen on Monday to look at a house for sale in South Daytona, the  more...

SoCal real estate sales fall again

Home prices in Southern California edged up to a new record in February, as sales fell to their lowest level in five years, a real estate information service reported.

The median price paid for a home in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties was $480,000 last month. That was up 2.3 percent from $469,000 in January and up 12.9 percent from $425,000 for February a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

The previous record of $479,000 was set in November (and December).  more...

Major credit agencies create new credit-scoring model

The nation's three consumer credit-reporting companies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- today jointly announced the introduction of a new credit score that aims to simplify and enhance the credit process for consumers and credit grantors.

The new VantageScore leverages shared data from all three companies and analyzes it to arrive at a score.  more...

West Coast home-building event coming in June

PCBC, a premier home-building event in California, is slated for June 21-23 at San Francisco's Moscone Center.

To help give home builders the information they need to navigate this year's more balanced housing market, PCBC organizers say they have significantly expanded the educational programming and exhibit space with the addition of a third convention center hall.  more...

Fidelity improves transaction management system

Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions today announced a strategic agreement that will allow integration between its transaction management technology and RE FormsNet's ZipForm and WINForms real estate documents.

This integration aims to allow real estate professionals to minimize key strokes by transferring or copying data from their ZipForm and WINForms listing or sales contract form to Fidelity's TransactionPoint transaction management platform, where key events, service orders and documents related to a real estate transaction may be created, viewed and tracked.  more...

Real estate foreclosures on the rise

The number of new foreclosed residential properties available for sale nationwide increased 9 percent from February 2005 to February 2006, according to data released today by Foreclosure.com, while the total number of foreclosed properties available for sale dropped 7 percent from January 2006 to February 2006.

February marks the second consecutive month of declining new foreclosures in the United States, Foreclosure.com reported.

About 88,093 foreclosed residential properties were available for sale in the United States  more...

Zillow ranks in real estate's top five after one month

Welcome to the top five, Zillow.

ComScore Media Metrix, which measures Internet audience statistics, such as Web site traffic, demographics and buying power, found that Zillow.com ranked fifth among real estate sites in the number of unique visitors in February 2006.

Zillow.com, which launched Feb.  more...

Overnight real estate rates ride higher

Long-term mortgage interest rates were up Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield edged up to 4.77 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average increased to 5.95 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate rose to 5.64 percent. The 1-year adjustable soared to 4.87 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield was up at 4.76 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...