Large MLS brings multilingual listings to D.C. market

Real estate agents in the greater Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metropolitan area now have the option to display their property listing information via the Internet in 13 languages.

MRIS, one of the largest multiple listing services in the country, announced a new partnership with Immobel, to provide the language service.

In addition to English, listing search results can be displayed to the real estate agents' customers in Spanish, Brazilian-Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Russian, Chinese (both traditional and  more...

South Florida real estate sales cool

South Florida's Broward County residential real estate market shifted in favor of buyers last month, as huge inventory gains slowed sales significantly, according to statistics provided by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale.

Association researchers reported 8,838 single-family homes available in April, up 280 percent from April 2005 when 2,327 homes were on the market.  more...

Mississippi man pleads guilty to mortgage fraud

A second defendant in a federal mortgage fraud case in Mississippi pleaded guilty Thursday to one of 12 charges against him, media reports said.

Malcolm C. Clark of Hattiesburg, Miss., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud, admitting he recruited at least one buyer for a so-called "flipping" scheme, according to reports.

Clark, 36, is to be sentenced Aug.  more...

Real estate Web traffic is booming

Traffic to real estate sites monitored by Web research firm comScore Media Metrix increased 23 percent from April 2005 to April 2006, from 34.7 million unique visitors to 42.7 million unique visitors.

The number of unique visitors to real estate sites rose 12.3 percent in April 2006 compared to March 2006, comScore Media Metrix also reported.

The Move Inc.  more...

Merrill Lynch ponders mortgage lender purchase

Merrill Lynch & Co., preparing for its biggest expansion since the 1990s, plans to buy a mortgage lender, triple its corporate investments and increase trading bets to boost shareholder returns that trail those of rivals, media reports said.

New York-based Merrill's top managers spent the past six months determining how to spend "excess capital," Chief Administrative Officer Ahmass Fakahany said in an interview with business publication Bloomberg last week.

"What's new is an increased empha  more...

Illinois real estate sales pick up

Sales of Illinois single-family homes and condos rose 2.1 percent in the first quarter compared to a year ago, and home prices grew at an even stronger pace, the Illinois Association of Realtors reported today.

A total of 34,030 single-family homes and condos were sold across the state in the first quarter, compared with 33,318 sales in the same period in 2005.  more...

Overnight real estate rates step higher

Long-term mortgage interest rates were up Thursday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield remained at 5.13 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average climbed to 6.2 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate was up at 5.86 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5.36 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 5.23 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...