Cendant's real estate division partners with Microsoft

Cendant Corp. today announced an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to supply interactive online mapping tools to Cendant's real estate brand Web sites.

The agreement provides that Microsoft will provides its Virtual Earth tools to Century21.com, ColdwellBanker.com, ColdwellBankerCommercial.com,  more...

Partnership creates valuation tool for broker Web sites

Two real estate technology-focused companies have teamed up to create an automated valuation model, or AVM, that combines assessor property records and multiple listing service data, so that real estate professionals can offer home valuations to consumers through their Web sites, the companies announced today.

Florida-based Visient Inc. and Denver-based IntelliReal entered an agreement to create the service and make it available to real estate brokers and agents to display on th  more...

Northwest real estate sales drop

Home sales in western Washington dropped 8.6 percent in April from a year ago, as prices posted yet another month of double-digit growth, according to the latest figures from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Brokers reported 8,044 closed sales last month, down from 8,802 reported a year ago.

The overall median selling price for single-family homes and condos was $299,500 in April, up 14.7 percent from the same month a year ago, according to NWMLS.  more...

Real estate loan telemarketer sued by FTC

A nationwide telemarketer of mortgage loans has been sued by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly calling people whose numbers are listed on the National Do Not Call Registry, and doing so without identifying itself, the FTC said Monday.

The FTC is seeking civil penalties and an injunction against the telemarketer for alleged violations of the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, the agency said.  more...

Wachovia to acquire Golden West

Wachovia Corp. is acquiring Golden West Financial Corp., gaining mortgage lending operations under the World Savings Bank name in 39 states, Wachovia said Sunday.

The acquisition will strengthen Wachovia's presence in California, Florida and Texas, and extends the banking franchise within reach of 55 percent of the U.S.  more...

Fannie Mae finds more accounting errors

Still more errors have been found in Fannie Mae's government-ordered review of its accounting, and the mortgage giant doesn't expect the review to be finished before the second half of the year, Fannie Mae said today.

The government-sponsored enterprise said it had found accounting errors in addition to those it disclosed on March 13, and also, it will miss a regulatory deadline Wednesday for filing its financial report for the first  more...

First American opens title operations in Turkey

The First American Corp. on Monday announced the formation of First Title Istanbul Inc. in the Republic of Turkey, which will provide title insurance for foreign investors and title guarantee programs for Turkish banks and consumers.

The Republic of Turkey is expected to introduce the development of a conventional mortgage market in the next several months, according to a press statement.  more...

Real estate sales down, prices up in '06

Existing-home sales are expected to drop 6.4 percent this year to 6.62 million, down from a record 7.08 million in 2005, according to the latest annual forecast by the National Association of Realtors trade group.

The projected sales total would be the third highest on record. The forecast also calls for new-home sales to drop 11.6 percent to 1.13 million from a record 1.28 million in 2005.  more...

Overnight real estate rates mixed

Long-term mortgage interest rates were varied Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield inched up to 5.11 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 6.19 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate held at 5.85 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5.32 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield dropped to 5.18 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...