Web site claims to provide more choices for title insurance

A newly launched Web site claims it will save consumers money by increasing competition in the title insurance industry.  more...

Luxury home builder's profits fall 19%

Luxury home builder Toll Brothers on Tuesday said the slowing housing market contributed to a 19 percent drop in profit during its fiscal third quarter.

The company reported income of $174.6 million, or $1.07 per share, for the quarter ended July 31, compared with $215.5 million, or $1.27 a share, during the same period a year earlier.

Toll Brothers said write-downs related to land and an existing community in Detroit also contributed to the slide in quarterly earnings.

Third-quarter total revenues were $1.53 billion, down from $1.55 billion the previous fiscal year.  more...

Illinois home sales in 4-month rut

Illinois home sales dropped 11.7 percent in July from their year-ago level as prices eked out modest gains, the Illinois Association of Realtors reported today.

For the month of July, Realtors recorded 15,973 total homes sales (which include single-family and condominiums), down from 18,089 sales in July 2005. Last month was the fourth straight month of year-over-year sales declines, according to IAR statistics.

The Illinois median home sale price in July was $214,000, up 2.4 percent from $209,000 a year earlier.  more...

House committee to study foreclosures in Ohio

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a field hearing today in Ohio to discuss foreclosure practices in the state.

The hearing will look at ways to reduce the number of foreclosures in Cuyahoga County, where the rate is among the highest in the nation. Specifically, the hearing will examine how partnerships between community organizations and state and local governments can help ease the amount of foreclosures.

Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Ohio, will chair the hearing.

Scheduled to testify are: Daryl P.  more...

Existing single-family home sales down 11%

The rate of existing single-family home sales dropped 11.2 percent and home prices fell in the Northeast, Midwest and West in July compared to July 2005, the National Association Realtors reported today.  more...

Rush to refinance continues for 5th week

Overall mortgage applications inched up 0.1 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week before, taken higher by borrowers scrambling to refinance, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.

The seasonally adjusted refinance index increased by 1.3 percent to 1,608.5 from 1,587.5 one week earlier, and has been positive in each of the last five weeks.  more...

Overnight real estate rates slip

Long-term mortgage interest rates were down Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 4.81 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average dipped to 5.97 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate sank to 5.71 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5.33 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 4.94 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...

Lawyer faces criminal charges over mortgage settlement payments

A Pennsylvania lawyer is facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing nearly $100,000 in mortgage settlement payments from two elderly couples.

Mark Morrison, 49, is accused of pocketing $99,182 he was given to settle previous outstanding mortgage loans on two properties. Morrison allegedly tried to conceal the fact that he had not paid off all the loans by changing the billing address for one of the loans and making smaller monthly payments himself.  more...

Man tricked borrowers into paying down his own home loan

A former Lafayette, La., loan originator faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to mail fraud.

Jarvis Fontenette, 36, worked as a loan originator for Southern Mortgage Co., which brokered home loan applications to mortgage lenders. As part of his job preparing documents for borrowers seeking home loans, Fontenenette would insert the bank holding his own home loan, New South Federal Savings Bank, as a creditor in the loan documents of unsuspecting borrowers.  more...