Arizona could make mortgage fraud a felony

Mortgage fraud will be a felony in Arizona under legislation headed to the governor's desk.

House Bill 2040 would make deliberate misrepresentations to lenders -- such as inflated appraisals or falsified borrower incomes used to obtain loans that exceed a home's true worth -- class four felonies, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Those who engage in "a pattern of residential mortgage fraud" or a conspiracy would face class two felony charges, punishable by up  more...

Real estate bloggers share blog recipes

Most new blogs will fail, but with dedication and discipline the ones that succeed can open many doors for their creators, said participants in an Inman News podcast on real estate blogging.

The podcast, "Building from the Ground Up: Real Experiences Starting a Real Estate Blog from Scratch," is available for free online.  more...

Refis, HELOCs boost Countrywide's loan production

A boom in nonpurchase loans helped Countrywide Financial Corp. boost residential mortgage loan funding in May to $44 billion, a 15 percent increase from last year.

Purchase loan volume for the year to date is down, but Countrywide has more than made up for that decline with a sharp rise in nonpurchase loans, including refinance and home equity loans.

At $18.6 billion, Countrywide's funding of purchase loans in May was up slightly from last year's $18.3 billion mark.  more...

Overnight real estate rates in 8-day climb

Long-term mortgage interest rates continued their uptrend Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 5.15 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average jumped to 6.33 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate rose to 6 percent. The 1-year adjustable, however, dipped to 5.55 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield was up to 5.26 percent.

Rates and bonds 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...

Real estate duets to hit on tough changes

As the television news show, "60 Minutes," recently demonstrated with its polarizing program on the industry, real estate is in a state of flux right now. New technologies and applications appear almost daily with the promise of revolutionizing the process of buying and selling a home.

Amidst all this change, a schism has formed between those subscribing to new schools of thought on how the industry should evolve and those who prefer to stick with the status quo.  more...