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Fidelity closes LandAmerica deal

By Inman News, Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

Fidelity National Financial Inc. has closed a deal to acquire troubled LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.'s underwriting companies, making the company the nation's largest title insurance underwriter.

Analysts at Fitch Ratings promptly downgraded ratings on $500 million in debt issued by Fidelity and cut the insurer financial strength of the company's nine existing title insurance subsidiaries.  more...

Home-buying red flag in bathroom

By Barry Stone, Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

DEAR BARRY: When we purchased our house, the home inspector found no problems with the water heater. After we moved in, the gas company came out to light the pilot. Instead of lighting it, they capped off the gas and said it is illegal to have a gas water heater in the bathroom. They said the fixture should be moved to another location or replaced with an electric water heater. The seller says he installed the water heater himself and that the previous two water heaters were in the same location.  more...

'This is not a time for guesswork'

By Inman News, Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

Becca Wilson is president and CEO for Tulsa, Okla.-based SphereXX.com, a company that she established in 2000 to focus on online marketing and tech tools.

She will speak during a "Seize New Markets" session at the upcoming Real Estate Connect conference in New York City, which runs from Jan. 7-9, 2009.

Wilson responded to a set of questions posed by Inman News:

What do you see happening in the real estate market in 2009?  more...

Sales pace of resale homes slips 8.6%

By Inman News, Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

The sales rate of existing homes dropped a record 8.6 percent in November, hitting an 11-year low at 4.49 million, according to National Association of Realtors statistics released today, and the sales rate was off 10.6 percent from November 2007.  more...

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The Winner of the 3 Night Stay at the Marriott Marquis is...

By Jeff Bernheisel, Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

For the last couple weeks, part of our promotion for Real Estate Connect NYC included the chance to win 3 nights at the Marriott Marquis where Connect is being held.  Anyone who registered between December 8th and December 21st was entered into the drawing.  So this morning, I received the list, jumped online where I then googled "random number picker" and the rest is history.

So, without further adiue... 

I present to you lucky # 39: Derek Overbey!  Derek is the Senior Director of Partnership Strategy at Roost.com.  more...

Only zero shopping days left

By Alison Rogers, Tuesday, December 23, 2008.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/bensonkua/3126115860/" target=blank>bensonkua</a>.

Did I used to like Christmas when I was a kid? I seem to recall dimly that I did -- that I spent the entire month of December looking forward to getting a break from school and unwrapping presents.

Even as a young adult, December was great. No matter how busy a job I had, the week between Christmas and New Year's was always reliably dead, and it could be used either for vacation or for a week of sitting at my desk while catching up on filing and knocking off early to have a drink with friends.  more...

State budget crisis rocks CalHFA loans

By Inman News, Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

California's budget crisis has forced the state's Housing Finance Agency to suspend its 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan and down-payment assistance programs.

CalHFA, which purchases more than $1 billion in mortgage loans a year, is among state agencies that depend on a line of credit from a pooled money investment account that's funded by state bond issues.  more...

Industry promises more loan mods

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

The HOPE NOW Alliance of mortgage loan servicers said today they're on track to modify nearly 1 million mortgages in 2008, and expect to do twice as many or more loan modifications in 2009 to prevent foreclosures.

Federal banking regulators also issued a report showing the number of loan modifications on the rise during the third quarter, but said more than half had redefaulted after six months.  more...