Californians fall short in real-estate buying power

California households, with a median household income of $52,320, are $41,360 short of the $93,680 qualifying income needed to purchase a median-priced home at $406,390 in California, according to the California Association of Realtors Homebuyer Income Gap Index (HIGI) report for the first quarter of 2004, released today.  more...

Mortgage rates keep climbing

Mortgage rates rose for the sixth consecutive week in response to improving economic signs, according to surveys conducted by mortgage buyer Freddie Mac and Bankrate.

In Freddie Mac's weekly survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.01 percent, with an average 0.7 point, for the week ended today, up from last week when it averaged 5.94 percent.

The average for the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage this week is 5.35 percent, with an average 0.6 point, up slightly from last week when it averaged 5.25 percent.  more...

E-Loan reports $1 million loss

Consumer direct lender E-Loan today reported a net loss of $1.1 million, or 2 cents a share in the first quarter, due to the shrinking refinance loan volume.

The company's first-quarter revenue was $32 million, down from $36 million a year ago. Home equity revenue was a record $10.7 million, up 146 percent from the first quarter 2003.  more...

Chicago focuses on real estate developer accountability

A Chicago City Council committee wants residential developers to take more responsibility for their work, and is proposing a $125 license and a registry to help hold them accountable for shoddy workmanship.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the proposed new licenses would require developers to list all persons that have at least a 10 percent interest in the development partnership, and numbers would be assigned to developers that must appear in the developers' advertising, real estate contracts  more...

LandAmerica's income drops by almost 50%

LandAmerica Financial Group on Wednesday reported net income of $20.9 million for the first quarter of 2004, a drop from $42 million in net earnings for the first quarter of 2003.

Net income per diluted share was $1.11 for the first quarter of 2004, compared with $2.28 a year ago.

Revenues for the first quarter were $760 million, compared with $696 million a year ago.  more...

Moles joins Intero as chairman

Robert Moles has returned to his roots in northern California real estate.

The former president and CEO of Cendant Corp.'s Real Estate Franchise Group has joined Intero Real Estate Services as chairman, director and shareholder.

Moles' affiliation with the upstart Silicon Valley brokerage may be no surprise to industry watchers since his brother is an office manager at the brokerage CEO Gino Blefari, a former NRT executive and childhood friend of the Moles brothers, opened in October 2002.

"I'm thrille  more...

Fidelity earnings increase

Fidelity National Financial today reported net earnings of $150.2 million for the first quarter of 2004, compared with $143.6 million a year ago.

Diluted earnings per share were $0.88 for the first quarter of 2004, down from $1.05 during the first quarter of 2003.

Revenue for the first quarter of 2004 was $1.8 billion, compared with $1.4 billion for the first quarter of 2003. Revenue from financial institution and outsourcing was $288 million for the first quarter of 2004, versus $41 million for the first quarter of 2003.  more...

Pru Relo enhances freight transportation services

Prudential Relocation, in an effort to improve the efficiency and cost-containment of shipping household goods, has implemented a tri-regional management platform with operations in London, Singapore and the United States.  more...

Overnight mortgage rates hold steady

Long-term mortgage interest rates were unchanged Wednesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 4.49 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average held at 5.7 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate stayed at 5.02 percent. The 1-year adjustable rose slightly to 3.2 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 5.28 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...

IT budgets swell among small, medium businesses

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) plan to increase their IT spending for 2004 by 6.6 percent over 2003, compared with a 1.7 percent increase among larger companies, according to new research from Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research.

Forrester surveyed more than 1,000 IT decision-makers at North American SMBs, which are defined as firms with fewer than 1,000 employees.  more...