Freddie Mac to help with probe

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac has consented to help U.S. regulators in their probe of its former chief executive and chief financial officer, media reports said.

Former Freddie Mac CEO Leland Brendsel and former COO Vaughn Clarke will be investigated for the part they played in the company's accounting crisis, media accounts said.  more...

Southern California real estate prices hit record

The Southern California real estate market rounded out the summer buying season with record prices and a near-record sales pace, a real estate information service reported.

The median price paid for a Southern California home was $476,000 last month, the seventh record of the last seven months, according to DataQuick Information Systems. That was up 1.5 percent from $469,000 in July, and up 17 percent from $407,000 for August 2004.

The median for resale houses was $501,000, passing the $500,000 mark for the first time.  more...

Arizona opens homes to hurricane victims

Welcome Wagon, a division of Homestore Inc., today announced that its Web site, http://relief.welcomewagon.com/, now contains about 2,500 Arizona listings for available housing in shelters, churches, apartment complexes, single-family homes and senior facilities. The site also provides information about available housing nationally for those who prefer to settle elsewhere.  more...

Katrina's financial impact hits real estate company

Real estate franchise giant Cendant expects to lose about $35 million to $70 million on pretax income excluding insurance recoveries, the company said today.

The company said it continues to focus on the safety and well being of employees on affected areas. "Like all companies doing business in the Gulf Coast and Southeast, our operations in those areas have been affected by Hurricane Katrina," said Ronald L. Nelson, Cendant's chief financial officer.  more...

Massachusetts couple sentenced in real estate loan fraud

A Massachusetts couple was sentenced in federal court for identity theft, bank fraud, credit card fraud and various other federal offenses in connection with a mortgage fraud case, the U.S. Attorney reported Friday.

Itza Ruiz, 39, of Malden, Mass., and husband Heriberto Ruiz, 48, also of Malden, were sentenced to time served, officials said. Itza Ruiz was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $18,083.  more...

Private mortgage insurance cancellations double

Seven years after the enactment of the law providing consumers the right to cancel their private mortgage insurance, the number of consumers canceling their insurance has doubled, according to eAppraiseIT.

With the doubling of cancellation, there's also been a growing trend of mortgage servicers outsourcing parts of the mortgage insurance cancellation process, eAppraiseIT said.  more...

Hurricane drives up real estate construction costs

The impacts of Hurricane Katrina will reverberate across the U.S. housing market and economy, the National Association of Realtors stated in an announcement today.  more...

GlobeXplorer acquires aerial imagery provider

GlobeXplorer, a provider of geographic data to real estate and other industries, has acquired a 100 percent interest in AirPhotoUSA LLC, the company said Monday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The purchase will combine GlobeXplorer's earth imagery and property information Web services and AirPhotoUSA's aerial map production for a set of land information products.  more...

Florida, Utah lead nation in real estate foreclosures

RealtyTrac, a foreclosure data provider, today reported that 389,480 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure during the first half of 2005 and the number of new foreclosures increased by 7 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter of the year.  more...

Overnight real estate rates gain

Long-term mortgage interest rates jumped Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 4.17 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.31 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate gained to 4.86 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 3.86 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.45 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  more...

Fidelity to refund $1.2M for alleged kickbacks

Fidelity National Financial has settled Colorado's investigation of alleged title insurance-related kickbacks, agreeing to pay about $1.2 million to consumers nationwide, Colorado's Insurance Commission reported.

In the settlement agreement, Fidelity, which already terminated its captive reinsurance treaties as part of the probe, agreed to refund about $1.2 million to consumers in approximately 18 states, without admitting wrongdoing. more...