Illinois mortgage companies hit with fraud suits

Illinois' attorney general Monday announced two lawsuits against companies accused of taking homes from homeowners facing foreclosure.

Calling mortgage fraud "a cancer that is eating away at our neighborhoods," Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced the lawsuits Monday.  more...

Real estate technology customers get buyer lead discounts

Birdview Technologies today announced an agreement with HomeGain to provide BirdView's clients a special reduced pricing on HomeGain's Buyer Link Product.

HomeGain's Buyer Link provides residential real estate agents a way to drive pre-qualified geo-targeted visitors to the agent's Web site.  more...

MRIS members get fast home listings data import

Real estate members of the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems will be able to import data from the multiple listing service directly into their ZipForm documents without having to re-enter it, according to an announcement today.

MRIS has made the ZipForm data import product available to members, who sell real estate in the Washington, D.C., area. The new functionality aims to save MRIS users' time by allowing forms to be completed faster and free of the keying errors associated with manual entry.  more...

Start spreadin' the news: Trulia enters N.Y. market

Trulia.com, a real estate search Web site, now offers New York property listings.

The site, which first launched in California last year (see Inman News article), searches multiple brokerage Web sites for property listings and displays that information at its Web site.  more...

New crackdowns on subprime lenders may be on the way

Ameriquest Mortgage Co.'s agreement last week to pay $325 million and reform its operations could turn out to be the first in a series of regulatory actions targeting subprime mortgage companies, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

On Jan. 23, the parent company of Ameriquest Mortgage Co.  more...

Real estate construction spending grows at strong clip

Private residential construction spending was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about $648.9 billion in December, up 8.5 percent from December 2004 and up 1 percent above the revised November estimate, the U.S.  more...

Pending real estate sales slide

A National Association of Realtors index based on pending sales of existing homes dipped 5.5 percent in December compared to December 2004, and slipped 3 percent from November 2005.

Pending sales have dropped steadily from a record index of 129.2 last August, the association reported, to 116.4 in December 2005.

Regionally, the Pending Home Sales Index increased 1.5 percent in the  more...

Real estate purchases cool

Overall mortgage applications dropped 5.1 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week before, with purchase loans taking the biggest hit, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported.

The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 8 percent to 435.7 from 473.7 the previous week whereas the refinance index decreased by 1.5 percent to 1,747.2 from 1,773.9 one week earlier.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 43 percent of total applications from 42.8 percent the previous week.  more...

Bernanke confirmed as new Fed head

The Senate Tuesday confirmed Ben S. Bernanke as the chairman and a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Fed said late Tuesday.

A private swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 1, at the Federal Reserve Board.

The confirmation took place on Alan Greenspan's last day as head of the Fed after helming the bank for 18-and-a-half years.

Bernanke, chairman of President George W.  more...

ZipRealty reports real estate price reductions

Real estate brokerage company ZipRealty announced this week that its Web site is now reporting on home-price reductions and time on market for properties in its areas of operation.

If a home's price was reduced numerous times, the company's Price Track feature will list all of these price reductions, along with the date of each reduction.

Such downward price trends can be indicative of a real estate market that is slowing down, as sellers may be overly optimistic about the value of their homes.

Another real estate-r  more...

Overnight real estate rates reverse gains

Long-term mortgage interest rates were down Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield dipped to 4.52 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average slipped to 5.76 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate fell to 5.35 percent. The 1-year adjustable was down at 4.52 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield sank to 4.68 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...