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ZipRealty improves to 5th in real estate Web rankings Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Real estate brokerage company Web site ZipRealty.com improved its ranking to fifth among the top-20 most-visited industry Web sites in March -- the company ranked seventh on the list in February and ninth in January, metrics company Hitwise reported.  more...

TIC investors pick up multifamily community

By Inman News, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors LLC has acquired Enclave on Golden Triangle, a 273-unit multifamily community, in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Keller, Texas, on behalf of tenant-in-common investors.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The property is located at 5001 Golden Triangle Blvd., and totals more than 285,000 rentable square feet on approximately 16.7 acres.  more...

LoopNet acquires REApplications

By Inman News, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

LoopNet, a large online commercial real estate marketplace, has acquired privately-held REApplications, a provider of on-demand brokerage operations software.

LoopNet purchased REApplications for an aggregate cash consideration of $9.4 million, according to a company announcement.

San Diego-based REApplications offers products for managing market research including property inventory, listings & comparables, commission management, customer relationship management, project tracking and transaction management.  more...

Private mortgage insurers lose ratings required by Fannie, Freddie Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Worries about rising unemployment and falling home prices prompted Standard and Poor's analysts to downgrade the financial strength ratings of three companies that provide most of the private mortgage insurance for loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  more...

Roost moves into Phoenix

By Inman News, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Roost, one of the newest search engines for homes to launch, has opened for business in the Phoenix market area, expanding its overall reach to 16 market areas.

The San Francisco-based company launched in January as a site that brings together a network of individual real estate broker IDX Web sites into one search engine. IDX, which stands for Internet Data Exchange, is the method by which brokers can display MLS property listings online.  more...

Mortgage applications up

By Inman News, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Mortgage loan and refinance applications increased last week, while average rates on long-term mortgages also increased, according to an industry survey released today.

The market composite index, the Mortgage Bankers Association's measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 725.6, up 5.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the trade group's survey today.

The MBA's refinance index increased 3.4 percent to 2,724.7 from 2,636 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted purchase index increased 8.1 percent to 384.7 from 356 one week earlier.  more...

Overnight interest rates slip

By Inman News, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Long-term mortgage interest rates slipped Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield increased to 3.56 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average decreased to 5.66 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate fell to 5.24 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate also fell to 5.53 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield was up at 4.35 percent.

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

Trulia hits the streets with new imagery

By Inman News, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Real estate search and marketing company Trulia has taken to the streets.

Trulia.com has integrated Google's Street View imagery tools, which allow users to view street-level digital images of homes for about 30 metro areas across the nation.

Trulia users can also view property locations on an illustrated map, a satellite image, or a hybrid satellite image with labeled streets. The new imagery tools launched Tuesday.  more...

Move Inc. grows home and garden content

By Inman News, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Realtor.com operator Move Inc. is ramping up its online home and garden content with the addition of new videos and articles from sources including BeJane, This Old House and Elle Decor, among others.

The additions, which more than double the existing content at the site, are part of a re-launch of Move.com's Home & Garden section to make it more accessible to consumers, said Patty Mitchell, senior vice president of consumer media at Move Inc.  more...

Foreclosure widget connects agents with bargain hunters Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Data aggregator ForeclosureRadar on Tuesday made available a widget that allows real estate brokers and agents to provide information on foreclosed and bank-owned properties through their Web sites -- and keep the leads the search tool generates for themselves.  more...

WaMu laying off 3,000, closing home loan offices

By Matt Carter, Wednesday, April 9, 2008. <p>Washington Mutual will lay off 3,000 employees as it closes all 186 of the bank's freestanding home loan offices and stops making loans through mortgage brokers, the company said Tuesday in announcing a plan to raise $7 billion to offset mounting losses.</p>
<p>WaMu officials released a preliminary estimate that the bank racked up a $1.1 billion net loss for the first quarter, with provisions for loan losses rising to $3.5 billion and net charge-offs on bad loans hitting $1.4 billion. </p>  more...