News

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is lowering loan limits on single-family mortgages next year, HUD announced. The federal agency's maximum ceiling for single-family loans will drop from $729,750 to $625,000. HUD estimates about 650 counties will see lower thresholds in 2014. Exceptions have been extended to counties in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the Virgin Islands to account for greater construction costs.

Following a play by Democrats to defang Republicans' filibuster powers, the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Rep. Mel Watt (D-North Carolina) as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The vote went 57-41 in Watt's favor, the Wall Street Journal reports. All Senate Democrats voted in favor of confirmation; they were joined across the aisle by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Richard Burr (R-North Carolina).

Valuations expert Craig Zielazny has joined Platinum Data Solutions to help build out its automated valuation model (AVM) offerings, the company announced. As Platinum Data's new SVP of valuation analytics, Zielazny is tasked with growing its valuation analytics channel, which includes 18 non-proprietary AVMs and an AVM testing technology.

According to Fannie Mae's November National Housing Survey, positive momentum in the housing market has slowed as Americans remain cautious about their personal finances and the overall state of the economy. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed believe the economy is on the wrong track. Within the next year, 22 percent expect their personal finances to worsen and only 45 percent expect home prices to increase.

Pro Teck Valuation Services introduced Appraisal Desktop with Inspection (ADI), a new hybrid appraisal product for home equity and second mortgage lending. As a USPAP-compliant desktop appraisal platform, ADI was designed to fill the gap between an automated valuation model with property condition report and a field appraisal.

One of the earliest phenomenon of the housing bubble was the ascension of home prices, making housing unaffordable relative to incomes. Markets across the nation cascaded from affordable to unaffordable--a key signal that prompted us to warn of the coming housing downturn. And it now appears that this symptom has cropped up once again, as almost all of California's coastal cities are now unaffordable.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to raise their guarantee fees (g-fees). The g-fee increase consists of three components: the base fee for all mortgages will increase 10 basis points; the g-fee grid will be updated to ensure pricing is aligned with credit risk; and the adverse market fee of 25 basis points is being eliminated except in four states where foreclosure carrying costs are exponentially high.

At 48,000, completed foreclosures registered a 30 percent annual decline in October, according to CoreLogic. The industry's foreclosure inventory (2.2 percent) and serious delinquency rate (5.1 percent) also fell. While the declines were significant, CoreLogic pointed out in its report that between 2000 and 2006, completed foreclosures averaged about 21,000 per month and the foreclosure inventory rate was 0.6 percent.

Southwestern Pennsylvania saw a nearly 15 percent annual increase in the number of homes placed under sales agreement, according to the November housing report from the West Penn Multi-List, Inc. At the same time, the average number of days homes were on the market decreased by nearly 15 percent.

A total of 38,908 insurance certificates for borrowers seeking to buy or refinance a home were issued by members of Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA) in October. That number sits lower than most other months of 2013 and is nearly 4,000 less than last October. At the same time, dollar volume on insurance written throughout the month was the lowest since May 2012.