The median price for a home in the San Francisco Bay Area climbed above the half-million mark in April for the first time in almost five years, according to DataQuick. The median price paid for a home in the nine-county Bay Area was $510,000 in April, up 17.0 percent month-over-month and 30.8 percent year-over-year. The monthly increase is the highest on record in DataQuick's Bay Area statistics.

According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.51 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending May 16, a significant climb from last week, when it averaged 3.42 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed averaged 3.79 percent and falling. According to Bankrate's weekly national survey, the benchmark 30-year fixed rate climbed to 3.71 percent, an increase of 11 basis points.

In Texas, Pacific Union Financial, LLC announced the hiring of Ron Fountain as EVP and chief legal officer. Fountain joins the company from JPMorgan Chase, where he was SVP and managing director. During his time there, he directed all aspects of compliance relating to Chase Bank mortgage servicing operations, including regulatory and investor reviews and audits and the acquisition and disposition of mortgage assets.

FDIC announced Tuesday the closure of Central Arizona Bank (Scottsdale) by the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions. To protect depositors of the failed bank, FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Western State Bank (Devils Lake, North Dakota).

While home prices are rising today nearly as fast as they did during the peak bubble years of 2005 and 2006, Trulia reassures bubble-phobes that they can rest easy in its latest report. According to Trulia's findings, home prices are still 7 percent undervalued nationally, having come down from a peak of 39 percent overvalued in 2006. After the bubble burst, prices fell to being 15 percent undervalued at the end of 2011. With prices still undervalued relative to fundamentals, Trulia insists that today's rapid improvements still qualify as a rebound, not a new bubble.

Pisgah Community Bank (Asheville, North Carolina) and Sunrise Bank (Valdosta, Georgia) became the 11th and 12th federally insured banks to fail in the nation this year, FDIC announced.

A report from Redfin shows 73 percent of offers in April faced competition, down from a peak of 79 percent in February but slightly up from 70 percent last April. Two markets that cooled from March to April were San Francisco and Washington DC, where bidding-war rates fell 0.8 and 5.8 percentage points, Redin reported. The report also found the most common components of a winning offer were: conventional loan (61.7 percent) and a higher-than-asking offer price (51.9 percent).

Wetzel Trott, a national leader in residential mortgage quality control services, named a new president. Brian R. Ludtke, C.P.A. has been selected for the position.

According to Zillow, homebuyers participating in its Mortgage Marketplace Survey answered basic questions on mortgage information incorrectly nearly one-third (32.5 percent) of the time. For example, 34 percent of first-time homebuyers are not aware that they might be able to get a home loan with a down payment of less than 5 percent. Prospective buyers aren't the only group who demonstrated a lack of basic mortgage knowledge. About one in five homeowners said they did not believe underwater borrowers could refinance.

First Valuation, a property valuation services provider operating out of Colorado, announced that Bill Carey has joined the company to help develop its innovative valuation technology platform as SVP of business and product development.