McLean Mortgage Corporation, a full-service mortgage lender headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, announced the release of a new program designed to help prospective homebuyers and Realtors in a market characterized by low inventory and increased competition from cash bidders.

Walter Investment Management Corp. announced Tuesday that its wholly owned subsidiary, Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc. (RMS), has acquired a reverse mortgage servicing portfolio containing more than 76,000 loans from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. The portfolio has an unpaid principal balance of about $12.2 billion and is expected to transfer to RMS during the third quarter of 2013, Walter Investment said in a release. The transaction will double the size of Walter Investment's serviced book, according to CEO and chairman Mark J. O'Brien.

Even as prices continued to rise in last year's fourth quarter, American homeowners found themselves paying less in monthly mortgage payments compared to pre-bubble norms, according to Zillow. At the end of Q4 2012, with mortgage rates in the 3 percent to 4 percent range, homeowners paid just 12.6 percent of their monthly income on mortgage payments, down 36.9 percent from pre-bubble norms, Zillow reported. Though low rates have driven affordability up, homes themselves have become more expensive in many areas, even as wages dropped or stagnated.

According to a FICO survey, 71 percent of bankers polled believe home prices are ""rising at a sustainable pace"" in the context of mortgage lending risk. On the credit health side, 39 percent of respondents expect mortgage delinquencies to fall over the next six months, while another 45 percent expect delinquencies to remain flat. Sixteen percent anticipate an increase in delinquencies, making this first-quarter survey the most optimistic since the surveys started.

In Oklahoma, AmeriBid LLC announced the promotion of chief marketing officer John Pellow to VP. Pellow joined the company in 2009, serving before then as director of marketing for a real estate auction and brokerage services firm, where he was responsible for the marketing and sales support of several divisions.

Fiserv, Inc., a Wisconsin-based global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced that its Common Origination Platform and LoanServ solutions have been integrated to provide real-time, full-circle loan boarding processes for all mortgage, lines of credit, and installment loans.

Arizona's Gold Canyon Bank became the fifth FDIC-insured bank to fail in 2013, the agency announced. The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions closed the bank Friday, appointing FDIC as receiver. To protect depositors, Gold Canyon Bank's estimated $44.2 million in deposits has been assumed by First Scottsdale Bank, National Association, which has also agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's $45.2 million in total assets.

With the spring house hunting season upon us, Trulia reported a 7.2 percent year-over-year increase in asking prices on the national level. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices rose 1.1 percent month-over-month. On the other hand, rent price growth--for single-family homes, at least--showed signs of stagnancy in March. Nationally, rent for single-family homes increased 0.1 percent year-over-year. ""Why have rents stopped rising on single-family homes? More supply,"" explained Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.

Markets around the country suffered from inventory shortage in February, and Connecticut was no exception, according to data from the Warren Group. The real estate data provider's February report shows single-family home sales dropped 7.7 percent year-over-year in the Constitution State, decreasing to 1,149. The decline puts an end to a 13-month streak of year-over-year sales improvements.

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey shows the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 3.54 percent (0.8 point) for the week ending April 4, down from 3.57 percent last week. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.98 percent. Bankrate.com also observed declines in its weekly national survey. The 30-year FRM averaged 3.73 percent (down from 3.75 percent), while the 15-year fixed averaged 2.95 percent (from 2.97 percent before).