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A recent estimate of single-family tear-down starts in 2016 calculated that the number has increased from 2015’s average. A tear-down start is defined by a home that was built on land that was once previously the sight of another structure. And while these figures are only estimates, the report finds that the increase in tear-down starts in indicative of the continued recovery of the single-family housing market.

Purdy Enterprise has selected FotoNotes as its technology solution for managing property inspections, maintenance work orders and other field service activities. FotoNotes’ mobile app and cloud platform solution provides companies full visibility and control of HUD FSM inspections, work orders, and field service operations. FotoNotes also provides solutions for a wide variety of other use cases, including estimating, construction, renovations, and turns.

This Friday, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester will be speaking at The Policy Summit on Housing, Human Capital, and Inequality: Transforming Regional Economies—Growth and Equity through Policy and Practice. The Summit is focusing on economic growth during the continued recovery after the Great Recession. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, it is important to understand how economic growth can more equitably benefit low- and moderate-income individuals and communities. Mester will be doing the closing address at the Policy Summit.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released recently its exhaustive annual 2016 Report to Congress, where it highlights actions it has taken over the year to support and maintain the nation’s housing industry. The 120 page report covers, amongst others: a report of the annual examination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (The Enterprises), reports of annual examinations of the Federal Home Loan Banks, the results of stress tests under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Consumer Protection Act. You can find some of the report’s highlights here.

Affording a comfortable lifestyle while saving enough money to send a child to college is a concern for the current homebuyer. The price of college is high and the cost of living in certain states directly impacts the chances of providing a child’s higher education. Recent data identifies the income needed to determine the cost of living securely and affording college tuition.

Calyx Software announced that Portfolio Underwrite is now available to Point and PointCentral clients. Portfolio Underwriter allows portfolio lenders to customize credit decisioning and safely originate non-agency loans that they intend to put on their balance sheets. It captures a portfolio lender’s program guidelines within its engine and delivers a rules-based underwriting decision in seconds and results of the decision are documented into a findings report.

Freddie Mac, in conjunction with J.P. Morgan and BNP Paribas as co-lead managers and bookrunners, recently announced the price of its fourth Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR) debt note offering at $787.5 million. Mortgages in the reference pool have an unpaid principle balance of $31.6 billion. STACR is an ongoing effort to transfer a portion of its mortgage credit risk to private investors.

The Federal Housing and Finance Agency released their April 2017 Refinance Report Thursday showing falling total refinance volume as mortgage rates in March remained higher than the lows observed in 2016. Overall, mortgage rates decreased in April with the average 30-year fixed being 4.05 percent, down from 4.20 percent in March. Ten states in the U.S. accounted for over 60 percent of the Nation’s HARP eligible loans with a refinance incentive.

Despite the recent rate hike, buyers overall feel their search won't be affected, according to a recent report. May was a hot month for for increasing home prices, and the report suggests the summer selling season will be no different. How will increasing home prices and dwindling inventory affect those searching for a home?

Good news for buyers: it’s a great time to get a mortgage. Today’s 30-year fixed rate mortgage is 2 percentage points lower than the average over the last 25 years. According to a weekly national survey, 30-year fixed mortgages rates remain at the lowest level in seven months.