News

Sixteen individuals have been charged in relation to a telemarketing scheme to sell houses to investors in most of the U.S., including Michigan, according to a joint announcement by U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade and Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office Paul Abbate.

Low mortgage interest rates helped elevate refinance volumes throughout the third quarter as demand for the government's relief refinance program continued to diminish.

According to Freddie Mac, three of the four major indicators tracked in the index saw improvements in September, led by a 1.2 percent gain in the gauge of labor health to 94. The components measuring payment-to-income ratios and the proportion of mortgage payments made on time also edged up, rising 0.8 percent to 72.7 and 0.5 percent to 66.6, respectively.

The U.S. Department of Treasury announced that Annie Donovan has joined the department as the new director of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund.

A Delaware man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for his role in a fraud and money laundering scheme involving a bank that was a recipient of funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), according to an announcement by the Special Inspector General for the TARP (SIGTARP) and U.S. Attorney General for Delaware Charles M. Oberly III.

Income growth and rising home inventory levels helped push house sales up in October compared to last year, marking the first major increase year-to-date, according to a report.

According to the Conference Board, consumers in the latest survey were less optimistic about the labor market outlook, reflected in a decline in the share of respondents expecting more jobs in the next six months and an increase of more than 2 percentage points in the share expecting fewer jobs.

October marked the second straight month of growth for the portfolio, which has contracted for seven of 2014's first 10 months. Year-to-date, the portfolio has shrunk at an average annualized rate of 0.8 percent.

Sales of newly built homes picked up in October, but a downward revision to September shows numbers in that segment of the housing market remain volatile. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that sales of new single-family houses were at a ...

One of the oldest and largest marketplaces for self-directed homebuyers and sellers, Owners.com joins real estate auction marketplace Hubzu.com as a platform for Altisource to continue to grow its online presence.