News

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recorded a 0.4 percent gain in its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) for April, bringing it up to 97.8. A measure of contract signings, the index serves as a forward-looking indicator for future sales activity.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released Thursday its second look at gross domestic product(GDP) for Q1, estimating an annualized 1.0 percent decline as private inventory investment dropped further than originally reported. BEA’s first estimate, released late April, put growth at an estimated annual rate of 0.1 percent compared to Q4’s final rate of 2.6 percent.

In Michigan, DLS Servicing Consultants and WorkSmart Database Masters have come together to release WaterfallCalc.com, a new Web-based Waterfall loss mitigation program for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages.

CoreLogic released its National Foreclosure Report, looking at data as of the end of April 2014. The company found that completed foreclosures in April totaled 46,000, down 0.4 percent from March and down 18 percent year-over-year.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced that Steven Pitchersky of Rancho Mirage, California was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for a scheme to defraud GMAC Inc., since rebranded as Ally. Through his fraudulent actions, the company incurred losses of approximately $5.3 million.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered RealtySouth to pay a civil penalty of $500,000 for inadequate disclosures. The largest real estate firm in Alabama was charged with leaving consumers unaware of their rights to choose service providers during the home-buying process.

LenderLive, an end-to-end mortgage services provider, announced that Stephen J. Kolimaga has joined the firm as VP of National Sales for the company's Outsource Services Division. In this role, Kolimaga will be responsible for developing new private-label fulfillment relationships with financial institutions, banks, and credit unions.

U.S. residential properties sold at an estimated annual pace of 5.2 million in April, according to RealtyTrac's April 2014 Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report. April's sales pace is a decrease of less than 1 percent from March, but an increase of 4 percent from April 2013.

Inventory and price continued to rise for the month of April suggesting a healthier national housing market, according to the National Housing Trend Report released by Realtor.com. The group cited trends from the previous year which found "dramatic shortages" being replaced in 2014 by moderate home price gains in tandem with increasing inventories.

Despite disappointing home sales in the first quarter of the year as winter storms took their toll, home prices increased 1.3 percent over the first three months of the year on a seasonally-adjusted basis for the purchase-only market, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).