News

Mortgage interest rates fell dramatically this week, dipping to a two-month low in one industry study and a three-month low in a separate market survey, as natural disasters devastated the East Asia island nation of Japan, the world's third largest economy. Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist, explained that with the crisis in Japan, investors rushed to buy the security of U.S. Treasury bonds, which allowed fixed mortgage rates to drift lower.

Trepp, LLC, a provider of research and analytics for the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market, announced Thursday that it has acquired Investcap Advisors, LLC. Investcap, a privately held company in Massachusetts, develops Web-based applications for U.S. CMBS loan and property surveillance. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Veros Real Estate Solutions has expanded its third-party product offering through VeroSELECT with an intelligent automated valuation model (iAVM) from IntelliReal. The platform is designed to route and return AVMs and other forms of valuation products with secure management of vendors, users, products, and services.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to pull the plug on HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and rescind $1 billion in grant money that has not yet been awarded. The NSP Termination Act (H.R. 861) passed the House with a 242-182 vote. It now moves to the Senate, where it is not expected to be met with such favor. White House officials again indicated that President Obama will veto the bill should it make it that far.

Active Data Technologies Inc., a Florida-based creator of custom REO Web sites, released a statement this week announcing that the company recently completed a pilot REO offer management platform for Fannie Mae. The program, available through the GSE's HomePath Web site allows agents representing homebuyers or investors to submit offers online to purchase Fannie Mae-owned properties in three test markets: Orlando, Florida; San Diego, California; and Wayne County, Michigan.

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) has teamed up with Fannie Mae to provide its brokers and agents with a service designed to shorten the time they have to wait for approval from the GSE on short sale transactions. MRED provides property listing services in northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and northwest Indiana. This week, the company announced the availability of the Fannie Mae Short Sale Assistance Desk for its coverage area. The tool has already been employed by MLSs in Florida and Nevada, and agents there are seeing the benefits.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit Monday against Meredian Financial Corporation, a California-based mortgage lender and broker. According to a statement from the attorney general, the lender charged Minnesota homeowners thousands of dollars in fees to refinance their mortgages, but the refinances did not happen. Swanson says Meredian targeted homeowners struggling in the troubled economy who were looking to get out of an adjustable-rate mortgage or lower their interest rate by refinancing.

DataQuick, an independent provider of real estate information, analysis, and solutions, now offers lenders and servicers access to Home Value Explorer (HVE) through the company's Collateral Validation solution. Access to this Freddie Mac automated valuation model (AVM) is part of DataQuick's collateral risk management platform.

With bank-owned inventories expanding rapidly, even government agencies are looking for new ways to quickly get foreclosed properties back into the hands of responsible homeowners. For the first time in recent years, HUD is planning to sell over 150 foreclosed homes through auction. The auction will take place March 26th at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Phoenix, and will be conducted by the real estate auction firm Hudson & Marshall.

The nation's economic recovery is on ""firmer footing"" with conditions in the labor market ""improving gradually,"" the Federal Reserve said Tuesday following its monetary policy meeting. The Fed's view of the economy was noticeably more upbeat, but that optimism stopped short when the discussion turned to housing. With property values still sliding, a ballooning foreclosure pipeline, and a shadow inventory of distressed REOs that experts say could take more than three years to clear, the Fed stated bluntly, ""the housing sector continues to be depressed.""