News

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its monthly House Price Index (HPI) on Thursday, showing yet another decline in U.S. home prices. According to the HPI, prices fell 0.2 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from January to February. And for the twelve months ending in February, prices fell 3.4 percent. As a result of this continued decrease, the index is now 13.3 percent below its April 2007 peak.

Continuing what's been a common trend, both existing-home and condo sales in Florida rose in March, Florida Realtors reported Thursday. Existing-home sales increased 24 percent from last year and jumped 37 percent from February. In addition, existing-condo sales surged 63 percent from March 2009 and soared 40.6 percent from February.

The Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie has opened a new office in Dallas. The firm says the expansion will allow it to better serve the interests of national clients in Texas. Former Greenberg Traurig shareholder, Steven R. Smith, has joined the firm and will be partner in charge of the office, focusing his practice on commercial real estate workouts and lending.

President Obama has taken his campaign for financial reform on the road. On Thursday, he headed straight for the New York financial district. Speaking at Cooper Union College in lower Manhattan, just a short distance from the New York Stock Exchange, the president called for limits on the size of banks and the risks they can take and for stronger consumer protections on mortgages and other loans.

The housing market is heating up in Illinois. According to a report released Thursday by the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR), statewide home sales continued to increase in March, and median prices remained relatively unchanged. In March 2010, Illinois home sales--including single-family homes and condos--totaled 9,478 transactions, up 32.8 percent from the same month last year. This marked the seventh consecutive month that statewide home sales have increased on a year-over-year basis.

Redwood Trust Inc. plans to sell the first private securitization of newly originated mortgages since 2008. The residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) consists of 225 prime jumbo mortgage loans worth approximately $222 million. The bond could be a big step toward restoring a secondary mortgage market left stagnant by the housing crisis, when mounting defaults caused investors to recoil.

For all of 2009, commercial and multifamily mortgage origination volume tumbled 46 percent to $82.3 billion, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Thursday. The associaiton said decreases were seen across most property types and investor groups, led by reductions in loans intended for credit companies, REITS, mortgage REITs, investment funds, commercial mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, and other asset-backed security conduits.

Mortgage technology provider Byte Software has partnered with AppraiserLoft to provide compliant and warranted valuation products to Byte Software customers. The companies explained that the integrated solution allows Byte Software's clients to quickly and seamlessly order AppraiserLoft services directly from within the BytePro loan origination software.

In response to the notable first quarter profits reported by Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, the Association of Mortgage Investors (AMI) released a statement saying these four banks need to stop shifting their mortgage losses to investors in first-lien mortgages and confront their conflicts of interest. While the big banks have aggressively modified first mortgage debt, AMI says they have done little to nothing on second liens. As a result, homeowners remain deeply in debt with second mortgages that exceed the current value of their home.

Regulators have repeatedly warned that failures of small and mid-sized banks are expected to escalate. While many have gotten a handle on problems arising from the housing crisis, top officials say losses from commercial real estate loans now threaten to topple nearly 3,000 of the nation's community banks. It's true that bank failures and government seizures continue at a pace not seen since the savings and loan crisis, but a new study shows that community banks appear better positioned to weather further economic deterioration than their larger competitors.