News

Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rates report released Wednesday may add to fears that the conclusion of the Fed's mortgage purchase program will cause interest rates to spike. For the week ending April 1, 2010, rates for 30-year fixed mortgages averaged 5.08 percent with an average 0.7 point--the second highest level this year.

Deflated in price and in purpose, the hotly debated Michigan arena rises to life again, thanks to globally targeted auction.

The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF) is a FORTUNE 500 company, with total revenues of approximately $6 billion in 2009. As a leading provider of innovative software solutions to the mortgage industry, First American Technology Solutions provides unparalleled efficiencies and savings across client value chains by delivering tested, proven enterprise technologies on a quarterly release cycle with the highest quality and innovative functionality.

Economic factors, such as unemployment and consumers' controlled spending, continue to weigh heavy on the commercial real estate sector and drag down fundamentals, but the rate of deterioration appears to be moderating, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said Wednesday. The volume of commercial property sales picked up at the end of last year and prices are beginning to show stabilization, but MBA also noted that vacancy rates continue to increase across all property types and delinquencies are still climbing.

Retreat Capital Management Group, a Lake Forest, California-based provider of loss mitigation and portfolio management products, announced Tuesday that it is now offering property preservation services to its clients through a partnership with Elevate Property Services, based in Santa Fe Springs, California.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions announced Tuesday that First Associates, Inc. has implemented its REALRemit solution, an automated e-commerce invoicing and borrower payment portal, to manage accounts payable and borrower loan payments.

MRG Document Technologies (MRG), a Dallas-based provider of mortgage document preparation and compliance technology to lenders across the nation, recently announced that it has been named a RegulatorConnect certified partner by ComplianceEase, a San Francisco-based provider of intelligent business solutions to the financial services industry.

In its 12-month home price forecast issued Wednesday, Veros Real Estate Solutions said it had ""continued bad news for Florida."" Markets in the Sunshine State claimed the top five spots on the company's list of areas where prices are expected to drop the most over the next year. One of the other big bust states - California - shows more promise, according to Veros' analysis. The Golden State is home to three of the five markets the company expects to post the strongest price gains over the next 12 months.

New data from HOPE NOW shows that servicers completed more than 95,000 loan modifications through their own proprietary programs in February. That's almost double the 52,000 modifications finalized under the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) during the same month. The report also showed declines in the number of 60-day delinquencies and foreclosure starts and sales.

The government recently ramped up its efforts to help at-risk borrowers, but according to a recent opinion poll by Destin, Florida-based Housing Predictor, that's not what the majority of people want. Despite the impact it would have on the U.S. economy, 78 percent of those polled said they want the government to let home foreclosures run their course instead of making efforts to stop the crisis.