Headlines

Consumer sentiment dropped substantially in the first May reading in the University of Michigan'sConsumer Sentiment Index, from 95.9 in April down to 88.6, its lowest level since October of last year.

VRM Mortgage Services (VRM) was recently named to DiversityBusiness’ 15th annual “Top Businesses in America” list and received multiple awards as an African American, diversity-owned and privately held business. According to a recent DiversityBusiness press release this is the second year in a row VRM has received such honors.

Real estate technology provider Pavaso and International Document Services, Inc. (IDS), mortgage document preparation provider, have announced their mortgage closing platform collaboration in a recent press release. The firms will combine Pavaso’s Digital Close, an electronic closing platform, and IDS’s document preparation system idsDoc.

Builder confidence for consumers looking to purchase newly built, single-family homes dropped two points to a level of 54 in May according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today. Although confidence fell two point this month, this is an increase of nine points from May 2014.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has voiced his displeasure with the provisions of a bi-partisan bill introduced in the Senate earlier this week that would limit the Fed's lending authority and end "too big to fail."

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) results showed mortgage applications for new home purchases increased by 0.3 percent compared to last month for April 2015. No adjustments for typical seasonal patterns were included in this data.

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings’ president and COO, Harold Lewis recently announced his retirement from the company effective May 31st.

Visio Financial Services, a residential real estate marketplace lender in the U.S., revealed the results of its Annual Residential Real Estate Investor Report today. The report found that investors are expanding their property searches, buying in higher price bands, and broadening their strategies in 2015.

Valuation Vision (V2) announced in a recent press release that BPOMerge will be available through FNC’s AppraisalPort. Valuation Vision is a nationwide provider of alternative valuation products.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently released a new working paper titled, “How Low Can House Prices Go? Estimating a Conservative Lower Bound,” identifying a conservative lower bound for home prices in relation to long-term trend.