Headlines

In the wake of a cyber-attack on Ellie Mae and the discovery of the Heartbleed bug, FDIC put out a release advising financial institutions on resources to stay up to date on security threats. FDIC urges financial institutions to "ensure that their Information Security staff are aware of and subscribe to reliable and recognized resources that can help quickly identify cyber risks as they emerge."

Consumer confidence reached a four-month high in April, according to the University of Michigan’s preliminary measure of consumer sentiment for the month. After taking a hit in March, the index rebounded to 82.6 in April, prompting one analytics firm to anticipate a possible return in consumer confidence to a long-term normal of 85. The university also measures current conditions and expectations, finding upticks in both this month.

According to the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors (PAR), overall home sales in the state declined 6 percent in the first quarter compared to the same time in 2013. PAR’s data shows there were 24,250 closed sales in Q1. Kim Skumanick, PAR president, attributed at least some of last quarter’s buyer/seller reluctance to adverse weather conditions.”

Real estate veteran Dan Devine has joined Long & Foster’s Greenville, Delaware, office, the independent real estate firm announced.

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase experienced very different first quarters, as evidenced by results in their quarterly earnings reports released Friday. Wells Fargo reported a record net income of $5.9 billion for the first quarter, an increase of 14 percent from the year-ago quarter and 5 percent from Q4 2013. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase reported profits of $5.3 billion for the quarter compared to $6.5 billion a year ago.

Despite a low inventory, single-family home sales are up 2.6 percent overall this year in Connecticut, with a 2.8 percent increase in February of this year from last year, according to the Warren Group. "We see many signs of a healthy real estate market in Connecticut," said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO. "We are in the third year of recovery from the crash in real estate and financial markets. People are interested in real estate once again."

NetDirector, a provider of cloud-based data and document exchange services, announced that Anthony Box has joined the leadership team as VP of Sales.

Trulia found that month-to-month asking prices nationally in urban markets rose 1.2 percent in March. Quarter-to-quarter, prices rose 2.9 percent in March, reflecting three straight months of solid month-over-month gains. Both calculations were seasonally adjusted. More encouraging is that asking prices are up a full 10 percent since last year, rising in 97 of the 100 largest metros.

According to a report put out Wednesday by University of Minnesota’s Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity (IMO), Twin Cities lenders have been treating minority mortgage applicants unequally for 10 years—first by originating an inordinate number of subprime loans to minority borrowers before the crash and then by disproportionately limiting credit access to those same communities.

Member companies of Lenders One Mortgage Cooperative achieved a new record in loan volume throughout 2013, the group reported this week. According to a release, the cooperative—a national alliance of community mortgage bankers, correspondent lenders, and suppliers of mortgage products and services—collectively originated $224 billion in volume last year, a 22 percent increase over 2012.