Origination

Auction.com, LLC, recently released its Retail Market Outlook, which offers analysis on market metrics, provided vacancy and rent projections, and reveals the top markets in which to buy and sell retail assets in 2015.

In a combined session of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the manager of the System Open Market Account (SOMA), a meeting was held today to discuss domestic and foreign financial market developments and the Federal Reserve’s Balance Sheet.

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services (FSC): Housing and Insurance Subcommittee held a hearing today called “The Future of Housing in America: Oversight of the Rural Housing Service,” according to a memorandum written by the FSC majority staff.

Freddie Mac released its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for May today, revealing that low mortgage rates kept affordability high in the first quarter of this year for buyers, but housing markets probably will see interest rates increase for the rest of the year.

W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital (W.J. Bradley), a privately held mortgage banking firm, recently announced in a press release the promotion of John Sadler to be the company’s chief information officer (CIO).

The April 2015 RE/MAX National Housing Report that surveyed 53 metro areas, revealed that home sales were up by 7 percent from the previous month and 6.5 percent above the mark set in April 2014. Home sales in April were higher than any other April since the report began in 2008.

New Freddie Mac research reveals that despite rising rents, the majority of renters are not motivated to purchase a home and positive perceptions about renting are increasing. Harris Poll was selected by Freddie Mac to conduct the survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults online in March 2015 to get their renting viewpoints.

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.

Zillow released a mortgage analysis of loan requests and quotes finding that borrowers with loans of $100,000 pay 10 percent more for every dollar borrowed due to higher interest rates and fees compared to borrowers with $400,000 home loans. Furthermore, borrowers with small loans tend to have trouble finding lenders to lend to them.