News

As home price growth continues to moderate to a more sustainable pace, real estate data provider Clear Capital sees another promising trend forming: The mid-tier housing sector now has the best deals for buyers, hopefully drawing more interest to the market’s largest segment. Dr. Alex Villacorta, VP and chief economist for Clear Capital, says the shift reflects how market drivers have had an impact on each tier of housing.

Yahoo! Inc.’s former CFO and interim CEO has joined Auction.com as CFO and EVP, the California-based real estate marketplace announced. According to Auction.com, Tim Morse will work out of the company’s Silicon Valley office, overseeing financial operations and growth strategies. He is currently working with outgoing CFO Bruce Felt to help ease the transition.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) may have made some missteps in evaluating the risk of a residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) transaction that has now been postponed, Fitch Ratings says in a recent report. In a release issued Friday, Fitch says S&P relied on incomplete home value data for loans contained in the recently announced RMBS transaction to be issued by Bayview Asset Management.

In a blog post published late last week, Urban Institute’s researchers assert, “A market composition change—not lower lending standards—explains the decrease in average credit scores for conventional and FHA [Federal Housing Administration] mortgages. “Despite rising home prices and gradual housing recovery, the mortgage lending rules have remained tight, inhibiting housing demand and economic growth,” they continue.

In its latest Mortgage Monitor Report, Black Knight Financial Services found one in 10 Americans are underwater on their home loans, down from one in three as recently as 2010. "Two years of relatively consecutive home price increases and a general decline in the number of distressed loans have contributed to a decreasing number of underwater borrowers," said Kostya Gradushy, Black Knight's manager of Loan Data and Customer Analytics.

Fannie Mae’s book of business declined for the first three months of this year, ending the first quarter with a monthly compound annualized rate of -1.8 percent. Over the first quarter, the GSE’s book of business declined at a compound annualized rate of 2.2 percent. Fannie’s gross mortgage portfolio has also been on the decline over the first three months of this year, though at a much slower rate in March than in the first two months of the year.

After nearly two years of frenzied price appreciation, home price gains are expected to drop off, according to the latest report from Veros Real Estate Solutions, a provider of enterprise risk management, collateral valuation, and predictive analytics. However, Veros does not cast a negative outlook for the market. Rather, the firm anticipates a stable market with slow price appreciation. “The wave of appreciation may have crested, but it has been an impressive recovery in many respects,” said Eric Fox, VP of statistical an economic modeling at Veros.

In an interview with host Louis Amaya for "Mortgage Markets Today," LRES founder and CEO Roger Beane asserted that even though there have been many changes in the real estate and mortgage banking industry, appraisers will always be in demand: "Our customers have told us they are still very interested in having the signature from a licensed appraiser attesting to the value."

Out of Honolulu, Collateral Analytics announced the launch of CA Credit Risk Model, a new product intended to offer comprehensive, quantitative measures of the risk and cost of potential borrower default in a residential mortgage.

DocuTech Corp., a specialist in compliance and documentation technology, announced a promotion among its ranks: Justin Summers was named director of implementations and professional services for the Idaho-based firm.