Secondary Market

This year's bank failure tally rose to double digits over the weekend with the collapse of two more federally insured institutions. FDIC announced the closing of Parkway Bank in Lenoir, North Carolina, and Douglas County Bank in Douglasville, Georgia, bringing the total number of bank closings this year to 10. While this year has been slower in terms of bank failures, April has seen the pace pick up, with more than half of the year's closings occurring this month alone.

The National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose 1.5 percent to 105.7 in March, the highest level in almost three years, the group reported.

Restrained by slow wage growth, personal income rose a disappointing $30.9 billion (0.2 percent) in March--half of what economists expected--as spending rose $21.0 billion or 0.2 percent, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Monday. Economists had expected income to improve 0.4 percent in February and spending to increase 0.1 percent. Personal income had improved $15.2 billion in February, largely on the strength of an $80 billion increase in dividend payments. Dividend payments in March increased by $4.5 billion over February.

The numbers and headlines last week offered mixed signals: Existing-home sales dropped month-to-month as the median price increased, while another report showed new home sales fell as the median price increased.

According to responses collected by Redfin, 45 percent of sellers believe now is a good time to sell, up from just 22 percent in the first quarter and 15 percent in last year's fourth quarter. At the same time, 44 percent say now is a good time buy, down from 54 percent last quarter. Having survived the slower cold season, homeowners were also a little more optimistic about future home price increases. Seventy percent of those surveyed expect prices will rise "a little" in their area in the next year, while 15 percent anticipate prices will rise "a lot."

Mortgage Master, a super-regional mortgage bank, announced plans to expand its West Coast geographic footprint by opening new branch offices and recruiting high quality production professionals to help leverage its model in the California market.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced two individuals were added to the bureau's leadership team, and two current staff members will be serving in different roles.

Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio grew in March for the first time this year, according to the GSE's monthly volume summary.

CoreLogic, a leading residential property information, analytics, and services provider headquartered in California, announced its acquisition of Case-Shiller from Fiserv, Inc. The acquisition closed March 20. In addition to offering the Case-Shiller Indexes├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┬Øwhich will be renamed the CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indexes├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┬ØCoreLogic will continue to offer its own Home Price Index (HPI), the company announced.

loanDepot.com, based in Foothill Ranch, California, added Teri Felix to its executive leadership team. Felix joins the company as EVP and chief marketing officer.