Servicing

Stewart Title Company announced the appointment of Mary Ann Nelson-Sutterfield to lead Stewart Abstract & Title of Oklahoma as president.

While the world's largest companies have focused their sustainability practices on the global level, Florida's Nationwide Title Clearing (NTC) is working to make a difference on a smaller scale.

When Congress enacted Dodd-Frank in retribution for perceived ills, you had to know banks would come up with new ways to replace lost revenues, but bankers were too clever by half.

The newest Price Monitor report from Trulia shows asking prices are heating up along with the weather. The company reported a 10.7 percent year-over-year increase and a 1.5 percent month-over-month improvement. Trulia also tracked the 100 largest metro areas and revealed 99 markets experienced an increase in asking prices over the last year. According to Trulia's chief economist Jed Kolko, the increase in home prices and mortgage rates has added a significant cost to homeownership.

May was a strong month for home sales in Connecticut, the Warren Group reported. According to the group, sales in the state rose 2.9 percent year-over-year to 2,356. It was the highest number of transactions recorded for the month since May 2010 and the first time since January that sales volume increased on a yearly basis.

Homebuyer interest diminished somewhat in June, according to Redfin's Real-Time Demand Pulse. According to the brokerage, the number of customers taking tours fell 1.9 percent month-over-month in June, sinking even further than the 1.5 percent drop recorded last year. For the last week of the month, Redfin reported a 2.7 percent decline in tour requests from the prior week (compared to a 2.3 percent decline the same week in 2012). With closed sales typically peaking each year in June, Redfin expects continued monthly declines.

Adding new pressures for the Federal Reserve, the nation's economy added 195,000 jobs in June, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 7.6.percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday. Economists had forecast payrolls would grow by 165,000, and that the unemployment rate would dip to 7.5 percent.

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), the fourth largest wholesale mortgage lender in the United States, announced the rollout of a new program designed to give brokers the option to waive escrows up to 90 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) on all conventional products.

Stewart Lender Services (SLS) announced the appointment of Jessica Thorne as SVP and strategic relationship manager.

The Federal Reserve Board announced its approval of a final rule to implement the Basel III regulatory capital reforms and other changes required by the Dodd-Frank Act.