Servicing

Continental Title Holding Co., Inc., an independent title insurance agency with headquarters in St. Louis, announced the acquisition of Assured Title Company of Warrenton, LLC.

The nation's homeownership rate fell to 65 percent in the first quarter of 2013, according to data from the Census Bureau.

Despite weakness in the Midwest, home prices posted their strongest year-over-year gain in almost seven years in February, according to the Case-Shiller 10- and 20-city Home Price Indexes released Tuesday. Month-over-month, the 10-city index improved 0.4 percent in February, while the 20-city index was up 0.3 percent. On a yearly basis, the 10-city index was up 8.6 percent, and the 20-city index rose 9.3 percent. Economists had forecast the 20-city index would rise slightly to 146.16, essentially unchanged from January.

Santa Ana's Stearns Lending, Inc., a nationwide mortgage lending institution, announced its inclusion on Mortgagestats.com's list of the 2012 Top 20 Residential Lenders Ranked by Volume.

LRES announced new features to its vendor portal website intended to grant licensed appraisers the ability to manage their property appraisal orders more efficiently.

Lender Processing Services' (LPS) Home Price Index rose 1 percent in February to $210,000, the company reported. Currently, prices are 20.6 percent below the June 2006 peak of $265,000. California cities dominated the top 10 list for metro area price gains, with 9 out of ten metros representing the state. Price decreases were also concentrated. According to LPS data, five out of the six states where prices fell month-over-month were in Connecticut.

In Santa Ana, California, Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC announced plans to extend its retail operation's 25-Day Loan Closing program. Under the program, Carrington commits to process any qualifying loan (from the time a file is submitted to underwriting to the time that it funds) within 25 calendar days, or the company will apply a closing cost credit of $500 to the loan once it closes.

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.