Servicing

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) wants people to know they may not be saving money by purchasing older homes. NAHB compared the cost of owning a home built before 1960 to the cost of homes built since 2008 and found that after taxes, the total cost of owning a home in its first year is about 23 percent more for an equally-priced older home.

Real estate agents are showing heightened optimism for housing as the market continues its swing toward sellers, Redfin observed in its latest Real-Time Agent Survey. According to brokerage's findings, the number of agents saying now is a good time to buy plummeted from 75 percent in Q3 2012 to just 57 percent in Q1 2013. At the same time, the number of agents saying now is a bad time to buy rose slightly, though the percentage is still low--5 percent in Q1 2013 compared to 2 percent in Q3 2012.

Genworth Financial got the go-ahead to implement its comprehensive capital plan for its mortgage insurance business. The plan has been fully implemented as of April 1, Virginia-based Genworth announced. The plan is expected to reduce Genworth Mortgage Insurance Company's (GMICO) risk-to-capital ratio by about 15 points and lower the combined risk-to-capital ratio of the U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiaries by about 10 points.

For February, DataQuick found home prices grew in 34 of the 42 counties on a monthly and quarterly basis.

MortgageFlex Systems, Inc., a leading provider of loan origination and servicing technology, is growing its implementation team with the addition of two new professional services team members.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that Comptroller Thomas J. Curry has been named chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) for a two-year term.

Construction spending rose 1.2 percent month-over-month in February, according to the Census Bureau. Spending rose both in the public and private sectors. On an annual basis, construction spending was up 7.9 percent in February, reaching an annual rate of $885.1 billion. Combined, construction spending in January and February totaled $120.1 billion, which is 6.6 percent above the spending observed in the first two months of last year.

Bradford Technologies Inc. announced the launch of CompCruncher 3, the third generation of the technology "that introduced statistical analysis into collateral valuations."

Sometimes a story just fits--and sometimes it doesn't. Given that maxim, the explanation from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) for the drop in the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) for February has to be viewed with a jaundiced eye. According to the NAR, the PHSI dropped because of the low inventory of homes for sale. Of course, that wasn't offered as an explanation one month earlier, when the inventory of homes for sale dropped, and the PHSI increased.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a diversified mortgage servicing company operating in the Dallas area, says lenders, servicers, and investors are leaving money on the table by not doing their homework on oil and gas leases.