Tag Archives: Attorneys & Title Companies

Despite seeing a month-over-month drop, the 10- and 20-city Case-Shiller Home Price Indices registered their strongest year-over-year improvement in two and a half years, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday. On an annual basis, the 10-city index was up 4.5 percent, and the 20-city index rose 5.5 percent. It was the strongest yearly gain in the 10-city index since June 2010 and in the 20-city index since May 2010. Year-over-year, prices were up in 19 of the 20 cities surveyed.

A new report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) suggests the Treasury Department has failed once again to curb what SIGTARP calls "excessive" executive pay at AIG, General Motors, and Ally Financial--three companies bailed out with taxpayer funds. After investigating pay in 2012, SIGTARP reported Treasury approved pay packages worth $5 million or more for 23 percent of the top employees at AIG, GM, and Ally.

Global DMS announced it has integrated its valuation management software with LendingQB's end-to-end, browser-based loan origination system.

Orion Financial Group, Inc., a Texas-based provider of mortgage assignment, lien release, and document retrieval services, is celebrating its 20th birthday--and 20th year of success--in 2013. According to a release, Orion has seen a 170 percent increase in transactions in the last five years alone. In addition, the company's client base has tripled since 2008.

After climbing into positive territory for the first time in two years, Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio decreased sharply in December.

After a lengthy waiting period banks and title insurers are beginning to prosper once again from a strengthening mortgage market.

In Colorado, First Valuation named Ted Venhorst as national sales executive. Venhorst's real estate and financial services career has spanned nearly three decades, taking him through such nationally recognized companies as UPF Services, The CIT Group, NovaStar Mortgage, and IndyMac Bank.

Home prices continued to inch up in November, according to Lender Processing Services' (LPS) Home Price Index (HPI) for the month.

The NAR's Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) fell 4.3 percent to 101.7 in December, the sharpest month-over-month drop since April.

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday that the controversial recess appointments made by President Obama in January 2012--which includes the appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)--are "invalid from their inception." Administration officials insisted the president was acting correctly under the Constitution; critics argued that the Senate was not actually in recess and that the president was skirting around the confirmation process.