In Pittsburgh, PNC Financial Services Group's board of directors elected president William S. Demchak as director and announced that he will succeed chairman James E. Rohr as CEO. The board held the election in response to Rohr's desire to step down as CEO at the company's 2013 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on April 23 and his intention to retire from the company and the board next year.
Read More »Ellie Mae Promotes COO to President
Ellie Mae, a leading provider of enterprise-level, on-demand automated solutions for the residential mortgage industry, announced that Jonathan Corr has been promoted to company president. In his role, Corr will be responsible for managing Ellie Mae's day-to-day operations. He will also continue to serve as COO and will keep reporting to Sig Anderman, the company's chairman and CEO.
Read More »Freddie Mac Sees Room for Growth in Housing
Well housing activity remains near historical lows, Freddie Mac is taking a more optimistic view: There's still plenty of room to grow. This glass-half-full viewpoint was reflected in the GSE's forecast for housing in 2013, especially for housing starts, which are projected to increase to 950,000 units this year--22 percent higher than 2012 levels. The GSE also expects prices to increase 3 percent in 2013 and 2014, while sales are forecast to rise to an annual rate of 5.45 million and 5.80 million, respectively.
Read More »Deloitte Consumer Spending Index Falls in January
Deloitte's Consumer Spending Index declined for the third straight month in January, the company reported. The index, which tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future spending, fell to 3.87 from a previous reading of 3.93. Patricia Buckley, director of economic policy and analysis at Deloitte and author of the monthly index, explained the decrease is "primarily due to slowing increases of new home prices," though gradual improvements in initial unemployment claims and real wages may reverse the downward trend in the future.
Read More »Report: Conditions Indicate Home Value Growth in 2013
Conditions are ripe for home values in 2013, according to January national housing data collected by Realtor.com.
Read More »Flagstar Agrees to Sell DocVelocity Assets to Capsilon
In Michigan, Flagstar Bancorp, Inc., announced an agreement to sell the assets of DocVelocity, its document imaging business for mortgage lenders, to Capsilon, a provider of cloud-based sharing, imaging, and collaboration services for mortgage lenders.
Read More »Watchdog Report Classifies FHA as ‘High-Risk’ Program
The GAO revealed it considers the agency to be a "high risk" program "due to [its] greater vulnerability to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement or the need for transformation."
Read More »Low Labor Availability Slowing Housing Construction
One real estate consulting firm has noticed a substantial divide between housing starts and completions and points to labor as the major factor.
Read More »Report: Gap Between Listing Prices, Closing Prices Narrows in 2012
The gap between the listing price and closing price of an average home sold continued to narrow last year as market conditions gave the advantage to sellers.
Read More »United States Appraisals Names Chief Appraiser
United States Appraisals, a nationwide appraisal management company based in Kansas, named Richard Garrie as chief appraiser. Garrie has more than 17 years of residential valuation experience, including eight years as a branch manager for Forsythe Appraisals, LLC.
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