Tag Archives: Service Providers

December saw mixed signals in terms of housing demand, according to Redfin's latest Real-Time Demand Pulse.

Veri-Tax, LLC, and its subsidiary, Verification Bureau, LLC, announced the launch of a Form 4506-T electronic signature solution as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) gears up to accept electronic signatures on income verification requests.

Bank of America and Fannie Mae reached a $10.3 billion agreement Monday to resolve repurchase claims on loans originated from 2000 through 2008.

In New Jersey, RedVision--a national provider of title reports and real property research solutions--announced the hiring of Andrew Nadal as regional sales director for the Southeast region. Nadal has a wealth of industry experience, having spent time at both Stewart Title and Statewide Lien Company.

Though he became famous for his role on legendary television show, Dallas, the late Larry Hagman is making posthumous headlines far from Texas, following news of another price reduction on the West Coast property he once called home. Located in Ojai, California, the actor's 43-acre estate was originally placed on the market in 2009 for $11 million and the listing's asking price has now dropped to $6.495 million.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is easing back on reporting standards for smaller supervised lenders.

With the fiscal cliff negotiation out of the way--at least, the first phase of it--analysts at Barclays assert in a new release that "housing policy is transitioning from being a source of negative headline risk to a potential positive factor for the housing stocks." As the haze surrounding the state of the mortgage interest tax deduction (MID) lifts and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) prepares to make reforms to its business model, analysts note that "anticipated policy changes have been less severe than feared."

From 2008 through 2011, 414 banks failed across the nation, resulting in estimated costs to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) of about $42.8 billion, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GOA). When examining the cause of bank failures from 2008 through 2011, GOA found banks with less than $1 billion in assets were especially vulnerable to commercial real estate losses. GOA also found instances of "nontraditional, riskier funding sources" in many failed banks.

According to a report from Fitch, home prices have risen at their greatest pace since 2005, but in certain markets, technical factors--including low mortgage rates, tight supply of existing for-sale homes, and weak levels of new home construction--rather than "fundamentals" acted as the driving force behind the price gains over the past few quarters. In order to determine sustainability, Fitch conducted an analysis using its Sustainable Home Price (SHP) model.

Zillow, Inc., announced real estate industry vet Chris Crocker is joining the team as the company's VP of strategic partnerships. Crocker brings to the position more than 16 years of experience in the real estate industry, having served most recently as regional VP of operations for the Southwestern U.S. region of NRT, LLC.