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News By Edition
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Valuation Review Edition
March 3, 2014
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Broadening education is the key to expanding appraiser’s business, Appraisal Institute says
Posted Date: Monday, March 3, 2014
No matter the profession, the question of how to successfully scale the corporate ladder is always a pertinent one. However, that upward path can be a more difficult one for some to navigate depending on the field.
Appraisers have found themselves working in an industry where certain game-changing obstacles have popped up in recent years. Besides increased regulations that have led to more appraisal management companies (AMCs) joining the world of settlement services, appraisers have seen technology diminish some of their opportunities.
To get insight into today’s best practices for appraisers, Valuation Review interviewed Appraisal Institute President Ken Wilson.
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Survey aims to understand the impact of new qualified mortgage rule
Posted Date: Thursday, February 20, 2014
The ramifications of any rulemaking are impossible to project after only a month of implementation. In fact, it often takes years for the full scope of legislative impact to be truly understood.
However, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Research recently sent out a survey to a panel of 53 different mortgage originating entities across the country in an attempt to get preliminary feedback on the new qualified mortgage (QM) rule.
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HARP reaches milestone helping homeowners refinance mortgages
Posted Date: Monday, February 17, 2014
The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that the Home Affordable Refinance Program has reached a significant milestone: More than 3 million homeowners have now refinanced their mortgages through the program. This achievement is detailed in FHFA’s November Refinance Report. Keep reading to see the full story.
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Clear Capital hires two new executive-level members
Posted Date: Monday, February 17, 2014
Clear Capital, a provider of real estate valuation and analytics, announced the hiring of two new executive-level members on Feb. 13. The new hires will jointly serve as the company’s directors of customer development. Keep reading to learn more.
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Housing affordability plummets year over year, report shows
Posted Date: Monday, February 24, 2014
If there were two words to encapsulate the state of the housing market in 2013, they would be “decreased affordability.”
A new report from RealtyTrac, a provider of housing data and analytics, showed that those looking for a bargain in the housing market last year might have been too late to the party.
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MBA releases new home sales data for January
Posted Date: Monday, February 17, 2014
The Mortgage Bankers Association released the results of its latest Builder Application Survey for the month of January. The survey tracks application volume from mortgage subsidiaries of home builders across the country, which helps MBA analysts provide an early estimate of new home sales volumes at the national, state and metro levels.
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Delinquency rate drops to lowest level in years, survey shows
Posted Date: Monday, February 24, 2014
The Mortgage Bankers Association has released the results of its National Delinquency Survey for the fourth quarter of 2013. The NDS covers 41 million loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties, representing approximately 88 percent of all “first-lien” residential mortgage loans outstanding in the United States. Loans surveyed for the fourth quarter were reported by approximately 120 lenders, including mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Keep reading for the details.
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Freddie Mac releases February market outlook
Posted Date: Thursday, February 20, 2014
Freddie Mac has released the results of its Economic and Housing Market Outlook for February, which forecasts the state of the U.S. residential market using various data from the economic, housing and mortgage markets.
The February data shows that even though the Fed’s decision to continue to taper its bond-buying activity caused many analysts to conclude an escalation of mortgage rates would inevitably follow, rates have stayed low for the interim. Freddie reported average rates of 4.28 percent for 30-year fixed mortgages and 3.33 percent for 15-year fixed mortgages as of Feb. 13.
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Poor weather, shortage of labor leads to pessimism among homebuilders
Posted Date: Thursday, February 20, 2014
The persisting harsh conditions that have impacted the U.S. this winter are doing more than leaving Americans with the winter blues.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), which is used to gauge builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations, dropped 10 points for the month of February, with inclement weather being cited as a main cause.
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Ellie Mae releases latest report on the nation’s underwriting standards
Posted Date: Thursday, February 20, 2014
Ellie Mae, a provider of enterprise-level, on-demand automated solutions for the residential mortgage industry, released its Origination Insight Report for January. The report draws its data and insights from a sampling of the loan applications that flow through Ellie Mae’s Encompass mortgage management software and the Ellie Mae Network. Keep reading to see the details of the report.
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Fed to continue to taper bond-buying activity through 2014, Fed president says
Posted Date: Monday, February 24, 2014
The U.S. economy has continued to improve to the extent that the Fed will likely continue to taper its bond-buying activity throughout 2014, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 19.
The Fed announced back in December 2013 that it would start tapering the amount of money dedicated to its bond-buying stimulus program. The Fed had been sinking $85 billion per month into the program at the end of 2013 as a way to help support the economy as it rebounded from the recession. Last month, the Fed cut back its bond-buying program by $10 billion to a new monthly total of $65 billion.
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New app lets appraisers accept new orders anywhere
Posted Date: Monday, February 24, 2014
A new smartphone app is helping facilitate the appraisal ordering process faster than ever before.
A la mode, the Florida-based developer of desktop, mobile and Web tools for the real estate and mortgage industries, has released a new component to its Mercury Network — Mercury Mobile.
The Mercury Network is a cloud-based platform that allows lenders and appraisal management companies (AMCs) to manage their vendor workflow process in compliance with the Uniform Mortgage Data Program (UMDP), appraisal independence standards and security regulations.
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DataQuick enhances users’ ability to track property transactions
Posted Date: Thursday, February 20, 2014
DataQuick, a provider of advanced real estate information solutions powered by data, analytics and automated decisioning, has completed the development of its Derived Transaction Record. The DTR is a new property transaction record based on a methodology for extracting data from a variety of intelligence sources to identify property transactions in jurisdictions that do not compile recorder information.
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Platinum Data completes accuracy testing of AVM products
Posted Date: Thursday, February 20, 2014
Platinum Data Solutions, a provider of collateral evaluation and technology for the mortgage industry, has completed accuracy testing on all of the18 non-proprietary automated valuation models it resells, providing lenders and servicers with the industry’s first off-the-shelf, accuracy-tested AVMs.
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Housing affordability holds steady, index shows
Posted Date: Monday, February 24, 2014
The National Association of Home Builders released its National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index for the fourth quarter of 2013.The index, which is a measure of the percentage of homes sold in a given area that are affordable to families earning the area’s median income during a specific quarter, shows that slightly lower median home prices along with a small uptick in mortgage rates contributed to housing affordability holding steady at the end of 2013. Keep reading to see the full results.
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Home prices continue to rise in fourth quarter, index shows
Posted Date: Monday, February 17, 2014
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released the results of its latest Metropolitan Median Area Prices and Affordability and Housing Affordability Index on Feb. 11. The index shows home price fluctuations across the U.S. for the fourth quarter of 2013.
The index showed that overall, the country continued to enjoy year-over-year price growth. The median existing single-family home price increased in 119 out of the 164 metropolitan areas analyzed (73 percent) from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the fourth quarter of 2013. Forty-two of the areas surveyed (26 percent) showed double-digit increases from the year before, while two metro areas remained unchanged and 43 showed a drop in prices.
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Fannie Mae unveils new Appraiser Quality Monitoring list – Part Two
Posted Date: Monday, February 17, 2014
The following interview with Andrew Wilson, senior director of media and external relations at Fannie Mae, is a continuation of Part One of our story on Fannie’s new Appraiser Quality Monitoring (AQM) list:
Valuation Review: How many appraisers are currently being monitored by Fannie?
Wilson: Through UAD, we have the ability to efficiently review any appraisal associated with a loan purchased by Fannie Mae. We have undertaken two initiatives to work with appraisers to ensure appropriate, accurate data is submitted to Fannie Mae and to make sure that our property eligibility and appraisal requirements are understood and met.
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Data security implementation is on the rise in 2014: Learn what you should do
Posted Date: Thursday, February 13, 2014
The Legal Description and sponsor Real Estate Data Shield have teamed up to offer an educational webinar to provide answers to these questions and, specifically, to instruct on what it means to “implement” to ensure data security compliance. The webinar will be held Thursday, Feb. 20, 2 – 3:30 p.m. ET and features three data security, information technology and privacy law experts.
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Five Star Institute announces formation of the National Appraisal Congress
Posted Date: Thursday, February 13, 2014
The Five Star Institute, a publishing, communications, marketing and event planning company, announced the formation of the National Appraisal Congress on Feb. 10. In response to a developing need for thoughtful leadership and the promotion of best practices and execution, the NAC will serve as a collection of experts to foster collaboration in the real estate appraisal industry.
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RightStart Mortgage announces expansion, hirings
Posted Date: Thursday, February 13, 2014
RightStart Mortgage, a full-service mortgage lender featuring FHA, conforming, ARM and refinance products, announced it will be expanding its retail branch operations to help meet the growing demand for purchase mortgage loans. Keep reading for the details.
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Obama Administration's Housing Scorecard shows market progress
Posted Date: Thursday, February 13, 2014
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of the Treasury have released the January edition of the Obama Administration's Housing Scorecard — a comprehensive report on the nation’s housing market. Keep reading to see the full results.
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CFPB takes steps to make residential mortgage data more accessible
Posted Date: Thursday, February 13, 2014
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced plans to advance the scope of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to help bring more detailed information to light about residential mortgages.
The HMDA was enacted by Congress in 1975. Its function is to provide data that can be used to assess whether lending institutions are helping fulfill the housing needs within communities and that they are lending in a way that is non-discriminatory.
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