First American: Housing Market Performance Improves Slightly
September 26 2016 | |
Title insurer First American Financial Corporation has released its proprietaryPotential Home Sales modelfor the month of August 2016, showing that the market for existing-home sales is underperforming its potential by 5.6 percent,, a slight improvement relative to last month’s revised performance gap.
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First American Acquires RedVision
September 26 2016 | |
Title insurer First American Financial Corporation has announced the completion of its acquisition of RedVision Systems, Inc., the largest independent national provider of title and real property research.
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NAR: Existing Home Sales Declined in August
September 26 2016 | |
Existing-home sales eased up in August for the second consecutive month despite mortgage rates near record lows as higher home prices and not enough inventory for sale kept some would-be buyers at bay, according to the National Association of Realtors. Only the Northeast region saw a monthly increase in closings in August, where inventory is currently more adequate.
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MBA Weekly Report: Mortgage Application Volume Decreases 7.3%
September 25 2016 | |
Mortgage applications decreased 7.3 percent from one week earlier,according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 16, 2016. The prior week's results included an adjustment for the Labor Day holiday.
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You're Terminated!
September 25 2016 (subscription) | |
Title policies contain clauses that can serve to terminate coverage under the policy when the policy holder’s interest in the property terminates. But what if the policy holder’s coverage terminates because of a title defect? A title insurer refused coverage to a California policy holder when the policy holder submitted a claim a title defect that the insurer failed to discover terminated his interest in the property.
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Stewart Announces Sales Director for Commercial Services in Texas
September 18 2016 | |
Jeff Whetzelhas been appointed Sales Director for Stewart Title Commercial Services’ Texas region. He is responsible for growing Stewart’s commercial title market share in Texas and managing the sales efforts in the Commercial Services centers in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.
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Accepting a Deed Instead of Foreclosing on a First (But Not Only) Lien
September 18 2016 (subscription) | |
Accepting a deed in lieu of foreclosure might seem to be an easy way to resolve foreclosure situations without litigation. But perils lurk in situations where there is more than one lien existing on the property, and some of those liens remain after the deed-in-lieu transaction.
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CoreLogic:Over 500,000 Homeowners Regain Positive Equity in Q2
September 18 2016 | |
CoreLogic has released a new analysis showing 548,000 U.S. homeowners regained equity in Q2 2016 compared with the previous quarter, increasing the percentage of homes with positive equity to 92.9 percent of all mortgaged properties, or approximately 47.2 million homes. Nationwide, home equity grew year over year by $646 billion, representing an increase of 9.9 percent in Q2 2016 compared with Q2 2015.
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MBA Weekly Report: Mortgage Applications Decrease 4.2%
September 18 2016 | |
Mortgage applications increased 4.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 9, 2016. This week's results included an adjustment for the Labor Day holiday.
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Black Kinight: Purchase Mortgage Volume Highest Since 2007
September 12 2016 | |
The Data and Analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. has released its latest Mortgage Monitor Report, based on data as of the end of July 2016, showing purchase loan originations at their highest level since 2007.
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CoreLogic: Low Rates Continue to Fuel Home Price Increases
September 12 2016 | |
Housing data provider CoreLogic has released its Home Price Index for July 2016, showing that house prices increased 6 percent year over year, and were up 1.1% since June, as low interest rates continued to support price increases.
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MBA Weekly Report: Mortgage Apps Up Slightly
September 12 2016 | |
Mortgage applications increased 0.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 2, 2016.
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Inverse Condemnation
September 12 2016 (subscription) | |
Just because the government causes your valuable land to become worthless doesn’t necessarily mean that the government must pay you for the loss in value, even though the Constitution seems to state that “just compensation” must be provided for private land that is “taken.”
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First American Announces Agreement to Acquire RedVision
September 07 2016 | |
The acquisition will create the leading full-service provider of title evidence to the marketplace, connecting First American’s industry-leading title and property data with the industry’s largest independent provider of packaged title reports.
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Created, Suffered, Assumed, or Agreed To, Once Again
September 06 2016 (subscription) | |
Title insurers sometimes try to get out of paying claims because of actions that policy holders take in attempting to mitigate the loss caused by a title defect that the title insurer didn’t discover or ignored. But when such actions are taken upon the recommendation of the attorney provided by the title insurer to defend the claim, the title insurer probably won’t prevail, as a recent New Jersey case illustrates.
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First American: Fewer Defects, Less Fraud in Loan Apps
September 06 2016 | |
Title insurer First American has released the First American Loan Application Defect Index for July 2016, which estimates the frequency of defects, fraudulence and misrepresentation in the information submitted in mortgage loan applications. The Index decreased 2.8 percent in July as compared with June and decreased 16.7 percent as compared with July 2015, and is down 31.4 percent from the high point of risk in October 2013.
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Black Knight: House Prices Rise 5.3% Annually
September 06 2016 | |
The Data & Analyticsdivision ofBlack Knight Financial Services, Inc.has released its latest Home Price Index (HPI) report, showing that home prices have increased 5.3% from last year.
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NAR: Pending Home Sales Nears 10-Year High
September 06 2016 | |
Pending home sales expanded in most of the country in July and reached their second highest reading in over a decade, according to the National Association of Realtors. Only the Midwest saw a dip in contract activity last month.
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MBA Weekly Report: Applications Increase Modestly
September 05 2016 | |
Mortgage applications increased 2.8 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 26, 2016.
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