Housing market inventory is starting to recover
Housing starts jumped in March, recovering from a bleak February that included wild winter storms in the South, according to a recent report from the Census Bureau. Single-family housing starts rose 15.3% over the month to a pace of 1.24 million annualized units. That's up 37% from a year ago, but it's important to take into account that the COVID-19 virus first took hold of the housing market in March 2020, said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae.
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PennDOT abuse of eminent domain to build Route 443 retention ponds
The hardworking folks who do snowplowing at all hours of the day and maintain the commonwealth's roads certainly take a bum rap for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's poor upper management.
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Blend, valued at $3.3B, plans to go public
Blend, which was named as one of HousingWire's 2021 Tech 100 winners, has steadily grown to be a powerhouse in the mortgage tech industry. Blend's white label technology is what powers mortgage applications on the site of banks such as Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank and integrated with CoreLogic in 2019 for an easier access line to borrowers' credit.
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Title insurers wrote nearly $20 billion in premiums in 2020
Title insurers wrote $19.2 billion in premiums last year, but a recent report from the American Land Title Association predicts a slowdown in 2021 due to - you guessed it! - low inventory. ALTA officials "do not expect the same level of refinance activity" this year, even though the residential purchase market appears to be holding steady as the calendar approaches May, according to Diane Tomb, ALTA chief executive.
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Safe Alert! New malicious hacking tool impersonating Docusign®
The bad guys are still at it - creating fake emails and documents supposedly from DocuSign to try and trick you into downloading malware onto your computer.
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Notarize Will Allow Notaries to Bring Their Own Transactions onto The Platform
Starting in early May, notaries in Tennessee and Washington can sign up on the Notarize platform to run their business independently. Notarize is piloting the program with a two-state launch before quickly rolling out to additional states over the summer. By the end of 2021, this platform function will be available to notaries in all 32 RON-approved states.
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