The housing recovery — along with stark inventory shortages in some areas — is driving up the price of all real estate, including new homes. Toll Brothers Inc (TOL) CEO Douglas Yearley Jr. told Bloomberg news that the nation’s largest luxury homebuilder will be looking to raise its prices: …read more

The housing recovery is in full swing in the Chicago area. The Illinois Association of Realtors said yesterday that home prices in Chicago and surrounding metros rose 14 percent in October, while the city itself saw median home prices jump nearly 25 percent. …read more

Impac Mortgage Holdings (IMH) has selected a new REO process and property management solution from Default Servicing Technologies, the companies said in a statement Thursday. The platform, called DispoSolutions, is a cloud-based REO management software platform that offers property management tools, along with task, date, and closing organization. …read more

Mortgage rates reversed course, declining in the most recent Freddie Mac report after two weeks of steady increases. …read more

Stockton man helps issue scam warningHispanicBusiness.comCalifornia lenders must be licensed with the Department of Business Oversight or Bureau of Real Estate . In cases where an advance fee is required, contact the California Attorney General’s Office . — Be suspicious of anyone requiring you to wire … and more …read more

By Mandelman My wife is a Chicago Cubs fan. And if you don’t know what that means, then you’ve simply never known a Cubs fan. You’ve never known someone who feels a connection to a baseball team on a level the rest of us can barely understand. The Chicago Cubs hold quite a few notable […]

Fitch Ratings said today that it’s reviewing RMBS transactions affected by an upcoming servicing transfer of loans from First Horizon National Corp (FHN) to Nationstar Mortgage (NSM). …read more

While the recent settlement with JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) may help put legacy mortgage issues to bed for one bank, it seems pretty clear that the settlement set a precedent that other banks are likely to soon follow. …read more

Earlier Tuesday, existing home sales volume fell, disappointing economists who were expecting a better result. That drop may have had something to do with upcoming Qualified Mortgage and Ability-to-Repay rules affecting mortgage underwriting already, one analyst claims. …read more

The editorial board at the Financial Times isn’t dancing around the issue — the paper thinks that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t due for reform. The paper says far better for the GSEs to be eliminated altogether, and that anything less than the full Monty would be a mistake. …read more

Wall Street firm sells bonds backed by Sacramento rental homesModesto BeeEarlier this month, Invitation Homes sold $479 million in securities backed by 3,200 rental houses in five states, including 239 homes in the Sacramento area and hundreds more in Los Angeles and Southern California’s Inland Empire. In essence, the … and more …read more

Stockton man helps issue scam warningStockton RecordCalifornia lenders must be licensed with the Department of Business Oversight or Bureau of Real Estate. In cases where an advance fee is required, contact the California Attorney General’s Office. » Be suspicious of anyone requiring you to wire money … …read more

Wall Street firm sells bonds backed by Sacramento rental homesSacramento BeeEarlier this month, Invitation Homes sold $479 million in securities backed by 3,200 rental houses in five states, including 239 homes in the Sacramento area and hundreds more in Los Angeles and Southern California’s Inland Empire. In essence, the … …read more

It’s been a police headquarters, a law library and an office building. It still has bars on some of its windows, and the remnants of a police shooting range. Tyler Girimonte, and Burke Fathy stand in front of a wall that was once used for police mug shots at the old Hall of Justice building […]

The national negative equity rate dropped at its fastest pace ever in the third quarter, lifting more borrowers into positive territory. …read more

China’s Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin Is Forbes Asia’s 2013 …ForbesWith real estate prices on the rise again in China, by this September it was already looking to be another banner year for Wang Jianlin, the founder and chairman of China’s biggest commercial real estate developer, Dalian Wanda Group. Closely held, it … and more […]

Dan Walters: Bad decisions behind cities’ pension problemsRecord-SearchlightBut CalPERS’ assurances turned to dust when its relatively risky real estate and equity investments turned sour, costing tens of billions of dollars. Finally … Bankrupt Stockton’s largest debt is a pension bond. … California Gov. Jerry Brown and … and more …read more

The stock market falls after the Fed sends mixed signals on the potential tapering of mortgage-backed securities and Treasurys. The purchases continue for now, but recent Fed meeting minutes suggest the central bank could taper at any time — even if it has yet to meet its stated economic goals. …read more

Relative Strength Alert For Washington Real Estate Investment TrustForbesWashington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE: WRE) presently has an above average rank, in the top 50% of the coverage universe, which suggests it is among the top most “interesting” ideas that merit further research by investors. But making … and more …read more

Top 3 Reasons Real Estate Deals Fall Apart For A SellerForbesBut a growing number of real estate transactions are never making it to the closing table. It used to be that roughly 90 percent of all purchase contracts went to closing, but that number has slipped to only two-thirds of all deals. Why are so […]

Moves Like Martin: Ricky Lists Luxury Condo In NYCForbesMartin’s latest real estate move involves the listing of his 40 Bond St. apartment in Lower Manhattan, for which the affable pop star is seeking $8.3 million. Martin has owned the apartment since 2007, when he paid $5.7 million for the 2,637-square … …read more

JPMorgan Chase ironed out details of a record-setting $13 billion settlement Tuesday with various state and federal agencies over legacy mortgage-backed securities issues. But if the bank’s objective is to distance itself from all litigation risk, it may have failed, analysts claim. …read more

The Fed is committed to mortgage-backed securities purchases for as long as the economy remains stuck in a state of malaise. The latest FOMC meeting minutes show Fed members staying the course as incoming data suggests a slower second half than expected. …read more

The Fed is committed to mortgage-backed securities purchases for as long as the economy remains stuck in a state of malaise. The latest FOMC meeting minutes show Fed members staying the course as incoming data suggests a slower second half than expected. …read more

Want to see what a housing boom looks like? Try Houston. This big Texas city has seen 29 straight months of year-over-year price increases — TWENTY NINE! — and this past October, Houston set a new record: both median and average prices for a single-family home in the city hit their highest totals ever for […]