Origination

The company also reported its first-quarter earnings were up 18%.

As housing markets continue to stabilize across the country with rising home prices and inventories shrinking in these cities, this ultimately leads to the possibility for a higher potential of mortgage fraud.

Lender Processing Services had net income of $54 million in 1Q13, a 13% increase over the $47 million earned in the same quarter last year, even though revenue decreased 3% between the two periods. In 4Q12, when it settled some of the legal matters, LPS earned $2.8 million.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is reviewing the qualified mortgage rule and it may modify the safe harbor provision for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans.

Aligning key mortgage servicing indicators and best practices with the Customer Financial Protection Bureau guidelines is a win-win for servicers.

CoreLogic reported in its first-quarter results that it had acquired Case-Shiller from Fiserv back on March 20 for $6 million.

It was a good first quarter at the nation’s second, third and fourth largest title insurance underwriters as all three reported improved earnings over the same period in 2012.

Remodeling activity is expected to gain steam over the next 12 months as more and more owners regain some of the equity they lost in their homes during the recession.

Blackstone Group bought 1,400 properties in Atlanta, some eligible for federal low-income housing subsidies, in the biggest bulk purchase for the fledgling homes-for-lease industry.

The average weekly rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage continued to slide for the fourth week in a row.