Appraisals

Home prices in 20 cities rose at a steady pace in April from a year earlier, a sign demand for residential real estate remains solid enough to support both buyers and sellers, data from S&P/Case-Shiller showed Tuesday.

The deadline has arrived for mandatory submissions to the Federal Housing Administration's Electronic Appraisal Delivery portal, but as many as one-third of lenders that originate FHA-insured mortgages have yet to use the new system.

There were more than a million homeowners whose properties exited negative equity status over the past year, with the potential for another million to do so if home prices continue to rise, according to CoreLogic.

While negative equity rates continue to drop nationally from their 2012 peak, the share of homeowners underwater in the Rust Belt remains elevated, according to Zillow.

Many appraisers are charging more or simply refusing to do FHA work, which to their minds now comes close to, if not crossing into, the remit of the home inspector.

Miami’s crop of new condo towers, built with big deposits from Latin American buyers and lots of marketing glitz, are opening with many owners heading for the exits.

ISGN Corp. has completed the sale of its business process outsourcing unit to Firstsource Group USA, a subsidiary of the Indian firm RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group.

Homeowner estimates still outpace appraiser valuations across most of the country, but the gap between the two appears to be shrinking.

Under the Federal Housing Finance Agency's new mortgage modification program, less than 1% of all seriously underwater properties might qualify for principal loan forgiveness, according to RealtyTrac.

Walter Investment Management Corp. sank into a deeper $172.7 million net loss during the first quarter, as lower interest rates caused pressure on the company's mortgage servicing rights valuation.

For banks looking to enter or expand their mortgage servicing rights business, there is a pressing question: Are the best years for MSRs behind us or do current market conditions offer a favorable risk/reward opportunity?

Though parts of the country are still struggling to return to benchmark levels, many of the housing markets across the U.S. showed signs of improvement in February, according to Freddie Mac.

Spiking values for entry-level homes may prevent some first-time homebuyers from entering the housing market this spring, according to Zillow.

PNC Financial Services said its residential mortgage business lost $13 million in the first quarter due to its servicing portfolio hedging activities and lower loan sales income.

According to the American Bankers Association's quarterly report on consumer delinquency trends, late payments on home equity loans and home equity lines of credit have dipped below 15-year averages for the first time since the Great Recession.

Credit market turmoil continued to take a toll on commercial property prices in February, when Moody's/RCA Commercial Property Price Indices national all-property composite index declined for a second consecutive month.

While the percentage of properties with negative equity decreased during 2015, the lowest-priced homes continued to struggle to regain value, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

Appraisal management company Solidifi has acquired Linear Title & Closing, a provider of national title searches and mortgage closing services.

Radian Group named an interim president for its Clayton Holdings unit after its previous president was terminated.

CoreLogic more-than-doubled its profit in the fourth quarter, as the benefits from an acquisition helped offset higher expenses.