Mortgages

The number of Redfin customers making tours of homes for sale increased 9% in March over February, versus a 4% increase for the same period in 2012.

Stewart Title Guaranty Co. has created a Trusted Provided Program, where those agencies and attorney agents who pass the screening can show consumers a seal proving they have been vetted and verified.

Hiring by residential builders started to pick up last fall and in November exceeded 10,000 for the first time in years.

Hundreds of servicemembers who lost their homes due to foreclosure between 2006 and 2010 are set to recover over $39 million in monetary relief.

Mortgage bankers we spoke to recently felt there is no new bubble forming, and that what is happening is a normal correction. We hope they are right!

Concerns about the integrity of foreclosed property management costs are prompting Fannie Mae and its government overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to take a hard look at the GSE's controls.

Prepayment speeds on 30-year conventional fixed-rate securitizations generally remained stable in the latest month, although some Home Affordable Refinance Program cohorts “were a tad faster” and lower coupons slowed a bit.

Mortgage companies added 700 full-time employees to their payrolls in February after cutting 3,000 positions in January.

All of the stocks in the Mortgage Industry Equity Composite, except for OceanFirst Financial and MGIC Investment Corp., finished Thursday’s trading ahead of their previous close.

American Realty Capital Properties is now offering 60% of its $9.7 billion offer for Cole Credit Properties Trust III in cash.

The California Department of Real Estate has issued an internal directive to start broker office surveys, which include unannounced and unscheduled visits to brokers' offices.

Moving company Mayflower said residential moves were up 16% in what are historically its slowest months for such activity—January through March.

The Obama administration is making a push for more home loans to be available for people with challenging credit.

Approximately 57% of all commercial mortgage-backed securities reaching their balloon date in March paid off as scheduled.

For the past several days, fans of the Mortgage Grapevine were unable to get their fix of industry news, loan scenarios, politics, general gossip and other stuff as the board had to be taken out of service.

New cures outpaced new notices of default at Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. by 3,268 loans.

Safeguard Properties is making it easier to conduct business in the South as the company has opened a new office in Richardson, Texas.

As investors continue their interest in buying single-family housing units as rentals, it may not always make sense to acquire housing units in certain markets.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency has assigned preliminary ratings to a $260 million large loan commercial mortgage-backed securities deal secured by a Florida mall.

We're hearing about Section 184 loans, designed to promote homeownership for American Indian and Alaska Native families.