At the Predictive Methods Conference last week, it was interesting to hear MSNBC political anchor Dylan Ratigan boil all the decisions that are made in Congress to a common theme: ”I want to keep my job.”

According to Ratigan, when it comes time for critical votes and knowing which position to lead or back, that is the bottom line. He spent most of his time taking the pulse of the audience, pausing to assure us that we were consistent with the general feelings of the country when

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Time posted some great news online in time for the long weekend. As you probably know, the National Association of Realtors announced sales of existing homes jumped 23% from a year ago in April. New home sales leapt 48% from a year ago.

But here’s the best news; MacroMarkets LLC surveyed 92 economists who believe that average home prices will begin rising in 2011.

As Time noted; “That means that for the first time in years someone who buys a house this spring

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Housing Wire reports that 80% of total workouts were classified as cures, meaning the

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The good news is, wholesalers buy blocks of distressed, abandoned and foreclosed homes then flip them--often on the same day as the purchase--to investors. The investors repair and rehab the properties and mow the lawns and try to sell them.

The bad news is, well, that depends on who you ask. Many cities love wholesale flipping because it can increase the flow of property taxes into their recession-ravaged budgets. But some nonprofit groups trying to buy abandoned homes for low income

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No city wants to be on this list. Unlucky Las Vegas snagged the #1 spot. In this desert paradise, 81% of its single-family homes are underwater, meaning they are worth less than what the owners owe on their mortgages. U.S. News & World Report examined 142 American housing markets to compile its list of cities with the most negative equity.

It is a surprising list. The real estate bubble was fat as a blood-guzzling tick in Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida, so one expects to

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National unemployment stats put us squarely in a recession. But for the second quarter this year, the mortgage industry increased its hiring according to First-Quarter 2010 Mortgage Employment Index from MortgageDaily.com. Florida got the bulk of the new mortgage jobs.

Look closer and you see it’s a bit of a tradeoff. “Lenders, banks and service providers terminated more than 1,500 mortgage-related employees in the first quarter… But the sector also added more than 2,200

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Am I making the right underwriting decisions in this neighborhood? What is my market share? What is my share of the foreclosure action? How does my risk outlook compare in this neighborhood, or city, or state, to my competitors, or the industry as a whole? How about my staff’s and vendor’s performance? Am I leading or lagging the industry?

Enter FNC’s Mortgage Banking Intelligence (MBI).

Imagine a production report for the last quarter, showing your daily volumes. Now overlay

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On May 1, 2009, Fannie Mae announced its Collateral Data Delivery (CDD) initiative to improve overall loan quality, sending waves throughout the industry. Basically, Fannie Mae announced its intention to require originating lenders to send the appraisal as data to Fannie Mae prior to loan delivery for most of the loans that Fannie Mae purchased. Similar programs are being contemplated by other GSEs and HUD. Since the secondary market request for electronic delivery of appraisal and other

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The Arizona housing market seems to be showing signs of improvement for 2010. Nearly a year has passed since the housing market hit bottom in Arizona. We see an increase in non-distressed and distressed home sales across the board.

Non-Distressed: Over the holiday season, we see a sharp drop in condo sales. However, March condo sales are up 29% over the last six months. Single family home sales haven’t seen quite the up-swing: 7% decrease since September 2009. A

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