Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
In the wake of both of the government-sponsored enterprises reporting multi-billion dollar profits in the third quarter, the Community Home Lenders Association is renewing its call to allow Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to rebuild capital, saying an additional draw from the Treasury could lead to a restriction of mortgage credit availablity. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Quarterly home lending activity moved higher, the residential loan servicing portfolio grew larger, and employment expanded at Guild Mortgage Co.
As of Sept. 30, the San Diego-based mortgage banking firm serviced 146,026 residential loans with an aggregate principal balance of $27.876 billion.
The portfolio, along with other operational metrics, were disclosed as part of the Mortgage Daily Third Quarter 2016 Mortgage Origination Survey.
From:: Financing
As the Northwest’s housing market wraps up one of the best Octobers on record, it’s predicted to head into a strong winter season. Once again, the market will likely face low inventory, a backlog of buyers and historically low interest rates. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
One of the board members of a failed bank will spend a five years in jail after being convicted of defrauding the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program out of nearly $7 million. The bank’s failure also cost the FDIC more than $64 million. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Summer is over, and the housing market is transitioning into the fall and winter months. As a result, California home sales followed typical seasonal trends in September and decreased. Madeline Schnapp, director of Economic Research for PropertyRadar, takes a longer-term view to give a better picture of the market. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. late Friday said its third-quarter net income fell to $7.2 billion, or $4,379 a share, from $9.43 billion, or $5,737 a share, a year earlier. Operating earnings, however, edged up to $4.85 billion versus $4.55 billion. Investment and derivative gains during the quarter totaled $2.35 billion, shrinking from $4.88 bilion in the year-ago period. Berkshire’s book value, a measure of net worth, rose 5.3% to $163,783 per class A share at the end of September, the company said. Berkshire Hathaway’s class A shares were flat in late trade after closing down 0.2% to $214,545.
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From:: Stock Market News
Alphabet Inc. [s:googl] announced Friday afternoon that it would change the name of its venture-capital arm from Google Capital to CapitalG. Google changed the name of its larger company to Alphabet last year, making that an umbrella name for all of the Web giant’s ventures, though the Google division — which includes search, YouTube and Android, among other large businesses — is still the most important. The Google Capital division is separate from Google in the Alphabet structure. “Though our name has changed, our goal remains the same: to make returns-driven investments in leading companies around the world,” the company said on Twitter in announcing the change. The name change comes with a new website, www.capitalg.com, and new Twitter handle, @capitalgtweets.
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From:: Stock Market News
Earnings and new mortgage insurance activity increased at Essent Guaranty Inc., while its book of business grew. Defaults worsened, though.
Hamilton, Bermuda-based Essent Group Ltd. reported Friday that its income before income taxes came to $83 million in the third quarter.
Earnings increased from $74 million during the previous three-month period and were also better than the $60 million earned a year earlier.
From:: Financing
Oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries rose by 300,000 barrels a day in October from a month earlier, to a record 33.54 million barrels a day, according to a S&P Global Platts survey released late Friday afternoon. The increase marked the fifth monthly increase in a row, the survey of OPEC and oil industry officials said. “OPEC’s freeze math has gotten more complicated, as its countries keep pumping more,” Herman Wang, senior writer for S&P Global Platts, said in a statement. December West Texas Intermediate crude traded at $44.12 a barrel in electronic trading, after settling at $44.07, down 59 cents, or 1.3% for the New York Mercantile Exchange session.
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From:: Stock Market News
Oil futuresfell Friday to tally a weekly decline of 9.5%–their largest such loss since mid-January–with many traders not expecting the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to successfully reach a pact later this month to curb output. December WTI crude fell 59 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $44.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That marked the lowest settlement since Sept. 20, according to FactSet data.
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From:: Stock Market News