Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
On Wednesday, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced the 2017 list of distressed or underserved non-metro areas where banks can receive Community Reinvestment Act credit for certain activities. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Altice USA priced its initial public offering at $30 a share on Wednesday, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing a source. The IPO price is within its target range of $27 to $31, according to the report. The cable company earlier raised the number of shares it will sell by 37% to 63.9 million shares. Altice is seeking to secure around $2 billion via its stock offering.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
Monthly sales of pre-owned residential properties rose. Record prices are being paid for existing homes as properties fly off the market. Time on market was a record low.
On a preliminary basis, there were 555,000 existing single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-operatives sold during May.
That was greater than the revised 447,000 in the preceding month and the single best month for existing home sales since June 2016’s volume of 582,000.
From:: Financing
Alight, a provider of industry-specific real-time financial optimization applications and a two-time winner of HousingWire’s HW Tech100, announced this week that it closed on a Series A round of funding, in which the company raised $11 million. Leading the funding round was Caterpillar Venture Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar, the construction and manufacturing giant. Yes, you read that right. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Existing-home sales bloomed in May after a rainy April, with the median days on market at a new low and the median sales price at a new high, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) reports.
Existing-home sales totaled 5.62 million, a 1.1 percent increase from April and a 2.7 percent increase from one year prior. Inventory increased 2.1 percent to 1.96 million—though still 8.4 percent below one year prior.
May Existing Home Sales Snapshot (PRNewsfoto/National Association of Realtors)
“The job market in most of the country is healthy and the recent downward trend in mortgage rates continues to keep buyer interest at a robust level,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR. “Those able to close on a home last month are probably feeling both happy and relieved. Listings in the affordable price range are scarce, homes are coming off the market at an extremely fast pace and the prevalence of multiple offers in some markets are pushing prices higher.”
Inventory is currently at a 4.2-month supply. Existing homes averaged 27 days on market in May, two fewer days than in April and five fewer days than one year prior. Non-distressed homes took 27 days to sell. All told, 55 percent of homes sold in May were on the market for less than one month.
“The bottom line is that there are fewer homes on the market, and they are selling faster,” says Joseph Kirchner, senior economist at realtor.com®. “Tightening supplies have caused steady price growth in the existing-home market; sales are up 2.7 percent since May 2016. In fact, the supply of homes on the market fell from 4.7 months’ worth last May to 4.2 months last month.
“With new and existing supply failing to catch up with demand, several markets this summer will continue to see homes going under contract at this remarkably fast pace of under a month,” Yun says.
“This is a strong market for sellers, which is good news for people who are downsizing or settling an estate,” Kirchner says. “It’s bad news for millennials, first-time buyers or second-time buyers looking to upsize for that baby on the way.”
The metropolitan areas with the fewest days on market in May, according to data from realtor.com, were Seattle-Tacoma Bellevue, Wash. (20 days); San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif. (24 days); San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif. (25 days); and Salt Lake City, Utah, and Ogden-Clearfield, Utah (both at 26 days).
The median existing-home price for all types of houses (single-family, condo, co-op and townhome), at the same time, was $252,800—a 5.8 percent increase from one year prior. The median price for a single-family existing home was $254,600, while the median price for an existing condo was $238,700.
“Home prices keep chugging along at a pace that is not sustainable in the long run,” says Yun. “Current demand levels indicate sales should be stronger, but it’s clear some would-be buyers are having to delay or postpone their home search because low supply is leading to worsening affordability conditions.”
Single-family existing-home sales came in at 4.98 million in May, …read more
From:: Real Estate News
To the surprise of many, four-year-old technology-based mortgage company Sindeo announced the shuttering of its doors on Tuesday evening. Hailing from San Francisco, the company sprung up in 2013 with the intention of changing the way consumers shop for mortgages. Founded by Ori Zohar and CEO Nick Stamos, the start-up secured more than $15 million in seed money and hit the ground running.
“Nearly every part of the real estate process has been transformed by technology except for home financing,” Stamos told RISMedia in 2015. “Getting a mortgage is still manual, frustrating and confusing. We’ve assembled a talented team to accelerate Sindeo’s growth and bring greater efficiency, transparency and choice to the mortgage process.”
To announce the company’s closure, Stamos posted an open letter on the company’s website outlining their growth and progress over the past four years.
“While Sindeo as a startup has failed, our people did not,” Stamos wrote. “As a matter of fact, we did what everyone said couldn’t be done. We built a place where people could shop and apply for a mortgage from a robust marketplace of over 1000 loan programs, with one single application and one credit check.”
The letter also lamented the company’s finale: “Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. The majority of the staff and leadership team have had their jobs eliminated today. A very small team will be kept on for a short period of time to help our clients successfully close their loans that are already in process.”
During the hiring process, Sindeo drew top talent from a myriad of reputable industry outlets, including Trulia, Fannie Mae, Prosper Marketplace, LearnVest and more. In his final open letter, Stamos went on to encourage other companies to hire his former team: “We have very talented people who need jobs today. Hire them. They are truly innovators and some of the smartest, most dedicated people I’ve ever worked with,” he wrote.
“Endings are always hard,” echoed Sindeo chief marketing and industry officer Ginger Wilcox in a post on Facebook, “but today may be one of the most difficult. Today, we made the difficult decision to wind down Sindeo.”
Read Stamos’ full letter here.
For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.
The post Lights Out: Rising Mortgage Star Sindeo Announces Unexpected Shutdown appeared first on RISMedia.
From:: Finance and Economy
To the surprise of many, four-year-old technology-based mortgage company Sindeo announced the shuttering of its doors on Tuesday evening. Hailing from San Francisco, the company sprung up in 2013 with the intention of changing the way consumers shop for mortgages. Founded by Ori Zohar and CEO Nick Stamos, the start-up secured more than $15 million in seed money and hit the ground running.
“Nearly every part of the real estate process has been transformed by technology except for home financing,” Stamos told RISMedia in 2015. “Getting a mortgage is still manual, frustrating and confusing. We’ve assembled a talented team to accelerate Sindeo’s growth and bring greater efficiency, transparency and choice to the mortgage process.”
To announce the company’s closure, Stamos posted an open letter on the company’s website outlining their growth and progress over the past four years.
“While Sindeo as a startup has failed, our people did not,” Stamos wrote. “As a matter of fact, we did what everyone said couldn’t be done. We built a place where people could shop and apply for a mortgage from a robust marketplace of over 1000 loan programs, with one single application and one credit check.”
The letter also lamented the company’s finale: “Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. The majority of the staff and leadership team have had their jobs eliminated today. A very small team will be kept on for a short period of time to help our clients successfully close their loans that are already in process.”
During the hiring process, Sindeo drew top talent from a myriad of reputable industry outlets, including Trulia, Fannie Mae, Prosper Marketplace, LearnVest and more. In his final open letter, Stamos went on to encourage other companies to hire his former team: “We have very talented people who need jobs today. Hire them. They are truly innovators and some of the smartest, most dedicated people I’ve ever worked with,” he wrote.
“Endings are always hard,” echoed Sindeo chief marketing and industry officer Ginger Wilcox in a post on Facebook, “but today may be one of the most difficult. Today, we made the difficult decision to wind down Sindeo.”
Read Stamos’ full letter here.
For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.
The post Lights Out: Rising Mortgage Star Sindeo Announces Unexpected Shutdown appeared first on RISMedia.
From:: Real Estate News
Biotech company Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. , said late Wednesday founder and Chief Executive Lewis T. “Rusty” Williams plans leave his post and become executive chairman of the board by next year. The board “will conduct a comprehensive search for a candidate to fill the CEO position,” the company said in a statement. Williams will remain in his current role until a new CEO has been appointed, it said. Williams will also serve as chairman of Five Prime’s scientific advisory board. Shares of Five Prime ended the regular session up 7%. Shares were down 1% in late trading.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
Shares of Steelcase Inc. tanked more than 10% late Wednesday after the office-furniture maker reported first-quarter earnings below Wall Street expectations and forecast second-quarter results that would also be a miss. Steelcase said it earned $18.1 million, or 15 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with 16 cents a share a year ago. Sales reached $735.1 million, from $718.8 million a year ago, the company said. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 18 cents a share on sales of $745 million. The company said it expects second-quarter revenue to be in the range of $750 million to $780 million, against analyst expectations around $800 million. Earnings per share were seen between 21 cents and 25 cents for the second quarter. The analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast second-quarter EPS of 36 cents. Shares of Steelcase had ended the regular session down 1.2%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
Five hundred U.S. home lending jobs are being created by Nationstar Mortgage LLC as the company changes its staffing strategy.
The Dallas-based company reported Wednesday that it is moving its international call center operations back to the United States.
Nationstar says it maintains domestic call centers in Chandler, Arizona; Dallas; and Longview, Texas — which opened last year.
From:: Financing