SoCal real estate sales hit 5-year low

Home sales in Southern California fell for the fifth consecutive month in April, decelerating to their slowest pace since 2001, while home-price growth returned to a more normal clip, a real estate information service reported today.

A total of 24,748 new and resale homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in April, down 16.1 percent from 29,509 in March and down 21.3 percent from 31,431 in April last year.

The year-over-year sales decline was the steepest since April 1995, when home purchases slowed 24 percent.  more...

Oodle debuts in U.K. classifieds market

Classifieds search engine Oodle on Monday announced it is launching its service in the United Kingdom at www.oodle.co.uk.

The free online service includes classifieds listings from across the U.K., with 30 towns and cities at launch including Belfast, Bradford and Bournemouth.

Oodle U.K. includes more than 2 million listings from a variety of sources including Loot, eBay and RightMove.  more...

Wisconsin real estate posts record first quarter

Housing sales in Wisconsin showed no signs of slowing down, setting yet another first-quarter record and outpacing the Midwest region and the nation as a whole, according to the latest analysis by the Wisconsin Realtors Association.

The Realtor association said sales of existing homes in Wisconsin increased 3.5 percent in the first quarter over the same period last year, with a total of 30,525 units sold during the first three months of this year.  more...

Mortgage fraud scheme uncovered in Southeast

Rebecca Marie Hauck pleaded guilty May 15 in federal district court to being part of a mortgage fraud and bank fraud scheme that left a trail of victims in Georgia and other parts of the Southeast, media reports said Monday.

Hauck and co-defendant Matthew Bevan Cox, who remains at large, allegedly rented properties from true owners and fraudulently erased mortgage liens on the properties, reports said.  more...

U.S. regulator of Fannie, Freddie to share fraud data

The U.S. regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will share mortgage fraud information with the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, according to an agreement announced on Monday, media reports said.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said it will share examination findings about actual or suspected mortgage fraud with FinCEN, which works with government agencies and the banking sector to protect the U.S.  more...

Real estate listings site reaches new markets

CityCribs, a New York-based service for apartment rentals and sales, has expanded its services in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, the company said today.

Users in these market areas can place free advertisements at the site for rentals and for-sale properties.

Homeowners, agents and brokers can post and manage property listings with up to five photographs and one floor plan.  more...

HouseValues teams with Ellie Mae

HouseValues Inc. has partnered with Ellie Mae to provide online lead generation and lead management services to Ellie Mae's network of 130,000 mortgage broker customers, the company announced on Friday.

Ellie Mae will offer HouseValues' mortgage products to its national mortgage broker network, with consumer leads from HouseValues available directly through its Encompass Mortgage Automation System.  more...

U.S. housing starts fall 11%

Housing starts and building permits sank nationwide in April for the third consecutive month, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced today.

Privately owned housing starts in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.85 million, which represents an 11.1 percent drop from a year ago when the rate was 2.08 million.  more...

Mixed movement in overnight real estate rates

Long-term mortgage interest rates were scattered Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield sank to 5.16 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average climbed to 6.23 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate held at 5.88 percent. The 1-year adjustable was down at 5.32 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 5.27 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...