News

Months of government bailouts and stock market volatility brought Americans’ perception of the values of their own homes closer to reality than it was last quarter, but surprisingly half of U.S. homeowners still believe their home is insulated from the nation’s home value declines, according to the Zillow Q3 Homeowner Confidence Survey.

Chase, the U.S. consumer and commercial banking arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co., announced on Friday that it is xexpanding its already significant mortgage modification program by undertaking multiple initiatives designed to keep more families in their homes, including extending its modification programs to WaMu and EMC customers,x the bank said in a press statement.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a reduction, or a government buy-down, of mortgage interest rates by just one percentage point could result in up to 840,000 additional home sales and reduce the inventory of homes by as much as 20 percent.

More appraisers are using technology to fulfill appraisal orders, according to a recent survey conducted by ValuFinders Inc., a provider of valuation services to national lenders, brokers, and government agencies.

As the nation’s housing crisis continues, millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure. Short sales are a viable option for homeowners in default to escape the threat of formal foreclosure. DepotPoint Inc.

First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corporation family of companies, today released the industry’s first state-level assessment of negative equity estimates for all single-family residential properties in the United States.

Fannie Mae announced this week that it will reinstate a requirement for homeownership counseling and education for first-time home buyers obtaining one of its MyCommunityMortgage loans, which give lenders a conforming alternative for low- and moderate-income borrowers, or a loan that relies on nontraditional credit to qualify.

The Federal Reserve recently approved new regulatory statutes requiring mortgage lenders to disclose to borrowers how much interest rates differ between prime mortgages and the higher-priced subprime loans offered to less-affluent borrowers.

Cyberhomes.com, an online real estate information site for consumers from Fidelity National Financial, a Fortune 500 provider of products, services and technology solutions to the financial and real estate industries, has been named one of the xTop Web sites of 2008x by PC Magazine.

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate for federal funds - the rate at which banks lend to each other overnight - by half a point to one percent on Wednesday. Other central banks around the world followed suit, also reducing rates or announcing that they were considering the move.