Many residents in rural America would have reduced access to mortgage credit despite accommodations included in new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) mortgage rules, according to survey results released recently by the Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA). ICBA’s Community Bank Qualified Mortgage Survey found that provisions for balloon-payment mortgage loans and rural community banks in the CFPB’s ability-to-repay and qualified mortgage regulations need to go further to adequately protect the customers of many Main Street community bank lenders.

Clear Capital®, a provider of data and solutions for real estate asset valuation and collateral risk assessment, has released its Home Data Index™ (HDI) Market Report with data through April 2013. Using a broad array of public and proprietary data sources, the HDI Market Report publishes the most granular home data and analysis earlier than nearly any other index provider in the industry.

CENTURY 21 Redwood Realty has announced that it has released its third generation Redwood Home Search on c21redwood.com, expanding the reach of its “Search By School” technology throughout the D.C. area.

RISMedia Midyear Forum Set for May 16 in D.C. From inventory shortages to a changing investor landscape, the real estate playing field has changed, and success moving forward means staying in step and remaining relevant to today’s consumers. Leading brokers from across the nation will address this topic during RISMedia’s Power Broker Forum at NAR Midyear, where they will delve into the right strategies and best practices for the current marketplace. Entitled “Power Broker Strategies: Remaining Relevant in the New Age of Real Estate,” the Forum will take place on Thursday, May 16, from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Buying a house is the biggest investment most people will make in their lifetime, and the complex process can be intimidating to many homebuyers. Knowing the right questions to ask and receiving professional advice

Buoyed by rising home prices throughout much of the nation, both single-family and multifamily housing starts are expected to post double-digit gains over last year in 2013. However, headwinds continue to hold back even stronger growth as the housing recovery evolves, according to economists at NAHB’s Spring 2013 Construction Forecast Conference Webinar. “The broadening housing expansion is evidenced by the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index, which now lists 273 metro areas out of a universe of 361, or three-quarters of the metropolitan areas in the U.S.,” says NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

Freddie Mac recently announced Loan Quality Advisor(SM), a new online loan tool that gives lenders an automated way to identify credit, data and purchase eligibility issues before they deliver loans to Freddie Mac.

As consumers continue to become increasingly savvy and demand more from real estate professionals, the need for a reliable real estate rating system is more important than ever before. While the World Wide Web offers no shortage when it comes to ratings and reviews of the real estate industry and the professionals who work on behalf of their clients, much of the information is undependable, at best. However, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) is hoping to change all that with the introduction of the REALTOR® Excellence Program. Funded by the Center for Specialized

To meet the nation’s growing need for affordable rental housing and homeownership opportunities, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently called on Congress to maintain its support for vital housing tax incentives, including the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, the mortgage interest deduction and real estate tax deductions. “Home building is an industry dominated by small businesses, so the idea of simplifying the complicated tax rules related to business has great appeal. At the same time, our industry remembers painful lessons from the 1986 Tax Reform Act, when the commercial and multifamily sectors experienced a downturn due to unintended consequences,” said Robert Dietz, an economist and assistant vice president for NAHB, in testimony during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on tax reform and residential real estate.

In traditional housing recoveries, individuals and households provide the bulk of the demand the market needs to rebound. This time, though, a different kind of buyer has been powering the housing recovery: investors looking for valuable rental property. Along with individual investors, institutional investors have poured into the single-family home market, buying enough foreclosed and unsold homes to reduce inventories, drive up prices and encourage new construction. All-cash home purchases – many of which are made by investors – made up about 32.0% of sales nationally in March 2013, a stark rise from about 20.0% in 2009, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

The top two business issues on the minds of leading real estate executives are thoroughly explored by prominent industry experts in a new 12-page special supplement on "Recruiting and Technology" commissioned by technology firm Imprev for the latest issue of RISMedia’s Real Estate magazine. ...

CoreLogic®, a leading residential property information, analytics and services provider, announced the acquisition of Case-Shiller® from Fiserv, Inc. in conjunction with first quarter 2013 CoreLogic earnings results on April 24, 2013. The acquisition closed on March 20, 2013. ...

Data scraping and misuse of listing data that belongs to brokers are growing concerns. Many scrapers (or others who receive the data legitimately but use it in ways that violates its licenses) are actively reselling listing data for various uses not intended by brokers, such as statistical or financial reporting. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Curt Beardsley, vice president of consumer and industry development at Move, Inc., a leader in online real estate and operator of realtor.com®. Beardsley shared his thoughts on the proliferation of data scraping, the grey market for data, and how brokers can protect their data from unintended uses.

Nationally, house prices continued to rise in February, contributing to the overall recovery in U.S. house prices. According to the most recent release  by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, U.S. house prices rose by 0.7 percent

Branding is something that we as professionals need to take very seriously on an individual level. It’s essential to develop a unique and personal “professional brand” that communicates the value you have to offer to prospective clients.