Market Studies

The majority of real estate firms responding to a survey from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) expect profits--and competition--to heat up over the next year as the housing market continues to look up, the association. ""Two out of three real estate firms expect competition in the marketplace to increase, both among firms and nontraditional market participants,"" said Paul Bishop, NAR's VP of research. ""Because real estate is an entrepreneurial field, some experimentation in business models is likely when the market is in a recovery phase.""

Equator, a Los Angeles-based provider of default servicing technologies, announced the launch of Loan Management, a comprehensive new compliance and decision tool for delinquent loans.

While Florida, Nevada, and California are some of the most commonly cited examples of states hit hard by the housing implosion, an analysis of fraud data submitted to LexisNexis' Mortgage Industry Data Exchange (MIDEX) shows New Jersey might have taken the worst impact. The Garden State ranked in the top 10 lists for reported mortgage fraud, potential collusion activity, and percentage of properties in default in 2012, giving it a number of problems to tackle as it heads into an era of heightened regulation.

Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey for August shows more people are optimistic about price gains over the next year (55 percent, up from 53 percent), though the average expected gain has pulled back slightly to 3.4 percent (compared to July's high of 3.9 percent). The share of people expecting prices to fall bounced up to 7 percent from July's low of 6 percent. The company explained that consumers' attitudes have hit a plateau ""due to concerns regarding the potential tapering of the Federal Reserve's asset purchases.""

Moody's Analytics customers will now be able to access the full suite of Zillow real estate aggregate data and related indices, the companies announced.

August price gains were reminiscent of those last seen during the peak of the bubble--but analysts at Clear Capital insist there's nothing to fear at this point. ""With the continued strengthening of home price trends in August, the need for perspective on market activity is even more important,"" said Dr. Alex Villacorta, VP of research and analytics at Clear Capital. Looking under the surface trends, Villacorta notes the low-tier price segment of the housing market saw quarterly gains of 2.0 percent, indicating a more moderate growth path.

Title365 Agency, a nationwide provider of title insurance and escrow services, is moving forward with its Arizona expansion with the opening of two new branch offices in Glendale and Scottsdale.

CoreLogic reported 2.5 million homes returned to positive equity in Q2 2013, leaving 7.1 million underwater. Of the 41.5 million residential properties with positive equity, an estimated 10.3 million are ""under-equitied,"" meaning they have less than 20 percent equity. Because of that, those borrowers may have a more difficult time obtaining new financing for their home due to underwriting constraints. Meanwhile, 1.7 million properties had less than 5 percent equity, qualifying them as ""near-negative equity.""

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a Dallas-based diversified mortgage services provider, will sponsor in October a two-day charity golf tournament, exclusive VIP movie screening, and private concert event featuring five-time Grammy Award winner Wynonna Judd.

JPMorgan Chase's board has announced its intention to elect Linda B. Bammann and Michael A. Neal to join as directors.