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The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.98 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending April 5, 2012, down slightly when it averaged 3.99 percent last week. A decrease compared to last year, the 30-year rate averaged 4.87 percent.

The 15-year fixed-rate dropped to 3.21 percent (0.7 point), down from last week when it averaged 3.23 percent. A year ago at this time, it averaged 4.10 percent.

Niceville High School has done it again! NHS has been placed in the top ten percent of all high schools in the state of Florida in the 2011 ranking of Florida schools by the Florida Department of Education.

"It is an honor for Niceville High School to be ranked in the top 10% of schools in the state of Florida," said NHS principal, Mr. Marcus Chambers. "NHS is a very high achieving school with very talented students, faculty, and staff. Our community expects nothing but the best from us, and we expect nothing but the best from our students. NHS focuses on student achievement, exceeding educational standards, and striving to be the best."

Mr. Gerard Robinson from the Florida Department of Education said, “It takes hard work and commitment to achieve this level of accomplishment. Ranking in the top ten percent speaks to a spirit of teamwork and the support of a school by the community it serves. Your school serves as a point of pride for the community and state.”

The Justice Department estimates it will identify thousands of service members who have been wrongfully foreclosed on since 2006 — each of whom could be in line to receive tens of thousands of dollars, officials said Tuesday.

In conjunction with the $25 billion settlement reached by the federal government and 49 state attorneys general, four of the nation’s major mortgage lenders/servicers are conducting a review of the files of every service member foreclosed on since 2006, to determine if any of those foreclosures were in violation of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act.

Although that review is ongoing, the primary violation was failure to obtain a court order before foreclosure, said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. That provision of the SCRA applies to loans obtained before service members enter active duty.

Any service member wrongfully foreclosed on by Wells Fargo, Citigroup or Ally will receive $116,785, in addition to a refund of lost equity in their home, plus interest. The $116,785 represents the minimum calculation of the combination of economic loss and emotional distress, Perez said.

JPMorgan Chase also is conducting a review. In line with similar payments in an earlier settlement, Chase will provide the home free and clear of any debt, or the cash equivalent of the home’s full value at the time of sale. Bank of America was also involved in a previous settlement involving a service member’s foreclosure, and an ensuing review found 157 illegal foreclosures against service members, Perez said.

Service members who believe they may have been victims of wrongful foreclosure should contact the Justice Department’s hotline at 800-896-7743.

CoreLogic ticks off some key points.

• While sales of both new and existing homes are ragged, they are trending up and inventories are dropping. The supply of existing homes dropped to 6.1 months in December, the lowest point since March 2005. "Research has shown that four to six months home supply is a healthy level of inventory that puts neither upward nor downward pressure on prices, so this is a good sign for further stabilization in 2012."
• Mortgage originations in October 2011 increased to $108 billion, a significant improvement over the low point of $60 billion the previous May. Much of the origination activity is due to mortgage refinancing which made up 74 percent of originations. The long run average share of refinance activity since the beginning of the millennium is 55 percent, due largely to low-rate environments throughout the decade and the high level of equity extraction during the housing boom. Year to date through October 2011 originations topped $784 billion and at the current rate is expected to be right around one trillion for the year.
• The mortgage market, while still small by recent historic standards, is slowly growing on the strength of refinance activity. (Editor's note: this report appears to be dealing with data as of mid-February). "While this activity may fade as we move through 2012 if interest rates rise, it may well be replaced by purchase loan volume from increased home sales."

“Over the past year, the visible inventory has dropped by 20 percent and, over the last six months, home sales have risen by 13 percent,” said Capital Economics.

Even with the expectation that this downward trend is soon to change, Capital Economics does not expect significant house price gains.

“With the robosigning settlement likely to kick-start the foreclosure process and structural factors still constraining demand, it’s more likely that over the next two years prices will remain broadly stable,” the research firm said

For the second year in a row, the Federal Housing Administration is extending a temporary waiver of its "anti-flipping" rule, meaning homebuyers relying on FHA-insured financing will continue to be able to buy homes that have changed hands in the last 90 days.

The waiver is a boon for investors seeking to rehab and flip properties, because it expands the pool of eligible borrowers to include those relying on FHA-backed loans, popular with first-time homebuyers and others who lack the cash to make large down payments.

In extending the waiver through 2012, FHA said all transactions must continue to be arms-length. In cases in which the sales price of the property is 20 percent or more above the seller’s acquisition cost, the waiver will apply only if the lender can document the justification for the increase in value, FHA said.