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100 COO at Flagstar. "With the rapid growth of our subservicing portfolio, it makes sense to strengthen our capabilities on the default side. is acquisition further leverages our industry- leading oversight and monitoring, while providing clients the compliance infrastructure and other benefits that Flagstar, as the nation's third-largest federal savings bank, can offer." Flagstar ranks as the fifth largest and one of the fastest-growing subservicers in the country, with a combined servicing and sub- servicing book approaching 1 million loans and capacity for additional growth. In 2018, Flag- star was recognized by Fannie Mae as a STAR servicer in the general servicing category for the fourth consecutive year. IDAHO Home Prices: Trending Up Idaho led the nation in annual appreciation for the eighth consecutive month, according to CoreLogic's latest Home Price Index (HPI). Home Prices in the Gem State grew at 10.7%. CoreLogic's HPI forecasted national home prices to increase 5.6% by May 2020. However, the gains in May 2019 was lower than the 6.4% increase of May 2018. Homes in the lower-price tier saw the larg- est annual increases at 5.4%. e middle low- to-middle tier rose 4.5%, middle-to-moderate price tier increased 4%, and the high-price tier jumped 3%. CoreLogic stated the overall HPI has increased annually every month since March 2012, and grown 61.1% since bottoming out in March 2011. e overall HPI in May 2019 was 8.3% higher than its pre-crisis peak in April 2006. Home prices increased 2.6% year-over- year in May 2019, and were 11.6% below their peak. Home prices in 39 states, including the District of Columbia, have risen above their pre-crisis peaks. In fact, California, Idaho, and Michigan surpassed their pre-crisis peaks dur- ing the period under consideration. Connecticut's home prices in May 2019 were 17.6% below the July 2006 peak, which is the largest gap in the nation. Home price cool- ing was most evident, according to CoreLogic, in Washington, California, and Nevada. Rising home prices are an issue for prospective buyers, as a study by Realtor.com found that half of today's home buyers are looking for a property under $288,000, which is more than 9% below the median price for homes currently on the market. e results of the study found that home's priced below $288,000 is 9.1%, or $27,000 under the national average. "e price differences between what buyers are searching for, closing on, and what's avail- able on the market demonstrates just how big the gap is for entry-level home buyers," said Danielle Hale, Chief Economist for Realtor. com. Realtor.com states that closing that gap won't come easy, and estimates that approxi- mately that 94,000 homes priced between $100,000 and $340,000 would need to be put up for sale achieve that balance. IOWA Fintech Startup Announces Expansion LenderClose has expanded its staff, add- ing three new employees. To meet demand from its growing client base of community lenders nationwide, LenderClose said that it has increased its workforce by more than 15 employees in the first half of 2019. Join- ing the LenderClose team in July were sales representatives Troy Allen and Kathy Bell, and software developer Caleb Salt. "We're building out our team to support steady growth, which continues to affirm our belief that we're offering credit unions and community banks the best digital lending platform," LenderClose COO Ben Rempe said. "We're always evaluating the size and skills of our staff to maintain the best pos- sible customer service experience, and to find new ways to enhance platform features and functionality." Allen, of Altoona, Iowa, is the former regional manager of Community 1st Credit Union in Indianola. ere, he managed four branches and 25 employees. During his more than 17 years in banking, Allen achieved consistent loan and deposit growth and was recognized as a top sales professional. He'll use this deep experience working in community lending institutions in his role as a sales execu- tive for LenderClose. Bell, of Grimes, Iowa, brings experience in sales and business development to the Lend- erClose team, having most recently worked as a client executive with ACS and a senior sales executive with Dice Holdings, both in Urban- dale, Iowa. She has expertise in developing sales strategies in highly competitive markets, and as a LenderClose sales executive, will help to further its footprint in key markets. Salt, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a MICHIGAN Flagstar Acquires Default Servicing Operations Troy, Michigan-headquartered Flagstar Bank is acquiring the default servicing opera- tions of a vendor supporting its serviced loan portfolio. Flagstar said that it anticipates con- tinuing operations at the vendor's Jacksonville, Florida facility and making offers of employ- ment to the vendor's Jacksonville staff. e bank announced that the transition is expected to be seamless for both custom- ers and employees, as there are no planned system changes, no loan or data transfers, and borrowers' points of contact will remain the same. Following the closing of the transaction, Flagstar will maintain its default servicing op- erations in Jacksonville, at its headquarters in Troy, Michigan, and in Bellevue, Washington. e transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close September 27, 2019. "Default servicing is a critically important service we provide to our mortgage servicing and subservicing clients," said Lee Smith, R E O S T R A T E G Y M A N A G E M E N T R E N O V A T I O N M A R K E T I N G ANTHONY DISANO MANAGING BROKER 888.998.4758 X6 ADISANO@PVRCO.COM WWW.PARKVUEREALTY.COM ILLINOIS| FLORIDA | NEW JERSEY

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