The South Carolina Board of Financial Institutions closed the five branches of Allendale Country Bank, Fairfax, South Carolina on Friday. The FDIC was appointed as the receiver and to protect the depositors, an assumption agreement was made was made with Palmetto State Bank, Hampton, South Carolina.

Out of a poll of more than 2,000 homeowners, Redfin found an even 25 percent would not buy their current home if they had a chance to do it over. Most of the dissatisfaction came from younger people and stemmed from their relationship with the real estate agent, suggesting a generational divide. Not surprisingly, the group with the least buyer’s remorse were those over 65.

According to the Warren Group, statewide sales dropped 7.8 percent to 2,749 in March, down from 2,980 from the previous year. Home sales in the first quarter were down overall 2.4 percent to 7,557 from 7,745 in last year's first quarter. Timothy J. Warren Jr., CEO of the Warren Group, said, “The low inventory of single-family homes in the market is the primary cause of the decreasing sales activity. Motivated buyers, however, are eagerly bidding for the limited supply which accounts for the increasing sales prices. People want to buy homes before prices and interest rates rise further.”

California-based LRES, a national residential and commercial financial services provider, announced the latest version of their DirectConnect framework.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, mortgage applications declined in the last week, though loan sizes are seeing record highs. Meanwhile, the average loan size for purchase applications has reached its highest level in the history of the survey at $280,500, coinciding with the trend in rising purchase activity for larger loan amounts.

According to Florida Realtors, the state's housing market reported higher median prices, more new listings, and a stable level of inventory in March. For 28 months in a row now, statewide median sales prices have risen annually for single-family homes and condos. "What we're seeing is a market we can live with," said Florida Realtors chief economist Dr. John Tuccillo.

The largest independent real estate company in the country, Long & Foster Real Estate, was named Affiliate of the Year in the large market category for 2013 by Christie’s International Real Estate.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its monthly House Price Index (HPI) for February, revealing continued growth even as winter weather slowed the market. The broad measure of the movement of single-family home prices in this purchase-only index went up by 0.6 percent, according to FHFA, and with the exception of November 2013, marked nearly two straight years of increases.

The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI) was updated Monday, rising for the third straight month. The LEI increased 0.8 percent in March to 100.9, outpacing increases of 0.2 percent in January and 0.5 percent in February. The outlook in the analytic system points more to a peak than a trough in coming months, according to the group.

The market is much healthier this year, and with the growth in inventory and days on the market for the buyers and with modest price increases present, the overall outlook is good, according to Realtor.com's National Housing Trends report for March. The stats from Realtor.com showed a 9.5 percent growth over March of last year, with 1,841,844 units at a median price of $199,900, which was also 5.3 percent higher. Last year showed an imbalance with a shorter supply and a heavy increase in home prices.