Featured news — posted January 4, 2005

Apex 3.0 debuts with 50 new features; Aurora will now integrate with 2.0

Apex 3.0 has shipped, so make sure you get your Instant Customer Updates. With more than 50 new and highly useful features, you'll quickly find Apex 3.0 to be a "must have."

Among the enhancements are moving and rotating areas with the contents, "undo" with a quick control-Z, "nested" areas which you can come back to to finish later, reversing your drawing with a simple hotkey, converting old sketches (even WinSketch™), and auto-scrolling when you draw past the screen's edge. On top of that, there's a larger sketching area and quick area selection. You can even get a Network License of Apex 3.0, too — which saves you substantial money versus per-desktop pricing.

Apex 3.0 also uses our a la mode product family interface with a simplified toolbar, intuitive design, and new command bar, so switching back and forth between Apex, WinTOTAL Aurora (due out shortly), your XSite, CertMail, the Vault, and so on feels natural. You still have all the same Apex hotkeys, so you've got the best of both worlds.

And those two worlds are more flexible and functional than ever. Teaming Aurora with Apex means you can go back and forth between writing your report and drawing your floorplan without closing your sketch each time. Inside Apex, you'll be able to pop up Aurora's interior and exterior photos for quick reference. Your room counts, levels, garages and more are deciphered from the sketch and transferred to Aurora. And within Aurora, you can find old sketches by address, neighborhood, square footage, proximity, and more, and merge them into the current report. No other appraisal program will do that.

Click here to see a video introduction to Apex 3.0 and a demonstration of all its new features. And as with everything else we sell, Apex 3.0 comes with a 100 day money back guarantee so you can try it with no risk. When you're ready to move forward, just click here to buy it online and save 10 percent off the price you'll receive over the phone. We've extended the savings through January 7th in order to get all your questions answered — our phone lines have been slammed with end-of-year purchases, smashing last year's sales record — but don't procrastinate. It's available on your desktop right now via the ICU, so the sooner you order, the sooner you benefit.

Those of you who decide to continue to use out of date Apex versions when Aurora comes out will have to make a few adjustments, though none are life-threatening. Obviously, features such as room count grid transfers, sketch searching, and dynamic updating as you draw cannot work with the old Apex, and could make Aurora appear "broken," resulting in unnecessary tech calls. The best compromise if you don't want a better Apex is to allow you to use the old version with Aurora, with the inherent issues (the square footages will still transfer) — but technical support will be limited to Apex 3.0 only.

You can understand that time marches on, and we have to devote our resources to the improvements you've asked for. You can always continue to use our old Athena and the old Apex — though that seems backwards — but then you're missing out on the improvements thousands of you have requested. Given the value of your time, that costs much more than an Apex 3.0 upgrade, but we'll leave that decision to you.

Upper Fannie management implodes

Fannie Mae's board on December 21st ousted its two top executives and fired its auditor, KPMG, as the company's accounting standards violations crept into the light and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered a restatement of possibly $9 billion. Chief Executive Officer Franklin D. Raines and Chief Financial Officer Timothy Howard were temporarily replaced by, respectively, Daniel H. Mudd, currently a vice chairman and chief operating officer, and Robert Levin, currently an executive vice president. Mudd vowed to “make things right” with regulators and Congress, the Washington Post reported.

Raines' departure is officially being called a "retirement" and Howard's a "resignation." In "retirement," Raines will receive $1 million a year.

Accounting changes required by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) and the SEC forced Fannie to recognize $9.18 billion in losses on derivative contracts.

Fannie Mae still faces investigations by OFHEO, the SEC, Justice Department and an undoubtedly growing number of suits from shareholders. Fannie's problems are unlikely to have much immediate effect on the mortgage or housing markets, analysts say.

Existing home sales blow market away

November existing home sales shattered expectations, rising to a new record pace, and virtually sealing the deal on another record year for the U.S. housing market, Wachovia Securities economists reported to their customers. Sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.94 million in November. Months of available supply held steady and sales prices rose.

"An improving employment situation, steady income growth, and stubbornly low interest rates proved too much for homebuyers to resist once again in November," Gina Martin, CFA, wrote. "Sales of existing homes posted a 2.7 percent month-over-month increase in November to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 6.94 million, surprising the consensus of economic forecasters, who expected no gain from October’s pace of sales. November’s gain to a new record high rate of sales seals the deal for 2004 as the best ever year for the housing market."

Martin warned that rising rates would eventually cool things down. "Contrary to expectations, rates have fallen since their peak in June, adding a boost to housing market activity throughout the autumn months. We expect that long-term Treasury rates, and thus, conventional mortgage rates, will creep higher throughout 2005. This slow rise in rates is likely to at least marginally slow housing activity next year," she said.