The U.S. Federal Reserve Board announced the formation of a 15-member Community Advisory Council (CAC) to provide information, advice, and recommendations to the Board on emerging economic issues and relevant policy matters, according to an announcement from the Fed.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is awarding seven Choice Neighborhoods Planning grants worth $3.2 million in six cities, HUD Secretary Julián Castro announced while speaking to grant recipient Louisville Metro Housing Authority in Kentucky on Friday. HUD's signature place-based initiative, Choice Neighborhoods' goal is to transform those neighborhoods that are struggling to address the challenges of distressed housing, inadequate schools, poor health, high crime, and lack of capital, which are all interconnected.

New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs reported a slight year-over-year decline in Q4 2014 net earnings, but for the whole year of 2014 the firm reported a slight uptick from 2013, according to the firm's Q4 and year-end earnings statement released on Friday.

While housing recovery has generally been uneven for the last few years, the housing market experienced substantial growth in the fourth quarter of 2014 for all five indicators of Trulia's Q4 2014 Housing Barometer, which was released on Thursday. Three of the five indicators – existing home sales, excluding distressed sales; home price level; and delinquency plus foreclosure rate – are all more than three-quarters of the way "back to normal" as of the end of 2014, according to the barometer.

While foreclosure activity in Florida has been generally declining for the last year, the Sunshine State has still not completely recovered from being one of the states hit hardest by the financial crisis and foreclosure wave, which peaked in 2010.

Three government agencies – the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) – have announced additional outreach meetings to discuss their collective effort to reduce regulatory burden placed on them by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA).

Settlements with the federal government for mortgage servicing misconduct led to sharp year-over-year declines for Citigroup and Bank of America in both fourth quarter and full-year net incomes in 2014, according to Q4 2014 and year-end earnings statements for both banks released on Thursday.

Business process outsourcing, learning, and technology solutions provider Indecomm Global Services, which houses corporate headquarters in both New Jersey and India, has announced the hiring of mortgage banker Linda Bomar as vice president of sales.

With the Republican majority now in place, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to pass a bill that eased some portions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, according to multiple media reports.

Two of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, reported year-over-year increases in their net incomes for 2014, according to the banks' respective earnings statements released on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase reported a record net income of $21.8 billion for the full year of 2014, up from 2013's net income of $17.9 billion. The firm's earnings per share for 2014 was $5.29, which was also a record (for 2013, earnings per share was $4.35). Revenue experienced s slight decline, however, from $99.8 billion in 2013 down to $97.9 billion in 2014.