The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on January 21 on whether or not "disparate impact" claims are allowed under the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The case scheduled to be heard later this month, Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, et al., v. The Inclusive Community Project, Inc., centers on claims that the Texas state housing department's fixed criteria for approving tax credits for low-income housing developers resulted in the approval of such credits for a larger percentage of developers in areas more heavily populated by minorities than in areas more populated by whites.

The Financial Times Stock Exchange Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) Index reported a total return of 27.15 percent in 2014, outpacing that of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor 500, and NASDAQ, according to a report from Trepp. In an 11-month period from the end of 2013 to November 2014, the REIT market cap expanded from $670 billion to $890 billion.

Employment statistics released earlier in the week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) fall right in line with analysts' recent predictions that the housing market will make a comeback in 2015. According to the BLS November 2014 Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment report, unemployment rates declined year-over-year in 341 out of 372 metro areas in the U.S., while 12 areas reported jobless rates of at least 10 percent and 147 metros posted jobless rates of less than 5 percent.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) may have to pay additional penalties to settle claims that it sold faulty U.S. mortgage-backed securities in the years leading up to the housing market crash, according to a report from Reuters.

The U.S. has settled a civil mortgage lawsuit against Golden First Mortgage Corp. that accused the mortgage company and its owner, David Movtady, of defrauding a government mortgage program, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara.

Fannie Mae's gross mortgage portfolio took a huge downward turn in November, while the mortgage giant's Book of Business inched upward, according to Fannie Mae's November 2014 Monthly Summary released earlier this week. The balance of the gross mortgage portfolio dropped from $4.36 billion in October down to $4.24 billion in November, marking the 52nd time in the last 53 months Fannie Mae's portfolio declined month-over-month.

As the new year rolls in, DS News is taking a look back at some of the biggest REO headlines and stories of 2014

California-based real estate software applications provider RES.NET has added customized technology services to its suite of products, according to an announcement from the company.

Improvements in economic fundamentals, notably employment growth among millennials, will fuel significant increases in home sales and housing starts and a modest rise in home prices in 2015, according to CoreLogic's 2015 Housing Outlook released earlier this week. Sam Khater, deputy chief economist for CoreLogic, predicted an increase of 9 percent in home sales and a 14 percent spike in housing starts for the coming year in the report.

An online petition calling for the end of the Federal Housing Finance Agency's conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been posted to the White House's "We the People" Web page.