Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mel Watt discussed the progress toward the Agency's three main goals – maintaining, reducing, and building – in a speech he delivered Thursday at the Goldman Sachs Housing Finance Conference in New York.

Two challenges facing the U.S. housing market is currently facing are a dearth of credit creation and a lack of available inventory, according to a report released Wednesday by the Kroll Bond Ratings Agency (KBRA) that is scheduled to be presented Thursday by KBRA Senior Managing Director and Head of Research Christopher Whalen at the 2nd Annual Real Estate Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Fitch Ratings has published a special report providing insights into Freddie Mac's loan loss data comparing observed loss performance for Agency loans to both non-Agency loans and the fixed loss severity schedules the Enterprise uses in risk-sharing transactions, according to announcement from Fitch Ratings.

Approximately 1.88 million homeowners nationwide received a mortgage solution in the form of a loan modification, short sale, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, or other workout plan during 2014, according to data released Wednesday by HOPE NOW. The 2014 numbers brought the total number of solutions the industry has offered to homeowners since 2007, when HOPE NOW began tracking the data, up to 23.2 million, representing a combination of both long and short term tools.

Citigroup is preparing to pay approximately $20 million to thousands of homeowners who were eligible to receive compensation as part of the Independent Foreclosure Settlement reached between the government and 10 mortgage servicers two years ago over loan servicing and foreclosure procedure violations, according to media reports.

While bankruptcy filings nationwide in February continued their trend of year-over-year decline since the foreclosure crisis peaked in 2010, the number of filings rose slightly from January to February, according to AACER bankruptcy data reported by Epiq Systems. While February featured one fewer filing day than January did (19 compared to 20), bankruptcy filings nationwide totaled 65,002 for February, up from 59, 050 in January (an increase of 10 percent).

Post-closing services provider Nationwide Title Clearing, Inc. (NTC) has announced the hiring of Gina Morales, APR, as VP of Marketing.

Two major subjects discussed during Tuesday's hearing entitled "The Semi-Annual Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" before the House Committee on Financial Services were the Republicans' perceived lack of accountability on the part of the Bureau as well as whether or not the Bureau's efforts have been overreaching.

Leading online real estate marketplace Auction.comAuction.com Channel has announced a cash and stock acquisition of Newport Beach, California-based real estate technology solutions provider Channel, LLC.

The amount Chase agreed to in the proposed settlement will include cash payments, mortgage loan credits, and loan forgiveness to the homeowners in bankruptcy. Chase has agreed to change its internal operations, and an independent compliance reviewer will conduct oversight to ensure that Chase is complying with the terms of the settlement.