Mortgage industry hirings skyrocketed during the first quarter of the year, according to figures published on PR Newswire Monday. The report showed that mortgage companies hired 8,877 people from January to March – a monumental increase from 925 industry new hires in the fourth quarter of last year and 1,199 in the first quarter of 2008.

Sales of single-family homes in Connecticut for the first quarter and for the month of March fell more than 20 percent from last year’s levels, according to a report released Monday by New England real estate researcher The Warren Group.

The New York Federal Reserve Bank purchased $23.142 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) from government agencies this week. Of the Fed’s new commitment to buy $1.25 trillion in MBS this year, its purchases now stand at $404 billion.

The first 100 days of President Barack Obama’s administration have been marked by pressure to stabilize and reverse the nation’s financial crisis, and in doing so, establish regulatory reform within the financial and lending communities.

The U.S. Senate has voted down legislation that would allow bankruptcy court judges to modify the interest rate, terms, or even principal balance owed on primary-residence mortgages. After passing by a good margin in the House in early March, the cramdown bill failed in the Senate on Thursday by a vote of 45 to 51.

Southfield, Michigan’s Woodward Asset Capital, LLC has announced the launch of OfferSubmission.com, a proprietary web-based software program that allows mortgage asset owners to control the REO disposition process, while providing transparency for real estate agents and institutional sellers.

Jacksonville, Florida’s Lender Processing Services (LPS), Inc. released its latest LPS Mortgage Monitor this week, which provides mortgage industry performance indicators as of March month-end. Among the findings, LPS reported that the number of newly delinquent loans declined in March to 7.

Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), submitted a proposed rule to the Federal Register this week to revise the GSEs’ housing goals for the year.

The law firm of Reisenfeld & Associates LPA, LLC announced this week that it has expanded its foreclosure and bankruptcy departments with the recent hiring of attorneys Phyllis A. Carmer and Martha R.

The government has said its Home Affordable Refinance Program will lower monthly mortgage payments for four to five million homeowners. The initiative targets those home loans that are held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the administration has expanded the eligibility pool by allowing borrowers to refinance even if they owe 5 percent more than the home’s current market value.