Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. lender, is cutting 450 mortgage jobs from its West Coast Offices. The lending giant is reducing staff after new loans fell short of internal forecasts. In a report by Bloomberg, affected employees were told yesterday that workers involved in processing home loans would be let go.

Fannie Mae announced Thursday that homebuyers can now receive up to 3.5 percent in closing cost assistance. The help is available within the FirstLook period of Fannie Mae’s HomePath properties in 27 states. The incentive will offer qualified buyers up to 3.5 percent of the final sales price to pay closing costs.

Prudential Real Estate released results of its fourth quarter Consumer Outlook Survey. The survey showed that consumers perceive residential real estate favorably, and more are committed to buying and selling homes in 2014 than in the previous year.

HOPE NOW, a voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers, and non-profit counselors, released a press release Thursday outlining its loan modification data from 2013. In total, 768,000 homeowners received loan modifications from HOPE NOW in 2013.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report Wednesday, outlining conclusions drawn from a study done on the Servicing Alignment Initiative (SAI). The assessment of servicers provided by the FHFAOIG was far from glowing, citing specific areas of improvement for servicers of Government-Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) mortgages, specifically those who service Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

RealtyTrac released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for January, 2014. The report noted an 8 percent increase of reported properties from the previous month, citing 124,419 properties in foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions). Year-to-year, January, 2014 represented an 18 percent drop from January, 2013.

The Hutchens Law Firm announced a series of awards given to their attorneys this year. The North Carolina-based firm announced that Chris Foster has been named one of Business North Carolina magazine’s 2014 Legal Elite "Young Guns." He is one of just 56 attorneys named.

Mortgage banking industry law firm Butler & Hosch, P.A. said Tuesday that it will acquire Atlanta-based McCurdy & Candler, LLC Default Practice. The firms are in the final stages of the acquisitions process, and the two companies are completing due diligence process this week. The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the month, Butler & Hosch officials said in a statement.

2014 revenue growth for U.S. title insurers is likely to be constrained, said Fitch Ratings in a press release Wednesday. Fitch cites rising interest rates and Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) participation as a limiting factor for title insurers, who have experienced steady revenue growth and improving profit margins over the last two years.

The Multiple Listing Services (MLS) Solutions division of Black Knight Financial Services announced that Marty Reed, the division's vice president of business operations, has been appointed to the board of directors for the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS). Reed is the first MLS vendor representative to be appointed to the CMLS board.