Claims Recovery Financial Services, LLC (CRFS), a claims processing management solutions specialist, celebrated its 10th year in business Friday. The company, which started out with one employee and one client, now boasts more than 380 employees.

Even though credit scores play a key role in whether or not a person can be approved for a mortgage loan, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a report revealing only one in five people actually obtain a copy of their credit report each year. In addition, these overlooked reports that are important in the lending process could also contain errors that go unchallenged. When consumers did dispute information on their credit report, the CFPB found that nearly 40 percent of the disputes dealt with debt in collections.

Home sales in California displayed a typical seasonal decline in November and fell month-over-month, but the median price posted both monthly and yearly gains, San Diego-based DataQuick reported.

As household formation mends and grows, the housing recovery will benefit overall, but the rental industry is expected to come out as the biggest winner, according to a report from Capital Economics. ""[W]ith the overwhelming majority of newly forming households over the next few years set to rent rather than own their home, the rental sector will be the disproportionate beneficiary,"" wrote economist Paul Diggle in the report. The analytics firm expects household formation to soon meet or exceed the rate of 1.1 million per year.

Fay Servicing made available the results of its in-depth Personal Budget Analysis (PBA) service to clients. Clients can access the results of the PBA through the company's browser-based reporting portal. Fay Servicing explained the PBA improves transparency and makes it easier to analyze the financial health of borrowers.

Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. sales associate Leslie Friedson received recognition as the 2012 Member of the Year by Greater Capital Area Chapter of the Women's Council of Realtors (WCR).

The Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF) and Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper forged a partnership to offer a statewide hotline specifically for distressed homeowners in the state. The hotline for Tennessee residents is 855.876.7283 and offers free information and referrals to foreclosure prevention and mortgage counseling.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has a mission of making the American dream of homeownership accessible to low- and moderate-income families and first-time homebuyers. However, due to FHA's underwriting policies and practices, Edward Pinto, resident at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), argued the administration has instead put ""a high percentage of low- and moderate-income families and communities at risk of excessively high foreclosure rates.""

A significant drop in foreclosure starts brought down foreclosure activity in November, according to a foreclosure report from RealtyTrac. Foreclosure starts were filed on 77,494 U.S. properties in November, a 71-month low and the lowest level since December 2006, RealtyTrac reported Thursday. The decrease represents a 13 percent drop from October and a 28 percent decline from November 2011. While foreclosure starts fell, bank repossessions rose annually for the first time in 25 months.

FHFA is directing both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to work together with the agency on developing industry-wide servicing data standards, according to updates from the GSEs. The news standards are a component of the Uniform Mortgage Data Program (UMDP) and will go by the name Uniform Mortgage Servicing Dataset (UMSD).