The proposed budget would increase $4 billion from last year to a total of $49.3 billion. HUD’s budget proposes more than $21 billion for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, which Secretary Castro said would extend support to more than 2.4 million low-income families.

The Federal Reserve Inspector General made his findings of the investigation of discrimination in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) public Monday, stating the CFPB has made progress in combatting discrimination, but still was work to do. Last week, legislation was introduced to replace the director of CFPB with a five-person committee to combat the alleged overreach of the Bureau, according to House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

U.S. Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) introduced a bill this week intended to replace the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with a five-member commission. He announced his plan to support legislation in his testimony at House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) hearing held on Tuesday, March 3.

Weather conditions slowed home construction in New York, Philadelphia, and Cleveland and caused Boston to have low levels of inventory. The report notes that lack of desirable lots and low inventory levels continue to slow the market.

Real estate solutions provider RES.NET has seen a rise in mortgage servicers' demand for custom tasking capabilities, which the company attributes to new regulatory changes that were added in the third quarter. More than 80 new changes were made, forcing banks to hire new full-time staff and spend more hours meeting the new demands, according to the Banking Compliance Index.

If a loan defaults, FHA covers virtually 100 percent of loss, while MI covers first losses down to a stated coverage percentage. FHA’s policy may provide less incentive to ensure that loans are underwritten and serviced in a sensible and sustainable way, while MI’s policy may create a stronger incentive to better underwriting and good servicing, according to Gupta.

Collaborative product engineering leader Indecomm Global Services has been selected for the Top 100 Global Outsourcing list for 2015, according to an announcement from Indecomm.

Thirty-year mortgage industry veteran Jeff Tennyson has joined Clayton Holdings LLC as chief operating officer. Tennyson will be in charge of all of Clayton’s business holdings in the United States, including Transaction Management, Consulting, Surveillance, Commercial Due Diligence, and Green River Capital.

Economic growth is expected to climb to 2.9 percent this year, up from 2.4 percent in 2014, according to Fannie Mae's February 2015 Monthly Economic Outlook released on Thursday. Fannie Mae predicts this economic growth will boost the sluggish housing market into recovery.

New Residential Investment Corp. and Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd. announced a definitive merger agreement on Sunday. The merger agreement sets for New Residential to acquire all of the outstanding shares of HLSS for $18.25 per share in cash, totaling approximately $1.3 billion. The purchase price represents a 9 percent premium to HLSS' closing price of $16.76 on February 20.