Inc. Magazine recently published its full list of the fast-growing companies for 2014, and for the third straight year, Florida-based Nationwide Title Clearing (NTC) has made the cut.

LenderLive Network Inc., an end-to-end mortgage services provider, announced this week the appointment of Kevin Cooke Jr. as SVP of business development for the company’s Loan Servicing Division.

The program's launch marks a big step in the agency's "Know Before You Owe" mortgage initiative, which is aimed at improving the homebuying experience for consumers through simpler disclosure forms as proposed in a rule first issued in November last year. In Thursday's release, CFPB announced it is in the process of preparing for that rule to be implemented in August 2015.

A year ago, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.58 percent—its peak in 2013. The average interest rate for a 15-year FRM this week was 3.23 percent (0.6 point), down from 3.24 percent a week ago. Adjustable rates were mixed for the week. According to Freddie Mac, the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.95 percent (0.5 point) in the latest survey, down slightly from last week, while the 1-year ARM edged up to 2.38 percent (0.5 point).

Bank of America announced Thursday morning it has agreed to pay a record $16.65 billion to resolve claims related to the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities during the years leading up the financial crisis.

For the first time since the start of the housing recovery in 2012, Realtor.com says the end of the annual peak buying season passed this year without any outside economic influences creeping in.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it is increasing the loan thresholds used to determine the maximum points and fees for QM loans. The new rule, published in the Federal Register on Friday, updates the limits on points and fees that loans must meet in order to fit the QM definition and be considered a "safe" loan.

The second quarter of 2014 saw fewer all-cash home sales than the first quarter as institutional investors backed off from the market. In a quarterly report released Tuesday, RealtyTrac reported all-cash transactions made up 37.9 percent of all single-family home and condo sales in April, May, and June, down from the first quarter's three-year high of 42.0 percent but up from 35.7 percent in the year-ago quarter.

A first-look reading shows consumer sentiment plummeted to a nine-month low in August as expectations dimmed. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment came in at 79.2 in the preliminary August reading, down from a final reading of 81.8 in July and several points below the consensus forecast of 82.3. It was the lowest reading since last November, when the country was still shaking off the effects of October's government shutdown.

As the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) mulls over a proposed increase in fees charged by the GSEs to provide guarantees on mortgage-backed securities (MBS), a new report from the Urban Institute (UI) suggests the agency faces a more difficult task than one might assume.