Though the Great Recession officially ended three years ago, low aggregate income is keeping Americans from climbing out of the income slump that resulted. While real average earnings (per person) trended downward or stayed flat during the previous four business cycles, Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research group found that average earnings actually increased from pre-recession levels during the Great Recession.

Prospect Mortgage announced the launch of a Renovation Lending Correspondent Division to help lenders address the needs of their customers looking for renovation loans.

Vendor Resource Management (VRM) promoted three managers to expanded executive roles, the company announced.

Platinum Data hired quality assurance and fraud prevention expert Lisa Binkley as SVP, the company announced Monday.

Trott & Trott, P.C., had reason to party as the firm announced that four of its young attorneys were recognized as ""Michigan Rising Stars"" by Super Lawyers magazine.

ForeclosureRadar released its Foreclosure Report for August on Monday, revealing that foreclosure starts fell dramatically during the month. The company's coverage area includes counties in California, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. In all states except Washington, foreclosure starts either fell drastically or stayed fairly flat month-over-month, with Oregon seeing an 80.6 percent drop in starts.

The FDIC announced on Friday the closure of First Commercial Bank in Bloomington, Minnesota.

According to the GSE's August 2012 National Housing Survey, consumers maintain a cautious but improving view of homeownership and the housing market. The average home price change expectation is 1.6 percent, mostly consistent with July's results and down from a June high of 2.0 percent. Meanwhile, 11 percent of those surveyed say home prices will go down in the next year, holding steady at the lowest level since the survey began in 2010.

Vericrest Financial, Inc., announced Friday the formation of a new advisory board made up of financial services veterans. The company named four individuals to the board.

HUD announced Friday that a $20,000 settlement has been reached with Land Home Financial Services (LHFS) to resolve allegations of discriminatory practices based on maternity status.