SEC announced Tuesday that it has charged Wells Fargo's brokerage firm and former VP Shawn McMurtry for selling investments tied to mortgage-backed securities without fully understanding them or disclosing the risks involved. SEC said the firm's representatives did not understand the true nature, risks, and volatility behind such products and recommended them to investors with ""conservative investment objectives.""

The first half of 2012 saw more than 385,000 permanent loan modifications for struggling homeowners, HOPE NOW reported Tuesday. The voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage professionals and non-profit counselors released its June 2012 data, showing that 385,468 homeowners received permanent loan modifications for the first half of the year.

ForeclosureRadar's Foreclosure Report for July 2012 showed mixed month-over-month trends from state to state but revealed an overall year-over-year decline in foreclosure filings. The report, released Monday, covers Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Of the five states, only Arizona and Oregon posted decreases in foreclosure filings from June, while California and Nevada reported relatively small increases.

Limited inventory may be boosting home prices, but buyer choices are stifled in an increasing number of markets, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. The association's latest quarterly report showed distressed homes accounted for 26 percent of Q2 sales, down from 33 percent in Q2 2011. NAR president Moe Veissi what is needed now is additional inventory in the lower price ranges, so the association hopes banks will be releasing more foreclosure inventory into the market.

A former Fannie Mae executive now finds himself facing charges from the SEC of misleading investors about the GSE's loans. According to a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, ex-CEO Dan Mudd, along with two other defendants, allegedly misled investors into thinking the company had far less exposure risky loans than it actually had. SEC accuses Mudd, Enrico Dallavecchia, and Thomas Lund of creating ""materially false and misleading statements regarding Fannie Mae's exposure to subprime and Alt-A loans"" between 2006 and 2008.

Bradford Technologies announced Monday the release of the next generation of its Collateral Valuation Report (CVR), a product that introduced statistical analysis into the appraisal process.

Rogers Townsend & Thomas, PC, announced Friday that Amanda K. Moore and Tyler John Skitt have joined the firm's Charlotte office.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed two notices with rules designed to protect homeowners from surprises or mistakes made by their mortgage servicers. CFPB first announced in April that it was considering several proposals to implement requirements laid out in the Dodd-Frank Act, the bill that created the bureau.

The GSE released its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for August on Wednesday, examining recent trends in home price indices and speculating on the impact of shadow inventory on home prices. While prices have shown positive growth in many states through this year, concerns about shadow inventory-the stock of single-family loans that are seriously delinquent-- have some experts worried about prices taking another tumble.

Hawaii is seeing a number of lawsuits against banks related to allegedly unfair foreclosure sales practices, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday. Lawsuits have been brought against Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., Bank of America, U.S. Bank N.A., and Wells Fargo. In addition, a suit has also been filed against Routh Crabtree Olsen, a Washington firm with offices in Hawaii, for its alleged involvement.