Daily Dose

Bankruptcy filings nationwide totaled 62,358 for the month of September, the second-lowest total for any month this year, according to September 2015 AACER bankruptcy data reported by Epiq Systems.

While the national unemployment rate held steady at 5.1 percent from August (the U6 rate, the broadest measure of unemployment, fell 3 basis points to 10 percent), September saw a gain of just 142,000 jobs, bringing the average monthly total for the first nine months of 2015 down to 198,000, according to the September 2015 Employment Summary released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday. By comparison, average monthly job gains for the first nine months of 2014 totaled 260,000.

The labor market has improved as the economy has rebounded, and people are moving from the center of the country to the coasts to places that have experienced robust job growth like New York, Florida, and Los Angeles—but they want to be able to move around without being tied down to a mortgage.

While these changes are a step in the right direction Bullard did note, "more could be done. There appears to be some areas where we have sufficient information and experience to warrant additional action."

The fact that there is no transition period between using the HUD-1 and the new Closing Disclosure Form might be problematic, according to Bankrate.com senior mortgage analyst Holden Lewis.

For the first half of 2015, approximately 38 percent of mortgage delinquencies were brought about by job loss or some type of income curtailment, according to an analysis of mortgages guaranteed or owned by Freddie Mac.

Smith credited Chase with a total of $3.5 billion in consumer relief in his sixth report on the bank's progress since the November 2013 settlement over the selling of toxic mortgage-backed securities to investors. The bank has more than two years to pay the remaining $0.5 billion.

H.R. 1266, known as the Financial Product Safety Commission Act of 2015 and sponsored by Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), would remove the CFPB from the Federal Reserve System and re-establish it as a stand-alone agency governed by a five-member, bipartisan commission. This bill passed the Committee by the vote of 35-24.

For the first eight months of 2015, Fannie Mae's gross mortgage portfolio has contracted at an annualized rate of 12.6 percent; the only two months that saw expansion were January and March at a rate of 3.5 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively.

Some housing experts expected the homeownership rate, which has been decreasing since 2004, to get a much-needed boost as millennials entered the housing market. However, there have been no results on this end and the homeownership rate has continued to fall.