Daily Dose

Candidates talking about the housing crisis on the presidential campaign trail, the authors said, is an excellent way to raise national public awareness and is a step toward finding solutions to the problems surrounding the housing industry, which include rising rents and diminished access to homeownership.

Foreclosures, short sales, and rapidly rising home values saved 7.9 million of these homeowners from the pool of negative equity by the end of the first quarter. Those that remain underwater are expected to be the most severe cases to repair.

The revisions announced Friday allow for the deferral of due and payable status for reverse mortgages, hence protection from foreclosure, for certain eligible non-borrowing spouses upon the passing of the last surviving borrower for case numbers assigned prior to August 4, 2014. Last year, FHA's HECM policies were revised to include such protections for non-borrowing spouses on HECMs for case numbers assigned on or after August 4, 2014.

For the CFPB, the bill includes a provision that will bring the agency under the annual Congressional appropriations process. Currently, the CFPB is funded directly by the Federal Reserve. According to the Appropriations Committee, the change will allow for increased accountability and transparency of the Bureau's activities as well as the use of taxpayer money.

As has historically been the case, REO sales had the largest cash sales share in March, followed by resales (34.5 percent), short sales (31.6 percent), and new home sales (14.9 percent). All those numbers represented declines from February, according to CoreLogic.

Americans appear to be keeping borrowing to a minimum and evading debt as the report noted that household borrowing was at its lowest rate since the end of 2013. Household debt increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015 totaling $13.6 trillion.

During his five-minute allotted period for questioning, Hensarling asked the Secretary for statistical evidence that HUD was achieving its original goal of eliminating poverty. Castro responded with the 33 percent drop in veteran homelessness and HUD's Jobs Plus Initiative, where he said individuals who go through program tend to earn 14 percent more than individuals who do not.

EXPOs differ from Freddie Mac's Standard Pool Offerings in that the loans include smaller pool sizes and a longer marketing period. Freddie Mac is targeting smaller investors with its EXPO auctions, which are intended to give these investors extra time to secure funding to participate in the NPL sales. Freddie Mac began marketing the pool of loans on April 21 and encouraged private investors, minority- and women-owned businesses, non-profits, and neighborhood advocacy funds to bid in the auction, subject to meeting bidder qualification requirements.

It will provide a reasonable hold-harmless period for enforcement of the of the CFPB’s TRID regulation for those that make good-faith efforts to comply. A hold-harmless period will help ensure that consumers’ real estate closings are not affected by the new regulation.

U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia), Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jon Tester (D-Montana), and Dean Heller (R-Nevada) sent a letter to the FHFA Director Mel Watt, requesting for clarity in risk sharing transactions to help drive competition in the secondary mortgage market.