Daily Dose

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced his office has filed civil lawsuits against two Colorado foreclosure law firms and their affiliated title companies, accusing them of inflating foreclosure costs for homeowners. The civil suits filed against the Hopp firms and the Vaden firm are the latest actions taken in an ongoing investigation by the Colorado AG to cut down on fraud in the foreclosure process.

A popular index gauging leading U.S. economic indicators grew for a third straight month in November, signaling moderate economic growth as the year closes out. The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI) increased 0.6 percent in November to 105.5, the group reported. Released monthly, the index gauges the potential for future economic growth based on 10 leading components, including homebuilding permits, weekly initial unemployment claims, and average consumer expectations for business conditions.

A Florida man pleaded guilty to fraud charges in connection with a home loan modification scam that targeted distressed borrowers, according to an announcement from Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) and Stephen R. Wigginton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.

After slipping in October, purchase and issuance activity picked up again, coming to $29.5 billion, Freddie Mac reported. That was offset by an increase in sales and liquidations, which whittled the portfolio's monthly increase to about $614 million. In other monthly changes, the unpaid principal balance (UPB) of Freddie Mac's mortgage-related investments portfolio fell by approximately $4.7 billion last month, a negative annualized growth rate of 14.0 percent.

Federal bank regulatory agencies have announced the newly-adjusted asset-size thresholds that will be used to define financial institutions under Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations. According to a press release from the Federal Reserve Board, the CRA requires the thresholds to be adjusted annually in order to define institutions as either small banks, small savings associations, intermediate small banks, or intermediate small savings associations for CRA examinations. These asset-size classifications determine how institutions are evaluated under different CRA examination procedures, and determine whether or not financial institutions are subject to certain reporting requirements; those that are classified small or intermediate small are not subject to the same reporting requirements as large financial institutions.

Sales of pre-owned homes stalled out in November, plunging to their slowest pace in half a year only one month after hitting a 2014 high. Despite the stumble, home resales in November were still up 2.1 percent from year-ago levels, making it just the second month in 2014 to see sales rise year-over-year. It's been a year of starts and stops for home sales, which have struggled under the weight of rising mortgage rates (a trend that has reversed in recent months), a tighter lending environment, declining affordability, and a lack of housing stock available for buyers.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed approximately 3.3 million foreclosure prevention actions in the last six years, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)'s Q3 Foreclosure Prevention Report released Monday. Including the 72,700 foreclosure prevention actions completed by the GSEs in the third quarter, the two Enterprises have performed about 3.3 million such actions since the start of the conservatorship under FHFA in September 2008, according to the report. Nearly 2.8 million of those borrowers were able to stay in their homes as a result of receiving assistance from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Former Countrywide executive Edward O'Donnell will receive $57 million for his role in filing a whistle-blower lawsuit against Bank of America over the sale of faulty mortgage-backed securities, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

Forty-one states and the District of Columbia experienced month-over-month declines in their unemployment rate, while 43 states and the District of Columbia saw year-over-year decreases in unemployment for November, according to the Regional and State Employment and Unemployment November 2014 report released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The majority of investors who bought homes at auction last month intend to hold onto them as a source of rental income, according to a report from real estate marketplace Auction.com. Isolating online buyers, Auction.com found a preference in the group toward renting rather than flipping, though responses differed by region: Renting was easily was preferred choice for properties in the Midwest and South, barely edged out flipping in the West, and was less popular than flipping in the Northeast.