Daily Dose

Government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac has announced a set of new foreclosure prevention guidelines and revisions in Guide Bulletins 2014-19 and 2014-20.

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Mel Watt will testify before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in an open session on Wednesday, November 19.

In its annual report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Monday that the Federal Housing Administration's Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund has grown by $21 billion in the last two years and now has an economic value of $4.8 billion with a current capital ratio of 0.41 percent after being in the red two years ago.

Consumer sentiment in the United States jumped more than two points in a preliminary November estimate, beating economic forecasts and hitting a more than seven-year high.

In a survey conducted as part of The Collingwood Group's Mortgage Industry Outlook Report for October 2014 released on Monday, the majority of mortgage industry professionals who were surveyed said they did not expect business conditions to be drastically different in the next six months.

The October 2014 Employment Situation Summary released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on November 7 reported a nationwide unemployment rate of 5.8 percent, the lowest level in more than six years. However, a report released recently by the Pew Research Center indicates that while the U.S. unemployment rate is low, the number of people who are "not in the labor force," meaning they are not counted among the unemployed in the BLS survey, is near an all-time high.

As federal housing agencies push mortgage firms to lend to more consumers, a recent survey indicates most lenders feel the regulatory risk is still too great for them to lower their standards.

Fourteen defendants have been indicted on charges in connection with a massive mortgage fraud conspiracy that was perpetrated in New York for 10 years, according to an announcement made by Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and George Venizelos, assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, and Carl DuBois, Sheriff of Orange County, New York.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) this week released its list of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) performance evaluations that were made public during the month of October 2014 for 36 financial institutions.

While foreclosure activity in the U.S. spiked by 15 percent from September to October, the largest monthly increase in four years, 10 states still saw a month-over-month decline in foreclosures in October, according to RealtyTrac's October 2014 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released earlier this week.