Daily Dose

RealtyTrac released its January 2014 Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report on Thursday, revealing institutional investors made up 5.2 percent of all U.S. residential property sales in January. Institutional investor sales are down from 7.9 percent in December, and down 8.2 percent from January, 2013.

The Data and Analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services issued their "First Look" at January mortgage performance data, noting foreclosure inventory has hit a new post-crisis low. The percentage of foreclosures from the inventory of loans, 2.35 percent, is the lowest since November, 2008.

A Florida man was sentenced on Tuesday to serve 12 months and one day in prison for defrauding thousands of homeowners in a $4 million nationwide home loan modification scheme. Vernell Burris Jr. was sentenced to prison along with two other previously sentenced co-defendants, Christopher Godfrey and Dennis Fischer, in a continuing SIGTARP case.

For Richard Corday, the equation is simple: In the Land of the Free and the home of the free market, American citizens should be as informed about and capable of self-governance in their personal finances as they are in the democratic process, especially when it comes to borrowing for a mortgage.

A new report released by DataQuick revealed Las Vegas homes sold at the slowest pace in five years this January as median sale price dipped from the previous month. Home prices remained 22 percent higher than a year earlier, but mirroring a national trend, price growth has slowed.

The Demand Institute, a non-advocacy, non-profit think tank jointly operated by the Conference Board and Nielsen, released Wednesday a new report entitled: "A Tale of 2000 Cities: how the sharp contrast between successful and struggling communities is reshaping America." The report "finds that a large proportion of housing wealth is concentrated in a relatively small proportion of America's cities, towns and villages."

According to a report issued by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the average size of a new home is increasing, and the population of buyers may be the main reason for the average home's expanding size. Data culled from the Census Bureau and presented at NAHB's International Builder's Show in Las Vegas showed some interesting trends in new home production.

Home prices rose 7.7 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, while prices for other goods and services ticked up 0.7 percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index, which calculates home prices among mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A total of 38 states reported rising prices in the fourth quarter of the year, a significant showing but fewer than the 48 from the previous quarter, according to the FHFA.

Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), announced Tuesday in a press release that David Weimert, of Madison, Wisconsin, has been charged with six counts of wire fraud involving a real estate development transaction.

A new report released Tuesday by the Wells Fargo Economics Group noted that consumer sentiment in Florida remained at 78 for the second straight month. Although consumers in the nation as a whole lost some confidence in February, the Florida Consumer Sentiment Index showed citizens of the Sunshine State remained steady.