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Inventory and price continued to rise for the month of April suggesting a healthier national housing market, according to the National Housing Trend Report released by Realtor.com. The group cited trends from the previous year which found "dramatic shortages" being replaced in 2014 by moderate home price gains in tandem with increasing inventories.

The White House has made it official: President Obama has nominated San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro as the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Castro had been the rumored frontrunner for the position, but wasn't officially announced and hadn't accepted the nomination until recently.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, released Tuesday, recorded a seasonally adjusted 1.2 percent monthly rise in prices across 20 of the country's top markets. Removing adjustments, the index climbed 0.9 percent month-over-month. Compared to a year ago, March prices were up 12.4 percent, a step back from the 12.9 percent annual increase recorded in February.

Black Knight's Data and Analytics division released its latest Home Price Index (HPI), based on March 2014 residential real estate transactions. The group found that home prices rose 1.0 percent for the month, reflecting a yearly increase of 7.0 percent.

According to estimates released Friday by the Commerce Department, sales of new single-family homes last month were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000, a 6.4 percent improvement over March’s upwardly revised rate of 407,000. March sales were originally reported at 384,000.

For the first time in 2014, existing-home sales and total inventory increased in April, while home price growth moderated. According to the National

A curious piece of text is appearing in some homeowner's loan modification agreements—by accepting a modification from a bank or non-bank servicer, the homeowner agrees to never publicly say, write, or post anything negative about the company doing the modification. Originally in a report from Reuters, Ocwen, Bank of America, and PNC Financial Services Group are adding new terms to their modification contracts to prevent homeowners from publicly disparaging the companies.

For the first time this year, existing-home sales and total inventory increased in April, while home price growth moderated. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), total existing-home sales, which the group defines as single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, rose 1.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.65 million in April 2014.

The Data and Analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services released its "First Look" at mortgage loan data as of the end of April 2014. The report found that the foreclosure rate is at its lowest point since 2008, and the number of seriously delinquent loans not in foreclosure is down over 200,000 since last year.

In its latest economic forecast, released Wednesday, Fannie Mae reported that housing remains the weakest link in the national economy. Through the first three months of 2014, existing-home sales, new single-family home sales, single-family housing starts, and multifamily housing starts all declined year-over-year.