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Despite some recent kickback from Senate Democrats, the Johnson-Crapo reform bill that plans to phase out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac passed the Senate Banking Committee by a bipartisan vote of 13-9. The legislation is an agreement between Chairman Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) "designed to stabilize the housing finance market and strengthen the American economy," the committee said in a press release.

For the majority of homes, buying is cheaper than renting. But as home prices rise faster than incomes and mortgage rates slowly head upwards, the question of national affordability becomes ever more germane. Compared to the longer-term past, homeownership still looks relatively affordable as home prices remain undervalued and mortgage rates remain near historic lows. However, affordability for the middle class in some areas of the nation is becoming problematic.

RealtyTrac's latest U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for April 2014, revealed foreclosure filings were down 1 percent from March, totaling approximately 115,000. April's figure reflects a year-over-year decrease of 20 percent.

In a speaking engagement at the Brookings Institution, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Melvin L. Watt spoke about his new 2014 Strategic Plan for the Conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, highlighting a few major changes to the plan. Notably Watt’s plan removes any intention to reduce the GSEs' presence in the market, a central part of former Acting Director Edward DeMarco's strategic plan.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its strategic plan for the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In its report, the FHFA focused on three tenets going forward for the GSEs: maintain foreclosure prevention activities, reduce taxpayer risk, and build a new, single-family securitization infrastructure.

CoreLogic released Tuesday its own quarterly Case-Shiller Indexes, assembled using the company’s proprietary data supplemented with statistics from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). With 2014 nearing its halfway point, a broad spectrum look at more than 380 markets nationwide confirms home prices jumped 11.3 percent in 2013’s final quarter compared to the year prior.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) put out on Monday a "flash release" of its National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), a measure of the likelihood of purchase loan defaults under stressful economic conditions. According to the group, the index climbed last month to 11.89, indicating nearly 12 percent of loans would be at risk of default in the event of another downturn.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its Quarterly Performance Report of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, as well as the Federal Home Loan Bank System. Overall, the performance report was good, noting increases in Fannie and Freddie earnings, as well as substantial advances by the Federal Home Loan Bank System.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its April 2014 Housing Scorecard, noting that home prices remained stable, foreclosure completions continued to their lowest levels since mid-2007, existing home sales stabilized, new home sales slowed, and the administration's foreclosure mitigation efforts continued to provide relief for troubled homeowners.

Nationally, asking prices rose 0.8 percent month-over-month in March and 2.8 percent quarter-over-quarter in April. Yet asking prices rose a mere 9.0 percent year-over-year, the smallest gain in 11 months according to an analysis of data from Trulia’s Price Monitor and Rent Monitor. With monthly and quarterly increases holding steady, why are yearly increases slipping?