Featured

Bank of America has agreed to a multibillion settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to resolve allegations of securities fraud. According to announcements made by all parties involved, under the agreement, BofA will make an aggregate payment of approximately $9.33 billion, $3.2 billion of which will go toward the repurchase of certain RMBS at fair market value.

Former acting director and current senior deputy director Edward DeMarco announced his intent to part ways with the Federal Housing Finance Agency at the end of April. After serving the agency for nearly six years, Demarco confirmed his plans to depart in a letter to current agency director Mel Watt.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, released Tuesday, showed a 0.8 percent seasonally adjusted month-over-month improvement in January, topping the 0.7 percent gain forecast in a poll of economist conducted by Reuters. On an unadjusted basis, the 20-city composite index posted its third monthly decline at -0.1 percent. The 10-city index ticked up a negligible amount, meanwhile.

The American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), a measure of loans' default risk under stressful conditions, retreated to 11.6 percent last month from January’s reading of 11.8 percent. To gauge where February’s index lies historically, 1990 vintage loans would have an estimated index value of 6 percent, while riskier 2007 loans would be up at 19 percent.

The Data & Analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS) reported no monthly change in its Home Price Index (HPI) for January. The latest report from BKFS underlines questions as to where other home price reports—including the monthly Case-Shiller Home Price Indices—will land.

RealtyTrac released a new analysis of the foreclosure housing market on Thursday, which found that 96 percent of U.S. county real estate markets are better off than at the height of the foreclosure crisis four years ago.

Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group expects economic growth in the first quarter to come in around 2.0 percent, but thereafter, the economy should pick up. Economic growth for the year is expected at 2.7 percent, according to the research group.

Freddie Mac released its latest Economic and Housing Market Outlook, expecting home sales to grow along with wages this year, despite a still-tough job market in most sectors. Freddie is projecting a 3 percent rise in home sales and a 20 percent rise in new home construction in 2014, which the agency expects to level out to a 5 percent overall growth.

Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaging 4.32 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending March 20, down from last week, when it averaged 4.37 percent. A year ago, the 30-year FRM average was 3.54 percent.

Ellie Mae released its Origination Insight Report, which noted falling mortgage rates, shrinking refinances, and loosening of credit restrictions in the month of February. Ellie Mae's report, culled from 57 percent of Ellie Mae's mortgage application data, found that the average rate for a 30-year mortgage fell to 4.65 percent.