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As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac celebrate their seven-year anniversary of conservatorship, new legislation is being drafted in the U.S. House of Representatives that will allow them to establish more capital and prevent another taxpayer-sponsored bailout.

Many have wondered why the DOJ has not previously made the prosecution of these individuals a priority while the Department has entered into multi-billion dollar settlements with the nation's largest banks in the last two years.

REO sales accounted for 6 percent of total home sales in June, which was the lowest level since September 2007 when they made up 5.2 percent of all home sales in the country. REO sales hit their peak in January 2009, when they accounted for 27.9 percent of all home sales. According to CoreLogic, the continued shift away from REO sales is driving home price appreciation, since REO properties typically sell at a larger discount than short sales do.

According to the indictment, Shapiro, Gramins, and Peters conspired to defraud Nomura customers by fraudulently inflating the purchase price at which Nomura could buy an RBMS bond to induce customers to buy the bond at a higher price.

While many housing stakeholders and lawmakers agree that the conservatorship needs to end, the issue of the GSEs' future remains a source of contention. Some of the GSEs' biggest investors, such as Fairholme Funds and Pershing Square, have filed lawsuits over the sweeping of GSE profits into Treasury, which began in 2012 when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac returned to profitability.

Foreclosure metrics were way down across the board again in July 2015, as pre-sale foreclosure inventory dropped to its lowest level since December 2007 and completed foreclosures were down by nearly 25 percent year-over-year, according to CoreLogic's July 2015 National Foreclosure Report released Tuesday.

Kansas City-based law firm Martin, Leigh, Laws, & Fritzlen PC announced that it will begin operating under a new name, Martin Leigh PC.

The Collingwood Group, a Washington, D.C.-based business advisory firm, announced that Paul Mullings has joined the company as a managing director supporting the firm in business advisory and risk management and compliance practices.

Home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) originated during the housing bubble years of 2005 to 2007 have either reached or will soon reach their 10-year "end of draw" period, at which point borrowers will face a payment shock that may cause delinquency rates among HELOCs to rise substantially.

Schwartz noted that many private placement deals have taken place vs. traditional private label securitization transactions, which have been almost nonexistent since the conservatorship began.