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The districts of Richmond, Chicago, and Dallas reported that residential mortgage demand, particularly in the area of refinancings, grew during the period, while New York reported steady growth. Delinquencies were down or at low levels in New York and Cleveland, while Philadelphia and Kansas City bankers expressed confidence in the quality of their loan portfolios, according to the Fed.

HUD estimates that the money they provide in grants, combined with other funds they plan to leverage, will assist more than a million and a half individuals and families with finding housing, making more informed choices with regards to housing, and staying in their current homes.

Announcement of the loss hardly comes as a surprise. The firm announced in early February that it was anticipating a loss in its then-coming earnings report. That announcement was followed by a spate of sales of servicing rights to several firms.

San Francisco-based national wholesale and correspondent lender Parkside Lending has added industry veterans to the positions of general counsel, chief compliance officer, and closing manager to its team in order to manage the rapidly growing business.

Foreclosure inventory, which is the number of homes in some state of foreclosure, totaled 553,000 in February (about 1.4 percent of all residential mortgages nationwide), the lowest total since March 2008 and a year-over-year decline of 27.3 percent from February 2014, when there were 761,000 homes in some state of foreclosure (1.9 percent of all residential mortgages).

Fannie Mae just announced last week that it is in the process of marketing its first-ever bulk sale of non-performing loans. Bids are due for this bundle of NPLs, worth about $786 million, on May 6 and the sale is expected to close in mid- to late June – but there could be more similar sales coming later.

Economists at both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have stuck to their predictions that housing will recover in 2015 despite receiving recent reports of slower-than-expected economic growth in the first quarter, including job gains that fell well short of expectations in March. "We remain comfortable with our call that the Fed funds rate lift-off will occur in September," Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan said last week. "The setback in the hiring picture is in line with consumer sentiment regarding the housing market from the Fannie Mae National Housing Survey."

Lambert was instrumental in starting Treasury's Making Home Affordable Program (MHA) in 2009, which the government began in response to the devastating financial crisis of 2008 and to help families avoid foreclosure. She has continued to promote the program for the last six years, during which time MHA has helped more than one and a half million families.

FHFA alleges it suffered monumental losses when the sponsor of the mortgage-backed securities, Tokyo-based Nomura, and the securities' underwriter, Royal Bank of Scotland, did not follow underwriting guidelines on 68 percent of a sample of a bundle of securities backing more than $2 billion worth of mortgages sold to the GSEs prior to the financial crisis of 2008.

New Jersey-based RedVision, an independent, nationwide provider of real property title data, search examination, and curative-ready solutions, has appointed Amy Holder to the new executive role of New Jersey sales director and James Sandifer as VP of regional operations for the southeast and mid-Atlantic regions.