Headlines

The number of job openings in the country declined slightly from August to September, while the number of hires and separations both increased, according to the September 2014 Job Openings and Labor Turnover report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday.

The number of foreclosure filings, which include default notices, schedule auctions, and bank repossessions (REOs), increased by 15 percent from September to October, the largest month-over-month jump since the peak of foreclosure activity in March 2010, according to RealtyTrac's October 2014 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released Thursday.

The issue is a commonly cited problem for younger first-time homebuyers, who, in addition to facing tight mortgage criteria, also have to clear the hurdle of saving for a down payment.

Lewisville, Texas-based Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. has announced the hiring of Kal Raman, a leading technology executive, as CEO of the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Solutionstar.

Nearly a third of panelists took a more optimistic view, predicting the market will stabilize one to two years from now, while one in five responded that housing has either already returned to normal or will within the next 12 months.

Atlanta-based mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial is facing trouble again, this time from a lawsuit accusing the company of illegally marking up its default servicing fees, according to court records.

The percentage of September's foreclosure starts that were repeat foreclosures rose by two percentage points month-over-month to account for 53 percent of foreclosure starts, tying the highest percentage for a single month, according to Black Knight Financial Services' September 2014 Mortgage Monitor.

According to multiple reports, Benjamin Lawsky, Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services is considering stepping down from his post and entering the private sector in 2015.

Two of the country's biggest banks have agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle a suit claiming they failed to protect investors of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the wake of the subprime crash.

All-cash buyers and institutional investors were able to purchase residential homes at a larger discount rate from the average market value at the time of purchase than the average rate for all U.S. homebuyers in the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Institutional Investors & Cash Sales Report for Q3 2014.