Headlines

Maryland-based real estate law firm Rosenberg & Associates has added two new attorneys, Jullie Evasco and Jennifer Rochino.

Government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae recently confirmed two high-level personnel changes within the organization.

In a recent release, the agency reported a combined total of 119,699 refinances were completed at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in July, slightly down from the figure reported for June. While low compared to the boom in recent years, refinance volumes over the last few months have shown more life than earlier this year as mortgage interest rates have hovered in the low 4.0 percent range.

Speaking at the 56th annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) on Monday, U.S. Department of Treasury Deputy Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin said she does not see the nation's growing problem of student loan debt leading to an economic meltdown – and student loan debt may not be affecting a borrower's ability to buy a home, depending on that borrower's financial situation.

The drop in the pending sales measure came in the same month that the association reported a dip in existing home sales. According to NAR, sales of existing homes in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million, down 1.8 percent from July.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Michigan-based bank Flagstar to pay $37.5 million in penalties for violating the new mortgage servicing rules by failing to devote sufficient resources to its loss mitigation programs, CFPB announced on Monday.

Clearfield, Utah-based asset management and maintenance company Sentinel Field Services (SFS) has announced the hiring of Tom Tam as the company's new chief financial and risk officer and Tom Beckett as the company's new national vendor manager.

The index, which debuted over the summer, measures the stability of state and local trends as well as the national market in terms of home purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios, proportion of on-time mortgage payments, and employment strength. Those figures are set against each market's long-term stable range, with index values between 80 and 120 reflecting stability.

September's increase in confidence is the result of optimistic outlooks on the overall economy and personal incomes. In fact, of the two components that make up the overall consumer sentiment index—consumer expectations and current conditions—a rise in the former is solely responsible for the positive movement in September.

Residential foreclosures and REO (bank-owned) properties no longer drive distressed property valuations, according to the FNC Appraisals Pipeline Report released earlier in the week.