Headlines

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.

January, 2014 experienced an increase in house prices, which rose by .5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous month. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), for the year beginning January, 2013 to January 2014, the HPI increased by 7.4 percent. Prices have increased for 23 of the last 24 months, beginning in February, 2012.

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 Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report detailing the results of an audit performed on pre-foreclosure property inspections. The audit was conducted after the FHFAOIG learned of fraudulent property inspections reports submitted to the FHFA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac by a contractor resulted in $12.7 million in payouts.

A new report issued by the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR) found a decrease in home sales and an increase in median price in February. The IAR noted that median prices increased 6.9 percent, while home sales decreased by 6.2 percent last month.

Shapiro and Ingle, LLC., a law firm with offices in Alabama and North Carolina, recently announced the hiring of Jackson E. Duncan, III to its Alabama office. Duncan will serve as Managing Attorney.

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.

Equifax announced its latest National Consumer Credit Trends report on Monday, which showed that the total balance of first mortgages increased by 2.8 percent from last year. The report found the balance increase was the largest year-over-year increase since September of 2008.

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.

Rosenberg & Associates, LLC. Welcomed two new attorneys to the firm—Caroline Fields and Tracy Leyba. The firm specializes in all manners of law related to real estate law and creditor’s rights.