Government

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased for the third straight month in June, pulled back to 80.3 in July as its two sub-components moved in different directions. ""Consumer Confidence fell slightly in July, precipitated by a weakening in consumers' economic and job expectations,"" said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board. ""Consumers' assessment of current conditions continues to gain ground and expectations remain in expansionary territory despite the July retreat.""

The number of households owning homes rose a scant 32,000 in the second quarter, but the homeownership rate remained at 65.0 percent, the lowest level in 18 years, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. At the same time, the Census Bureau data showed the number of new household formations dropped dramatically in the first half of the year, an average of about 500,000 new households per month compared with 1.4 million new households per month in 2012.

Although policymakers have been busy introducing legislation to diminish the role of the GSEs, analysts at Moody's Investors Service ""believe GSE reform will not take place for at least a few more years."" In June, Senators Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and Mark Warner (D-Virginia) led efforts to introduce legislation to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in five years. Then came PATH from the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee in July.

President Obama embarked this week on a series of speeches designed to highlight the nation’s continued economic stress. The immediate response and from both ends of the political spectrum was to decry his efforts as same-old, same-old. And, it is true the President has made this pitch before, emphasizing that the significant progress has made is not enough.

The Federal Reserve Board announced Friday a settlement with GMAC Mortgage that will end the complex and costly foreclosure reviews required through prior enforcement actions. GMAC will pay about $230 million in cash payments to mortgage borrowers as part of the foreclosure deal. According to a statement from the Fed, over 232,000 GMAC borrowers whose homes were in any stage of foreclosure in 2009 and 2010 will receive payment relief.

According to a new report from Kroll Factual Data, the potential for loan application fraud increased slightly in the first quarter of this year--though some regions saw possible fraud rise 30 percent or higher. The first quarter experienced a 1.06 percent increase throughout the country between the first quarter of 2013 and the fourth quarter of 2012. Despite the relatively small national increase, ""large increases in certain metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) coupled with seesawing data from quarter-to-quarter point to a disconcerting state of unpredictability in certain locations,"" Kroll said.

The Department of Labor reported Thursday that advance initial unemployment figures for the week ending July 20 totaled 343,000, an increase of 7,000 over the previous week's revised tally. The four-week moving average for first-time claims was 345,250, a decline of 1,250 from the prior week.

The number of borrowers who refinanced through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) fell 20 percent month-over-month in May, data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) revealed. The GSEs refinanced 84,648 borrowers through HARP in May, down from 106,910 in April. Since HARP's 2009 inception, the program has refinanced over 2.6 million loans.

Mortgage rates backed down for the second consecutive week, according to reports from Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30-year fixed-rate average at 4.31 percent (0.8 point) for the week ending July 25, down from last week's 4.37 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.49 percent. The 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.39 percent (0.8 point), down from 3.41 percent last week.

Freddie Mac is making progress toward its goal of attracting more private capital into the mortgage market. Recently, the GSE announced the offering of a single-family credit-risk sharing transaction. The $500 million offering of Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR) securities, which was priced Tuesday, seeks to reduce taxpayer risk while introducing more private capital into the market.