Government

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Friday that it expects proceeds from the the sale of its American International Group, Inc. (AIG) common stock to be about $5 billion.

National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) is hosting a State of Housing in Black America (SHIBA) forum in Cleveland to discuss how the foreclosure crises, neighborhood blight, and natural disasters have continued to disproportionately impact minorities.

LPS Settles Criminal Charges in Missouri Lender Processing Services, Inc., announced Thursday that an agreement was reached between subsidiary DocX, LLC, and the Attorney General Chris Koster. The agreement between the parties resulted in a dismissal of criminal charges pending against DocX. The Attorney General's Office alleged that DocX directed employees to falsely sign mortgage documents in the names of bank VPs without proper authorization.

The nation added a surprising 163,000 jobs in July but the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3 percent as the number of people working actually declined, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. At the same time, June's paltry job gains originally reported at 80,000 were reduced to 64,000 while May's job numbers edged up to 87,000 from 77,000.

The deadline to request an Independent Foreclosure Review got its second extension in less than two months. In late June, the deadline was pushed back from July 31 to September 30, 2012. Now, borrowers have until until December 31, 2012 to request a foreclosure review, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Fed announced Thursday.

Servicers have three years to provide relief to homeowners as outlined in the $25 billion national mortgage servicing settlement. To raise awareness and alert homeowners of the help that is available, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced during a conference call a new settlement PSA and online resources through the HUD website.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance rose 8,000 for the week ended July 28 to 365,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected 370,000 initial claims. The prior week's total was revised up to 357,000 from the originally reported 353,000.

Acknowledging economic activity decelerated somewhat over the first half of this year and growth in employment has been slow in recent months, the Federal Open Market Committee nonetheless decided Wednesday to take no new actions to stimulate growth. Concluding a two day meeting the FOMC instead said it would maintain its low interest rate policy and continue previously announced programs to reinvest proceeds of maturing Treasury securities it already holds and extend the average maturity of its portfolio.

In a long-running debate, Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, stated again this week that he does not support principal reductions and does not endorse their use at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After stating his position, he immediately faced criticism and opposition from a broad spectrum of individuals, especially throughout the government. However, DeMarco's decision received a few words of praise as well.

Shaken up by the bankruptcy of Residential Capital (ResCap), Ally Financial Inc. (Ally) reported a net loss of $898 million for the second quarter of 2012. Ally stated its second quarter results were adversely affected by a $1.2 billion charge resulting from Rescap's Chapter 11 bankrupty protection, which was announced May 14.