Government

First time claims for unemployment insurance fell 5,000 to 348,000, a four-year low in the week ended March 17 and the second straight weekly decline, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Data for the prior week was revised upward, to 353,000 from 351,000, making the decline larger. The last time initial claims fell below 350,000 was in April 2008. Continuing claims, reported on a one-week lag, also fell, dropping 9,000 to 3,352,000 for the week ended March 10, after dropping 63,000 one week earlier. Continuing claims reflect the other part of the employment picture, hinting at hiring.

NeighborWorks America announced $73.8 million in awards for foreclosure counseling efforts this week, which followed HUD's recent revelation of $42 million to support housing counselors. This latest round of funding will go to 32 state agencies, 18 HUD-approved intermediaries, and 86 community-based NeighborWorks organizations to provide counseling to those facing foreclosure. About 190,000 homeowners are expected to receive help. NeighborWorks also expects to train more than 2,000 counselors with what is now the sixth round of its program funding.

A former chief financial officer of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage (TBW) pleaded guilty Tuesday to making false statements and conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud for his role in a $2.9 billion scheme that contributed to the failures of TBW and Colonial Bank. Delton de Armas of Carrollton, Texas, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 15, 2012. He admitted in court that from 2005 through August 2009, he and others schemed to defraud financial institutions that had invested in Ocala Funding.

State and local governments across the nation responded to the foreclosure crisis by introducing a wave of new laws aimed at protecting homeowners. Unfortunately, according to Alfred M. Pollard, general counsel for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), some of these laws are hurting more than helping as the housing market struggles toward recovery. Pollard, speaking before a House of Representatives committee this week, cited estimates that state governments have introduced 550 bills related to mortgage servicing since 2009.

An Arizona woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $22 million in restitution after pleading guilty to various charges related to a mortgage fraud scheme and to charges of bankruptcy, wire, mail, and bank fraud in two separate indictments, according to a March 8 release from the U.S. attorney's office. Paige Kinney, also known as Jamie Lee Lawler, led a $40 million mortgage fraud scheme that targeted Countrywide Home loans and other lenders.

Since the September 2008 conservatorship, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed nearly 1.1 million permanent loan modifications, according to the FHFA's latest foreclosure prevention report. Data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency show that in the two years ending in the third quarter of 2011, modifications on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans accounted for 40 percent of all loan modifications. Overall, the GSEs have completed more than 2.1 million foreclosure prevention actions since being taken over by the federal government.

Housing starts fell 1.1 percent in February to 698,000, compared with market expectations for a smaller decline, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported jointly Tuesday. Single family starts plunged 9.9 percent to 457,000, the steepest decline in a year.

As the government begins to tiptoe into the REO-to-rental arena after many months' deliberation and input from thousands of industry participants, Fannie Mae released a data note on the single-family rental market. Single-family renting increased by 2.7 percentage points from 2005 to 2010; multifamily renters decreased by about as much, 3 percent. This may suggest the single-family rental sector is cutting into the multifamily market share, but Fannie says the single-family renter doesn't fit the demographic that typically drives multifamily demand.

Through $225 billion in mortgage backed securities (MBS) investments, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced a return of $25 billion for taxpayers through its portfolio. The Treasury invested in the MBS between 2008 and 2009 through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The purchases were made to preserve access to mortgage credit during the financial crises. Overall, total cash returns yielded $250 billion through sales, principal, and interest.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced Friday the distribution of $42 million in grants to 468 housing counseling agencies nationwide. In his announcement Friday, Donovan called housing counseling programs nothing less than indispensable. After national funding for housing counseling was cut last year, Donovan said, ""We fought hard to persuade Congress to restore funding for housing counseling in HUD's budget and now we're working to make these important resources available as quickly as possible.""