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The distressed sales share, which includes sales of REO properties and short sales, was reported to be 9.3 percent for August 2015, down 2.3 percentage points from August 2014. August’s distressed sales share of 9.3 percent is the lowest since September 2007 and is less than a third off from its peak in January 2009, when it made up nearly a third of total residential home sales (32.4 percent).

Interest rates nearly took center stage in this banking testimony as Chair Yellen noted that the domestic economy is “pretty strong” and the “gradual rise in rates should not derail the housing market. Employment is going up, income is going up, and If the labor market improves, inflation will move up. December sounds incrementally more likely, but hinges on jobs reports.”

Nationwide Title Clearing (NTC), a privately-owned leading research and document-processing service provider for the nation’s largest financial institutions, investors, and servicers, has announced that users of its proprietary Final Documents Process were enjoying competitive advantages over other firms.

The bills were directed at improving transparency and accountability of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), an agency created out of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

The CFPB has authority under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 to supervise banks and credit unions with assets totaling more than $10 billion, along with certain nonbanks that include mortgage companies, payday lenders, private student lenders, and other nonbanks the CFPB has determined to be “large participants” in the financial market.

A district judge refused to revive the case in September 2013 based on allegations by the DOJ, saying that the outcome of the case would not have been changed by new information brought up about representations made by S&P to investors.

The majority of the amount credited in the second quarter ($1.7 billion) went to modification of 9,671 loans. Another $186 million of the amount credited in Q2 went to extend 16,231 new home loans to borrowers in HUD-designated hardest-hit areas, borrowers who lost their homes to short sales or foreclosures, and low- and moderate-income borrowers.

October’s total of 70,211 new bankruptcies in 21 filing days was slightly ahead of September’s total of 67,138 in the same number of filing days. The average number of bankruptcy filings in October totaled 3,343 compared to 3,197 in September.

The loss will not cause Freddie Mac to need another draw from Treasury since it was only a fraction of the $1.8 billion net worth reserve the Enterprise has under the Preferred Stock Agreement, according to Layton. The dividends paid into Treasury by Freddie Mac remained unchanged at $96.5 billion, which is about $25 billion more than the $71 billion the Enterprise received in a taxpayer-funded bailout in 2008.

Although agency mortgage-backed securities liquidity has declined recently, it remains mostly where it was prior to the housing bubble; the current levels of agency MBS liquidity are likely to be in place for a while, since the factors driving the decline are unlikely to slow down in the foreseeable future.