News

Encouraging economic statistics of late are pushing U.S. Housing toward more pronounced economic growth in 2015, according to the lates version of the “Chalk Line” released by Fitch Ratings on Tuesday.

While home prices continue to decelerate on an annual basis after reaching peak speed in February, price gains did pick up slightly from April to May, according to FNC's latest price index.

One of the pet reasons for explaining the lack of demand for houses among millennials is the presence of ever-escalating student loan debts. The thinking goes that college graduates are so mired in debt that they either cannot afford to buy or are too afraid to run up more debt, and so they stay living with their parents or find cheap places to rent.

In accordance with the terms of its settlement with the federal government, JPMorgan has begun the process of providing debt forgiveness and other mortgage relief to struggling homeowners.

Existing-home sales in June touched their highest level so far this year as the supply of available homes for sale continued to improve. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported a 2.6 percent month-over-month rise in existing-home sales last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million. May sales were revised slightly upward to a rate of 4.91 million.

SunTrust Banks, Inc. indicated healthy earnings moving in a positive direction Monday, reporting a net income of $387 million for Q2 2014. Earnings year to date are up 18 percent over this point last year.

According to the July 2014 U.S. Economic Housing Outlook released Monday by Freddie Mac; the economic results were mixed in the first half of the year as the housing industry slowed.

State and federal regulators announced Friday the closing of a Georgia bank, putting the 2014 national bank failure tally at 13. Georgia's Department of Banking and Finance took possession of Conyers-based Eastside Commercial Bank, appointing FDIC as receiver.

Congressional Republicans, on the four-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act, fired out at the controversial legislation, saying that the act’s purported purpose to end the government’s “too big to fail” policy has itself failed.

Annualized liquidations of United States RMBS loans increased last quarter for the first time in seven quarters, according to a report issued Monday by Fitch Ratings. The conditional default rate increased in Q2 2014 to 4.92 percent after nearly two years of declines from 9.76 percent in Q2 2012. The previous decline was spurred on by shrinking inventories of distressed properties and a decrease in the use of short sales.