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First Wave of Payments from Foreclosure Settlement Set for April 12

The first wave of checks for eligible borrowers covered by the recent foreclosure agreement with 13 mortgage servicers will be sent April 12, the Federal Reserve and the OCC announced Tuesday. About 4.2 million borrowers should expect to receive checks ranging $300 to $125,000. The first phase of payments will include 1.4 million checks, with the final phase of payments scheduled to be sent in mid-July 2013.

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February Job Openings Near 5-Year High

Job openings in February rose to 3,925,000, the highest level since May 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Tuesday in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The number of persons unemployed for each job opening fell to 3.07, the lowest level since October 2008.

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Arizona Bank Failure Raises 2013 Tally to 5

Arizona's Gold Canyon Bank became the fifth FDIC-insured bank to fail in 2013, the agency announced. The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions closed the bank Friday, appointing FDIC as receiver. To protect depositors, Gold Canyon Bank's estimated $44.2 million in deposits has been assumed by First Scottsdale Bank, National Association, which has also agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's $45.2 million in total assets.

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Confidence in Housing Stays Strong, but Weakens for Economy

Fannie Mae found consumers continue to view the housing market with relative optimism, despite wavering confidence in the economy, according to the GSE's national housing survey. Forty-eight percent of survey respondents expect home prices to rise over the year, unchanged from February's all-time high for the monthly survey, which started in June 2010. Another survey high was reached in response to the home-selling environment. Twenty-six percent of respondents say now is a good time to sell a home, a 1-percent increase from February.

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Report: New Construction Won’t Threaten Strong Apartment Market

As new construction in the apartment sector takes form, occupancy remains high but rent growth is beginning to slow, according to the latest research from Carrolton, Texas-based RealPage, a software provider for apartment communities. However, RealPage does not see new construction as a threat to the strong rental market nationwide. Apartment occupancy currently stands at 94.8 percent in the core 100 metro areas measured by RealPage MPF, while rent growth slowed from 4.8 percent at the end of 2011 to 2.6 percent at the start of this year. California markets topped the list of markets with the highest annual rent growth for the first quarter of this year, according to RealPage.

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Survey: Counselors Report Dual-Tracking Problems Still Persist

Banks are falling short of requirements to provide mortgage protections to homeowners as mandated by the national mortgage settlement and the California Homeowner Bill of Rights (HBOR), according to a California Reinvestment Coalition survey of housing counselors in the state. In the survey, over 60 percent of the counselors reported that Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo still dual-track ""sometimes,"" ""often,"" or ""always"" even though the practice is banned in California. The survey was conducted in February and March 2013 and included responses from 84 counselors and lawyers who represent hundreds of thousands of homeowners.

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Commentary: A Vision for the Future of Fannie and Freddie

The Bipartisan Policy Center's Housing Commission painted an interesting picture of the future role of the federal government in housing finance in a recent report. The report helped to define the gap between a healthy private housing finance system and what we have now. The good news is that many of the elements of a healthy system seem to be just around the corner. However, there is one part of the secondary market that is far from recovered--monoline insurance companies.

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Commentary: It Happens Every Month

The March employment situation report was another in a series of labor reports that had analysts scratching their heads--on the left or right side--depending on their politics. Just as there is no Democratic or Republican way to collect garbage (okay, there might be depending on how much government you want), there should be no Democratic or Republican economic data. The numbers are what they are, not what your political lens tells you they are. That said, when data such as the March report are released--weak job growth, yet a drop in the unemployment rate--conspiracy theorists emerge from the woodwork.

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Administration: ‘Key’ Housing Indicators Improve, Recovery Still ‘Fragile’

The housing industry is making ""important progress across many key indicators,"" according to the Obama Administration's latest housing scorecard, but as usual, the administration continued to warn the ""overall recovery remains fragile."" In the March report, the administration highlighted data showing improvements in home prices. In conjunction with the scorecard, the administration also released its progress report on the Making Home Affordable Program.

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