News

Following a recent report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), which charged that Treasury has not appropriately limited compensation for executives at companies bailed out by TARP, a House subcommittee held a hearing on the matter. House Representatives heard from Special Inspector General Christy Romero and Acting Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation at the Treasury, Patricia Geoghegan.

Home prices rose 5.5 percent year-over-year in 2012's final quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Tuesday. FHFA's seasonally adjusted purchase-only Home Price Index (HPI) increased 1.4 percent on a quarter-to-quarter basis in Q4. Month-over-month, December's index was 0.6 percent up from November, marking the 11th straight month of increases. While the national purchase-only HPI rose 5.5 percent from Q4 2011 to Q4 2012, FHFA notes prices of other goods and services rose 1.7 percent over the same period.

In the fourth quarter of last year, the risk of mortgage fraud elevated to the highest level since 2009, Interthinx reported Tuesday. According to the company's Mortgage Fraud Risk Report, the mortgage fraud risk index climbed to 159, representing a 16 percent increase from Q3 2012 and 9 percent increase from Q4 2011. Interthinx pinpointed the source of the increase to a surge in property valuation fraud risk, which rose 25 percent from Q3.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke underscored benefits of the Fed's quantitative easing policy while also pointing to associated costs and risks in his written testimony to Senators Tuesday. According to Bernanke, the benefits of the purchase and policy accommodation are clear. ""Monetary policy is providing important support to the recovery while keeping inflation close to the FOMC's 2 percent objective. Notably, keeping longer-term interest rates low has helped spark recovery in the housing market and led to increased sales and production of automobiles and other durable goods,"" he said.

New home sales jumped 15.6 percent in January--the strongest gain in 20 years--to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000, the highest since July 2008, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected the report to show a much smaller sales pace: 381,000. January's rate of sales was the highest since July 2008. At the same time, the months' supply of new homes for sale dropped to its lowest level since March 2005.

Home prices rose at their fastest pace since July 2006, according to the Case Shiller 10- and 20-city Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday. At the same the Case Shiller national index, reported quarterly, registered its strongest gain since Q2 2006. The 10- and 20-city indices each rose 0.2 percent in December, reversing declines in November. Year-over-year, the 10-city index was up 5.9 percent, and the 20-city index rose 6.8 percent. The national index was up 7.3 percent year-over-year.

Equity Loans, a residential mortgage industry leader based in Atlanta, Georgia, announced that after a series of tests regarding its staffing, processes, experience, and organization, it has received Fannie Mae's approval as a seller and servicer of one-to-four family first lien mortgages for whole loan execution.

As regulatory institutions begin to provide some clarity to the mortgage market, the National Association of Home Builders insists the market still lacks confidence and is badly in need of a sound and functional appraisal system. ""At the center of this ongoing crisis in confidence is an appraisal system that remains dysfunctional and is a major impediment to reestablishing a vibrant and stable housing finance framework,"" NAHB stated in a white paper released last week, titled A Comprehensive Blueprint for Residential Appraisal Reform.

Home prices in December were mostly flat from the month before, according to the latest Home Price Index (HPI) released by Lender Processing Services (LPS). LPS' index shows prices climbed 0.1 percent in December, staying at a rounded-off $207,000. November's HPI was also reported at $207,000. While December's index was little changed from the prior month, it was up 5.8 percent from $196,000 in December 2011.

Following the financial crisis, a prevalence of misrepresentations in the residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) market has exposed investors to greater risk, according to a recent report authored by university researchers Tomasz Piskorski, Amit Seru, and James Witkin. The researchers studied private-label RMBS sold in 2007 in search of misrepresentations regarding occupancy status and second liens. Overall, the researchers detected one of these two categories of misrepresentations in one out of every 10 loans.