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While the national delinquency rate remains elevated and even increased slightly month-over-month in December, the delinquency rate ended the year 32 percent lower than the January 2010 peak, according to the December Mortgage Monitor report from Lender Processing Services (LPS). Compared to January 2012, when about 15.5 million loans were in negative equity, the number of underwater borrowers has decreased to 9.8 million, which represents a 35 percent decline.

Personal income jumped a staggering 2.6 percent in December, almost four times the 0.7 increase economists forecast, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Thursday. Personal consumption spending rose 0.2 percent, slightly below the expected 0.3 percent increase. The sharp December gain came from special dividends paid by many companies in anticipation of changes in individual income tax rates, which were tied into negotiations to avoid the ""fiscal cliff.""

First-time claims for unemployment insurance jumped 38,000 to 368,000 for the week ending January 26, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected a smaller increase to 350,000 from the prior week's 330,000 initial claims. The weekly jump in initial claims was the first in three weeks. It reflected, in part, a drop in the seasonal adjustment factor the Labor Department applies to the raw data, which includes holiday workers whose jobs were eliminated. For the third straight week, the originally reported claims figure was unrevised.

While the national trend shows home prices are rising and the supply of foreclosures is shrinking, on a more microscopic level, there are still metros where investors can find foreclosures at steep discounts and in greater abundance. RealtyTrac compiled a list of the 20 best (and worst) metro areas to buy foreclosures in 2013. RealtyTrac ranked Palm Bay, Florida as the No. 1 metro for foreclosure purchases. From 2011 to 2012, the metro saw foreclosure activity increase 308 percent, and it has a 34 months' supply of foreclosure inventory. Five other Florida metros were represented on the top 20 list.

Keeping her promise to Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), Federal Housing Administration commissioner Carol Galante announced a series of changes that will allow the agency to better manage risk and strengthen its anemic Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund. The first major change will be the consolidation of FHA's Standard Fixed-Rate Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) and Saver Fixed Rate HECM pricing options. In addition, the agency plans to increase its annual mortgage insurance premium (MIP) by 0.10 percent for most new mortgages and by 0.05 percent for jumbo loans.

In a report, a taxpayer watchdog agency accused Treasury of lacking a concrete plan to help Ally pay back taxpayers and move toward financial stability. ""Four years after its first Government bailout, Ally still owes taxpayers $14.6 billion,"" SIGTARP stated in the report.

With a nod to the report the nation’s economy had contracted in the fourth quarter, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted Wednesday to continue its program of purchasing $40 million a month of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and to maintain the target Fed Funds rate at 0 to 0.25 percent.

In general, the most popular times of year for online home searches are at the start of the year and in the summer, according to the Trulia Real Estate Search Report released Wednesday. However, Trulia reveals some fluctuation across the country with a major tendency for online searches to peak when the weather is warm and dry. Overall, December is the slowest state for online searches, according to Trulia's data. Understanding these statewide trends can benefit both buyers and sellers, according to Jed Kolko, chief economist for Trulia.

A former managing director and senior trader at Jefferies & Co. was charged for allegedly defrauding investors when selling residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in a release.

Lincoln, Nebraska recorded a best-in-the-nation 3.4 percent unemployment rate in December as unemployment rates dropped in 290 of the 372 metropolitan areas in the county, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Wednesday. Three other metro areas reported unemployment rates of 4.0 percent or below: Lafayette and Lake Charles, Louisiana, at 3.7 percent each, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at 4.0 percent. The highest unemployment rates in the country, according to the BLS report, were in Yuma, Arizona, and El Centro, California, at 27.3 percent and 25.5 percent, respectively.