The National Fair Housing Alliance announced the fourth amendment of its discrimination complaint against Bank of America Thursday with the addition of five new cities. The amended complaint now includes 20 metro areas in which NFHA alleges Bank of America has neglected to maintain and market foreclosed and REO properties in minority neighborhoods. NFHA says it will release even more evidence early next year, but according to BofA, the group's accusations are ""simply untrue.""

Carrington Property Services announced it is taking over property management responsibilities on rental properties owned by capital management firm Gorelick Brothers Capital. Per the two companies' partnership, Carrington will manage Gorelick's rental portfolio, which is located primarily in seven major urban centers.

Despite a steady climb in mortgage interest rates since May, borrowers continued to take advantage of low rates to refinance into lower monthly payments, Freddie Mac reported Tuesday. According to the results of the company's latest quarterly refinance analysis, the average interest rate reduction among those who refinanced in Q3 was about 1.8 percentage points, representing a savings of about 30 percent ($3,500 over 12 months on a $200,000 loan).

Rushmore Loan Management Services LLC made announcements of two positive corporate developments Thursday. Rushmore has received approval to act as a Freddie Mac seller/servicer--a nod the company says will significantly expand its business. In addition, Standard & Poor's assigned an average rating to Rushmore as a residential special servicer and residential primary servicer, ranking the company's management and operations as above average.

If you are a human being in the United States, chances are you know about the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But do you really know about the ACA? Strange as it might sound, as a Realtor or other small business owner working in the industry, it is important that you do. There is a large amount of diversity when it comes to the employment situations of those working in the mortgage and real estate sectors, and this guide takes a look at just what the law means in each of those situations.

Foreclosure auctions in judicial states rose annually for the 16th straight month in October. RealtyTrac recorded a total of 30,023 scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions nationwide last month, up 10 percent from the previous month and up 7 percent from October 2012. The company says lenders are moving these properties to public auction more rapidly because there is strong demand from institutional investors looking for buy-to-rent opportunities, and because rising home prices mean more loan losses can be recouped.

As lenders prepare to adopt the Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage (QM) rules in January, so too are ratings agencies preparing for these new rules. Fitch Ratings released a report revealing its expectations for how the rules will impact future loss severities on residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). Overall, Fitch expects the rules to result in greater underwriting uniformity and enhanced due diligence, with 100 percent of reviews completed on all QM and higher-priced QM loans.

Though the slow rate of household formation among millenials--those born after 1980--has been cause for alarm among some economists, analysts at Moody's Investors Service say reports of a lost generation of homebuyers are overblown. The Census Bureau released its homeownership rate report for the third quarter in early November, revealing homeownership in the 35 and younger age group is growing at a sluggish pace, with 31.6 percent still living with their parents.