Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth A. Duke announced her intention to step down from her role in a letter addressed to President Obama Thursday.

Indecomm Global Services, a provider of consulting, outsourcing, learning and technology and services, named Randall Haupert as director of eRecording Services.

Summit Mitigation Services, a national short sale and debt negotiation company, will use the RIO Genesis platform to manage all of its transactions, RIO Software Solutions announced. RIO Software Solutions also revealed the release of the ""Easy"" button. With just one mouse click, agents and brokers on the RIO Genesis platform can engage Summit Mitigation Services to process short sale transactions on their behalf.

Rick Sharga has departed Carrington Mortgage Holdings to serve as EVP for Auction.com, the online real estate marketplace announced in a release. From his office in Auction.com's Irvine, California headquarters, Sharga will serve as the company's chief spokesman on topics related to the U.S. housing market, mortgage market, commercial real estate, and international real estate.

Out of the over 132.4 million housing units in the United States, about 57.5 percent are owner-occupied, while 10 percent are vacant, according to data from the 2011 American Housing Survey released by released Thursday by the Census Bureau and HUD. The survey, which is the most comprehensive housing survey in the United States, revealed another 29.3 percent are occupied by renters. Seasonal units represented the smallest share, at 3.1 percent.

According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.51 percent (0.8 point) for the week ending July 11, up from 4.29 percent last week and almost a full percentage point higher than the same week last year (3.56 percent). The 15-year FRM averaged 3.53 percent (0.8 point), up from 3.39 percent previously. Meanwhile, Bankrate.com's weekly national survey saw mortgage rates rising to their highest level in the last two years. The 30-year fixed averaged 4.66 percent this week.

Repeat buyers and sellers averaged a higher score when measuring customer satisfaction compared to first-time homebuyers, according to a study from J.D. Power. For the year, repeat homebuyers averaged a score of 817 out of 1,000, while the score for repeat sellers was 803. On the other hand, the score for first-time buyers and sellers was 797. The study also found first-time homebuyers have been more active this year, representing 49 percent of buyers in 2013 compared to 40 percent in 2012.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance jumped a surprising 16,000 to 360,000 for week ending July 6, the highest level since mid-May, the Labor Department Thursday. Economists expected the number of claims to drop to 337,000 from the 343,000 originally reported for the week ended June 29. The number of filings for that week was revised up to 344,000.

Foreclosure activity was sluggish in June, dipping 14 percent from May and falling 35 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac's most recent foreclosure report. With 127,790 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in June, RealtyTrac also revealed foreclosure activity is down to the lowest level since December 2006. Foreclosure starts also experienced a dramatic fall, decreasing 45 percent year-over-year in June to the lowest level since December 2005. While foreclosure activity dropped, foreclosure auctions in judicial states jumped 34 percent compared to a year ago.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is facing a lawsuit from a housing group for allegedly failing to uphold the GSEs' obligations to make contributions to a housing trust fund. The National Low Income Housing Coalition announced the suit Tuesday. According to the group, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have not met their requirements to pay into the National Housing Trust Fund. Law requires the enterprises to transfer a portion of the value of their new business into the fund, though it was suspended in 2008.