In the case Niday v. GMAC Mortgage LLC, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the plaintiffs regarding MERS' right to proceed with a non-judicial foreclosure.

Increased home sales continue to help the United States out of its Great Recession, but uneven job growth is stunting recovery, according to Freddie Mac's U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for July. The report, released Wednesday, showed that record-breaking low mortgage rates and refinances through HARP 2.0 drove up housing demand, leading to increases in housing starts, home sales, and prices in many markets. However, flagging job growth was a major issue.

The U.S. economy continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace in June and early July the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its periodic Beige Book. The national summary, based on reports from each of the 12 Federal Reserve districts, noted modest growth in the Atlanta, St.

Lake Research Partners released the results of an opinion poll showing that financial reforms enacted in recent years remain popular with potential voters. In light of events leading to 2008's financial meltdown, potential voters seem to overwhelmingly favor financial reform laws designed to prevent abuse. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of respondents favor the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, while only 20 percent expressed disagreement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Amish Helping Fund (AHF) reached an agreement over allegations that the nonprofit's offering memorandum contained outdated and inaccurate information, the SEC announced Wednesday. AHF sells securities to fund mortgage and construction loans to young Amish families. The nonprofit was formed in 1995 by a group of Amish elders who wanted to support the Amish lifestyle. AHF funds its loans for Amish families by selling securities in the form of investment contracts. The SEC alleged that AHF's offering memorandum, which had not been updated for 15 years, had material misrepresentations about the fund and the securities being offered.

U.S. commercial real estate prices were up 1.4 percent in May, according to Moody’s/RCA Commercial Property Price Indices (CPPI) national all-property composite. Core commercial properties had an increase of 1.2 percent while apartment prices from 1.

Rising home prices and sales signal that the housing recovery may finally be underway, according to RE/MAX. The real estate company released a housing report Tuesday that found closed transactions up 2.1 percent from May and 5 percent from June year-over-year. These figures made June the twelfth straight month for higher transactions. Of 53 metro areas surveyed by the company, 31 offered up increases for both sales and prices. Available homes for sale fell 5 percent from May and 27.4 percent from June last year.

DataQuick reported that home sales in Southern California increased year-over-year for the sixth straight month in June, attributing the increase to ""robust investor demand and significant sales gains for mid- to high-end homes."" In addition, fewer foreclosure re-sales and greater activity in the more expensive coastal counties helped boost the region's median sale price to a two-year high.

During a conference call Wednesday, Acting Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Carol Galante announced applications are now being accepted for the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program, which is scheduled to hold its next sale in September. About 40 percent of the loan sale will be concentrated in four hard-hit metro areas: Chicago, Newark, Phoenix, and Tampa, where about 3,500 loans are to be sold. For the next round of sales, there will be new neighborhood stabilization requirements for the selected hard-hit metros. In those areas, no more than 50 percent of the loans may be sold as REOs.

Housing starts in June soared to their highest level since October 2008, surging 6.9 percent to 760,000, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported jointly Wednesday but housing permits dropped 3.7 percent to 755,000 giving back half of May's gain.