CoreLogic's third annual Storm Surge Report, released Thursday, showed that just over four million homes in the United States are at risk of hurricane-driven storm surge damage. According to the report, there is $700 billion in total property exposure in the Gulf and Atlantic Coast regions, the areas most likely to face storm surge activity. The Gulf Coast houses just under 1.8 million homes at risk for potential storm-surge damage (totaling nearly $200 billion in exposure), while the Atlantic Coast has approximately 2.2 million homes at risk ($500 billion in exposure).

Reperforming and nonperforming loans decreased $6.1 billion to $528.6 billion in May compared to the previous month of April for private label mortgage backed securities (MBS), according to a report from Amherst Securities Group. The decrease came after a reduction of $6.4 billion in the non-performing bucket and a $0.3 billion growth in the re-performing bucket, reflecting elevated liquidations and a slowdown of new defaults, Amherst stated in the report.

Lulls in employment and income growth led to a plateau in consumer sentiment in May, according to Fannie Mae's May 2012 National Housing Survey. The data released by Fannie Mae on Thursday showed that although many consumers (72 percent) believe that now is a good time to purchase a house, the percentage of respondents who said they would buy a house after moving actually dropped for the second consecutive month-63 percent in May compared to 64 percent in April and 66 percent in March. Fifteen percent of respondents said now is a good time to sell a home.

As the employment situation continues to raise concerns, fixed rates fell even lower, slipping yet again to new record-lows, according to a survey from Freddie Mac released Thursday. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.67 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending June 7, falling from last week's average of 3.75 percent. The 15-year fixed rate declined even further below 3 percent to 2.94 percent (0.7 point), down from last week's 2.97 percent.

A New York judge granted Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman the right to intervene in litigation over Bank of America's proposed $8.5 billion settlement with mortgage-bond investors, according to a Wednesday statement from the Office of the Attorney General.

As of Wednesday, Fannie Mae has blanket delegation of authority on behalf of all servicers from United Guaranty Corporation, the GSE announced. Servicers can now apply Fannie Mae's guidelines and process a pre-foreclosure sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure in connection with Fannie Mae-owned or guaranteed loans without obtaining approval from UGC.

First time claims for unemployment insurance fell to 377,000 for the week ended June 2, from the prior week's upwardly revised 389,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists had expected the report would be show 379,000 initial claims. The drop in claims was the first in five weeks.

Vacant property owners have a new defense against air conditioner theft. VSP, The Vacant Property Specialists, introduced Wednesday the AC Fortress air conditioner security system which uses a 14-gauge steel protection structure to encapsulate outdoor units.

KleinBank Mortgage, a division of KleinBank and Minnesota's largest family-owned state bank, partnered with DocuTech and the company's top product Conform X to customize loan paperwork to generate fully compliant documents and disclosures, reduce operational costs, and improve productivity.

As recent data provide reasons to be both positive and worried about the economy, restrained optimism seems to be the phrase to describe how the public should respond to current economic indicators. Wednesday's release of the Beige Book revealed economic outlooks remain positive, but contacts were slightly more guarded in their optimism, while the Obama administration's Housing Scorecard relayed a similar sentiment. The scorecard provides an overview of the state of the market based on reports published within the public and private sectors.