In an examination of whether millennials are helping inner cities experience a rebirth, the authors of ProTeck Valuation's Home Value Forecast (HVF) for May determined that while some urban areas with populations dominated by millennials are thriving, urban recovery is still happening slowly nationwide, according to a press release from ProTeck on Monday.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has named Richard K. Green, University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate director, as a senior advisor for housing finance, according to an announcement from HUD. Green, one of the nation's pre-eminent housing economists, will replace Edward Golding, who was named principal deputy assistant secretary with HUD at the end of March. Green's one-year appointment as senior advisor with HUD will begin on July 1.

In its second of three estimates of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the first quarter released Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) issued a downward revision of what analysts had already deemed "paltry" growth of 0.2 percent in the advance estimate for Q1 reported at the end of April. According to the BEA's second estimate for Q1, which is based on more complete source data than were available for the advance estimate, the GDP contracted at an annual rate of minus 0.7 percent.

A federal judge has approved JPMorgan Chase's $500 million settlement with four pension funds over the sale of faulty mortgage-backed securities by Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns before the financial crisis, according to media reports. JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank, acquired Bear Stearns in March 2008 at a stock-only price of $236 million, or $2 per share. In their lawsuit, the pension funds accused Bear Stearns of selling $17.6 billion worth of toxic mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the crisis.

Ocwen Financial Corporation, one of the country's largest non-bank mortgage servicers, announced the appointment of Alan J. Bowers as a new independent director to the firm's Board of Directors, according to an announcement from Ocwen.

U.S. Real Estate Services (USRES), a nationwide appraisal management company (AMC) headquartered in Lake Forest, California, has announced that Citadel Servicing Corporation (CSC) is using its origination broker price opinion (BPO) services, according to an announcement from USRES.

Newbold Advisors, a Clearwater, Florida-based management consulting company that serves lenders, servicers, GSEs, MI companies, investment banks, and private investors in the financial industry, has announced the hiring of Detta Cutright as managing director of financial services as part of a continued, strategic growth strategy.

Individuals' optimism regarding future financial prospects increased substantially from 2013 to 2014, while perceptions of current financial well-being improved only modestly, according to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve released Wednesday. The Fed's 2014 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, which was completed by about 5,800 individuals last fall to provide insight into various aspects of Americans' personal finances such as economic security, banking, credit access and usage, housing, household debt (including education and student loan debt), savings, and preparedness for retirement.

The April 2015 First-Time Buyer Mortgage Risk Index (FBMRI) for Agency loans increased by nearly a full percentage point year-over-year up to 15.28 percent, indicating that those mortgage loans are moving deeper into the high-risk category, according to data released this week by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)'s International Center on Housing Risk.

California-based online real estate marketplace, Auction.com, has announced the addition of former LinkedIn and Yahoo! Engineer Lawrence Yuan as senior director of engineering.