JPMorgan Chase reported a record net income of $21.8 billion for the full year of 2014, up from 2013's net income of $17.9 billion. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo's net income for 2014 was $23.1 billion, a 5 percent increase from a year earlier.

During an hour-long speech at the Press Club in Washington, D.C., HUD Secretary Julian Castro spoke of the economic progress the nation made in 2014, such as experiencing the fastest job growth rate in 15 years, and he addressed HUD's initiatives which are aimed at promoting, increasing, and expanding opportunities for Americans to own a home.

Sixty-six percent of respondents in a recent survey by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling said that "I want financial stability, but don't know how to get there." Nearly one quarter of respondents (23 percent) said that "I don't think financial stability is attainable for me."

December's job gain was close to 2014's average monthly increase, and 2014 was the best year of job growth in the United States since 1999. According to Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan, the underlying data may not be so encouraging for the housing market, however.

In a widely anticipated move, U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) was elected Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for the 114th Congress, according to an announcement from Shelby's website Thursday.

In a speech Thursday morning in Phoenix, President Barack Obama spoke of the progress the housing market has made since 2009 and measures his administration is taking to help everyone achieve homeownership.

Real estate economist and former HUD policy advisor Raphael W. Bostic has been elected as a director on Freddie Mac's board of governors, according to an announcement from the GSE.

HUD Secretary Julian Castro is scheduled to speak at the National Press Club (NPC) luncheon on January 13 to address the state of the housing industry and what HUD's plans are for 2015, the NPC announced on Tuesday.

December was the fourth consecutive month and the eighth month out of the last nine in which more than 200,000 jobs were added nationwide. The highest total of jobs added during any one month in 2014 was 297,000 in June. The year began with just 121,000 jobs added in January.

Southfield, Michigan-based lender GTL Investments, Inc., recently agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle claims regarding the origination of federally-backed mortgage loans that were not properly underwritten, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade.