Real estate information firm CoreLogic DataQuick estimated Friday that August home sales in the state—including new and resale houses and condos—totaled 37,228 last month, down 6.0 percent from July's estimate of 39,608. Compared to a year ago, sales fell 12.5 percent short. California sales have come in below average every month for more than eight years, the firm said.

In the latest mortgage industry team-up, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services and Wipro Gallagher Solutions have brought their products together to help simplify compliance document complexity for lenders pushing to adhere to new disclosure rules set to go into effect next year.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment edged up more than two points in a preliminary September reading, putting it at a 14-month high of 84.6. The increase in the headline index was driven by a more than four-point improvement in the gauge of consumer expectations, which rose to 75.6.

UCLA Anderson Forecast's third quarterly report of 2014, released Thursday, points to real GDP growth of about 3 percent over the next two years, following last year's full-year growth of 1.9 percent. Though housing has struggled to keep up its momentum so far this year, the market is still expected to fuel economic growth.

After a summer of ups and downs, mortgage application volumes (as reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association) stunned in early September with a 7.2 percent week-over-week drop, bringing the association's index to its lowest level in 14 years. While there are a number of factors that could have played a role in the latest plunge, general unsteadiness in the current economic picture remains the underlying problem.

As more companies launch their own home price metrics, the much-watched Case-Shiller indices have readjusted their methodology to adapt—and revealed a different picture of home prices in the last few months than originally reported. While the new index comes as a "welcome improvement," it also throws a wrench into what analysts previously knew about home prices during and after the crash, says Paul Diggle, property economist for Capital Economics.

Data Facts, Inc., a nationwide provider of mortgage lending and background screening solutions, announced its recent acquisition of Houston-based One Source Credit Reporting Agency.

A new survey released by the Wall Street Journal finds most don't expect the Federal Reserve to begin raising interest rates until mid-summer 2015 or later. In a poll of economists nationwide, the Journal found only about a third believe the Fed will start hiking up rates before June next year. That number is down from 45 percent of economists in the publication's August survey.

Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate came up slightly to 4.12 percent (0.5 point) for the week ending September 11, marking the first increase after three weeks of year-low averages. A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.57 percent in Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Pro Teck Valuation Services' own chief appraiser, Jeff Dickstein, has been appointed to serve on the Five Star Institute's National Appraisal Congress (NAC), according to a company announcement.