Daily Dose

The total amount recovered from litigation against banks that sold toxic residential mortgage-backed securities to corporate credit unions has now reached $2.2 billion with two recently announced pending settlements, according to an announcement from the National Credit Union Association, chief regulator for credit unions in the United States.

Housing trends are constantly fluctuating, but aside from some of the obvious factors that affect the housing market, oil prices appear to be having a negative impact on markets that are dependent upon this energy.

Single-family housing starts increased in September 2015, while authorizations and housing competitions decreased, according to new residential construction statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD released Tuesday.

Residential market values are projected to continue to increases over the next 12 months, with overall annual appreciation reaching 3.6 percent, up from its second quarter forecast of 3.1 percent.

Rental rates and income yields continue to rise in the single-family rental market, affecting how real estate investors target purchase opportunities and how much landlords make from these properties.

Investment banking firm Morgan Stanley’s net revenues for the third quarter of 2015 were down by more than $1 billion from Q3 2014, according to the firm’s Q3 2015 earnings statement released Monday.

Home prices and risk are being driven up quicker than income by low mortgage rates, an improving labor market, and loose credit standards, but some believe this is not a sustainable approach to homeownership. The American Enterprise Institute's First-Time Buyer Mortgage Share Index found that first-time buyers accounted for 56.4 percent of primary owner-occupied home purchase mortgages with a government guarantee in September 2015, up from last years' total of 54.4 percent.

U.S. prime jumbo residential mortgage-backed securities has already passed the 2014 total. A report from Fitch Ratings found that the 29 transactions and approximately $10.1 billion of issuance so far this year have already exceeded the 26 transactions and $8.3 billion issued in 2014.

Homebuilders' confidence in the market for newly constructed single-family homes rose in October, returning to a level not seen since the end of the housing boom in 2005.

The housing crisis has been referred to as a “silent” crisis by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and former Senator Scott Brown, both of whom spoke at Friday’s event, because no one wants to talk about it. But when it comes to issues like income inequality, low homeownership rates, and people losing their homes due to foreclosure, why is it not talked about more often in the news and elsewhere?