Daily Dose

A new bill has been introduced to legislation by presidential nominee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). The proposal is intended to prevent another costly taxpayer bailout and safeguard the economy by breaking up the nation’s largest banks. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) proposed a similar bill in the House.

Lower-priced homes stood a better chance at survival during the 2006-2009 housing crisis, according to an Urban Wire blog post by the Urban Institute and authors Jun Zhu and Bing Bai. Not only did cheaper homes recover more quickly from the bust, according to national averages and location data found by the Urban Institute, cheaper homes became more expensive during the boom as well.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications report, mortgage applications have decreased 4.6 percent from last week. The Market Composite Index, which measures the amount of mortgage loans, decreased 4.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending May 1. The Index experienced a 4 percent decrease compared to last week on an unadjusted basis.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) took steps toward reducing the regulatory burden placed on community national banks and federal savings associations (FSAs) by participating in an outreach meeting as part of the Economic Growth and Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) on Monday.

U.S. Congressman Ed Royce (R-California) has announced that he plans to submit legislation by the end of the week to prevent a potential pay increase for Freddie Mac CEO Donald Layton. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has given Freddie Mac and its fellow GSE, Fannie Mae, authorization to review the salaries of their respective CEOs, Layton and Timothy Mayopoulos. Both CEOs made $600,000 each without bonuses in 2014. The pay reviews for the top executives at the GSEs are largely due to concerns that the Enterprises will not be able to stay competitive because their CEOs make less than some lower-ranked executives.

Housing and economic activity has returned to or exceeded normal levels in 68 of about 360 metropolitan areas in the country (about 19 percent) as of the end of Q1 2015, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/First American Leading Markets Index (LMI) released Wednesday.

With the deadline for the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rules going into effect on August 1, many lenders are increasingly concerned about possible penalties should they not be fully compliant by this date. To address these anxieties, Congressmen Steve Pearce (R-New Mexico) and Brad Sherman (D-California), joined forces to introduce a bill (H.R. 2213) that would provide temporary leniency from lawsuits and law enforcement. If passed, it would remain in effect until January 1, 2016.

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings reported a net loss of $48 million, or $0.53 per share, for the first quarter of 2015 compared with a net income of $19 million ($0.21 per share) for the previous quarter, according to an announcement from the Lewisville, Texas-based residential mortgage servicer on Tuesday morning.

Interthinx released its quarterly Mortgage Fraud Risk Report, revealing that the National Mortgage Fraud Risk Index is 101 for Q4 2014, a 3 percent increase from the last quarter and the exact same as last year. Trends at the state, MSA, and ZIP-code levels reveal fraud triggers, according to Interthinx.

According to the March 2015 CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI), home prices, including distressed sales, have increased by 5.9 percent in March 2015 in comparison with March 2014. Short sales and REO transactions are both included in distressed sales.