Daily Dose

In late January, Judge Magaret Sweeney denied the government's attempt to stay court proceedings in the case, ruling that Fairholme could continue to pursue its lawsuit against the government, which was originally filed in 2013. The suit claims that the sweeping of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits into Treasury, a practice authorized by Congress in August 2012, equates to taking private property for public use without "just compensation," which is forbidden by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

A ClosingCorp survey of more than 1,000 adults found that about 2 in 3 adults age 18-34, who plan to buy a home know nothing about closing costs. The survey also found that across all age groups, more than one-third of potential homeowners are “not very” or “not at all” aware of closing costs.

The downgrade comes after Ocwen Financial announced they would be selling $9.6 billion worth of servicing rights to Green Tree. Fitch said the downgrade is tied to Green Tree having had aggressive portfolio growth in the past two years in a press release.

In January, U.S. house prices rose a mere 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous month. The previously reported 0.8 percent change in December was revised downward to a 0.7 percent change. The FHFA HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

According to data released by the U.S. Census and HUD the February sales are up nearly 25 percent compared to sales from that month last year. Sales for February 2014 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 539,000. This is 7.8 percent above the January rate of 500,000.

This will be the second time in as many months that Ocwen has announced an MSR sale on an Agency portfolio of residential loans to Dallas, Texas-based Nationstar. In February, Ocwen announced its intention to sell the MSR on a portfolio of about 81,000 performing residential loans owned by Freddie Mac with a UPB of about $9.8 billion to Nationstar. Combined, the two MSR deals between Ocwen and Nationstar announced in the last two months include about 223,00 Agency residential mortgage loans with $34.8 billion in UPB.

The senator’s proposed budget amendment will make the CFPB subject to congressional appropriations process because currently the CFPB operates under the Fed, not Congress. The amendment stressed for more congressional oversight given the CFPB receives roughly $600 million of the Fed’s annual operating expenses.

Self-directed real estate allows individuals to sell and buy homes without using a real estate agent. According to Owners.com, self-directed real estate appeals to consumers for several reasons including transparency, accessibility, and saving money. VP of Owners.com, Erik Ekardt said self-directed sales puts power back into the hands of consumers.

Sales are 4.7 percent higher than a year ago and above year-over-year totals for the fifth consecutive month. The median existing home price for all housing types in February was $202, 600. That is 7.5 percent above the February 2014 price. This marks the 36th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains since last year.

The temporary factors that slowed economic growth include a drawdown in inventory, unusually high snowfall in some parts of the country, and the West Coast port slowdown. Fannie Mae expects the reducing of those factors in the second quarter combined with upbeat labor market conditions and positive consumer and business fundamentals to push GDP growth to 2.8 percent in 2015, ahead of 2014's pace of 2.4 percent.