Daily Dose

Based on company transactional data and Google search activity, Auction.com predicted Monday that existing-home sales in January will come in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.06 million, just slightly above the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) December estimate of 5.04 million.

A U.S. District judge denied the U.S. Department of Treasury's motion to strike Pershing Square Capital Management's voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit it filed in August over misappropriation of government funds.

National home prices remained largely unchanged in the fall, according to the latest FNC Residential Price Index report. After 30 months of growth in the national housing market, prices dropped off in October and stayed virtually the same in November.

The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI), which gauges the near-term economic outlook based on a variety of indicators, increased 0.5 percent in December to 121.1, the group reported Friday. The increase fell between November's gain of 0.4 percent and October's larger 0.6 percent improvement.

Falling interest rates and demand for hybrid offerings were once again among the most dominant trends in the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) market in the last year, according to a recent survey.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Friday that sales of pre-owned homes rose 2.4 percent month-over-month in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million. It was the sixth time in the past seven months in which existing-home sales topped an annual rate of 5 million.

Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey saw a slight drop in the 30-year fixed rate to an average 3.63 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending January 22, the company reported Thursday. With the decline, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) remains at its lowest average since May 2013.

Based on home sales price information from mortgages sold to and guaranteed by the GSEs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported that its House Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent month-over-month in November.

In an announcement on Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said loan officers at Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase accepted cash, marketing materials, and consumer information in exchange for business referrals to Genuine Total, a now-defunct title firm formerly headquartered in Maryland.

Members of the U.S. Supreme Court convened Wednesday to spar with attorneys—and each other—in a case that could narrow long-held interpretations of a federal law barring housing discrimination.