Daily Dose

Taking data from its monthly home price tracker, Black Knight Financial Services found in its latest report that while high-value properties in the country's hardest-hit states have made solid strides in recovering to their pre-crisis peaks, low-value homes are still struggling to make progress.

Oregon's Department of Finance and Corporate Securities (DFCS) is now using the National SAFE Mortgage Loan Originator (MLO) Test with Uniform State Content, making it the 46th state agency in the country to streamline its originator licensing process.

Sixty-six percent of respondents in a recent survey by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling said that "I want financial stability, but don't know how to get there." Nearly one quarter of respondents (23 percent) said that "I don't think financial stability is attainable for me."

December's job gain was close to 2014's average monthly increase, and 2014 was the best year of job growth in the United States since 1999. According to Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan, the underlying data may not be so encouraging for the housing market, however.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Thursday that its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) edged up to a reading of 115.7 in December. The clear driver behind the increase was an announcement earlier in the month that both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are launching new 97 percent loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage programs for qualifying homebuyers, said Mike Fratantoni, MBA's chief economist.

A day after the White House announced plans to cut the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) mortgage insurance premium by 50 basis points, politicians and commentators are still wrestling with the reduction's potential impact on the housing market, the mortgage insurance industry, and the agency itself.

In a speech Thursday morning in Phoenix, President Barack Obama spoke of the progress the housing market has made since 2009 and measures his administration is taking to help everyone achieve homeownership.

Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) fell to 3.73 percent (0.6 point) in the last week, a decline of 14 basis points from the end of 2014. The 30-year fixed started off last year at an average 4.51 percent.

In a report released Thursday, Trluia's Jed Kolko warned that falling oil prices—which have since July dropped by half from $100 a barrel—threaten worldwide oil-producing economies. At home, this drop could foretell a drop in home sale prices in the country's most oil-producing states, chiefly Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

According to CoreLogic's latest estimates, an additional 273,000 U.S. homes recovered to a positive equity position in Q3, bringing the total number of mortgaged homes with equity to approximately 44.6 million—about 90 percent of all mortgaged properties in the nation.