Daily Dose

HUD Secretary Julian Castro is scheduled to speak at the National Press Club (NPC) luncheon on January 13 to address the state of the housing industry and what HUD's plans are for 2015, the NPC announced on Tuesday.

December was the fourth consecutive month and the eighth month out of the last nine in which more than 200,000 jobs were added nationwide. The highest total of jobs added during any one month in 2014 was 297,000 in June. The year began with just 121,000 jobs added in January.

Total mortgage application volumes, including both purchase loans and refinances, fell 9.1 percent over the two weeks ending January 2, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday. The results include adjustments for the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays.

The White House announced Wednesday that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will reduce mortgage insurance premiums in an effort to boost U.S. homeownership. The announcement is welcome news to many of housing's biggest trade organizations, who have been vocal in the past few months about the consequences of higher premiums.

Out of a group of 1,000 Americans polled in Fannie Mae's December National Housing Survey, 41 percent said they now believe the economy is "on the right track," up from 36 percent in November, the company reported. In contrast to December's slightly more positive economic attitudes, consumer sentiment toward the housing market remained subdued for another month.

Southfield, Michigan-based lender GTL Investments, Inc., recently agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle claims regarding the origination of federally-backed mortgage loans that were not properly underwritten, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade.

Speaking as a guest presenter at the Rotary Club of Atlanta on Monday, Fannie Mae President and CEO Timothy Mayopoulos warned against any type of reform where housing finance is concerned, telling the audience that "the (current) system works," according to a report.

The new year brought with it a new mortgage servicing rights (MSR) opportunity for interested buyers: a GSE portfolio valued at $4.2 billion in aggregate unpaid principal balance. According to MountainView Servicing Group, the portfolio is entirely made up of fixed-rate and first-lien product and features low delinquencies.

In its latest look at the RMBS segment, Fitch says that while the market still has some rebuilding left to do, it "has seen some rather substantial improvements of late," owing in large part to improved loan underwriting standards in recent years. According to the company, the performance of recent vintage mortgage loans is the best on record so far.

In its November Home Price Index (HPI) report, property data firm CoreLogic recorded a 0.1 percent month-over-month increase in U.S. home prices for November. The minor gain, which includes data from distressed home sales, follows a 0.5 percent increase originally reported for October.