Daily Dose

Average fixed mortgage rates drifted down again this week, sinking to their lowest level so far this year. Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average fixed interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 4.10 percent (0.5 point) for the week ending August 21, down 2 basis points from last week's average. The previous 2014 low was 4.12 percent, first seen in late May and then again three more times throughout the summer.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported on Thursday that sales of existing homes (including single-family houses, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops) hit a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 5.15 million last month, up 2.4 percent from a downwardly revised June. Looking only at single-family homes, July sales improved 2.7 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted pace of 4.45 million but still fell 4.2 percent short of last year.

In a bulletin issued Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned mortgage servicers to pay close attention to the new "common-sense" mortgaging rules implemented by the bureau in January 2014, aimed at protecting consumers from being harmed during loan transfers.

Real estate data site PropertyRadar reported a slight month-over-month gain in home sales across California in July, but not enough to bring activity up from last year. Sales for single-family homes and condos for the first seven months of 2014 year-to-date are at their lowest levels since 2008, the company said in its latest Real Property Report for the state.

Housing market trends kept their spring momentum in July—and are expected to remain solid in the months ahead, Realtor.com said Wednesday in its National Housing Trend Report for the month. For the first time since the start of the housing recovery in 2012, Realtor.com says the end of the annual peak buying season passed this year without any outside economic influences creeping in.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 1.4 percent seasonally adjusted bump in application volumes for the week ending August 15, a partial reversal from the 2.7 percent decline reported the week prior. While last week's results were lifted by improvement in applications for conventional mortgages, they were also weighed down by a 5.9 percent decrease in applications for government mortgages.

Despite a slight easing in credit standards, the percentage of loan applications closed in July slipped to a three-month low, Ellie Mae reported Wednesday in its monthly Origination Insight Report. Tracking loan applications initiated 90 days prior, the company calculated an overall closing rate of 57.7 percent last month, down from 60.7 percent in June and 57.8 percent in May.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and David Vitter (R-Louisiana) joined four other senators and nine House members in a letter that warned against a weak proposed rule that signers said would fail to place "meaningful restrictions" on its ability to bail out financial institutions.

Following the filing of a separate suit with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, New York-based hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management has filed a second suit against the U.S. government over the handling of GSE profits. In its compliant, Pershing Square suggests that the GSE dividends being diverted into Treasury, which amount to billions of dollars, should be divided among the common shareholders for the GSEs.

Based on data collected from April through June, Mortgage Daily reported a 24 percent quarterly increase in mortgage originations to an estimated $296 billion among all lenders as of June 30. Production still fell short 51 percent on an annual basis as consumer demand for mortgages remained anemic and credit standards stayed tight.