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Quicken Loans, a Detroit-based mortgage lender reported today that the difference between appraiser and homeowner perceptions of home values continued to increase for the fourth consecutive month in May. For the first time in 22 months, appraiser opinions of home values were 1.15 percent lower than homeowner estimates, according to Quicken Loans’ national Home Price Perception Index (HPPI).

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro is scheduled to testify before the full House Financial Services Committee on Thursday, June 11, for the second time since becoming the nation's top housing official in July 2014.

According to a recent press release, Rep. Steve Israel (D-New York) and Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania) have introduced bipartisan legislation to help improve efforts to end homelessness among our nation’s veterans. The Homeless Veterans Assistance Fund Act of 2015 or H.R. 2591, creates the Homeless Veterans Assistance Fund, according to the release. If this legislation is passed, taxpayers will have a chance to help keep nearly 50,000 veterans off the streets by making an optional contribution to the fund on their federal income tax return form.

Amidst the positive May job reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer attitudes concerning the housing market showed vast improvement for the month of May, according to results from Fannie Mae's May 2015 National Housing Survey. These positive changes also support the case for an increase in housing activity this year.

Black Knight Financial Services recently released their April 2015 Mortgage Monitor finding that the refinance share of the mortgage origination market was over 50 percent in the first quarter of 2015, a first since the third quarter of 2013. Black Knight reviewed refinance originations as a share of the total market in the report. Black Knight reviewed refinance originations as a share of the total market in the report. They also examined the tightening of current credit score requirements when dealing with both refinance and purchase originations.

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland economist Daniel Hartley and Nathaniel Baum-Snow, a professor at Brown University found that for over four decades, the demographic compositions in and near the downtown areas in medium and large U.S. cities have shifted. The residents in these areas make more money, receive better educations, and are not likely to be minorities.

While the nation's unemployment rate (5.5 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (8.7 million) for May 2015 remained virtually unchanged from the previous month, the number of jobs added in May increased substantially from April up to 280,000, according to the May 2015 Employment Summary released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday.

In an Investopedia.com report, author Dan Moskowitz documented the top five real estate investment trusts (REITs) that will persevere consumers’ capital investments. He also cautions to steer clear of trusts that do not have investor’s best interest of growing their capital at the forefront of their priorities.

A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., is liable for facing certain legal claims that FDIC-insured JPMorgan Chase inherited from its 2008 acquisition of Washington Mutual, according to media reports. JPMorgan acquired the failing Seattle-based bank for $1.88 billion in 2008 during the onset of the financial crisis, after the Office of Thrift Supervision seized Washington Mutual and appointed the FDIC as receiver.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a warning to consumers today about the misleading effects of reverse mortgage advertisements. The Bureau released results of a focus group study on reverse mortgage advertisements and found that many participants were left confused about the product. The study found that after viewing the ads, consumers did not understand that reverse mortgages were actual loans. Instead, they were left under the false impression that reverse mortgages are government-issued program that would help consumers stay in their home for the rest of their lives.