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Ocwen Financial, the nation's top non-bank mortgage servicer, announced Thursday that the company has taken a $100 million charge for a potential settlement regarding claims that it sent backdated foreclosure notices to thousands of borrowers. In a conference call with analysts, Ocwen executive chairman William Erbey left open the possibility that legal costs could drive the $100 million amount higher.

As home equity grows, more Americans are tapping into that equity more often when refinancing their homes, according to the latest quarterly refinance analysis report from Freddie Mac. In fact, the share of borrowers tapping their equity by cashing out at the time of refinancing has doubled from the same quarter last year as house price appreciation has risen across the country.

A new estimator of existing-home sales landed on Thursday, and it's calling for a slight pickup in transactions for October. Based on data collected for this month, Auction.com predicts existing-home sales will fall between seasonally adjusted annual averages of 4.97 and 5.38 million units, with a targeted prediction of 5.19 million.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States increased at an annualized rate of 3.5 percent last quarter, according to an advance estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Economists surveyed by Econoday anticipated a growth rate of 3.0 percent. The GDP report comes a day after the Federal Reserve announced plans to close down its stimulative bond-buying program, signaling increased confidence in the economy's progression.

With the substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market, as judged by the Committee, since the inception of the QE3 asset purchase program two years ago and the broader economy's underlying strength to support ongoing progress toward maximum employment in a price stability context, the Committee decided to conclude the QE3 program this month.

The highest percentage of residential mortgage loans that were seriously underwater in the third quarter were originated during the housing bubble between 2004 and 2008, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report for Q3 2014. The number of Q3's seriously underwater mortgages that were originated in the years following 2006 has declined steadily, though it has ticked back up in the last two years.

CoreLogic's latest Mortgage Fraud Report, released Tuesday, shows a 3.2 percent year-over-year increase in fraud risk among mortgages in the United States in the second quarter of 2014, as measured by the company's Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index. The report also showed that in Q2 2014, mortgage applications representing approximately $3.3 billion in mortgage debt contained elements of fraud or serious misrepresentation.

A recent study conducted by Trulia shows that while Democratic- and Republican-leaning U.S. markets were affected similarly by the housing crisis, the most pressing current issues of the housing industry seem to be more severely affecting Democratic-leaning metros.

The American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) National Mortgage Risk Index, released Monday by the group's International Center on Housing Risk, rose to 11.43 percent in September, little changed from the revised average of the previous three months and nearly 1 percentage point higher than a year ago. In keeping with recent trends, the index measuring risk for FHA loans was the highest, sitting at 23.99 percent.

On a monthly basis, the S&P Case-Shiller National Index showed a non-seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent increase from July to August, down from a 0.6 percent improvement in the July report. The narrower 10- and 20-city indices posted the same results, ticking up 0.2 percent each. Adding in seasonal adjustments, the picture for August is mixed.