Secondary Market

With a nod to the report the nation's economy had contracted in the fourth quarter, the Federal Open Market Committee ("FOMC") voted Wednesday to continue its program of purchasing $40 million a month of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and to maintain the target Fed Funds rate at 0 to 0.25 percent. The FOMC vote was 11-1 with only Kansas City Fed President Esther George (in her first meeting as a voting member of the committee) voting "no."

McLean Mortgage Corporation, a privately held full-service mortgage lender based in Fairfax, Virginia, announced that the company closed more than $1.5 billion in mortgage volume in 2012, a 140 percent increase in production levels over 2011.

Irvine, California-based CoreLogic announced the availability of CoreLogic Bond Tracker, a new bond assessment service for non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).

Lincoln, Nebraska recorded a best-in-the-nation 3.4 percent unemployment rate in December as unemployment rates dropped in 290 of the 372 metropolitan areas in the county, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Wednesday.

Following S&P's calculation of a 0.1 percent decrease in prices in November, analysis on home price data remained positive.

Conditions in the housing sector may have finally improved enough to bring life back to the securitization market.

Capsilon, a provider of cloud-based document sharing and collaboration solutions for mortgage lenders, more than doubled its revenue in 2012, the company announced. In addition, the company achieved a number of milestones last year, including the release of several updates to its cloud-based imaging solution.

The STRATMOR Group, a Georgia-based consulting firm for the mortgage industry with more than 250 clients, announced Monday it is bringing Lisa Springer, an industry veteran with more than 20 years' experience, on board to serve in the role of practice manager.

After steadily dropping throughout the year, mortgage rates closed out 2012 with one final monthly decline, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) December index. The contract rate on the composite of all mortgage loans (both fixed- and adjustable-rate) was 3.28 percent in December, down from 3.36 percent in November. The effective interest rate, which reflects the amortization of initial fees and charges, was 3.42 percent, down from 3.49 percent the previous month.

Consumer confidence took another dive in January as Americans saw their paychecks shrink, The Conference Board reported Tuesday. The research firm's Consumer Confidence Index--based on a survey conducted by Nielsen--fell to 58.6 in January, down from 66.7 at the end of 2012. Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, said the drop stems from consumers' "paycheck shock" after seeing how the payroll tax increase has affected their bank accounts.