Secondary Market

Launching a new division focused on mortgage banking, Hammerhouse LLC is expanding into the lending industry. The new unit, Tactical Ops Recruiting Quality (TORQ), will target the placement of operational and other non-sales professionals around the U.S.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell 23,000 to 393,000 for the week ending November 24, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected 390,000 initial claims filings. First-time unemployment claims are gradually returning to pre-Sandy levels but remain elevated. In the four weeks prior to the storm that ravaged the East Coast, initial claims averaged about 369,000. Claims spiked to 451,000 in the week immediately following and have averaged 405,000 in the two weeks following.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's monthly Home Price Index showed prices continued to inch up in September, climbing 0.2 percent from the prior month. September marks the eighth consecutive month in which prices have increased. However, even with consistent price gains, "a number of factors continue to affect the recovery in home prices such as stagnant income growth, high unemployment levels, lingering uncertainty about the macroeconomy, and the large number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline."

Lorraine Brown's legal drama continues as Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette announced the filing of a felony charge against the former DocX president. Brown is being charged with one count of conducting criminal enterprises (racketeering) for her alleged role in authorizing the fraudulent signing of mortgage documents filed in the state.

Level1Loans and IntraPrise Solutions, Inc., announced a new joint venture to provide cloud-based mortgage valuation and other financial modeling software to owners and managers of mortgage and mortgage-related assets.

Consumer sentiment regarding personal finances was down in November, indicating Americans foster a more negative perception about their own finances than they did last year, according to Bankrate's Financial Security Index. Bankrate measures financial security in five categories: debt, net worth, savings, job security, and overall financial situation. Net worth was the one category in which Americans seem to feel somewhat better than they did last year.

SharperLending LLC announced enhancements to its Appraisal Firewall platform with a new technical integration to American Reporting Company (ARC).

Colorado-based Capdominus, the largest Web-based capital markets platform for commercial real estate (CRE) finance, announced that the total volume of CRE financings on its platform has turned up sharply in the final months of the year.

British crooner Robbie Williams has put his stateside pad in Beverly Hills, California, on the market. According to RealEstalker, Williams listed the expansive estate, which comes with its own soccer field, for $3.6 million.

In Virginia, Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) is celebrating the final weeks of the year with record closing volume. Recently announcing that the organization's total mortgage loan closings for October hit $1 billion, NFCU reported that year-to-date, it has made more than $8.3 billion in mortgage-related funding available to consumers.