Secondary Market

New home sales barely budged in October, dropping 0.3 percent to 368,000 after September's report was revised sharply downward from an original 389,000 to 369,000 the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected the report to show a sales pace of 387,000. Even with the slow growth in October, sales are up 17.2 percent from October 2011. However, the year-over-year gain was weaker than the 25.3 percent annual growth reported for September.

When calculating average monthly mortgage payments by state and the District of Columbia, Lending Tree found the nation's capital has the highest average monthly payment and highest share of income that goes toward a house payment.

After losing a previous bid earlier this year, UBS is making another attempt to shut down a lawsuit from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Radian Guaranty Inc. announced a complete integration with Mortgagebot to include Radian mortgage insurance in its loan origination system (LOS).

After reaching a year-to-date high in October, consumer confidence continued to climb in November, according to The Conference Board.

Home prices rose just slightly over the month of September, demonstrating a 0.1 percent increase from August, according to Lender Processing Services' Home Price Index, which analyzes home prices in more than 15,500 ZIP codes each month. The modest increase lines up with the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which came in under expectations. While the 0.1 percent increase is slight, LPS does report more significant change on a yearly and year-to-date basis.

In California, WFG Lender Services (WFGLS) is welcoming a new senior leader. The title insurance and real estate services company recently announced that Jason Schmidt has been named SVP of closing operations.

Despite another month of home price improvement, the housing sector stumbled in September as prices increased in 13 of the 20 cities covered in the monthly Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. The month-over-month September gain was weaker than in August, when prices rose in all cities surveyed.

Standardization and stability brought on by regulation will pave the way for a bright future for mortgage banking, FBR speculates.

After serving as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for nearly four years, Mary L. Schapiro announced Monday she will step down on December 14. Schapiro was appointed as chairman by President Obama in January 2009 and was sworn in by the end of the month after receiving unanimous confirmation from the Senate.