Secondary Market

The NAACP, in light of the government's recent regulatory focus on Wall Street, applauded President Obama, enthusiastically supporting his refusal to endorse the Corker-Warner legislation, a bill that would remove the institutions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) with yet another government backstop, both of which they see as posing a direct threat to the middle-class and minorities' financial well-being and ability to own or finance homes.

A broad range of economic indicators paints a picture of an improving economy, according to the latest Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) released Thursday. The LEI increased 0.6 percent in July, reaching 96 for the month. An index score of 100 reflects the economic conditions in 2004. "The improvement in the LEI, and pick up in the six-month growth rate, suggest better economic and job growth in the second half of 2013," said Ken Goldstein, a Conference Board economist.

Harland Financial Solutions announced that clients using LaserPro can now take advantage of new services resulting from the company├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós expanded alliance with eLynx.

In Pennsylvania, LoanLogics unveiled enhancements to its LoanDecisions pricing and eligibility platform.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of new home sales dropped a stunning 13.4 percent to 394,000 in July. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected June sales to drop to 487,000 from June's originally reported 497,000. June sales were revised to 455,000. The report for July showed a slight shift to higher-priced homes as houses priced at $500,000 or more accounted for 11 percent of July sales, up from 9 percent in June. Homes priced at $300,000 or less represented 62 percent of all July sales, down from 64 percent in June.

Nationwide Title Clearing, Inc. (NTC), a leading service provider to the mortgage and financial industry, ranked on Inc.'s 500|5000 list again this year, coming in hundreds of spots higher than in 2012.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending August 17 rose 13,000 to 336,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected the number of claims to rise to 330,000 from the 320,000 originally reported for the week ending August 10. The number of filings for that week was bumped up to 323,000.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both updated their seller guides to incorporate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Ability to Repay rule under the Truth in Lending Act.

Anne-Marie Kuhlman is now Stewart Title's regional sales director for the state of Colorado, the company announced.

Existing-home sales soared 6.5 percent in July to an annual sales rate of 5.39 million--the highest level since November 2009--as the price of a single-family home slipped 0.2 percent.