Servicing

Asking prices on for-sale homes rose in November at a breakneck pace, but the gap between certain markets is growing more pronounced, according to Trulia's latest Price Monitor. However, even as the recovery in national prices accelerated in November, the number of metros reporting quarter-over-quarter price increases fell, dropping to 70 from 79 in August. Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko said the disparity points to an uneven recovery from metro to metro.

President Obama has appointed two new chairs to lead the FDIC's board of directors, the agency announced. Martin J. Gruenberg is the board's new chairman, and Thomas M. Hoenig is the vice chairman.

Homeowners facing foreclosure will find a brief respite during this year├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós holiday season.

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ServiceLink has appointed a new company leader, naming Kevin Coop as EVP of enterprise strategy. In his new role, Coop will head up business development for ServiceLink's originations and default sales teams, as well as coordinating the company's marketing group and product development strategy team.

The always-expensive Manhattan real estate market has gained a sky-high listing with an equally lofty price tag, with the former home of architect Paul Rudolph recently hitting the market for $27.5 million. According to Curbed, Rudolph is famous for creating "some of the country's best known Brutalist structures," and his legendary former residence boasts three spacious apartments which are now for sale collectively.

Mortgage fraud cases declined by 15 percent over the third quarter of this year, while the dollar amount involved in mortgage fraud cases declined by just 6 percent, according to the Third Quarter 2012 Mortgage Fraud Index released Monday by MortgageDaily.com. This disparity in declines points to an increase in the amount of money involved in each case during the quarter, according to Mortgage Daily. The total dollar amount of loans involved in mortgage fraud cases in Q3 was $1.7 billion, up from $1.3 billion in the same period last year.

Pennsylvania's GMH Mortgage Services LLC announced the addition of Bill Bogle as SVP of capital markets. Bogle has worked in the mortgage industry for more than 15 years, having served most recently at New Penn Financial as VP of secondary marketing.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union's mortgage volume reached more than $3 billion at the end of October, exceeding its 2011 volume with a full quarter still remaining.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) has been elected chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Hensarling replaces Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) who headed the committee for the past six years.

A recently released study shows that a vast majority of consumers would consider looking to non-banks for their next mortgage.