Servicing

First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell 8,000 to 363,000 for the week ended November 3, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected 370,000 initial claims filing. It was the third straight weekly decline and the fifth drop in the last seven weeks.

Retreat Capital Management, an Irvine, California-based provider of advisory services and component servicing for the mortgage servicing industry, announced it has increased its employee based by 241 percent so far in 2012.

Sabal Financial Group, L.P. hired Jason Hull as the director of business development to help the company continue seeing growth. Hull will be tasked with developing areas of Sabal's business, such as commercial real estate investments and all types of third party services.

In sunny Naples, Florida, the winter retreat belonging to high-profile Boston, Massachusetts, resident Jack Connors has hit the market for $22.9 million. Connors, who the Boston Globe calls a legendary Boston power broker, is believed to have purchased the home for an estimated $16 million in 2006, according to Curbed.

Government agencies are continuing their regulatory investigation of mortgage activities at Wells Fargo and Wachovia, according to a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Wells Fargo absorbed Wachovia in 2008 when Wachovia's shaky mortgage portfolio threatened the bank's soundness. The government is looking into activities regarding mortgage origination and securitization, including risk disclosures at Wachovia.

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) has appointed a leader for its newly-formed strategic planning committee. The group recently announced that Randy Gillis, VP of enterprise information management for the servicing solutions and technology unit of Lender Processing Services, Inc., will join MISMO as chair for the committee.

After campaigning for more than a year, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau architect Elizabeth Warren claimed victory in the race to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate.

Home sellers are already showing optimism for the 2013 selling season, according to Redfin's Real-Time Seller Survey.

In Q3 2012, proprietary modifications stood at 186,057 compared to 161,764 in Q3 2011, representing a 15 percent annual gain.

The number of housing markets across the country showing lasting improvement expanded by leaps and bounds in November, according to a report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) showed 125 markets demonstrating consistent improvement, up from the previous record high of 103 in October.