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End of Summer Brings Drag in Home Sales

Home sales in August remained below last year's pace for yet another month as prices inched higher, RE/MAX reported Tuesday. The real estate company calculated an 8.2 percent drop in August transactions compared to a year ago. Compared to July, August sales were down 6.6 percent. Out of the last six months, four have seen sales climb above the previous month's pace, RE/MAX reported.

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Treasury Official Breaks Down Private-Label Challenges

Speaking at an event hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury secretary for housing finance policy, explained that lenders are currently reluctant to make non-agency loans without first knowing how they'll rate on the market. At the same time, credit rating agencies don't rate mortgage pools until they see the actual loan tape.

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Home Prices Grow 0.6% in July

FNC, Inc.'s national Residential Price Index (RPI), a metric of prices in 100 of the nation's largest housing markets excluding REO and foreclosure sales, grew 0.6 percent month-over-month in July, slowing again from 0.8 percent in June (which in turn was down from 1.2 percent in May). The narrower 30-metro composite index saw a similar slowdown, also declining to 0.6 percent growth, while the 10-metro composite saw a half a percentage point drop to 0.4 percent.

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U.S. Bank Settles over Alleged Lending Discrimination

U.S. Bank has reached a settlement with a housing regulator over allegations the bank discriminated against a Native American couple in denying them a refinance. Under the settlement's terms, U.S. Bank agreed to pay the couple's U.S. Bank credit card balance, amounting to nearly $11,500. The bank also agreed to approve their refinance application at the same interest rate and terms under which they originally applied in May 2013.

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Survey: Homeownership ‘Highly Desirable’ for Nine in 10 Americans

In findings released Tuesday, COUNTRY Financial revealed 89 percent of Americans in its most recent Security Index survey feel that buying a home is a key part of achieving the American Dream despite their recent memories of the crash. Even more promising, 64 percent of respondents expressed belief that owning a home is an attainable goal for a typical middle-income family, a significant improvement over last year, when just 41 percent said the same.

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House Committee Approves Bill to Ease Large Firm Bankruptcies

The House Judiciary Committee approved bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up the bankruptcy process and preventing taxpayers from taking the hit in the event of the failure of large financial institutions. The backers of the Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act say it will expedite the bankruptcy process with a speedy judicial review and quicker transfer of assets from the bank to a bridge company.

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Survey: Americans Stymied by Homebuying Confusion

In a poll of more than 2,000 consumers, Wells Fargo found 68 percent feel that now is a good time to buy a home, and 95 percent want to own if they don't already. On the other hand, while nearly three-quarters of respondents in Wells Fargo's survey said they "know and understand" the financial process involved in buying a home, large numbers also expressed doubt or misguided notions about homebuying requirements.

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$835M Ginnie Mae Servicing Portfolio Hits Market

A new $835 million Ginnie Mae mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) portfolio has hit the market, with Colorado-based MountainView Servicing Group acting as the advisor. According to an announcement from MountainView, the bulk servicing offering includes 99.7 percent fixed-rate and 100 percent first-lien product with a weighted average original FICO score of 691.

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HSBC, FHFA Reach $550M RMBS Settlement

HSBC Holdings is the latest institution to make good with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) after the firm's North American arm agreed Friday to pay hundreds of millions to settle claims revolving around faulty mortgage-backed securities (MBS) sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years before the crash.

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