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Credit Union National Association (CUNA) revealed Friday that credit union memberships grew by 3.6 percent last year, the highest growth rate since 1994. Loan portfolios also saw a solid increase over the year.

Trulia's latest look at the U.S. housing market shows homebuyer interest in January and February is up 2 percent from the annual average since 2011, a trend that has paved the way for robust March-to-July buying interest.

Employers nationwide added 257,000 new jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said Friday. Economists projected a payroll increase of 230,000.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Thursday that its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), which analyzes data from AllRegs' Market Clarity, increased 1.8 percent to 117.8 last month. All of the component indices measured by MBA increased month-over-month, with the gauge of conventional loan availability climbing 3 percent and the government index rising 0.9 percent.

The index ticked slightly upward in Q4 to 0.90, one point higher than Q3's revised figure of 0.89. The number of markets at or above their normal levels in Q4 increased from 60 in the previous quarter and from 52 in the same quarter a year earlier.

The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) slipped 7 basis points in the last week, settling at 3.59 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending February 5, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. "Mortgage rates fell this week following the release of weaker than expected pending home sales, which fell 3.7 percent in December," said Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist for Freddie Mac.

The refinance boom may be losing steam, but near-record low mortgage rates encouraged more borrowers to refinance in Q4, according to Freddie Mac's 2014 Q4 Refinance Report released Wednesday. Mortgagors who refinanced their loans in 2014 are projected to save on net a total of about $5 billion in interest over the next year, according to the report.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said Wednesday that mortgage loan applications rose a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent for the week ending January 30. It was the third increase of the month, following a minor holiday-adjusted drop the previous week.

Based on an analysis of loan applications passing through its own fraud detection technology, Interthinx said Tuesday that its national Mortgage Fraud Risk Index measured 98 in Q3 2014, down 2 percent from the quarter prior and 9 percent from the year-ago period.

In its most recent Home Price Index (HPI) release, CoreLogic reported that prices advanced 5.0 percent nationwide in December compared to the same month in 2013. The estimate includes REO transactions and short sales.