Government

Freddie Mac announced Tuesday its plans to expand on its Relief Refinance Mortgage Program by aligning separate mortgage requirements. The GSE announced that it will align requirements for mortgages with loan-to-value ratios that are equal to or less than 80 percent with those for mortgages with LTV ratios greater than 80 percent. The alignment is expected to eliminate many of the lender├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós selling representation and warranty responsibilities on loans being refinanced. Details are scheduled to be announced to lenders by mid-September.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently passed its one-year anniversary. On Monday, the agency released its semi-annual report for 2012 to highlight achievements in the first half of this year. What do the numbers say? For starters, the consumer bureau has received more than 55,300 complaints between July 2011 and June 2012, according to the report. The greatest single source of complaints, making up 43 percent of all complaints made to the CFPB, fell on mortgages and problems encountered by consumers with their monthly payments.

Uganda's leading mortgage lender, Housing Finance Bank Limited, has established a new partnership with Polaris Financial Technology Ltd. Housing Finance Bank selected Polaris' Intellect CBS platform to support its business and IT needs. Currently, Housing Finance Bank holds approximately 60 percent of all mortgage accounts in Uganda, and the entity is the ninth largest commercial bank in the country.

In Chicago, Illinois, Solidifi is set to welcome a new company leader. Solidifi recently announced that Andrew Bough would join the organization as its chief valuations officer. Bough, an industry veteran, has accrued nearly two decades of experience in the real estate, banking, and mortgage sectors.

Personal income rose $61.8 billion in June but consumers held on to it as personal spending fell 1.3 billion in the month, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The increase in income ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô 0.5 percent ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô topped expectations of a 0.4 percent boost, but the 0.01 percent decline in spending fell short of the 0.1 percent increase economists had expected. Disposable personal income ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô essentially after-tax income ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô rose $52.4 billion in June. Personal savings as a percentage of disposable (after tax) income rose to 4.4 percent in June from 4.0 percent in May.

Home prices rose sharply in May cutting the year-over-year drop in prices to 0.7 percent from 1.8 percent in April, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday in its Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Prices in the 20 cities surveyed rose 2.2 percent month-over-month, the strongest such gain since the 20-city index began in January 2000. The 10-city index also improved 2.2 percent in May, shaving the year-over-year decline in price to 1.0 percent in May from 2.2 percent in April. The month-over-month increase fell short of the 2.3 percent gain registered in June 2004.

Former President Bill Clinton will make a stop at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, North Carolina, before continuing on to Dallas, Texas, to deliver the closing keynote at the mortgage industry's Five Star Conference and Expo. The DNC announced Monday that Clinton will formally nominate President Barack Obama as the Democratic party's presidential candidate during its convention on September 5, just two days before he speaks to thousands of mortgage default servicing professionals at the 2012 Five Star Conference.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, a federal bank aimed at providing affordable residential mortgages, recorded increasing income and an increasing annualized return on equity in the second quarter of 2012, according to information the bank released to the public Monday. The bank released highlights from the second quarter in an unaudited release and will file a full report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta reported a net income of $60 million for the quarter, up $22 million from the same quarter last year.

State regulators shuttered a bank in Georgia this weekend, raising the bar to 39 for bank failures nationally this year. Jasper-based Jasper Banking Company fell dark with about $216.7 million in total assets and $213.1 million in total deposits. Stearns Bank National Association swooped in to sign a purchase-and-assumption agreement with the FDIC, as well as a loss-share transaction on $106 million of the assets. The acquirer assumed essentially all of the assets and deposits, along with three branches, which reopened under new management on Saturday.

Following the recent month├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós change in the national Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales declined month-over-month in June in Miami-Dade County, but went up year-over-year. While the national index moved down 1.4 percent from May to June, Miami's pending home sales declined 13 percent, according to the association and Miami├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós Multiple Listing Services system. Miami├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós change in pending sales year-over-year was also more exaggerated than the change reported in the national index.