Colorado-based Alliant National Title announced the hiring of Lindley Brasier as SVP and regional underwriting counsel.

The highest home price gains for July 2014 were in the Midwest and South, and those gains are more likely a result of job growth as opposed to other market influences, according to the Trulia Price Monitor. Average month-over-month gains for the top 100 U.S. markets were 0.8 percent for July after a 1.2 percent increase for June, the company reported.

University of Massachusetts graduate Norm Fitzgerald has been named the new SVP of field sales at National Mortgage Insurance Corporation (National MI), a subsidiary of NMI Holdings, Inc.

Salt Lake City-based mortgage document preparation vendor International Document Services, Inc. (IDS), announced that it passed the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 audit with no exceptions.

A new customer satisfaction survey released by J.D. Power breaks down the top priorities among clients working with real estate brokerages, ranking the customer/agent relationship as most important factor for homebuyers—particularly first-timers, who benefit most from clear communication, says Christina Cooley, director in the diversified services industries practice at J.D. Power.

Fifty-four Senate Democrats and Independents issued a letter to the president last week defending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and pledging to support the re-appointment of current director Richard Cordray. In their letter, Cordray's Senate supporters decried the opposition's efforts as an attempt to "weaken the CFPB through structural changes" from "a minority of Senators [who] do not support the existence of the agency." The issue of Cordray's nomination comes at a pivotal time for CFPB.