The American Land Title Association (ALTA) reports continued improvements for title companies. Each of the three quarters the association reported on so far this year have registered increasing volume for title companies. Premiums rose 28 percent year-over-year in the third quarter. The industry produced $3 billion in title insurance premiums over the third quarter, up from $2.4 billion during the same period in 2011.

Freddie Mac may ramp up repurchase demands with intentions to begin including mortgage loans made in 2004 and 2005 in its repurchase reviews.

After remaining relatively flat for about a year, mortgage fraud is on the rise again, according to CoreLogic.

Mortgage fraud cases declined by 15 percent over the third quarter of this year, while the dollar amount involved in mortgage fraud cases declined by just 6 percent, according to the Third Quarter 2012 Mortgage Fraud Index released Monday by MortgageDaily.com. This disparity in declines points to an increase in the amount of money involved in each case during the quarter, according to Mortgage Daily. The total dollar amount of loans involved in mortgage fraud cases in Q3 was $1.7 billion, up from $1.3 billion in the same period last year.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) has been elected chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Hensarling replaces Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) who headed the committee for the past six years.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinanced more than 90,000 mortgages through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) in September.

Amid an improving commercial real estate market, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) predicts declining vacancy rates in all sectors of commercial real estate in the coming year. The greatest vacancy decline is expected among office properties. Office vacancies should fall about one percentage point over the year, dropping from 16.7 percent to 15.7 percent. While the smallest vacancy decline is expected in the multifamily sector, NAR states there is "a full recovery already in the multifamily market."

Consumer sentiment regarding personal finances was down in November, indicating Americans foster a more negative perception about their own finances than they did last year, according to Bankrate's Financial Security Index. Bankrate measures financial security in five categories: debt, net worth, savings, job security, and overall financial situation. Net worth was the one category in which Americans seem to feel somewhat better than they did last year.

Home prices rose just slightly over the month of September, demonstrating a 0.1 percent increase from August, according to Lender Processing Services' Home Price Index, which analyzes home prices in more than 15,500 ZIP codes each month. The modest increase lines up with the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which came in under expectations. While the 0.1 percent increase is slight, LPS does report more significant change on a yearly and year-to-date basis.

Originations for one- to four-family homes have risen steadily over the year, yet refinances made up a bulk of the activity recorded to date.