Denver resident, 32-year-old Vicki Dillard Crowe was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release and a restitution payment of $2.4 million for mortgage fraud.

The FTC alleges Equifax sold more than 17,000 lists of people who met specific criteria, such as being late on their mortgage payments. Equifax is said to have sold the lists to Direct Lending Source, Inc., which in turn sold the lists to other third parties. The lists included information such as credit scores and detailed how many days past due consumers' mortgage payments were.

The legal proceedings between MBIA Insurance Corporation and Countrywide Home Loans turned into a blame game as the companies battled over liability.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released a revised GSE Strategic Plan for the years 2013-2017 Tuesday.

Wells Fargo has been ramping up its lobbying activities over the past several years. After spending just $620,000 on lobbying in 2002, a decade later the bank's spending is in the millions, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Housing followed finance as the second-most lobbied issue by Wells this year. In fact, the Housing Finance Reform Act of 2011 continues to be one of the top lobbied bills by the bank: Wells mentioned the bill in four reports throughout 2011, making the bank one of the most active clients for that piece of legislation.

John L. MacFarland is joining Stewart National Title Services as a national business development representative. In his new role, he will work to bring in new commercial business with particular focus on initiating business in the Midwest.

If current trends persist, this year may be the first year since 2006 the housing market records an annual price increase, according to a report released Thursday by Trulia. At the current rate of change, the year could close with a 4 percent price annual price increase. Asking prices rose 2.5 percent year-over-year in September. When foreclosure sales are excluded, prices were up 3.5 percent. Month-over-month, asking prices were up 0.5 percent in September.

For the second week in a row, mortgage rates hit new record lows, and for the first time since mid-October 2009, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rate is lower than the 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) rate. Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist at Freddie Mac, attributes the falling rates to "mortgage securities purchases by the Federal Reserve and indicators of a weakening economy," such as slow personal income growth in August and last quarter's downwardly revised Gross Domestic Product.

Commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) delinquencies have posted substantial declines over the past two months, according to Trepp.

Radian Guaranty, Inc., a private mortgage insurer and subsidiary of the Radian Group, announced it will reward current insured borrowers through the Responsible Homeowner Reward program, which is administered by Loan Value Group LLC, a company founded in 2008 to provide borrower incentives to protect investors and servicers.