Mortgage fraud proved its staying power in headlines for 2011, even with incidents for fraudulent loan applications reportedly on the decline from the year before. MReport offers a year in review and a look at how lenders and servicers continue to fight fraud into the New Year.

Current and former GSE executives entered national conversations in late 2011 as several retired from their positions, lawmakers took a hard look at multimillion-dollar bonuses, and one member of Congress charged that some senior-level executives received discounted loans in exchange for influence. Daniel Mudd's leave of absence from Fortress follows a series of resignations by Freddie Mac CEO Ed Haldeman, Chairman John Koskinen, and several other board members, with uncertainty over why their resignations went forward at the same time.

Home sales followed a rocky road in 2011, as concerns over credit ratings, mounting public debt, and the potential for a double-dip recession forced homebuyers to the sidelines. MReport takes a look back at this year├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós home sales ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô and looks forward to figures in 2012. This week the National Association of Realtors reported home sales leaping forward 4 percent to crest at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million in November, up from 4.25 million in October and 12.2 percent above 3.94 million-unit figures recorded in November last year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released a house price index Thursday that tracked a 0.2-percent shortfall in prices on a seasonally adjusted basis from September to October. The FHFA releases home price indices each month to denote figures for home prices from across the country. September├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós 0.9-percent upswing entered a downward revision that saw home prices fall 2.8 percent, with the U.S. index 19.2 percent below a peak seen in April 2007. Census divisions from the report included regions from across the country, which by and large saw marginal downward revisions from September to October.

Interest rates for mortgage loans slammed into new lows just before a holiday break, with investors hewing close to the safety of U.S. Treasury debt. Finance Web site Bankrate.com and mortgage company Freddie Mac released their findings in separate weekly surveys. Freddie Mac found the 30-year loan falling to 3.91 percent this week, the lowest this year, as it rocketed past a previous rock-bottom rate of 3.94 percent. Bankrate.com meanwhile found the 30-year fixed-mortgage reaching a second all-time low for the week, as rates for the loan ticked up from 4.19 percent to crest at 4.20 percent.

Home values continued on a downward-facing slope by declining 0.3 percent in October, with more to come over 2012, according to real estate Web site Zillow. The company released a monthly Zillow Real Estate Market Report that found monthly depreciation rates nonetheless stabilizing as the housing market bottoms out. Zillow found declines for home values year-over-year by 5.1 percent to $147,900, as home values declined by 23.7 percent since peaking in May 2007.

Mortgage applications fell 2.6 percent from the week before as mortgage rates slammed into news lows, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. The Market Composite Index, a measure of loan application volume, contracted by 2.8 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis from the week before, while the Refinance Index fell 1.6 percent during the same time frame. The Purchase Index meanwhile dropped 4.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week earlier, compared with a 7.5-percent shortfall for the same on a seasonally unadjusted basis.

A pickup in job growth and record-low mortgage rates helped fast-track housing starts to their strongest performance in nearly two years in November, with rental property construction ahead of single-family home starts. Housing starts surged by 9.3 percent month-over-month to hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000, up from 627,000 in October. The Commerce Department reported the data Tuesday via the Census Bureau. Continuing trouble in the euro zone helps keep mortgage rates at record lows.

The House voted to send a payroll tax extension bill into a bicameral committee Tuesday, increasing uncertainty over whether Congress will include a pay-as-you-go provision that would hike fees on lenders originating mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Senate version of the legislation passed earlier this weekend with stipulations that would raise mortgage fees on lenders with GSE loans by one-tenth of 1 percent, and extend the payroll tax for two months, according to news outlets.

A congressional investigation turned up evidence that Countrywide Financial Corp. lavished four members of Congress and an unknown number of GSE executives with discounted mortgages between 1996 and 2008, Rep. Darrell Issa said Friday. Issa addressed members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which he chairs, by releasing an open letter to the public. He did not disclose the names of any members of Congress implicated by evidence in the investigation.