The housing industry has been a constant contest among homebuyers, and although competition eased up slightly last year, buyers wanting to purchase homes in the most coveted areas have not had much of a break. FindTheHome.com recently released a report titled “The 50 Most Competitive Housing Markets of 2015” that lists 50 of the most sought-after metro areas for homebuyers.

Yesterday, as mortgage rates crept up to 4 percent this week for the first time since November 2014, consumers responded with a decrease of mortgage applications by 9 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) data for May 2015.

Borrowers who owe more money to banks than their home is worth is slowing decreasing, however more than half of these borrowers are stuck in an underwater free fall with little to no hope of resurfacing. According to Zillow’s first quarter Negative Equity Report released today, although the negative equity rate is falling, more than half or 4 million homeowners owed the bank at least 20 percent more than the worth of their home.

McLean Mortgage Corporation has announced it has hired Chad Freeman as the Bethesda, Maryland office branch manager, according to a recent press release. McLean provides turn-key service to real estate agents and customers and was recently was named the 6th Largest Mortgage Lender in the Washington, DC area by the Washington Business Journal.

In an effort to eliminate discrimination within the HUD and DOT programs and raise awareness during pride month in June, U.S. Congressman Scott Peters (D-California) proposed an amendment on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives requesting non-discrimination provisions and LGBT equality in federal housing and transportation programs

Increases in home prices and the stock market pushed household wealth to nearly 85 trillion for the first quarter of 2015, according to the Federal Reserve’s Statistical Release titled “Financial Accounts of the United States” released today. The net worth of households and nonprofits rose increased by $1.63 trillion to $84.9 trillion during the first quarter of 2015. Meanwhile, the value of directly and indirectly held corporate equities increased $487 billion and home values rose $503 billion.

In response to the positive Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment data released on Monday, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose above four percent this week for the first time since November 2014. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), revealed that the average fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.02 percent for the week ending June 11, 2015.

For the 27th consecutive month, cash sales made have fallen to 34.6 percent of total home sales nationally in March 2015, down from 39 percent in March 2014, according to CoreLogic data released today.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services recently announced that former federal regulator Sandra Braunstein will provide compliance management and Community Reinvestment Act consulting services to the company’s U.S. banking clients.

A bipartisan group of Senate Banking Committee members wrote a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) requesting that the agency expand and provide better transparency of the development of the credit risk transfer programs. These programs shift credit risk from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the private sector, according to a press release.