With National Homeownership Month well underway, new research from Bankrate.com found that Arizona hosts three metro areas in the top ten cities for senior citizens to retire, while New York hosts some of the worst areas to retire. Phoenix, Arizona was named as the best place to retire, while New York City was named the worst city to retire.

Law360's John Kennedy reported that a New York state jury found Abacus Federal Savings Bank not guilty of residential mortgage fraud, falsifying business records, and grand larceny charges on Thursday, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.'s office confirmed to the site.

According to a recent press release, Rep. Steve Israel (D-New York) and Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania) have introduced bipartisan legislation to help improve efforts to end homelessness among our nation’s veterans. The Homeless Veterans Assistance Fund Act of 2015 or H.R. 2591, creates the Homeless Veterans Assistance Fund, according to the release. If this legislation is passed, taxpayers will have a chance to help keep nearly 50,000 veterans off the streets by making an optional contribution to the fund on their federal income tax return form.

Ernst Publishing Company, the leading provider of technology and closing cost data for the real estate and home finance industries for the past 25 years, recently announced that Chris Dufault, an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, will join the company as director of product management. In his new role, Dufault will lead a team that will direct the company’s future product development as well as the enhancement of the company’s industry leading offerings.

American Tax and Property Reporting, Inc. (ATPR), announced in a press release that Shannon Cobb has been hired to join its leadership team as EVP reporting to President, Alok Datta. ATPR, a subsidiary of SLK Global, is a provider of technology focused solutions for the real estate and settlement services industry.

Amidst the positive May job reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer attitudes concerning the housing market showed vast improvement for the month of May, according to results from Fannie Mae's May 2015 National Housing Survey. These positive changes also support the case for an increase in housing activity this year.

Alliant National Title Insurance Company, a title insurance underwriter that partners with independent agents to improve their competitive position in the marketplace, recently announced in a press release the promotion of Jeff Stein to SVP and Southeast regional counsel after five years of working with the company.

Black Knight Financial Services recently released their April 2015 Mortgage Monitor finding that the refinance share of the mortgage origination market was over 50 percent in the first quarter of 2015, a first since the third quarter of 2013. Black Knight reviewed refinance originations as a share of the total market in the report. Black Knight reviewed refinance originations as a share of the total market in the report. They also examined the tightening of current credit score requirements when dealing with both refinance and purchase originations.

Deutsche Bank recently released research titled “The Outlook in MBS and Securitized Products” finding that although a large piece of the market focuses on bank demand for mortgage-backed securities (MBS), not much focus has been placed on the shape of that demand. The report also noted that banks are adding longer lengths on MBS that would drop in value as rates go up.

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland economist Daniel Hartley and Nathaniel Baum-Snow, a professor at Brown University found that for over four decades, the demographic compositions in and near the downtown areas in medium and large U.S. cities have shifted. The residents in these areas make more money, receive better educations, and are not likely to be minorities.