Daily Dose

Rushmore's newest office, which opened in San Juan on November 3, is the third location for the firm, which services performing, re-performing, and non-performing loans. It is also the first branch to open outside of the continental United States.

Santa Ana, California's First American Financial Corporation recently announced the appointment of a new SVP for enterprise data strategy, naming Dianna Serio to the position. Serio has more than 25 years of experience in real estate information, focusing primarily on data product development, title plant management, data acquisition, manufacturing, and delivery options.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions has added to its online offerings with the recent acquisition of self-directed real estate marketplace Owners.com, the company announced this week. According to the announcement, Altisource purchased the company for $20 million at closing, with up to an additional $7 million in potential consideration based on revenue earned in the next two years.

MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, a closely watched measure of application volumes, dropped 4.3 percent for the week ending November 21, the group said Wednesday. The decline followed a 4.9 percent bump during the previous week, which included an adjustment for Veterans Day.

According to Freddie Mac's monthly volume summary, released Tuesday, the mortgage giant's total loan portfolio grew last month at an annualized rate of 2.5 percent, the highest growth rate since March 2013.

The Conference Board's index of consumer confidence declined to 88.7 in the group's November reading, according to a report. The drop follows a bump of more than five points in October to a post-recession high of 94.5 (revised to 94.1 in the latest measure).

Redfin reported a 2.2 percent increase in the number of homes sold in October compared to the same month last year, making it the first month to see a significant yearly increase in home sales so far in 2014. Redfin's data reinforces recent findings from the National Association of Realtors, which estimated October home sales at an adjusted annual rate of 5.26 million, an increase of 2.5 percent from last year.

According to a second estimate from the Commerce Department, GDP grew at an annualized rate of 3.9 percent in July, August, and September, down slightly from the second quarter's growth rate of 4.6 percent and up from the first quarter's 2.1 percent downturn.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices grew 4.8 percent annually at the national level in September, according to the latest update from S&P Dow Jones Indices. September's growth rate compares to a gain of 5.1 percent in August.

In an release, FHFA announced that the maximum limit for mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will stay at $417,000 for single-unit properties in most of the country, with a maximum of $625,500 for certain high-cost areas. Forty-six counties will see an increase based on their own local conditions.