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On Monday, the United States Census Bureau will release its Construction Spending study for February 2017. The report will cover all areas of construction, including single-family residential. The previous study, for January 2017, revealed an increase in single-family construction, both month-over-month and year-over-year. Did this trend of growth continue?

For families wanting affordable housing and great school districts, an analysis by the New York Times shows it’s going to require a longer commute. There are suburban “sweet spots,” the article posits, but they’re further out from cities like Boston, Chicago, and New York. Lexington, Massachusetts, was just one of these sweet spots mentioned.

According to a Progress Report released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency on Wednesday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have made significant movement on goals set forth by FHFA in the 2016 Scorecard. The report notes credit risk transfer programs that reduce taxpayer risk and improved access to credit as just a few of the developments in the last year.

The Demand index, based on Redfin customer requests for home tours and writing offers, shows that buyers requesting tours were down 8.2 percent while buyers requesting writing offers were down 7.7 percent month-over-month. Redfin blames the slight reduction in demand on the small inventory.

With an uncertain regulatory environment, new data requirements, and promising technological opportunities all intersecting, mortgage originators face a winding road as they navigate through 2017.

The intent of a proposal from the CFPB is to provide additional flexibility for mortgage lenders in the collection of consumer ethnicity and race information. The proposed amendments should provide greater clarity to lenders regarding their obligations under the law, and according to the CFPB will promote compliance with rules intended to ensure customers are treated fairly.

The plans are ambitious. According to FHFA’s update report on Release 2, the agency has two main objectives in undertaking the UMBS initiative. The first is to establish a single, liquid market for the mortgage-backed securities issued by both GSEs that are backed by fixed-rate loans. The second is to maintain the liquidity of the that market over time.

The Fed raised rates in 2017, and with two more rate increases this year likely, potential homebuyers will get into the market in order to buy a house before rates go any higher.

Fifty-six percent of renters feel that now is a good time to buy a home, which is down from 57 percent last quarter, and down even further from 62 percent a year ago. Comparatively, 80 percent of homeowners feel now is a good time to buy.

The goal of a recent Committee on Financial Regulations hearing was “examine the unconstitutional structure of the CFPB and how it has yielded unaccountability to Congress and the executive branch.” Additionally, the committee looked at ways in which the bureau may be restructured in order to make the Bureau more Constitutional and more accountable.