Headlines

The ongoing tension between the Justice Department and the House Oversight Committee saw a new development this week as Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), committee chair and vocal critic of Attorney General Eric Holder, requested the department turn over all of its documents related to its recent securities settlements with JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.

DocuWare, a provider of document management solutions headquartered in New York, announced the successful connection of its own system with Objectif Lune's PlanetPress document workflow tool.

Credit standards at large lenders appear to be loosening somewhat, while criteria at small and mid-sized lenders appear to be tightening, according to a new survey from Fannie Mae. Lenders that reported tightening credit standards most often stated "changing regulatory requirements" as the rationale for their stricter standards.

Jesse Litvak, registered broker-dealer and former managing director at investment bank Jefferies & Co., Inc., was sentenced this week to two years in federal prison in connection to his conviction for defrauding consumers trading in residential mortgage-backed securities, the office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced.

In its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, Freddie Mac recorded a 4.13 percent average interest rate (0.6 point) for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) product for the week ending July 24, unchanged from last week's survey results. The latest movement—or lack of movement—among interest rates follows news of mixed activity in the housing market in June.

Real estate website Zillow is reportedly making moves to acquire rival site Trulia in a deal that could see the merging of two of the country's most popular online real estate resources.

The national housing market moved slightly farther away from stability in May as applications for home purchase mortgages remained subdued. Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) for the month slipped to a value of -2.64 in May, indicating a slightly weaker market than in April, when the index measured -2.59.

RealtyTrac released Thursday its latest statistics on home equity for the second quarter, reporting continue declines in the number of U.S. properties considered "seriously" underwater. According to the company 9.1 million homes are now considered seriously underwater, representing 17.2 percent of all homes nationwide. There's still a long way to go, however, especially as annual home price appreciation keeps coming down.

In Georgia, FormFree Holdings Corporation has successfully patented its AccountChek product, the world's first automated asset verification system.

The Commerce Department reported on Thursday that sales of new homes in June were at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of 406,000, reflecting a decline of 8.1 percent from May. May's sales rate, originally reported at 504,000, was revised down to 442,000, erasing much of the 18.6 percent gain that had been recorded previously.