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The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that Comptroller Thomas J. Curry has been named chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) for a two-year term.

Construction spending rose 1.2 percent month-over-month in February, according to the Census Bureau. Spending rose both in the public and private sectors. On an annual basis, construction spending was up 7.9 percent in February, reaching an annual rate of $885.1 billion. Combined, construction spending in January and February totaled $120.1 billion, which is 6.6 percent above the spending observed in the first two months of last year.

Bradford Technologies Inc. announced the launch of CompCruncher 3, the third generation of the technology "that introduced statistical analysis into collateral valuations."

Sometimes a story just fits--and sometimes it doesn't. Given that maxim, the explanation from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) for the drop in the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) for February has to be viewed with a jaundiced eye. According to the NAR, the PHSI dropped because of the low inventory of homes for sale. Of course, that wasn't offered as an explanation one month earlier, when the inventory of homes for sale dropped, and the PHSI increased.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a diversified mortgage servicing company operating in the Dallas area, says lenders, servicers, and investors are leaving money on the table by not doing their homework on oil and gas leases.

After showing disappointing preliminary numbers, the final Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Survey Index of Consumer Sentiment jumped to end March, according to the Surveys of Consumers group. The monthly index reached 78.6, coming in above February's reading of 77.6 and March 2012's reading of 76.2. Preliminary figures released mid-March showed an index reading of 71.8, and economists surveyed by Bloomberg came out with a median forecast of 72.6 for the month.

Jobs, consumer confidence, and the stock market have all been on the rise, and the manufacturing and service industries are experience growth "at a healthy pace," according to Fannie Mae.

In its latest US Housing Market Update, Capital Economics addresses the uneven gains seen between home purchase prices and rent costs over the last year. (The report cites January data from CoreLogic, which shows prices rising 9.8 percent year-over-year with rents rising only 2.7 percent in the same period.) The disparity is weighing on rental yields, threatening to drive out investors in a market still heavily reliant on them. However, property economist Paul Diggle sees no reason to worry just yet.

Personal income rose a solid $143.2 billion or 1.1% in February, dwarfing expectations and spending jumped $77.2 billion or 0.7%, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, reported Friday. The data suggest the personal spending component of Gross Domestic Product remained strong in the first quarter.

Mortgage Executive Magazine named Guaranteed Rate the No. 1 mortgage company in America. In addition to taking the top spot on the publication's annual list of the top 200 mortgage companies, Guaranteed Rate has more loan officers included in the top 1 percent of the industry professionals across the country and has the most number of loan officers in the top 200 than any other company, with 30 included on the list.