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After a lengthy waiting period banks and title insurers are beginning to prosper once again from a strengthening mortgage market.

In Colorado, First Valuation named Ted Venhorst as national sales executive. Venhorst's real estate and financial services career has spanned nearly three decades, taking him through such nationally recognized companies as UPF Services, The CIT Group, NovaStar Mortgage, and IndyMac Bank.

Home prices continued to inch up in November, according to Lender Processing Services' (LPS) Home Price Index (HPI) for the month.

The NAR's Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) fell 4.3 percent to 101.7 in December, the sharpest month-over-month drop since April.

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday that the controversial recess appointments made by President Obama in January 2012--which includes the appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)--are "invalid from their inception." Administration officials insisted the president was acting correctly under the Constitution; critics argued that the Senate was not actually in recess and that the president was skirting around the confirmation process.

President Obama nominated Mary Jo White to serve as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to reports. Obama also renominated Richard Cordray as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Blueberry Systems, LLC, a Colorado-based mortgage and financial service technology provider, announced two new additions to its executive team.

In New York, Ernst Publishing Company announced that the firm's technology development team has begun leveraging the power and capabilities presented by the communities of Open-Source software.

According to Redfin's latest Real-Time Seller Survey, 81 percent of sellers believe home prices will rise in their area over the next year, up from 75 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. While the increase in seller confidence should translate to increased inventory, the results have yet to be seen. According to the survey, 49 percent of respondents indicated they were planning to sell, up from 45 percent in last quarter's survey. However, the percentage of respondents who indicated they were selling "right now" fell by nearly half.

The last few weeks have seen a deluge of new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other regulatory agencies, but a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the reform process is still coming along slowly. As of the end of 2012, GAO estimates regulators have issued rules for approximately 48 percent of the Dodd-Frank provisions that call for them. Most of the effective deadlines for those rules have not yet been reached, the agency says.