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SharperLending LLC, a technology provider for the mortgage industry, announced Thursday that it has re-designed one of its key products, its Appraisal Firewall. The new version of the firewall allows for more integration between appraisers and lenders.

Consumer spending grew just 0.3 percent in April, up slightly from 0.2 percent in March, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. Economists had expected spending to be up 0.3 percent. At the same time, personal income grew 0.2 percent in April, BEA said, compared with market expectations of a 0.

The economy added just 69,000 jobs in May compared with a revised 77,000 in April down from the originally reported 115,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. The closely watched unemployment rate inched up to 8.2 percent ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô a function of an increase in the nation├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós labor force to the highest level ever. Payroll gains for March and April were revised, subtracting 11,000 from the last published numbers for March and 38,000 from the preliminary report for April. A sharp drop in construction jobs ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô 28,000 ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô led payrolls down.

After filing suit in January 2010 for predatory lending practices, the city of Memphis, Tennessee, and Shelby County have dropped charges against Wells Fargo. The two parties reached an agreement that requires the mortgage giant to commit $7.5 million to homeownership initiatives. Of the total, $4.5 million will go to down payment and home renovation assistance in amounts up to $15,000 for qualifying families and individuals. The city of Memphis and Shelby County will receive the remaining $3 million.

Three mortgage insurers wrote $7.1 billion in newly originated primary mortgage insurance in April, up from $3.7 billion last year, according to the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America. MICA said that the companies, including Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., and Radian Guaranty Inc., fielded new primary insurance from $6.7 billion in March. Some 30,575 borrowers used private mortgage insurance to buy or refinance their homes in April. The insurers reported 22,569 defaults and 20,678 cures in April.

As the debt crisis in Europe continues to worsen and investors look to Treasury bonds for security, fixed mortgage rates fell to all-time record lows in the last week of May. According to the results of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed averaged 3.75 percent with an average 0.8 point for the week ending May 31. This is down from 3.88 percent the previous week and 4.55 percent at the same time last year. The 15-year fixed rate mortgage also fell, bringing three of the four benchmark mortgage rates under 3 percent.

First time claims for unemployment insurance rose to 383,000 up from the prior week├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós 373,000, revised up from the previously reported 370,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists had expected the report would be unchanged at 370,000 initial claims.

Despite record-low mortgage rates, mortgage applications fell 1.3 percent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade group found that mortgage loan application volume declined by a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent. It fell 1.6 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis.The Refinance Index climbed down by 1.5 percent from the week before, with declines on the way for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index by 0.6 percent. The same index went down by a seasonally unadjusted 1.8 percent.

In a study the first of its kinds, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported Wednesday in urban areas across three regions of the country owning a home near a national wildlife refuge increases home value and helps support the surrounding community's tax base. The survey, conducted by economic researches at the University of North Carolina, found three regions that showed a home value increase: 7 percent to 9 percent in the Southeast, 4 percent to 5 percent in the Northeast, and 3 percent to 6 percent in California and Nevada. Tourism to the refuges also plays a role in in the increase.

In what the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau called an important step in the development of our nonbank supervision program, the CFPB officially proposed a rule last week to establish procedures for the bureau's supervision of nonbank financial entities. The Dodd-Frank Act grants the CFPB authority to supervise a nonbank that "it has reasonable cause to determine is posing a risk to consumers based on complaints or other information it receives."