Government

Billing itself as the first group of its kind, America's Homeowner Alliance was launched by a team of industry veterans and an advisory board of housing industry professionals as well as prominent consumer groups and fair housing organizations.

As the market trudges toward recovery, housing starts remain depressed due to a shortage of vacant lots, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

Residential construction spending edged up in July, according to numbers from the Census Bureau. Overall, construction spending was at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of $900.8 billion in July, 0.6 percent above June's revised estimate of $895.7 billion and 5.2 percent ahead of July 2012's $856.3 billion. Spending on residential construction was at a pace of $340.6 billion, up 0.5 percent from June and 16.8 percent from July 2012.

Continuing to shrug off sequester cutbacks, but feeling the effects of adverse weather, the nation's economy "continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace" from early July though late August, the Federal Reserve reported in its Beige Book assessment. Residential real estate activity "increased moderately" and "demand for nonresidential real estate increased," though "lending activity weakened a bit." Lending standards have largely remained unchanged, while credit quality has improved.

Having served in an acting capacity since January 2013, Steven Antonakes has been officially named deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency announced.

In San Diego, ReverseVision, Inc., has updated its flagship ReverseVision product to integrate its powerful new ReverseAccessVision (RAV) module.

Equifax announced the availability of Equifax Dimensions, a new product created to deliver more in-depth picture of past credit behavior to predict future trends.

Stewart Lender Services (SLS), a leading provider of servicing and mortgage origination support services, has entered the capital space with its acquisition of key assets of Denver-based Allonhill, LLC., a due diligence and risk management firm.

Home prices as measured by CoreLogic increased 12.4 percent year-over-year in July, the company reported in its monthly Home Price Index (HPI) report. "Home prices continue to climb across the nation in July with markets hit hardest during the downturn leading the way," said CoreLogic president and CEO Anand Nallathambi. "Nationally, home prices are now within 18 percent of their peak levels reached in April of 2006." Meanwhile, the Pending HPI indicates that August 2013 home prices will rise 12.3 percent.

Republicans might adopt a wait-and-see approach to the nation's debt ceiling and not vote to increase it to see what might happen. That's playing with fire.