Government

Mortgage debt for U.S. households was roughly unchanged quarter-over-quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Household Debt and Credit report. Mortgage debt stood at $8.03 trillion in Q4, making up the largest component of household debt. At the same time, overall consumer debt increased by $31 billion to $11.34 trillion, a slight 0.3 percent increase from the third quarter. Despite the growth, the report noted consumer debt has still seen a significant decline after peaking at $12.68 trillion.

LendingQB, a California-based company specializing in loan origination technology solutions and services, announced the successful implementation of its Web-based, end-to-end mortgage lending platform for OGI Mortgage Bankers, a fast-growing lender based in Los Angeles.

GMH Mortgage Services LLC, a nationally recognized mortgage bankers headquartered in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, announced the hiring of Penny Smith as VP of processing. Smith has more than 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry. She most recently worked at New Penn Financial, where she managed an operations channel for the company.

Employment in the mortgage industry reached a post-crisis high in 2012, according to data from Mortgage Daily's Mortgage Employment Index. The index showed a gain of 2,571 jobs during last year's fourth quarter, making it the sixth straight quarter to post an increase. However, job growth wasn't as strong as the third quarter, which saw 2,926 mortgage jobs created. For the entire year, the mortgage industry gained 8,978 new jobs, more than twice what was gained in 2011 (4,320).

Construction spending came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $883.3 billion January, a 2.1 percent monthly drop, the Census Bureau reported Friday. January's figure sits 7.1 percent above January 2012's spending estimate of $824.7 billion. December's estimate was revised upward to $902.6 billion from an originally reported $885.0 billion. Residential construction spending in the private sector was an estimated $304.6 billion, essentially flat month-over-month and up 22.0 percent year-over-year.

Caliber Funding LLC, a leading national residential mortgage lender headquartered in Dallas, Texas, announced the appointment of Tammy Richards as its SVP of operations. Richards has more than three decades of leadership experience in mortgage banking and extensive expertise in process improvement, quality management, technology, and leadership development.

The President has tried repeatedly to describe the impact of sequestration, a mandatory across-the-board cut in federal spending exempting only a small handful of social safety net programs. Despite those exemptions, a simple fact is that people will die as a result of these cuts, and lives could be changed irrevocably. The tragedy in this is not what might happen, although that's pretty severe long-term. The tragedy is both Democrats and Republicans have the means to fix it without having to resort to face-saving techniques.

Signs of expanding employment lifted the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, according to a release issued Friday.

The Warren Group ranked Norcom Mortgage, a privately-owned mortgage lender, No. 1 for purchase lending in its recent Residential Mortgage MarketShare Report.

Guardian Real Estate Services LLC, a Portland, Oregon-based real estate management, investment, and development firm, announced last week a new commitment to social equity and diversity. Guardian's newly-announced commitment includes intentions to continue to promote diversity within the company.