Origination

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray recently presented the agency's budget to lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee.

Zillow, Inc., has named a new vice president of partner relations, with the announcement that Robert D. Bemis has been appointed to the leadership role. In his new position for the online real estate company, Bemis will be responsible for creating new partnerships with real estate brokers and agents, as well as multiple listing services (MLS) around the nation.

The story for mortgage rates stayed the same Thursday, with the specter of sovereign default keeping investors close to Treasury debt and interest for home loans at all-time lows. Both GSE Freddie Mac and finance Web site Bankrate.com reported yet more troughs for fixed-rate mortgages, failing to break with more than two months of low interest rates for home loans. For Freddie, the 30-year loan remained unchanged from last week at 3.87 percent, even while Bankrate.com found new record-breaking lows for the same at 4.10 percent, down from 4.14 percent last week.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell 13,000 for the week ending February 11 to 348,000 to the lowest level since March 2008, the Labor Department said Thursday. Continuing claims, reported on a one-week lag, fell as well, dropping 100,000 to 3,426,000, the lowest level since August 2008. The drop in initial claims was the third consecutive weekly decline; in that period first-time claims have fallen 31,000, or about 8 percent. The total number of individuals receiving benefits ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô including emergency and extended programs ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô rose slightly for the week ended January 28.

Housing starts rose 1.5 percent in January to 699,000, compared with market expectations for a smaller increase to 675,000. Housing starts are 9.9 percent above their year ago level but still 69.2 percent below their January 2006 peak. Single-family housing starts fell 1.0 percent to 508,000. Starts fell month-month in the colder northeast and Midwest but increased in the south and west. Single-family starts are 16.2 percent above levels of a year ago but still 72.1 percent below their January 2006 peak. Single-family starts have averaged 491,000 per month.

Mortgage application volume fell 1 percent from the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Releasing the latest weekly figures, the trade group said that mortgage applications remained unchanged on a seasonally unadjusted basis.The Refinance Index went up by 0.8 percent to crest at the highest level since August last year, while the Purchase Index contracted by 8.4 percent from the week before. It fell by 3.3 percent on an unadjusted basis.

The mortgage subsidiary for Citigroup settled claims that it misrepresented government-backed loans Wednesday by agreeing to pay $158.3 million in damages. The payout means that CitiMortgage acknowledges that it qualified nearly 30,000 bad loans for government insurance, a move that bilked the Federal Housing Administration out of millions of dollars as more than 30 percent of the mortgages went into default. The settlement resolves a suit filed by the civil fraud unit at the office of Manhattan U.S. attorney.

Modifications to the Home Affordable Refinance Program will likely benefit small loan originators this year, even while refinance share of activity beats market expectations, FBR Capital Markets said in a note Wednesday. Paul Miller, an analyst with the research arm of the investment bank, attributed the information to D.C. insiders and government contacts, which hold that approximately 3.5 million to 4 million loans will enter the refinance program this year.

The National Home Builders Association released a housing market index that improved to 29 in February, its highest level since May 2007, with all three of the components showing new strength. The trade group said that it was the fifth consecutive monthly increase, the longest stretch of consecutive monthly increases since April- October 1995. The current conditions index rose to 30, a five-point jump, the largest month-over-month gain since April 2010. The forecast component, assessing conditions six months out.

Carrington Capital Management has finalized a legal agreement with American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. The transaction concludes a lawsuit filed by Carrington against AHMSI in 2009.The terms of the settlement are confidential and no additional details were made available regarding the closure of the legal matter. In an official statement from Carrington Holding Company, LLC, the company noted that the recent deal "resolves the disputes reflected in the action, along with any other disputes between the parties in the past."