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The NAHB residential construction employment estimates include self-employed workers. Counting self-employed is particularly important in the home building industry since they traditionally make up a larger share of the labor force. According to the 2013 ACS, one out of four construction workers is self-employed, while an economy-wide average does not reach 10 percent of the employed labor force.

MBA filed complaint in the Federal District Court challenging the Administrator’s Interpretation, saying the document was inconsistent with 2004 regulation. More important to the case, the MBA argued the administrative ruling was procedurally invalid in light of the D.C. decision in the Paralyzed Veterans case, which ruled rule amendments can’t be made without notice and opportunity for comment because it violated the Administrative Procedure Act (ACA).

One area where Duncan said needs improvement in order for the prediction of the economy "dragging housing upward" to come true is in the area of wage gains. According to the BLS employment report released last week, the average hourly wage increased from January to February by only 3 cents up to $24.78 – after rising by 12 cents from December to January.

At a time where more and more people are moving into cities, Castro said there are 7.7 million low-income households that pay more than half their incomes on rent, and don’t receive any government assistance.

Cash sales made up 35 percent of all home sales in December 2014, according to data released by CoreLogic today. December marks the 24th consecutive month of declines in year-to-year share numbers, which has fallen each month since January 2013. Because of seasonality, cash sale comparisons are best when looking at year-to-year data. Cash transactions hit its peak in January 2011 when cash transactions made up 46.5 percent of total home sales. Before the housing crisis, the cash sale share of total home sales averaged at about 25 percent. If the trend of cash sales decline continues at the same rate, the share should reach 25 percent by the middle of 2017.

Benefits to lenders include greater efficiency, reduced expense and burden on loan officers and underwriting teams and better decisions on borrower qualification. EquityClear also enables lenders to reduce overall risk by ensuring a standardized process is applied to every loan and that liens are reviewed and cleared by a fully qualified, neutral third party. Borrowers benefit from less documentation and faster loan closings.

Level of affordability varies by state with Washington D.C., Hawaii and Alaska all being less affordable now than in the pre-bubble years. In Washington D.C. the current payment-to-income ratio is 40 percent, which is lower than the 62 percent ratio shown at the peak of the housing bubble. Michigan, Texas, and Florida currently have ratios under the national average, with Michigan having a low ratio at 16.9 percent.

MetLife admitted that from September 2008 through March 2012, it repeatedly certified for FHA insurance mortgage loans that did not meet HUD underwriting requirements. The bank admitted it was aware that a substantial percentage of these loans were not eligible for FHA mortgage insurance due to its own internal quality control findings.

Other metrics that changed little month-over-month in February, according to BLS, include the civilian labor force participation rate (62.8 percent, and it has remained between 62.7 and 62.9 since April 2014), the number of long-term unemployment persons, or those unemployed for more than 27 weeks (2.7 million), involuntary part-time workers, or workers employed part-time for economic reasons (6.6 million), persons marginally attached to the labor force (2.2 million), and discouraged workers, or those who are not currently looking for work because they believe there are no jobs available (732,000).

In the decision, Justice David Saxe wrote for a five-judge panel that the Bank of New York Mellon did not abuse discretion in arranging the settlement, but the court also said Barbara Kapnick, the state judge who approved the accord in January, erred in excluding claims by investors regarding loan modifications on the ground that the trustee didn’t properly investigate their strength, according to Reuters.