News

The Commerce Department said Monday that construction spending rose 0.4 percent month-over-month throughout December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $982.1 billion. November's spending rate was revised slightly upward to a seasonally adjusted $978.6 billion, still reflecting a decline from the month prior.

The proposed requirements include minimums for net worth, capital ratio, and liquidity criteria that must be met by servicers and sellers to do business with the GSEs.

In findings released Monday, Bankrate.com revealed that out of 1,000 adults polled last month, more than three in five would prefer to own a home instead of renting, even if mortgage rates jump by more than a full percentage point above their current level. As of last week, Bankrate's measure for the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 3.80 percent.

The mortgage portfolio expanded by 4.5 percent—an increase of $7.14 billion—up to an estimated $1.91 trillion in December. It was the highest annualized growth rate for any one month seen in Freddie Mac's portfolio since December 2009, when it grew by 5.7 percent.

Property data firm CoreLogic reported that both the sources and frequency of mortgage fraud have transitioned from an alarming level after the crisis to a more "normal" state. There is one exception, however: Home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), which have seen fraud risk rise along with demand for loans over the past year and a half.

In Maryland, Aspen Grove Solutions announced the appointment of James Hall to the position of SVP of sales and business development.

The University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters Index of Consumer Sentiment came to 98.1 in its final January gauge, the group conducting the survey reported. While down slightly from a mid-month reading of 98.2, the index is still higher than it's been in the last 11 years.

The recent hot spots for flipping include California and parts of the South, according to Trulia. Six of the top 10 metro areas where flips represented the highest share of home sales were located in California, two were in Tennessee (Nashville and Knoxville), and Florida (Fort Lauderdale) and Massachusetts (Cambridge-Newton-Framingham) had one each in the top 10.

In a first-look report, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an annualized rate of 2.6 percent in 2014's fourth quarter, sharply down from 5.0 percent growth in the third quarter. Economists had projected an annualized increase of 3.2 percent.

In a release, the bureau detailed a number of proposed revisions it hopes will increase options for community banks and other smaller mortgage lenders who may have been adversely impacted by last year's newly implemented rules.