News

After sinking steadily for the last 10 months, new business activity has picked up a bit for Freddie Mac—though that didn't stop its portfolio from shrinking again. The mortgage giant released Wednesday its volume summary for April, recording a negative annualized growth rate of 3.0 percent for its total mortgage portfolio. It was the highest rate of contraction since October, when the portfolio shrank at a rate of 6.4 percent.

Refinance volumes dropped in the first quarter to a post-recession low, according to stats released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Meanwhile, the share of refinances done through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) continued to pull back, slipping to about 21 percent of total activity.

Mortgage information services firm Informative Research announced its successful completion of Experian's Independent Third Party Assessment (EI3PA) certification, an annual evaluation designed to grade companies on their work protecting the information they receive from Experian.

First-quarter bank earnings dropped more than $3 billion compared to last year as mortgage-related income fell, FDIC reported Wednesday. FDIC reported the decline was "mainly attributable to a $7.1 billion (10.7 percent) decline in noninterest income," about $4 billion of which came from decreased mortgage revenues as interest rates continued to rise.

Despite disappointing home sales in the first quarter of the year as winter storms took their toll, home prices increased 1.3 percent over the first three months of the year on a seasonally-adjusted basis for the purchase-only market, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). FHFA's principal economist, Andrew Leventis, cited "modest inventories of homes available for sale" as a major factor in the first-quarter increase.

In its efforts to continue growing in the private-label segment, LenderLive Network Inc. announced the hiring of Stephen J. Kolimaga as VP of national sales for the company's Outsource Services division.

Another FDIC-insured bank closed its doors over the long weekend, bringing the national tally to eight so far this year. According to a release from the agency, Columbia Savings Bank of Cincinnati, Ohio, was shut down by the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions. As of March 31, the closed bank had roughly $36.5 million in assets and $29.5 million in deposits, "essentially all" of which is going to Indiana-based United Fidelity Bank.

Following recent reports that the San Antonio mayor was being discussed to take over as HUD secretary, the White House has confirmed the nomination of Julián Castro for the position. Meanwhile, current HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan is headed to the White House Office of Management and Budget.

While home sales have largely struggled so far this year, there's one market segment that's actually holding up well, according to Redfin: the very highest price tier. "For the top 1 percent, the housing market is still booming," said Redfin analyst Troy Martin in a blog post. "But for the rest of the market, the recovery is running out of gas."

After dipping in April, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index saw modest improvement in May as optimism for the job market grew. The index rebounded to 83.0 in the latest reading, up from a downwardly revised 81.7 in April, the group reported Tuesday.