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The list of housing markets showing measurable improvement expanded by 29 metros in February to include a total of 98 entries on the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI), released recently. Thirty-six states are now represented by at least one market on the list. The index identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at least six consecutive months. The February index adds some metropolitan areas that have been particularly weak; this is due to the fact that the IMI measures improvement from a bottom, and some of the hardest hit markets are showing signs of coming off of extreme lows. Keeping this in mind, notable new entrants to list in February include Miami, Fla; Boston; Detroit; Kansas City, Mo.; Portland, Ore.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Salt Lake City.

CoreLogic® (NYSE: CLGX), a provider of information, analytics and business services, has released its first national Foreclosure Report, which provides monthly data on completed foreclosures, foreclosure inventory and 90+ delinquency rates.

Builder confidence in the 55+ housing market for single-family homes rose four points to 18 compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) 55+ Housing Market Index (HMI). “We are seeing increased optimism from builders in the 55+ housing segment,” says NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a home builder from Reno, Nev. “However, the market still remains weak as many people in the mature-market sector are hesitant to buy. They are concerned about selling their existing home at a fair price, due to low appraisals, an abundance of foreclosures and tighter mortgage lending criteria.”

Last Wednesday, February 1, President Obama announced the details of a plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages in hopes of bolstering the housing market. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, this proposal will allow buyers to save an average of $3,000 a year by refinancing into loans backed by the FHA, if they are current on their mortgage. The plan is estimated to cost between $5 billion and $10 billion, which Obama plans to cover by pressing a fee on large banks.

The list of housing markets showing measurable improvement expanded by 29 metros in February to include a total of 98 entries on the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI),

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently invited investors interested in purchasing pools of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA foreclosures in the nation's hardest-hit metropolitan areas with the requirement they rent them for a period of years to pre-qualify.

Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average mortgage rates dropping to new all-time record lows as data on economic growth fell short of market projections.

(MCT)—Facebook has filed papers for what’s expected to be the largest initial public offering ever to come out of Silicon Valley and one of the largest in U.S. history. Ending months of breathless speculation, the 8-year-old social networking company has submitted registration documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that set a preliminary goal of raising $5 billion. Facebook is expected to be valued at $75 billion to $100 billion. Final pricing will not be set for months, and the size of the IPO probably will increase with investor demand. The filing sets the stage for an IPO in May.

Mortgage applications decreased 2.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 27, 2012.

A ProPublica–NPR news story recently suggested that a mortgage financing vehicle utilized by Freddie Mac may be preventing homeowners from refinancing. While FHFA does not typically comment on its supervisory activities, the circumstances here require some clarification, according to the FHFA, who issued the following response: Freddie Mac has historically used the structuring of Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs) as a tool to manage its retained portfolio and to address issues associated with security performance. A particular CMO structure employed by Freddie Mac resulted in the creation of “inverse floaters.”

(MCT)—The lower-than-expected annualized growth rate of 2.8 percent reported Friday for the final three months of 2011 raises doubts about the strength of the U.S. recovery, and concerns that 2012 may be another year of muddling along. Most mainstream economists had expected the fourth-quarter number to come in at 3 percent or higher, and the lower final number from the Commerce Department meant that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent for all of last year. That’s below 2010’s growth rate of 3 percent for the nation’s gross domestic product, the sum of goods and served produced in the U.S. economy. It points to a tepid recovery after the deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

Mortgage originations plunged 10.1 percent from November to December, continuing a decline from 2011’s September peak. At the same time, loans originated over the last two years have proved to be some of the best quality originations on record.

Despite a challenging real estate market, the industry’s leading residential brokerage firms continue to demonstrate resiliency and growth, and will prove this by participating in RISMedia’s 24th Annual Power Broker Report & Survey. As the industry’s preeminent report ranking the industry’s top brokerages, this listing of the real estate industry’s “who’s who” has long served as an important differentiator and competitive tool for real estate firms across the country. To complete the survey now, please click here. The survey deadline is February 24, 2012.

In a year when breaking even on year-over-year home sales might be considered a lofty goal for some real estate companies, Blue Ridge, Georgia's Coldwell Banker High Country Realty, has reported a 49 percent increase in homes sold in 2011 over the previous year. What’s their secret? Broker/Owner June Slusser says it’s all about providing information, which she has done with the help of RISMedia’s Real Estate Information Network® (RREIN).

(MCT)—The Obama administration’s new effort to investigate the causes of the nation’s mortgage meltdown will focus on coordinating the often overlapping state and federal investigations and on holding accountable those whose misconduct led to the global financial crisis.