Market trends across the United States indicate a recovering real estate market—but not a bubble—according to the latest Home Value Forecast from Pro Teck Valuation Services. According to the forecast, the housing economy is in healthy rebound, so much so that even the markets showing the greatest appreciation are not near 2006 figures, when the market was at its historical peak.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's might be looking to strike a deal of up to $1 billion with the government to settle a suit filed last year, the Wall Street Journal reports. The suit alleges that S&P "knowingly and with the intent to defraud, devised, participated in, and executed a scheme to defraud investors" in collateralized debt obligations and securities backed by residential mortgages between September 2004 and October 2007.

Despite the best efforts of the federal government to allow those with dented and troubled credit to continue having access to mortgage loans, tight credit restrictions are still slowing the national housing recovery, according to a report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

On Wednesday, the Urban Institute (UI) issued a report finding that, based on the latest numbers, Ginnie's book of business is now at $1.5 trillion—a rate of growth that has tripled over the last seven years. What this means is that at its current rate of growth, Ginnie Mae will soon surpass Freddie Mac as the silver medalist in the single-family mortgage securitization platform game, behind Fannie Mae.

On Wednesday, four federal financial regulatory agencies and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) issued risk management guidelines for financial institutions that need to be aware of the challenges borrowers may face in paying off their home equity lines of credit after coming out of a recession.

A new report from the inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) urges the agency to "assess the merits of litigation" in dealing with servicers and providers accused of abusing lender-placed insurance practices. In 2012, lender-placed insurance issues cost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a combined $360 million, the report says.

The latest economic forecast from Fannie Mae shows that the underwhelming performance of the economy in the first three months of the year and a shrinking GDP have significantly dulled the optimism economists once had for the overall 2014 economy. Fannie stated that the rough U.S. first quarter has caused its Economic & Strategic Research Group to reduce 2014 economic growth expectations.

Given that nearly all the news about the homebuying market these past few years has focused on tight markets, lower-than-expected activity, and mortgages that keep circling the drain, it may seem easy to overlook a basic question—is anyone buying second homes these days? As it turns out, yes.

Despite a disappointing first quarter and a mediocre second quarter, Freddie Mac still expects the economy to improve throughout the second half of 2014. The company is, however, tempering its New Year's optimism. In its June U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook, released Thursday, Freddie offers a mid-year assessment that sees more humble growth across most sectors.

Speaking before an audience at the National Housing Conference Annual Policy Symposium in Washington, D.C., Mary Miller, the Department of the Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, painted a grim picture of housing finance as it stands, noting any perceived health at the GSEs has been the result of circumstances that wouldn't be matched in the private market.