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The CFPB has updated the 2018 Institutional Coverage Chart, 2018 Transactional Coverage Chart, and Key Dates Timeline on its HMDA Implementation webpage to reflect the changes made in the Bureau's 2017 HMDA Final Rule amending Regulation C.

FDIC FIL-46-2017, issued yesterday, announces steps intended to provide regulatory relief to financial institutions and facilitate recovery in areas of Puerto Rico and St. Croix affected by Hurricane Maria.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has released its second quarter Foreclosure Prevention Report, which shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 48,760 foreclosure prevention actions in the second quarter of 2017, bringing the total number of troubled homeowners helped to 3,931,224 since the start of the conservatorships in September 2008.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has requested input on its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2018-2022. The FHFA's draft strategic plan reflects the agency's priorities as regulator of the Federal Home Loan Bank System and as regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Comments will be accepted through October 27, 2017.

President Trump has declared that a major disaster exists for the Seminole Tribe of Florida and ordered federal aid to supplement the Tribe’s efforts in the areas affected by Hurricane Irma beginning on September 4, 2017, and continuing. The action makes federal funding available to affected individuals of the Tribe and its associated lands. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.

The CFPB has issued a consent order against Meridian Title Corporation, South Bend, Indiana, ordering the real estate settlement agent and title insurance agency to pay up to $1.25 million in redress to affected consumers and to stop steering consumers to Arsenal Insurance Corporation, a title insurer owned in part by several of Meridian's executives without disclosing its relationship to the title insurer, in exchange for referral payments from the title insurer. Meridian was also ordered to stop violating the law and to start providing the required disclosures. For additional information, see our Penalty page.

The NCUA has posted an article detailing the disaster-recovery assistance available to the eight federally chartered credit unions headquartered in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

At the "Prospects for Growth: Reassessing the Fundamentals" 59th Annual Meeting of the National Association for Business Economics, in Cleveland, Ohio, Federal Reserve Board Chair Yellen discussed inflation, uncertainty, and monetary policy. Dr. Yellen reviewed recent inflation developments and the economic outlook; the uncertainty about the inflation outlook; resource utilization; inflation expectations; misspecified inflation dynamics; and policy implications. She concluded, "standard empirical analyses support the FOMC's outlook that, with gradual adjustments in monetary policy, inflation will stabilize at around the FOMC's two-percent objective over the next few years, accompanied by some further strengthening in labor market conditions. But the outlook is uncertain, reflecting, among other things, the inherent imprecision in our estimates of labor utilization, inflation expectations, and other factors. As a result, we will need to carefully monitor the incoming data and, as warranted, adjust our assessments of the outlook and the appropriate stance of monetary policy. But in making these adjustments, our longer-run objectives will remain unchanged — to promote maximum employment and two-percent inflation."

The NMLS has announced that, as a part of a system upgrade to the NMLS Resource Center, all existing subscriptions to the RSS feeds for the Federal Registry News will be deleted on October 2. Users must resubscribe in order to continue receiving the RSS feed, and can do so by clicking this link on or after October 2, 2017.

HUD and the Census Bureau have issued the report of new residential sales for August 2017.

• NEW HOME SALES: Sales of new single-family houses in August 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000, 3.4 percent below the revised July rate of 580,000, and 1.2 percent below the August 2016 estimate of 567,000.
• SALES PRICE: The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2017 was $300,200. The average sales price was $368,100.
• FOR SALE INVENTORY AND MONTHS' SUPPLY: The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 284,000. This represents a supply of 6.1 months at the current sales rate.