Kazwell.com

Consumer bankruptcy filings during August fell 8 percent from July, the American Bankruptcy Institute reported.

The decline followed a bounce in July.

Year-to-date Aug. 31, 2010, filings totaled 1,034,843.

The public was invited on July 15 to comment on three U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development initiatives designed to help restore the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund capital reserve account.

More than 900 comments were received by the comment deadline on Aug. 16, a public filing Friday said.

The "overwhelming majority" of the comments addressed the proposed 3 percent limitation on seller concessions.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported last week that reverse mortgage originations climbed to 5,901 loans for a maximum claim amount of $1.5 billion in July from 5,304 loans endorsed for $1.3 billion a month earlier.

It was the second month in a row of gains.

In August, according to the Reverse Market Insight newsletter, reverse mortgage production increased 13 percent.

In an appearance before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, regulators testified about the why there was disparate treatment in the resolution of Washington Mutual Inc. and Wachovia Corp.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s chairman said the FDIC had known for months that WaMu was in trouble.

But with Wachovia it didn't know until very late in the game how dire the situation was.

In addition, Wachovia was deemed systemically important.

The number of mortgage jobs was up by 2,300 positions in July, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Headcount in "real estate credit" was up by nearly 3,000 jobs.

But "mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers" saw their numbers decline by around 500 positions, the government data indicated.