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Jeff Patmont got his home loan on his phone. The 30-year-old marketing manager for a medical-device company said he did almost everything electronically for the mortgage on his home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index is pursuing its slow climb, but still shows housing recovering unevenly across the nation.

A plan by the government-sponsored enterprises to begin collecting the new Closing Disclosure data is designed to promote Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan quality goals. But the initiative may also prompt broader use of e-signatures and paperless processing.

Commercial-mortgaged-backed, auto-loan and other securitizations use what is known as the swaps curve to price floating-rate deals. But pricing volatility is causing some to ask whether the market should go back to Treasuries after a 15-year hiatus.

Mortgage rates remained steady during the week ending Nov. 25, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Commercial mortgages bundled into securities will keep seeing their underwriting standards deteriorate from this year into 2016, said JPMorgan analysts in a report Wednesday.

The percentage of mortgage applications with defects declined in October, according to First American Financial Corp.

Pacific Investment Management Co. sued Citigroup Inc. over the bank's role as trustee for $13.8 billion of mortgage-backed securities made toxic when the housing bubble burst, leading to "substantial damages."

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday that conforming loan limits for mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain at existing levels except in 39 high-cost counties.

Morgan Stanley is readying a deal backed by 57 commercial mortgages.