The creditors' rights law firm ALAW announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement with JPMorgan Chase to purchase certain assets of the financial institution's West Coast trustee subsidiary, California Reconveyance Company. ALAW will acquire the subsidiary's operations in Chatsworth, California, along with its tenured staff of 82 residential and commercial foreclosure specialists.

The National Association of Realtors has honored the Miami Association of Realtors (MIAMI) with its prestigious Platinum Award as part of the national trade group's Global Achievement Program. MIAMI is one of just a handful of associations recognized with the program's highest honor and is the only association to achieve Platinum Council status each year since the program's inception in 2011.

The mortgage servicing industry is fielding a spate of new rules and regulations--49 mortgage reforms and 63 required rules related to consumer protection. With the regulatory intervention the industry is experiencing today, there is an increased and immediate need for system controls, certification of compliance, and information management controls--for both servicers and their outsourcing partners.

The real estate auction house Hudson & Marshall is putting more than 75 HUD-owned homes in the Seattle, and Tacoma, Washington area up for sale this weekend. The auction will be held at the Seattle Airport Marriott on Saturday, December 14 at 1:00 p.m. (PST). Hudson & Marshall is also offering live simulcast online bidding during the auction through its H&MLive! Web portal.

Title insurance premium volume rose 14 percent during the third quarter of 2013 when compared to the same period a year ago, according to the American Land Title Association (ALTA). Based on the national trade group's market share analysis for Q3, the title insurance industry generated $3.4 billion in premiums over the July-to-September period, compared to $3.0 billion in the third quarter of 2012.

The servicer assessment component of the Making Home Affordable (MHA) program has been enhanced with new compliance metrics and benchmarks to measure the impact of servicer performance on the borrower's experience. Individual servicer assessments are conducted quarterly to identify areas of non-compliance and drive improvements in servicers' execution of the federal program.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to raise their guarantee fees (g-fees). The g-fee increase consists of three components: the base fee for all mortgages will increase 10 basis points; the g-fee grid will be updated to ensure pricing is aligned with credit risk; and the adverse market fee of 25 basis points is being eliminated except in four states where foreclosure carrying costs are exponentially high.

Southwestern Pennsylvania saw a nearly 15 percent annual increase in the number of homes placed under sales agreement, according to the November housing report from the West Penn Multi-List, Inc. At the same time, the average number of days homes were on the market decreased by nearly 15 percent.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently published a notice in the Federal Register that new maximum foreclosure attorney fees will be allowed for loan terminations completed on or after December 12, 2013. Maximum fee amounts vary by state. There are no changes in the amounts allowed for deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure or bankruptcy releases, although VA continues to review these fees.

The national unemployment rate sank from 7.3 percent to 7.0 percent in November, with 203,000 new jobs added to employer payrolls, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday. The Labor Department counted 10.9 million unemployed persons in November. The number of long-term unemployed--those jobless for 27 weeks or more--was 4.1 million.