Efficient Services Escrow Group (ESEG) announced Thursday the company's strategic alliance with Pelorus Equity Group (PEG). In a letter to PEG clients, ESEG president Danny Crenshaw explained that the partnership is a mutual venture to streamline the escrow and title service process and should result in a smoother and more efficient closing process.

The Systemic Risk Council, a volunteer group led by former FDIC chair Sheila Bair, will meet in June to monitor and encourage regulatory reform of U.S. capital markets focused on systemic risk. The council, formed by CFA Institute and The Pew Charitable Trusts, is an assembly of experts in investments, capital markets, and securities regulation.

CoreLogic's third annual Storm Surge Report, released Thursday, showed that just over four million homes in the United States are at risk of hurricane-driven storm surge damage. According to the report, there is $700 billion in total property exposure in the Gulf and Atlantic Coast regions, the areas most likely to face storm surge activity. The Gulf Coast houses just under 1.8 million homes at risk for potential storm-surge damage (totaling nearly $200 billion in exposure), while the Atlantic Coast has approximately 2.2 million homes at risk ($500 billion in exposure).

Lulls in employment and income growth led to a plateau in consumer sentiment in May, according to Fannie Mae's May 2012 National Housing Survey. The data released by Fannie Mae on Thursday showed that although many consumers (72 percent) believe that now is a good time to purchase a house, the percentage of respondents who said they would buy a house after moving actually dropped for the second consecutive month-63 percent in May compared to 64 percent in April and 66 percent in March. Fifteen percent of respondents said now is a good time to sell a home.

A New York judge granted Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman the right to intervene in litigation over Bank of America's proposed $8.5 billion settlement with mortgage-bond investors, according to a Wednesday statement from the Office of the Attorney General.

The June 6 edition of HVF's ""Lessons from the Data"" showed that rent-to-value ratios, also called rental yields, tend to be highest in areas with elastic markets, such as Las Vegas. In areas of the city where the ease of adding new housing keeps home prices low, rental yields in certain neighborhoods climbed to 14 percent or higher. On the other hand, areas with restrained housing markets (like many neighborhoods in the New York metro) see yields lower than 2 percent.

The survey, released Wednesday, revealed that more than 83 percent of 2009-2010 homebuyers believe owning a home is still an integral part of the American Dream. Furthermore, 88.7 percent of respondents said they were happy with their purchases, citing a multitude of reasons such as the ""stability of owning [their] own property,"" the relief of ""getting away from renting,"" and ""having a yard and a real 'neighborhood feel,'"" to name a few.

Gerner & Kearns Co., L.P.A. announced Tuesday its new branding of Gerner Law and the launch of its new website. The Gerner Law umbrella houses David Gerner's various business entities, including Gerner & Kearns, PRISM Title & Closing Services, Turnkey Asset Management Solutions, and Strategic Recovery Solutions.

Capsilon announced Wednesday that the company has been issued a patent for specific Capsilon systems and methods for intelligent paperless document management.

MERSCORP Holdings, Inc., announced Tuesday that a federal judge in Oregon has once again ruled that MERS may serve as beneficiary under Oregon law. In his May 23 Opinion and Order in Hernandez v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, United States District Court Judge Michael Mosman dismissed all counts of the plaintiff's complaint with prejudice, barring the plaintiff from filing another claim.