REO

The industry's ominous shadow inventory of REOs that have yet to hit the market and soon-to-be-REOs increased by more than 10 percent between August 2009 and August 2010, according to new figures released by CoreLogic Monday. The company's calculations show the shadow supply of residential properties reached 2.1 million units in August of this year, a volume that will take eight months to clear at today's sluggish sales pace. CoreLogic puts the industry's ""visible"" inventory of homes for sale at 4.2 million.

The headline foreclosure news for the past couple of months has been the suspension of foreclosures by a handful of lenders after robo-signers and procedural deficiencies were uncovered in their servicing shops. The foreclosure tracking firm ForeclosureRadar says while the announcements initially focused on 23 judicial foreclosure states outside of the company's coverage area, GMAC, PNC, and Bank of America all later expanded their suspensions, and the impact is now beginning to show up in non-judicial West Coast states.

The nation's mortgage delinquency rate declined in the third quarter as the job market showed signs of marginal improvements, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said Thursday. But lenders are still dealing with a massive backlog of defaults, and they stepped up initiations of foreclosure proceedings during the quarter. Even with an increase in foreclosure starts, MBA says the ratio of home loans in the foreclosure process declined, signaling servicers are pushing unpaid mortgages through the pipeline at a faster pace.

Mortgage fraud has increased by more than 20 percent since fraud rates reached their lowest point in early 2009, according to CoreLogic. The company says higher risk, high-volume programs, including those offered by the Federal Housing Administration and the Treasury's Home Affordable Refinance Program, as well as REO and short sales accounted for much of the increase. All are areas where activity has risen sharply over short periods of time, or where safeguards are not squarely in place, CoreLogic says.

Fannie Mae is testing the waters for a new program that allows real estate agents to submit offers for the company's REO properties on behalf of their clients and track the status of those offers online. The program is being piloted in Orlando, Florida; San Diego, California; and Detroit, Michigan. The new feature is currently available for Fannie Mae-owned homes in these areas through the GSE's HomePath Web site. Officials say the program will provide increased transparency and efficiency in the submission process.

There are 7,043,000 mortgages in the United States that are at least 30 days past due or in the process of foreclosure, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS). The company provided a sneak peek at its October month-end mortgage performance data this week. The numbers show the delinquency rate was virtually unchanged from the previous month's reading, but foreclosures are on the rise. LPS says nearly four percent of the nation's home loans have been referred to an attorney for foreclosure.

iServe Servicing, Inc., a residential mortgage special servicer of performing, sub-performing, nonperforming, and bank-owned assets, announced Monday that it has integrated its business operations with iServe Real Estate Operations Inc. (iServe REO). The combined business unit will maintain the iServe Servicing title and be led by current iServe Servicing CEO Richard Cimino.

Default Servicing Technologies LLC (DST) has announced the launch of a new Closing Company portal, which the company says will improve how closing companies interact with clients through DispoSolutions, DST's REO management platform. According to DST, the new, flexible _Closing Company_ interface simplifies workflow and provides closing firms with real-time communication, document management, notes, title information, contact lists, escrow directions, and HUD contract sell-side details.

Green River Capital (GRC), an REO asset management and loss mitigation provider for mortgage servicers, investment firms, and banking institutions, has named Joseph D'Urso company president. D'Urso brings more than 20 years of financial industry experience to the company. He is the former CEO of GC Mortgage Advisors LLC, was also head of the residential loan businesses at Merrill Lynch, and spent a decade with Goldman Sachs in various roles.

Home prices dropped in 76 of the 155 metropolitan areas tracked by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) during the third quarter, following a sharp decline in sales after the federal government's homebuyer tax credit passed. Seventy-seven metro areas held their ground in the post-credit months and recorded higher median prices on existing homes compared to a year ago. NAR points to the numbers as improvement, considering only 30 metros experienced annual price gains this time last year.