Clayton Holdings LLC announced Tuesday that it has appointed Brian R. Clark as senior managing director and business development officer for its commercial real estate (CRE) business. In his new position, Clark will work with Clayton's CRE team, headed by Ed Robertson, to help financial institutions, CRE owners, and investors with portfolio and property valuation services as well as strategy development.

Countdown To Buy, an online real estate marketplace, announced Tuesday that it has entered its 19th state, with foreclosed residential properties now featured from Florida. In addition the company announced that it has received a new group of foreclosed properties located in Maryland and Hawaii from an existing client.

As foreclosures continue to flood the market, lenders are becoming overwhelmed with repossessed properties that may stay vacant or unfinished for months or years, making them susceptible to various types of damage. To avoid this risk, some lenders are seeking to maximize the value of their REO assets. In an effort to help lenders with this process, Aon Risk Services, the risk management and insurance brokerage business of Chicago-based Aon Corporation, has launched the Comprehensive Asset Maximization program.

Experian recently announced that its CreditHorizons for Securities offering, which delivers Experian's consumer credit information for non-agency mortgage-backed security deals, now offers the ability to link consumer credit data to loan-level data through technology provider Lewtan's private-label deal library, ABSNet Loan. The company said this added capability expands the offering to a broader base of non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities investors.

As part of plans to expand its data offerings to consumers through key partners, CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, California-based provider of information, analytics, and business services, announced Tuesday that it will provide foreclosure data and property information to the Yahoo! Real Estate foreclosure service. The company said this partnership will enhance Yahoo! Real Estate's foreclosure offerings by providing access to listings of properties at various stages of foreclosure or REO.

Mortgage fraud risk is on the rise. According to the quarterly Mortgage Fraud Risk Report released Tuesday by Interthinx, overall mortgage fraud risk in the first quarter of 2010 jumped 4 percent from the previous quarter and was 11 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago. The quarter-to-quarter surge brought the fraud risk index to a value of 151. This, Interthinx said, is the first time since 2004 that the index has exceeded 150.

CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, California-based provider of consumer, financial, and property information and business services, recently announced that John W. Peace has resigned from its board of directors. This board resignation came just days after CoreLogic became an independent publicly traded company.

Lincoln Appraisal & Settlement Services, a national appraisal management and settlement services company has added the mortgage lender United Mortgage Corporation to its growing list of clients. ""United Mortgage Corporation is a great addition to our client roster, and we look forward to working with them,"" said George Panichas, chairman and CEO of Lincoln Appraisal & Settlement Services.

Default Mitigation Management LLC recently announced the newest user of its loss mitigation Web Portal -- Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Delaware Valley, a housing counseling and mediation provider for borrowers in the Philadelphia and greater Delaware Valley area.

In what seems to be becoming a trend, delinquencies for U.S. Alt-A and subprime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) declined once again in May, Fitch Ratings reported Monday. While the month-to-month decreases in past due Alt-A and subprime loans were encouraging, Fitch said the improvements were tempered by a bounce back in roll rates. The ratings agency also notes that more than a third of the performing subprime loans backing mortgage bonds have already been modified and have a ""substantial"" risk of re-default.