Credit Plus, Inc., a credit reporting agency based in Salisbury, Maryland, recently announced that its customers can obtain direct access to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Technology Open to Approved Lenders (TOTAL) Scorecard though the company's innovative technology.

Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rates report released Wednesday may add to fears that the conclusion of the Fed's mortgage purchase program will cause interest rates to spike. For the week ending April 1, 2010, rates for 30-year fixed mortgages averaged 5.08 percent with an average 0.7 point--the second highest level this year.

Retreat Capital Management Group, a Lake Forest, California-based provider of loss mitigation and portfolio management products, announced Tuesday that it is now offering property preservation services to its clients through a partnership with Elevate Property Services, based in Santa Fe Springs, California.

MRG Document Technologies (MRG), a Dallas-based provider of mortgage document preparation and compliance technology to lenders across the nation, recently announced that it has been named a RegulatorConnect certified partner by ComplianceEase, a San Francisco-based provider of intelligent business solutions to the financial services industry.

New data from HOPE NOW shows that servicers completed more than 95,000 loan modifications through their own proprietary programs in February. That's almost double the 52,000 modifications finalized under the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) during the same month. The report also showed declines in the number of 60-day delinquencies and foreclosure starts and sales.

The government recently ramped up its efforts to help at-risk borrowers, but according to a recent opinion poll by Destin, Florida-based Housing Predictor, that's not what the majority of people want. Despite the impact it would have on the U.S. economy, 78 percent of those polled said they want the government to let home foreclosures run their course instead of making efforts to stop the crisis.

Following two consecutive weeks of decreased activity, mortgage application volume increased 1.3 percent for the week ending March 26, 2010, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday. The jump in application volume was the result of an overwhelming increase in purchase activity.

Although the real estate market still has a long way to go on the road to recovery, confidence in the market is increasing, according to the March 2010 Real Estate Confidence Index (RECI) survey released by Point2 Technologies, a Web-based inventory management and online marketing software developer.

Countdown To Buy, a next generation online real estate marketplace, announced Tuesday that it successfully generated accepted offers on foreclosed properties in 30 days or less. The properties were located in Dallas and were listed on the company's Web site on March 5, 2010. And before the month's end, offers have already been accepted.

Knight Capital Group, Inc., a global financial services firm based in Jersey City, New Jersey, announced Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Urban Financial Group, Inc., a privately-held, independent mortgage company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The acquisition will provide Knight's fixed income team with a captive new issue of HECM mortgage-backed securities (HMBS) for institutional clients.