Based upon serious violations of FHA requirements, the Federal Housing Administration's Mortgage Review Board (MRB) announced Tuesday that it is immediately and permanently withdrawing FHA approval of four mortgage lenders and is suspending a fifth. The MRB withdrew FHA approval of Strategic Mortgage Corporation, ProMortgage,Inc., Americare Investment Group, Inc., and Premium Capital Funding, LLC, doing business as TopDot Mortgage. In addition, the MRB has suspended the FHA approval of Home Mortgage, Inc., (HMI).

Fitch Group, a majority-owned subsidiary of Fimalac, S.A., recently announced the appointment of new executives within the company. Paul Taylor has been named as president of Fitch Ratings, a global ratings agency which is part of the Fitch Group. During his 15-year tenure at Fitch, Taylor has had responsibility for most individual ratings groups, including corporate, financial institutions, and most recently, global structured finance.

In an announcement Monday, the Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association (TAVMA), a nonprofit professional organization that represent more than 75 companies, said it opposes the proposed federal and state legislation that would dismantle new federal safeguards designed to protect appraiser independence and provide unbiased appraisals to homebuyers and lenders.

As DSNews.com recently reported, the Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association (TAVMA) recently developed the Standards of Good Practice in Appraisal Management, and on Monday, Clear Capital, a provider of data and solutions for real estate asset valuation, announced its endorsement of these new guidelines.

As low interest rates and the tax credit stimulus helped to reduce inventories through the end of 2009 and more markets reported median price increases in December, the Illinois housing market is beginning to show signs of stabilization. Totaling 8,197 transactions, statewide total home sales in December 2009 were up 20.

Following a surge in sales from September through November, existing-home sales fell 16.7 percent in December 2009, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The longer-term results, though, demonstrated the ongoing momentum in sales activity throughout the year. For all of 2009, there were 5,156,000 completed sales of previously owned homes, a 4.9 percent jump from the annual sales recorded in 2008. This is the first annual sales gain since 2005, NAR said.

Pete Bolton, a successful and well known leader in the Phoenix commercial real estate market, has rejoined Grubb & Ellis as EVP, managing director, the company recently announced. Bolton's new position with the company follows Grubb & Ellis' announcement in early January that it plans to open a company-owned office to serve the Phoenix market.

The promotion of Ami A. Shah and Marnie C. Helfand to VP of Green Courte Partners, LLC, was recently announced by the company, a Chicago-based equity real estate investment firm targeting niche real estate sectors. Green Courte combines focused investment strategies with a disciplined approach to transaction execution and asset management. The firm's goal is to invest in high quality assets that will generate attractive risk-adjusted returns over a long-term holding period.

While the number of initiated foreclosures in Massachusetts increased year-over-year in 2009, the number of completed foreclosures decreased during the same period, according to the latest report from The Warren Group, a Boston-based provider of real estate data in New England.

Although the economy seems to be on the mend, the commercial real estate market is still facing an uphill battle. To provide information and insight into the challenges and opportunities of the commercial real estate industry in the state of Ohio, Smith Realty Partners recently released its annual Smith Report, and the firm conducted the Central Ohio Commercial Real Estate Survey as part of the report.