In an announcement Tuesday, Shelton, Connecticut-based Clayton Holdings LLC, a provider of customized risk analysis, loss mitigation, operational solutions, and staffing services, said Edward S. Robertson has joined the company as managing director of commercial real estate services.

Contract activity for pending home sales in November 2009 was a two-sided story, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Posting the biggest increase in monthly transaction year-over-year since 1989, sales of single-family homes in Connecticut skyrocketed 74.3 percent in November, according to a recent report by The Warren Group, a Boston-based provider of real estate data.

In the first 10 years of the 21st century, the real estate market developed at a remarkable rate. Ten years ago, most homebuyers had never viewed a home online, and the top three marketing methods to sell a home were yard signs, newspapers ads, and open houses, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said.

To prepare its members for HUD’s changes to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) which took effect on January 1, 2010, the Real Estate Services Providers Council, Inc. (RESPRO) developed a model Good Faith Estimate (GFE) cost indemnification agreement and model services agreement.

According to MortgageDaily.com, a source of mortgage news for the mortgage industry, more than 200 mortgage-related firms ended operations or failed last year, the highest number since the site began tracking the data in 1998. The previous record was set in 2007, but 2009 now marks the worst year in the industry.

According to a recent report by The Warren Group, a provider of real estate date in New England, the number of foreclosures initiated in Massachusetts in November fell below 2,000 for the first time since January 2009.

On Monday, Grubb & Ellis, a real estate services and investment firm headquartered in Santa Ana, California, released its 2010 Real Estate Forecast. According to the report, the 2010 commercial real estate fundamentals are projected to decline at a slower pace than in 2009, and most property types are forecast to reach bottom near the end of the year and begin a slow recovery in 2011.

In an announcement Monday, American Eagle Mortgage Co, LLC (AEMC), a mortgage lender in Ohio, Kentucky, and Florida, said it has agreed to acquire the assets of Real Estate Mortgage Corp. (REMC), based in Ohio.

To put it mildly, the real estate market during the last decade was a rollercoaster.