In an announcement Thursday, Realpoint, a credit rating agency based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, said it has been selected to rate the Inland Western Real Estate Trust Inc. commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) transaction which is being underwritten by JPMorgan Securities Inc.

With new mortgage rules due to take full effect on January 1, 2010, HUD announced on Thursday its new series of online presentations intended to increase readiness among mortgage professionals.

In an endeavor to drastically expand the size and quality of their repository of Las Vegas commercial real estate data, Commercial Alliance Las Vegas (CALV), operated by the greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, recently joined forces with Restrepo Consulting Group (RCG) and a leading national real estate data provider.

Early Friday morning, Rita Gosselin of Grosse Ile, Michigan was arrested after being accused of defrauding dozens of people in a massive real estate ponzi scheme, Attorney General Mike Cox announced.

After a recent investigation by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, two collection agencies and a title insurance company are facing major consequences for alleged identity theft. New Prague, Minnesota-based Morris Abstract

Fort Lee, New Jersey-based Gramercy Auctions Corporation announced today that Sean Montgomery and Keith McLane will join the firm as EVPs, responsible for business development.

In an effort better understand how many Americans remain outside the banking system, the U.S. Bureau of the Census completed the FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households.

In hopes of combining experience and established global real estate platforms, Thompson National Properties and The Dawson Company announced Wednesday that the firms have joined forces to form Thompson Dawson Real Estate Services (TDRE), headquartered in Irvine, California and Atlanta, Georgia.

While sales of both single-family homes and condos in Connecticut surged in October, the median prices for these properties continued to fall, according to a recent report by The Warren Group, a provider of real estate data in New England. Compared to the same month last year, single-family home sales increased 11.

As DS News reported, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new guidelines to the short sale process on Tuesday in hopes of speeding up the recovery of the housing market.