After declining for two months, pending sales of existing homes unexpectedly increased in February, the National Association of Realtors reports. The trade group's pending home sales index rose 2.1 percent compared to January but remains 8.2 percent below February 2010. The index reading for last month was 90.8. A reading of 100 indicates a healthy level of sales activity. The last time the pending sale index registered above the 100 mark was in April 2010 when homebuyers were rushing to sign contracts before the homebuyer tax credit deadline.

After two weeks of no bank failures, regulators stepped in to shut down one institution Friday evening - the Bank of Commerce in Wood Dale, Illinois. The closing brings the total number of bank failures during the first quarter of 2011 to 26. Wintrust Financial Corporation, headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, acquired the shuttered community bank in an FDIC-assisted transaction, making it part of the financial holding company's Advantage National Bank Group.

The mortgage default risk index from University Financial Associates (UFA) registered a reading of 141 for the first quarter of 2011. The index's baseline of 100 correlates to the default risk of the 1990s. Translation -- investors and lenders should expect defaults on loans originated in Q1 to be 41 percent higher than that of loans originated in the 1990s. UFA says the most important story behind the numbers is that the default risk index has found a plateau, and if inflation rates continue to rise, default risks will improve more rapidly.

Safeguard Properties issued a notice Thursday announcing the appointments of four individuals to its executive and management teams. Michael Greenbaum has been named to the newly created position of VP, REO. Apryl Seide was appointed as the company's general counsel. Jennifer Anspach has been promoted to director of finance and accounting, and Russ Klein has been named director of quality control.

Fannie Mae and Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida (NHSSF) celebrated the one-year anniversary of Fannie Mae's South Florida Mortgage Help Center on Thursday. Since opening its doors in March 2010, the South Florida Mortgage Help Center has worked with more than 1,000 struggling families with loans owned by Fannie Mae. Of these, more than 64 percent received a retention solution that allowed them to remain in their homes.

Almost half of the 111 economists and real estate experts polled this month by MacroMarkets are forecasting a double-dip in home prices to happen this year, and not a single panelist expects property values to recover to the pre-bubble trend for at least the next five years. MacroMarkets was founded by Robert Shiller, namesake of the closely-watched Case-Shiller Home Price Index. He says the deteriorating outlook among panel members has been influenced by the unabated foreclosure crisis and persistently weak market fundamentals.

Freddie Mac issued new policy guidelines to its servicers this week that prohibit foreclosures in the name of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS). The electronic registry has come under fire lately, despite the fact that several state courts have recently upheld MERS' right to foreclose. It became a focus of last fall's robo-signing scandal when the MERS name appeared within defective affidavits. Fannie Mae told its servicers last spring they were no longer allowed to foreclose in MERS' name, and now Freddie Mac is following suit.

CoreLogic introduced its newest technology solution, IntelliMods, to the market Thursday. The company says the new Web-based application will allow users to put more distressed homeowners into modified loans by automating decisions and fulfillment for both government and private investor programs. The system automatically runs the necessary calculations to determine borrowers' loan modification eligibility and provides an audit trail of all decisions.

Mortgage interest rates this week came in slightly higher, as macroeconomic data showing inflation rising higher than expected and investors' concerns over political strife around the globe led to an uptick in Treasury bond yields. The yields on these long-term government bonds are closely tied to mortgage rates. Freddie Mac says the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now averaging 4.81 percent, while the 15-year rate came in at 3.97 percent. Adjustable-rate mortgages also headed higher.

Fitch Ratings has reviewed all U.S. subprime mortgage securitizations rated by the agency and found little change in expected losses for the bond investors as default risk improved slightly. However, the agency says loss severities have increased due to longer foreclosure timelines and still-declining home prices. Fitch says the average time to liquidate a distressed loan has increased by roughly six months from a year ago and now exceeds 20 months. Timelines are expected to increase further in 2011 as foreclosures continue to face procedural challenges.