USFN, America’s Mortgage Banking Attorneys, was among several companies in Southern California that participated in Holiday for Heroes, a special event to salute United States Marines and their families stationed at Camp Pendleton, California.

Rising home sales, declining home prices, stricter loan underwriting standards, and the financial market meltdown all contributed to a turbulent year in California’s housing market, according to the California Association of Realtors (C.

The faltering American Insurance Group Inc. (AIG) said earlier this week that it has sold its portfolio of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) to a new financing entity backed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which was created in early October as part of the federal government’s bailout of the giant insurer.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) yesterday announced an expedited process that will help prevent a federal tax lien block on the refinancing of mortgages or the sale of a home by financially distressed homeowners.

The Federal Reserve yesterday slashed its benchmark federal funds rate – the overnight rate at which banks lend to each other – from 1 percent to a target range of 0 percent to 0.25 percent, the lowest rate on record.

Texas-based HomeTracker LP this week announced its company’s name change to HomeTelos LP. The new designation is intended to reflect the organization’s expanded technology offering and is based on the Greek word telos which means goal.

Brookfield, Wisconsin-based Fiserv Inc., a provider of information technology services to the financial industry, today announced enhanced capabilities to its Home Retention Solutions offering – a system that helps financial institutions proactively identify and contact troubled borrowers with customized repayment solutions to try to keep them out of foreclosure.

James B. Lockhart, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today released the organization’s September monthly Foreclosure Prevention Report. The study — which provides monthly data on the loss mitigation efforts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as information on delinquencies, foreclosures initiated, and foreclosures completed — shows that of the two government-sponsored enterprises’ (GSEs’) 30.

Continental REO Services Inc., a St. Louis, Missouri-based asset management company specializing in the servicing of real estate-owned (REO) properties, has recently hired Joan Thomas as manager of the organization’s closing department.

All in all, residential properties in the United States are set to lose well over $2 trillion in value by the end of 2008, according to a report released Monday by Zillow.com. Home values declined 8.4 percent, losing $1.