Single-family home sales in Connecticut dropped 5.3 percent in September from a year ago, bucking a 12-month trend of double-digit percentage declines, according to a new report from The Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record and a provider of New England real estate data.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office announced last week that it has secured a preliminary injunction against subprime lender Option One Mortgage Corp. and its parent company H&R Block Mortgage Corp.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) proposed on Friday to spend $24 billion of the $700 billion bailout package to help 1.5 million households avoid foreclosure. This new plan is a mild deviation from the FDIC’s $40 billion incentive-based foreclosure plan put forth to Congress committee members in late October, under which the government would guarantee part of homeowners’ modified loans.

The First American Corporation has developed a new reverse mortgage score to help servicers identify senior homeowner candidates for a government-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), who might otherwise face foreclosure.

TitleVest today announced the launch of a free service for the preparation and filing of IRS Form 1099-S. The service is available on all title insurance and co-op lien search orders placed through TitleVest.

Housing Predictor, which provides housing forecasts in 250 markets, has identified 10 markets where the regional economies are healthy and have strong potential for increasing prosperity. These housing markets have bucked the national trend in 2008 and avoided the subprime crisis, the consultancy says.

Vijay K. Taneja, of Fairfax, Virginia, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme involving his company, Financial Mortgage Inc.

Integrated Asset Services LLC (IAS), an REO management and disposition company based in Denver, Colorado, released its IAS360 House Price Index for September 2008. The monthly report showed a 2.1 percent decline in house prices on a national level in September, with an annual decline of 13.

Field Asset Services (FAS), a national property preservation, REO maintenance, and repair services company, has added three new members to its management team. Richard Rice and David Hortenstine have been selected as VPs and Robert Young has been named the company’s new CFO.

ForeclosureRadar, a website that is said to track every California foreclosure with daily auction updates, issued its California Foreclosure Report for October this week. Foreclosure sales dropped by 39.