Many in the industry look to California as a sort of barometer by which to gage housing trends and activity. Being one of the hardest hit areas by the current housing crisis, some are hoping the state’s foreclosure woes and spiraling property prices will soon signal a bottom to the housing downturn.

HOPE NOW announced yesterday that, due to the continuing efforts of HOPE NOW and the broader mortgage industry, 2.47 million homeowners have avoided foreclosure and been able to stay in their homes since the organization began its efforts in July 2007.

The LOGS Network, a centrally managed group of attorneys, trustees, title personnel, and collection staff representing the mortgage servicing industry, announced last week that it has selected the Clarifire application from eMASON Inc.

The Bay State housing market got a bounce in September, with single-family home sales jumping 8.5 percent compared to a year earlier, according to a report released today by Boston-based The Warren Group.

Minneapolis-based Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced last week that it is offering financial institutions a new line of Compliance Management Services. The services help lenders more efficiently manage compliance and operational risks, while continuing to grow their major business lines, the company said.

ForeclosureRadar, a company based in the San Francisco Bay area that tracks pre-foreclosure, foreclosure auction, short sale, and bank owned real estate for the California market, announced last week that it has launched version 2.

Veterans across America now have an expanded arsenal of tools to help them preserve homeownership, thanks to the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2008, signed into law by President George W.

Alpha Bank & Trust of Alpharetta, Georgia, was closed on Friday by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Stearns Bank, N.

Existing-home sales increased last month as buyers responded to improved housing affordability conditions, according to the National Association of Realtors. The trade group released its figures for September home sales on Friday, offering one of the few glimmers of hope in the troubled housing market in many months, as the increase was the largest upward increment seen in more than five years.

As lending and brokering practices, as well as borrowers’ credit criteria have been thrust further into the spotlight, mortgage fraud, or at least awareness of it, has gone up. First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corporation family of companies, says that its Multi-Closing Alert Program has prevented more than $175 million in mortgage fraud losses in its first 20 months of implementation.