Wachovia has agreed to sell its operations to Wells Fargo in an all-stock transaction for $15.1 billion, reneging on its intent to sell to Citigroup announced earlier this week. Wachovia and Wells Fargo both disclosed this morning that they have signed a definitive agreement for the merger of the two companies in a whole company transaction that will require no financial assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or any other government agency.

RealtyBid.com, an Alabama-based online home auctioneer, has been tapped to auction more than 2,000 REO properties during the month of October for a single bank client, the company said. Although the bank was not named, RealtyBid’s CEO and president Tony Isbell said this volume of properties is more than three times the typical number of homes auctioned for this bank client during a normal month.

Mortgage applications plummeted last week, according to a survey released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) yesterday. For the week ending September 26, the loan application index was 455.4, a decrease of 23 percent from one week earlier, and 28.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. released its Fall 2008 U.S. Market Risk Index yesterday, which shows increases in foreclosures and unemployment have significantly heightened the risk of future home price declines.

Yesterday, DSNews.com reported that Washington Mutual’s CEO of only three weeks, Alan Fishman, would still be receiving a $7.5 million hiring bonus and an $11.6 million cash severance, now that the Seattle-based bank has gone under.

The U.S. Senate passed the $700 billion financial industry bailout last night by a wide margin, 74-25. Keeping the core of the original plan intact – buying up troubled mortgage assets – the Senate version adds in several new provisions, including a number of tax breaks and credits, temporarily raising the insured deposit limit to $250,000, and allowing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to borrow from the Treasury Department to cover any losses.

Wilson & Associates PLLC has hired Deanna Dorrough as an attorney for the Foreclosure, Legal and Title Departments in its Little Rock, Arkansas office. A native of Little Rock, Dorrough received her education from Baylor University in Waco, Texas (B.

Yet another bit of bad news hit the housing sector yesterday – Standard & Poor’s reported continued record declines in the prices of existing homes across the United States and a continuation in the trend of double digit declines across many cities.

After markets took a tumble Monday following the House’s rejection of congressional leaders’ $700 billion proposal, lawmakers refused to abandon their pledge to bail out Wall Street. With a full day of deliberation behind them, the U.

East Greenwich, Rhode Island-based Marinosci Ceritto & Shapiro, P.C., formerly known as Marinosci Tiernan & Ceritto, P.C., recently named attorney Jason Shapiro as partner. Shapiro joined the firm in August and brings with him years of legal expertise within the real estate arena, mortgage foreclosure law, creditor rights in bankruptcy, eviction law, civil litigation, and REO real estate closings.