Three nonprofits are working together toward an effort to rehabilitate vacant REO properties and support home ownership. Rebuilding Together, NeighborWorks America, and the National Community Stabilization Trust are committing to a three-year partnership to turn vacant and dilapidated properties into affordable homes in the communities they serve. The joint initiative focuses on three areas. The first is providing training for local Rebuilding Together affiliates to operate programs to acquire, rehabilitate, and resell REO properties to help stabilize communities affected by foreclosure.

MGIC Investment Corp. reported a drop in delinquencies for the first 2012 quarter ending March 31, 2012, with the percentage of delinquent loans, excluding bulk loans, at 12.84 percent, compared with 13.79 percent at the end of the 2011 fourth quarter and 13.87 percent at the end of the first quarter a year ago. When including bulk loans, the percentage of loans that were delinquent at the end of the 2012 first quarter was 15.09 percent, compared to 16.11 percent at the end of the previous quarter and 16.35 percent at the end of the first quarter in 2011.

Sperlonga Data and Analytics announced it has registered the 225,000th homeowners association (HOA) in its database. Based in Arlington, Virginia, Sperlonga Data and Analytics is an affiliate of MMREM, a national asset management firm, and was created to bridge the gap between HOAs and servicers to help stakeholders minimize losses associated with HOA claims.

The number of submissions for mortgage loan fraud suspicious activity reports (MLF SARs) for the full year of 2011 increased by 31 percent, or to 92,028, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). In 2010, 70,472 reports were submitted. Over the past several years, MLF SAR filings have been increasing on a yearly basis, with only 4,695 filings in 2001. In 2005, the number of filings made an upward climb to 25,988, then more than doubled 2009, when there were 67,507 filings.

Inventory is shrinking and traffic for homebuyers seems to be increasing, but according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, home prices were down in March. One reason for this, according to the survey, which includes about 2,500 real estate agents, is the high number of distressed properties - short sale properties in particular - on the market. Prices for damaged REO properties saw a 5.7 percent decline in prices between March 2010 and March 2011, according to the survey, while move-in ready REO prices fell 2.5 percent during the same period. Prices on short sales, however, dropped 14.3 percent during the one-year period.

According to a March 2012 housing report released by RE/MAX, home prices have risen for the second month in a row now on a year-over-year basis. The RE/MAX report included 53 metro areas and found the median price in March was $184,525, a 7.3 percent price increase from February, and a 5.8 percent increase from a year ago in March 2011. A consecutive increase on a year-over-year basis has not occurred since August 2010, according to the report.

24 Asset Management Corp. was awarded a General Services Administration (GSA) Financial and Business Solutions Schedule contract. Having this contract allows 24 Asset to more easily offer their loss mitigation, debt collection, asset management, real estate owned (REO), and portfolio services to all federal agencies.

Marinosci Law Group announced Robert Coleman as the managing partner of the firm's new Little Rock, Arkansas office.

An Alabama real estate investor agreed to plead guilty and serve prison time for his role in rigging bids and mail fraud at real estate foreclosure auctions, the Department of Justice announced Friday. To date, three individuals and one company have pleaded guilty in the investigation into fraud and bid rigging in southern Alabama.

Pursuing a short sale is often thought of as a painstaking process, and it's not uncommon to hear of complaints about slow responses from banks and last minute rejections on offers. Fortunately, not all lenders/servicers are the same when it comes to dealing with short sales, and RealtyTrac compiled a list of data revealing which institutions seem to move through the process quicker and for less. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA had the shortest timelines at 193 days in January 2012, a decrease compared to a year ago in January 2011, when short sales averaged 248 days. The short sale timeline includes the time a property starts the foreclosure process to the time it's sold as a pre-foreclosure property.