A new partnership between Baltimore, Maryland-based national auction company, Express Auction, and the recently merged Shore Realty of Maryland and Chesapeake Realty is expected to promote real estate auctions across the Eastern Shore.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s wholly-owned subsidiary Lender Technologies Corp. is exploring the possibility of creating a national database that would help lenders prevent mortgage fraud. LTC issued a Request for Information to the industry late last week to solicit feedback from contractors and developers who have the experience to create a database that can safegaurd the industry from fraud.

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann filed lawsuits this week against ten mortgage lending and brokerage companies, claiming they negatively influenced appraisers to trump up home values—a practice that leaves home buyers more susceptible to foreclosure later on.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has projected a moderate increase in home sales for next year. However, the organization says the increase will not be enough to elevate U.S. home sales back to their 2006 levels.

Toronto, Canada-based Algorithmics, a provider of enterprise-risk management solutions and services, says it’s too simplistic to blame the entire U.S. subprime meltdown on risky loans-especially when research shows a series of operational risk issues within many financial institutions contributed to the crises.

A new 2007 RE/MAX Housing Study shows 67-percent of homeowners in the Detroit-metro area say they’re unhappy with their nontraditional loans and planning to refinance with traditional loan products.

The U.S.President’s main economic advisor says America’s subprime troubles are contained and currently represent only 1-percent of the overall mortgage market. The subprime market obviously is something that we look at, and we’re always concerned when we see default rates go up in any market, said Ed Lazear, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, which is the main economic advisory council to the U.

First American CoreLogic, an arm of The First American family of companies, released a report this week, which shows even in a slower market, existing homes in Northern California are still reselling at profitable rates.

Irvine, California-based subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. announced more major changes this week when Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Tajvinder S. Bindra resigned from his post.

Embattled nonprime lender, Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Lone Star U.S. Acquisitions, LLC—an affiliate of Lone Star Fund V (U.S.) L.P. Under terms of the agreement, Lone Star will acquire all of Accredited’s common stock in a transaction valued at $400 million.