A national hotline for distressed homeowners experienced a 30 percent increase in callers between the fourth quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007, according to a new report from The Homeownership Preservation Foundation.

Representatives from The National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) will spend this week at a spring meeting in Washington, D.C., discussing some of the issues related to housing and subprime mortgages.

Vero Beach, Florida-based Opteum Financial Services, LLC (OFS), a subsidiary of Opteum Inc., said it will be exiting its conduit and wholesale mortgage loan origination businesses. The organization’s parent company Opteum Inc.

The national foreclosure index is rising uncomfortably especially within communities located in the upper-Midwest and Ohio regions, according to the second quarter Core Mortgage Risk Monitor ™ report (CMRM), which is published by First American CoreLogic – a subsidiary of Santa-Ana, California-based The First American Corp.

Two companies related to the mortgage banking industry announced hundreds of layoffs that will take effect in the Lone Star state this year, according to letters filed with the Texas Workforce Commission.

The Pennylvania Acting Secretary of Banking urged state lawmakers on Friday to pursue mortgage reforms that will protect consumers from predatory lending. Victoria Reider, who is currently Acting Secretary of Banking, made this request in front of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Commerce Committee.

H&R Block Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Option One Mortgage Corp. to OOMC Acquisition Corp. — a new company affiliated with Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. The transaction, which is said to carry a cash purchase price of $300 million, excludes Option One’s own subsidiary H&R Block Mortgage Corp.

Burbank, California-based WMC Mortgage is the second lender in a span of two days to announce pending job cuts. According to{=font-style: italic;} Bloomberg:http://www.bloomberg.com/index.htmlxIntro=intro3 news, the company, which is a subsidiary of General Electric Co.

Washington, D.C.-based NeighborWorks America*®*, an organization devoted to affordable housing and community development, says it’s applauding lenders and the secondary market for launching a new series of initiatives to save distressed subprime borrowers.

A Texas economist is shining a positive light on the Lone Star state’s current real estate market. While Dr. Mark Dotzour, a chief economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, says Texas is not immune to the nationwide increase in foreclosures, he still views the state as one of the most affordable and economically viable.