Existing home sales dropped one-percent during the month of April to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units, compared to 4.94 million units in March, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

ServiceLink – provider of closing, title and appraisal services., a subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial, announced Friday that three new leaders have been appointed within its default servicing division.

Condo.com, an online marketplace for condos, is stepping into new territory and providing alternative disposition options to lenders who are dealing with hard-to-sell foreclosure properties. Condo.com officially announced Friday that it’s forming a brokerage and a marketing division to provide asset management and property disposition services for financial institutions who are grappling with an influx of REO properties.

Eight-year olds and fire just don’t mix. At least that’s what Karey Brown with Re/MAX Associates of Topeka, L.C., discovered when she found a toilet burnt to a crisp inside one of her REO properties.

Major home lender National City Mortgage, Inc., agreed to pay the United States government $4.6 million on Thursday to settle a claim that the lender violated the False Claims Act by submitting loans for insurance under the U.

Standard & Poor’s released its U.S. Subprime RMBS Performance Update on Friday, which shows delinquencies within U.S. subprime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) on the rise, especially for those securities first rated in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) had 1,204 mortgage fraud cases under investigation in 2007, 321 mortgage fraud-related indictments, 206 convictions, $595.9 million in restitution orders and $21.

Jay Brinkmann, vice president of research and economics for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), told the U.S. Committee on Financial Services Thursday that the jumbo loan market is experiencing a welcomed dose of new activity because of a recent decision to increase the conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based Zaio, Inc., a subsidiary of Zaio Corp., launched a new program this week called Go Live 2008, to help the company’s Zone Owners increase their volumes quickly and efficiently.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) released its House Price Index (HPI) for the first quarter of 2008 on Thursday. The new report says on a seasonally-adjusted basis, the prices of homes in the United States fell 1.