Foreigners may get an added bonus when they invest in residential real estate in the United States - a visa. Senators from New York and Utah are proposing a bill that would offer residence visas to foreigners when they spend at least $500,000 in the U.S. residential real estate market. Investors may split their spending between two or more properties, as long as they spend at least $250,000 on one home and $500,000 or more total. Economists say low prices resulting from high levels of foreclosures in some states have served to entice foreign buyers.

A Massachusetts man lost something he never had -- his home. The Masachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled this week that when Francis Bevilacqua purchased the home from U.S. Bank in 2006, the bank did not actually hold the home's title. The court ruled that because U.S. bank did not own the mortgage when it foreclosed upon the property, it did not obtain a title in the foreclosure. Therefore, Bevilacqua did not purchase a legal title when he made the purchase.

HUD's Office of Inspector General (OIG) alleges CitiMortgage, Inc. has violated the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) Preforeclosure Sale Program by submitting improper claims for short sales. After examining 68 FHA claims, the inspector general found 63 claims for loans it says Citi did not properly review to verify that the borrowers were in default or in imminent danger of default. Citi ""respectfully disagrees"" in its written response.

CoreLogic and Amherst Holdings, LLC, have partnered to release the Agency Prepayment Analyzer, an online investment analysis tool. The analyzer intertwines CoreLogic's data with Amherst's analytics and forecasting to deliver prepayment risk trends for agency mortgage-backed securities. Designed for fixed-income investors, Agency Prepayment Analyzer tracks the rates at which residential mortgage loans prepay, either voluntarily or involuntarily due to refinancing, defaults, or sales - instances in which the GSEs require buybacks.

While the homeownership rate falls, rental demand rises bringing rental rates up and apartment vacancies down -- all of which has led Freddie Mac's chief economist to label the multifamily sector a positive signal for the U.S. housing industry. Frank Nothaft says improvement in the economics of apartment management has prompted an increase in structure values, property sales, and new construction. He notes that many newly-formed households are choosing to rent rather than own in the current, unstable economy.

Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee point to the GSEs and the Obama administration's housing programs as areas for Congress' deficit reduction super-committee to examine as it works toward cutting $1.5 trillion of the nation's debt. A letter drafted by Chairman Spencer Bachus and signed by 20 Republican committee members first calls for an increase in the GSEs' guarantee fees and then the elimination of such programs as HAMP and HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Amid a challenging environment for servicers, CitiMortgage, GMAC, and Ocwen have outperformed major competitors with regards to loss mitigation and foreclosure timelines, according to a recent report from Moody's Investors Service. The company's Servicer Dashboard rates major servicers on their performance from June 2010 to June 2011. Moody's notes that Bank of America's and Chase's performance assessments were affected by large servicing acquisitions and foreclosure moratoria.

While five major banks continue to deliberate with the state attorneys general for a settlement involving violations in mortgage documentation, the same five banks, plus several others, also face charges for committing fraud against veterans and taxpayers. Defendants accuse 13 banks of ""a brazen scheme to defraud both our nation's veterans and the United States Treasury of millions of dollars"" by overcharging borrowers in connection with home loans refinanced through a U.S. Veterans Affairs program.

Williams Title Guaranty and Escrow Agency, Ltd., has entered a five-year contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Williams Title provides title insurance and escrow services on lender-owned REO properties, meeting the needs of lenders, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and REO asset managers. As a designated HUD closing agent, Williams Title Guaranty will complete HUD closings for the entire state of Colorado.

After admitting to an extensive mortgage fraud scheme, the former president of Lend America was suspended from doing any future business with HUD. Michael Primeau pled guilty to charges that he ordered employees to pay company operating expenses with funds intended to cover borrowers' first mortgages at refinance closings. Previously an FHA-approved lender, Lend America also allegedly violated FHA's origination and underwriting standards on several occasions, according to HUD.