Foreclosure

Jacksonville, Florida-based Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS), a provider of technology and services to the mortgage industry, has released the results of a recent study that reveals the impact of foreclosure, or REO, sales on home prices.

Sheriff Warren Evans of Wayne County, Michigan announced this week that he is resuming foreclosure sales. Evans halted all foreclosure sales in his jurisdiction on February 2nd, in anticipation of a foreclosure relief plan from the federal government.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) submitted its fourth quarter report to Congress this week detailing actions the GSEs have taken to prevent unnecessary foreclosures. The report shows a 76 percent increase in loan modifications by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the third to fourth quarters of 2008.

ForeclosureRadar, which tracks every California foreclosure and provides daily auction updates, issued its monthly California Foreclosure Report for February 2009 on Thursday. The company said that Notices of Default have increased 21.

Why Putting the Brakes on Foreclosures Won’t Stop the Crash California did it. Massachusetts and Maryland did it, too. So did Fannie and Freddie. Florida and Ohio are talking about doing it. The sheriff of Wayne County, Michigan, didn’t wait around for a vote: He did it himself.

Foreclosure activity in February increased nearly six percent from the month before, according to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released on Thursday. The gain comes despite widespread foreclosure moratoria instituted by the GSEs and some of the nation’s largest lenders during the first part of the year.

As inventories of foreclosed homes swell, home builders across the country, particularly in the Sun Belt states hit hardest by the housing crisis, are pitted against REO properties for sales. Steve Ruffner, president of the Southern California division of new home builder KB Home, recently told the Wall Street Journal:http://online.

The Ohio Legislature has introduced several bills aimed at fighting the foreclosure crisis in the state. Ohio has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Residential foreclosures in the Buckeye State were ranked the 10th highest in the nation in RealtyTrac’s latest market report, with one in every 452 homes receiving a foreclosure filing in January.

Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF), a national organization that provides capital to nonprofit community development lenders through its secondary market for loans, recently announced a new foreclosure remediation program for the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward D. Rendell announced on Monday an emergency executive action= intended to provide immediate relief to struggling homeowners in the state. The governor is directing $5 million in state funding to be used for mortgage assistance to ensure that recently unemployed workers can keep their homes while they are retraining and finding new jobs, the governor’s office said in a press statement.