Foreclosure

The nation’s four largest organizations of professional real estate appraisers—the Appraisal Institute, American Society of Appraisers, American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, and the National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers urging the federal government to require that market values of homes rescued under President Obama’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability Program be determined by professional appraisers who are state certified and licensed.

According to a report released today by Boston-based The Warren Group, foreclosure deeds in Massachusetts climbed during the month of January. Foreclosure petitions were also up from December, but actually declined 39 percent from a year earlier, the research company said.

Livonia, Michigan-based ELK Software LLC, a short sale and loan modification software and services provider for the industry, has released version 1.5 of its Web-based Short Sale Commander technology. Among the system’s enhancements are upgrades that simplify data entry and allow users to run a completely paperless short sale business.

The response streaming in from leaders and regulators across the banking and mortgage industries is overwhelmingly positive for President Obama’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan unveiled on Wednesday.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC, a Dallas-based mortgage servicer specializing in highly delinquent loans, has announced a new division focused on helping defaulted borrowers avoid foreclosure. Called Foreclosure Resolutions, the division leverages Wingspan Portfolio Advisors’ specialized capabilities as problem loan servicers to deal with lenders and their loan servicers on behalf of borrowers and negotiate arrangements that allow people to keep their homes, the company explained.

White House officials said that President Barack Obama is scheduled to unveil the administration’s new housing and mortgage relief program on Wednesday during a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, one of the areas hardest hit by the nation’s foreclosure epidemic.

January brought an unexpected, across the board drop, in the total Notices of Default, Notices of Trustee Sale, and sales at auction in California, not only from the prior month, but year-over-year as well, according to a report released by ForeclosureRadar on Thursday.

Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced on Friday that they are suspending all foreclosure sales and evictions of occupied properties through March 6th, in anticipation of the Obama Administration’s national foreclosure prevention and loan modification program.

On Wednesday, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) – the primary regulator of federal savings holding companies and thrifts, including the nation’s largest banks and mortgage lenders – called on the more than 800 OTS-regulated institutions to suspend foreclosures on owner-occupied homes until the Financial Stability Plan’s home loan modification program is finalized.

RealtyTrac released its January 2009 Foreclosure Market Report today, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 274,399 U.