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A House subcommittee convened Tuesday to mark-up eight bills aimed at winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While lawmakers agree that reform is needed, they were divided on just how to proceed with the medley of individual bills in front of them. Republicans' string of separate bills, which could ultimately tally 24, is a conscious effort to pull in Democratic support on individual reforms. But some are calling the multiple-bill approach for a single-end-goal ""scattered"" and ""without vision.""

RealtyTrac on Tuesday unveiled new site features of its online foreclosure marketplace that allow users to see the amount of equity - or negative equity - in a property based on its estimated market value and total outstanding loans. The company says this additional information will help buyers and investors quickly determine which distressed properties represent good purchase opportunities for them, and will help real estate agents and brokers pinpoint potential listing opportunities.

Although the Treasury Department has vowed to hold mortgage servicers publicly accountable for their adherence to Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) guidelines, some senators want to go one step further. They have proposed establishing a new federal agency as a means of recourse for ""families who face foreclosure but believe their mortgage servicers are breaking the rules."" Legislators say if the bill passes, HAMP has the potential of reaching its original goal of helping 3 to 4 million homeowners.

Servicers swamped with borrower inquiries and follow-up requirements are turning to specialty providers for quick resolution, according to Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a specialty and component servicing firm. Wingspan says demand for its ""high-touch"" services has increased rapidly over the last six to nine months, largely due to the robo-signing crisis and related foreclosure slowdowns.

The commercial mortgage research firm Trepp LLC says the delinquency rate for loans held in U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) edged higher in March, but the agency says it's seeing clear signs that the market is starting to heal. Trepp reports that the percentage of CMBS loans 30-plus days delinquent, in foreclosure, or REO rose 3 basis points last month to 9.42 percent. It's the highest delinquency rate ever recorded by the company, but the smallest month-over-month increase in more than two years.

According to a new poll from the market research firm Harris Interactive, 22 percent of people with mortgages have difficulty making their monthly payments. The poll also reveals that 21 percent think they are underwater and owe more on the loan than their home is worth. Compared to the results of last year's poll, those struggling to pay their mortgage has declined by 7 percent, but the company says the improvement is deceptive since it likely reflects the fact that borrowers previously experiencing trouble have already lost their homes.

BrokerPriceOpinion.com, a provider of customized valuation solutions, has launched its new Professional Property Inspection report, which incorporates detailed home information from an automated valuation model (AVM). The report also includes verification of the physical condition of the property and full photo documentation, and meets the new federal interagency appraisal and valuation guidelines that went into effect April 1.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pull the plug on HUD's Emergency Homeowner Loan Program last month, but that hasn't stopped HUD from moving ahead to put the money into the hands of distressed homeowners. The fund was established to provide zero-interest bridge loans of up to $50,000 for unemployed homeowners to continue making their mortgage payments while they look for a new job. HUD just deployed nearly $200 million of the $1 billion allotted to state agencies.

The percentage of single-family mortgage loans counted as seriously delinquent has dropped back for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to Fannie Mae's latest monthly status report, the GSE's seriously delinquent rate has declined to 4.45 percent. Freddie Mac's most recent report shows its seriously delinquent rate to have fallen to 3.78 percent. Both companies have posted steady declines for three consecutive months, and they've recently announced changes to their servicing guidelines that could impact the way delinquent loans are handled.

The nation's largest mortgage servicers foreclosed on 95,067 homes during the fourth quarter of 2010, a 49 percent drop from the number of completed foreclosures during the previous quarter, according to a new report from two regulatory agencies. Newly initiated foreclosures also decreased but by a much smaller ratio of 8 percent. Because new foreclosures outpaced completed foreclosures, the inventory of foreclosures in process increased to 1,290,253, representing 3.9 percent of all serviced loans among the largest national firms.