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Report: Bottom in Home Values Still Months Away

Home value depreciation remained steady in August after improvement stalled in July, according to a new report released by Zillow Friday. The company's market data shows that nationally, home values fell 0.3 percent between July and August and declined 3.8 percent from their year-ago levels. According to Dr. Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist, the data clearly illustrates that a bottom in national home values has not yet been hit and will come later this year or in the beginning of 2011 at the earliest.

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HUD to Roll Out Emergency Loan Program for Unemployed by Year-End

To help counter the effects of the still-deteriorating job market on the housing industry, the Dodd-Frank Reform Act provided $1 billion to HUD to implement the Emergency Homeowners Loan Program. The initiative provides eligible borrowers in 32 states and Puerto Rico with a ""bridge loan"" to continue making their mortgage payments for up to 24 months. HUD expects to begin taking applications from borrowers for assistance by the end of the year.

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IMS Releases End-to-End Back Office Solution for REO Brokers

Integrated Mortgage Services has announced the release of its new end-to-end REO Broker Back Office solution. The solution is designed to help REO brokers cost-effectively manage all administrative functions, such as paying utilities and HOA dues, as well as performing inspection and preservation work.

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Unemployment Rate Holds at 9.6% as Economy Sheds 95,000 More Jobs

Getting more people back to work is key to not only the nation's economic recovery, but to a recovery in housing as well. The nation's high level of unemployment has become one of the primary triggers of default among struggling homeowners. But figures released Friday show that job creation remains an elusive ideal here in the United States. In September, 95,000 jobs were lost. The decline was far more than analysts were expecting, although the unemployment rate held steady at 9.6 percent.

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City of Belen in New Mexico to Host Code Enforcement Summit

The city of Belen, New Mexico has planned their first-ever statewide Code Enforcement Summit, designed to benefit the code enforcement community by building relationships with field services companies who perform preservation services. The summit will take place Wednesday, Oct 13 and Thursday, October 14 at the Holiday Inn Express Conference Center in Belen.

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Study Finds Mortgage Tech Business Will Shift in Coming Years

The mortgage technology sector is heading in a completely new direction, according to John Guzzo with the investment bank Berkery Noyes, which focuses exclusively on mergers and acquisitions. Guzzo conducted extensive research over the past two years, interviewing more than 200 mortgage technology vendors and more than 10 private equity firms with positions in mortgage technology vendors. What he found suggests that in two years, the industry will consist of firms that have consolidated and combined to be ""true end-to-end"" service providers.

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RealtyTrac Announces Recently Sold Properties Data for Site

RealtyTrac introduced on Thursday a new feature on its Web site for its subscribers. The site, which is an online marketplace of foreclosure properties will now offer a recently sold feature on its page, that will allow subscribers to see details about all properties sold in the past three, six, and nine months for an area.

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Bank of America Halts Foreclosures Nationwide

Bank of America is expanding its foreclosure freeze from the 23 judicial states to include all 50 states. Consumer advocacy groups, state attorneys general, and federal lawmakers are all calling for GMAC Mortgage and JPMorgan Chase to also extend their foreclosure moratoriums nationwide. PNC Financial has reportedly become the fourth major lender to institute a foreclosure suspension in the judicial states. An announcement is expected to come as early as Tuesday of a joint investigation by attorney general offices in as many as 40 states.

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DocuTech Expands with New Denver Data Center

DocuTech Corp., a provider of compliance services for mortgage documents, has opened a new data center in Denver, Colorado. According to a statement from the Idaho-headquartered company, the data center signifies a conversion from physical servers to virtual machines (VM Ware) to improve business continuity and support continued growth, a move that was completed last month.

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Judge Quashes Attorney General’s Subpoena of Florida Foreclosure Firm

The Florida-based law firm of Shapiro & Fishman won a victory in court this week when a Palm Beach County judge quashed the state attorney general's subpoena to examine the firm's foreclosure practices. Judge Jack S. Cox ruled in favor of the firm's motion to halt the investigative subpoena issued by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum on August 6th. Judge Cox said the attorney general had no jurisdiction to regulate or discipline the conduct of attorneys. He called the subpoena ""overbroad, vague, and unduly burdensome.""

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