News

Wilmington, Delaware-based ING DIRECT, a national direct bank, announced today that effective immediately, it will suspend foreclosure sales on occupied single-family properties through the end of March 2009.

Real Estate Disposition Corporation, LLC (REDC), a national real estate auction company, recently announced that it sold 713 homes for $68.3 million at its auctions in Arizona and Minnesota. Those auction results bring REDC’s 2008 production to 16,454 foreclosed homes sold for $2.

New Jersey’s Society for the Preservation of Continued Homeownership (SPOCH), a non-profit group which facilitates favorable mortgage loan workouts, has selected Walnut Creek, California-based National Loan Auditors (NLA) to administer forensic loan audits.

An estimated 42,293 houses and condos – including both existing and new – were sold in California last month, according to the latest report from research firm MDA DataQuick. That figure is up 4.

Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell is proposing a six-month suspension on all residential foreclosures in the state, as well as protection for some tenants whose landlords are in foreclosure, the governor’s office announced this week.

The number of foreclosure deeds recorded in Massachusetts spiked in October, but lenders filed fewer petitions to foreclose – the first step in the process, according to Boston-based The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

Sales of existing single-family homes in Florida rose 5 percent in the third quarter of 2008 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest housing statistics from the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR).

Overbuilding and a high rate of foreclosures have toppled Florida’s housing market, making it one of the worst in the nation. With ample supply to choose from, savvy buyers are turning their attention to bank-owned foreclosure auctions.

Aspen Grove Inc., a provider of workflow solutions for foreclosure, bankruptcy, eviction, and REO, yesterday released its newest version of REO management software, iAgent version 3.0. Changes to the program have been designed especially to increase REO management efficiency and broaden sales results due to its more efficient process management capability, the company explained in a press statement.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced this afternoon that they are suspending all foreclosures on mortgages that the two companies own. Both companies have ordered their national networks of mortgage servicers and foreclosure attorneys to halt all foreclosure sales and evictions involving occupied single-family properties.