REO

The housing market may be stabilizing as house prices and REO saturation rates show little change on a quarterly and yearly basis, according to Clear Capital's most recent Home Data Index. Nationally, prices rose just 0.3 percent while the REO saturation rate was relatively unchanged at 24.6 percent over the most recent quarter, according to data through the end of November. Clear Capital measures housing data on a rolling quarter, which compares the most recent four months with the previous three.

Servicers for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed almost 2 million foreclosure prevention actions for the two companies since they went into conservatorship in 2008, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) third-quarter report released Wednesday. More than half of these actions have been loan modifications, and of the remainder, about 676,500 have kept homeowners in their homes. About 269,700 were short sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure.

Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Attorneys Title Agency (ATA), a full-service title company providing services throughout the state of Michigan, announced Wednesday that it has acquired the assets of Portage, Michigan-based Pinnacle Title Agency. The transaction closed on December 1. Pinnacle Title Agency will operate as an ATA office, and its employees will join the ATA team.

Home price indexes from CoreLogic and Lender Processing Services (LPS) both recorded continuing declines through October. CoreLogic's study shows national home prices dropped 1.3 percent month-over-month, marking the third straight decline. LPS' report indicates the same downward trajectory, with preliminary data pointing to a 1.1 percent decline for October, on the heels of a 1.2 percent drop in September. Looking forward, CoreLogic's forecasts indicate flat growth through 2013 for residential home prices.

We are five years through a 10-year adjustment process, Fannie Mae's chief economist Doug Duncan told attendees at the Five Star MPact Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo Tuesday morning. Dodd-Frank has 300 rules that must be implemented in the market. Regulators are only halfway through that list so far; the second half will be enacted over the next couple of years. While the market will recover, Duncan stressed that it will take time to adjust to new regulations.

Foreclosures are going to go up before they go down, according to Craig Nickerson, president of the National Community Stabilization Trust. Nickerson says estimates put foreclosure tallies at 850,000 this year, as high as 1.5 million in 2013, and then back to the levels we're at today by 2015. With all these distressed properties potentially making their way to an already stressed marketplace, Nickerson, along with a panel of industry professionals at the inaugural MPact Conference advocated for bulk short sales to investors and nonprofits.

With about 800,000 REOs and about 1 million properties in some stage of default, it is difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, that is just what a group of four analysts tried to do at a panel session Monday during the Five Star MPact Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo. Rick Sharga of Carrington Mortgage Holdings noted that in every previous recession, housing has brought us out, but in this recession, it dragged us in. As a result, he says, recovery this time will be a bit different.

For the second consecutive year, Safeguard Properties was recognized as the fastest growing large company in Northeast Ohio at the annual Weatherhead 100 awards ceremony held on December 1. Safeguard, which is headquartered in Valley View, Ohio, led in the Centurion category that includes companies with annual net sales in excess of $100 million. Safeguard, which is headquartered in Valley View, Ohio, led in the Centurion category that includes companies with annual net sales in excess of $100 million.

Looking for an REO buyer? It's becoming harder to find owner-occupants to fit that bill. New Vista Asset Management has published the results of a three-year study on buyers of foreclosed homes, covering 18 counties hit hardest by the mortgage crisis. The company says the percentage of REO homes sold to owner-occupants has decreased in almost every market. In Los Angeles, for example, the share of owner-occupant REO buyers dropped from 80 percent in 2009 to 60 percent by the third quarter of 2011.

Data released by Lender Processing Services (LPS) Thursday shows mortgage delinquencies are continuing to decline, now nearly 30 percent below their January 2010 peak. Loans in the process of foreclosure, on the other hand, are steadily rising. LPS says foreclosure inventories reached an all-time high at the end of October, making up 4.29 percent of all active mortgages. The average days delinquent for loans in foreclosure extended as well during the month, setting a new record of 631 days since last payment.