REO

The National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index for August was 88.6, which is on par with last year's pending home sales average for the year, according to NAR's chief economist, Lawrence Yun. Yun says the index has been moving within a narrow range for the past several months. On a monthly basis, pending home sales fell 1.2 percent in August, although existing home sales in August rose 7.7 percent on a monthly basis and 18.6 percent year-over-year.

Rick Sharga has been the voice of RealtyTrac for more than seven years, serving as SVP at the foreclosure tracking and research firm since 2004. But effective this week, he has left RealtyTrac to join Carrington Mortgage Holdings. Sharga has taken on the role of EVP at Carrington and will serve as its primary industry spokesman. Sharga will be responsible for developing branding and marketing strategies for the entire Carrington Family of Companies.

First Guaranty Mortgage Corp. (FGMC) has promoted Andrew Peters to be its new CEO. Peters has been with FGMC for over 10 years, serving most recently as its SVP and national business director. Peters' recent focus has been on REO lending initiatives, including FGMC's ""Rebuild the Dream"" effort, which was designed to facilitate renovation lending in combination with REO sales.

Green River Capital (GRC) announced Wednesday that the company has enhanced its rental and property management program. GRC says its program serves as an REO alternative to help lenders preserve and maintain their properties by taking on tenants. The company's rental program enhancements come at a time in which the Obama administration has requested proposals for new rental strategies for foreclosed properties.

The American Legal & Financial Network has released a best practices guide for title policy work as it relates to distressed properties. ALFN says the housing crisis has impacted the industry in a number of ways, and one area in particular that calls for attention is default title policy standards. Due to marketplace pressures, the organization warns that large pools of loans are being affected by the inability to properly close escrow after foreclosure, costing investor's time and exposing them to legal risks.

The industry's shadows are shrinking, according to CoreLogic. Based on the analytics firm's calculations, the residential shadow inventory of unlisted REOs and soon-to-be REOs stood at 1.6 million units as of July 2011. CoreLogic says that tally represents a supply of five months and is down from 1.7 million units in April and 1.9 million units in July of 2010. The company says the decline is driven by a pace of new delinquencies that is slower than the disposition pace of distressed assets.

The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) presented the 2011 NAHREP Founders' Awards to Armando Falcon and Shanna Smith for their efforts in advancing homeownership, particularly in the Hispanic community. Falcon served as director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's former regulator, from 1999 to 2005. He is now chairman and CEO of Falcon Capital Advisors. Smith is CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA).

Processing delays have taken their toll on first-time homebuyer interest in short sales, according to the latest HousingPulse Tracking Survey released Monday. First-time homebuyers were a part of 39.7 percent of the short sale transactions completed in August. That's the lowest percentage for this buyer segment ever recorded by the survey. The study found that the average time-on-market for short sales is 16.6 weeks, with the majority of that time spent waiting for approval.

According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG), FHFA's examination process is not up to par. FHFA-OIG says it has identified shortfalls in the agency's examination coverage, particularly in the areas of real estate owned (REO) and default-related legal services. In fact, the inspector general says FHFA has not conducted an examination of the GSEs' management of their REO inventories, despite the surging number of foreclosures, since 2007.

Veros Real Estate Solutions and JVI Solutions LLC announced the launch of VeroINSIGHT this week. It&'s a comprehensive property condition report to address new regulatory guidance surrounding collateral evaluations. According to the two companies, VeroINSIGHT goes beyond existing collateral evaluation products by uniformly capturing aspects of the property's current condition, as well as its general marketability.