REO

KML Law Group, P.C., with its principal office in Philadelphia, has been formed to provide creditor's rights representation to secured lenders in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. KML is the result of the restructuring of the law firm of Goldbeck McCafferty & McKeever, which has served the mortgage banking industry since 1981. The shareholders of KML were shareholders in the Goldbeck firm and will continue to provide legal services, including loan resolution, home retention, foreclosure, bankruptcy, eviction, REO closings, and related legal services.

Homeland Security Capital Corporation has added a second acquisition as part of its entry into the mortgage and settlement services business by completing the purchase of all of the stock of Timios, Inc. Homeland Security Capital is an international provider of technology-based radiological, nuclear, environmental, disaster relief, and electronic security solutions to government and commercial customers. Timios is a paperless provider of title insurance and escrow services. Last month, Homeland Security Capital also acquired the assets of Default Servicing LLC.

Fewer foreclosed REO homes are changing hands, allowing home price indices to shed some of the weight that comes with deeply discounted property sales. But it hasn't been enough to change forecasts that home prices have further to fall still, according to Zillow. The company says foreclosure re-sales dropped to just 20 percent of total sales in June. For the second-quarter period ending that same month, Zillow recorded its smallest quarterly decline in national home prices in over four years - a drop of just 0.4 percent.

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has signed a law which allows state municipalities to establish land banks to redevelop vacant properties for the betterment of communities. Local land banks will be authorized to control the use of vacant, abandoned, or tax-delinquent properties. Operating under the New York State Urban Development Corporation, the land banks will allow properties to be redeveloped or resold, thus utilizing existing, vacant buildings to address local demand.

Fiserv, Inc. released its home price index Tuesday noting declines but predicting stabilization by the end of 2012. For the short-term, Fiserv sees continuing declines - at least until the end of the year. However, beginning in 2012, Fiserv predicts small gains in prices. Fiserv notes that the first quarter of 2011 showed a continuation of the double-dip trend started last year when demand waned after the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit. Price declines early this year were also driven by a jump in foreclosure sales.

Arizona State Credit Union is now offering Fannie Mae HomePath loans, making it one of only a handful of credit unions in the nation approved for the mortgage program. HomePath is the GSE's venture for marketing and selling its REO properties, providing special financing terms for the purchase of select Fannie Mae-owned properties. Arizona State Credit Union says its participation in the program is expected to help reduce the inventory of foreclosed homes on the market in Arizona.

Freddie Mac said Monday that it logged a $2.1 billion net loss for the second quarter. The company has requested $1.5 billion in taxpayer funding from Treasury, bringing the total amount of its capital draws while in conservatorship to $66.2 billion. Freddie's latest financials represent a slide from the previous quarter, when it posted a $676 million profit and needed no money from Treasury. The GSE acquired 24,799 REO properties through foreclosure in the second quarter but sold 29,355, shrinking its inventory of repossessed homes.

Fannie Mae's second-quarter loss narrowed from the previous quarter, but still in the red, the GSE says it needs to draw another $5 billion from Treasury, bringing its tally of taxpayer-funded support to $104.8 billion since the company was placed into conservatorship. The company reported a net loss of $2.9 billion for the April-to-June period, compared to a net loss of $6.5 billion in the first quarter of the year. Fannie Mae acquired 53,697 REO homes through foreclosure over the three months ending in June.

Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) has sent a letter to the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recommending the agency require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rent out foreclosed properties rather than immediately attempting to sell them at bargain prices. Reed believes renting the properties would help the market on all fronts by reducing foreclosure inventories, providing affordable housing, and creating jobs in hard-hit industries.

Studies have shown that minorities have been disproportionately impacted by the nation's housing crisis. The National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Inc. (NAREB) is taking steps to ease that impact. NAREB is partnering with Wall Street investors to launch an $800 million Homeowner's Assurance Program (HAP) to bring foreclosure mitigation to minority families and clean up neighborhood blight in their communities.