REO

Home prices, which have been sputtering along for much of the year, are likely to dip further by the end of 2011, according to the results of a nationwide industry survey of real estate agents. Factors cited as driving an expected decline include restricted financing for real estate investors, a large gap between the supply of distressed properties and demand from first-time homebuyers, and the shadow inventory of both foreclosed and short sale properties.

WFG National Title Insurance Company has added Stephen Sklamba and Liz Pecoraro to its Louisiana agency division. Sklamba will serve as a VP and Louisiana underwriting counsel for the Louisiana agency group. He will be based in the New Orleans area. Pecoraro will serve as Louisiana state sales manager and will be based in the Baton Rouge area.

Treasury is currently reviewing a proposal to aid distressed homeowners by allowing a short sale of mortgage notes from mortgage-backed securities (MBS) trusts to new investors. The proposal was put forth by American Home Mortgage Servicing. The company says this strategy could be key to unlocking principal reduction modifications, which could save hundreds of thousands of homes from foreclosure and reduce losses for both investors and underwater borrowers.

Scott French has joined Old Republic Default Management Services as SVP of REO management services. In this role, he will oversee REO services for the company's Dallas, Texas, and Orange, California, offices. Over the past 25 years, French held VP positions with two international financial firms managing various default functions, including REO, foreclosure, and valuations.

Despite the usual tendency for increases in the spring season - with highest increases occurring in May - Radar Logic's May RPX Composite Price remained almost identical to its rate in January. The RPX Composite Price did increase month-over-month in both April and May. However, the slight increases were not enough to offset January's more substantial decline. The report revealed a 5.9 percent decrease year-over-year in May, the largest year-over-year decrease since September 2009.

Sales prices of commercial real estate properties rose 6.3 percent in May, according to Moody's Investors Service. The agency's latest reading marked the first positive move in its property price index in six months and the largest one-month increase since Moody's began tracking commercial real estate prices in 2000. The firm's analysts attribute much of the turnaround to an increase in prices of distressed transactions, which rose 4.8 percent during May.

Home prices in the U.S. rose in May, marking the second consecutive monthly increase, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Thursday. Before the string of two-month gains, FHFA's market gauge had recorded declines in property prices for 10 straight months. The agency's monthly House Price Index (HPI) is calculated using purchase prices of homes backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It rose 0.4 percent from April to May.

Foreclosures and short sales made up 30 percent of all existing-home sales in June, according to the National Association of Realtors. Overall sales volume slipped in June along with the share of distressed properties. Total existing-home sales declined 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 4.77 million, the trade group's lowest reading since last November. Without a strong rebound in the months ahead, 2011 is on pace to be the fourth time in the last five years where home sales have declined on an annual basis.

Visionary Apps LLC announced Tuesday that its Complete Foreclosures app will now be powered by RealtyTrac data. The app, which previously included about 25 data fields, will now include up to 75 data fields with RealtyTrac data for more than 1.5 million default, bank-owned, and pre-foreclosure listings in more than 2,200 counties across the country. The free Complete Foreclosures app is customizable based on price, square footage, and numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms so that users can eliminate listings that are not relevant to them.

DRI Management Systems, Inc. introduced a new technology module Monday to automate the process of remarketing REO assets. The company explained that its new DRI Broker system facilitates direct, electronic communications between real estate agents and lenders' REO departments, enabling asset managers to accelerate resolutions and lower servicing costs throughout the REO process.