REO

At current the current sales pace, Orlando has a 4.37-month supply of homes. This is the lowest rate reported since December 2005. The average home sold in Orlando in June sold for 95.15 percent of its listing price.

Despite a recent trend in increasing foreclosure times, the average time it took to foreclose properties in California, Arizona, and Nevada decreased in June 2011, according to ForeclosureRadar. While monthly numbers decreased in three states, year-over-year numbers still show an increase in the five West-coast states included in the firm's monthly report. ForeclosureRadar covers Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Foreclosure filings decreased in the five states in Foreclosure Radar's report.

With a groundswell of unpaid mortgages and home seizures adding to inventories of bank-owned properties for years, REO sales have commanded a bigger share of the market, weighing down the entire housing market. Getting these foreclosed homes off banks' books and back into the hands of responsible homeowners is an essential part of the housing sector's recovery. RealtyTrac reports that REOs sold during the first quarter carried an average markdown of 35 percent compared to the price of homes not in foreclosure.

Distressed commercial real estate in the United States stood at $181.1 billion in June, according to the analysts at Delta Associates. That tally includes properties in default, in foreclosure, and lender REO. The firm says the amount of distress in the commercial real estate (CRE) sector has increased by $500 million since April but still remains on the low end of the plateau range. The level of distress began to plateau in spring 2010, according to Delta Associates, and has stayed between $175 billion and $190 billion since then.

The number of foreclosure filings for the second quarter of this year was the lowest reported since the fourth quarter of 2007, according to RealtyTrac's Midyear 2011 Foreclosure Market Report released Thursday. All categories of foreclosures showed decreases on both a quarterly and annual basis. June marked the ninth consecutive month in which foreclosure activity declined on a year-over-year basis.

With delinquent mortgages at unprecedented levels, sheer market conditions command a staff the size of a small army dedicated to working with distressed borrowers. Servicers have added thousands to their loss mitigation teams over the past few years and most are still recruiting. JPMorgan Chase has added more than 10,100 new employees nationwide to the default and loss mitigation organization since 2008, almost doubling its staff. Chase has partnered with HOPE NOW, nonprofits, and state agencies conducting over 1,500 local events through April.

Stewart Lender Services (SLS) announced the acquisition of a majority ownership of PMH Financial, a full-service REO outsource and subservicing company with an active inventory of $2.5 billion in real estate assets.

The Applied Analytics division of Lender Processing Services, Inc. recently introduced the LPS Home Price Index (HPI). The LPS HPI shows historical price trends for residential properties in the United States, offering estimates of property values that underlie residential mortgage portfolios and securities. LPS says the new tool is a reliable way to estimate borrower stress, negative equity, and potential for default and loss.

RE/MAX Excalibur Realty, RE/MAX Fine Properties, and RE/MAX Professionals have ranked among the top residential real estate brokerages in the state of Arizona based on ""The List"" survey published annually by the Phoenix Business Journal. RE/MAX was the only company to place three brokerages in the top 21 rankings based on 2010 local residential sales volume. Forty-four percent of the brokerages' sales last year were bank-owned and HUD-owned foreclosures.

Data released by Clear Capital Friday show home prices at the national level posted their first quarterly gain in June after nine months of declines. The company says the 0.9 percent increase is an encouraging sign that the markets are capable of positive price growth despite continued economic and foreclosure pressures. But even with the second-quarter uptick, U.S. home prices lost 3.2 percent during the first half of 2011, and Clear Capital is forecasting another 2.4 percent drop for the second half of the year.