REO

Despite a month-over-month increase in the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) default rate in June, Trepp LLC--a New York based company tracking commercial real estate--still sees hope in its latest report. The monthly delinquency rate for commercial real estate loans in CMBS showed a jump of 17 basis points in June, coming in at 8.59 percent for loans 30 or more days delinquent. However, Trepp said this marked the best reading since July 2009.

Safeguard Properties, the largest privately held mortgage field services company in the United States, has expanded its marketing and business development team with two new appointments. Tod Burkert has been named vice president of business development, and Anthony Golden has been named director of strategic initiatives.

As part of a new strategic alliance, ClearMarkets, LLC, announced Tuesday that it is partnering with the Keller Williams Global Property Solutions Group. Through this partnership, ClearMarkets will gain access to Keller Williams' network of certified residential and commercial agents and brokers. In return, these agents will be trained by Keller Williams on ClearMarkets' technology and expertise for transparent bid management, asset sales and marketing, as well as reporting.

The seasonal improvement period for delinquencies and foreclosure inventories has come to a halt, according to an industry report recently released by Lender Processing Services. The total U.S. delinquency rate jumped to 9.2 percent in May, inching up 2.3 percent from April. The foreclosure inventory rate remained stable at 3.18 percent. That means 12.38 percent of the nation's outstanding mortgages are noncurrent.

Continuing communication is key to navigating REO code compliance with suppliers, communities, and other related entities.

The words ""real estate auction"" and ""investor"" usually go hand in hand, but Bank of America and the auction company REDC recently announced plans for a foreclosure auction exclusively for owner-occupant homebuyers. The July 24 auction will include more than 100 homes located in the Inland Empire of Ontario, California. These Bank of America-owned homes have been removed from the market and are inspected, repaired, and ready for sale.

RealtyTrac released a new industry report Tuesday, which shows that homes already foreclosed or somewhere in the process accounted for 31 percent of all residential sales in the first quarter of 2010. A total of 232,959 U.S. properties in some stage of foreclosure - default, scheduled for auction, or REO - sold to third parties in Q1. The company also found that the average sales price of properties in foreclosure was nearly 27 percent below the average sales price of non-distressed properties.

Default Servicing Technologies, LLC (DST) recently introduced a new Web-based REO workflow platform for residential and small commercial properties. The new system is modeled after the company's flagship asset management software, DispoSolutions, but has been specifically designed to serve small to medium-sized banks, credit unions, outsourcers, and hedge funds.

As the GSEs and other federal agencies sell their collective inventory of repossessed homes, they will generate significant pressure on prices, according to Radar Logic. The company's analysis shows that the government's REO inventory now accounts for 46 percent of the nation's total bank-owned supply, which equates to 219,060 foreclosed homes. Add to that its share of non-performing loans heading to foreclosure, and the government's REO holdings could balloon to 3.1 million properties.

Titleserv National has recruited industry veteran John Porath to serve as SVP and director of REO sales for the Woodbury, New York-based firm. Porath will work closely with banks to develop short sale and real estate-owned business for Titleserv, which handles full REO title and closing services in 44 states.