REO

The four week streak of falling mortgage rates ended this week, according to surveys released Thursday by Freddie Mac and Bankrate. However, despite this slight increase, mortgage rates remain relatively stable and are notably lower than rates this time last year.

Home loan delinquency rates in the United States have now surpassed 10 percent, Lender Processing Services (LPS) reported this week. When you factor in homes already in the foreclosure process, the total rate of noncurrent mortgages sits at 13.3 percent, according to the company's national loan-level database. This rate indicates that more than 7.2 million mortgage loans are now behind on payments, LPS explained, with another one million properties already taken back by banks and in REO status.

The Corvus Group, a Washington, D.C.-area firm with nearly $10 billion of real estate assets under management from failed banks, has formed a Troubled Asset Advisory Group (Corvus TAAG). The group, based in Chicago, says it provides specialized staffing and advisory services to companies involved with troubled and distressed commercial real estate and homebuilder/residential development debt.

Fannie Mae says it will cover the closing costs on purchases of its REO homes - an incentive the GSE hopes will help it pare down a bloated supply of repossessed properties. From now until May 1, people purchasing a home through HomePath, Fannie Mae's REO disposition operation, will receive up to 3.5 percent of the final sales price, which can be applied toward closing costs or used to purchase appliances for their new home. At the end of September, Fannie Mae had 72,275 REO properties on its books, marking a 7 percent increase year-over-year.

The Arizona real estate market seems to be on the mend, according to recent data released by Fidelity National Title, a title insurance and escrow service company in Arizona, in partnership with The Cromford Report, an online statistical resource on the metropolitan Phoenix residential resale market.

According to an announcement Tuesday by Irvine, California-based REDC, the company auctioned 654 properties in its four-day, seven-city live auction series January 21, 23, 24, and 25, producing $41.4 million in sales. ""We're very pleased with the results from the auctions,"" said Jeff Frieden, CEO of REDC.

In an effort to prepare for the mortgage industry's high volume of foreclosures that are expected to occur throughout 2010, Lenders Asset Management Corporation (LAMCO), a full-service default asset management company based in Littleton, Colorado, announced the development of its REO Services Scalability Initiative.

RealtyBid.com, an online home auction company, says it has hit the ground running in 2010 by offering close to 1,000 REO properties to investors and homebuyers across the country during the month of January. As part of this effort, hundreds of properties have been added to the company's auction Web site in the past week.

In an announcement Thursday, The Alter Group, a corporate real estate developer based in Chicago, said it has formed Alter Asset Recovery, which will provide expedited solutions for lenders and special servicers holding distressed properties. The formation of this new affiliate comes at a time when distressed commercial real estate assets are potentially the largest challenge facing banks and other lenders.

Although short sales are likely to increase in 2010, the jump in these transactions is unlikely to have any real impact on the housing market, according to a new study by Housing Predictor. While more at-risk homeowners are turning to short sales as an alternative to foreclosure, Housing Predictor says the small number of short sales that are actually approved by banks represent less than 1 percent of all homes facing foreclosure.