REO

There is a growing consensus among lenders that home prices have stabilized, according to analysts at Barclays Capital. Research by the investment firm also indicates that loan mod efforts have risen significantly, and banks are more aggressively disposing of troubled real estate assets. Barclays' analysts sifted through the Q4 earnings transcripts for 20 regional and national banks to decipher their take on the housing market, and the conclusions point to significant improvements when it comes to real estate holdings.

Freddie Mac is riding the wave of the homebuyer tax credit, hoping it will be incentive enough to entice deal-seekers to snatch up foreclosed properties it has repossessed in the hard-hit Las Vegas and Southern California markets and put a dent in the GSE's swollen inventory of REO properties. Freddie officials announced Thursday that they plan to auction off hundreds of HomeSteps REO properties to individual homebuyers in these areas during the last week of April - just ahead of the contract deadline for the federal tax credit.

Deflated in price and in purpose, the hotly debated Michigan arena rises to life again, thanks to globally targeted auction.

Retreat Capital Management Group, a Lake Forest, California-based provider of loss mitigation and portfolio management products, announced Tuesday that it is now offering property preservation services to its clients through a partnership with Elevate Property Services, based in Santa Fe Springs, California.

The delinquent unpaid balance for commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) increased to $47.82 billion in February, according to investment rating agency Realpoint, LLC. The overall delinquent unpaid balance was up almost 300 percent from February 2009, when only $11.98 billion was reported. Last month's numbers represent a delinquency ratio of 6 percent, and Realpoint says it expects the growth trend to continue, potentially reaching 12 percent by year-end.

Default Services Technologies (DST) has launched DispoSolutions 3.0, a new version of its Web-based REO servicing platform. The new technology was developed in collaboration with Select Portfolio Servicing (SPS), a division of Credit Suisse. According to DST, DispoSolutions 3.0 sets a new standard in automation and offers greater efficiency and flexibility to companies involved in the REO servicing process.

Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS) has launched Broker360, a Web-based portal that allows REO brokers to access the status of preservation work completed by MCS. The company says its approach greatly enhances communication between servicers, field service providers, and real estate agents, and in turn will help reduce the amount of time it takes to market and sell REO properties.

The share of home purchase transactions involving distressed properties surged to almost half in February, according to an industry survey released Monday. Last month distressed properties - those involving homes acquired as part of a foreclosure or pre-foreclosure sale - accounted for 48.1 percent of the home purchase transactions tracked by the survey. It was the highest distressed property market share seen since last July, with short sales accounting for the largest percentage of transactions.

Pathfinder Partners, LLC, a San Diego-based company that invests in distressed real estate and defaulted loans, recently teamed up with Denver's Pittman Development Group to launch the Pittman Pathfinder Colorado Opportunity Fund, a new private equity fund focused on acquiring real estate assets throughout Colorado.

Notice of defaults, which represent the start of the foreclosure process in California, increased by 19.7 percent in February, according to new data released this week by a locally-based company that tracks every foreclosure in the state. The sudden jump comes after four straight months of declines, when default notices fell to their lowest level in a year. The about-face has quickly quelled any ideas that California might be starting to make its way out of a crippling housing crisis.