REO

Irvine, California-based Real Estate Disposition Corporation (REDC) has acquired the domain name, Auction.com, for $1.7 million. REDC’s consumer Website for lender-foreclosed home auctions, until now, has been USHomeAuction.

ForeclosureRadar, which tracks every California foreclosure and provides daily auction updates, issued its monthly California Foreclosure Report for February 2009 on Thursday. The company said that Notices of Default have increased 21.

Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS), a property preservation and inspection services provider based in Tampa, Florida, announced on Thursday that it has been awarded a contract with U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to perform property preservation work for the government.

As inventories of foreclosed homes swell, home builders across the country, particularly in the Sun Belt states hit hardest by the housing crisis, are pitted against REO properties for sales. Steve Ruffner, president of the Southern California division of new home builder KB Home, recently told the Wall Street Journal:http://online.

U.S. Housing Renewal is a newly formed organization, created to help struggling Americans reclaim homeownership and help American financial institutions strengthen their balance sheets. The Nashville-based group combines public and private funds for the purpose of purchasing non-performing housing assets from financial institutions and transforming these properties into two-year lease-to-own situations for families who have either lost their homes or have been unable to purchase in the current financial environment.

Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF), a national organization that provides capital to nonprofit community development lenders through its secondary market for loans, recently announced a new foreclosure remediation program for the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

An auction of foreclosed homes in New York City was picketed by a group of two dozen protesters on Sunday. The auction of more than 375 foreclosed homes was put on by Real Estate Disposition Corp. (REDC), and was only the second event the company has held in the Big Apple.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Mortgage Delinquency Survey for 2008 on Thursday, which showed that Americans fell behind on their mortgages and banks seized homes at a record pace in the fourth quarter of last year.

The National Auctioneers Association (NAA), headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, released the results of its 2008 industry survey this week. The report showed an increase in revenue from residential real estate sold at auction.

On Thursday, Freddie Mac announced the official launch of its new REO Rental Initiative, giving qualified tenants and former owners the option to lease their recently foreclosed properties on a month-to-month basis.