REO

Default servicing technologies are solving the most foreboding of challenges and revolutionizing the way business is conducted. From enabling process servers to validate their work straight from the field to standardizing background checks for property preservation vendors, today's solutions reinforce the mobile nature of the business and demonstrate a commitment to regulatory compliance and consumer protection.

Even though both home prices and mortgage interest rates have been steadily rising, owning a home remains significantly cheaper than renting at the national level and in most major markets, according to Trulia. While the gap is closing between renting and owning, the company's Summer 2013 Rent vs. Buy Report indicates overall, owning is still 35 percent cheaper than renting.

While many in the industry laud the recent changes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) made to the proposed Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) rule, one economist says the new proposed rule sets the stage for another housing crisis.

Existing home sales rose an unexpected 6.5 percent in to an annual sales rate of 5.48 million, the highest level since August 2007 ten months before the onset of the Great Recession -- the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected existing home sales to drop to 5.

Led by the strongest gain for single-family construction this, year, the pace of housing starts edged up 0.9 percent in August, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday. Total housing permits though declined 4.8 percent despite a surge in filings for single-family homes.

Cityside Management Corporation opened its doors in Manchester, New Hampshire, back in 1998 with a single government contract in hand to manage housing units in five New York boroughs. Since then, it has developed into a large-scale, single-source real estate portfolio management services company that serves major markets coast-to-coast with five field offices throughout the United States.

While Rep. Jeb Hensarling's (R-Texas) Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners (PATH) Act seems to be gathering little momentum, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) announced her intention to create an alternative bill regarding the future of the housing finance system and the government's role in it.

The Housing Market Index (HMI), a measure of builder confidence, stalled at 58 in September, unchanged from August’s downwardly revised reading, the National Association of Home Builders reported Tuesday. The August confidence reading had originally been 59. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the index to remain at that level. But a dip in one of the three index components--the outlook for new home sales six months out--pulled the reading down slightly.

Among all cases, those related to foreclosures were the most active, with 74 cases moving forward, according to first-quarter data from Mortgage Daily. However, that was still a drop from that category's peak. An accompanying white paper released by Ballard Spahr LLP suggests the decline in foreclosure-related cases has more to do with the drop in foreclosure filings during the period. Cases involving loan modifications also decreased as foreclosure filings normalized--though dissatisfaction still remains high.

More than 11,000 borrowers are currently in the midst of trial mortgage loan modifications through Fannie Mae's Streamlined Modification program, which officially rolled out at the start of July, and an additional 30,000 borrowers pre-qualified for the program, according to a blog post last week by Bill Cleary, VP of credit portfolio strategies. The new program allows any homeowner 90 or more days delinquent on their first-lien mortgage to receive a trial loan modification if the loan-to-value ratio is 80 percent or higher.