REO

As home prices improve and headlines spell out recovery, those on the ground in housing markets across the country are encountering a new threat: zombies. These so-called zombie foreclosures take place when a bank initiates foreclosure on a property but then abandons the process, leaving the property in a sort-of no-man's land--vacant but not for sale.

Three prominent mortgage field service companies will fall under the ownership of one new holding company. The company, formed by Concentric Equity Partners (CEP) and TDR Capital (TDR), will own Mortgage Contracting Services, LLC (MCS), Asset Management Specialists, Inc. (AMS) and Vacant Property Specialists, LLC (VPS). The deal is expected to close October 1, 2013.

Shrugging off cutbacks in government spending, the nation’s economy grew in the second quarter at a faster pace than originally reported, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday. Second quarter growth was calculated at a seasonally adjusted annual 2.5 percent rate, a sharp increase from the 1.7 percent initially reported for gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of the nation's economy, a month ago. The stronger growth suggests a recovery on track, though the growth rate is shy of the 3 percent trend rate, a threshold generally considered necessary to expand payrolls.

While higher mortgage rates have been blamed for the slowdown in pending home sales, they may be contributing to an increase in cash purchases, RealtyTrac suggested in a recent report. In July, about 40 percent of residential property sales were all-cash transactions. The share presents an increase from 35 percent in June and 31 percent compared to July 2012. Short sales also accounted for a bigger share of sales in July, increasing to 14 percent, up from 13 percent in the prior month and 9 percent from a year ago.

As national home prices recover, Texas and Colorado are already busy setting new highs, data from Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) revealed. In June, national home prices rose 8.4 percent year-over-year to $229,000, according to LPS' Home Price Index (HPI). When compared to the 2005 peak of $270,000, prices are still down 15.2 percent. However, Colorado and Texas moved ahead of the national trend and hit new highs of $256,000 and $182,000, respectively.

Is it possible that we have turned the corner on the real estate crisis? Some economic indicators seem to be pointing in that direction. Inasmuch as there are tangible measurements, which have evolved into positive forecast discussions, we are not out of the woods just yet. The foreclosure process remains in the spotlight. Shortly after the 2010 robo-signing issue materialized and was reported on every news channel imaginable, REO sales throughout the country began a downward spiral. Although the robo-signing issue seems to have been addressed, there are many states that still have a cumbersome foreclosure process.

Foreclosure filings increased 2 percent in July, rising from a reported 78-month low in June, according to RealtyTrac's latest U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The worst foreclosure rates continue to take place in judicial states, according to the report. In fact, six of the top 10 foreclosure rates took place in judicial states in July, RealtyTrac found. Blomquist also pointed out that July's foreclosure filings are 64 percent below the peak reached in March 2010 but 54 percent above the historical average prior to the housing crisis.

Double-digit annual increases continued in June as home prices surged 11.9 percent, CoreLogic reported Tuesday. The increase marks the 16th consecutive month of annual home price appreciation. From May to June, prices grew 1.9 percent. Even with the significant annual gains, home prices are still 19 percent below their April 2006 peak, the data provider revealed.

Personal spending in June grew 0.5 percent, its fastest pace February while personal income rose 0.3 percent ,the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. Economists had expected income and spending each to grow 0.4 percent. By the numbers, income grew $45.4 billion, while spending was up $59.4 billion, the largest month-over-month increase since February when spending rose $75.7 billion.

The total balance for seriously delinquent first mortgages decreased to a five-year low as rising home prices reduce incentives to default, Equifax stated in its National Consumer Credit Trends Report. In June, the balance of loans 90 days or more past due or in foreclosure fell to $325 billion, down 27 percent from last year when the balance stood at $450 billion. Loans originated in 2010 or later represented about 7 percent of the balance for seriously delinquent mortgages.