REO

Micoley.com, a real estate marketing firm based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, announced its May 18 online real estate auction features over 40 properties. The event includes both single and multifamily residences, as well as commercial, mixed-use, and vacant, undeveloped land throughout Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Georgia.

In a recent report, Radar Logic closely examined purchase trends and patterns from institutional investors in the Atlanta area. Among its findings, the research firm found investors have been targeting a different cross-section of homes compared to traditional buyers. According to the report, institutional investors are more likely to purchase homes that are cheaper, smaller, and located in lower-income areas compared to homes bought by non-investor buyers.

Despite weakness in the Midwest, home prices posted their strongest year-over-year gain in almost seven years in February, according to the Case-Shiller 10- and 20-city Home Price Indices released Tuesday. Home prices rose year-over-year in all 20 of the cities in the Case-Shiller survey. Month-over-month, the 10-city index improved 0.4 percent in February, while the 20-city index was up 0.3 percent. On a yearly basis, the 10-city index was up 8.6 percent, and the 20-city index rose 9.3 percent.

After tracking transactions in February, Lender Process Services, Inc. (LPS) found home prices rose 1 percent month-over-month, with California and Washington leading the gains. In dollar terms, LPS' Home Price Index (HPI) for non-distressed sales stood at $210,000, up 7.3 percent from February 2012. LPS data also showed short sales, which accounted for 12 percent of February sales, were sold at a 25 percent discount compared to non-distressed sales. Meanwhile, REOs accounted for 10.5 percent of sales and were discounted by 27 percent compared to non-distressed properties.

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose 1.5 percent to 105.7 in March, the highest level in almost three years, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. Economists had expected a 0.7 percent increase to 105.5 from February's originally reported 104.8. The February index reading was revised to 104.1. With the month-over-month improvement, the PHSI is 7.0 percent above March 2012, slightly below the 7.7 percent year-over-year gain in February. The index registered double-digit percent gains from April through October last year so the dip--on the eve of the homebuying season--is less than encouraging.

Restrained by slow wage growth, personal income rose a disappointing $30.9 billion (0.2 percent) in March--half of what economists expected--as spending rose $21.0 billion or 0.2 percent, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, reported Monday. Personal income had improved $15.2 billion in February, largely on the strength of an $80 billion increase in dividend payments. Dividend payments in March increased by $4.5 billion over February.

CoreLogic, a leading residential property information, analytics, and services provider headquartered in California, announced its acquisition of Case-Shiller from Fiserv, Inc. The acquisition closed March 20.

Clarifire, a Florida-based provider of workflow automation technology, announced the launch of its next-generation website, eClarifire.com.

Over the past couple years, rentals of single-family homes have served as a growing segment of the housing market. However, lately limited supply and rising home prices are leading to rising rents, thus slowing growth in this market, according to a report from CoreLogic. Having been on the decline since 2009, single-family rental properties now have about a 2.9-month supply available on the market. For comparison, anything below six months supply in the purchase market is considered low. The result of tight supply, naturally, is rising prices.

Before deciding on an REO-to-rental investment, it's important to understand distressed property trends on a neighborhood-level, according to DataQuick. This is why the San-Diego-based company has made available the REO-to-Rental Neighborhood Rankings for servicers and investors.