REO

Safeguard Properties announced Monday that as of the start of October, its Compliance Connections division has processed more than 10,000 code violations for the 2012 calendar year and has grown its roster of participating municipalities to 600. Both milestones represent an annual growth rate of over 300 percent.

No doubt, the potential of the REO to rental market has caught the attention of both individual and institutional investors. But, what is the real potential of the rental market, and how long will it continue? In a recent report authored by economist Paul Diggle, Capital Economics addressed those questions. With distressed inventory shrinking and prices rising, the research firm expects the acquisition of single-family homes to end after a few more years.

Mortgage Contracting Services LLC (MCS) commemorated the official opening of its newest facility in Ruston, Louisiana, this week with a ribbon-cutting event. MCS provides property preservation services, inspections, and REO property maintenance to mortgage servicers nationwide. The Ruston facility is the company's third.

Investors who are eagerly waiting for bargain prices from the potential foreclosure flood are likely waiting for something that won't happen, according to the September home value forecast report from Pro Teck Valuation Services. In the report, the company explained why it believes there will be no such flood and points to the current lack of inventory in markets such as San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles.

A Virginia developer was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in federal prison for a bank fraud scheme, which contributed to the collapse of Bank of the Commonwealth, and for his role in a historic-tax-credit scheme, the Office of the Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP) announced in a release Wednesday.

Home prices have hit their peak for the year, and the price increases seen earlier this year are slowing down, according to the latest data from Radar Logic. The firm's composite price index posted a 1.3 percent price increase from June 19 to July 19. Based on years passed, Radar Logic suggests the gains are partially seasonal, and prices peaked for the year in July. In addition, sales of foreclosed and REO properties reached their lowest level since January 2008, making up just 14.1 percent of all home sales.

In the second quarter of 2012, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed more than 129,007 foreclosure prevention actions, raising the year-to-date total to 275,106, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is the GSEs conservator and regulator, reported Wednesday. The second quarter total is a decrease from the first quarter of 2012, when the GSEs completed 146,099 foreclosure prevention actions. Since 2008, the start of the conservatorship, the GSEs have completed nearly 2.4 million foreclosure prevention actions, 1.2 million of which included permanent loan mods.

A lack of properties, mainly REOs, is crimping home sales in California, according to a release from the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.). Although pending home sales in the state rose in August from July, sales were down from a year earlier, putting a halt to a 15-month trend of yearly increases.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged three former executives of TierOne Bank in Nebraska for their roles in a scheme that involved understating millions of dollars in losses, the agency announced Tuesday in a release.

The National Fair Housing Alliance and five member agencies filed a federal discrimination complaint against Bank of America on Tuesday, alleging widespread neglect in predominantly black and Hispanic communities across the country. The watchdog agency and members unveiled a HUD-funded report to support the claims that Bank of America violates the Fair Housing Act by neglecting REO properties in these communities.