As Detroit geared up for the kick-off of the Blight Elimination Program, Mary Miller, Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, offered words of encouragement attendees at the event Monday. The effort to do away with residential blight is the largest in Michigan's history, according to a release from the Michigan governor's office.

Home prices rose again to their highest levels since September 2008 in June, increasing 2.2 percent, according to the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released Tuesday. The 20-city index was up 12.1 percent from a year earlier, and the companion 10-city index was up 11.9 percent. Case-Shiller's national index, reported quarterly by Standard & Poor's, was up 7.1 percent in the second quarter to 146.32, its highest level since third quarter 2008. All 20 cities included in the survey improved both month-to-month and year-to-year. The two surveys have improved monthly and yearly for 13 consecutive months.

[ca_audio url_mp3='http://blogtalk.vo.llnwd.net/o23/show/5/140/show_5140035.mp3' css_class='codeart-google-mp3-player' autoplay='false' download='false' html5='false']Jordan Kavana, Founder & CEO of Transcendent Investment joins the broadcast to discuss the REO to rental outlook. In 2009, Mr. Kavana founded Build U.S. Back, a vertically integrated platform that evaluates, acquires, renovates, manages ...

Loretta Kirkwood, an executive with experience in regulatory compliance and risk management, has taken a managing director role at CrossCheck Compliance, LLC, the Chicago-based company announced. [IMAGE] In her position, Kirkwood—an expert an bank regulation, operations, and technology—will expand CrossCheck’s regulatory consulting practice in fair and responsible lending.

Wells Fargo, the nation's biggest mortgage lender, is reportedly getting set to cut more than 2,000 production jobs in response to the drop in refinance demand. According to a report from Bloomberg, people with knowledge of the matter said the bank is removing 2,300 jobs--about 20 percent of its 11,406 loan officers as of March 31.

Davidson Fink LLP announced seven attorneys representing the firm earned a place on the Super Lawyers list for 2013. On the list this year were S. Gerald Davidson, Robert G. Greene, Gregory J. Mott, David L. Rasmussen, Heather C.M. Rogers and Jill K. Schultz, and Scott A. Sydelnik, who also earned the Super Lawyers Rising Star designation.

Nationally, NAR forecasts slight drops in vacancy rates across the office, retail, and industrial markets over the next year. Multifamily vacancies are expected to edge up very slightly, on the other hand. The apartment rental market is expected to see vacancy rates climb to 4.0 percent in Q3 2014 from 3.9 percent in the third quarter of this year, ""with construction rising to meet increased demand."" On that token, NAR expects average apartment rents to rise 4.0 percent both this year and the next.

The FDIC's list of federally insured bank failures grew to 20 so far this year as two more banks collapsed. On Friday, FDIC announced the closures of Community South Bank (Parsons, Tennessee) and Sunrise Bank of Arizona (Phoenix).

The delinquency rate, which includes loans 30 days or more past due, slipped to 6.41 percent in July after increasing to 6.7 percent in June, LPS reported Monday. The decrease represents a monthly and yearly decline of 3.96 percent 8.76 percent, respectively. Foreclosure inventory also fell in July, dropping 2.82 percent, down from 3.46 percent in June. Compared to a year ago, the decrease is much steeper, at 30.76 percent. According to LPS, the foreclosure inventory rate is at the lowest level since February 2009.

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.