Illinois experienced an increase in home sales and median prices over year ago levels in March, the Illinois Association of REALTORS reported. Home sales last month totaled 10,992, up 13.6 percent from March 2012 when sales were at 9,679. At the same time, median prices in the state showed a 3.6 percent improvement from last year, the association reported.

The infectious optimism surrounding the housing market has the majority of Americans feeling more positive, according to survey results from Gallup. Gallup found 51 percent of those surveyed said they expect home prices to rise in their area over the next year--the first time since 2007 that that number has been above 50 percent. Last year, only 33 percent of respondents gave the same answer. In this year's survey, 34 percent of Americans said prices will stay the same--down from 44 percent last year--while 14 percent said prices will fall, down from 23 percent.

MortgageDocs, a national notary signing services company based in California, has named Christian Redmond as its new CEO. Prior to his appointment at MortgageDocs, Redmond was VP of business development at the Walz Group, a case management and document fulfillment firm that handles critical communications between the mortgage servicing community and borrowers such as default and foreclosure notifications as well as loss mitigation packages.

Competition is tightening for asset management and home preservation service providers as the housing market recovers and defaults and foreclosures recede. Distressed Asset Logistics (DAL), a firm that works with banks, credit unions, mortgage banks and asset management firms to streamline default services and REO activities within the enterprise, says it believes firms that master the ""Cradle-to-Grave"" offering will be the likely winners in this new environment.

Xerox Mortgage Services announced the release of BlitzDocs Servicing to simplify the paperless mortgage process for lenders and servicers. BlitzDocs provides an electronic loan folder that imitates traditional paper loan folders. Through the expanded offering, the solution is able to provide a single point of reference for all documentation related to a borrower for the lifespan of a loan, which results in better customer service for the borrower.

Grant funds secured through the national mortgage settlement will be used to provide a wide range of assistance to California homeowners impacted by the state's foreclosure crisis. California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced 21 organizations were awarded funds through a $9.4 million grant.

With a sharp jump in prices, existing-home sales fell 0.6 percent in March--the steepest drop since December--to 4.92 million units, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday. Economists had expected a 1.0 percent increase to 5.03 million from February's original report of 4.98 million sales. The median price of an existing single-family home jumped to $184,300, the highest level in seven months. The inventory of homes for sale edged up to 1.93 million units--a 4.7 month supply, both the highest level since November.

The Wolf Firm announced the appointment of Kayo Manson-Tompkins as managing attorney of the firm’s eviction department.

Carrington Technology Solutions, LLC and Equator Business Solutions announced the commercial availability of RentPointe, Carrington's proprietary software application designed to meet the complexities of managing diverse portfolios of single-family rental properties.

What do you do when you find out Santa Claus doesn't exist? That's the situation former vice presidential candidate/House Budget Committee Chair/potential presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) faces now that the study which provided him with the academic support for budget cuts (aimed principally at so-called entitlements) has been undermined. Harvard economists Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff in 2010 published a research paper which held that for countries with debt loads equivalent to or greater than 90 percent of annual economic output, ""median growth rates fall by 1 percent, and average growth falls considerably more.""