Although the dollar amount of mortgage fraud remained virtually unchanged last year, the number of mortgage fraud cases surged, according to a recent report on PRNewswire. Up from 1,488 cases in 2008, the number of mortgage fraud cases in 2009 jumped to 1,677.

Defaults on home loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to climb, but the two aren't taking the losses lying down. The GSEs' forced banks to buy back $7 billion in soured loans during the first nine months of 2009, and it's the largest lenders that are taking the biggest hit. A growing number of community banks, on the other hand, are seeing interest from discerning buyers for assets already identified as ""bad loans,"" and they're shrinking their nonperforming portfolios by as much as 80 percent with one sale.

Wells Fargo is the nation's top commercial and multifamily mortgage servicer, according to data released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Monday, followed by PNC Real Estate and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage. New analysis by MBA also contradicts earlier doom and gloom forecasts regarding maturity levels of commercial real estate loans. The trade group says only about 13 percent, or $184 billion, of the $1.45 trillion dollars in outstanding mortgages held by non-bank investors is scheduled to come due in 2010.

As the economic recovery slowly continues, consumers are looking for ways to gain a solid financial footing. Specifically, they are asking lenders how they can raise their credit scores, reduce debt, and build their savings. That's according to the results of a financial literacy survey Wolters Kluwer Financial Services conducted with 175 banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders.

Reisenfeld & Associates LPA, LLC, a legal services provider to the mortgage banking industry, recently announced the promotion of Daniel A. Cox to the newly created position of director of default operations.

A federal judge in New York has thrown out a lawsuit against Standard & Poor's and Moody's brought by investors who claim the ratings agencies defrauded them on nearly $100 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issued by the now defunct Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. back in 2007.

The congressionally appointed committee charged with overseeing the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) headed to Atlanta to hold a hearing on problems in the commercial real estate (CRE) sector. Specifically panel members are hoping to get a better grasp on how CRE woes will affect the banking system and the role of TARP in addressing that impact, hoping to stave off another real estate-induced financial meltdown.

The Catylist commercial information exchange (CIE) service was recently adopted for the commercial members of My Florida Regional MLS (MFRMLS), a consortium of 13 Realtor boards and Florida's largest multiple listing service (MLS) with approximately 30,000 subscribers.

On Friday, Encore Equities, LLC, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Encore Enterprises, Inc, named Scot Clevenger as the company's VP of capital markets. In his new position, Clevenger will cultivate investor and partner relationships and identify projects that meet the company's investment criteria.

Fannie Mae says it will cover the closing costs on purchases of its REO homes - an incentive the GSE hopes will help it pare down a bloated supply of repossessed properties. From now until May 1, people purchasing a home through HomePath, Fannie Mae's REO disposition operation, will receive up to 3.5 percent of the final sales price, which can be applied toward closing costs or used to purchase appliances for their new home. At the end of September, Fannie Mae had 72,275 REO properties on its books, marking a 7 percent increase year-over-year.