While several recent reports have projected a glimmer of hope for the future of the commercial real estate market, some industry experts aren't convinced and are saying the market is due to suffer the same fate as the recent collapse of the housing market, only worse.

Advanced Financial Services (AFS), a mortgage lender based in Newport, Rhode Island, recently announced it has changed its name to Embrace Home Loans.

The bankrupt Thornburg Mortgage, now operating under the name TMST Inc., has gotten the green light to sell off its $11.1 billion mortgage servicing portfolio of jumbo home loans.

State and federal regulators stepped in to shut the doors on seven more banks Friday. There were two closures in California, and one each in Illinois, Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, and Florida.

Selene Residential Mortgage Opportunity Fund LP has outbid two other firms to acquire a portfolio of foreclosed homes from the now-defunct Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

As DSNews.com previously reported, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Citigroup said last week that they were all suspending foreclosure actions during the holidays.

National bank and thrift servicers implemented more than 680,000 home loan modifications and payment plans in the third quarter of 2009, according to a government report released Monday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).

Short sales are becoming increasingly popular as a means to avoid foreclosure.

Cocamar LLC, a Lenders Support Services company, announced last week that it has acquired the assets of ISGN Inspection Services, a provider of cost analysis and risk mitigation services.

President Barak Obama made an announcement Thursday stating his intent to nominate Theodore (Ted) W. Pozer as president of the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae/GNMA).