Bank of America began mailing out more than 200,000 letters this week targeting borrowers thought to be eligible for principal-reducing modifications under terms of the settlement reached with the federal government and 49 state attorneys general. To be eligible, a homeowner must owe more on the mortgage than the property is worth today and must have been at least 60 days behind on payments on January 31, 2012. BofA estimates average monthly savings of 30 percent for qualifying customers.

Allonhill, an independent third-party review firm specializing in mortgage due diligence and credit risk management, hired Maria Sedlack as director of investor relations management.

DataQuick launched a valuation tool to help portfolio risk managers with correctly assessing default and loss severity risk. CMV-Portfolio is a flexible, automated valuation tool that uses confidence scores and configurable business rules to optimize portfolio risk management decisions.

When including distressed sales, home prices rose month-over-month by the same percentage point as they dropped year-over-year. CoreLogic reported Tuesday in its March Home Price Index (HPI) that compared to a year ago, prices declined 0.6 percentin March, while prices rose 0.6 percent compared to the month before in February. The monthly gain when including distressed sales is the first time since July 2011. Distressed sales include short sales and REO transactions.

Gerner & Kearns Co. announced the acceptance of Daniel A. Cox, the firm's director of legal operations, as a fellow for the Ohio State Bar Foundation.

IL Group, a provider of customized lender placed insurance products and services headquartered in Gulf Shores, Alabama, has counted Chicago-based Fay Financial as a client for three years. The company announced last week that Fay Financial will continue to leverage IL Group for customized lender-placed and forced-placed insurance products and services to streamline workflow, improve efficiencies, and maintain regulatory compliance. IL Group also announced the launch of a new company website to better reflect its strategic vision and support anticipated growth.

While the pace of bank closings has slowed this year compared to the year before, in its bank failure report, Trepp noted that there are still more than 200 banks at high risk of failure as of the first quarter of 2012. More specifically, 209 banks are considered to be at high risk of failure on the Trepp Watchlist, three of which failed in April, leaving 204. The high-risk banks are more heavily concentrated in Georgia (41 banks), followed by Florida (32), Illinois (24), Minnesota (12), North Carolina (11), Tennessee (9) and Missouri (9).

At 207,000 permanent loan modifications for homeowners from servicers for the first quarter of 2012, loan modifications decreased by 31 percent compared to a year ago this same quarter, according to data released by HOPE NOW. Of the total, approximately 147,000 were proprietary modifications and 60,225 were HAMP mods. Additionally, 72 percent, or 105,000, of the proprietary modifications had reduced principal and interest payments by more than 10 percent, and 77 percent of the mods included principal and interest payment reductions.

Clarification was offered Monday on misconceptions regarding the REO-to-Rental Initiative, currently in pilot stages. Meg Burns, FHFA's senior associate director for housing and regulatory policy, explained in testimony to lawmakers the purpose and intent of the pilot program, which involves the bulk sale of Fannie Mae REO properties to investors who will then convert their purchases into rental units. Burns made it clear that the program is highly targeted for select markets that have specific characteristics including an oversupply of single-family homes for sale and a strong demand for rental housing.

The expectation for home prices and the percentage of those who think the U.S. economy is on the right path reached record all-time highs in Fannie Mae's April 2012 National Housing Survey. Americans continue to expect home prices to go up, with the projection averaging 1.3 percent over the next 12 months, the highest value recorded. The percentage of Americans who believe the economy is on the right track rose to 37 percent, a 2 point increase from the previous month and the highest level in the survey's two-year history. Still, an even greater 56 percent believe the economy is moving in the wrong direction.