Home prices across much of the country are still overvalued, but the gap is narrowing, according to Fitch Ratings. The agency has revised its Sustainable Home Price (SHP) model, and the results show that residential property values are now on track to fall an additional 9.1 percent nationally before arriving at a level that is supported by market fundamentals. Though home prices are falling nationally, Fitch notes that price movement in some regional markets is still quite volatile due to the volume and pace of distressed sales being processed.

Nationstar Mortgage is acquiring approximately $63 billion in residential mortgage servicing assets from Aurora Bank, a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Bancorp. The agreement was announced Tuesday in a release, which stated that the Lewisville, Texas-based mortgage servicer will pay approximately $268 million in servicing rights and $210 million for related servicing advance receivables.

Home affordability has reached the highest peak ever since 1970, which is when the data was first recorded, according to National Association of Realtor's (NAR) housing affordability index. The index rose to a record high of 206.1 in January. While projections about future mortgage rates and home prices have been mixed, NAR expects little change and anticipates affordability levels will stay high through 2012.

The housing market is healing, a Capital Economics report stated, but the road to recovery will be a long and gradual one. The research firm expects to see home sales and homebuilding continue with increases, while house prices are expected to finally stop falling later this year. While certain areas of the housing market appear to be moving in a positive direction, Capital Economics still points out that with the growth come constraints, such as Eurozone issues and tightened lending standards.

Platinum Data Solutions announced the appointment of Phil Huff as its new CEO. He succeeds the company's founder, Rocky Donathan, who will maintain an active role in the company. Huff, who was the co-founder and CEO of secure document technology provider eLynx, was selected to spearhead the company's strategic growth plan.

While home prices declined on a year-over-year basis in January 2012, a month-over-month gain was seen when excluding distressed sales, according to CoreLogic's January Home Price Index (HPI). Prices declined 3.1 percent in January 2012 compared to a year ago in January 2011. But, when excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 0.9 percent, and a month-over-month gain of 0.7 percent was seen for January. Distressed sales include short sales and REO transactions.

The messaging center permits all parties working together to communicate with each other at both a global and property level, without leaving the RES.NET system. More specifically, the new enhancement to RES.NET allows for portal-to-portal messages to be sent, received, and stored within all RES.NET.

Data through the end of January shows significant movement in both foreclosure starts and sales, and it has some market watchers saying the lull in foreclosure activity seen over the past year-and-a-half may very well be coming to an end. Lender Processing Services' (LPS) latest market report says foreclosure starts jumped 28 percent between December and January, and foreclosure sales soared 29 percent. It also shows that 47 percent of all foreclosures started during the month were repeat foreclosures.

Through a streamline refinance program, borrowers with FHA-endorsed loans may find it easier lock in lower interest rates while paying less in fees. Beginning June 11, 2012, the FHA will lower upfront mortgage insurance premiums to .01 percent and reduce annual premiums to .55 percent for certain FHA borrowers, Carol Galante, acting commissioner of the FHA, announced today. To be eligible, borrowers must to be current on their FHA-insured loans, which need to have been endorsed on or before May 31, 2009.

Safeguard Properties is launching an online series of free, educational videos that describe the field service business and Safeguard's role in working with mortgage servicing and investor clients.