Two more community banks have been shuttered by state regulators – New Frontier Bank of Greeley, Colorado, and Cape Fear Bank in Wilmington, North Carolina. These latest closings bring the total number of failed institutions for the year to 23.

Lake Forest, California-based US Real Estate Services, Inc. (USRES) has promoted Rida Sharaf to VP of the company’s REO title and closing division. Sharaf joined USRES in March of 2007 as a closing supervisor, and since that time, the company says he has been instrumental in the growth, efficiency, and effectiveness of the title and closing divisions through policy and procedural improvement and implementation.

Lenders took back 7,300 foreclosed properties in the tri-county South Florida area during the first quarter of the year – representing a 54 percent increase over the same period in 2008 – according to a new report from Condo Vultures LLC, which provides residential real estate data for some of the markets hardest hit by the housing crisis, including South Florida, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Diego.

Coraopolis, Pennsylvania-based ServiceLink, a provider of origination and default services and the national mortgage services platform of Fidelity National Financial, has launched their Appraiser Panel Management (APM) product line.

Minneapolis-based Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced on Thursday that it has enhanced the company’s suite of mortgage compliance documentation solutions to help financial institutions participate in the Treasury Department’s new Making Home Affordable program.

Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac modified nearly 24,000 loans during the fourth quarter of 2008, an increase of 76 percent over the third quarter, according to data released this week by the GSEs’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

The U.S. Treasury said on Friday that American taxpayers have already begun to get back some of the money that they’ve invested to bailout the nation’s banks. The Treasury has collected $2.

Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) on Thursday, which showed interest rates on fixed-rate home loans and some adjustable-rate products eased this week. The GSE reported that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.

Lake Forest, California-based Retreat Capital Management, Inc., a third-party arbitration services company that specializes in bringing loans back to performing status and keeping borrowers in their homes, announced on Wednesday that it is collaborating with software provider Ellie Mae to provide lenders with loan modification services.

Maryland-based Aspen Grove’s Aspen iAgent technology has been approved as the default REO solution for Keller Williams Realty agents across the United States. Aspen iAgent allows real estate agents to manage REO properties, from assignment through closing, via a secure, Web-hosted application.