Venable LLP welcomes Ralph Miles to the firm’s growing New York office, where he will head the New York Real Estate Group. Miles has represented many New York City and State authorities and possesses almost three decades of experience in real estate finance, development, leasing and real estate bankruptcies and restructurings.

The state of Massachusetts is dealing with an unprecedented 76 percent year-to-year increase in state foreclosures, according to the Market Analysis Report for the First Quarter of 2007, which is a report published by ForeclosuresMass.

Visionet Systems, a full-service mortgage consulting and business process outsourcing company, announces VisiClaims, a system to avoid repurchases and expedite settlements through the processing of claims.

The National Association of Realtors) says total existing home sales dropped 8.4 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.12 million units in March of 2007 from the higher rate of 6.68 million a month earlier.

Two companies related to the mortgage banking industry announced hundreds of layoffs that will take effect in the Lone Star state this year, according to letters filed with the Texas Workforce Commission.

The national foreclosure index is rising uncomfortably especially within communities located in the upper-Midwest and Ohio regions, according to the second quarter Core Mortgage Risk Monitor ™ report (CMRM), which is published by First American CoreLogic – a subsidiary of Santa-Ana, California-based The First American Corp.

Vero Beach, Florida-based Opteum Financial Services, LLC (OFS), a subsidiary of Opteum Inc., said it will be exiting its conduit and wholesale mortgage loan origination businesses. The organization’s parent company Opteum Inc.

Representatives from The National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) will spend this week at a spring meeting in Washington, D.C., discussing some of the issues related to housing and subprime mortgages.

The Pennylvania Acting Secretary of Banking urged state lawmakers on Friday to pursue mortgage reforms that will protect consumers from predatory lending. Victoria Reider, who is currently Acting Secretary of Banking, made this request in front of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Commerce Committee.

Embattled subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. cut approximately 200 jobs and closed nine facilities in Houston earlier this month, according to a letter the company filed with the Texas Workforce Commission.