A federal judge in San Francisco has dismissed a lawsuit brought by BlackRock Inc and other asset management companies that sought to block the city of Richmond, California, from seizing underwater homes under eminent domain laws. The city council of Richmond had voted by a narrow margin to work with lawyers from Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC (MRP) to seize more than 600 properties under eminent domain in an effort to prevent foreclosure and blight.

Chicago-based Freedman Anselmo Lindberg has announced the hiring Robert J. Deisinger as a new client relationship attorney in its default practice group. Deisinger joins the firm with a specialty in mortgage foreclosures and default litigation.

HOPE NOW, the private sector association of mortgage servicers,announced Thursday that it had helped approximately 63,000 homeowners modify their mortgages in July. HOPE NOW has helped 6.6 million homeowners modify their mortgages since 2007.

A California attorney was sentenced to seven years in prison Monday for obstructing an investigation into investment fraud according to Christy Romero, Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). David Tamman, 46, of Santa Monica, California, was found guilty of ten criminal counts, including obstruction of justice, for lying to investigators while he was a partner at Nixon Peabody law firm last year.

Veros Real Estate Solutions has announced that its forecast shows the real estate recovery in California has kicked into high gear. The report reveals a dramatic increase in San Francisco's forecast over the previous quarter, and now four of the five strongest markets in the country are in the Golden State.

CoreLogic has announced the appointment of Olumide Soroye as managing director of Information Solutions. Soroye will lead the Information Solutions organization with responsibility for development and management of products and services within the Data and Analytics segment, which includes solutions supporting real estate, capital markets, mortgage analytics, perfecting loan quality, and due diligence.

As the federal government ground to a halt Tuesday, the question of how the shutdown will affect the housing market remains at the front of everyone's mind. So how will the housing market react? The answer: it depends. Most economists agree that the short-term effects of the shutdown should be minimal, assuming that the shutdown is short-lived.

Effective October 1, 2013, HUD has announced the following changes to their Federal Housing Administration (FHA) short sale requirements: To be eligible, one must successfully complete a short sale under the FHA short sale program. The borrowers must meet the following requirements: They cannot list the property with or sell it to anyone with whom they are related or have a close personal or business relationship.

Desiree Patno, founder and CEO of the National Association of Women in Real Estate Businesses (NAWRB), has been added to the Executive Advisory Board of Directors of the Women in Public Policy (WIPP) organization. As CEO of NAWRB, Patno has served as an advocate for women-owned businesses in the the housing economy, where she has 22 years of experience in REO disposition.

San Francisco and Detroit led the housing market rebound according to the September Home Data Index released Tuesday by Clear Capital. San Francisco led metro price performance in September, with 4.4 percent quarterly growth and 28.3 percent yearly growth.