Amilda Dymi

Minor adjustments in the approach to distressed property data analytics and communication with the homeowner may separate a foreclosure from a sustainable workout. The key is in considering all the data involved, including factors that are not strictly related to servicing and field services.

Recent Federal Housing Finance Agency efforts to interest buyers in the foreclosure-to-rent market may be off to a good start with an unlikely type of investor even though it still is everyone's guess whether this management strategy will effectively ease off inventory pressures and speed up the recovery.

Mortgage loan options available have significantly shrunk during the past few years of the crisis to the point that makes some worry creativity is almost impossible, or simply dead. A closer look at borrower preferences and market data indicate product variations may not necessarily be a dare banks need to stay away from.

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman's efforts to carve $15 million out of the state's $132 million national mortgage servicing settlement fund to provide foreclosure prevention assistance to New Yorkers came to fruition only a few days shy of the fund's expiration date.

Only three of the top 10 states with the most tornados from 1980 to 2009 currently are in the so-called Tornado Alley, according to a new CoreLogic tornado and hail risk report. The change, however, is not an anomaly, as everyone believed.

No matter how one looks at the current residential shadow inventory data it does not indicate improvements, even though the overall numbers remained flat at 1.6 million units as of January 2012, according to CoreLogic.

Whether it is due to the weaker U.S. dollar, the large foreclosure inventory for sale, more favorable economic expectations going forward, or all of the above, Canadians are emerging as the largest group of foreigners purchasing residential property in U.S. Sun Belt states. And they do not mind buying foreclosures.

Mortgage bank scorecards are changing an industry that has not yet found the right balance between efficient rating standards and regulated oversight.

No matter how one looks at the current residential shadow inventory data it does not indicate improvement, even though the overall numbers remained flat at 1.6 million units as of January 2012, according to CoreLogic.

Congress has restored a housing counseling fund for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after eliminating it in 2011 and at almost half of the $88 million approved during the first two years of the Obama administration. Now HUD officials worry about the amount of settlement dollars to be used for counseling.

Rent increases reported across the country and outlooks predicting the same for the near future also indicate the window of opportunity in rental-housing investments is about to open up in some local markets and may start to close soon in others.

Fannie Mae this week reported "significant improvements" in the performance of several of its largest seller/servicers, even though only half received satisfactory reviews.

The inaugural Zillow Rent Index shows "a healthy and growing rental market" across most of the country, even as home values continue to fall. And according to Zillow's chief economist Stan Humphries, rents are not rising at the expense of home values. "The opposite is true."

As fraudsters reinvent themselves, insiders warn about recent increases in short-sale fraud and call for preventive monitoring.

It may be the best of times to be a commercial, multifamily banker and the worst of times to be a servicer of securitized multifamily loans.

A Mortgage Bankers Association analysis of data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shows that commercial and multifamily mortgages "have fared better through the credit crunch and recession than any other major type of loan held by banks and thrifts" in some respects.

As if appraisal management companies, readily available automated valuation models and broker priced opinion options were not enough challenges to the real estate appraisal profession, well-intended federal and state regulations are generating new controversy.

Negative equity and home price volatility have turned home price protection into a desirable yet unattainable option since protecting local housing markets from future devaluation is a challenge few insurers are willing to take on.

Technology is building new bridges between traditional appraisals, automated valuations, sensitive property data and housing market analytics. Federal regulation adds to the mix the development of regulatory-compliant appraisal solutions for banks and third-party service providers.

Lack of awareness and education reign supreme topping the list of reasons why historic low mortgage rates, government-supported programs and large inventories of affordable foreclosures are not increasing refinancings and modifications. Given the complexity of the mortgage process homeowners are not taking full advantage of the wisdom gained during the foreclosure crisis.