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Recent Breaking News
Existing-Home Sales Rise In October
November 21, 2011

The housing market received a boost last month when the sales of previously owned homes
increased 1.4%, month over month, according to a report by the National Association of
Realtors (NAR).This pushed the total annual sales to 4.97 million.A year ago this figure was
4.38 million. The overall housing inventory is declining.

NAR says that 17% of home sales last month were foreclosures and that 11% were short sales.
The sales numbers could have been higher but many contracts fell through. Contract failure
reported by realtors jumped 33% in October. In September failures were only 18%.

The national median price for existing-homes was $162,500. October 2010 the median price
was about $155,000.
SIGTARP Terminates Mortgage Modification Scams
November 21, 2011

Mortgage modification scams are being watch carefully. The office of the Special Inspector
General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) recently blocked 40 firms that were
advertising on Bing and Yahoo. In response to this action, Microsoft has terminated an
additional 400 modification schemes. There were also 85 companies shut down by SIGTARP
and another 500 that had their advertising suspended by Google.

The most common scam solicited upfront payments from homeowners, and also requested
them to stop making payments to the current lenders.
Freddie Mac And Fannie Mae Halt Foreclosures Over The
Holidays
December 5, 2011

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that they will not foreclose on American families over
the holiday season. From December 19th to January 2nd they will be no family evicted from
their homes.

The moratorium will not affect the pre-foreclosure or post-foreclosure process. Servicers will
continue with their due diligence and administrative duties. However there will be no evictions.

This is a good for the homeowners. It shows compassion and will go a long way in gaining fans
for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Nevada AG Sues Three More Notaries
December 17, 2011

About two months ago the Nevada Attorney General filed lawsuits against two title officers
employed by Lender Processing Services. Last week AG Catherine Cortez Masto charged
three additional notaries.

The three notaries allegedly filed fraudulent notices of default in the Clark's County Recorder's
office. They did not witness the signatures, but went ahead and notarized the document. This is
illegal. A notary must witness all signatures.

A press release from Masto's office stated that the notaries confirmed that their job duties
involved signing other peoples name when the persons were not present, and then notarizing
the document.

Another notary, Tracy Lawrence struck a plea bargain with the AG's office. Sadly Ms Lawrence
was found dead the day she was to appear for sentencing.

Related: Should Notaries Be Punished For Their Roles In Foreclosure Robo-signing