REO

Short sales and sales of distressed properties (those that are in foreclosure or bank-owned) accounted for 12.7 percent of all residential home sales in the U.S. in the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac's Q3 2014 Residential Sales Report released today.

The sales of REO properties, or those repossessed by lenders, accounted for more than half of all-cash sales in the U.S. in July, according to transaction data recently released by CoreLogic.

The Wolf Firm, an Irvine, California-based financial services law firm, announced recently the addition of several new attorneys (alphabetically): Mark T. Domeyer, Robert J. Jackson, Scott J. Jackson, Parnaz Parto, and Sonia A. Plesset.

Five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationwide in the 12-month period ending in August 2014, according to CoreLogic's August National Foreclosure Report released on Thursday.

Eight states reported a median sales price for distressed homes at less than half the sales price of non-distressed homes in August, according to a report recently released by RealtyTrac.

Maryland-based real estate law firm Rosenberg & Associates has added two new attorneys, Jullie Evasco and Jennifer Rochino.

In the housing industry, the only constant is change. In an economy that is still on the road to housing recovery and an industry that is still in a period of consolidation after the biggest financial downturn since the Great Depression, the best in the business are nimble on their feet and adaptable to the set of circumstances that is presented.

Residential foreclosures and REO (bank-owned) properties no longer drive distressed property valuations, according to the FNC Appraisals Pipeline Report released earlier in the week.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prevented nearly 80,000 foreclosures nationwide in the second quarter, raising the total number of foreclosures prevented since the start of the conservatorship in September 2008 to 3.3 million, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) indicated in its report on foreclosure prevention for Q2 2014 released on September 24.

J.K. Huey of Wells Fargo was presented with the 2014 Five Star Lifetime Achievement Award at the Women in Housing Leadership Summit September 16 as part of the 11th Annual Five Star Conference and Expo.