Sterling National Corporation recently introduced Sterling Total Escrow Solutions - an escrow administration solution for small lenders who have been struggling to comply with new Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act provisions. According to Sterling National, this new offering is the industry's only complete escrow solution, and it allows small lenders to quickly order escrow administration services for new loans and generate the initial escrow disclosure statement online via TotalEscrowServicing.com.

In an effort to help investors overcome the barriers to successfully investing in bank-owned homes in the Chicago area, Mack Companies, a home redeveloper headquartered in Tinley Park, Illinois, recently introduced the Real Estate Cash-flow and Appreciation Program (RECAP). According to Mack Companies, RECAP represents the lowest cost, highest return on investment, and easiest approach for small investors to profit from high-quality, positive cash-flow real estate.

Strategic Disposition Group, LLC, recently launched OfferAssurance.com, a new online platform aimed at addressing the industry-wide concern of fraud in short sale and REO transactions and the need to improve capital recovery for institutional sellers of residential real estate by providing transparency. According to the company, OfferAssurance.com addresses potential fraud and abuse of fiduciary responsibility by having buyer agents, rather than listing agents, submit offers online, thus providing true transparency to the offer submission process.

In an announcement Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced that when Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan leaves office on August 14, John G. Walsh will step in to take over this role. Walsh will assume this new role from his current position as chief of staff and public affairs for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a title he has held since October 17, 2005.

The Illinois housing market showed signs of sustained stabilization in June as both home sales and prices continued to increase during the month, the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR) recently reported. IAR said statewide total home sales - including single-family and condos - totaled 13,072 transactions in June 2010, jumping 18.3 percent from one year earlier. Additionally, IAR said June's median home price of $170,000 was up 2.5 percent from the same month last year.

In what seems to be an ever-increasing trend, sales of existing homes and condos in the Sunshine State continued to surge in June, Florida Realtors recently reported. According to the association's report, a total of 18,038 single-family existing homes sold in June 2010, jumping 15 percent from the same month last year. And data regarding existing-condo sales was even more impressive. With a total of 6,916 units sold last month, sales skyrocketed 33 percent from June 2009.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said U.S. house prices inched up 0.5 percent from April to May. This marked the third rise in as many months, leaving prices 1.6 percent above the recent trough. The question now: Will this trend last? According to a report released by Capital Economics, May home prices were most likely boosted by the lingering effect of the surge in demand generated by the homebuyer tax credit. The macroeconomics research consultancy said now that demand is falling, it won't be long before prices start to fall too.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) recently named Kathy Marquardt AVP of commercial servicing and council coordinator. This appointment will become effective August 9, 2010. In her new role, Marquardt will serve as MBA's expert on commercial real estate loan servicing issues, and she will coordinate all commercial business activities.

Interthinx has expanded its risk services to collateral valuation. In an effort to change the way appraisals are analyzed, the company recently launched Interthinx Review Appraisal Services - an appraisal review service that leverages the company's expertise in fraud analytics and helps lenders mitigate the risk of investor buybacks due to collateral valuation issues. To provide these services to its national client network, Interthinx combined its appraisal team with the technical expertise of the Appraisal.com platform developed by ACI.

Sales of existing homes fell further in June but still remained notably higher than year-ago levels, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. According to NAR's study, existing-home sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.37 million units in June, down 5.1 percent from May. However, sales were still 9.8 percent higher than the same period last year. June marked the second consecutive month-to-month drop in sales numbers, as housing inventory rose to an 8.9-month supply.