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80 New Jersey Lisa G Lopez Broker of Record Home Alliance Realty 142 E. Bay Ave Manahawkin, NJ 08050 609-978-9009 (o) 609-384-5109 (c) lglopez@verizon.net www.HomeAllianceRealty.com www.LisaLopezProperties.com Brooklyn and Staten Island, 10% in Queens, and 8% in Manhattan. In terms of pure numbers, pre-foreclosure activity followed the same pattern as active foreclosures. Queens had the most pre- foreclosure filings in the first quarter with 898, and Manhattan had the fewest with 104 filings. Brooklyn (728), Staten Island (326), and the Bronx (279) fell in between. AI Extends Mortgage Capabilities New York-based SoftWorks AI, a provider of artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies for the mortgage industry, announced new applications for its Trapeze for Mortgage Automation solution. At this year's MBA Technology Solutions Conference & Expo, SoftWorks showcased a preview of its Automated Income Analysis and Verification module. is application aims to enable automatic parsing of financial documents, including most IRS tax forms to substantially improve underwriter productivity. A growing number of borrowers have multiple streams of income, adding increased complexity and manual labor. To better streamline the loan cycle, SoftWorks AI's Income Analysis and Verification Module automatically fills out required cash flow analysis forms. "By combining AI and computer vision technologies together, SoftWorks can effectively auto-validate the mortgage classification and data extraction process, streamlining the loan approval process," said Dr. Ari Gross, CEO at SoftWorks AI. In addition to this new module, SoftWorks AI is also introducing its automated mortgage analytics solution to provide stakeholders with a real-time dashboard that shows Trapeze for Mortgage Automation's day-to-day performance. e dashboard tracks every aspect of the mortgage automation workflow, providing clients with real-time data on the overall effectiveness of their operations. Mortgage Analytics can analyze thousands of data points to provide a holistic view of a system's performance and pinpoint where additional productivity gains can be realized. "One of the things we constantly heard from clients was that they wanted a way to track results after successfully implementing Trapeze," Gross said. "Our analytics dashboard enables Trapeze users to understand their new business processing capabilities at a granular level." Default Challenges, From Fraud to Deed Theft In a hearing at Brooklyn Borough Hall, residents and housing experts testified on deed theft, liens for minor unpaid bills, fraudulent documents, and other foreclosure-related chal- lenges, as reported by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. e hearing was sponsored by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, assembly member Tremaine Wright, and attended by officials including State Senator Brian Kavanagh. According to Catherine Isobe, Senior Staff Attorney at Brooklyn Legal Services, funding for services such as the Communities First Network was "absolutely crucial." "We cannot meet the needs of affected homeowners," Isobe said. "I checked yesterday, and we had about 6,000, if not more, fore- closures pending in Kings County and more are on the way… We have a huge number of pre-foreclosure notices filed. We can't help everyone with the resources we have." Isobe noted that in order to address the property theft and foreclosure issues, amend- ments to the real property law concerning deed theft needed to be dealt with. According to Sarah Ludwig, Founder and Co-Director of the New Economy Project, the New York State Senate had cut funding for foreclosure prevention services. "We cannot cut back funding. It would be devastating to go beyond $20 million, which is not in itself enough," she said. In recent years, New York has continued to struggle with lingering foreclosure issues and urban blight related to abandoned properties. Foreclosures across New York have dropped by 46% since 2013, and the number of pend- ing foreclosure cases in the state is down by half since 2014. However, New York State Comptroller omas P. DiNapoli warned recently that "the foreclosure crisis is far from over," adding, "New York must continue to support the programs and reforms that have helped homeowners avoid foreclosure and communities reduce blight caused by zombie properties." Ocwen, Wells Fargo Suit Not Over Yet A New York Federal Judge has decided not to rule on the bids to toss out a proposed Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) class action suit. According to NEW YORK Taking a Bite Out of Big Apple Foreclosures Foreclosure activity in New York continued its 2018 trajectory with further declines in the first quarter of the year. Foreclosures dropped 5% in the metro year- over-year in the first quarter, while pre- foreclosure activity dropped 13%, according to data released by PropertyShark. Of the five boroughs, the largest increase in foreclosure activity in the first quarter took place in the Bronx, where foreclosures jumped 28% over the year. e greatest decrease in foreclosure activity took place in Brooklyn, where foreclosures are down 22% over the year. Staten Island recorded a 19% drop in foreclosures. Manhattan and Queens both recorded increases in foreclosures over the year, at 6% and 4%, respectively. In all, there were 870 first-time foreclosures recorded across New York in the first three months of the year. Queens claimed the largest share with 315, followed by Brooklyn with 214, Staten Island with 153, the Bronx with 150, and Manhattan with 38 properties in foreclosure. While foreclosures in New York dropped over the year, they were up compared to the previous quarter. Staten Island was the only one of the five boroughs to experience a decline in foreclosures over the quarter, registering a 14% drop. e Bronx registered a 67% increase in foreclosures over the quarter, followed closely by Manhattan with a 65% rise. In Queens, foreclosures increased 25% and in Brooklyn, foreclosures rose 20%. Pre-foreclosure activity declined in all five boroughs year-over-year in the first quarter, falling 28% in the Bronx, 12% in

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