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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM LAMCONetwork to the asset manager's rescue! Okay, so we might not technically be superheroes, but our expansive network of vendors might just make you one. LAMCONetwork is a super-effective, super-convenient, all-in-one national REO vendor database. Our vendors represent real estate agents, property preservation companies, contractors, appraisers, title companies, mortgage companies, attorneys, and more. And with our efficient, free search engine, finding distressed asset service providers has never been easier. Let LAMCONetwork supercharge your success. PROUD SUPPORTERS OF THE FIVE STAR INSTITUTE Call our toll free number: 877.331.2664 Or visit our Web site: www.LAMCONetwork.com LAMCONetwork, a division of Lenders Asset Management Corporation—LAMCO 10% Instant Savings on Annual & Charter Memberships Use Promotional Code: SAVINGS10 FISERV: HOME PRICES GROWING AT A 'NORMAL' PACE The housing market is seeing prices appreciate at a normal pace, with further growth expected in the next five years, according to Fiserv, Inc. From Q 3 2011 to Q 3 2012, home prices rose 3.6 percent, the Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes revealed. Furthermore, Fiserv predicts a 0.6 percent increase in home prices from Q 3 2012 to Q 3 2013. The gains are expected to continue into the next five years, with prices projected to grow at an annualized rate of 3.3 percent from Q 3 2012 to Q 3 2017. When excluding gains from the 2009 and 2010 homebuyer tax credits, Fiserv notes that 2012 was the first positive year for both home prices and home sales volumes since the housing market crashed. "For the past 15 years, home price changes and sales volumes have either been boosted by a bubble mentality or crushed by crash psychology," said David Stiff, chief economist at Fiserv. "It took until the end of 2011 before housing markets finally started to stabilize. The latest Case-Shiller results show a return to a historically normal pace of price appreciation in the last year." Fiserv's index showed widespread improvement across U.S. metro areas. At the end of Q 3 2012, home prices were on the rise in about 62 percent of the 380 metros covered by the Fiserv CaseShiller Indexes. A year earlier, just 12.5 percent of metros were seeing an increase in prices. Fiserv predicts nearly all metro areas will experience rising prices by the end of 2013. However, growth patterns won't be consistent across all markets, with some seeing "short-term double-digit price jumps that could be partially reversed by price declines as large tranches of bank-owned inventory (REO) are liquidated," while other markets will witness a slow return to normal rates, Fiserv explained. "Since the timing of the disposition of foreclosed properties can be highly uncertain, we will witness choppy price movements as individual metro markets stabilize," Stiff said. "For example, in late 2011, prices in Atlanta dropped sharply because of a substantial jump in REO sales, and it is possible that we will see similar, temporary price declines in other markets as subsiding waves of foreclosed properties buffet these markets. In other markets, investor demand is quickly absorbing listed REO properties, and as a result, foreclosures are no longer pulling home prices downward." Stiff also doesn't expect to see another bubble. "[I]t seems as if buyers have more realistic expectations about housing market returns after having lived through the largest housing market crash in U.S. history," Stiff said. "But even if bubble mentality is creeping back into some markets, houses are much cheaper now than they were in 1997, so it would take a much longer run of double-digit appreciation to lead to the price extremes that we saw at the peak of the bubble in 2006." KNOW THIS TARP's bank programs have yielded a sizeable profit. As of March 15, Treasury recovered $270 billion from repayments, dividends, interest, and warrant sales, compared to taxpayers' investments of $245 billion.  27

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