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» tools, products, and know-how that complement our strengths as a real estate brokerage and further our mission of helping our agents grow their own personal business," said RTN broker Rich Cosner, president/CEO of Prudential California Realty. "This relationship will provide our agents with crucial data, leads, information, and tools they need now to build their businesses and better serve their customers." Brokerages can learn more about the network and apply for an exclusive license by visiting RealtyTrac.com/network. California Inventory Continues to Diminish as Foreclosure Activity Falls Foreclosure activity was somewhat mixed in the five Western states—Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington—observed by ForeclosureRadar over the month of January. Notably, California foreclosure sales were down in January, despite a past trend of an uptick in the month following a decline in December. However, this January, both notices of default and notices of foreclosure sale declined in January—down 60.5 percent and 34.83 percent, respectively, over the month. Foreclosure sales declined 65.65 percent since January 2012, while notices of default fell 77.66 percent. California processed 5,447 foreclosure sales in January after 5,908 in December. "While the alphabet soup of federal programs has successfully prolonged or catapulted delinquent homeowners out of the foreclosure process, the unintended consequence is now an acute lack of available housing inventory for sale," according to ForeclosureRadar. Adequate inventory is necessary for a recovery to take place but is lacking in much of the state, according to the analytics firm. Arizona's foreclosure sales were also down 6.37 percent over the month from December and posted a decline of 40.61 percent from January 2012. ForeclosureRadar did not release numbers for notices of default in Arizona. Washington's notices of foreclosure sale declined 3.99 percent from December but increased 155.8 percent year-over-year. ForeclosureRadar's January numbers did not include data on notices of default in Washington. Notices of default increased, however, in both Nevada and Oregon. In Nevada, notices of default increased 16.68 percent over the month in January and were up 84.51 percent year-over-year. Foreclosure sales decreased slightly, by 1.68 percent, over the month and were down 56.57 percent year-over-year. Oregon's notices of foreclosure sale increased 88.24 percent over the month but were down 92.73 percent over the year. New Firm Joins LOGS Network LOGS Network welcomed a California law firm to its nationwide network. The new firm, Roberts & Shapiro, LLP, was formed from a partnership agreement between Keefe Roberts & Associates and Shapiro & Kreisman, LLC. The firm will handle default-related matters throughout the state of California. "We are proud to announce that we have joined with Keefe Roberts to return to California. This is an important step in expanding our network coverage because of the concentration of mortgage-related legal business in the state," said Gerald Shapiro, CEO of LOGS. Keefe Roberts, a 15-year veteran of the mortgage business, will be the managing partner of the firm. "I have admired the LOGS organization since joining this industry [in] 1998, including my time serving as assistant general counsel to two large servicers that were represented by the LOGS Legal Network in many states. I am confident that we will continue to excel together in serving the needs of residential mortgage servicing clients and their investors across the state of California," Roberts added. Roberts and Shapiro are shareholders in Aztec Foreclosure Corporation, a minorityowned trustee company. Aztec will continue to process routine foreclosure matters in the state of California under the supervision of Roberts & Shapiro. 'Life Rafts' Keep Underwater Mortgages in San Bernardino Afloat: Fed In a recent blog post from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, three Fed researchers shared their findings on mortgages that would have been targeted by a controversial use of eminent domain proposed in San Bernardino County. VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM Although mortgages in San Bernardino County are plagued with negative equity, the researchers still found good news to keep in mind when considering eminent domain to address underwater mortgages. Mortgage Resolution Partners first proposed the controversial use of eminent domain to county officials, but the idea was recently rejected by the Joint Powers Authority (JPA), which was created last year to consider proposals addressing the issue of negative equity in the area. The proposed use of eminent domain involved seizing underwater mortgages at fair market value. The mortgages would then be refinanced with new terms based on the property's current value. For their analysis, the authors, Andreas Fuster, Caitlin Gorback, and Paul Willen, used loan data from CoreLogic containing loan-level information on nearly all privately issued mortgage securitizations. In San Bernardino County, the researchers located about 456,000 first-lien mortgages, of which about 280,000 would be considered subprime loans; 142,000 Alt-A loans; and 34,000 prime jumbo loans. The overwhelming majority—70 percent—were adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs). Quality Service You Can Trust. Nobody in the world sells more real estate than Re/Max Serving: ORANGE COUNTY AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA OVER 12 YEARS EXPERIENCE DAVE LARSEN Re/Max Partners direct 951.735.4140 office 951.278.8755 fax 951.346.3188 LarsenGroup@aol.com 81

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