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Florida rank: 1 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate February 2013 3.7% Unemployment Rate 11.2% 7.7% year ago 4.1% 14.2% 9.0% year-over-year change -10.6% -21.0% -14.4% Top County OkeeChObee COunTy 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate February 2013 4.5% 16.0% year ago 4.3% 18.1% year-over-year change 5.4% -12.0% Top Core-based Statistical Area OkeeChObee, FL 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate February 2013 4.5% 16.0% year ago 4.3% 18.1% year-over-year change 5.4% -12.0% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the February 2013 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary February 2013 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Applied Analytics. Florida Adriana M Aleman, MBA Florida Dreams Realty Group aaleman@floridadreamsrealty.com Cell 321 689 6258 www.floridadreamsrealty.com MEMBER IN THE NEWS Nationwide Title Clearing Sees Sharp Increase in Electronic Recordings Company experts at Nationwide Title Clearing, Inc. (NTC) revealed a trend showing an increase in documents recorded electronically in the nation's recorders' offices. 88 "More than 840 jurisdictions are currently eRecording-enabled, and approximately 15 new jurisdictions become enabled every month," said NTC's eRecording manager Brian Ernissee. Ernissee further stated the volume of documents sent by NTC for electronic recording has gone from 10 percent in May 2012 to more than 40 percent in February 2013. "With such positive growth, we expect the total volume of documents submitted electronically for recording to be well above 50% by May," he said. The eRecording service at NTC involves five steps: submit, receive, review, record, and return. Through eRecording, processing land record and property documents can become simpler and more efficient. According to NTC, eRecording has several benefits, such as allowing documents to be submitted any time, and the process is cost-effective and reduces paperwork since documents are scanned and submitted within minutes before getting returned electronically after recording. Based in Palm Harbor, Florida, NTC is a service provider to the mortgage and financial industry. New MI Products Offered Via LPS Loan Quality Gateway In Jacksonville, Florida, Lender Processing Services, Inc., (LPS) announced the launch of new mortgage insurance (MI) products through the LPS Loan Quality Gateway. The LPS Loan Quality Gateway is an open technology platform that provides the integrations, data management, decisioning, and workflow management required for current and emerging loan quality programs. Through the platform, lenders can now access new MI products through LPS to order rate quotes, eligibility and rate quote checks, and MI certificates. In a release, LPS said the automated orders will reduce processing time and result in fewer manual errors. The gateway can also manage a lender's MI vendor compliance rules, including best-fit formulas, and provide continuous access to MI carriers throughout the mortgage life cycle. Currently, several leading insurance carriers—including United Guaranty; Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation; Essent Guaranty, Inc.; and Radian Guaranty, among others—are integrated with the LPS Loan Quality Gateway, offering lenders one source for MI carrier integrations. "This new enhancement offers lenders more accurate, standardized, and efficient selection of mortgage insurance, while helping them better meet the challenges of new regulations and requirements for overall loan quality," said LPS COO Dan Scheuble. "The new MI products offered through LPS are one more way we can help lenders and service providers work together toward a more transparent, data-centric loan origination process." Walter Investment Completes Reverse Mortgage Deal with Wells Fargo Walter Investment Management Corp. announced its wholly owned subsidiary, Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc. (RMS), acquired a reverse mortgage servicing portfolio containing more than 76,000 loans from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. The portfolio has an unpaid principal balance of about $12.2 billion and is expected to transfer to RMS during the third quarter of 2013, Walter Investment said in a release on April 9. "We expect that the acquisition of this MSR [mortgage servicing rights] will be an attractive addition to our reverse mortgage servicing portfolio and solidify our position as a leader in the reverse mortgage sector," said Mark J. O'Brien, chairman and CEO of Walter Investment. O'Brien continued, "This transaction, which doubles the size of our serviced book, will allow us to leverage our considerable capabilities in the reverse mortgage sector as we continue to see a significant growth opportunity in the sectors. We are especially pleased to have completed this transaction with Wells Fargo." The Tampa-based company isn't the only firm to gain an appetite for reverse mortgages. Ocwen Financial Corporation announced in April the completion of a deal to acquire Liberty Home Equity Solutions, the country's largest reverse mortgage lender. Clunk, Hoose and Associates Expands with New Florida Office The Law Offices of Clunk, Hoose and Associates, PA, announced the opening of a new full-service office in Hollywood, Florida.