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88 FLORIDA Florida Keeps Up With National Foreclosure Sale Levels Florida was one of the states hit hardest during the housing crisis, and according to the CoreLogic Foreclosure Report, completed the most foreclosures in the month of October, but how does the latest existing home sales data for the sunshine state compare to national rates? Nationally, existing homes sold at an annual pace of 5.61 million in November, the high- est rate since they sold at a 5.79 million clip in February 2007. November's pace was also an increase of more than 15 percent from the previ- ous November, when existing homes sold at an annual rate of 4.86 million. Further, distressed sales including fore- closures and short sales rose to 6 percent in November from the month prior, but this was still a decrease from 9 percent a year ago. Ad- ditionally, NAR found that foreclosures sold for an average discount of 17 percent below market value in November, while short sales were ARKANSAS Mortgage Peer Network and LendingQB Announce Integration Mortgage Peer Network has announced an integration with LendingQB's cloud-based loan origination system (LOS). e partnership will allow lenders to generate business and will provide peer-based performance metrics that will lead to a more streamlined and intelligent lending operation. e merger will enable lenders to monitor their performance and measure the effective- ness of their operations in comparison to similar lenders. Mortgage Peer Network will analyze performance data generated by LendingQB, and lenders will be able to select specific peer criteria to provide insight into their services. Dave Demster, Managing Partner of Mort- gage Peer Network, explained that the venture will allow customers to make new business connections and attract clients. "rough this partnership, LendingQB customers can join Mortgage Peer Network without the challenge of creating data extracts or interfaces, it's a hands-free setup process for the lender," he said. "Mortgage Peer Network effectively becomes an extension of LendingQB's overall LOS value proposition and helps lenders of all sizes drive new business." Tim Nguyen, President of LendingQB, looks forward to the partnership with Mort- gage Peer Network. "Aligning with Mortgage Peer Network delivers a truly unique value proposition for our customers," he said. "In the past, only larger lenders could afford to go through the process of integration, implementation and customiza- tion that is typical of a solution like this, and even then, it was typically many months before the system was usable. rough this relation- ship, LendingQB clients will be integrated on the very first day they sign up and will begin to receive Mortgage Peer Network benefits shortly thereafter. Mortgage Peer Network is a solution that will help all our customers." discounted 16 percent. In comparison, November was a busy month for Florida's housing market, with more sales, more new listings, rising median prices and fewer all-cash transactions, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Real- tors. Single-family home sales totaled 19,763, up 12.8 percent from November 2015. Likewise, foreclosures and short sales in Florida declined by 40.2 percent and 33.2 per- cent, respectively. e median sales prices for foreclosure/REO properties grew 8.5 percent from $129,000 in November 2015 to $140,000 in November of 2016. Similarly, the median sales price for short sales grew year-over-year by 10.7 percent, from $150,000 to $166,000. "November's data showed some nice gains," said Florida Realtors Chief Economist Brad O'Connor. "One possible contributor to the uptick in sales is the end of the election season. It's not uncommon for prospective buyers of second-homes or investment properties to wait for the election results to come in before pulling the trigger on a late-year home purchase—and this is particularly the case in presidential elec- tion years." SOUTH FLORIDA WORKS THROUGH LEGACY LOAN FORECLOSURES While foreclosures are on the decline in South Florida, the tri-county South Florida metro area ranked No. 10 on ATTOM Data Solutions' list of metros with the highest fore- closure rates. One in every 77 homes received a foreclosure filing in the area in 2016. Foreclosures were down 34 percent in the area over the year with a total of 32,213 homes foreclosed over the year, according to ATTOM Data. South Florida's foreclosure decline was notably higher than the national decline of 14 percent. Florida as a whole had a foreclosure rate of 1.18 percent in 2016, the fourth-highest foreclo- sure rate across the nation, falling behind three Northeastern states: New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Florida ranked No. 3 in total number of legacy foreclosures in 2016 with 29,411 legacy loans in the foreclosure process during the year. However, Florida did not appear in the list of top five states with the highest share of legacy loan foreclosures. Among counties, Miami-Dade County, Florida ranked No. 4 with 64 percent of Alabama Hugh Morrow AGENT/BROKER REO; Short Sale reopreferred@gmail.com (205) 871-9966 www.hmorrow.remax-alabama.com Florida Aaron Mighty Broker/Owner MIGHTY REALTY, INC. reo@mightyrealty.com 407-914-7799 www.MightyRealty.com REOs | REO Rentals | Property Management The unemployment rate for Arkansas is at 3.9 percent, which is closest to the lowest rate it has seen since 2000, according to Arch Mortgage Insurance's Winter 2017 Housing & Mortgage Market Review. 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