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March 2017 - Tools of the Trade

DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.

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ยป VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 89 THE LEADER IN DEFAULT SERVICING NEWS Help shape the next issue of DS News. Drop us a line at Editor@DSNews.com. no doubt that a homeowner whose loan is serviced by Ocwen has a much better chance of avoiding foreclosure than if their loan is serviced by any other large mortgage servicer. is has been confirmed by independent third- party studies, which consistently illustrate that Ocwen has a superior record helping borrow- ers bring their payments current, stay current, and repay their mortgage." SOUTH CAROLINA Economist: South Carolina Sees an 8 Percent Drop in Foreclosures South Carolina experienced a slight de- crease in foreclosures last year, according to the Charleston Regional Business Journal. According to ATTOM Data Solutions' Year-End Foreclosure Report, the Palmetto State saw approximately 20,000 foreclosures in 2016, which is an 8 percent decrease since 2015. South Carolina is the seventh highest state for foreclosure rates, with 19,784 foreclosure filings equate to 0.92 percent of housing units in the state, the report explained. Nationally, there were approximately 933,045 properties in foreclosure, which is a 14 percent decrease from 2015 and at its lowest level since 2006. e state with the highest foreclosure rate in the country last year was New Jersey, with 1.86 percent of housing units in the process of foreclosure. Daren Blomquist, SVP at ATTOM Data Solutions, explained that a significant portion of foreclosures is from foreclosures based on loans that were originated more than a decade ago. "e national foreclosure rate stayed within a historically normal range for the third consecutive year in 2016, even as banks continued to clear out legacy foreclosures from the last housing bubble, particularly in the final quarter of the year," he said. "Foreclosures completed in the fourth quarter had been in the foreclosure process 803 days on average, a substantial jump from the third quarter and indicating that banks pushed through signifi- cant numbers of legacy foreclosures during the quarter. Despite that push, we still show that more than half of all active foreclosures nationwide are on loans originated between 2004 and 2008, with a much higher share of legacy foreclosures in some markets." TENNESSEE Tennessee Breaks State Housing Record with Jump in Sales e housing market in Tennessee has a lot to look forward to in 2017. After one Tennessee city was named the top sought-out market in the nation, economists and Realtors are feeling optimistic about the Volunteer State. Tennes- see also saw record-breaking numbers toward the end of 2016. According to the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors, the total number of pending sales increased 32 percent from December 2015 to December 2016. A new report released by the organization revealed that approximately 6,096 single- family homes were sold in 2016, which is a 15.3 percent increase from 2015. For the first time in the history of the Tennessee housing market, the total sales on those homes topped more than $1 billion dollars. According to the report, the average price of a single-family home in 2016 was close to $161,000, which is a $3,500 increase from 2015. Eric Kistner, President of the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors, told WCYB-TV that the growing working popula- tion contributed to the stable home prices. "I think one, we have newcomers coming in all the time for new jobs, but we don't have the huge population explosion that you've seen in the bigger cities, so that leads to steady pricing," he explained. "We also don't have a ton of new construction like we need. So, we need more construction in order to help our inventory levels." According to the Crossville Chronicle, Tennessee's unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in December, slightly above the national unemployment rate of 4.7 percent. KNOW THIS

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