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92 effectively merges siloed systems and produces a more efficient and secure process. Until now, servicers have been forced to work around system shortcomings by depending on spread- sheets and disparate local databases. ese "Band-Aid" solutions did not identify data integrity issues, which could cause reporting events that produce more exceptions, causing manual work for a loan servicer." LERETA's TTS have been in use by LE- RETA's outsource tax division to manage more than 2.5 million loans. e platform has been a driver in LERETA's ability to meet over 99.6 percent of customer SLA's during that time and 100 percent over the last six months. During that same period, TTS also helped LERETA to reduce its penalties from claims and interest down by 70 percent, refunds pro- cessed by 30 percent and calls from borrowers down by 30 percent. "An example of the platform's capabilities was when we used TTS' the Escrow Open Items manager module to audit/clean-up all payee codes before tax season for Washington State," said Teresa Oates, Escrow Supervisor at Alabama Housing Finance Authority. "is provided accurate information on the TARS for a match and pay, which in turn provided true open items under the beta test. We spent less time doing clean up and were able to process and pay all bills in a more efficient manner." First American Acquires Bank of America's Lien Release Business First American Financial Corporation, a leading global provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions based in Santa Ana, California, announced the completion of its acquisition of Bank of America's lien release business. Bank of America's lien release busi- ness and its employees are now part of First American's Mortgage Solutions division, a leading provider of comprehensive solutions for residential lenders and servicers covering the entire loan spectrum. As part of the agreement, the group will continue to provide lien release services to Bank of America. "We have taken our industry leadership in post-closing services and collateral file perfec- tion another step forward," said Kevin Wall, President of First American Mortgage Solu- tions. "e acquisition affirms our ability and meet them. "California has a huge housing deficit due to years of under-production," said Sen. Wiener in a statement, "and we need to dig out of that hole." If the bill passes, RNHA housing goals would "roll over" from year to year, so any city that came up short would still be expected to make up the difference on top of the next year's new goals. e bill also includes provisions that factored in "residential displacement" caused by events such as foreclosures or evictions and would require the housing goals to evolve based on the ratio between median home prices and median incomes, a provision designed to require cities to meet the needs of lower and middle-income residents. LERETA Launches New Tax Platform LERETA, a national real estate tax and flood service provider headquartered in Co- vina, California, recently announced it is pro- viding new automation to the tax industry— something that has not done in decades—with the release of its Total Tax Solutions (TTS). LERETA is providing a new, web-based platform designed to integrate loan servic- ing and tax service data, for use by standard tax reporting servicers. e platform features dashboards, reporting, workflow management and built-in servicer guidelines for tax payment processing activities. According to the announcement, TTS al- lows servicers to process a pre-cycle mini-audit efficiently, automate tax payments, open items, conduct tax research and review delinquen- cies and payments. e five modules on the platform are Pre-Cycle Audit Manager, Tax Cycle Manager, Escrow Open Item Manager, Delinquency Manager and Task Research Manager. "Existing loan servicing systems have lim- ited capabilities when it comes to managing the functions required for taxes," said LERETA CEO John Walsh. "is causes an increase in servicing costs and the potential for mistakes that can frustrate borrowers. Total Tax Solu- tions make it easier for servicers to process tax payments, research tax-related inquiries from borrowers or internal departments, manage de- linquency reporting and risk and substantially improve customer service." Walsh continued, "e platform has allowed LERETA to deliver extraordinary service in an industry where the standard for outsourcing servicing is abysmal. We are proud to now offer our standard tax clients a tool that CALIFORNIA Nearly All California Cities Failed to Hit Housing Goals Communities across the nation are strug- gling with housing shortages, with those prob- lems amplified by home prices that continue to increase and a lack of affordable housing keep- ing many potential homeowners stuck renting. California is not immune to the challenge and has seen its housing shortages exacerbated by factors such as last year's widespread and damaging wildfires. But based on data recently released by the state, very few California mu- nicipalities are hitting state-mandated goals for expanding housing availability. According to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), only 13 cities (2.4 percent of the total) met their full goals last year. Or, put another way, 97.6 percent of cities did not achieve their full goals as mandated by California's Regional Housing Needs Allocation and Housing Elements (RHNA) rules, which were implemented in 1969 and require "that all local governments (cities and counties) adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community." Moreover, 70 percent of California cities failed to meet their housing goals for any income level. One city that more than surpassed their state-mandated goals? Beverly Hills, which was required to build only three new homes, and instead created 84. As reported by the Bay City Beacon, "Senator Wiener argues that the flawed methodology in calculating RHNA goals is to blame for these baffling results. City leaders self-report projected population growth based on recent trends, which predictably, re- sults in lower housing production goals for cit- ies that have seen more displacement of lower- income communities, or have resisted growth amid the rapid increase in jobs throughout the state. In general, if a city reports a population plateau, current RHNA methodology assumes little to no demand for new housing." Last year, Wiener championed California Senate Bill 35, which the Beacon explains "provided 'by-right' permitting of qualifying housing developments in cities that fell short of their state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation goals." Now Wiener has introduced SB 828, which is designed to "reform the meth- odology" of the calculation of RHNA goals, as well as increasing the penalties for failing to

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