It’s highest share of the market first-time homebuyers took since 1995. Back in November, President Barack Obama extended the first-time homebuyer tax credit, which was originally set to expire on Dec. 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010. Under the extension, first-time buyers can claim 10% of the purchase price, up to $8,000 for single or married taxpayers filing jointly…

“It is clear that the federal tax credit for home buyers worked well in 2009 and is continuing to drive home sales,” said Steve Goddard, president of CAR. “The home buyers’ tax credit is arguably the most successful strategy employed by the government’s efforts to stimulate the economy.”

Of those surveyed by CAR, 40% of the homebuyers said they would not have purchased a home without the credit. Nearly 70% of those surveyed said the credit was either “very important” or “most important” in their decision to buy a home.

REO and short sales took up nearly half of all market activity in 2009, up from 35.6% in 2008, according to the CAR report. As a result, the median sales price of distressed property dropped almost 25% to $250,000 in 2009 – down from $330,000 in 2008.

The California market continues to condense toward FHA-insured loans in 2009. For the year, those loans took up 32% of the market compared to 18.9% in 2008, according to CAR. The rise could have come when the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) raised its cap from $362,790 to $729,750.

According to some, the tax credit isn’t a stimulus, it’s a crutch.

“[T]he housing market is likely to falter once the tax credit expires this spring, leading to a double-dip in prices,” said Paul Dales, the senior US economist at Capital Economics.

An executive of a regional homebuilder in the Southwest told HousingWire, a sister publication, that business will drop once the tax credit expires but expects, and is hopeful for, an extension.

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George Roddy, Sr., president of FLS, said 6% of the residential foreclosure postings that were actually sold at auction were purchased by third-party buyers or investors. While most are investors, he said, there are a number of people looking looking for a good deal on a home they can move into…

Roddy said that many investors hunting for a deal will concentrate on grabbing properties before they hit the auction block in Texas. There is a 21-day period between the filing deadline for the foreclosure notice to be recorded and the day of the foreclosure auction. These investors are negotiating with the property owners, who still have the right to sell the property before it goes to auction.

According to FLS, almost 35% of the homes posted for foreclosure during Q110 were actually auctioned at the courthouse steps. The other 60-70% never made it to auction. Either the owner brought the mortgage curren, renegotiated the terms of the loan or filed for bankruptcy, which places the foreclosure on hold. Some owners made a sale before the auction as well.

“I expect this to be a great year for the investor or home purchaser who is in a financial position to be buying distressed properties at any stage in the foreclosure process,” Roddy said.

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Paul Dales, senior US economist with Capital Economics, said as unemployment remains high, more homeowners are likely to foreclose over the next two years…

A recent report from the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s showed that it would take roughly three years to burn through the already clogged supply of REOs.

Dales added that based on his firm’s models, foreclosures peaked in Q409 and should start to fall. Even though the peak has come and gone, another 2.6m homes will foreclose by the end of 2010, totaling 5m over the next two years.

But Dales warned that these properties may not see the light of day anytime soon.

“To start with, the sheer quantity of delinquent loans has extended the foreclosure timeline. Moreover, there is no incentive for banks to release foreclosed properties if they will destabilize the market,” Dales said. “Nonetheless, at some point this additional supply will be released.”

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According to the credit rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, it would take almost three years to burn though the shadow inventory of foreclosures waiting to hit the market, and the REO industry is bracing for impact….
Chris Saitta, CEO of Equator, said that outsourcers and servicers can be up and running in a day with PRO REO. Whoever makes the upgrade gets to do business with more than 665,000 agents and 18,000 vendors, Saitta said.

More than 58 servicers use the Equator platform to automate loss mitigation operations. In addition to the REO offering, Equator plans to issue a mid-level short sale software in Q210.

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Lender Processing Services (LPS) will conduct an online foreclosure auction of Arizona, California and Nevada homes until April 1, 2010.

LPS is a technology provider to the mortgage industry, and its LPS Auction Solutions division will host the bidding…

The portfolio includes single-family homes, condominiums, town homes and one duplex. According to the real estate data provider RealtyTrac, Nevada, Arizona and California have the top-three highest foreclosure rates in the country.

All of the Arizona homes on the block are located in Phoenix. The California portfolio contains properties in Los Angeles, Bakersfield, San Diego, Fresno, Sacramento, San Jose, San Luis Obispo and San Francisco. The Nevada units are in Las Vegas and Reno.

Because sellers are allowed to accept offers made before the deadline, LPS is urging interested buyers to put in early bids. Buyers do not pay to register. Additionally, a co-broker commission of 3% is paid for by the seller.

LPS will open most homes for viewing on March 20-21 and March 27 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“This auction is a terrific opportunity for homebuyers and investors to purchase one or more residential properties at a significant discount,” said Evan Gladstone, managing director, LPS Auction Solutions. “There are some wonderful deals for interested buyers.”

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It translates to one notice for every 1,000 housing units in Oregon. RealtyStore is an online market place with more than 1m listings…

Nearly every county in the state had double-digit foreclosure filing increases in January. The only exception was Polk County, which had 22 notices, down from 29 last year.

With the large influx of supply, heavy discounts are available. A three-bedroom home in Washington County is listed at $28,255, whittled down from its original $295,500 value.

“Those that buy in 2010 will be telling their children about it. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Tim Chin, founder of RealtyStore.com.

One of its competitors, RealtyTrac, reported earlier in the month that Oregon had the ninth highest foreclosure rate in the country. RealtyTrac reported 3,336 NTS filings in January, more than double the amount reported by RealtyStore.

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The company is pushing to complete 125 auctions in 71 days…

This coming weekend, REDC will hold auctions in Atlanta and Phoenix, and will conduct a national online auction of more than 650 properties. Arizona had the second highest foreclosure rate through January, and Georgia had the 10th highest foreclosure rate in the country, according to RealtyTrac.

REDC reports that 3-to-7m foreclosed property will hit the market this year. The credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s showed that the amount of homes in the “shadow inventory” still waiting to touch the market could take three years to burn through.

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The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program launches April 5, 2010. The hope is that HAFA will provide a standard approach to short sales that would make the process more available. With the new government model on the process, service providers and software developers are trying to cash in on the new demand…While some point out HAFA’s inability to sort out loans with second liens, Joe Filoseta, DepotPoint CEO, told HousingWire, a sister publication, that it would persuade borrowers stuck in the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) cycle to hang in for a little longer. HAFA is for borrowers who are denied a modification under HAMP.

When dealing with a short sale, Filoseta said collecting all required documents is the single largest issue – a familiar problem in the loss mitigation. At the outset of HAMP, servicers, in a rush to get as many borrowers into the program as possible, delayed document collection for the three-month trial period. A backlog soon formed, resulting in subpar permanent modification conversions.

Through November, HAMP servicers provided 31,382 permanent modifications. After a shift toward more document collection and an official Treasury guideline change, the permanent modification number rose to 116,000 through January.

Filoseta said that to meet short sale challenges, lenders will have to adopt clearly defined processes.

“This includes tools and systems that support the document collection, property valuation, and offer evaluation in the context of a short sale,” Filoseta said.

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The business-outsourcing provider is a member of the First American Corp. Depending on the mixture and prices of the assets in the portfolio, the fixed price on the referral fee could push down expenses even further, according to First American…

Under the new program, First American offers a menu of field services including preparation and ongoing maintenance, securing the property within 24 hours of referral and registering a vacant property with the municipality.

“Our new program gives default managers a more accurate way to budget, plan and strategically allocate their resources,” said Kevin Wall, vice president of operations at First American Outsourcing and Technology Solutions. “For a typical mix of properties in multiple markets, this new pricing structure will enable servicers to greatly reduce their overall REO expenses and improve their operational capacity.”

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Altisource Portfolio Solutions, the parent company, provides services for real estate and mortgage portfolio management. The new expansion extends those services to overseeing and coordinating the entire REO transaction life cycle for its clients…

The full suite will include pre-marketing through asset sale services, which entails property preservation, property management, marketing, asset disposition and closing – a one-stop shop for lenders.

On top of all that, clients can even list the property on the Altisource online platform. The REO asset management division is managed by a team of professionals averaging 15 years of experience in the REO game. Altisource currently manages roughly 10,000 REO assets.

“Altisource’s establishment of REO asset management services eliminates our clients’ need to maintain an REO asset management team or manage multiple service providers. Altisource is able to support the entire REO transaction lifecycle from pre-marketing to closing,” said Richard Powers, senior vice president of real estate services for Altisource.

Write to Jon Prior.