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Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Freddie Mac Announces REO Auction Blitz Ahead of Tax Credit Deadline Freddie Mac is riding the wave of the homebuyer tax credit, hoping it will be incentive enough to entice deal-seekers to snatch up foreclosed properties it has repossessed in the hard-hit Las Vegas and Southern California markets and put a dent in the GSE's swollen inventory of REO properties. Freddie officials announced Thursday that they plan to auction off hundreds of HomeSteps REO properties to individual homebuyers in these areas during the last week of April - just ahead of the contract deadline for the federal tax credit. Execs Expect Commercial Property Values and Rents to Keep Falling The real estate outlook for the remainder of 2010 is grim. According to a recent online survey of real estate executives conducted by Deloitte, 76 percent of executives expect commercial property values to continue to fall this year, and 73 percent predict asking rents will follow the same trend. When the market will recover still remains unknown, but it will undoubtedly take time. This was echoed by survey respondents, with 92 percent predicting that it will be at least two to four years - some say even longer - before we see a full market recovery. Fannie Bars Foreclosure Actions in the Name of MERS In new policy guidelines released this week, Fannie Mae told servicers that they can no longer name MERS as the plaintiff in any foreclosure action, whether judicial or non-judicial, on a mortgage loan owned or securitized by the GSE. MERS is widely used by the industry to keep track of the servicing rights on home loans, and is often listed as the "mortgagee of record." But the system has become the centerpiece of a number of lawsuits, with foreclosed homeowners challenging the naming of the electronic system as mortgagee. FDIC Finds Taker for $490 Million in Home Loans The FDIC announced Thursday that Charlotte, North Carolina's Roundpoint Mortgage Servicing Corporation placed the winning bid for an equity interest in a portfolio of 3,373 residential mortgage loans. Collectively, the loans have an unpaid principal balance of $490.7 million. They were seized by the federal agency from 19 failed banks between August 2008 and March 2009, and half are delinquent. You are receiving this e-mail because you opted in at our Web site DSNews.com or attended a Five Star Conference. Unsubscribe roballeyrealtor@gmail.com from this list. Corporate Office: DS News 1909 Woodall Rodgers Suite 300 Dallas, TX 75201 Add us to your address book Washington Bureau: 1101 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Suite 600 Washington, D.C. 20004 Copyright (C) 2009 DS News All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend Update your profile QUICK LINKS DSNews.com DS News' Red Book DS News' Black Book 2010 Five Star Conference DARE