This just in regarding the trend toward short sales! This is great news for so many homeowners in trouble! The new government mandates are starting to work and the banks are working harder to make short sales happen.

Read the entire article about the trend toward more short sales here.

On April 14th, there was a big announcement by Fannie Mae in an effort to support overall market stability and to certainly reinforce the importance of borrowers to work with their lenders when they have difficulty repaying their mortgage. Fannie Mae has updated several policies that pertain specifically to the future eligibility of borrowers to obtain a new mortgage loan after a short sale. Fannie Mae has also updated the requirements for determining that borrowers have re-established their credit after a significant derogatory credit event. You can read about how these changes affect you if you are pursuing a short sale by clicking here.

"Home Seizures By Bank Set Records" was the title of the article published on MSN just the other day. It's really worth the read if you want to fully understand what's happening in the real estate world. This morning, I had my head in the market stats for the 10 primary areas of Los Angeles that I serve: Santa Monica, Venice, Marina de Rey, West Los Angeles, Brentwood, Westwood/Century City, Cheviot Hills, Culver City, Mar Vista and discovered that the number of foreclosures and short sales on the market has risen almost 15% in March over February.

Foreclousre is bad business for the banks. It was also evident from looking at the recent Notice of Default filings for the Westside of Los A...