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Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Home Price Index Posts First Annual Increase in Three Years In yet another sign of stabilization within the housing market, national home prices increased on a year-over-year basis for the first time in three years in February, according to the LoanPeformance Home Price Index (HPI) released Monday by First American CoreLogic. Despite the year-over-year increase in prices, the HPI forecast for the coming months turned less optimistic in First American's latest update, showing a softer recovery than in previous forecasts. Senate Probe Finds Goldman Won Big Betting on Housing Collapse Goldman Sachs is battling allegations that it misled investors in its mortgage securities business. That battle may have just gotten a little tougher. The firm maintains that like everyone else, it suffered heavy losses from the mortgage meltdown. But a Senate investigative committee has released several internal documents obtained from the Wall Street firm that reveal it made "some serious money" betting against the housing market, as Sachs' top execs' put it. Mortgage Fraud Continues to Climb, Up 7% in 2009: Report Incidents of mortgage fraud and misrepresentation by professionals in the industry continue to climb. According to a report released Monday by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI), such cases increased 7 percent for the 2009 fiscal year when compared to the previous 12 months. The pace has slowed thanks to improvements in industry reporting and policing, but MARI's research shows foreclosure rescue and loan mod scams are on the rise, and now the company is seeing a significant increase in short sale scams. Treasury Gives Green Light to Sell 1.5 Billion of Taxpayers' Citi Shares The U.S. Treasury is moving ahead with a plan to sell off taxpayers' 27 percent ownership stake in Citigroup Inc. The Wall Street bank was one of the biggest bailout recipients among financial institutions, and the Treasury's decision to pull out is being viewed as a testament to just how quickly the big lenders have been able to recapitalize. Treasury has authorized Morgan Stanley to sell up to 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup common stock - the first offering in a larger plan to dispose of all the Treasury's 7.7 billion common shares in the bank. 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