Arizona real estate lands online

Planet IDX, an Internet data exchange and virtual office Web site technology provider, has launched VOW 2.0 in Phoenix. The system offers home buyers the ability to search thousands of home listings from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service at the participating broker or agent's Web site.  more...

RE/MAX Relocation redesigns Web site

RE/MAX Relocation has redesigned its Web site to give corporations and transferees faster and easier access to information about their relocations.

The makeover includes Servicengine, a Web-based relocation management system that tracks the relocation process. This software enhances communication with relocation program participants and provides a centralized database for information regarding the move in process.  more...

Web service adds foreclosure sales

Hopewell Township, Pa.-based ServiceLink, a centralized closing management company, has formed AssetLink LP, an independent subsidiary that will focus on selling bank-owned properties acquired through mortgage foreclosures.

Ken Westfall, a 25-year veteran of the asset management and disposition industry, who pioneered broker price opinions and real estate-owned outsourcing, is AssetLink's president.

AssetLink will operate as a community of brokers, lawyers and other mortgage default service providers who will manage the REO process from investor relations and asset  more...

Real estate: The week ahead

• The International Association of Privacy Professionals will host the Privacy Futures conference in San Francisco, June 9-11. The event will focus on technology and policy innovation in consumer privacy.

• The American Institute of Architects' National Convention and Design Expo is slated for June 10-12, in Chicago.  more...

Real estate values drive consumer spending

Housing prices have been a major driver in accelerated consumer spending over the past year, according to an index of consumer spending calculated by Deloitte Research. The pace of consumer spending has more than doubled in the past year, rising from 2 percent to over 4 percent, according to Deloitte Research's Leading Index of Consumer Spending. Deloitte is a professional services firm that offers audit, tax, financial advisory and consulting services.  more...

BridgeSpan assets bought

An affiliate of Hall Financial Group has purchased financially troubled mortgage technology company BridgeSpan through successful confirmation of a plan of reorganization. BridgeSpan and its California-based title company in January filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  more...

Fed eases Canadian lumber tariffs

California home builders on Thursday applauded the decision by the U.S. Commerce Department to cut tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber imports in half.

Noting that California builders use "in excess of $6 billion worth of wood a year" in constructing 200,000 new homes and apartments, Sherman D. Harmer Jr., president of the California Building Industry Association and a San Diego home builder, said Thursday's action is an important step.  more...