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ON THE WEB a slow improvement for negative conditions throughout the country. Ranking CBSAs from "hot" to "distressed," Pro Teck rolled out a new evaluation system with its February survey, and in a com- pany statement, Pro Teck noted it is now using an enhanced scoring model to establish housing condi- tions in all CBSAs. Pro Teck's overall market condition scale uses a variety of indicators—in- cluding price trends, inventory trends, foreclosure trends, and more—to provide a score that reflects both current conditions and predicted direction. Showing the distribution for the nation's top 200 CBSAs, Pro Teck found that many Florida commu- nities ranked among the leading CBSAs including Crestview-Fort Walton Beach, Fort Lauderdale- Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Port St. Lucie, and West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach. Other CBSAs displaying positive trends were Provo-Orem, Utah; Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Michigan; Youngstown-Warren- Boardman, Ohio-Pennsylvania; Canton-Massillon, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; and Fayetteville-Springdale- Rogers, Arkansas-Missouri. However, not all regions appear set for an uptick. CBSAs near the bottom of Pro Teck's February forecast included Eugene- Springfield, Oregon; Huntsville, Alabama; Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Texas; New Haven-Milford, Connecticut; Norwich-New London, Connecticut; Portland- Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon- Washington; Jacksonville, North Carolina; Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, Alabama; Spokane, Washington; and Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut. Pro Teck's rankings are focused on the single-family home markets among the 200 largest CBSAs, and the company evaluates metro performance-based factors such as average active market time, average listing price, number of foreclosure sales, number of active listings, number of new listings, average sold price, and number of sales. The company's Home Value Forecast represents a set of unique micro-market data and provides comprehensive information on sales, listings, and off-market The views expressed by Home Sweet Home solely reflect the views of the cartoonist and not the views of MReport, the Five Star Institute, or any affiliates. THE M REPORT | 11 activity for 90 percent of U.S. housing stock, enabling Pro Teck to provide home price indexing, forecasting, and market analyt- ics at national, regional, and ZIP/ neighborhood levels. INSIDE THE INDUSTRY Heartland and Fiserv Update Technology Partnership ENHANCING ITS LOAN SERVICING OPERATIONS, HEARTLAND SELECTS FISERV'S LOANSERV PRODUCT. H eartland Financial USA, Inc., has announced a new technology platform to enhance the company's loan servicing op- erations and processes. Heartland recently selected the LoanServ program from Fiserv, Inc., for its technology provisions. In an official statement, Heartland cited increasing volume and added loan servicing com- plexity as the catalysts behind its decision to engage LoanServ through Fiserv's module. Heartland is seeking to optimize and automate the bulk of its loan servicing activities while extend- ing its lending growth strategy. Douglas Hortsmann, president of Heartland's flagship bank, Dubuque Bank and Trust, said of the partnership with Fiserv, "Our aim is to inject the highest possible levels of efficiency and regulatory compliance into our mortgage ser- vicing processes, so we can serve our clients better and increase profitability at the same time." Continuing his statements, Hortsmann added, "The LoanServ platform from Fiserv offers the best combination of functionality and scalability and allows us to pursue additional portfolios with investors such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae." HOME SWEET HOME BY RYAN SCHUETTE Heartland and Fiserv have had a long-standing relationship, and the LoanServ platform will give Heartland the benefit of integra- tion with Fiserv's Signature bank platform, as well as access to enhanced servicing functionality. Heartland will also take advantage of the investor rules options with- in LoanServ, which give users the ability to manage investor activities without data update delays. Kevin Collins, president of lending solutions for Fiserv, noted of Heartland's decision, "Fiserv is committed to developing and offering solutions that help our clients better run their businesses and, in turn, provide exceptional service to their customers. With its real-time processing and built-in workflows and default management capabilities, LoanServ is the type of solution that servicers can rely on to be successful in today's lending environment. We are confident that the functionality of LoanServ will enable Heartland to start realizing benefits almost immediately."