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Foreclosure

Wells Fargo Teams with National Urban League to Aid Homeowners

Wells Fargo and the National Urban League have released the second edition of ""The Foreclosure Workbook: The Complete Guide to Understanding Foreclosure and Saving Your Home."" The resource offers information to aid homeowners behind on their mortgage payments. Through its affiliates that manage homeownership and foreclosure prevention programs, the Urban League will distribute about 7,500 copies of this latest edition to distressed homeowners across the country.

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Major Lenders Offering Perks on Short Sales

The nation's leading mortgage lenders are extending extras for short sale transactions employed as an alternative to foreclosure - both in the form of monetary incentives for borrowers and streamlined procedures for real estate agents. Wells Fargo has increased its financial relocation assistance to as much as $20,000 in states where the foreclosure process is lengthening. Bank of America is now allowing agents to submit a new backup offer for a short sale property if the original buyer has walked away.

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Metro Foreclosure Rates Decline Due to Processing Delays: RealtyTrac

Eighty-four percent of the country's largest metro areas experienced declines in foreclosure activity in the first half of the year, according to RealtyTrac's midyear metropolitan foreclosure report released Thursday. However, RealtyTrac attributes these declines not to an improving market, but to delays in local foreclosure processes. Even the top 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates in the first half of the year showed a year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity.

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Bank of America Signs on to California’s Principal Reduction Program

Bank of America has agreed to participate in Keep Your Home California's principal reduction program, the California Housing Finance Agency announced Wednesday. Principal write-downs offered under the state-run program are part of a $2 billion, federally funded effort to help hard-hit families remain in their homes and ease the California foreclosure crisis. Bank of America has been engaged in a pilot of the principal reduction program since February, and is now moving into full participation.

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MERS Bows Out of Foreclosure and Bankruptcy Proceedings

Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) is withdrawing from the foreclosure business. MERS has issued a notice to its members stating that no foreclosure proceeding may be initiated and no legal proceedings in a bankruptcy may be filed in the name of MERS. Amid an onslaught of court filings and foreclosure-related investigations, MERS proposed a rule change in March banning its members from using MERS as the foreclosing agent. The policy change has officially been adopted.

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Auction.com Hosts Sale of Texas Commercial Real Estate

Auction.com is in the midst of a three-day online auction of Texas commercial real estate properties and nonperforming notes. The company says in total, the assets up for sale are valued at more than $300 million, making it the largest conglomerate of commercial real estate assets to be auctioned online in Texas history. Barclays Capital matched the list of assets to be sold to its database of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). The firm pegs CMBS exposure to the Texas auction at about $262.5 million.

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Homeownership Preservation Foundation Unveils Enhanced Website

The Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF), an independent nonprofit dedicated to helping distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure, unveiled its new, redesigned website Wednesday. HPF operates the nationwide Homeowner's HOPE Hotline. Its new site now mirrors the assistance already available via phone, including step-by-step details on the foreclosure process, an overview of alternative lender solutions, and details on government mortgage relief programs.

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Trepp Estimates Declines in Delinquency Rates

Trepp, LLC estimates decreases in all types of bank loan delinquencies in the second quarter of 2011. Delinquencies are expected to decline among residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, construction loans, and commercial and industrial loans, according to the research firm. Based on its research and analysis of earnings reports and call report filings from smaller banks, Trepp says the credit recovery that began in mid-2010 has resumed, after stalling in the first quarter.

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Distressed Prices Continue to Drop but Sales Expected to Decline

Median prices for REO and short sale transactions continue to decline. A new report from CoreLogic shows distressed home prices at the national level have fallen 10 percent since 2009. The company notes, however, that new foreclosure auction filings have dropped significantly since last October, and the industry's shadow inventory has been trimmed. With these two distressed sale drivers narrowing, CoreLogic says such transactions will likely begin to decline late in 2011 and into 2012.

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Study Finds Foreclosures Lead to Long-Term Vacancies

The rise in foreclosures in recent years may lead to long-term vacancies, further exacerbating housing prices and the market as a whole, according to Stephan Whitaker, a Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank researcher. In a recent study, Whitaker determined a strong correlation between foreclosures and vacancy rates, suggesting foreclosure may permanently scar some homes. He found that foreclosed homes still have higher vacancy rates than neighboring houses two to five years after a sheriff's sale.

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