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Foreclosure

Bank of America Suspends Foreclosures in 23 States

The nation's largest bank has halted foreclosures in certain states after evidence was disclosed that it too had ill-famed ""robo-signers"" rubber-stamping approvals of foreclosure cases without verifying their validity. Bank of America has placed foreclosure actions in 23 judicial states on hold while it determines if the paperwork was processed correctly and affidavits by staff members were indeed legitimate. BofA is the third major mortgage lender in two weeks to call for a foreclosure freeze.

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TAZA Corp Launches TAZA360 for Distressed Property Evaluations

TAZA Corp has announced the launch of TAZA360, a new platform that provides a virtual portal to manage, market, and track expenses and closing processes of residential and commercial developments. The company says the technology will bring a new level of evaluation management to real estate by providing independent investors, asset management companies, broker-price opinion (BPO) mills, and others in the industry an online platform and network of agents to process evaluations.

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OCC Orders Largest Servicers to Review Foreclosure Processes

One of the nation's foremost banking regulators has issued a directive to large mortgage servicers, ordering them to reassess their procedures for foreclosing on defaulted borrowers. John Walsh, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) told lawmakers that he contacted seven institutions his agency supervises, after several large lenders announced a halt on foreclosures in states where filings might contain erroneous paperwork and preparers may have broken the law in their haste to process large volumes of cases.

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Jones Lang LaSalle and REDC Will Auction $132 Million in Notes

Jones Lang LaSalle and Real Estate Disposition, LLC, announced Thursday a list of almost $132 million in non-performing notes will go on the online auction site www.auction.com in October. In this roster are 33 primarily non-performing notes from two special servicers, two regional banks and one life company.

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Ambac Suing BofA over Countrywide Mortgage-Backed Securities

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. opened a lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. over improperly underwritten loans the company says the bank's Countrywide unit used to induce it into purchasing mortgage-backed securities. After reviewing 6,533 of the 268,000 loans it insured for Countrywide, Ambac found that 97 percent of the reviewed loans didn't follow the underwriting guidelines Countrywide said it used to assemble loans.

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Foreclosures and REOs Were 24% of Q2 Sales: RealtyTrac

New data released by RealtyTrac Thursday shows that foreclosure and REO homes accounted for 24 percent of all residential sales during the second quarter. A total of 248,534 properties in default, scheduled for auction, or repossessed by the bank sold to third parties during the April to June timeframe. RealtyTrac says on average, these homes went for a discount of 26 percent. The second-quarter share of foreclosure sales is up nearly 5 percent from the previous quarter, but still down 20 percent compared to the second quarter of 2009.

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Largest Servicers Get Low Scores in HAMP Audits

The Treasury Department has instructed three of the nation's largest mortgage servicers to make changes to the way they solicit distressed borrowers for the government's loan modification program and evaluate applicants for eligibility. In Treasury's latest report card on the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America were called out by name as receiving sub-par grades in complying with the program's guidelines.

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S&P: $460B Shadow Inventory Will Take 41 Months to Clear

It's no secret that the volume of distressed residential properties is weighing heavy on U.S. housing markets and prolonging any meaningful recovery. Of even greater concern is the industry's growing backlog of homes that need to be liquidated and resold but have yet to make their way to the market. Standard & Poor's has just released a new report in which it estimates that the principal balance of this shadow inventory now stands at $460 billion and will take the industry about 41 months to clear.

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Analysts Weigh in on GMAC’s Foreclosure Snafu

Last week, GMAC Mortgage called for a halt on foreclosures and REO sales in 23 states that may have been impacted by an internal procedural error. The incident could give cause for homeowners to file lawsuits against the lender, bondholders could be impacted, and the problem could reach beyond just GMAC since it also services mortgages for other firms, including the GSEs. A number of analysts have since weighed in on GMAC's foreclosure snafu. Attorneys general in several states are also launching their own investigations.

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Regulatory Report Shows Increases in Completed Foreclosures and Mods

The credit quality of first-lien mortgages serviced by the nation's largest banks and thrifts remained steady during the second quarter of 2010, according to a new regulatory report. Mortgage delinquency levels were relatively flat but elevated after rising for several quarters. Completed foreclosures were up by 7 percent from the previous quarter, but mortgage modifications increased 18 percent, and the report found that newer mods are showing significantly lower re-default rates.

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