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Fed Governor Urges Congress to Set National Foreclosure Standards

Federal banking regulators have been conducting reviews of foreclosure practices at the nation's largest mortgage servicers. They say the robo-signing controversy has exposed widespread breakdowns in the process, and some are pushing for Congress to enact legislation to establish federal standards for foreclosure procedures. Federal Reserve Governor Dan Tarullo says the industry will need to make ""substantial investments"" to fix the problems and should consider ""fundamental structural changes"" to the current mortgage system.

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Sixty Percent Approval Not Enough to Save Controversial Deficit Proposal

The 18 members of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform voted Friday on a proposal to reduce the national deficit by $4 trillion by 2020. Their plan recommended reducing and in some cases eliminating the mortgage interest tax deduction that homeowners have been accustomed to for more than 80 years. Though the commission voted in support of the proposal with an 11-7 vote, those margins did not meet the 14-4 stipulation required to automatically send the recommendations to Congress.

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Nation’s Unemployment Rate Climbs to 9.8%

The unemployment rate in the United States edged up to 9.8 percent in November, according to figures released by the Department of Labor Friday. The jobless rate had been 9.6 percent in each of the prior three months. The economy added just 39,000 jobs last month - far fewer than even the most pessimistic analysts were expecting. There were 15.1 million people unemployed in November. Of those, 41.9 percent have been out of work for 27 weeks or more.

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Federal Reserve and Other Agencies Release New Appraisal Guidelines

Federal regulatory agencies issued guidelines Thursday on sound practices by financial institutions for real estate appraisals and evaluations. The guidelines explain the agencies' minimum standards for appraisals and incorporate the agencies' recent supervisory issuances on appraisal practices. The 70-page document will replace the former guidelines which were written in 1994, and officials say it will ensure consistency in the application and enforcement of appraisal regulations.

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Report: Mixed Results for Q3 Commercial Delinquency Rates

In a report released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association, delinquency rates for commercial and multifamily investor groups were very mixed in the third quarter. The trade group's study assessed loans held in commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) as well as performance among other investor groups, such as life insurance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and commercial banks and thrifts. CMBS investors are faring the worst, with delinquency rates the highest they've been since 1997.

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Panel Unveils Proposal Suggesting Limits on Mortgage Tax Deductions

In early November, co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform released a draft of a proposal that suggested significantly reducing mortgage interest tax deductions. The final proposal was released Wednesday amid much controversy. The details of the draft have been circulating for weeks, and while the proposal has received some support, there has been strong opposition to such drastic measures in such uncertain and unstable times for the housing market.

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Fed’s Beige Book Points to Housing as Recovery Stumbling Block

The Federal Reserve's latest rendition of its popular Beige Book shows that economic conditions across the country continued to improve. Housing markets, though, remain ""depressed,"" according to district contacts in the field. Many brokers, most notably in Florida, reported that recent servicer moratoriums on distressed sales led to a stall in activity. Areas in the Dallas and New York districts noted weakened demand for lower-priced properties but increased interest for high-end homes.

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Freddie Mac Suspends Evictions During Holiday Season

Freddie Mac said Wednesday that it has ordered all foreclosure evictions involving occupied single-family and 2-4 unit properties to be suspended from December 20, 2010 to January 3, 2011. The policy applies to all homes with Freddie Mac mortgages. It's become a common practice for lenders to temporarily halt evictions during the holiday season. Fannie Mae and most other large mortgage providers are expected to follow suit.

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Calls to Homeownership HOPE Hotline Down 14 Percent

The Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF) has reported a 14.2 percent decrease in calls to its Homeowners' HOPE Hotline during the month of October. The hotline provides free homeownership education and foreclosure prevention counseling. The organization says it is seeing fluctuations in call volume, often related to the number of foreclosures, which decreased during the month. The state with the most calls coming into the hotline was California.

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GSEs’ Delinquency Numbers Tell Different Stories

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have seen a steady falloff in the rate of loans 90 or more days overdue since early this year, but their latest figures show the rate continuing to head down for one, up for the other. Both GSEs have dialed up the pressure lately for big banks to buy back bad loans. But the lenders themselves are doing their own dialing up, only it's in the form of stronger resistance to repurchase requests. The two mortgage giants are planning to implement new lending guidelines and fee structures for riskier loans.

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