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Fannie Mae Predicts ‘Moderate Growth’ in 2012

The U.S. economy is projected to grow 2.3 percent for the year, according to Fannie Mae's latest outlook. The GSE says growth will be affected by fiscal policies and political uncertainty. The upcoming presidential election, healthcare debate, and sovereign debt crisis in Europe are three wild cards causing concern for Americans. Recent improvements in employment, however, have elevated consumers from their ""summer rut,"" and the housing market is showing some positive indicators.

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Wells Fargo Reports Record Income in Fourth Quarter

Wells Fargo & Company ended the year with record earnings in the fourth quarter, reporting a net income of $4.1 billion, up from $3.4 billion in the third quarter. The San Francisco-based bank reported year-end profits of $15.9 billion, demonstrating a 28 percent increase from yearly earnings in 2010. Wells Fargo holds a residential mortgage servicing portfolio totaling $1.8 trillion in value. As of year-end, the balance of loans 90-plus days delinquent stood at $22.4 billion.

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Vacant Foreclosures Saddle Local Communities With High Costs

A study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that vacant properties rose 51 percent over the span of a decade, from nearly 7 million in 2000 to 10 million in April 2010. Ten states saw vacancies go up by 70 percent or more as a result of high foreclosure rates. The elevated number of vacant homes carries a hefty price tag for lenders that must resume ownership after foreclosure, but GAO says it's local governments that are feeling ""significant"" pressure from the rise in vacant properties.

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Las Vegas Breaks Yearly Home Sales Record

Despite a decade-long trend making winter the slowest homebuying season for the Las Vegas area, the region saw an increase in existing home sales for the month of December, finishing the year strong enough to break the metro's yearly existing-home sale record from 2009, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. The 2009 record was set with the sale of 46,879 homes, and 2011 surpassed this milestone with 48,186 sales. REOs made up 46 percent of December's transactions. Short sales accounted for nearly 27 percent.

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New York AG Allots $1M to Foreclosure Prevention

Following an expiration of federal funding for foreclosure prevention in New York, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman allotted $1 million to provide assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure. Schneiderman's office will distribute the funding to nonprofit and legal aid services aimed at helping distressed homeowners. Schneiderman released a request for applications for the state funding last week. Currently, about one in 10 mortgages is at risk of foreclosure in the state of New York.

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Fed’s Beige Book Depicts Growth in All Economic Areas Except Housing

The U.S. economy ended 2011 in better standing than earlier in the year, according to the Federal Reserve's polling of key business contacts, economists, and market experts throughout its 12 regional districts. Reporting for the latest Beige Book publication, all 12 districts characterized economic growth as modest to moderate - and that's without the typical recovery model in which housing serves as a primary contributor to economic expansion. Across the board, Fed districts labeled residential real estate activity as ""sluggish.""

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Investors Can Trim Losses by Discriminating Between Servicers: Report

The ratings agency Standard & Poor's says investors can cut their losses by basing servicer selection on key performance metrics of default management. The company has come up with a new method to assess residential mortgage servicer performance that looks at how the speed of the servicers' foreclosure processes and the success of their loan modification programs affect investors' losses on nonperforming loans, and S&P says it's found ""significant differences"" among 10 of the largest servicers.

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JPMorgan Posts $19B Annual Profit Despite Housing Hangover

JPMorgan Chase kicked off the earnings reporting season for major U.S. lenders on Friday with its announcement that the company earned a record profit of $19 billion for the 2011 fiscal year. The numbers still failed to meet analysts' expectations, and details of the earnings data show the company continues to struggle with legacy issues stemming from the housing downturn. The company doled out more than $3 billion in 2011 to cover legal proceedings related to its mortgage business.

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Veterans Lender Services and LRES Corporation Announce Partnership

LRES Corporation has teamed up with Veterans Lender Services to form a new partnership known as VLS/LRES. As the first nationwide minority and service disabled veteran-owned asset management joint venture, it will provide financial institutions with asset disposition solutions that provide jobs and market defaulted and foreclosed properties as affordable homeownership opportunities to the underserved first-time military, veterans, and minority communities.

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Foreclosure Starts Decline on West Coast

West coast states saw a decline in foreclosure starts in December, according to new data from the research firm ForeclosureRadar. In fact four of the five states tracked by ForeclosureRadar's monthly survey saw double-digit declines. The exception was Oregon, where foreclosure starts rose by 5 percent. Foreclosure sales in the West coast states were mixed but down far less than ForeclosureRadar says it was expecting, given lender announcements of holiday moratoriums at the close of last year.

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