With the holiday season approaching, the tracking firm ForeclosureRadar is seeing declines in the number of completed foreclosures in four of the five states it monitors along the country's West Coast - California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Only Arizona saw foreclosure sales rise in November, up 25 percent from October. Even with the recent increase, Arizona's numbers remain well below the state's monthly average for the year. Sales of foreclosures to third-party investors have risen sharply when compared to year-ago levels.

Urban Lending Solutions, a provider of loan modifications, valuations, and other real estate information solutions, announced Monday that Thomas ""T.J."" Lewis, Jr. has accepted an expanded role within the company as corporate diversity and business development executive. Lewis has been actively involved in business development for the company since 2009. In 2012, Lewis will expand his role with a new focus on diversity, leading the company into new contracts with major banks and bringing new minority suppliers into the company's service.

State attorneys general and the nation's five largest mortgage servicers have been supposedly close to a settlement for quite some time. The latest estimate is that they are likely to reach an agreement before Christmas. A local Iowa media outlet attributes this information to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, head of the states' negotiating committee. Miller says the settlement would release the banks from legal claims on past servicing and foreclosure practices but would not provide any release on securitizations.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday against the city of Chicago contesting a local ordinance that makes lenders liable for the upkeep of vacant homes before they take possession of the title. FHFA says the law encroaches upon its role as the sole supervisor of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and could raise costs for homeowners in the city. Both GSEs have instructed servicers to keep a record of all registration, inspection, and maintenance expenses incurred to comply with the Chicago ordinance.

There's been much debate over the root causes of the housing meltdown that catapulted the nation into the worst financial crisis in 80 years. A new report from the Federal Reserve focuses on the sharp run-up and subsequent collapse in housing prices during the 2000s. It concludes that real estate investors who used mortgage credit to purchase multiple properties played a larger role in fueling the housing bubble than previously recognized, pushing prices up during the boom and then defaulting in large numbers when prices began to head south.

As the year comes to a close, details of the Middle Class Tax Cut and Job Creation Act are up in the air, and a few housing industry groups are speaking out about one aspect of the act. The Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Home Builders, and the National Association of Realtors together composed a letter to Congress expressing concerns over a proposal to raise Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's guarantee fees to help cover the cost of extending the payroll tax cut.

Lenders and investors should expect defaults on mortgage loans currently being originated to be 31 percent higher than for loans originated in the 1990s, according to a new report from University Financial Associates (UFA). As a point of comparison, UFA's index for the worst vintages of this cycle (2006-2008) carried a default risk of more than 125 percent above the 1990s baseline. UFA says with consumer balance sheets improving and mortgage rates at record lows, the stage is set for a recovery in the housing market.

USFN-America's Mortgage Banking Attorneys announced Friday that Alexis Haughton has joined the organization as director of education and marketing. Haughton will be responsible for the development of educational programs, sponsorship management, advertising, and event management for USFN, a national not-for-profit association of select attorneys, trustee companies, and associates providing default services to the mortgage banking industry.

Representatives from both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac upheld the companies' practice of assessing penalties against servicers who fail to meet defined timelines for processing foreclosures. Speaking at a mortgage banking conference in Dallas last week, GSE execs stressed that clearly the best outcome for both Fannie and Freddie is to keep the borrower in their home, but when that's not possible, it's critical that servicers complete the foreclosure process in a timely manner to clear bad loans from the pipeline.

Rep. Ed Towns of New York has introduced a new bill to limit the period of time during which a bank can bring deficiency judgments against foreclosed borrowers. Currently, the window for a lender to pursue a deficiency judgment varies by state and can be anywhere from six months to six years. The Fairness in Foreclosure Act (H.R. 3566) would prohibit lenders from trying to collect deficiencies more than 12 months after foreclosure, except in states with shorter windows for deficiency judgments.