Las Vegas has enacted a city ordinance that holds lenders liable for the upkeep of vacant homes even if a default or foreclosure is pending and the borrower still holds the title. Lenders who fail to comply with the maintenance requirements for vacant properties prior to repossessing them could face misdemeanor criminal charges that carry a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. Las Vegas, considered the epicenter of the nation's housing crisis, has a foreclosure rate six times the national average.

The housing market may be stabilizing as house prices and REO saturation rates show little change on a quarterly and yearly basis, according to Clear Capital's most recent Home Data Index. Nationally, prices rose just 0.3 percent while the REO saturation rate was relatively unchanged at 24.6 percent over the most recent quarter, according to data through the end of November. Clear Capital measures housing data on a rolling quarter, which compares the most recent four months with the previous three.

Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia has thrown yet another idea into the mix for reforming the housing finance system. Isakson, himself a former real estate agent for 30 years, introduced legislation Thursday that would wean the secondary market off government support and pay taxpayers back for the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Isakson's bill would replace Fannie and Freddie with a new, temporary government-backed program to securitize mortgages. This transitional program would be turned over to the private sector after 10 years.

Last month the Occupy Oakland movement announced its intention to occupy vacant properties. On Tuesday, Occupy Oakland was one of 25 local Occupy activist groups to observe a national 'Occupy Our Homes' day. Organizers say the movement is supported by thousands who will be standing up for their neighbors in a struggle ""against a system that places financial gain above the human need for shelter."" Occupy groups from Atlanta to Brooklyn to California made it clear that this is only the beginning of their fight against foreclosure.

Freddie Mac released the results of its weekly mortgage rate survey Thursday, showing average fixed mortgage rates largely unchanged and near their record lows, helping to keep housing affordability high for those borrowers who are in the market. The 30-year fixed rate dipped from 4.00 percent last week to 3.99 percent. At 3.27 percent, the 15-year fixed rate averaged just slightly above its all-time low of 3.26 percent on October 6, 2011. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) rose slightly this week, but are coming off of all-time historic lows recorded last week.

About 885,000 borrowers have received permanent loan modifications so far this year, according to October data from HOPE NOW. The voluntary alliance of mortgage industry participants announced last month that the industry had completed 5 million modifications since 2007. October saw almost 80,000 proprietary and HAMP modifications. Sixty-plus day delinquencies declined 6 percent between September and October, and foreclosure sales fell 5 percent. Foreclosure starts, however, rose by 7 percent.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is still headless. Senators had scheduled a confirmation vote Thursday for Richard Cordray - President Obama's pick to lead the newly formed watchdog agency. Republicans, though, blocked the process before lawmakers could even get to a final vote. Without a director, the CFPB does not have full authority to supervise non-bank mortgage lenders and debt collectors. President Obama told reporters that he is not giving up on putting Cordray in the top CFPB post.

Lender Processing Services (LPS) has added additional functionality to its MSP loan servicing platform that the company says will help servicers better track and manage loans belonging to military service members. LPS' Military Service Relief (MSR) workstation adds 30 fields to MSP to allow servicers to identify and process loans protected under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), while providing stop-gap measures to guard against foreclosing on military personnel.

Servicers for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed almost 2 million foreclosure prevention actions for the two companies since they went into conservatorship in 2008, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) third-quarter report released Wednesday. More than half of these actions have been loan modifications, and of the remainder, about 676,500 have kept homeowners in their homes. About 269,700 were short sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure.

The U.S. Treasury said Wednesday that it will continue to withhold incentives from JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America for modifications, short sales, and deeds-in-lieu completed through government programs. JPMorgan is the only servicer participating in Treasury's Making Home Affordable program that was determined to need ""substantial improvement"" in complying with program guidelines during the third quarter. Bank of America moved up a notch on the assessment scorecard to needing only ""moderate improvement.""