US Q3 foreclosures, delinquencies hit new records
Reuters

NEW YORK - U.S. mortgage delinquency rates and the percentage of loans that entered the foreclosure process jumped in the third quarter, with both reaching record highs, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

The percentage of loans on which foreclosure actions were started rose to 1.42 percent in the third quarter, an all-time high, up from 1.36 percent in the second quarter and 1.07 percent in the third quarter of 2008.

For the Young, Giving the House ‘Back to the Bank’ Is No Biggie
The Wall Street Journal

The housing crash has come to this: With so many Americans owing more than their homes than they’re worth - in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars - more are debating walking away, or halting payments they can afford and waiting for foreclosure.
Statistics don’t exist because no one declares their reasons for walking away, but a handful of papers have suggested that there’s something to the anecdotal reports about borrowers “strategically” defaulting on their mortgages.

State foreclosure rule repealed
YumaSun.com

PHOENIX — State lawmakers voted Wednesday to restore financial protections to real estate speculators, allowing them to walk away from their bad home investments.

On a 20-4 vote, the Senate gave preliminary approval to repealing a measure passed earlier this year at the behest of bankers to limit who can take advantage of Arizona's anti-deficiency laws. Those laws preclude banks from financially pursuing borrowers if they default on their home mortgages owing more than the property is worth.

Philadelphia Gives Homeowners a Way to Stay Put
The New York Times

Christopher Hall stepped tentatively through the entranceway of City Hall Courtroom 676 and took his place among dozens of others confronting foreclosure purgatory. His hopes all but extinguished, he fully expected the morning to end with a final indignity: He would sign over the deed to his house — his grandfather’s two-story row house; the only house in which he had ever lived; the house where he had raised three children.

“This is devastating,” he said last month as he sat in the gallery awaiting his hearing. “This is my childhood home. I grew up there. My mother passed away there. My grandfather passed away there. All of my memories are there.”

Hiring Boom in Mortgage Restructuring
The Wall Street Journal

Mortgage restructuring for strapped homeowners has emerged as a rare growth area in the economy as companies in the field keep hiring.

Four of the largest mortgages servicers -- Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. -- have collectively hired almost 17,000 people this year, mostly to work with financially ailing homeowners. With the number of defaults rising, many are planning to keep adding staff.

by joelc