FORECLOSURES

New home sales dropped more than expected in January, almost erasing the gains witnessed in December. The Commerce Department said new-home sales fell to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 284,000 (well below expectations of 300,000) and down 12.6 percent from the revised figure of 325,000 recorded in December.

Utah's attorney general's office said ReconTrust Co., a subsidiary of Bank of America Corp. (BofA), has violated the state's law on foreclosures.

One in four counties in the U.S. are ”dying” – meaning, they are recording more deaths than births – according to findings by the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. homeowners facing foreclosure action haven't made a mortgage payment in an average of 17 months, compared to 11 months two years ago, and the time frame may increase, according to a USA Today report.

Mortgage foreclosures “have clearly turned the corner,” said the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) chief economist Jay Brinkmann.

U.S. bank regulators are finalizing punishments against mortgage servicers after a probe found critical deficiencies with the industry's foreclosure processes.

Many U.S. consumers have no choice and are held captive to home mortgage-related companies that are often aggressively fast, commit errors in paperwork and refuse to answer questions, and whose continuing problems are holding back the country's economic recovery, a top U.S. regulator said on Friday.

The Obama administration favors creating a national standard for mortgage servicers such as Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co that have been accused of botching home foreclosure procedures.

The Obama administration nailed a 'condemned' sign on the wrecked U.S. housing finance system on Friday but did not offer a clear blueprint for a rebuilding project that promises to take years.

Bank of America Corp was hit with a lawsuit on Wednesday claiming the lending giant hid foreclosure problems that eventually led to a decline in its share price.

The U.S. Treasury said Wednesday it is close to turning a profit on direct bailout investments in the nation's banks, but still expects to post an overall loss in its financial bailout fund due to foreclosure prevention costs for homeowners.

Job growth still slow despite upward earnings, GDP growth

The number of empty houses in the U.S. is close to 20 million, Census shows

DR Horton Inc (DHI.N), the top U.S. homebuilder, reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss, citing an increase in home foreclosures, and lingering anxiety among homebuyers that contributed to a sharp drop

New home sales in the U.S. in December climbed to 329,000 on annual basis, official data showed on Wednesday, suggesting that the housing market remained moderately robust despite an unsustainable unemployment rate and high foreclosures.

Due to the dampening effects of the recession, migration within the U.S. crawled to its lowest rate in recorded history last year, potentially creating a ‘lost generation’ among Americans.

Banks seized more than a million U.S. homes in one year for the first time last year, despite a slowdown in the last few months as questions around foreclosure processing arose, a leading firm said on Thursday.

After repossessing more than a record 1 million homes in the U.S., banks are now poised to foreclosure on even more properties in 2011, according to Realty Trac Inc.

Bank shares are weakening after the Massachusetts State Supreme Judicial Court upheld a decision that two foreclosures from U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) were not valid because the banks did not properly show they held the mortgages at the time of the foreclosure.

U.S. metropolitan areas which have suffered the steepest drops in housing prices are poised to endure long-term deterioration similar to how certain cities in the Rust Belt were permanently damaged by the decline of manufacturing.

Some economists are warning that housing prices in general could double-dip and the price declines may accelerate in 2011.