Lehman Brothers Holdings has beaten out Sam Zell and acquired the last remaining 26.5 percent stake in Archstone for $1.58 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, giving it complete ownership over the massive apartment portfolio. The failed bank is buying the stake from Bank of America and Barclays, which partnered with Lehman to acquire Archstone in 2007 for $22 billion. The deal values the portfolio at $17 billion. [more]

Brian Moynihan

In its ongoing effort to curb costs by selling real estate, Bank of America is now marketing a 12-building, 1.7 million-square-foot office campus in New Jersey that could break the record for the state’s biggest office sale. Businessweek reported that the property, which is located in Hopewell Township near the Pennsylvania border, could get $400 million from the sale.

A $400 million deal would crush the previous record set in October when Jersey City’s Newport tower traded for $377.5 million. Bank of America would lease back the Hopewell Township campus. [more]

From left: Beacon Capital Chairman Alan Leventhal, L&L Holding Chairman David Levinson and the exterior of 222 Broadway

Bank of America has struck an accord to sell a Lower Manhattan office building to Beacon Capital Partners and L&L Holding for about $230 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. [more]

In another symbol of the faulty paperwork America’s largest lenders used to file for foreclosures, Bank of America has sued itself 11 times in Palm Beach County, Fla. foreclosure cases since late March, the Huffington Post reported.

The suits stem from Bank of America servicing mortgages on behalf of other investors, a practice undertaken by most big banks that led to the so-called robo-signing scandal. As the servicer, the bank processes payments, negotiates with borrowers and handles foreclosure proceedings without actually owning the loan. [more]

If you’re seriously underwater and headed to foreclosure, what would you say if the lender suddenly offered you the chance to remain in your home as a tenant for an extended period plus have your mortgage debt wiped away? Would you say yes?

Or would you instead conclude: Hey, why pay rent? It’s going to take the bank more than a year to complete the foreclosure and evict us, so why not just stay put and save some money? [more]

Bank of America is testing a new program in New York and two other states that allows customers facing foreclosures to remain in their homes by renting the property from the bank, the New York Times reported. The program will initially be offered to about 1,000 customers in New York, Nevada and Arizona. [more]

On the heels of the release of additional details on mortgage abuses from a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, borrowers are expressing full-blown rage regarding the details of the settlement, finalized yesterday, CNN reported.

The one million borrowers who could receive payments from the settlement are barely a fraction of borrowers who are in default, a number of people told CNN, and the $1,500 to $2,000 pay-outs just aren’t enough. Not to speak of those whose homes have already been lost to foreclosure or whose loans are not serviced by the five largest servicers, which are the only lenders affected by the settlement. [more]

Office buildings in Manhattan

The financial services industry, the motor behind much of New York City’s economy, has been quietly exiting space, which bodes extremely poorly for the city’s real estate market, the Wall Street Journal said.

The city could lose approximately 10,000 securities jobs by the end of the year, according to statistics from the New York state comptroller cited by the Journal. One in eight jobs in the city relies on securities firms, the comptroller’s data indicate. [more]

AG Eric Schneiderman

[Updated at 1.30 p.m.] Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against some of the nation’s largest banks charging that the use of a national Mortgage Electronic Registry System called MERS has led to deceptive and fraudulent foreclosure filings in New York state and federal courts, his office announced today.

The lawsuit alleges that, as a result of the system, employees and agents of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo have submitted court documents containing false or misleading information that made it appear that the foreclosing party had the authority to bring a case when it didn’t. The system has also made it impossible for the general public to reach property transfers through public records, as the information is now stored on a private database. [more]

Bank of America and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgage bonds were the big winners from a Federal Reserve housing study that circulated through Congress this week, Bloomberg News reported, while mortgage bonds backed by high-cost debt lost in a massive market-shakeup. [more]