U.S. bank regulators have extended the deadline for 14 financial institutions to submit plans to rectify problems with home-foreclosure practices by 30 days, according to the Wall Street Journal. Instructions issued in April gave the institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, until mid-June to instigate plans after widespread problems with bank foreclosure processing operations became public last fall.
As per the instructions, the banks were required to hire independent consultants to evaluate all foreclosure proceedings from 2009 and 2010 to establish whether they improperly foreclosed on any homeowners. [more]

Thanos Papalexis’ former home at 269 Pendleton Avenue. It was sold at auction in February 2009 for $3.55M.

From the South Florida Web site: The foreclosure wave has broken on every Florida shore, even the pricey ones of Palm Beach.

Foreclosed homes on the affluent island don’t sport giant “For Sale” signs advertising the bargains tucked discreetly behind the estate fences.

It’s been a tough year at the top end of the market, even if foreclosure rates are a fraction of those found at less affluent price ranges, and make a smaller contribution to the state’s unwelcome designation as the fourth worst housing market in the country, according to RealtyTrac.

Through early October, foreclosures have been filed on 13 single-family homes in Palm Beach, according to Christine Franks, Palm Beach real estate broker and owner of Wilshire International Realty, who tracks sales data for clients and to keep on top of the market. Five of them have sold, all of them fetching at least $1 million. It’s not a typical time, she said, with a slow sales season underlying the extraordinary financial distress some Palm Beachers are suffering, however discreetly.

With the recent uptick in the number of home foreclosures, many buyers are scooping up distressed properties at bargain-basement prices. But sometimes it takes a little more effort on the part of the buyer to make sure that deal isn’t a dud. The ins and outs of doing your foreclosure homework — including competitive price analyses and home inspections — are explained in a recent NBC video.

Last month saw the third highest foreclosure rate on record, according to CNBC’s real estate reporter Diana Olick, raising questions over whether this month is an anomaly or the start of a heightened foreclosure environment. Michelle Meyer, vice president at Barclays Capital, told CNBC that there are a large number of seriously delinquent mortgages in the field right now, causing a possible acceleration of foreclosures in the near future. According to Meyer, her group expects to see another 6 million foreclosures pop up over the coming three years. [more]

Home foreclosure rates are rising in luxury markets, according to data from Zillow.com, making waves in the mortgage lending community. As John Courson, CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, told CNBC, the key issue in this crunch is whether credit availability among lenders will improve. “It’s clear that we are seeing proposals that are probably more dramatic … as we’ve seen since the 1930s when the banking system and the financial system in our country underwent massive changes,” Courson said. [more]

Washington politicians and editorial writers throughout the country are bashing banks for foreclosing on hapless homeowners. And, indeed, foreclosures are on the rise. However, an even larger wave of foreclosures is coming to New York City, say experts who base their predictions on rising default rates, combined with the difficulty of refinancing underwater homes. The increasing numbers of distressed properties, they say, portend a substantial decline in property values throughout the city. “If you are looking at the statistics, it cannot possibly have hit bottom,” says Joshua Stein, a partner in the real estate practice group of Latham & Watkins, and chair of the education committee of the Mortgage Bankers Association of New York. [more]