New foreclosure defense: Prove I owe you

Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork.

And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill.

Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess.

-MSNBC

Glut Of Foreclosures Clogs Courts

For homeowners who haven't paid their mortgage in Lee County Florida, the end of the line is a courtroom where a judge whips through more than 400 cases in a single morning, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.
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The city of Philadelphia is taking a different approach to adjudicating the foreclosure crisis, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

In Philly's courtroom 676, every Thursday traditional courthouse rules are set aside in a drastic new approach to reducing foreclosures.

-CBS News

Short sales can be worth it, but proceed with care

Short sales now are a good idea if a seller can sell an asset and dispose of a major debt, if a bank or lender can dispose of an asset quickly for adequate value that it doesn't want to own and try to resell itself, or if a buyer can purchase a major capital asset -- such as a house -- for less than it ordinarily would cost because of an oversized mortgage.

Theoretically, this makes sense and all parties to the deal could economically benefit from a short sale. But this theory quickly gets complex and challenging.

-IndyStar.com

Where In The U.S. Homes Are Most Affordable

Those looking for a reasonably priced home might head north. It's cold up there, but the deals are hot. Binghamton, N.Y., Syracuse, N.Y., Buffalo, N.Y., and Rochester, N.Y., lead our list of affordable housing markets; 89.4%, 87.8%, 84.1% and 80.6% of homes sold in the last quarter, respectively, were available to each city's median-earning family.

The national average is 62.4%. In New York City, the least affordable market, only 14% of homes are available to median earners.

-Forbes.com