Real Estate News – April 14, 2012

Homeowner wins American flag battle against HOA (via actionnewsjax.com): http://bit.ly/IFrXVQ

In Lucky Housing Markets, Bidding Wars Are Back (via BusinessWeek.com): http://buswk.co/HPyWap

Turning Foreclosed Homes Into Rentals Could Be $100 Billion Industry This Year (via HuffingtonPost.com): http://huff.to/ILOeT0

Foreclosures Recede to 2007 Levels (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/Iz3A9J

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure might get help by having the amount they owe reduced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (via NPR.org): http://n.pr/HvUBFp

Here’s a sign of just how big and messy the foreclosure problem is: Bank of America has sued itself at least nine times in the month of April (via Forbes.com): http://onforb.es/HHsPJt

Bank of America announced it is refining its short sale process to streamline its approval process and reduce the wait in accepting offers and making it to closing. The changes are expected to trim the bank’s decision time in half — from 45 days or longer to 20 days (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/HBtNaf

Financial regulators are planning broad new oversight of the mortgage servicing business in an effort to prevent some of the problems that led to the housing boom and bust (via dealbook.nytimes.com): http://nyti.ms/HxvY0k

Twin Cities housing market heating up (via minnesota.publicradio.com): http://bit.ly/HrIvBX