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Homeowners who are facing foreclosure because of second mortgages on their homes received a piece of good news from the Obama Administration on Tuesday.  Financial institutions will receive subsidies from the federal government out of the Troubled Assets Relief Program fund to modify the terms of second mortgages.

About half of all at-risk borrowers have second mortgages.  The previous mortgage modification program paid lenders to reduce rates on primary mortgages, but did not address second mortgages.  These second mortgages can make staying current on payments difficult, even when homeowners received assistance under the previous foreclosure alternative program.

Breaking Story:

Trading in Lender Processing Services Inc.'s stock was halted today around 10:30 AM EST after it came out that the Department of Justice had launched an investigation into the company's mortgage reporting systems.  The stock lost a quarter of its value, with prices dropping by over $9 at the time trading stopped.

Apparently, the DOJ is concerned that the company's automated mortgage reporting system may be passing on erroneous evidence to attorneys who rely on the service for evidence in court proceedings.

The company's stock had been doing relatively well, and had more or less recovered from an October low.  The shares started the day at $33.33. 

Then the news of the investigation broke, and prices fell through the floor.  At one point in the morning's trading, the company's shares had fallen to $20.81.  Trading ended with the shares at $23.56.

Check back for updates on this story as they come in.

It's a question for the ages: What's in a name?  Well, in the real estate industry, it turns out that sometimes a name contains a heaping portion of irony.

General Growth Properties, Inc. - the nation's second-largest shopping mall owner - has filed the largest real estate bankruptcy in US history after racking up $27 billion in debt to finance its meteoric . . . growth.