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Housing: Foreclosure halted, but no one told the owner

North County Times--Countrywide Financial, one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, stopped foreclosure proceedings last year in hopes of modifying the loan for a small Escondido condominium after a national settlement with several states' attorneys general.

On the surface, it sounds like a success story in the wake of massive, multibillion-dollar efforts to stem foreclosures.

But there's one problem: The condo has been vacant for eight months.

Instead of success, this condo illustrates the difficulties lenders face in keeping track of thousands upon thousands of foreclosures and the frustration many borrowers experience when they try to save their homes.

...So again, Coronado's case represents the most common case, not the rarest, said Norm Miller, a professor with University of San Diego's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate.

"She's in no man's land, it sounds like," Miller said. "And that describes the market: Lenders say they're going to foreclose, and then stop and wait to see what the federal government does next." (Full Story)