A LOT MORE FORECLOSURES!

(Newser) - Developers worried about the health of the commercial real estate market want a piece of the bailout action, the Wall Street Journal reports. They say $530 billion in commercial mortgages will be up for refinancing in the next 3 years, but credit “simply is not available.” Without government help, trade groups predict a surge in bankruptcies and foreclosures. More »

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke says more must be done to halt record US home-foreclosure rates, the New York Times reports. The Federal Reserve chief suggested several options today, including the government buying bad mortgages en masse and refinancing them through a government-insured program, and strengthening a scheme aimed at lowering homeowners’ monthly payments. More »

(Newser) - Saving people's homes from bank foreclosures will be a priority of his economic crisis plan, President-elect Obama said in an interview airing tonight on 60 Minutes. "We've got to set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes. That is going to have an impact on the economy as a whole," Obama said in comments obtained early by the New York Daily News .   More »

(Newser) - JPMorgan Chase will help distressed homeowners by reducing interest rates or principal balances for $110 billion in mortgages, Bloomberg reports. The restructuring applies to clients of Washington Mutual, which JPMorgan agreed to buy last month. Foreclosures will be suspended on all loans for the next 90 days while the relief efforts are implemented. More »

(Newser) - Mainstream media—aka the Democrats’ “public relations machine”—have fed Americans a “big fat lie” by ignoring the fact that this economic mess can be traced directly to Democratic policies, writes Orson Scott Card in Meridian. The crisis is “not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration," says Card. In fact, it was Democrats such as Chris Dodd and Barney Frank who pushed to loosen lending rules in the 1990s and ignored warnings. More »

(Newser) - What can $1.75 buy these days? A home in Saginaw, Mich., apparently. A college student surfing for PlayStations on eBay was the eighth and highest bidder on the condemned house, reports the Chicago Sun-Times . Joanne Smith doesn’t plan on making the 300-mile move from Chicago; after paying an additional $850 in taxes and cleanup costs, she says she plans to sell when the market perks up. More »

(Newser) - Many of the million Americans who lost their homes through foreclosure in the last couple of years may discover at the polls that they've lost their right to vote in the upcoming election as well, the New York Times reports. Election officials and voter rights groups fear that failure to update addresses will disqualify thousands. Democrats charge that Republicans plan to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters in swing states. More »