Foreclosure freezes end - but there are lingering after-effects

It seems the whole country has been in an uproar the last two weeks, either in favor of or against the foreclosure freezes at a number of the nation's largest banks. But now that the banks are beginning to lift the freezes, there's been comparative quiet. And that's odd, because there are a number of lingering effects of the foreclosure freeze that will not benefit anyone -- not buyers, and not the banks themselves.

The freezes, which varied by bank in terns of what foreclosure activity was frozen and in which states, had been instituted by Bank of America, GMAC Mortgage (a division of Ally Financial) and JPMorganChase -- which, combined, service 23 million mortgages with $3.68 million in unpaid principal balances -- in response to employees' testimony that tens of thousands of foreclosure documents had been signed without ever being read, and other alleged improprieties in foreclosure document processing.