Mortgage Foreclosure & Refinance Resource

Lehman Brothers gross fourth-quarter writedown was $3.5 billion. Residential mortgages and related assets accounted for $2.2 billion of that figure, and the rest came from commercial mortgages. According to analysts Lehman, avoided larger losses they predict for Wall Street rivals Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos. will report next week.In related news:

• ForeclosureRadar today issued today its California Foreclosure Report which showed a total of 12,282 properties with a loan value of $4.91 Billion dollars sold at auction in November. In addition to a review of foreclosure stats and county rankings, the California Foreclosure Report notes a significant rise in lender discounts at the foreclosure auctions.
• Ohio, which has one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates, the attorney general has asked state judges to dismiss or delay some foreclosure actions. The proposed dismissals are meant to encourage mortgage companies to renegotiate terms of the loans, to keep borrowers in their homes. At the end of the third quarter, 3.7% of home loans in Ohio were in foreclosure, up from 3.6% in the second quarter.