Lenders abandoning housing collateral

I read this story this AM [in The New York Times] and thought NewsLanc viewers might find it interesting. A development in the residential mortgage market.

"City officials and housing advocates here and in cities as varied as Buffalo, Kansas City, Mo., and Jacksonville, Fla., say they are seeing an unsettling development: Banks are quietly declining to take possession of properties at the end of the foreclosure process, most often because the cost of the ordeal — from legal fees to maintenance — exceeds the diminishing value of the real estate."