By Emily Peck

Bank of America suspended foreclosure sales nationwide on Friday.

The foreclosure market is stalling and confusion is rising in the wake of the recent suspensions of foreclosures by four major mortgage servicers.
On Friday, Bank of America announced it would suspend foreclosure sales in all 50 states. That follows the bank’s earlier suspension of tens of thousands of foreclosures in the states that handle foreclosures through the court system, a move also taken by GMAC Home Mortgage, Inc., a unit of Ally Financial Inc., and J.P. Mortgage Chase & Co.’s home-loan unit.
Meanwhile, several state attorneys general, as well as members of Congress, are calling for an across-the-board foreclosure moratorium to sort out alleged irregularities in foreclosure documents submitted by the banks. (More: Courts Add to Foreclosure Delay)
It’s unclear how long the foreclosure market will be stalled–but economists are warning that the delays are bad for housing. The uncertainty in the market will likely scare buyers away from foreclosed homes, which represent a big chunk of current sales.
A report released last month by RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures, found that foreclosure sales amounted to an average of 24% of all home sales during the second quarter of this year, which totaled about 248,000 homes. In Nevada, one of several western states that was battered by the housing downturn, foreclosure sales comprised 56% of all sales activity.
Meanwhile, as evidenced by some passionate comments on WSJ.com and elsewhere online, the foreclosure mess taps into some pretty deep-seated anger against banks and mortgage servicing companies–anger that’s been building since the housing market imploded years ago.  At the beginning of the crisis, people “had this deer-in-the-headlights kind of look,”  Matthew Murray, an agent with the Pat Dahne Realty Group in Florida tells Developments. “That whole look is gone now. It’s been replaced with this Ted-Bundy-crazed-look of anger. They’re not afraid anymore.”
Writes commenter Jesse Schacter on WSJ.com: “This isn’t just about paperwork errors. It’s about the banks consistent and deliberate deceit and even intimidation of struggling homeowners.”
Others think this is simply overplayed hysteria. The WSJ’s editorial page said on Saturday that the moratorium hasn’t revealed any substantive problems with the foreclosure process. It’s just a political controversy over who should be filing paperwork. The piece states:

A consumer borrows money to buy a house, doesn’t make the mortgage payments, and then loses the house in foreclosure—only to learn that the wrong guy at the bank signed the foreclosure paperwork. Can you imagine? The affidavit was supposed to be signed by the nameless, faceless employee in the back office who reviewed the file, not the other nameless, faceless employee who sits in the front.

Readers, what do you make over the foreclosure suspensions? Is this much-ado about paperwork or does it reveal deeper problems with the foreclosure process?