Home foreclosures

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- From the top of the nine-story City Hall that opened last year in North Las Vegas, the neon lights and redevelopment on the Las Vegas Strip show the economy of Sin City recovering just five miles away.

North Las Vegas, the fastest-growing large city in the U.S. just five years ago, hasn't shared in the bounty. Nevada's third-largest city, whose population more than doubled to 217,482 in 2010 from 1999, is on the verge of insolvency. Facing a $33 million budget gap, elected leaders last week declared a state of emergency and gave the city manager unprecedented powers to suspend union contracts.

OGDEN — Sometimes one happy ending can resolve two sad stories at once. That was the case Thursday when Matt and Joanne Townsend adopted a 2-year-old Shih Tzu they named Buster.

LAS VEGAS -- The Ballard house was as unassuming as any in the stucco outskirts of Las Vegas: a two-story box the color of an oatmeal cookie. Police charged inside one night searching for a domestic violence suspect. Instead, they smelled something skunky.

Marijuana. Lots of it.

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah attorney has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Bank of America and its subsidiaries for allegedly executing tens of thousands of illegal foreclosures statewide.

SAN DIEGO -- Empty homes, for-sale signs and the term "short sale" have become commonplace in this military town since the collapse of the real estate market. The foreclosure crisis has hit Southern California hard, profoundly affecting the region's military families.

Foreclosures rose 32 percent in ZIP codes near military towns over the last three years, from 2008 to 2010, compared with 23 percent nationwide, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac in Irvine, Calif.

Eight Southern California cities ranked among the top 20 towns near military bases with the nation's highest foreclosure rates in 2010, according to RealtyTrac. Half of those -- Murrieta, San Diego, Oceanside and Fallbrook -- are by Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps base.

NEW YORK  -- The bleakest year in foreclosure crisis has only just begun.

Lenders are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the U.S. housing meltdown began in 2006. About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and more will miss payments as they struggle with job losses and loans worth more than their home's value, industry analysts forecast.