Banks Walking Away from Foreclosures?

I have been reading lately some of the latest news on the housing market and something I read suprised me! Banks are actually walking away and not foreclosing on some homes in certain areas. Areas like Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo to name a few. Homeowners have been told by banks that they still have title to the home after they have been evicted by the bank. Interesting way to pressure them into making the payments, evict them then tell them they are not selling the property at the auction! I would imagine in most of these cases the properties are in such bad shape and the mortgages are so far under water that the banks don't want to take that large of a loss, so they just tell the homeowner that they are not foreclosing. Maybe they are just waiting it out until things improve ?Who really knows for sure. On another note housing starts in July were 581,000, below expectations of 599,000. Building Permits rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 lower than the 577,000 expected. Housing Starts and Permits came in both slightly below expectations, and snapped the recent three month string of better than expected numbers. Still, housing appears to be gradually stabilizing. We have a ways to go to get out of this mess still.