The Boston Globe    The reason foreclosures will continue  A
YEAR ago, 49 states and the federal government brought five of
the country’s biggest banks to heel. They crafted a nationwide
foreclosure settlement that ended a series of abuses, and
committed the banks to keeping struggling homeowners off the
streets. The settlement is working. But as it takes hold, it’s
exposing a huge rift in the housing market. The government’s own
mortgage arms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, still won’t meet the
same standards the big banks have committed to, and until they
do, foreclosures will continue to drag on.  Prior to last year’s
settlement, the nation’s biggest banks greeted the foreclosure
crisis with indifference. They paid lip service to the notion of
helping troubled homeowners, but let homeowner assistance
languish while they rushed foreclosures through the system. They
signed legal papers they hadn’t read, and they seized homes they
didn’t legally own. They treated their own rights as lenders as
sacrosanct, but tr