Will foreclosure freeze help or hurt US home sales?

Since 2008, banks have been foreclosing on more than 10,000 U.S. homes every day.

That's a lot of misery. But in recent weeks, three of the biggest banks - Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC/Ally Bank - have slowed or stopped foreclosing on homes whose owners fell behind on payments, after admitting bank workers have been rubber-stamping foreclosure documents without first reading them.

"How will it impact the housing markets?" veteran bank analyst Richard X. Bove asks, in a report to clients.

If the backup lasts three months, or more, "short-term, the reduction in the supply of homes coming onto the market will allow house prices to, perhaps, rise."

But "longer term, when the houses are released for sale, supply will surge, and housing prices could dip once again."

Aren't banks just trying to squeeze out-of-work borrowers and grab their homes cheap? "It is highly unlikely that the banks want to own any houses," Bove writes. Especially now, when they're so hard to sell, and grabbing them means writing off losses.