>Just saw this in a news article:
>
>"A bank foreclosed on the home, put it up for auction and bought it back."
>
>How does that work? Didn't the bank already own the home after the forclosure?

Not sure how mortgages work over there but here the "term" repossession here is a misnomen; the bank never possessed the property in order to re-possess. Again, not sure your side but there is a common misconception that the bank "owns" the property till the resident pays off the loan. Here, the resident owns the prop. and the bank just provided the loan for the purchase.

So, if the bank foreclosed, presumably the resident just threw up his hands and said "Here's the keys", and the bank "possessed" it. It is the bank's duty to get a fair price for it to recoup its losses, so buying the prop may be a good investment for when it later sells it at a higher price.

Clear as mud?