The housing market is still trying to recover its grounding. This is why lawmakers and lenders alike are pulling back on foreclosures and doing all they can to keep the people in their homes. This is why government partly-owned Ally Financial Inc. has put a stop to foreclosure-related evictions in 23 states.

A September 17 memo, stamped “Urgent”, was recently released by Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage and cascaded to preferred agents. Ally Financial spokesman James Olecki confirmed what the memo contained.

The memo stated that corrective actions may be taken against foreclosures in affected states such as New York, Connecticut, and Florida. It also told brokers to immediately halt not only evictions but also cash- for-key transactions and lockouts. The memo was addressed to GMAC preferred agents.

Sales of properties that were already repossessed will be suspended by GMAC Mortgage. Brokers were given instructions to notify buyers of the 30-day extension of closing dates. Agreement to purchase can be cancelled by the buyers within that period and they will get their deposit back as well.

U.S. home repossession numbers has skyrocketed. With August figures showing a 25% increase to 95,364 from last year. The figures came from Irvine, California-based data provider RealtyTrac. This is why there’s a lockdown on foreclosures as of late.

Formerly known as GMAC Inc., Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc. is an auto and home lender and is 56.3% owned by the U.S. government post-taxpayer bailouts amounting to more than $17 billion. With $26 billion of mortgages, Ally Financial Inc. placed fourth among U.S. home-loan originators in the first six months of this year. It is preceded by other big names Wells Fargo & Co. (at first with $160 billion) and Citigroup Inc. (at second with $25 billion).

The list of the 23 states will soon be released.