A look at stories across HousingWire’s weekend desk … with more coverage to come on bigger issues: In his weekly address, President Obama said the coming financial reform will defend the interests of the middle class, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will guard against unfair practices in mortgages and foreclosures. He said one goal of the reform package is to “rein in secret deals and reckless gambling that nearly brought down the financial system.” “We’re also seeing the reverberations of this crisis with the rise in foreclosures,” President Obama said. “And recently, we’ve seen problems in foreclosure proceedings – mistakes that have led to disruptions in the housing markets. This is only one more piece of evidence as to why Wall Street Reform is so necessary.” No fewer than seven banks closed last week, pushing the number of failed banks this year to 139 just one less than the 140 for all of 2009. Two banks in Florida failed, two others in neighboring Georgia went under, as well. Arizona, Illinois and Kansas each had one bank close last week, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The shuttered banks include: First Bank of Jacksonville; Progress Bank of Florida in Tampa; The Gordon Bank of Gordon, Ga.; First Suburban National Bank of Maywood, Ill.; Hillcrest Bank in Overland Park, Kan.; and First Arizona Savings Bank in Scottsdale, Ariz. Hillcrest Bank was the largest with $1.65 billion of assets on June 30 and $1.54 billion of deposits. The Gordon Bank was the smallest of the financial institutions shuttered last week with assets of $29.4 million and deposits of $26.7 million on June 30. The FDIC found other banks to assume all the deposits and most of the assets of the failed banks. The regulator estimates total costs of about $585.3 million to its deposit insurance fund from the  seven banks closing with $329.7 million attributable to Hillcrest. More than 10% of all FDIC-insured financial institutions are now on the regulator’s problem bank list. Last week, the board of the FDIC voted to propose a long-term management plan for the deposit insurance fund, which provides monetary insurance to banks in the event of failure. Some of the changes are outlined in the financial reform President Obama extolled in his address. The FDIC is also preparing to offer $500 million of commercial mortgage-backed securities with assets bundled from failed banks. The National Association of Realtors reports September existing home sales Monday morning and analysts expect the figure to climb to about 4.3 million from 4.13 million a month earlier, according to Econoday. But sales are still well below year-ago levels and slowly moving away from 3.83 million in July, which is the lowest level seen since NAR began publishing its report in 1999. Meanwhile, new home sales for September come Wednesday morning. Analysts predict an increase from the month earlier to between 295,000 an 315,000, according to Econoday. Wells Fargo (WFC) continues rebranding Wachovia banks and did so in Georgia over the weekend. Wells Fargo closed its acquisition of Wachovia in late 2008 and set off on a nationwide rebranding soon thereafter. The bank said Georgia is the last state to convert this year and conversions will continue in eastern states in 2011, ending with North Carolina next fall. Write to Jason Philyaw.