WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could require more bailouts from U.S. taxpayers as risks are rising due to shrinking reserves, an internal watchdog for the firms’ regulator said on Wednesday. Washington bailed o... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top U.S. Republican lawmaker will revisit a plan to reduce government involvement in the country’s housing finance system, and expects Senate colleagues to be receptive to potential changes, according to an interview aired on C-SPAN on... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Joe and Debbie Valerio, a couple in their 60s, put their Westport, Connecticut, home of more than 20 years on the market because it was getting too big for them. When they found a nearby condo they loved, they pounced. That set off a chain... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co, (WFC.N ) the largest U.S. mortgage lender, is set to go to trial on Monday as homeowners seek to recoup about $629 million for alleged overcharges by a company once owned by Wachovia Corp. Jury selection is scheduled to b... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Companies that service U.S. student loans and mortgages tricked customers into paying higher fees or engaged in other acts that violate U.S. consumer laws, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a report released on Tuesda... More »
(Reuters) – Pershing Square Capital Management LP, the hedge fund firm run by William Ackman, has sued the U.S. government, claiming that its stripping of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s profit illegally short changes investors in the mortgage companies’ common... More »
(Reuters) – Joseph and Neidin Henard thought they had finally fixed the mortgage that was crushing them. In January, the couple reached a settlement with every company that had a stake in the mortgage on their house in Santa Cruz, California, a deal that would... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The adage “safe as houses” has been an oxymoron since the global financial crisis. But it still has a resonance for Australians who use their homes as a piggy bank, salting away money by paying down their mortgages at a breakneck pace. It’s ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. government watchdog on Wednesday warned that big banks have dramatically boosted their borrowing from a federal housing finance program, a move that could pose risks to the government-sponsored system if a big borrower defaulted. ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. housing industry has waited three months to find out how Mel Watt will govern taxpayer-owned mortgage companies Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB ) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB ), and have been frustrated by his silence. The former 11-term congre... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – James Lockhart, a former regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who is now with private equity firm WL Ross & Co, on Thursday said investors are making “worthless” bets snapping up the stock of the two mortgage finance firms. As the U.S... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank AG has failed to win the dismissal of four U.S. lawsuits seeking to force it to pay damages or buy back troubled home loans it had packaged into residential mortgage-backed securities prior to the 2008 financial crisis. The c... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – As a Brooklyn-based architect, James Schaefer works on properties with some very high-end patios – think in the $100,000 range – which, of course, gets him thinking about his own. His own scale is a little lower, about “$25,000 to get a sta... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The leaders of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s new legislative framework to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not determine whether their investors can share in the companies’ renewed profitability, the panel’s top Republican... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell, including both new purchases and refinancings, in the latest week, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fannie Mae said on Friday it would soon send the U.S. Treasury a dividend of $7.2 billion that will make taxpayers whole for the 2008 bailout of the mortgage-financing giant and its sibling company Freddie Mac. Unlike other companies res... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Authorities should stop the dramatic growth of non-bank mortgage servicers to make sure the companies can handle the business and not put homeowners at risk, New York’s financial regulator said on Wednesday. Some of the servicers may not b... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators plan to seek input on how to improve public data used to spot discriminatory lending and other possible abuses in the mortgage market, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Friday. Lenders already must report l... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s central bank looks set to risk another cash crunch at the end of January, barely a month after the last market squeeze, as policymakers press ahead with a crackdown on shadow financing and other risky bank lending. The People’s Bank... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. housing starts surged to their highest level in nearly six years in November, a sign of strength in the housing market that could give the Federal Reserve ammunition to start cutting back its bond purchases. The Commerce Department ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A gauge of U.S. factory activity hit a 2-1/2-year high in November and construction spending increased solidly in October, brightening the economic outlook as the year winds down. Monday’s reports were the latest indication the economy w... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid unexpectedly fell last week, but continued weakness in business spending on capital goods suggested slower economic growth in the fourth quarter. Initial claims for state job... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Permits for future U.S. home construction rose to their highest in nearly 5-1/2 years in October and prices for single-family homes notched big gains in September, suggesting a run-up in mortgage interest rates has not derailed the housi... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country’s biggest banks. The loans are a problem now because an increasing number a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Housing Administration said on Friday it will draw $1.7 billion in cash from the U.S. Treasury to help cover losses from troubled loans, marking the first time in its 79-year history that it has needed aid. The agency, w... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. housing starts rose less than expected in August as multi-family activity slowed sharply, but a surge in permits to build single-family homes pointed to a sustained strengthening in the housing market recovery. The Commerce Departme... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. government housing finance authorities are pressing JPMorgan Chase & Co for at least $6 billion to settle lawsuits over bonds backed by subprime mortgages, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company is arguing that it should p... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal regulators on Wednesday will unveil a reworked proposal aimed at reducing risk in the mortgage market and limiting the type of shoddy underwriting practices that fueled the housing bubble. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he would push to have a broad package of housing reform measures passed through Congress by the end of the year. Obama made his remarks during an interview with housing website Zillow. The presid... More »
PHOENIX (Reuters) – President Barack Obama called on Tuesday for broad reform of the mortgage finance system to boost the U.S. housing market, help still-struggling homeowners, and prevent one of the triggers of the 2007-2009 financial crisis from happening ag... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With vacant, half-built residential developments that gathered dust after the Great Recession, the U.S. Southwest once symbolized the 2008-2012 housing bust that wiped out $7 trillion in homeowner equity and wrecked the finances of many ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will propose overhauling the U.S. mortgage finance system in a speech on Tuesday, weighing in on a tangled and polarizing problem that was central to the devastating financial crisis in 2007-2009 and that continues... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. apartment vacancy rate was unchanged in the second quarter, the first time in two years that the vacancy rate failed to tighten, in a sign that a wave of new properties may be easing market conditions, according to real estate res... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Home prices accelerated by the most in nearly seven years in March as the spring buying season gave the sector traction, while surging consumer confidence pointed to some resilience for the economic recovery. The data on Tuesday also sugge... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Foreclosure activity fell in April to its lowest level in more than six years, the latest sign the recovery in the housing market is on track, a report from RealtyTrac showed on Thursday. Foreclosure activity – which includes default notic... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The cash-strapped Federal Housing Administration will likely require a $943 million taxpayer bailout to cover expected losses on loans it insured as the U.S. housing bubble was deflating, the Obama administration said on Wednesday. It wo... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top housing regulator said on Wednesday it will make it easier for struggling homeowners to lower monthly mortgage payments through a federal anti-foreclosure program. Under the initiative, mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Fredd... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Home sales and prices are rising briskly in those neighborhoods where the well-heeled like to plant their mailboxes: along Chicago’s north shore, in the San Francisco Bay area and in the haute Hamptons. Sales of properties worth between ... More »
NEW YORK/CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – A group of mortgage-backed securities investors says Bank of America Corp failed to buy back more than $30 billion in loans from investors after the bank modified the mortgages to reduce borrowers’ payments. The a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve felt for most of 2007 that problems in housing and banking were isolated and unlikely to tear down the U.S. economy as they ultimately did. Even as crisis signals started flashing red with the free... More »
