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Better U.S. housing market makes it easier to trade up

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 »

Homeowners, Wells Fargo head to trial over mortgage fees

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 »

Pershing Square sues U.S. over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

(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 »

U.S. mortgage collectors gag homeowners in loan deals

(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 »

Canny Australians build a bulwark out of housing debt

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 »

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Housing industry asks $5 trillion question: what does Watt want?

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 »

Summer livin’ is easy, but doesn’t come cheap anymore

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 »

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Courts will decide on Fannie, Freddie shareholders: U.S. lawmaker

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 »

U.S. mortgage applications slip in latest week: MBA

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 »

Fannie Mae profits push taxpayers into black on housing bailout

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 »

U.S. consumer officials seek input on improving mortgage data

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 »

Housing starts jump to near six-year high in November

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 »

Factory activity gauge rises to two and a half year high

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 »

U.S. jobs picture improving, manufacturing may be slowing

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 »

U.S. housing permits breach 1 million mark, home prices surge

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 »

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Insight: A new wave of U.S. mortgage trouble threatens

(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 »

U.S. FHA to tap $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds

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 »

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Multifamily homes restrain U.S. housing starts, permits in August

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 »

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New U.S. rules to cut mortgage risk, improve underwriting practices

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 »

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Obama says wants to pass housing reform measures this year

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 »

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Obama touts mortgage finance plan, highlights private sector role

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 »

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Obama returns to Arizona to tout broad U.S. housing recovery

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 »

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Obama to back mortgage finance reform to speed housing recovery

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 »

Home prices accelerate by most in seven years

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 »

Foreclosure activity at six-year low in April: RealtyTrac

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 »

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Obama administration says housing agency needs $943 million

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 »

U.S. takes steps to ease burden on struggling homeowners

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 »

Analysis: Jumbo mortgages are back, but at far from 2007 levels

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 »

Fed missed warning signs in 2007 as crisis gained steam

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 »