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Bair's testimony shows that the Fed knew what was going on; knew that the loans were garbage, knew that people were being victimized, knew that eventually the bubble would burst and the economy would nosedive.
Plunging home prices have exacerbated matters by leaving some FHA borrowers unable to sell or refinance their homes because they owe more than their homes are worth.
15 months after Fannie and Freddie were effectively nationalized, neither the Obama administration nor Congress see how to fix the twin mortgage giants without choking the flow of credit to homeowners and dealing a blow to a fragile housing market.
Take a look at the Obama housing stimulus in action during the summer and fall of 2009.
A record 2.8 million households were threatened with foreclosure last year, and that number is expected to rise this year as more unemployed and cash-strapped homeowners fall behind on their mortgages.
Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in seven months in November, data showed on Wednesday, dealing a blow to the housing market's recovery.
In the fine print of the form homeowners fill out to apply for Obama's program borrowers must waive important notification rights which allows banks to move straight to auctioning off their homes without any warning. [nice]
Mortgage rates in the US have dropped to their lowest levels since the 1940s, thanks to a trillion-dollar intervention by the federal government. Yet the banks are imposing such stringent requirements that many homeowners are effectively locked out.
The government's foreclosure relief program is sputtering, according to government data released Thursday showing that the pace of help being offered to struggling homeowners slowed last month and many borrowers are at risk of losing the aid they hav
Like many home owners, hotels are starting to drown in debt. They have been enticing travelers all year with sweet deals: credits for in-house spas and restaurants, up to 50 percent off five-star rooms, even free nights. But all that discountin
... how a woman who had never paid more than $700 a month in rent and who had relied in recent years on Section 8 housing vouchers suddenly owned a house. A four-bedroom house with 3 1/2 bathrooms, walk-in closets, black granite countertops and a fir
Average rates for 30-year fixed mortgages fell this week, matching a record low set last spring and more than a full percentage point below what they were a year ago, Freddie Mac said Wednesday. Rates for 30-year mortgages averaged 4.78 percent th
Sales of new homes rose last month to the highest level in more than a year as strong activity in the South offset weakness in the rest of the country. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that sales rose 6.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual
The proportion of U.S. homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the properties are worth has swelled to about 23%, threatening prospects for a sustained housing recovery. Nearly 10.7 million households had negative equity in their homes in
The last three years have seen a significant drop in the cost of housing in the United States, bringing prices back down from once astronomical levels.
He says his office has gotten a green light to hire 3 attorneys to work exclusively on mortgage-fraud cases and that Washington officials recognize that Arizona has become a hub of white-collar schemes. "The Department of Justice criminal division ha
A rising proportion of fixed-rate home loans made to people with good credit are sinking into foreclosure, adding to concerns about the strength of the economic recovery.
Builders curtailed construction of new homes sharply in October, according to a government report released this morning. The pace of new residential construction fell unexpectedly by 10.6% to a seasonally adjusted 529,000 annual rate compared with
The pace at which people fell behind on their mortgages slowed during the summer for the third consecutive quarter, but the overall delinquency rate hit another record. For the 3 months ended Sept. 30, 6.25% of U.S. mortgage loans were 60 or more d
The Federal Housing Administration's cash reserves have shrunk far below what is required by law, and could need taxpayer funding if worst-case scenarios play out, according to an audit measuring the agency's financial soundness.
Fannie Mae said it would be offering one-year leases to people who sign over their homes as a deed in lieu of foreclosure. Voluntarily surrendering homes instead of having the lender repossess them doesn't wallop the borrowers' credit as much.
Thousands of borrowers on the verge of foreclosure will soon have the option of renting their homes from Fannie Mae, under a policy announced Thursday. The government-controlled company, through its new "Deed for Lease" program, will allow borrowe
Goldman Sachs Group got into the residential mortgage business in 1984, and for 17 years, it ran a staid operation that simply bought and sold loans. All that changed in 2001, when the elite investment bank leaped aggressively into the burgeoning
Why didn't Wall Street firms tell potential investors the bonds they were selling them were rotten? Why did their partners ignore glaring evidence that borrowers weren't qualified and give loans to anyone with a heartbeat? Because they could.
In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of tho
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities climbed 1 percent from July to a seasonally adjusted reading of 144.5. While prices are down 11.4 percent from August a year ago, the annual declines have slowed since February.
In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded. After five hours of calling out a drumbeat of "no bid" for properties listed in an auction book
Judge Robert D. Drain wiped out a $461,263 mortgage debt on the property. That’s right: the mortgage debt disappeared, via a court order.
And the happy spin the NAR put on this morning's housing numbers was a joke.
A $29 billion trail from the Federal Reserve's bailout of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns ends in a partially deserted shopping center on a bleak spot on the south side of Oklahoma City. The Fed now owns the Crossroads Mall, a sprawling shop
