Jan. 3 at 10:09 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Real estate,
Updated
By Reuters
Bank of America said it agreed to pay Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $2.8 billion to settle claims that it sold the mortgage finance companies bad home loans.
Bank of America shares climbed 4.5 percent in early trading Monday. Analysts said many investors had worried the bank would have to buy back billions of dollars of home loans it sold to investors at the height of the housing boom.
“This takes away a nice headline risk” for Bank of America, said Alan Villalon, a senior bank analyst at Chicago-based Nuveen Investments. Get the full story »
Dec. 30, 2010 at 11:53 a.m.
Filed under:
Housing,
Mortgages,
Real estate,
Updated
By CNN
The era of near 4 percent mortgage rates has ended after a quick rate rise since early November. But some industry experts think that may be a good thing for the flagging housing market.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has risen to 4.86 percent from 4.17%, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage market survey. In the Bankrate.com weekly survey, the rate has risen to 5.02 percent — crossing the 5 percent mark for the second time in three weeks — after being as low as 4.42 percent as recently as early November.
Rates haven’t been this high since May and forecasters now predict them to remain between 5 percent and 6 percent for all of 2011. Get the full story »
Dec. 23, 2010 at 10:10 a.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Mortgages,
Real estate
By Associated Press
Rates on fixed mortgages dipped after rising for five weeks in a row.
Still, they remain more than a half-point higher than last month and are at the highest level since late spring. Get the full story »
Dec. 16, 2010 at 9:40 a.m.
Filed under:
Housing,
Mortgages
By Dow Jones Newswires
Mortgage rates rose in the latest week, extending their bounce off record lows they set in the fall, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey.
Rates have climbed in recent weeks after they fell through October, setting repeated lows. Yields on Treasurys have jumped sharply recently, and mortgage rates generally track the yields, which move inversely to Treasury prices. Get the full story »
Dec. 15, 2010 at 5:20 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Investing,
Mortgages
By Reuters
Bank of America Corp. is in talks with a group of six investors to settle charges that it mishandled $16.5 billion in mortgages packaged into bonds, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The investor group, which includes Freddie Mac, PIMCO, BlackRock Inc. and Allianz SE, told the bank in October that it had 60 days to respond to allegations that it did not properly service 115 bond deals comprising mortgages. The deadline for the bank’s response was Thursday, the Journal said. Get the full story »
Dec. 2, 2010 at 2:32 p.m.
Filed under:
Housing,
Mortgages
Kenneth R. Gosselin, Tribune Newspapers
After falling to jaw-dropping lows, home mortgage rates rose this week for the third week in a row, according to a new report today.
The rates on 30-year, fixed rate home loans rose to an average 4.46 percent with 0.8 point this week, up from 4.40 percent a week ago, according to the weekly survey by mortgage giant Freddie Mac. The increase comes after the 30-year, fixed-rate loan fell to a record low of 4.17 percent in early November. Get the full story »
Nov. 11, 2010 at 9:05 a.m.
Filed under:
Mortgages,
Real estate
By Associated Press
Rates on fixed mortgages dropped to their lowest levels in decades this week after the Federal Reserve unveiled a massive bond-buying program to help spur economic growth. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate for 30-year fixed loans fell to 4.17 percent from 4.24 percent last week. That’s the lowest on records dating back to 1971. Get the full story »
Nov. 10, 2010 at 8:02 a.m.
Filed under:
Books,
Media,
Real estate
By Reuters
Former President George W. Bush said Wednesday he has a “clear conscience” about recognizing the problems that led to the financial crisis and he blamed Congress for blocking attempts to address them.
Bush, who initially kept a low-profile after leaving the White House, has been doing a series of high-profile interviews to promote his newly released memoir, “Decision Points.” Get the full story »
Nov. 5, 2010 at 5:36 p.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Policy,
Politics
By Reuters
Government-controlled mortgage buyer Fannie Mae is asking for $2.5 billion in additional federal aid after posting a narrower loss in the third quarter.
Fannie Mae also said Friday it was likely that the market disarray and suspension of foreclosures due to big lenders’ problems with flawed documents will have a negative impact on the delinquency rates of its loans, its expenses and foreclosure timelines. However, the company said, “we cannot yet predict the extent of its impact.” Get the full story »
Nov. 3, 2010 at 10:17 a.m.
Filed under:
Earnings,
Housing,
Policy,
Politics,
Real estate
By Associated Press
Government-controlled mortgage buyer Freddie Mac on Wednesday posted a narrower loss of $4.1 billon in the third quarter as it asked for an additional $100 million in federal aid — substantially less than the $1.8 billion it sought in the second quarter.
Oct. 21, 2010 at 5:58 p.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Housing,
Policy,
Stock activity
By Los Angeles Times
The cost for the huge government bailouts of housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will grow — and possibly more than double to $363 billion — over the next three years.
But the taxpayer loss depends mainly on the health of the economy and the real estate market, a federal regulator said Thursday. Get the full story »
Oct. 18, 2010 at 9:48 a.m.
Filed under:
Exchanges,
Investing
By Reuters
CME Group Inc. said on Monday that it had begun clearing interest rate swaps, the largest of the over-the-counter derivatives markets that lawmakers are forcing through more transparent venues.
The giant futures exchange operator named as participants in the clearinghouse five buyside firms, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and PIMCO, and 10 dealers, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase and Co. Get the full story »
Sep. 17, 2010 at 6:59 a.m.
Filed under:
Housing,
Real estate
By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal
Two years after they were taken over by the federal government, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac face a new challenge: The mortgage-finance giants are becoming two of the nation’s largest home sellers at a time when the housing market shows new signs of softening.
Fannie and Freddie have already taken back nearly as many homes in the first half of the year as they did all of last year. They owned more than 191,000 homes at the end of June, double the year-earlier total. That number will grow because they are taking back homes faster than they sell them. Get the full story »
Sep. 9, 2010 at 9:28 a.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Mortgages
By Associated Press
Mortgage rates mostly edged up last week as investors’ fears about the economy eased.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan was 4.35 percent, up from 4.32 percent the week before. It was only the second rise in 12 weeks. Last week’s was the lowest number since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971. Get the full story »
Sep. 2, 2010 at 10:26 a.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Mortgages,
Real estate,
Updated
By Reuters
A woman fills out a form to receive more information after touring a new home for sale in St. Louis, Aug. 25, 2010. Mortgage rates continue to drop. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
U.S. mortgage rates fell in the past week to the latest in a series of record lows as yields on government debt dropped, according to a survey released on Thursday by Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. mortgage finance company.
Rock-bottom rates offer a glimmer of hope for a housing market that has failed to find footing in the aftermath of the expiration of popular home buyer tax credits.
Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, the most widely used loan, averaged 4.32 percent for the week ended September 2, down from the previous week’s 4.36 percent and its year-ago level of 5.08 percent, according to the survey. Get the full story »
