FREDDIE MAC

U.S. government-controlled mortgage finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are working on a program to help independent mortgage banks get access to short-term credit needed to make home loans, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The average rate on 30-year U.S. home loans fell in the past week to retest record lows, helping stimulate housing demand, Freddie Mac said on Thursday.

Freddie Mac said on Wednesday it plans to sell about $1 billion of multifamily mortgage-backed securities next week and expects new issues at least quarterly.

U.S. mortgage rates held at their lowest level since late May in the latest week, low enough to continue to spur home loan demand and help the hard-hit U.S. housing market recover.

The Obama administration is expected to announce a program this week to aid low- and moderate-income U.S. housing markets by funding state housing agencies, officials said.

The U.S. Treasury plans to kick off a fresh $15 billion liquidity and mortgage bond purchase program to assist state finance agencies providing mortgages to low-income borrowers, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The chief financial officer of government-controlled mortgage finance company, Freddie Mac's, will start his new job with annual pay of up to $3.5 million and a nearly $2 million signing bonus, the company said in a regulatory filing late Thursday.

The New York Federal Reserve said on Friday it bought $1.970 billion of U.S. agency debt with maturities ranging from April 2016 to March 2019.

U.S. mortgage rates held at their lowest level since late May in the latest week, low enough to continue to spur home loan demand and help the hard-hit U.S. housing market recover.

U.S. single-family home prices rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in July from June but were 4.2 percent lower than a year earlier and 10.5 percent below their April 2007 peak, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Tuesday.

Investors in U.S. mortgage bonds backed by the Federal Housing Administration own one of the safest bets on Wall Street, yet mounting defaults on the underlying collateral are seen posing risks.

The Federal Reserve bought $25.45 billion net of agency mortgage-backed securities in the latest week, the New York Fed said on its website on Thursday.

Tepid demand for mortgage refinancing slowed the early repayment of most U.S. bonds backed by home loans in August, with the spring rush having run its course and unlikely to resume without new record low mortgage rates.

U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday as investors focused on the bright side of a mixed payrolls report that showed smaller-than-expected job cuts in August, although the unemployment rate hit a 26-year high.

Stocks climbed on Friday as investors focused on the bright side of a mixed payrolls report that showed smaller-than-expected job cuts in August but also an unemployment rate that hit a 26-year high.

The U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association will call on Congress to transform U.S. government-controlled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac into several smaller privately held companies that would issue mortgage securities with a government guarantee, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday it will ask Congress to transform mortgage lenders Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac into several smaller, privately held companies that would issue mortgage securities with a government guarantee.

Shares of Citigroup Inc fell as much as 7.5 percent on Monday amid a broad slide in financial stocks, after rallying over the last week.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials are thinking carefully about tapering off their purchases of mortgage debt to push the $1.45 trillion program into next year rather than end it on Dec. 31 as planned.

Low interest rates and tax breaks are giving the U.S. housing sector a jolt but, like the

The New York Federal Reserve said on Friday it bought $1.945 billion of U.S. agency debt with maturities ranging from March 2016 to July 2032.