FREDDIE MAC

U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday will open a debate that has stymied them for at least a decade: the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant housing finance agencies nearly felled by the credit crisis.

Freddie Mac this week is offering to buy back from investors up to $30 billion principal amount of its debt to reduce its effective short-term debt, the second-largest U.S. home funding provider said on Monday.

One of eight U.S. households with a mortgage ended the first quarter late on loan payments or in the foreclosure process in a crisis that will persist for at least another year until unemployment peaks, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

Freddie Mac (FRE.P) (FRE.N), the second-largest U.S. home funding company, on Thursday said its mortgage investment portfolio shrank by an annualized 50.9 percent rate in April, while delinquencies on loans it guarantees accelerated.

Freddie Mac said its sale of $3 billion of bills on Tuesday brought mixed rates and drew stronger demand compared with the most recent sales of the same maturities.

Freddie Mac, one of the largest providers of funding for U.S. housing, is set to break ground on its first bond backed by commercial mortgages, a source familiar with the offering said on Friday.

Freddie Mac investors have filed expanded court claims accusing the mortgage finance company and three former executives of committing fraud by misleading them about risky loan practices and manipulating financial results.

U.S. mortgage rates fell in the latest week, trekking closer to a record low set last month. Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.82 percent for the week ending May 21, down from the previous week's 4.86 percent, according to a survey released on Thursday by home funding company Freddie Mac.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday said that a bailout for banks was steadying the financial system but care must be taken to ensure that normal market forces are allowed to operate.

The market did some strange things today. Those who follow it (and maybe trade it), will tell you it went up. The catalyst: communists lose some Indian political leverage, which will usher American style... socialism... in India, and homebuilders apparently are building homes again. The first item is open to discussion (mostly by political pundits), however to assume that the Indian market can sho...

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp chairman Sheila Bair said some U.S. bank chief executives will be replaced in the next couple of months as regulators assess lenders' financial strength, Bloomberg News said on Friday, citing a television interview to be broadcast this weekend.

If Federal Reserve officials think U.S. homeowners are having a tough time selling into a depressed market, just wait until they try to offload the mother of all jumbo mortgages: a $366 billion portfolio of real estate bonds that continues to grow.

Freddie Mac, after battling plummeting home prices and a shaky economy, is seeking a $6.1 billion investment from the U.S. Treasury after reporting a first quarter losses.

Fannie Mae , the largest provider of U.S. home mortgage funding, said on Friday it needs more capital from the U.S. Treasury after a $23.2 billion loss in the first quarter and warned government housing programs would cut deeper into its profitability.

Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose 0.06 percentage point in the latest week, according to a survey released on Thursday by home funding company Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac, the U.S. mortgage finance giant, on Thursday said it paid $1.3 million in retention bonuses to three executives in late 2008 and so far this year, including a full payout of the award promised to its acting chief financial officer before his shocking death, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Freddie Mac (FRE.P) (FRE.N), the second-largest U.S. home funding company, on Friday said its mortgage investment portfolio grew by an annualized 65.8 percent rate in March, while delinquencies on loans it guarantees accelerated.

U.S. mortgage rates fell in the latest week, nudging closer to a recent record low, helped by government efforts to bring rates down to levels that will spur demand and help the hard-hit housing market begin to recover.

Police are investigating the death of Freddie Mac official after he was found dead in his house on Wednesday morning in an apparent suicide.

The finance chief of troubled U.S. mortgage giant Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, was found dead on Wednesday after apparently committing suicide, a police source said.

U.S. single family homes saw a seasonally adjusted price increase of 0.7 percent in February from January, the amount however remains down 6.5 percent from a year earlier, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Wednesday.