MORTGAGE

The Federal Reserve on Monday published new rules aimed at protecting consumers from abusive mortgage practices, including clearer cost disclosures and a ban on payments to mortgage brokers for steering borrowers into loans with higher interest rates.

Home loan rates set new lows in the latest week on more evidence of a soft U.S. economy and high unemployment, home funding company Freddie Mac said on Thursday.

More Americans fell into foreclosure in July as a sour job market kept them from making payments, and banks took over homes at a near record pace.

The Obama administration on Wednesday nearly doubled to $4.1 billion the size of its foreclosure prevention program to help struggling homeowners hardest hit by falling home prices and rising unemployment.

Unemployed homeowners in 17 U.S. states and the District of Columbia will soon be eligible for government help to avert foreclosure under a $2 billion program announced on Wednesday.

Home loan demand climbed last week but record low mortgage rates failed to light a fire in a market constrained by unemployment and tight lending practices.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday said it would begin funneling proceeds from its maturing mortgage bonds into longer-term government debt in an effort to support a sputtering economic recovery.

A smaller percentage of U.S. homeowners were saddled with underwater mortgages in the second quarter as more homes entered the foreclosure process even as price declines slowed, real estate website Zillow.com said on Monday.

Mortgage rates fell in the past week to the latest in a series of record lows amid concerns about the state of the economy, according to a survey released on Thursday by Freddie Mac.

As many as 50,000 struggling homeowners in five U.S. states with high unemployment may receive help from a special $600 million federal fund intended to head off foreclosures.

The demand for mortgage applications to purchase homes rose last week for a third straight week as interest rates tumbled

The demand for U.S. mortgage applications to purchase homes rose last week for a third straight week as interest rates tumbled

UBS AG said on Sunday it plans to hire executives from Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bank of America Corp to build its mortgages and lending business in the U.S.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc will sell a $788.5 million commercial mortgage-backed security, according to a term sheet sent to investors, in the largest deal of its kind since volume began crawling back after the financial crisis.

Mortgage loan originators will have to be fingerprinted and sign up to a central registry to do business in future, according to final rules issued on Wednesday by the Federal Reserve and other regulators.

U.S. home loan demand cooled last week as rising mortgage rates curbed refinancing requests that had soared to a 14-month high, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

U.S. home loan demand cooled last week as rising mortgage rates curbed refinancing requests that had soared to a 14-month high, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

U.S. 30- and 15-year mortgage rates fell to fresh lows in the past week amid concerns about the economy, according to a survey released on Thursday by Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. mortgage finance company.

U.S. mortgage applications jumped last week as demand for loans to purchase homes rose for the first time in five weeks, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

Bank of America Corp modified U.S. mortgages at a slower rate in June under the government's primary program to stem foreclosures, due to changing program requirements, the company said on Tuesday.

Banks repossessed a record number of U.S. homes in the second quarter, but slowed new foreclosure notices to manage distressed properties on the market, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.