MORTGAGE

I'm not normally much for big predictions, but this one is a no-brainer: The U.S. dollar is going to skyrocket sometime in 2010, which is huge news for your portfolio...

U.S. mortgage applications nudged higher last week, marking a third straight weekly rise, driven by a slight uptick in demand for home refinancing loans, an industry group reported on Wednesday.

U.S. home buyers are less willing to buy foreclosed properties than they were six months ago, citing risks like hidden costs, but demand could grow because of the government's expanded tax credit, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Insurer Genworth Financial Inc, battered by losses from the downturn in the U.S. housing market, said its U.S. mortgage insurance business will not turn an operating profit until mid-2011.

In a win for the banking industry, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to reject a measure that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to change the terms of mortgages for distressed homeowners.

Less than 5 percent of homeowners whose mortgage payments were cut under an Obama administration aid plan have received a permanent reduction, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

U.S. fixed home loan rates edged above record lows in the past week, tracking bond yields higher following surprise improvement in November employment, home funding company Freddie Mac (FRE.N)(FRE.P) said on Thursday.

Mortgage activity rose last week to the highest level in about two months, mainly from borrowers locking in low mortgage rates by refinancing, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

U.S. foreclosure activity fell in November for the fourth month running, but improvement from July's record high came from loan modification programs that may fail to permanently remedy many failing mortgages, real estate data company RealyTrac said on Thursday.

U.S. wholesalers started restocking in October for the first time in more than a year, suggesting the economy could get a lift as a long-running effort by businesses to pare inventories reaches an end.

U.S. wholesalers started restocking in October for the first time in more than a year, suggesting the economy could get a lift as a long-running effort by businesses to pare inventories reaches an end.

The U.S. Justice Department sought to assure lawmakers on Wednesday that prosecutors are rooting out mortgage and corporate fraud after Wall Street's meltdown wiped out trillions of dollars in investments and laid bare the gaps in regulation.

The recovery of many U.S. low income areas remains stymied as lenders decide completing some foreclosures simply isn't worth the cost, casting many properties into legal limbo, Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke said on Wednesday.

The sudden fall of Lend America, a nationwide vendor of government-backed home loans, is leaving many borrowers with deep regrets.

A senior Treasury Department official defended the government's much-criticized mortgage modification program and said it will help millions of homeowners in the next few years.

More than one-quarter of homeowners receiving help under a U.S. government foreclosure prevention plan are behind on their new mortgage payments, a Treasury Department survey has found.

Real estate investment trust HRPT Properties Trust (HRP.N) said it closed a new mortgage financing for $175 million, secured by one of its Philadelphia properties.

Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 4.79 percent on Friday after hitting a record low of 4.52 percent earlier in the week, according to real estate website Zillow.com.

U.S. mortgage insurers are likely to reject as much as $4 billion in claims by lenders over the next few years as they get more aggressive in pushing responsibility for bad loans to originators, Moody's Investors Service said in a report.

U.S. mortgage rates dropped to a record low in the latest week, as rates fell for a fifth straight week, a closely watched mortgage survey showed Thursday.

The meltdown of the U.S. housing market is not over yet, and home prices will soon start trekking downward again as a flood of foreclosures looms, a well-known economist said on Wednesday. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said in an interview with Reuters home prices will resume their decline by early next year as foreclosure sales pick up again.