Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has roared into the lead of the Republican nominating race, brushing off concerns about his work for a troubled housing company, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
The U.S. House and Senate voted to increase the threshold of mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Adminstration (FHA) to $729,750, a move that would give more homeowners access to lower interest rates.
With Herman Cain's fall, Newt Gingrich is up to bat as the latest conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. Where does the former speaker of the House stand on the issues?
A list of compensation packages given to previous Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs during the past decade or so was released in a report produced by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.
Top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac defended their lucrative pay before a House panel on Wednesday, one day after lawmakers approved suspending top executive compensation packages and moving the firms' thousands of employees onto a pay scale that lines up with federal financial regulators.
Real estate mogul Sam Zell's Equity Residential is the lead bidder to buy 53 percent of rival company Archstone for over $2.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Newt Gingrich earned between $1.6 million and $1.8 million as a consultant for the government-sponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac, far more than the $300,000 contract he disclosed in a recent debate, according to a Bloomberg News investigation. The advice he reportedly gave them contradicts his recent criticisms of the company.
FBR Capital Markets said the broad changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) were outlined by U.S. President Barack Obama's administration on Oct. 24. However, the release of most of the technical details was delayed until Nov. 15.
The Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees around a third of U.S. mortgages, faces dwindling cash reserves and could require a taxpayer bailout, according to a forthcoming study by Joseph Gyourko, a professor at the Wharton School.
The U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate dropped slightly to 3.99 percent in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
Fannie Mae reported a $5.1 billion loss in the third quarter on Tuesday, up from a $2.9 billion loss in the second quarter of 2011, and a $3.5 billion loss in the third quarter of 2010.
Most homeowners who refinanced their mortgages reduced their debt or stayed at the same loan value, according to third-quarter analysis by Freddie Mac.
September home sales showed mixed trends, but year-over-year foreclosures starts were down, suggesting some market recovery, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Treasury's October Housing Scorecard.
The California attorney general on Thursday called on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cut mortgage debt on the loans they own, a suggestion the government entities have long resisted.
FBR Capital Markets believes the amendment to re-raise the loan limits at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in high-cost areas will be in the final bill and be enacted into law later this month.
Freddie Mac reported a $4.4 billion loss in the third quarter on Thursday and requested $6 billion in additional aid from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp and its executives, Jim Hodge and Jeanne Stell, claiming that the company misled the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with bad mortgages.
Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's regulator on Saturday rejected criticism he was obstructing a housing recovery by taking too narrow a view of his mission to protect the financial health of the two massive, taxpayer-supported mortgage firms.
The White House said Friday it would conduct an independent review of the U.S. Energy Department's loan portfolio following the collapse of Solyndra, the solar-panel maker that went bankrupt last month after receiving a hefty federal loan guarantee.
A controversial weapon could be deployed soon in the U.S. fight against the housing crisis as states and top banks near a deal in their dispute over mortgage abuses -- cutting the mortgage debt owed by homeowners.
Charles Haldeman Jr., CEO of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, will resign by the end of the year, the organization said on Wednesday.
New single-family home sales rose at their fastest pace in five months in September, a government report showed on Wednesday, but sustained price declines indicated the housing market is far from recovery.
