Housing Market | featured news

Executives say legislation to severely tax bonuses may imperil the housing recovery program.

President Barack Obama announced fresh aid to struggling homeowners in California Thursday, playing a bit of divide-and-conquer by pitting his Republican critics in Washington against GOP governors and mayors eager for the federal money.

Mortgage applications jumped last week, as low interest rates fueled refinancing activity.

Freddie Mac, facing mounting damage from the U.S. housing crisis, said Wednesday it will ask the government for nearly $31 billion in additional aid after posting a gargantuan loss of more than $50 billion last year.

The House has passed legislation to give debt-strapped homeowners a chance to win lower mortgage payments through bankruptcy courts.

About one in every eight U.S. households, a record share, ended 2008 behind on their mortgage payments or in the foreclosure process as job losses intensified a housing crisis spawned by lax lending practices, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday

The Obama administration today released details of $75 billion home loan modification and refinancing programs. Borrowers can start contacting loan servicers.

One in five U.S. homeowners with mortgages owe more to their lenders than their homes are worth, and the rate will increase as housing prices drop in states that have so far avoided the worst of the crisis, a new study shows.

A forecasting gauge of housing-market activity fell more than twice as much as was expected in January as some buyers held off on home purchases.

The pace of sales of existing home in the United States fell 5.3 percent in January to a 4.49 million-unit annual rate, while home prices dropped to a six-year low and inventories shrank, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday.