Mortgage | featured news

Bank of America Corp. says it lost $5.2 billion during the final three months of 2009 as consumers struggled to make their mortgage and credit card payments.

Many critics of the Obama administration's mortgage loan-modification program say it won't work because it doesn't do enough to address "negative equity," the plight of people who owe more on their home loans than the current value of those properties. Without equity in their homes, these critics say, borrowers have little incentive to keep paying and are apt to walk away as soon as things get tough, if not before.

The average fixed-rate for a 30-year mortgage climbed above 5% for the first time in two months, leading to a decline in mortgage ...

Serious delinquencies among U.S. prime mortgages rose nearly 20 percent in the third quarter from the prior quarter, banking regulators said on Monday.

A growing number of homeowners are considering a "strategic default," walking away from their mortgages not out of necessity but because they believe it is in their best financial interests.

Mortgage rates generally fell again this week, with the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages reaching the lowest level in at least 38 years, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

Go ahead. Break the chains. Stop paying on your mortgage if you owe more than the house is worth. And most important: Don't feel guilty about it. Don't think you're doing something morally wrong.

That's the incendiary core message of a new academic paper by Brent T. White, a University of Arizona law school professor, titled "Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis."

As foreclosure casualties mount, the Obama administration Monday is expected to announce additional steps to get long-term help for borrowers, CNNMoney reports.

Daverena White took a chance on the American dream of homeownership -- and lost big.

Mortgage servicing companies have the complex task of figuring out if millions of borrowers qualify for mortgage modifications. And there has been some progress lately getting homeowners sign up.