Mortgage | featured news

When Lisa Brown moved into her rental house on Long Island last summer with her three daughters, she says, it felt like a new beginning.

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.

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.

Citigroup Inc said on Tuesday it will allow some newly unemployed homeowners to temporarily reduce payments on their mortgages.

The resignation comes amid rising losses and unresolved questions about the mortgage giant's path. The government-appointed chief executive of McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac said Monday that he was resigning from the mortgage-finance giant, less than six months into the job.

While some U.S. governors were embracing the housing plan President Barack Obama announced last week, as a way to bolster their own assistance efforts, others worried that the plan is unfair.