Housing Market, Real Estate | featured news

U.S. mortgage rates dropped to new lows after the latest round of gloomy economic data hurt Treasury yields, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey of mortgage rates.

Bank of America is reportedly willing to pay its way out of future mortgage and foreclosure claims.

It is far too easy to say that minorities have only themselves to blame for their wealth decline because they bought homes they couldn’t afford. That argument would let so many off the hook. It would excuse the government for its monumental failure to tame predatory lenders. And it would absolve the lenders who came up with exotic mortgages that should never have been pitched ubiquitously, especially not to financially fragile minority borrowers. But blaming the victim is what we do so well in America.

Foreclosures declined in more than 84% of U.S. metro areas during the first half of the year, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties.

Wells Fargo & Co and the Department of Justice are negotiating to settle allegations that the bank illegally targeted African-Americans for expensive subprime loans, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Financial firms trying to negotiate a settlement with states and the U.S. over the foreclosure mess are squabbling over who is most accountable, threatening a further delay in talks that already have dragged on.

New single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in June, but a sharp rise in prices and declining supply suggested the market for new houses was starting to stabilize, a government report showed on Tuesday.

Shares of real-estate website Zillow more than doubled on its first day of trading, giving the unprofitable Internet company a valuation of more than $1 billion.

Countrywide Home Loans agreed to pay borrowers $108 million for charging excessive fees when they fell behind on their mortgages.

Sales of previously owned homes unexpectedly fell in June to touch a seven-month low as cancellations of pending contracts surged, an industry group said on Wednesday.