Housing Market, Fourth Quarter | featured news

Fannie Mae earned $17.2 billion last year, the biggest annual profit in the U.S. mortgage giant's history, helped by a record fourth quarter.

Almost 2 million American homeowners were freed from negative equity in 2012, and the overall percentage of all homeowners with a mortgage in negative equity fell to 27.5 percent at the end of the fourth quarter, according to Zillow’s fourth quarter Negative Equity Report.

Bank of America reported Friday that it had a $1.2 billion loss in the fourth quarter of last year, including a previously announced charge of $2 billion reflecting a decline in the value of its home loans and insurance business.