Mortgages Blog

Housing remains a weak spot in the economy, and the numbers this week prove that the recovery is still choppy.

As mortgage servicer Fannie Mae begins unloading foreclosed properties, Wall Street investors are preparing to buy in bulk. Private equity investors, hedge funds and broker-dealers are interested in purchasing pools of properties that include anywhere from 572 homes in the Atlanta area to 99 in Chicago, the Wall Street Journal reports. In all, 2,500 homes

Mortgage rates have been rising nonstop since the end of last week. So if you’re planning on getting a mortgage, you’d better get moving — unless you like living on the edge. Now, I don’t want you to panic. But let me give you the facts so you understand why I’m warning you. The yield on the

Homebuyers are out there, but they’re finding fewer homes for sale than they were a year ago, according to the latest data from Realtor.com. In February, the number of homes listed for sale rose a meager 0.5 percent from January, but fell 22 percent from the same time last year. The median time a home

The national mortgage settlement has a potentially ghastly surprise for some who refinance under its terms.

Watch out if you refinance your mortgage under the terms of the huge mortgage servicing settlement filed Monday.

Dismantling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together guarantee approximately three-quarters of all new home loans, is turning out to be a complicated operation. On the one hand, Congress wants to shut down the agencies and get the government out of the mortgage business. On the other hand, it has to be done

Bank of America has agreed to provide mortgage relief, including partial loan forgiveness, to more than 200,000 borrowers. The agreement is part of the $25 billion national mortgage settlement with five of the nation’s biggest lenders that was announced last month and is expected to be filed today in federal court. A spokesman for the

Statistically, America may be digging out of the foreclosure quagmire caused by subprime mayhem and the subsequent collapse of the housing bubble …

The economy added 227,000 new jobs in February, according to a report released this morning. That’s not bad but not as good as January, when 284,000 new jobs were added. The unemployment rate held steady at 8.3 percent, which is the lowest level it has reached in three years. If you are one of the