Mortgage

The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place. President Obama's economic advisers and outside experts say the nation's much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind , including young people looking to buy their first homes and...

Banks have paid less than half the $5.7 billion in cash owed to troubled homeowners under nearly 30 settlements brokered by the government since 2008, delaying help to the millions of victims of discrimination and shoddy lending that epitomized the housing crisis, according to a Washington Post analysis of government data. When the settlements were announced, with great fanfare, government officials hailed them as the long-promised reckoning with the financial industry. Regulators found that some banks had saddled...

When Stefan and Jennifer Hull beat out other interested buyers for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom Cape Cod house in Bethesda, they felt sure they'd gotten a bargain at $759,200. They were shocked when their lender's appraiser valued the home at only $744,000. Because of the low appraisal, their bank would only give them a $595,200 mortgage, instead of the $607,360 they'd been approved for initially. The Hulls said they didn't believe the home was worth the lower appraisal amount — it turned out that the...

Average U.S. mortgage rates rose this week but remained near historic lows. . Here's a look at rates for fixed and adjustable mortgages this week and over the past year: Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Although there are still some snares and drawbacks for participants, one of the federal government's most important financial relief efforts for underwater homeowners started operation on Nov. 1. It's a new short-sale program that targets the walking wounded among borrowers emerging from the housing downturn: owners who owe far more on their mortgages than their current home value but have stuck it out for years, resisted the temptation to...

On Monday, the federal government announced that it would revise the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), implementing changes that The Washington Post's Zachary A. Goldfarb reported would "allow many more struggling borrowers to refinance their mortgages at today's ultra-low rates, reducing monthly payments for some homeowners and potentially providing a modest boost to the economy. " The HARP program, which was rolled out in 2009, is designed to help. Those who are...

I have a fairly simple approach to investing: Start with data and objective evidence to determine the dominant elements driving the market action right now. Figure out what objective reality is beneath all of the noise. Use that information to try to make intelligent investing decisions. But then, I'm an investor focused on preserving capital and managing risk. I'm not out to win the next election or drive the debate. For those who are, facts and data matter much less than a narrative that...

Louise Golden, 79, recently stood at the front door of her tidy brick split-level in Lanham, still shocked to hear the terms of the refinancing agreement she and her now-deceased husband, Stanley, signed in 2006. "I thought it was a fixed-rate mortgage," said Golden. "I didn't know what a five-year ARM was. " "You didn't have a five-year adjustable rate mortgage," said her attorney, Gretchen C. Reimert. "It adjusted after 30 days. " The interest rate jumped from 2 percent to...

In his June 28 Housing Counsel column, Benny L. Kass referred to reverse mortgages as a last resort. Why a last resort? Most reverse mortgages are insured by the Federal Housing Administration, can be paid off at any time with no penalty and, in fact, can be treated like any other mortgage. You may make payments on a reverse mortgage to keep the balance down or pay off the growing interest during the loan without penalty. Generally, the interest rate on a reverse mortgage is also considerably lower than the interest rate on a home...

With the numerous bank errors that took place in the five months that Dana Milbank tried to refinance his home [" Foreclosures: Big banks' reign of error, " Sunday Opinion, March 6], you could almost laugh that a prominent mortgage servicer happened to pick a nationally recognized columnist to harass. But it is not funny. Bank regulators across the country hear the same story over and over again. In New York we took the unprecedented step of promulgating regulations to govern mortgage servicers' treatment of homeowners.

WASHINGTON — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week but stayed near their historic lows. Cheaper mortgages have helped the economy by spurring more home-buying and refinancing. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for the 30-year loan increased to 3.51 percent from 3.42 percent last week. That's still near the average of 3.31 percent reached in November, the lowest on records dating to 1971. The average on the 15-year loan rose to 2.69 percent.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says Congress must give more homeowners the chance to refinance their mortgages to save money. Obama says more than 2 million people are saving about $3,000 a year after restructuring their loans under his administration but that more deserve the same chance. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama also calls on the Senate to confirm "without delay" his choice of Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing...

WASHINGTON — Fannie Mae said something Thursday that would have been unthinkable a few years ago: It earned a record $58.7 billion profit in the January-March quarter. And it made clear it's on the cusp of repaying taxpayers for one of the most expensive bailouts of a single company in the financial crisis. For Fannie, the future hasn't looked this bright since 2006. More Americans are buying homes. Prices are rising at their fastest rate since the housing bubble...

LEGAL Ex-Enron CEO may get reduced sentence Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling's prison sentence of more than 24 years for his role in the once-mighty energy giant's collapse could be trimmed by as many as 10 years if a federal judge approves an agreement reached Wednesday between prosecutors and defense attorneys. Under the agreement, Skilling's original sentence will be reduced to between 14 and 17 1 / 2 years. The agreement still must be...

Correction: This story is updated to reflect that the Federal Reserve became aware of a problem with the compensation checks on Tuesday, not Friday. Thousands of victims of foreclosure abuse got an unpleasant surprise in the mail last week: compensation checks for less money than they were owed. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that about 96,000 homeowners who are entitled to a cut of a $3.6 billion settlement with mortgage servicers accused of faulty and fraudulent foreclosures received less than they were owed.

Retired and on his first family vacation in years, Herbert M. Allison Jr. sat with his wife and adult sons eating lunch on a veranda in the Virgin Islands when an urgent caller rang with a confidential inquiry. It was Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. The government was preparing to seize struggling mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac . Would Allison, a former chairman of TIAA-CREF, consider leading one of them? "He outlined the seriousness of the situation, and over the phone I told him I'd do whatever he...

A Maryland woman who stole millions from Washington area homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure is a "vulture" whose case should serve as a warning to other con artists, a federal judge said yesterday before imposing a sentence of more than 12 years. Joy Jackson, 41, a former exotic dancer who became president of the Metropolitan Money Store, carried out the years-long scheme through the Lanham-based business. She used the cash to buy jewelry, fur coats and vacations, and to cover a lavish wedding at the...