Mortgages

WASHINGTON — In his first interview since legislation tightening supervision of government-sponsored enterprises advanced in the Senate, Daniel Mudd, Fannie Mae's chief executive, ticked off his list of concerns.

WASHINGTON — While housing legislation moving through Congress focuses on helping borrowers avoid foreclosure, it also would reform a corner of the mortgage market: broker licensing.

WASHINGTON — Mortgage lending reform, the banking issue that dominated Congress' attention last year, has dropped off the radar, leaving its fate unclear.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are trying to figure out why the temporary increase in the conforming loan limit has done little to improve the mortgage market.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee easily approved a bill 19 to 2 on Tuesday that is designed to stabilize housing prices and reform oversight of the government-sponsored enterprises, giving the legislation momentum as it heads to the Senate floor.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and Sen. Richard Shelby, the panel's top Republican, have finalized their agreement on legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises and create a loan refinancing program designed to stem foreclosures, the lawmakers said Monday.

WASHINGTON — A conference hosted last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago served as a reminder that the philosophical disconnect between the industry and Congress has only widened in the aftermath of the market turmoil.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee voted 19 to 2 to approve a bill that would create a new regulator for the government-sponsored enterprises and expand the government’s role in combating the housing crisis.

WASHINGTON — For Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, the stakes at a vote Tuesday on his bill to stem the housing crisis could not be higher.

WASHINGTON — Negotiations late into the night on Wednesday and right through Thursday were enough to get a bill to revamp the regulation of the government-sponsored enterprises to the brink of passing the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan support.

Criticism from industry groups that the Federal Reserve Board's proposed mortgage rules will make loans more expensive for consumers may be unintentionally ironic, since most subprime borrowers could not afford their mortgages when they got them, and they certainly cannot now.

WASHINGTON — A Senate Banking Committee vote scheduled for Thursday on a bill to help stem the housing crisis is shaping up to be a cliffhanger.

WASHINGTON — Intensifying his efforts to cut a deal on a housing package due for a panel vote Thursday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd is targeting GOP members other than Sen. Richard Shelby, the panel's ranking member.

The House passed legislation, 266 to 154, on Thursday designed to curtail foreclosures, despite repeated objections from Republicans who claimed the proposal would unfairly bail out lenders and speculators and put taxpayers at risk.

WASHINGTON — At one point in March, it appeared the housing crisis would dominate the presidential race.

WASHINGTON — Top lenders and servicers are scheduled to hold a private meeting today with Treasury Department officials to recommend best practices for handling second liens and dealing with other obstacles as part of an effort to stem foreclosures.

BOSTON — Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Monday that he expects his package of mortgage reforms to be enacted in June.

WASHINGTON — After more than two days of debate the House Financial Services Committee approved a foreclosure prevention bill 46 to 21 on Thursday that was largely unchanged from the bill Chairman Barney Frank introduced two weeks ago.

WASHINGTON — Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair offered a new proposal Wednesday to let the Treasury Department lend directly to borrowers to save more than 1 million homes from foreclosure.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson met in private with top lenders and servicers this week to warn them the housing market is continuing to deteriorate and press them for a new solution, several sources said Thursday.