Housing

Shoppers who finance the purchase of cars, furniture and home improvements are protected under a decades-old federal regulation. Now consumer groups are urging the FTC to update its rule and consider offering the same protections to victims of home-mortgage or auto-leasing scams.

Fannie Mae's net income fell 23% to $11 billion in 2015 from a year earlier despite benefiting from higher purchases of single-family and multifamily loans, the government-sponsored enterprise said Friday.

The decision in Yvanova v. New Century Mortgage Corp. has the potential to radically increase the number of lawsuits brought by borrowers, particularly on loans that were pooled into securitized trusts.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt stopped short of calling for Treasury to recapitalize the government-sponsored enterprises, but said "something needs to be done" before they run out of capital.

Lenders are still holding on to scores of delinquent mortgages that date to the real estate crash, but a surge in home values across the country is motivating them to move the most troublesome loans off their books more quickly.

The Mortgage Bankers Association increased its 2016 industry originations forecast to $1.48 trillion from its January projection of $1.38 trillion to reflect market turmoil that has held interest rates down.

Freddie Mac on Thursday reported strong fourth quarter and year-end profits driven by a surge in demand for both home purchase and apartment loans.

Troubled loans no longer overwhelm the market, but there could be smaller outbreaks that servicers must be ready to deal with, a real estate services vendor says.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is launching a 10-day social media campaign, #HARPNow, to alert struggling homeowners in 10 states that they can still refinance via the program before it expires at year-end.

The Chicago, Des Moines and Cincinnati FHLBs have grown their life insurance company membership the most in recent years.