Mortgages

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.

WASHINGTON — Republicans launched an-all-but-certain-to-lose fight Thursday to stop a foreclosure rescue bill during its first round of debate in the House Financial Services Committee.

WASHINGTON — As the House Financial Services Committee starts voting today on a bill designed to stabilize mortgage markets, even supporters concede key issues remain unsettled.

WASHINGTON — Despite continuing Bush administration opposition to a plan from top Democrats that would significantly expand the government's role in fighting the housing crisis, the head of the agency at issue appears open to a compromise.

WASHINGTON — A fight is brewing over whether and how much national banks and thrifts must comply with state laws designed to delay or prevent foreclosures.

WASHINGTON — Democratic banking committee leaders, the Bush administration, all three presidential candidates, and most of the federal banking agencies embraced the concept last week of expanding the government's role in combating the credit crisis.

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain — who just two weeks ago resisted broader intervention to stem the housing crisis — changed tack Thursday, proposing a plan that would ask the government to insure delinquent subprime loans.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd's plan to expand the government's role in stemming the housing crisis hit new obstacles Thursday as two top panel members signaled their opposition.

Of the 140,562 subprime adjustable-rate mortgages scheduled for a rate reset in January and February, only 2%, or 3,364 loans, received a five-year fast-track modification, according to statistics the Hope Now alliance released Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Despite an alternative plan offered by the Bush administration to expand the Federal Housing Administration's role in combating the housing crisis, House Republicans appeared wary Wednesday of extending the government's risk any further.