Personal Finance
• Ask AP: Importance of housing starts, honeybees
(AP)
<p>AP - American farmers have long worried about the declining population of honeybees, a key crop pollinator. But honeybees originally came from Europe, so can't U.S. farms get by without them — with a little help from good old American bugs whose ancestors were here before Columbus?
• FHA-Backed Loans: The New Subprime
(BusinessWeek Online)
BusinessWeek Online - As if they haven't done enough damage. Thousands of subprime mortgage lenders and brokers -- many of them the very sorts of firms that helped create the current financial crisis -- are going strong. Their new strategy: taking advantage of a long-standing federal program designed to encourage homeownership by insuring mortgages for buyers of modest means.
• 'Help' Can Be Costly
(BusinessWeek Online)
BusinessWeek Online - The implosion of the subprime mortgage market has been a boon to loan-modification consultants who promise to help borrowers refinance and get back on the road to financial stability.
• Your Life Insurance Policy May Not Be Protected
(BusinessWeek Online)
BusinessWeek Online - With the financial system in crisis, investors increasingly rely on government guarantees to protect their money. Bank accounts are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and its $53 billion war chest. After decades on their own, money market funds now are backed by the U.S. Treasury. And life insurance policies and annuities? They're backed by state guaranty associations. There's only one hitch: The states have virtually no cash on hand and must rely on promises to pay made by healthy life insurers.
• UK home repossessions up 12 pct in 3Q from 2Q
(AP)
AP - Home repossessions in Britain jumped 12 percent to 11,300 in the third quarter from the previous quarter, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Friday, more evidence that the financial crisis is taking its toll on households and the ailing housing market.
• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac suspend some foreclosures
(Reuters)
Reuters - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009, as the government moves to stem the tide of home losses plaguing the economy.
• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac halting foreclosures
(AP)
AP - Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are suspending foreclosures for about 16,000 households during the holiday season.
• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to suspend US home foreclosures
(AFP)
<p>AFP - The two US mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said on Thursday they halt home foreclosures until early January as they modify loans to help keep owners in their homes.
• Banks, raters face subprime lawsuits and new rules
(Reuters)
Reuters - The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has sparked more than 250 class action suits against Wall Street banks and rating companies and will lead to rising regulation in 2009, top litigators said on Thursday.
• China fund in talks for stake in AIG unit: report
(Reuters)
<img src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20081120/2008_11_20t134016_450x300_us_aig_china.jpg?x=130&y=86&q=85&sig=LecrjBLeyHe7ySNmaC5MUw--" align="left" height="86" width="130" alt="People stand outside the American International Group (AIG) offices in New York September 17, 2008. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)" border="0" />Reuters - A consortium led by sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp is in talks to buy a stake of up to 49 percent in American Life Insurance Co, a unit of U.S. insurance company American International Group , the Nikkei financial daily reported.
• UK mortgage lending down 44 pct from a year ago
(AP)
AP - Mortgage lending in Britain was down 44 percent in October compared to a year ago, further evidence the economic downturn is hurting an already weak property market, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Thursday.
• October's Drop in Prices and Housing Starts
(BusinessWeek Online)
BusinessWeek Online - The current U.S. downturn continues to generate remarkable moves in economic data. Consider the reports on U.S. consumer prices and housing starts for October, released on Nov. 19: The headline consumer price index (CPI) registered its largest monthly decline in 61 years, while housing starts reached the slowest pace of activity in the history of this data series.
• Senate to probe bond-ratings firms: report
(Reuters)
Reuters - A U.S. Senate subcommittee is opening a probe into causes of the global financial crisis, focusing in part on whether bond-ratings firms, driven by conflicts of interest, boosted mortgage investments which have since collapsed, the Wall Street Journal said.
• U.S. probing Golden West lending, sale: prosecutor
(Reuters)
Reuters - The government is investigating if homeowners were misled by California bank and mortgage issuer Golden West Financial, which was acquired by Wachovia Corp -- another possible victim.
• MetLife says commercial mortgage portfolio safe
(Reuters)
Reuters - U.S. life insurer MetLife Inc disclosed information about its commercial mortgage portfolio on Wednesday in an effort to soothe investors that have become increasingly skittish about investments by insurers in commercial property debt.
• Housing agency loosens foreclosure aid rules
(Reuters)
</a>Reuters - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will loosen terms of its foreclosure-prevention effort so that the program, meant to backstop $300 billion in home loans, can be more effective, the agency said on Wednesday.
• Kashkari: Consumer credit help promising step
(Reuters)
Reuters - Actions to support consumer lending could be a productive next step to help repair financial markets, Treasury Department financial rescue package administrator Neel Kashkari said on Wednesday.
• Homebuilder, REIT shares tumble as recession spreads
(Reuters)
Reuters - The shares of big U.S. homebuilders and real estate companies alike slumped on Wednesday as housing starts fell to a record low and concerns spread the commercial real estate market is going the way of residential.
• Mortgage application volume falls 6.2 pct
(AP)
<p>AP - Mortgage application volume fell 6.2 percent during the week ended Nov. 14, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly application survey.
• October housing starts at record low
(Reuters)
Reuters - Construction starts on new homes fell to a record low in October, as did new applications for building permits, a report by the Commerce Department showed on Wednesday, signaling that the national housing downturn may extend well into the future.
