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Personal Finance News
Rates on 30-year mortgages drop to 6.35 percent
(AP)
AP - Rates on 30-year mortgages, which had been rising for five straight weeks, posted a decline this week as signals from the Federal Reserve eased worries about imminent rate increases.
Housing market seen getting worse
(Reuters)
Reuters - An even gloomier scenario may be in
store for an already ailing U.S. housing market if the overall
economy slips into a recession, according to UBS Securities
analysts.
BofA completes deal for Countrywide Financial
(AP)
AP - Bank of America Corp. completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. Tuesday, making the Charlotte-based bank the nation's leading mortgage originator and servicer.
Gov. pushing plan to help struggling NC homeowners
(AP)
AP - Gov. Mike Easley called on state lawmakers Tuesday to make up for the federal government's inaction by approving a measure to help some struggling North Carolina homeowners by giving them more latitude to repay their debt.
Bank of America completes acquisition of Countrywide
(AFP)
AFP - Bank of America said Tuesday it completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial, the largest US mortgage lender that had been at the center of the country's subprime loan crisis.
CIT shares jump on deal to shed mortgage assets
(Reuters)
Reuters - CIT Group Inc said on Tuesday
it agreed to sell nearly $10 billion of mortgage assets, in a
deal that removes problem loans from the commercial lender's
balance sheet and lifted its shares 14 percent in premarket
trading.
Real Estate: Making the REIT Picks
(BusinessWeek Online)
BusinessWeek Online - After a great run, real estate investments have suffered over the past year, with the average real estate mutual fund down 18%, according to Morningstar. David Lee has managed the $2.5 billion T. Rowe Price Real Estate Fund (NASDAQ:TRREX - News) since it opened in October 1997, so he has seen tough times before. In the two years after the fund started, shares of real estate investment trusts (REITs) lost almost 20%, even as the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index raced ahead 50%. "Even my family was calling up saying they were going to disown me," Lee jokes.
CIT Group exits home lending businesses
(AP)
AP - CIT Group Inc. said Tuesday it will sell its home lending business to Lone Star Funds for $1.5 billion in cash, plus $4.4 billion of assumed debt, in a move to exit the troubled mortgage arena and focus on its commercial finance operations.
Florida sues Countrywide over mortgages
(Reuters)
Reuters - Florida sued mortgage lender Countrywide
Financial Corp on Monday for predatory lending
practices, alleging the company at the center of the U.S.
mortgage crisis made subprime loans to people who could not
repay them.
Wachovia quits offering risky mortgage loan
(AP)
AP - Beleaguered consumer bank Wachovia Corp. said Monday it will quit offering a mortgage payment option that allows borrowers to pay less each month than the bank charges in interest.
H&R Block swings to 4Q profit
(AP)
AP - H&R Block Inc., the nation's largest tax preparer, said Monday it swung to a fourth-quarter profit, helped by a record-setting tax season and the sale of its troubled mortgage arm.
Tips for Homeowners on the Brink
(BusinessWeek Online)
BusinessWeek Online - Mortgage rates are skyrocketing. Credit is locked up. Economic pressures are rising. Time to bail on that McMansion?
Treasury's Paulson says believes in strong dollar
(Reuters)
Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on
Monday he believes in a strong U.S. dollar and that U.S
officials were working to resolve the country's economic
problems, including regulatory mistakes that led to excesses in
the mortgage and banking sectors.
Wall Street extends losses in volatile week
(AP)
AP - Wall Street ended a depressing week with another big loss on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrials falling more than 100 points amid ever-escalating worries about high oil prices and fallout from the credit crisis. The major indexes are all down more than 3 percent for the week.
Resolution scraps investment plan for Bradford & Bingley
(AFP)
AFP - British investment group Resolution said Friday it had abandoned its funding plan for home-loans provider Bradford & Bingley because of opposition from management at the group it sought to buy.
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