Home prices inch up, but analysts fear rebound is fading

By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Home prices rose modestly in January, according to a closely watched index released Tuesday, but some housing industry analysts remain concerned about the sustainability of the housing sector rebound.

Home prices in 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index rose 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in January compared with December. That was the eighth consecutive monthly increase in the index. Compared with the same period a year earlier, prices were down 0.7 percent.

Foreclosure fund gets $600 million to help residents of 5 more states save homes

By Renae Merle
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Obama administration announced Monday that it is expanding by $600 million a fund aimed at helping states tackle the foreclosure crisis with locally tailored approaches.
State housing finance agencies from North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island will share $600 million to test new approaches to helping borrowers save their homes from foreclosure. That is in addition to $1.5 billion set aside for California, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Florida when the program was initially announced in February. Both initiatives will be financed through the government's Troubled Assets Relief Program...

Obama administration revises anti-foreclosure strategy

By Dina ElBoghdady and Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Obama administration Friday tried to manage expectations about its newest foreclosure-prevention efforts, while consumer advocates and others who track the housing market praised the initiative but questioned whether it would succeed in curtailing the foreclosure epidemic.

Second mortgages complicate efforts to help homeowners

By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 27, 2010

As government regulators and lenders work to stabilize the housing market, one of the factors that helped propel the housing boom of the past decade is now taking a central role in thwarting their efforts: second mortgages.

Obama readies steps to fight foreclosures, particularly for unemployed

By Renae Merle and Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 26, 2010

The Obama administration plans to overhaul how it is tackling the foreclosure crisis, in part by requiring lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed, senior officials said Thursday.

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U.S. economy is on a moderate growth path, jobs and consumer price data show

Economic Agenda
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By Reuters
Friday, March 19, 2010
Labor market and consumer prices data showed Thursday that the U.S. economy is on a moderate growth path and that inflation pressures are contained, backing up the Federal Reserve's vow to keep benchmark interest rates ultra-low for some time.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000, to 457,000 last week, the Labor Department said, suggesting that the jobs market was improving, but only gradually. Analysts said the small decline in initial jobless claims was indicative of a labor market that was slowly healing.
About 8.4 million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession in December 2007, and creating employment is critical to the economy's transition from a government-aided recovery to a self-sustained one. President Obama, who has made tackling unemployment a priority, signed into law a $17.6 billion jobs bill Thursday...

Fed to leave interest rates near zero a little longer

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Federal Reserve stood by its policy of keeping interest rates at rock-bottom levels for the foreseeable future at its policymaking meeting Tuesday even as central bank officials took a more positive tone about the economy.

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New round of foreclosures threatens housing market
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 12, 2010
The housing market is facing swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but have yet to lose their homes, and this is threatening a new wave of foreclosures that could hit just as the real estate market has begun to stabilize.

Financial system reforms won't wait
By David Cho and Brady Dennis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 12, 2010
Senate banking committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said Thursday he will move forward next week with sweeping legislation to revamp the nation's financial regulatory system, despite failing to resolve key differences with Republicans.

Borrowers in foreclosure prevention plan losing mortgage aid
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 13, 2010
About 90,000 distressed borrowers have lost their mortgage aid under the government's foreclosure prevention plan, and many more are at risk of losing the help, according to Treasury Department data released Friday.

Politics, shaky economy create no rush to restructure Fannie and Freddie

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 11, 2010

The federal government has spent the past half year seeking to roll back its emergency efforts at propping up the financial markets -- with the notable exception of its involvement in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
As the government has pledged more and more money to cover the companies' losses, it has assured the public that planning was underway for overhauling the firms so the bailouts would end. As recently as December, the Obama administration said it expected to release a preliminary report on how to remake Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac around Feb. 1.

Compromise would shield payday lenders, pawnbrokers and car dealers from oversight

By Binyamin Appelbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 11, 2010

Payday lenders, pawnbrokers, car dealers and other companies that make loans but do not hold bank charters would be shielded from the scrutiny of a proposed federal consumer protection regulator under the terms of a tentative compromise between senators who are attempting to craft a bipartisan bill.

Rise in Washington area unemployment seen as good sign for economy's recovery

By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 11, 2010

Unemployment rates rose in the District, Maryland and Virginia in January, a shift that economists said could be a positive sign for the economy because it suggests that discouraged job-seekers are feeling more optimistic about their prospects and have resumed looking for work.

Senate financial bill appears likely to keep Fed as regulator of big banks

By Brady Dennis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Key members of the Senate banking committee are coalescing around legislation that would strip the Federal Reserve of much of its regulatory authority but would leave the central bank with oversight of the nation's largest banks, according to aides familiar with the ongoing negotiations.

Under the plan, the Fed would continue to supervise only 23 bank-holding companies with assets exceeding $100 billion. Supervision of the nearly 5,000 banks below that threshold would fall largely to a proposed new regulator to be created by merging the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, aides said.

House Ways and Means Chairman Levin says job creation will be top priority

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
As he takes the reins of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander M. Levin is vowing to raise the profile of a once-powerful panel that, in recent years, has been overshadowed by the ethics troubles of its previous chairman, Rep. Charles B. Rangel.
In one of his first interviews as chairman, Levin (D-Mich.) said that job creation will be his top priority in the run-up to this fall's congressional elections. But he said he also plans to wade aggressively into the debate over national tax policy and return his committee to its customary position at the center of the coming battle over tax reform.

Rep. Barney Frank warns of Fannie, Freddie risks

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Saturday, March 6, 2010
An influential voice on Capitol Hill has unexpectedly called into question the safety of investing in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, raising the specter that investors who have lent money to the two firms or bought their mortgage-backed securities could one day suffer losses.
The comments by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, forced the Treasury Department to issue a statement Friday reaffirming the government's commitment to the companies, their creditors and their investors.