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.