WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - A program unveiled by U.S. President George W. Bush in August that is trying to save tens of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure has aided just 266 borrowers so far, according to government data released on Monday.
The initiative, which helps high-risk or low-income borrowers win better loan terms by insuring mortgage payments, targets recent homeowners whose loans have a built-in interest-rate spike that made them miss a payment.
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Securitization, hailed as the greatest financial innovation of the 20th century, isn’t getting such rave reviews anymore after this summer’s subprime mortgage crisis exposed some weaknesses. With global credit markets still in crisis, experts have already begun debating the benefits and the drawbacks of the process.
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Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — The number of mortgage applications in the U.S. dropped last week, led by the biggest decline in refinancing this year.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan decreased 4.3 percent to 652.5 from 681.7 the prior week. The group’s refinancing gauge slumped 15 percent, the most since December, while purchases rose.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wells Fargo & Co. is absorbing $1.4 billion in losses on home equity loans that borrowers have stopped repaying amid a deepening real estate slump that’s turned into a financial sinkhole.
Until Wells Fargo disclosed its projected losses late Tuesday, the San Francisco-based bank had suffered relatively little damage in a mortgage meltdown that had already battered other major U.S. lenders.
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