Freddie Mac

Homeowners and home buyers still waiting for mortgage rates to reach bottom may have already missed it. The average rate for 30-year mortgages, which hit record lows in February, briefly rose above 4 percent last month for the first time since October, and many economists predict rates will continue to rise gradually as the economy and housing market recover. Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage company, forecasts 30-year rates will hit 4.5 percent by the end of 2012 and 5 percent by late next year, up from an average of just under 4 percent last week.

WASHINGTON - Mortgage giant Freddie Mac is naming the former head of E*Trade Financial Corp. as its new chief executive. Donald Layton, 62, is expected to be named chief executive as early as this week, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said Wednesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to speak ahead of an announcement. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier of Layton's expected appointment. Layton declined to comment.

WASHINGTON — A plunge in mortgage rates is giving homeowners a rare opportunity to lock in a 15-year, fixed-rate loan for less than 4 percent. Rates haven’t dipped this low in decades. For those who can qualify, it’s the chance to pay off a home in half the time while saving tens of thousands of dollars — if not more. But the lower rates on short-term loans are not likely to ignite the refinancing market. Most people can’t afford the higher monthly payments required by a 15-year fixed mortgage compared with a more traditional 30-year loan.

WASHINGTON - US mortgage giant Fannie Mae reported its first net income gain since it was taken over by the government during the 2008 financial crisis. Fannie said Wednesday that it earned net income attributable to common stockholders of $2.7 billion in the January-March quarter. Instead of seeking additional aid from taxpayers, the company will pay a dividend of $2.8 billion to the Treasury Department. That compares with the same quarter one year ago when Fannie reported a net loss of $6.5 billion.

MCLEAN, Va. — Freddie Mac said yesterday that Harvard Business School professor Clayton S. Rose has been elected to the government-sponsored mortgage buyer’s board, bringing the number of board members to 11. Rose, 52, is professor of management practice at Harvard, where he has been a faculty member since 2007. He also is a veteran executive in the financial services industry. In 2001, Rose was chief operating officer at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

WASHINGTON - Freddie Mac lost almost $26 billion last year, ominous news for taxpayers who are footing the bill to rescue the mortgage finance company and its sibling Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac, which has lost a total of almost $80 billion since the housing crisis started in 2007, is bracing for more pain. The McLean, Va.-based company said a record 4 percent of its borrowers are at least three months behind on their payments and facing foreclosure. Its chief executive, Charles Haldeman, warned yesterday of a “potential large wave of foreclosures’’ still to come.

WASHINGTON -- Mortgage giant Freddie Mac is shutting down some operations of its debt-securities sales division and transferring others -- moves that experts said should tighten the company's internal controls after an accounting scandal. The division, the Securities Sales and Trading Group, was responsible for some of the accounting irregularities the government-sponsored company was cited for last year. Freddie Mac restated $4.5 billion in earnings, ousted top executives, and paid a record $125 million in a settlement with federal regulators.

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday urged Congress to restrict the multibillion-dollar holdings of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , warning their huge debt could imperil US financial markets. His admonition lent support to an effort to tighten controls on the government-sponsored companies, following accounting scandals. The Fed chairman told a Senate committee it might not be enough just to create a strong regulator for the companies, which hold or guarantee more than 45 percent of all US mortgage loans.

WASHINGTON - Newt Gingrich has not been in the House for a dozen years. But time and space are little boundaries for the verbal fisticuffs between the former speaker and his nemesis from the chamber, Barney Frank. Yesterday, Frank tagged Gingrich as "fundamentally intellectually dishonest" after a report surfaced that the GOP presidential candidate had earned at least $1.5 million in consulting fees from mortgage giant Freddie Mac, the same quasi-public agency he has lambasted on the stump.

WASHINGTON - Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac yesterday agreed to pay $50 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it fraudulently misstated earnings over four years. Four former Freddie Mac executives settled negligent conduct charges by agreeing to pay a total of $515,000 in civil fines and to make restitution totaling $275,548. They are former president and chief operating officer David Glenn, ex-chief financial officer Vaughn Clarke, and former senior vice presidents Robert Dean and Nazir Dossani.

Government-controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac is requesting $19 million in additional federal aid after posting a loss for the first quarter of this year. The requested amount is less than the $146 million that Freddie received from the government for the fourth quarter of 2011. The company received $7.6 billion for all of 2011 and $13 billion for all of 2010. McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac said Thursday that its net loss attributable to common stockholders was $1.2 billion, or 38 cents a share, in the January-March period.

A top executive at government-controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac is leaving the company about a year after he was promoted to oversee its single-family mortgage business. Anthony Renzi resigned to accept a job with another financial company, Freddie CEO Edward Haldeman said Monday in an internal email. The other company wasn't named. Renzi's departure as executive vice president of single-family business and operations and technology takes effect next month. The move is the latest in a series of departures of top executives from McLean, Va.-based...

WASHINGTON - The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage has declined to near its record low. Freddie Mac said the rate dropped to 3.88 percent this week, down from 3.9 percent. In February, it was at 3.87 percent, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s. The 30-year loan is the most common financing option for home buyers. The average on the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, popular with homeowners who are refinancing, decreased to 3.12 percent, down from 3.13 percent last week.

WASHINGTON - Treasury officials are leaning toward recommending that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be replaced with a government safety net for the mortgage finance system and continued federal backing for loans to lower-income homebuyers, said three people briefed on the discussions. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that a recommendation for winding down the two taxpayer-owned mortgage companies could be released in coming weeks. In timing its proposal, Treasury must balance political and economic realities.

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department rushed out a major revamp of its foreclosure prevention program in 2010, limiting the plan's ability to help people who are unemployed or owe more than their homes are worth, a government watchdog says. Treasury's Hardest Hit Fund, which distributes money to state housing agencies for a range of programs, has been plagued by delays and disagreements with mortgage companies that must participate for the program to succeed, according to a report released Thursday by the special inspector...

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is looking to step up pressure on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to reduce loan principal for homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages and avoid foreclosure. In a letter sent Wednesday to Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a coalition of state attorneys general that includes Coakley advocated for swift implementation of principal forgiveness in federal loan modification programs. The agency oversees Fannie and Freddie.

WASHINGTON - The mortgage crisis intensified yesterday as Freddie Mac , the nation's number two buyer and guarantor of home loans, posted its largest quarterly loss ever and warned that it may need to curtail its business unless it can raise fresh capital. Freddie Mac lost $2 billion in the third quarter, much more than Wall Street was expecting, primarily because it needed to set aside $1.2 billion to account for bad home loans. Freddie Mac also said it may halve its quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share - which would be its first dividend cut since becoming a public company in 1989.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is looking to step up pressure on mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to reduce loan principal for homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages and avoid foreclosure. In a letter sent Wednesday to Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a coalition of state attorneys general that includes Coakley advocated for swift implementation of principal forgiveness in federal loan modification programs. The Federal Housing Finance Agency oversees Fannie and Freddie.