Free Republic

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Tens of thousands of frightened homeowners looking to get out from under the crumbling walls of the subprime mortgage collapse have found refuge in a variety of programs. When Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd mentioned the national Homeowner's HOPE Hotline in comments Tuesday, it triggered some 3,000 calls. An announcement in April that the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America would be offering $1 billion in rescue money to beleaguered borrowers has prompted more than 50,000 inquiries, according to the organization. And in Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and other states, distressed mortgage holders are clamoring...

The Fed hit the market with a surprise 50-basis-point discount rate cut that caught many traders leaning the wrong way Friday. The rate cut came in response to the subprime crisis and is giving the credit markets the one thing that they need the most, liquidity. Options House Zecco.com Fidelity Investments Charles Schwab E*TRADE FINANCIAL TD AMERITRADE The Fed is hoping that by injecting liquidity into the credit markets, it can avert a meltdown of the financial system. If the Fed has to take further action in response to the subprime crisis and continue pouring in liquidity, we may see...

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A prolonged U.S. housing slump is causing a surge in the number of job losses announced by U.S. financial services companies, consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said Tuesday. The financial industry has announced 87,962 job cuts so far this year, 75 percent more than the total of 50,327 in all of 2006. Of this year's cuts, 41 percent related to troubles in the mortgage market, including riskier subprime mortgages, Challenger said. In August alone, there have been 20,957 announced job cuts, including 11,040 since Friday, Challenger said. Since Friday, Bear Stearns Cos Inc. (up...

Two years ago, my wife and I sat at a long conference table in a mortgage-title office in Bethesda. Sitting next to us: our real estate agent, who drew up our bid on a townhouse in Germantown two days after showing it to us. We didn't get an inspection, and I don't recall going back for a second look. We had to act fast or someone else would get it. Our bid won the house -- our very own first home -- and now we had to close the deal. The owners sat across the table. They seemed more nervous...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Capital One's shuttered GreenPoint Mortgage is the latest mortgage banking explosion to bump Wall Street's panic meter up a notch, and industry insiders say it is just another indicator that retail banks will be stung by the credit mess they helped create. "Banks are not going to want to be in the mortgage business after all this is over," says Richard Wilkes, a mortgage industry veteran who ran First Nationwide Mortgage before it became a part of Citigroup. More from FORTUNE The Bear truth Where were the cops? Subprime on the Rhine FORTUNE 500 Current Issue...

(Fortune Magazine) -- What could the collapse in the subprime mortgage market possibly have to do with whether Dr. Jeffrey and Madeline Stier get full price for their four-bedroom house in the wealthy New York City suburb of Larchmont? Not much, you would think. After all, the people who live in Larchmont tend to be lawyers, doctors, and Wall Streeters. Generally speaking, they aren't the credit-challenged borrowers who must resort to subprime mortgages to finance their homes. Reduced: The asking price for this house in affluent Larchmont, N.Y., was recently reduced from $2.5 million to $1.99 million. More from FORTUNE...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Earlier this year, a Wisconsin couple won a judgment against Chevy Chase Bank that said the bank deceived them over the terms of their mortgage. The judge ordered Chevy Chase to rescind the loan and certified the lawsuit as class-action, which could potentially release thousands of other borrowers who felt misled. Current Mortgage Rates Type Overall avgs 30 yr fixed mtg 6.24% 15 yr fixed mtg 5.89% 30 yr fixed jumbo mtg 7.08% 5/1 ARM 6.11% 5/1 jumbo ARM 6.57% Find personalized rates: Video More video Tim Hughes of the IG Index joins CNN to talk...

(Fortune Magazine) -- For the past five years risk has been the invisible man on Wall Street. Banks, hedge funds, and lenders behaved as if home prices always rise, borrowers never miss a payment, and companies never blunder into bankruptcy. Now a crisis of confidence that began with subprime mortgage defaults is sweeping the Street, and risk is invisible no more. Banks are wobbling, markets are quaking, and ordinary investors are wondering how badly they'll be hurt. Risk, as always, will exact its revenge. Subscribe to Fortune The Usual Suspects Behind the latest blowups are some of the same faces...

After a welcome weekend respite from the market's turbulence, investors will quickly learn in the coming week whether Friday's Fed-induced rally was just short-term relief or something more sustainable. Much of that may depend on whether the Fed's move Friday to slice the rate charged at its discount lending window was enough to loosen the noose around normal lending operations around the world. The credit markets remain the lynchpin for any sustained stock market recovery. "We are certainly not out of the woods yet," says Mike Malone, trading analyst at Cowen & Co. "The markets will remain volatile ... until...

SAN FRANICSCO (MarketWatch) -- Countrywide Financial Corp., reducing costs as part of its effort to weather a credit crunch, has begun laying off employees involved in originating loans, according to a media report Sunday. The email, sent to employees Friday by a Full Spectrum senior official, discussed layoffs made that day but didn't specify the number, the Journal reported.

Fed declares "downside risks" to economy have increased, OKs half percentage point cut in discount rate on loans to banks. (Breaking

Many homebuyers in recent years took out exotic mortgages that ultimately backfired. This raises the question of why such booby-trapped financing was available at all. Fisher Investments Charles Schwab TD AMERITRADE Options House Zecco.com Fidelity Investments The answer, in part, stems from overaggressive marketing of what were once niche products intended only for the most financially sophisticated and creditworthy customers. During the housing boom in recent years, banks began offering such elaborate loans to huge numbers of average homebuyers, allowing them to get in over their heads and contributing to the current mortgage crisis, as many borrowers ended up defaulting....

Stocks extend slide on Countrywide news By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer 20 minutes ago Stocks fell sharply Thursday after a move by Countrywide Financial Corp. confirmed fears of widening problems with some mortgages and tighter access to credit. A sell-off overseas offered Wall Street little reason to try to stanch the bleeding a day after the Dow Jones industrial average closed below the 13,000 mark for the first time since April and the Standard & Poor's 500 index moved into negative territory for the year. Investors' confidence took a drubbing Wednesday on concerns about potential trouble at Countrywide,...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The price of a typical home in the United States continues to drop but at a slower pace, according to a new survey. During the second quarter, the median single-family home price was $223,800, 1.5 percent less than a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It was the fourth consecutive quarter of price declines. Condo prices rose 1 percent to a median of $226,800. Despite the continued drop, NAR's senior economist, Lawrence Yun called the results, "encouraging." "Although home prices are relatively flat, more metro areas are showing price gains with general...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Housing starts and permits both fell to the lowest levels in more than a decade, as the latest reading on the battered housing and home building markets both came in below expectations Thursday. Housing starts fell to an annual rate of 1.38 million in July from a revised 1.47 million rate in June. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast starts would fall to a 1.41 million pace in June. Housing starts and permits are at the lowest level in more than a decade. The latest reading is the lowest level of starts since January 1997. Building...

1. VMware IPO Debut Dazzles 2. Thornburg Postpones Dividend 3. Top 10 Potential Takeover Targets 4. The Top Buffett Value Stocks 5. The House That Won't Sell: Walk Away? Fidelity Investments E*TRADE FINANCIAL TD AMERITRADE Options House Zecco.com Charles Schwab The run on Countrywide (CFC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) stock intensified Thursday morning after the struggling mortgage lender said it drew down its $11.5 billion unsecured bank credit line. The Calabasas, Calif., lender said it made the move as it "supplemented its funding liquidity position." The announcement came just a day after Merrill Lynch cut its rating...

The Federal Reserve is playing a tricky hand as calls for an emergency rate cut get louder after another day of significant stock market losses. Through its open market activities, the Fed has virtually cut the fed funds rate already, but officially left the target rate steady at 5.25%. "The target funds rate is meaningless for the time being," says James Bianco, president of Bianco Research. The Fed has injected enough liquidity into the banking system to bring the effective fed funds rate, or the rate that banks lend to each other, below 5% for three days now. This average...

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the current turmoil in financial markets will slow economic growth but should not spark a recession, according to a report published Thursday. Paulson told the Wall Street Journal that the turmoil "will extract a penalty on the growth rate" of the U.S. economy, but that "the economy and the markets are strong enough to absorb the losses" without triggering a recession. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson expects the current market turmoil will slow U.S. economic growth, but he doesn't see a recession occurring. Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs (Charts, Fortune 500),...

Stocks dropped sharply in Asia and sold off in Europe as well as the U.S. credit crunch continues to worry investors. 1. VMware IPO Debut Dazzles 2. Thornburg Postpones Dividend 3. Top 10 Potential Takeover Targets 4. The Top Buffett Value Stocks 5. The House That Won't Sell: Walk Away? TD AMERITRADE Charles Schwab Zecco.com Fidelity Investments E*TRADE FINANCIAL Options House Japan's Nikkei dropped 2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave up 3.3%, and those were some of the smaller drops. Stocks dropped 6.9% in Seoul, 5.9% in Jakarta, 4.6% in Taipei and 4.3% in Mumbai. Even China's highflying Shanghai...

Stocks were having another back and forth session Wednesday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped under 13,000 for the first time in four months, as continuing credit market jitters kept the market on edge. After recovering from an early swoon to rise by as many as 90 points, the Dow gave back all of those gains and more, and was recently down 130 points at 12,899. The index last closed below the 13,000 mark on April 24. Elsewhere, the S&P 500 was losing 13 points at 1413, and the Nasdaq Composite was sliding 26 points to 2473. The action...