Housing

Chief executives from three top mortgage lenders hit by the subprime mortgage crisis went before a congressional panel to answer lawmakers' questions on how they were able to earn hundreds of millions of dollars while their companies were bleeding money. John Dimsdale reports.

Many homeless patients in Los Angeles hospitals aren't discharged in a timely manner because they have nowhere to go to recuperate. Jeff Tyler reports a new program is trying to address the problem.

Commentator and economist Glenn Hubbard says that to fix the housing crisis we must give the Federal Housing Administration more authority. He believes it should offer new loans to subprime mortgage holders so they can refinance.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called for mortgage lenders to help defaulting homeowners by reducing the principal they owe on their mortgages. John Dimsdale reports banks are reluctant to follow the advice.

Question: I understand that the stimulus package includes a provision to raise the cap on conforming loans (i.e. when loans become jumbo). When...

Federal regulators for the mortgage securitizers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are lifting restrictions on the growth of their mortgage holdings. The caps had been put in place as a response to accounting errors in both companies. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.

Construction went from being a leading contributor to employment growth to a leading source of unemployment. Dan Grech reports from a community near Miami that the Latino population has suffers a particular loss.

There was a big jump in wholesale prices in January showing inflation is rising faster than it has since 1981. Yet home prices are on a steep decline. Jill Barshay reports on what the conflicting figures say about the economy.