Freddie mac

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae says it made $2.7 billion in the first quarter, the first time it has had a net income gain since it was taken over by the government during the 2008 financial crisis.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now own some 200,000 foreclosed-upon homes, and they're spending $500 million a year on upkeep. That's a lot of lawn mowing. If only there were a cheaper way to get it done -- a way that benefited Americans. Here's an idea ...

A spin-off group from Occupy Wall Street, called Occupy Our Homes, has formed to reverse and stop foreclosures. Lately, the group has been using creative tactics to raise awareness about the banking practices that led to the housing bubble.

Mortgage rates have hit an all-time low according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The drop has done little to help new home sales, but it did cause a surge in refinancings.

With the historically low interest rates, many homeowners with 30-year mortgages have been leaving their loans for younger models. According to a new report from Freddie Mac, more homeowners are refinancing into 15- and 20-year mortgages than ever before.

Holding a spot on the Fortune 500 list puts a business in august company, but that isn't always synonymous with being successful. Each year, some companies manage to stay on the list despite experiencing profound problems, and losing billions of dollars for their stakeholders.

After respected banking analyst Meredith Whitney rattled the municipal bond market with her prediction of hundreds of billions of dollars in muni defaults, small investors dumped the bonds. That dire prediction may yet come true, but there are a few types of munis that still carry virtually no risk.

State attorneys general and federal regulators are rushing to settle the robo-signing foreclosure mess created by the banks and get the real estate market back on its feet. But their proposals don't fully address the one of the fundamental problems of the crisis: Who really owns all those homes?

Some recent reports on the real estate market show home prices starting to stabilize in many areas. Other data suggests the housing market has further to fall. But whichever direction the numbers are heading, there are few tenets that smart buyers and sellers should always follow.

If you've been saving your pennies and primping your FICO score in hopes of getting into the housing market while the getting's good (i.e., while home prices and interest rates are low), it must seem like there's a "new rule" of the new, post-bubble market to learn every time you turn around. And...