Business - Real Estate

PHILADELPHIA - Five people were charged with using a supposed mortgage-rescue program to steal nearly $15 million in home equity from homeowners facing foreclosure in suburban Philadelphia. Full Story »

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- A Treasury program to avert home loan defaults isn’t helping enough troubled borrowers, said the chairwoman of a congressional panel overseeing the U.S. financial bailout program. Full Story »

NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y. - Real estate investment trust Kimco Realty Corp. said Tuesday it was launching a public offering of 25 million shares of its common stock at a price of $12.50 a share. Full Story »

NEW YORK - Dubai World's investment arm, Istithmar, lost ownership of the W Union Square New York hotel in a foreclosure auction Tuesday. Full Story »

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A federal grand jury on Tuesday accused five people of preying on homeowners faced with foreclosure by providing them with fraudulent new mortgages and pocketing the proceeds. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co sees additional losses on credit cards and home loans next year although there are some signs the rate of losses is settling and it may not need to build credit reserves much further, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said on Tuesday. Full Story »

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s CEO said Tuesday that the bank sees additional losses on home loans next year even as the economy shows slight improvements. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Only one in three homeowners who have signed up for the Obama administration's mortgage relief plan have sent back the necessary paperwork, highlighting continuing problems for the government's effort to stem the foreclosure crisis. Full Story »

RALEIGH, N.C. - Banks and anyone else with an interest in how new North Carolina mortgage laws are applied have an invitation to sound off. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators on Monday accused three former top executives of collapsed mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp. of fraud, saying they misled investors and inflated profits as the company's subprime loan business was failing in 2006. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three former executives at now-bankrupt lender New Century Financial Corp were charged with fraud by U.S. securities regulators on Monday, the latest government effort to pursue wrongdoing in the subprime mortgage market. Full Story »

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A federal appeals court on Monday dismissed a request to open a hearing into extending the prison sentence of mortgage broker Nelson Miller, who was convicted in January 2008 of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Full Story »

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island should consider merging the services provided by more than three dozen cities and towns into a county system to save money and give more foreclosure protections to renters and homeowners, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed said Monday before hosting a summit on the state's struggling economy. Full Story »

CALABASAS, Calif. - Bank of America Corp. said Monday it has provided mortgage relief through loan modifications for more than 600,000 homeowners since January 2008. Full Story »

(Bloomberg) -- Mortgage rates for fixed 30-year loans in the U.S. dropped to a record low amid signs that the housing market is beginning to emerge from the worst slump since the 1930s. Full Story »

Home buyers might soon have to bring more cash to the table to qualify for Federal Housing Authority-backed mortgages. The FHA mortgages, which now make up 30% of originations, have surged in popularity because borrowers need a down payment of just 3.5% to qualify, but the housing crisis has battered the agency's reserves. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than one-quarter of homeowners receiving help under a U.S. government foreclosure prevention plan are behind on their new mortgage payments, a Treasury Department survey has found. Full Story »

NEW YORK - Stop paying your mortgage. Full Story »