Business: Real Estate

Banks have raised $260 billion or so worldwide to offset subprime-mortgage related losses -- easing the credit crisis -- but must tap even more money to get back to business as usual.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home builder sentiment fell for the first time in four months in May, edging closer to the record low set in December, as market conditions continued to worsen, an industry group said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down this week to their lowest point in a month, a spot of welcome news to would-be home buyers.

PARIS (AFP) - French banks Credit Agricole and Natixis reported more heavy losses on Thursday as financial market turmoil mauled their business, forcing them to cut costs and raise cash to repair the damage.

TOKYO - Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan's second biggest banking group, reported Thursday a 50 percent drop in profit for the fiscal year, taking a beating from U.S. subprime credit problems.

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has ruled that a shareholder lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corp. executives and directors should go to trial, rejecting several arguments by the troubled mortgage lender to dismiss the case.

(Reuters) - Friedman Billings Ramsey said Freddie Mac will not realize meaningful earnings growth until 2012, at the earliest, and that the $5.5 billion capital raise it announced Wednesday will not be enough.

PARIS (AFP) - French investment bank Natixis said on Thursday its first-quarter earnings plunged 88 percent after it had to take further write-downs on its exposure to the US subprime home loan crisis.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's second-largest bank Mizuho Financial Group said on Thursday that its annual net profit had roughly halved amid heavy losses from the subprime loan crisis in the United States.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Directors and officers of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial must answer shareholder accusations of insider trading and failure to monitor lending practices that led to the company's collapse, a federal judge in California has ruled, the New York Times reported.

Freddie Mac beat Wall Street's expectations in the first quarter, but the mortgage finance company didn't vanquish concerns about its ability to weather the housing bust.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said mortgage applications for the week ended May 9 rose 2.9% to 674.4. The group said applications rose for a 2nd week as lower interest rates sparked a 6.5% jump in refinancing activity. Applications for buying a home fell 0.7%. With Treasury yields near 2008 highs, mortgage rates are moving back up.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who led investigations into companies blamed for the state's subprime mortgage mess, resigned under a cloud on Wednesday after admitting to an affair with a female staff member.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on Wednesday and the second-biggest U.S. home-finance company said it would raise capital to expand, sparking a rally in its shares.

LOS ANGELES - More U.S. homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments last month, driving the number of homes facing foreclosure up 65 percent versus the same month last year and contributing to a deepening slide in home values, a research company said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - In a further sign of the still-troubled US housing market, a survey Wednesday showed home foreclosure actions hit a fresh all-time high in April of 243,353.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage applications rose for a second consecutive week, fueled by a jump in demand for home refinancing loans as interest rates dropped, an industry group said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosure filings in April edged up from March and were a whopping 65 percent higher than a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Wednesday.

BERLIN (AFP) - German logistics group Deutsche Post reported a wider-than-expected 18.4 percent drop in first quarter earnings on Wednesday as turbulence on financial markets hit earnings at its Postbank banking unit.

The median sales price in metro areas fell 7.7% vs. a year earlier to $196,300, the worst since records began in 1979, the Nat'l Assoc. of Realtors said. Soaring foreclosures have reduced the value of nearby properties, said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. Prices fell in 100 of 149 U.S. cities, led by Calif.'s Sacramento, San Bernardino and Riverside. Also, homes for sale rose by 40,000 in March to 4.06 mil. It would take 9.9 months to sell off the inventory, up from 9.6 months at the end of Feb.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Fraudsters netted hundreds of millions of dollars through mortgage scams last year, and the trend was likely to continue as the US housing market slumps even further, the FBI said Tuesday.

(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp on Tuesday increased its forecast for expected losses from home equity loans, citing the deteriorating U.S. housing market.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc , the largest U.S. luxury home builder, said on Tuesday the spring selling season was weak and it expects to report a 30 percent drop in quarterly home-building revenue, sending its shares down 2 percent.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of IndyMac Bancorp Inc fell as much as 22.5 percent to an all-time low on Tuesday after an analyst said the independent mortgage lender needed to raise significant capital.

PARIS (AFP) - French banking giant Credit Agricole said on Tuesday it was seeking 5.9 billion euros (9.2 billion dollars) in fresh cash from shareholders after taking new charges of 1.2 billion euros for problems in the US subprime market.

PARIS - French bank Societe Generale SA said Tuesday that write-downs linked to the crisis in financial markets led to a 23 percent decline in first-quarter profits.

LONDON (AFP) - Europe's main stock markets fell on Tuesday as sentiment was dampened by news of a massive 5.9-billion-euro rights issue at French bank Credit Agricole after more heavy US subprime losses, dealers said.

HORSHAM, Pa. - Luxury home builder Toll Brothers says preliminary results show homebuilding revenue fell 30 percent in its fiscal second quarter amid a weak spring selling season.

PARIS (AFP) - French banking giant Credit Agricole said Tuesday it is seeking 5.9 billion euros (9.2 billion dollar) in fresh cash from shareholders after reporting another 1.2 billion euros write-down due to the US subprime home loan crisis.