AP - A flurry of good news this week — including falling jobless claims, stronger consumer spending and higher new-home sales — suggests the economic rebound, modest though it is, might just be here to stay.

AP - The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a new program to support state and local housing finance agencies. The plan will help the agencies finance mortgages for first-time homebuyers and develop rental housing

AP - Lenders are ramping up efforts to avoid home foreclosures, but a report by bank regulators says more than half of borrowers who get help fall behind again.

Reuters - U.S. mortgage applications jumped last week to their highest since late May as interest rates tumbled below 5 percent, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday

Reuters - U.S. mortgage applications surged last week to their highest since late May as consumers sought to take advantage of the lowest interest rates in months, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday

AP - It’s where Bernard Madoff broke down and confessed to his massive fraud, frantically wrote checks for millions of dollars as the scheme unraveled and appeared in a bathrobe to greet the FBI agents who arrested him.

Reuters - Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes rose in July to their fastest pace in 10 months, while orders for long-lasting manufactured goods surged, hinting a modest economic recovery was taking shape.

AP - A committee that investigated VIP mortgage deals for Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad has cleared both of them of breaking Senate rules.

BusinessWeek - Signed home-purchase agreements in the U.S. rose in June to the highest monthly level in two years, according to the National Association of Realtors’ pending home sales index that was released on Aug.

AP - Nationalized German lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG said Friday that it lost euro750 million ($1.08 billion) in the second quarter as hefty loan loss provisions weighed down its performance.