The number of homebuyers who agreed to purchase an existing home sank to a new low in January as economic woes turned them away from the staggering housing market, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. The group's seasonally adjusted index of pending sales contracts ...

Government efforts to provide easier credit to consumers and jump-start flagging home sales could push mortgage rates "well below 4 percent," a federal regulator said Wednesday. James Lockhart, whose agency oversees government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, made the comments at a meeting of Women ...

Corners of the credit markets are slowly loosening after the government pledged to buy stakes in private banks, but there's still congestion — and investors are also noticing some adverse, unintended consequences from the rescue efforts. One of them is the yield on long-term Treasurys, used to ...