Citimortgage Inc

In a major push to help low- and moderate-income families buy homes, CitiMortgage Inc., in partnership with Fannie Mae, will provide $1 billion in flexible mortgage products for qualified buyers in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties over the next five years, the lending giants said Friday. Targeting new immigrants, minorities and other underserved households, Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages, and CitiMortgage, a unit of Citigroup Inc.

In a major push to help low- and moderate-income families buy homes, CitiMortgage Inc., in partnership with Fannie Mae, will provide $1 billion in flexible mortgage products for qualified buyers in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties over the next five years, the lending giants said Friday. Targeting new immigrants, minorities and other underserved households, Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages, and CitiMortgage, a unit of Citigroup Inc.

NEW YORK -- The U.S. attorney in Manhattan has accused Wells Fargo of defrauding a government-backed mortgage insurance program, in another major civil case brought in the wake of the housing bust and financial crisis. The mortgage-fraud suit, filed by U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, seeks "hundreds of millions of dollars" in damages for claims the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has paid for defaulted loans "wrongfully certified" by Wells Fargo. The suit alleges the San Francisco banking giant falsely certified loans insured by the government's Federal Housing Administration.

CitiMortgage Inc., a unit of Citigroup, and Fannie Mae announced a $12-billion lending partnership aimed at increasing homeownership in low- and moderate-income and minority communities. CitiMortgage will originate and Fannie Mae will purchase $12 billion worth of mortgages aimed at addressing the needs of low- to moderate-income borrowers, minorities and recent immigrants.

National and local real estate professionals gathered in Santa Ana on Wednesday to kick off a nationwide campaign aimed at raising the rate of home ownership among local Latinos to the national level. U.S. Census figures show that 39% of Orange County's Latinos own their homes, compared with 46.7% of Latinos nationally and 67.7% for all Americans. The National Assn. of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals is spearheading an effort, called Close the Gap, to raise Latino home ownership rates.

Linda Tripp is facing foreclosure on the home where she recorded the telephone calls with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky that triggered the impeachment of President Clinton. CitiMortgage Inc. filed a foreclosure action in Howard County Circuit Court against Tripp late last month, noting a mortgage balance of $116,098.61, including late charges and interest.

The number of mortgages with permanently lowered monthly payments under the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention program increased dramatically in January. In all, the number went up to 116,297, with an additional 76,482 modifications approved and awaiting acceptance by the borrower, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday. Administration officials said that the program, which offers banks and other mortgage servicers cash incentives to reduce monthly payments, has saved homeowners a total of $2.2 billion.

In fluent Spanish, Carlos Vasquez advertises his skills as a home loan officer on cable television in San Diego. "Being able to speak their language is a real help," said Vasquez, who learned Spanish from his Mexican parents and studied it in school and in Mexico. But "you need to know the technical side of the mortgage business to really be a help."

WASHINGTON--What if your home-mortgage lender guaranteed you freedom from last-minute settlement fee surprises? What if your lender promised to let you review and question your closing costs weeks in advance of settlement? Some of the most powerful players in the American home-mortgage market--including giant investor Fannie Mae--are planning to introduce a more consumer-friendly way of obtaining home loans. Call it the "transparent" mortgage or "see-through" financing.

Federal data released Thursday showed just how poorly banks are doing at turning the growing number of temporary loan modifications into permanent ones under the Obama administration's effort to curtail foreclosures. Only 31,382 of more than 700,000 mortgage modifications under the federal program had been made permanent by the end of November. The numbers reinforced the bleak picture that Treasury Department officials painted last week when they said the number of permanent reductions was low. They unveiled new measures, including the threat of fines, to push mortgage servicers to improve their performance.

Two former top Citigroup Inc. executives apologized Thursday for the financial crisis and the $45-billion public bailout needed to save the banking giant from collapse. But Democrats and Republicans ripped the executives for not taking any responsibility for the company's dramatic fall and the nation's fiscal morass. "I'm sorry that the financial crisis has had such a devastating impact on our country. I'm sorry for the millions of people, average Americans who have lost their homes," Charles "Chuck" Prince, Citigroup's chief executive from 2003 to 2007, told the commission investigating the crisis.