The number of residential mortgages originated in the fourth quarter tumbled to a nine-year low as inflation drove home-loan rates above 7%, according to a report on Thursday from ATTOM. Americans signed 1.5 million mortgages in the closing three months of 2022, including purchase loans and refinancings, down 55% from a year earlier, as interest rates more than doubled, the real estate data firm said. Refinancings dropped to the lowest level in more than 20 years, the report said. “The...

For years, homeowners in high flood-risk areas have relied on subsidized flood insurance that the federal government offers through the National Flood Insurance Program. Until recently, private flood insurance was essentially nonexistent for residential properties.

Restarting the U.S. economy comes down to the availability of testing to identify the carriers of COVID-19 and protect the uninfected, according to former Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen. Absent that, many Americans will stay in their homes, even if states lift restrictions, and not engage in the consumer spending that accounts for about 70% of U.S. GDP, she said. “Our focus needs to be on testing and trying to get the pandemic under enough control so that we can begin to restore...

The economic deterioration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic warranted a “forceful” response, according to the minutes released on Wednesday of the Federal Reserve’s March 15 emergency meeting. “All participants viewed the near-term U.S. economic outlook as having deteriorated sharply in recent weeks and as having become profoundly uncertain,” according to the minutes. The policymakers also “noted that financial markets had exhibited extraordinary turbulence and stresses.” At the mid-March...

The average U.S. rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.33% this week, matching the prior week, according to Freddie Mac. The rate remains 4 basis points away from the all-time low of 3.29% set in the first week of March. Based on the 10-year Treasury yield, a benchmark for home-loan rates, financing costs could be headed lower, said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac chief economist. “There is room for rates to move down,” Khater said. “This year the 10-year Treasury market has declined by over a full...