The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Index of home prices rose 0.3 percent from December to January on a seasonally adjusted basis as released Tuesday. The index covered prices in 20 cities to gauge market values. It was the eighth straight monthly increase.

On an unadjusted basis, the January prices were down 0.4 percent compared with December and have dropped from a year earlier by 0.7 percent at a reading of 146.32 extending a decline pattern.

"The rebound in housing prices seen last fall is fading," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's. "Fewer cities experienced month-to-month gains in January."

House sales surged in the fall as buyers and sellers eagerly did deals before the government’s $8,000 tax credit was scheduled to end November 30. Congress then extended the credit until April 30 and expanded to cover non first time buyers, but the momentum was lost, and sales volume plunged.

Only two cities registered home price gains in January which are Los Angeles with 0.9 percent and San Diego gaining 0.4 percent.

Portland, Oregon had biggest decline with 1.8 percent.. Other large losses were sustained by Chicago and Seattle which are both off 1.7 percent and Atlanta down 1.5 percent.

The Obama administration announced Monday that five more states will receive financial support. An additional $600 million in funding will be doled out to five states with high unemployment rates of more than 12 percent.

These states are North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina.

Ohio will receive the largest share of the funds at $172 million because it has the largest proportion of its population living in high-unemployment counties. North Carolina will receive $159 million and South Carolina with $138 million. Oregon will get $88 million and Rhode Island is due to get $43 million.

The money will be given to state housing finance agencies. They will design mortgage assistance programs that meet broad criteria provided by the Treasury Department.

Last month, the Obama administration said it would give $1.5 billion to state housing agencies in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada, as they have some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

"The goal for our second set of awards was to identify states suffering from high shares of populations living in concentrated areas of economic distress," said Alan Krueger, Treasury assistant secretary.

The Obama administration announced a new plan to stem to push lenders to offer principal forgiveness as it announced the allocation of $14 billion in Troubled Asset Relief program (TARP) funds to give lenders additional incentives to lenders to reduce principal and refinance underwater borrowers into FHA-backed mortgages.

The Obama administration says that the plan will help stabilize the real estate market by keeping borrowers out of foreclosure.

The plan targets to help the underwater and the unemployed borrowers.

For the underwater borrowers or those who have negative equity on their homes, they can refinance into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. FHA will get $14 billion in incentive money from the federal bailout fund.

For the unemployed borrowers or those receiving unemployment benefits would have their mortgage payments cut to no more than 31 percent of their monthly income for three to six months to give them more time to find a job.

McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.99 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending March 25, 2010, up slightly from last week when it averaged 4.96 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.85 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.34 percent with an average 0.6 point, up slightly from last week when it averaged 4.33 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.58 percent.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.14 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.09 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 4.96 percent.

The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 4.20 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.12 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 4.85 percent.

(Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total cost of obtaining the mortgage.)

“Mortgage rates inched up slightly this week as bond yields rose even further,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages, however, were still below 5 percent for the fourth consecutive week.

“Household debt burdens on aggregate continue to improve through the end of 2009. The Federal Reserve reported that the financial obligations for homeowners declined to under 16.1 percent of their disposable income in the fourth quarter, which represents the lowest share since the third quarter of 2003. Similarly, the obligations share for renters fell below 24.4 percent, the lowest since the end of 1993.”

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters.

Source: FreddieMac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), www.freddiemac.com

New homes sales unexpectedly fell to a record low in February, according to a government report released Wednesday, which was partly attributed to the stormy winter in February and weak economy which kept buyers away.

Sales of new homes fell 2.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted sales pace of 308,000 last month, compared to a upwardly revised annual rate of 315,000 in January, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The news follows a report released Tuesday where existing home sales fell for a third straight month in February, to the lowest level since July.

The drop in new-home sales was the fourth consecutive monthly decline and was the lowest rate since the government began tracking new home sales in 1963.

New-home sales were down 13 percent compared to February 2009.

New-home sales dropped in every region of the United States, except the West region, which climbed 20.8 percent. The Northeast was the hardest hit as sales in the region fell 20 percent from a month earlier. Midwestern sales dropped 18 percent while sales fell nearly 5 percent in the South.

The Commerce Department estimated that 236,000 new homes hit the market in February. At the current sales pace, it would take 9.2 months to sell through that inventory. This is up from 9.1 months of inventory in January. Prior to January, inventory was steadily declining.