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Mortgage applications rose 4.9% last week as more borrowers refinanced at the lowest rates in decades, according to new figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Home prices fell 0.3% in June on seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency house price index, which had trended upward for the past four months.

The Federal Housing Administration is opening the door for conventional borrowers with negative equity to refinance into government insured loans.

An Irvine, Calif.-based reverse mortgage lender has created a new website designed to answer senior citizens questions regarding the product.

The decline in home equity in recent years has affected the strategy of those seniors who were looking to sell their properties and use the proceeds to move into assisted living or retirement communities, said an executive with a marketing company that specializes in providing assisted living referrals.

Fitch Ratings is worried that JPMorgan Chase could be overwhelmed by future mortgage repurchase requests from investors in the secondary market, namely Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The nation's top accounting standard setter is retiring.Robert Herz, the chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, announced that he will step down after eight years. Leslie Seidman, a FASB board member since 2003 and a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. accounting policy vice president, was appointed acting chairman, effective Oct. 1.

After nearly a year of gains statewide, existing home sales in Illinois fell in July at the hands of the weak job market and the poor economy.

The housing and mortgage markets were hit with yet another blast of ugly news Wednesday morning with new home sales falling 12.4% in July and the Mortgage Bankers Association reporting that purchase money loans now account for just 17.6% of all new loan applications.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to a new yearly low Wednesday morning — 2.42% — after yet another disappointing report on home sales.