The cold domestic housing and mortgage markets have lenders looking for warmer possibilities, and a few are spending more efforts to finance Americans who choose to purchase primary residences and second homes south of the border.

The cold domestic housing and mortgage markets have lenders looking for warmer possibilities, and a few are spending more efforts to finance Americans who choose to purchase primary residences and second homes south of the border.

Reflecting continued uncertainty in the mortgage markets and consumers' unwillingness to buy when most home values are falling, a record-low number of homes sold in March in Santa Clara County, and the median price of those that did sell dropped significantly.

WASHINGTON -- Central bankers should pay more attention to rapid movement in house prices when setting interest rates, particularly in countries such as the U.S. with developed mortgage markets, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City risks losing more than 20,000 jobs in the high-paying financial sector over the next two years as the crisis in mortgage markets drives down Wall Street's profits, according to a report issued on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regional U.S. banks will be allowed to temporarily boost holdings of mortgage-backed securities by some $150 billion in another bid by regulators to bring stability to troubled mortgage markets.

Problems that began in the U.S. mortgage markets have led to the most serious international economic crisis since the late 1990s. Huge losses and concern about credit quality have spread far beyond the housing sector. America faces the prospect of a sharp recession, made all the likelier by the probable default of several million additional mortgages in the coming year and the resulting displacement of millions of families.

NEW YORK -- Morgan Stanley on Wednesday said it will cut 1,000 jobs as the nation's second-largest investment bank trims its residential mortgage operations amid the continued deterioration of the mortgage markets.

The chaos in the mortgage markets is only going to get worse in 2008 and will put a dent in U.S.

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes plunged by a record amount in September as turmoil in mortgage markets added more problems to a housing industry in its worst slump in 16 years.