Although the future of the country’s largest mortgage financiers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is questionable, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday that government backing for the debt issued by the two firms must remain strong.

As the nation’s housing crisis continues, millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure. Short sales are a viable option for homeowners in default to escape the threat of formal foreclosure. DepotPoint Inc.

The Federal Reserve recently approved new regulatory statutes requiring mortgage lenders to disclose to borrowers how much interest rates differ between prime mortgages and the higher-priced subprime loans offered to less-affluent borrowers.

Fannie Mae announced this week that it will reinstate a requirement for homeownership counseling and education for first-time home buyers obtaining one of its MyCommunityMortgage loans, which give lenders a conforming alternative for low- and moderate-income borrowers, or a loan that relies on nontraditional credit to qualify.

More appraisers are using technology to fulfill appraisal orders, according to a recent survey conducted by ValuFinders Inc., a provider of valuation services to national lenders, brokers, and government agencies.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), has added two new members to its Congressional lobbying team on Capitol Hill: Len Wolfson has been named MBA’s Director of Legislative Affairs, and Catherine Cruz Wojtasik has been appointed AVP of Legislative Affairs.

Cyberhomes.com, an online real estate information site for consumers from Fidelity National Financial, a Fortune 500 provider of products, services and technology solutions to the financial and real estate industries, has been named one of the xTop Web sites of 2008x by PC Magazine.

First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corporation family of companies, today released the industry’s first state-level assessment of negative equity estimates for all single-family residential properties in the United States.

Colorado-based Mortgage Cadence Inc, a provider of enterprise lending solutions (ELS) for the financial services industry, recently announced that it is helping Senior Lending Network, a program of World Alliance Financial Corp and a recognized leader in reverse mortgages, automate back office workflow for its reverse lending and document preparation process.

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate for federal funds - the rate at which banks lend to each other overnight - by half a point to one percent on Wednesday. Other central banks around the world followed suit, also reducing rates or announcing that they were considering the move.