If President Barack Obama gets his way, consumers who take out mortgages would automatically get a "plain vanilla" loan — such as a traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage — unless they opted for a riskier variety.

Three mortgage-comparison calculators - and what they're best for.

The optimism I am hearing the on the street about home sales picking up in the past few weeks has been tempered by the scary numbers that Equifax is reporting.

It looks like the quantity and velocity of foreclosures is not abating anytime soon if these numbers continue.

The Treasury Department's latest plan to stabilize the financial system is partly targeting a formidable mountain of troubled mortgage-securities from the real-estate boom earlier this decade.

The Federal Reserve's efforts to lower mortgage rates -- generally considered successful on Wall Street and in the central bank's own corridors -- may have hit a wall as a surge in refinancings has discouraged lenders from lowering rates further.