VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The surging Swiss franc has dealt a double blow to homeowners in Austria, home of the trend for borrowing in the Swiss currency that has devastated mortgage holders across eastern Europe.

U.S. home resales rebounded in December, but continued low participation by first-time buyers in the market suggested the housing recovery would remain gradual for now.

U.S. housing starts and permits fell in November, but remained at levels consistent with a gradually improving housing market. Groundbreaking declined 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.028 million units, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. October's starts were revised up to a pace of 1.045 million units.

Mexico's finance minister bought a home from a government contractor who is at the center of a conflict-of-interest scandal embroiling President Enrique Pena Nieto and his administration, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

U.S. securities regulators adopted a rule on Wednesday designed to avert another financial crisis, but two officials dissented, saying it did not do enough to discourage banks from lending to borrowers with shaky credit and then passing the mortgage risk to investors.

U.S. home resales raced to a one-year high in September, the latest indication the housing market recovery is gradually getting back on track.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) reported a third-quarter profit as the biggest U.S. bank boosted revenue from trading and investment banking, and moved past the huge legal claims that pushed it into a rare loss in the same quarter last year.

A statement from the office of the British Prime Minister David Cameron revealed that 6,000 mortgage applications, with over 80% of them as first-time buyers, applied for home loans under the government's Help-to-Buy program.

A source told Reuters that JPMorgan has bee pressured by finance authorities to settle at least USD6 billion in mortgage claims.

Bethany McLean of Reuters wrote that it would be a challenge to remove government sponsored enterprises from the US mortgage market.

The Federal Reserve said that Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC Mortgage will pay a total of USD 230 million to borrowers as settlement for handling foreclosures improperly.

Wells Fargo revealed that it is exiting its mortgage joint ventures in accordance to new regulations.

New sales of homes in the U.S. rose by 8.3% despite higher mortgage rates.

The Help to Buy scheme of George Osborne risked creating a new housing bubble.