by Harold Brubaker
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Pa. adds $5M to mortgage-help programPennsylvania officials added $5 million to a state aid program designed to help the unemployed avoid foreclosure, Gov. Rendell said today at a Philadelphia financial counselling center.
Rendell said the additional money for the Home Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, which was launched during the economic slump of the early 1980s, would help an additional 550 homeowners.
So far this year, the program, which provides low-interest loans for up to 36 months to help the jobless keep their homes by allowing them to make lower payments, has helped 2,200 families, the governor said.
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by Michelle Chapman and J.W. Elphinstone
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Pulte Homes agrees to buy Centex in $1.3B deal
In a deal that will create the nation's biggest homebuilder, Pulte Homes Inc. is buying Centex Corp. for $1.3 billion in stock as both companies try to survive the worst real estate recession in a generation. The transaction, which also includes $1.8 billion of debt, will combine Pulte's strength in active-adult and retirement housing with Centex's hefty market share of first-time homebuyers. The acquisition also will give Pulte large tracts of land in Texas and the Carolinas, two of the most resilient real estate markets. But Wall Street analysts are concerned about the risk of taking on so much land in other areas where home prices are still plummeting. The new company, which will keep the Pulte name and headquarters in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., will have cash reserves totaling $3.4 billion and pay off $1 billion in debt by the end of the year.
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