Need tuition? Don't count on home equity loans (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
With colleges gearing up for a new school year and tuition continually on the rise, turmoil in the mortgage industry could not have come at a worse time for families planning to use home equity to finance higher education costs.

PNC Bank commits $1 billion for home and business loans (The Scranton Times-Tribune)
PNC Bank on Thursday announced it would provide at least $1 billion to low- and moderate-income New Jersey residents and business owners over the next three years to encourage community development.

PNC Bank commits $1B for N.J. home, business loans (Daily Record)
NEWARK -- PNC Bank on Thursday announced it would provide at least $1 billion to low- and moderate-income New Jersey residents and business owners during the next three years to encourage community development.

US Federal Reserve eases fears of global economic crisis (ABS-CBNNEWS.com)
PARIS - The US Federal Reserve on Friday made its boldest move since markets became gripped by fear of a global economic crisis, slashing a key interest rate and sending jittery stock markets shooting higher.

London shares back above 6,000 points after Fed rate cut (AFP via Yahoo! News)
London's FTSE 100 index of top shares surged by almost 4.00 percent to move back above 6,000 points Friday after the US Federal Reserve eased global economic fears by slashing one of its key interest rates.

Mortgage pinch causes domino effect of pain (USA Today)
The problems in the mortgage industry are having a domino effect in the real estate market. Increasingly, first-time home buyers are getting shut out of the market, and that hurts move-up buyers. Homeowners are also having more trouble refinancing their escalating adjustable-rate loans, and that is increasing the number of foreclosures and the supply of homes on the market.

Countrywide Financial's credit woes force it to borrow billions (MSN Money Canada)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The credit mess forced Countrywide Financial Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage lender, to borrow US$11.5 billion on Thursday, shocking financial markets already reeling from the growing credit crunch and threatening to make home loans harder to get.

Share sell-off sweeps through Europe (FT.com via Yahoo! News)
European equity markets approached their lowest levels of the year on Thursday as concerns about financial companies and their exposure to the tightening of the credit market gathered pace.

Housing market slide hits home (The Gainesville Times)
A Gainesville real estate executive said mortgage originators who work "out of the back seat of their car" will be a thing of the past as mortgage companies struggle with fallout from the collapse of the subprime mortgage business.

World stocks plunge ahead of Wall Street open (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Global share prices tumbled again on Thursday, with a brutal round of losses in Europe and Asia ahead of the start of Wall Street trading, as investors took flight over the US housing market crisis.