The Center for Responsible Lending says Minnesota's foreclosure rate on bubble-era loans was higher than most other states. The report also found 5.5 percent of the Minnesota mortgages made during the housing bubble are delinquent.

Mortgage rates have slipped to a new low, bolstering hopes that the beleaguered housing market will continue to strengthen. The latest numbers suggest that this will be one of the busiest spring housing markets in several years.

When 5-year-old Brandon Chartrand, of Farmington, went into his mother’s purse to find the $4 he needed to get into a local pool, he found the family's $1,400 cash mortgage payment and stuffed it all in his swim trunks. An alert pool cashier notified his parents that their son was trying to gain admission with huge wads of cash.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is eyeing a $374 billion mortgage-servicing portfolio of Residential Capital LLC. The bankrupt lending unit, a subsidiary of government-owned Ally Financial, filed for Chapter 11 protection in May. Dow Jones News Wires reports Minnesota-based ResCap already has a proposed agreement to sell the mortgage unit to NationStar Mortgage Holdings Inc. Berkshire says it will match the $2.4 billion bid, but offer a lower breakup fee.

Federal officials think the lack of sidewalks and safe crosswalks are discouraging school children from walking to school. The Pioneer Press reports even after hundreds of millions of dollars in federal spending, the percentage of kids walking to school remains in the low double digits. In one Woodbury school, not one of the more than 800 students walks.

A woman from Savage was sentenced to 60 months in prison Friday for her role in a multi-million-dollar mortgage fraud scheme that victimized lenders across the country. Barbara Lynnae Puro, 49, was sentenced after pleading guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Ameriprise Financial's annual Retirement Readiness Index found only about half of those surveyed in the Twin Cities area have set aside money in savings and investments for the future.

A Chanhassen man has become the third person to plead guilty in a $20 million mortgage fraud scheme that involved 57 properties. Douglas Rex Butler faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of fraud.