MIAMI -- A pair of lawsuits filed Monday claim that Deloitte & Touche LLP, one of the nation's largest accounting firms, should pay $7.6 billion in damages for failing through years of audits to detect massive fraud at a now-defunct Florida mortgage company.

"They certainly did not do their job," said attorney Steven Thomas, who represents those suing Deloitte. "This is one of those cases where the red flags are staring you in the face, and you've got to do a lot, and they did not."

Deloitte spokesman Jonathan Gandal responded that the company rejects the claims, calling them "utterly without merit."

The lawsuits were filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on behalf of the bankruptcy trustee for the fraudulent mortgage firm, Taylor Bean & Whitaker, and by Ocala Funding LLC, a company that purchased hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of mortgages from Taylor Bean. The bankruptcy trustee is attempting to recover money for Taylor Bean creditors.

The fraud began in 2002 and took multiple forms until Taylor Bean collapsed two years ago. The Ocala-based company shut down after federal agents raided its headquarters in August 2009, which led to the failure of Alabama-based Colonial Bank – the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

At its peak, Taylor Bean had about 2,500 employees and had originated some $30 billion in loans as of 2009.

Seven Taylor Bean executives were convicted of federal criminal charges, including former chairman Lee B. Farkas, who was sentenced in June to 30 years in federal prison. Federal prosecutors called the criminal case one of the most significant to arise out of the nation's financial meltdown.

Gandal said the blame for the fraud and losses should rest squarely on Taylor Bean, Ocala Funding and Farkas.

"The bizarre notion that his engines of theft are entitled to complain of injury from their own crimes and to sue the outside auditors they lied to defies common sense, not to mention the law," Gandal said on behalf of Deloitte.

According to the lawsuits, Deloitte's certifications of Taylor Bean's books were critical to maintaining its appearance as a legitimate, profitable mortgage business. In fact, the lawsuits contend, Taylor Bean was selling fake or grossly overvalued mortgages, misstating its liabilities and hiding overdrawn bank accounts, among other misdeeds.

"Deloitte missed this fraud because it simply accepted management's conflicting, incomplete and often last-minute explanations of highly-questionable transactions, even though those explanations made no sense and were flatly contradicted by documents in Deloitte's possession," one of the lawsuits says.

Deloitte quit as Taylor Bean's auditor in 2009, just as the federal investigations were ramping up.

The Ocala lawsuit includes an e-mail exchange in which Deloitte auditors are raising questions about various financial transactions, including one involving $6 billion that was just being analyzed for the first time a few hours before the deadline for the audit's completion. This "rush to certify" in the face of possible financial irregularities was another symptom of Deloitte's negligence, the lawsuit contends.

"These accounting firms have a public watchdog duty," Thomas said. "You have a duty to the public. When is that going to actually happen?"

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Home prices in July climbed for the fourth month in a row, but are still down from a year ago.

According to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 120 major cities, prices rose 0.9% in July compared with June, but they're still 4.1% lower than 12 months ago.

"We are far from a sustained recovery" said S&P spokesman David Blitzer. "Continued increases in home prices through the end of the year . . . must materialize before we can confirm a housing market recovery,"

Adjusted for seasonal differences, the 20-city index was flat month-over-month.

But a handful of cities have shown surprising strength recently. In Detroit for example, prices jumped 3.8% month-over-month, after spiking 5.8% in June. Minneapolis prices increased 2.6% and Washington recorded a 2.4% rise.

Weakness continued in Las Vegas, which was down 0.2% month-over-month and in Phoenix, which edged 0.1% lower.

Blitzer cited some positive signs for the struggling housing market. Existing home sales were up 20% in August compared with 12 months earlier. Foreclosures have dropped most of the year.

On the negative side, however, housing starts are near historic lows and consumer confidence remains depressed.

"These combined statistics indicate the market is still bottoming and has not turned around," he said.

Stan Humphries, chief economist for the real estate website Zillow, is not optimistic about the outlook for housing.

"I still believe that the continued fears about a Greek default, weak employment growth and low consumer confidence will ultimately translate into weaker housing performance in the back half of this year," he said. "Looking ahead, expect fading monthly momentum in Case-Shiller."

Complicating things is that a quarter of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages, owing more than their homes are worth, making it difficult to refinance into low interest mortgages.

Underwater borrowers are also more likely to go into foreclosure since there's no home equity to tap should they run into a rough financial patch.

Even though most analysts can't work up much enthusiasm for the upward price trend, it's still welcome news, according to Anthony Sanders, a professor of real estate at George Mason University.

"Four months of price increases is a pretty good sign that the market has stabilized," he said.

A more stable market could mean that lenders will loosen up purse strings a bit, making it easier for potential homebuyers to get mortgages, which could pump up demand for homes.

That could happen, according to Sanders, but he expects some bad price trend news this fall as a weaker selling season begins.  

A new federal program is offering aid with a sweet kicker: It doesn't need to be repaid.

For the roughly four million homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, the federal government is offering yet another remedy: free money to catch up on their loans.

The effort, called the Emergency Homeowners Loan Program, is the latest in the federal government's efforts to slow down the flood of foreclosures a necessary step to a meaningful recovery in the housing market, says a Department of Housing and Urban Development official. For people who have lost their jobs, the $1 billion program offers loans of up to $50,000 that don't actually need to be repaid, if applicants meet certain requirements.

Rolled out by HUD and the nonprofit housing advocacy group NeighborWorks America, the program is making loans with far better terms than anything on offer at a local bank. The loans are interest-free. Payments go directly to the lender for a portion of the borrower's monthly mortgage, including missed payments or past due charges. And when the assistance period -- which runs for up to two years -- ends, 20% of the loan is forgiven with each passing year. In other words, for qualified borrowers who stay in their home for at least five years after the assistance period and who don't fall behind on their mortgage again, this money doesn't have to be paid back.

But some critics say that's where help for consumers ends. By taking this loan, borrowers risk falling further into debt. If they sell their home before the entire loan is forgiven, they'll be on the hook for the remaining amount. The same holds true if they fall behind on their mortgage payments again: they'll need to repay the remaining balance of the loan when they sell or refinance their home. Separately, borrowers aren't required to have equity in their home to receive this money, so someone who has to repay this loan risks owing more on the home later than they do now. For homeowners who are significantly underwater now, the loan may only delay foreclosure, says Gabriel. While the limit each person will get is up to $50,000, loans will average about $35,000 per person, according to NeighborWorks America.

Others say the program doesn't go far enough. The loans will be made available to around 30,000 applicants -- "a drop in the bucket," says Stu Feldstein, president at SMR Research, a housing and mortgage research firm. It's helpful, he says, but it won't be enough to seriously boost the ailing housing market. Roughly 4 to 4.5 million borrowers are behind on their mortgages by at least 90 days or are in foreclosure, accounting for roughly 8% of all mortgages. Housing analysts say the loss of income is the primary reason why borrowers are in danger of losing their homes. Those behind the program counter that the help will be significant for some. "If you are one of those 30,000 people, I think you should be very excited to get this help," says a NeighborWorks America spokesman.

The program started last week and will take applications through July 22. Many experts say it's still too early to say it will be successful, and so far federal assistance programs haven't impacted a significant number of borrowers. The government's Home Affordable Modification Program, which started in 2009 and was projected to help up to 4 million homeowners lower their mortgage payments has so far only permanently helped around 700,000 homeowners. To be eligible, homeowners must have lost income and be at risk of foreclosure due to involuntary job loss, underemployment or a medical or other economic condition; details on the application process are available online through NeighborWorks America.