WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday passed a bipartisan package of tax breaks and other steps designed to help businesses and homeowners weather the housing crisis.

The measure passed by an impressive 84-12 vote, but even supporters of it acknowledge it’s tilted too much in favor of businesses like homebuilders and does little to help borrowers at risk of losing their homes.

The plan combines large tax breaks for homebuilders and a $7,000 tax credit for people who buy foreclosed properties, as well as $4 billion in grants for communities to buy and fix up abandoned homes.

An industry group said Tuesday that pending U.S. home sales fell in February to the lowest reading since the index began, signaling the housing market distress is not yet over.

The National Association of Realtors’ seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell to 84.6 from January’s upwardly revised reading of 86.2. The index stood at 107.6 in February 2007.

Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR had predicted the index would inch up to a reading of 86.3.

A reading of 100 is equal to the average level of sales activity in 2001, when the index started. The previous low was August’s reading of 85.8, recorded at the height of the credit crunch.

U.S. foreclosure activity rose 59.8 percent in February compared to the same month last year, data provider RealtyTrac reported today, and Nevada led the nation with a foreclosure rate of one filing for every 165 households — more than three times the national average.

RealtyTrac reported 223,651 total U.S. foreclosure filings in February, which includes filings for properties in default, scheduled for auction and real-estate-owned or REO foreclosure properties that have been repurchased by a bank. The national rate of foreclosure in February was one filing for every 557 households.

A Chicago landlord who ran an advertisement on craigslist seeking “young college students or single females” faces charges that he violated the Fair Housing Act.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development claims the ad posted by the landlord, Cesar A. Lopez, discriminates against men and families with children.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits advertisements that state a preference based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability

Lopez’s January 2006 ad — which advertised an apartment in an owner-occupied, three-story building — allegedly promised a “great apartment for a single person.”

An abrupt rise in interest rates helped cut mortgage application volume by 1.9 percent last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.

According to MBA, the seasonally adjusted decline was led by a 4.7 percent decrease in the index that tracks refinancings, despite a 1.4 percent gain in the purchase-loan index. As a result, the refinance share of applications fell to 50.6 percent from 52.4 percent two weeks ago, and the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share dipped to 15.5 percent from 17.3 percent.