REAL ESTATE

Prudential Insurance Co. Puts Mortgage Business on Block: The firm said it is leaving the mortgage business and has put its home lending unit--the country’s third-largest mortgage company--up for sale. Dogged by a sharp drop in residential lending, losses in its trouble-ridden securities unit and huge claims related to the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Prudential is getting out of the mortgage business to raise capital and concentrate on its core insurance and investment businesses. The company’s Residential Services Corp. of America “is a very good business, but we believe the Prudential needs to better focus its resources at this time,” said Arthur F. Ryan, the former Chase Manhattan Corp. president who was named chairman of Prudential in December. The mortgage business could fetch more than $1 billion, analysts estimated.