Home, Mortgage and Personal Finance News Archive

• Help for Struggling Homeowners
  The New York Times (May 25, 2008)
  According to a recent report by the Hope Now initiative, a mortgage industry outreach group formed last year to help struggling homeowners, nearly 503,000 owners worked with lenders and loan servicers affiliated with the initiative in the first three months of this year to modify their loan payments and avoid foreclosure.
• Home Prices Down and Unsold Listings Way Up
  BusinessWeek (May 23, 2008)
  The big news in the April existing home price report released today by the National Association of Realtors wasn't the 8% drop in median home prices or the better-than-expected 1% decline in sales. It was the whopping 10.5% jump in the inventory of unsold homes.
• Lawsuits Accelerate Amid U.S. Housing Crisis
  Reuters (May 23, 2008)
  The U.S. housing crisis has caused huge loan losses at big lenders but also spawned a slew of class-action lawsuits against them, many alleging noncompliance with consumer disclosure rules.
• Foreign Buyers Flocking to U.S. Housing Market
  SmartMoney (May 23, 2008)
  Americans' love affair with real estate may be cooling, but thanks to falling home prices and the weak dollar, attention is heating up from another group of suitors: foreign investors.

• Wall Street: More Rate Cuts Still Possible But Not Likely
  CNBC (May 23, 2008)
  Wall Street appears resigned to the idea that the Federal Reserve is done cutting interest rates, but a patchy economy could force policy-makers to keep their scissors handy.
• Builders Tout Incentives In Bid to Sell Homes
  The Wall Street Journal (May 23, 2008)
  Highlighting their desperation to sell houses, builders are bringing back the gimmicks -- mortgage rates that start low, help with down payments, zero out-of-pocket expenses -- that helped fuel the housing bubble before it went bust. But this time, they say, history won't repeat itself.
• Not Even for a Car?
  The Washington Post (May 23, 2008)
  In a tight market, adopting extreme tactics -- one couple even offered a free car -- has mixed results.
• Mortgage Rates Dip Below 6 Percent
  MSNBC (May 22, 2008)
  Rates on 30-year mortgages dipped below 6 percent this week, falling to their lowest level in five weeks.
• Big Downpayments Return, Hurting Housing Recovery
  CNBC (May 22, 2008)
  Gone are the days when almost anyone could get a loan with a down payment of less than the traditional 20 percent.
• A Spring Break for Homebuyers
  Yahoo Finance (May 22, 2008)
  "We think affordability is at its peak," says Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics at Moody's Economy.com. The firm predicts prices will bottom out in the middle of 2009, declining 23 percent on average from the peak in the second quarter of 2006.
• Gov't Home Price Index Posts Largest Drop in 17-year History
  BusinessWeek (May 22, 2008)
  U.S. home prices posted their sharpest first-quarter decline since the government began tracking the data 17 years ago.
• The Bankruptcy Boom
  Newsweek (May 22, 2008)
  Despite the increased cost and inconvenience of declaring personal bankruptcy as a result of legislation passed three years ago, filings have jumped substantially in the last few months, fueld by the U.S. housing and credit crisis.
• In Search of a Fix for Jumbo Loans
  CNN Money (May 22, 2008)
  The new jumbo loans that were supposed to get the real estate market moving haven't done the trick. A Congressional hearing on Thursday examines why.
• Mortgage Applications Near Lowest Level of 2008
  CNBC (May 21, 2008)
  Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell to its second-lowest level of the year last week as interest rates rose, an industry group said Wednesday.
• Home Sales See First Monthly Gain in 6 Months
  The San Francisco Chronicle (May 21, 2008)
  The San Francisco Bay Area housing market displayed its first positive sign in months as the volume of April sales rose by its highest percentage in at least 20 years. Real estate experts, however, warned that the trough of the real estate downturn still could lie ahead.
• Reverse Mortgages: Beware the Come-ons
  Money Magazine (May 21, 2008)
  Reverse mortgage loans can help you tap the equity in your house. Just don't get tripped up by greedy salespeople.
• Swapping Vacation Homes in a Tax-Deferred Exchange
  SmartMoney (May 21, 2008)
  The IRS finally OKs tax-deferred exchanges of vacation homes. Here's how it works.
• School Districts Get Tough As Home Foreclosures Rise
  The Wall Street Journal (May 21, 2008)
  Some school districts, hoping to control costs and prevent overcrowding, are intensifying efforts to make sure students actually live where they are registered.
• Mortgage Rescue Advances in Senate
  CNN Money (May 20, 2008)
  The Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday voted 19-2 to pass a housing bill that the panel's leader hopes could be signed into law by July. The bill would limit foreclosures, create affordable housing and revamp oversight of two of the mortgage market's biggest players: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Where Home Prices Are Holding Up
  The Wall Street Journal (May 20, 2008)
  Here's a cheat sheet to understanding home-price patterns in some of the country's biggest metro areas.
• Fed's Kohn: More Trouble From Housing, Inflation
  CNBC (May 20, 2008)
  Interest rates seem to be at the right level to help the sputtering economy without sparking inflation, but policy-makers need to be ready to adjust quickly in the face of a highly uncertain outlook, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said Tuesday.
• Four Overlooked Homeownership Costs
  Investopedia.com (May 20, 2008)
  People tend to overlook the multitude of hidden costs of homeownership. In fact, there is much more that goes into owning a home than just the mortgage payment. Here are four overlooked items that often catch homeowners by surprise financially.
• Housing Woes Sink Home Depot's Profit
  AOL Money & Finance (May 20, 2008)
  The Home Depot Inc. reported a 66% drop in first-quarter profit Tuesday due to a large one-time charge and continued weakness in the housing market.

• Economists Predict Shallow Recession, Slow Recovery
  CNBC (May 19, 2008)
  First the good news: The worst of the painful housing slump and the credit crunch might come to an end this year. Now the bad: The economy will weaken further and unemployment will rise.
• At Last! Mortgage Rate Relief Arrives
  San Jose Mercury News (May 19, 2008)
  San Francisco Bay Area borrowers who last week would have been quoted a 7% rate for a 30-year mortgage of $500,000 could find a rate of about 6% on that loan by Friday. That difference could save a homeowner more than $300 a month on mortgage payments.
• Need a New Mortgage? Call Uncle Sam
  CNN Money (May 19, 2008)
  The Bush administration says it has the answer to the housing crisis: a program offering cheaper loans. It has helped many people, but critics say it's not enough.
• Buffett: Fallout From Credit Crisis Not Over Yet
  CNBC (May 19, 2008)
  The fallout from the global credit crisis is not over yet, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Monday in this CNBC video.
• Credit Doctors Often Just a Short-Term Fix for Scores
  SmartMoney (May 19, 2008)
  Offers to fix credit fast sound enticing, but the strategies aren't always kosher.
• Bush Says He Won't Back Bill That Bails Out Lenders
  USA Today (May 19, 2008)
  President Bush, acknowledging the economic "tough times" for many Americans, said Monday that he remains opposed to any homeowner rescue legislation that would be a bailout for lenders.
• Continued Weakness In Housing Seen In Data
  MarketWatch (May 19, 2008)
  U.S. consumers won't really feel comfortable until home values stop falling. They could be in for a rough year because there's no sign that home-price declines are letting up.

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