News

2008

December

21

• More lenders allow 'early workout' loan alterations. Here's some good news for homeowners facing tough financial times: You no longer have to miss two to three months of payments before your mortgage firm can modify your unaffordable loan terms. Fannie Mae,…

19

• Owners find themselves trapped underwater. Michael and Cynthia Russell wanted to move to New York City, where they both work. Jobs are more plentiful there than in their town of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. But like millions of Americans today, the couple…

• Lawsuit filed against Countrywide over ID breach. A New Jersey couple is suing Countrywide Financial Corp. and two other people claiming the company allowed a security breach involving detailed financial information from more than two million customers. Matthew and Danielle Holmes of…

• 30-year mortgage rates sink to lowest on record. Interest rates on 30-year fixed rate mortgages dipped to their lowest level in at least 37 years after the Federal Reserve this week reaffirmed its commitment to a program designed to loosen consumer lending, according…

18

• Homeowners face foreclosure limbo. She may live in an epicenter of the U.S. housing crisis, but Vickie Lewis is far from any stereotype conjured up in coverage of the record number of Americans whose homes are in foreclosure. She…

17

• How the Fed's shock-and-awe move could affect you. The Federal Reserve tried for a major shock-and-awe effect with its interest rate cut and other moves Tuesday aimed at rescuing the economy from a devastating downturn. For savers and investors, the shock may be…

16

• The Crash: what went wrong?. When the housing market began to tank in 2005, Wall Street ran through the yellow light of caution and created even riskier investments -- and Washington had no mechanism for finding out what was going…

• Credit card terms squeeze consumers. Aggressive rate increases on credit cards are threatening to push struggling consumers into financial ruin, accelerating home foreclosures and the nation's descent into recession. The growing problem is reflected in cases such as that of…

• Pushing mortgage relief. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that the Bush administration must do more to help struggling borrowers stay in their homes before Congress will agree to release any more money to the Treasury Department's…

15

• Fannie Mae to provide relief to renters. Fannie Mae has agreed to let renters stay in their homes even if the owners of the properties have been foreclosed on, according to an announcement from the company yesterday. About 4,000 renters live in…

• More seeking break on property tax. CLEVELAND — A growing number of homeowners are trying to make falling property values work for them by asking the government for a tax break. Some are winning cuts worth hundreds of dollars in taxes…

14

• Unload your home through a short sale. eporting from Washington -- More than a few financially strapped owners have tried to unload their homes through what's known as a short sale, only to end up stymied by what most believe to be…

• Consumer movement at a crossroads. Since 1989, all new cars sold in the United States have had an air bag on the driver's side. It's estimated they save almost 3,000 lives a year. The woman largely responsible for that is…

• Lost money? Counting more than pennies. If you have been checking coat pockets or under sofa cushions for spare change, you know that every cent counts these days. Yet a big chunk of change is sitting at government agencies just waiting…

13

• Deals in falling-rate mortgage limbo. Could a 4.5 percent mortgage be your personal piece of the bailout pie? Apparently large numbers of consumers thought precisely that during the week after the disclosure that the Treasury Department was working on plans…

• How much house can you afford?. The past two years have demonstrated in dramatic fashion what can happen to people who overreach to buy the home they want. The lesson: Qualifying for the mortgage does not necessarily mean you can afford…

12

• Why home values may take decades to recover. More room to fall? For every $100 spent on a house in 1950 the investment rose slightly through 2002, then soared to about $192 in 2006, adjusting for inflation. Then credit dried up, and the…

11

• New wave of defaults likely as risky loans reset. Some time after Sharren McGarry went to work as a mortgage consultant at Wachovia’s Stuart, Fla., branch in July 2007, she and her colleagues were directed to market a mortgage called the “Pick A Pay”…

• Plan to help troubled homeowners makes headway. Bankruptcy judges would be able to reduce payments and principal for homeowners with troubled mortgages under a proposal that appeared to be gaining momentum Wednesday. The plan to allow the courts to order lenders to…

10

• Fannie, Freddie blamed for an ‘orgy’ of nonprime loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac engaged in “an orgy of junk mortgage development” that turned the two mortgage-finance giants into vast repositories of subprime and similarly risky loans, a former Fannie executive testified on Tuesday.…