News

2018

April

21

• Blacks still face a red line on housing. For generations of white American families, homeownership has been a fundamental means of accumulating wealth. Their homes have grown in value over time, providing security in retirement and serving as an asset against which they…

19

• The ‘C’ in CRA should still mean something. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was put into place to address the refusal of banks to lend to and meet the financial needs of low- and middle-income communities. Crucially, CRA brings together communities that have…

18

• Here's why you're having so much trouble finding a home to buy. Low inventory and high demand have also caused home prices to increase by more than 5 percent every year for the past six years, which is great news for homeowners but frustrating for buyers. Finding…

• First-ever evictions database shows: 'We're In a housing crisis'. For many poor families in America, eviction is a real and ongoing threat. Sociologist Matthew Desmond estimates that 2.3 million evictions were filed in the U.S. in 2016 — a rate of four every minute.…

17

• Teach kids to be smart consumers. Most financial literacy efforts in schools don’t improve people’s behavior later in life. That could be because we’re focusing on the wrong things. Trying to teach teenagers how to shop for a mortgage, for example,…

13

• Federal judges indicate they could remove Mulvaney as acting CFPB chief. Judges on a federal appeals court panel Thursday appeared hesitant to overrule President Trump and install the deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the agency's temporary leader.

12

• Mulvaney leading Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over a cliff. Accounts of the slow death of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are not exaggerations. In his just released report to Congress, the agency’s acting director, Mick Mulvaney, was clear about his mission. “The bureau is…

11

• A house you can buy, but never own. In a contract for deed, the buyer purchases an agreement for the deed rather than buying the deed itself. The tenant has to fulfill the conditions of the agreement in order to get the deed,…

10

• 3 ways parents can help grown kids own a home. When responsible first-time homebuyers need help buying a home, the family bank sometimes can lend a hand.

• Under Trump, a voice for the American consumer goes silent. In the 135 days since the Trump administration took control of the nation’s consumer watchdog agency, it has not recorded a single enforcement action against banks, credit card companies, debt collectors or any finance companies…

• Presentan en Francia la primera vivienda social impresa en 3D. Un grupo de investigadores dio a conocer la que dijo que es la primera vivienda social del mundo impresa en 3D, que desde junio será el hogar de una familia francesa.

04

• Treasury proposes updates meant to boost lending in poor communities. The Treasury Department called on federal regulators to update a 1977 law meant to prevent mortgage discrimination and encourage banks to invest in struggling areas in which they operate. Treasury released close to a dozen…

• Mortgage applicants beware IRS ‘tax transcript’ program's security. Federal auditors say the popular “tax transcript” program run by the Internal Revenue Service and used by millions of mortgage applicants a year lacks adequate security protections against disclosures of tax-return details to people who…

• Mulvaney, Consumer Bureau’s chief, urges Congress to cripple agency. Mr. Mulvaney, a longtime and unapologetic critic of the financial crisis-era bureau, has spent the last several months freezing its enforcement activities, dropping cases on payday lenders and shutting out career staff from major decisions.…

03

• Trump appointee helps companies, not consumers. In 1959, the late Dinah Washington won a Grammy for her hit, “What a Difference a Day Makes,” a song of how a blossoming romance dramatically changed life for the better. Its lyrics conclude, “the…

• What it was like to finally write my will. Did you know Prince died without a will? It’s true! All that money, and one of the greatest performers I ever saw onstage didn’t spend a little of it on sorting out his estate? It…

01

• Consumer Action INSIDER - April 2018. This month's INSIDER brings you stories about the Federal Trade Commission's Contact Lens Workshop; an agency that protects municipal bond investors; updates to our Consumer Services Guide; new legislation we're following in California; and planning activities for our annual Consumer Empowerment Conference. Hotline Chronicles discusses a complaint from a homebuyer who was asked to pay a real estate agent in advance in order to find a home.

• Consumer Action INSIDER - April 2018. This month's INSIDER brings you stories about the Federal Trade Commission's Contact Lens Workshop; an agency that protects municipal bond investors; updates to our Consumer Services Guide; new legislation we're following in California; and planning activities for our annual Consumer Empowerment Conference. Hotline Chronicles discusses a complaint from a homebuyer who was asked to pay a real estate agent in advance in order to find a home.

• Consumer Action INSIDER - April 2018. This month's INSIDER brings you stories about the Federal Trade Commission's Contact Lens Workshop; an agency that protects municipal bond investors; updates to our Consumer Services Guide; new legislation we're following in California; and planning activities for our annual Consumer Empowerment Conference. Hotline Chronicles discusses a complaint from a homebuyer who was asked to pay a real estate agent in advance in order to find a home.

• Barclays agrees to pay $2 billion for selling toxic mortgages. Prosecutors say that between 2005 and 2007 Barclays sold investors packages of mortgages that were worth less than the bank claimed, costing the investors billions of dollars. More than half of the $31 billion in mortgage packages eventually defaulted, prosecutors…