News

2010

March

12

• New round of foreclosures threatens housing market. The housing market is facing swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but have yet to lose their homes, and this is threatening a new wave of foreclosures that could hit just as the…

09

• Pennsylvania helps jobless homeowners. The jobless may not be getting much help from President Obama's loan modification program, but those in Pennsylvania have another place to turn. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency offers the jobless and those suffering financial…

08

• Program will pay homeowners to sell at a loss. In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave. This…

06

• Developers' private transfer fees. How about this for a new and ingenious real estate money machine? Every time a house sells during the next 99 years, 1 percent of the price goes back to the original developer or is…

05

• Lower energy bills. It's a little late in the season to suggest this, but with all the inclement weather we've had, it may have been difficult to do much of the sexy caulking that Barack Obama has been…

04

• Renters beware of rent increase after signing the lease (Chinese). 移民、打拚數年，林姓年輕夫妻決定自行創業，在阿罕布拉市的Main大街上發現有間店面出租，華裔群集，是理想的營業地點，每月租金不到2000元，趕緊與房東聯繫。 房東表示，打算數月內將這間店面售出，但保證雙方簽訂的租約，不受業主易人的影響。林姓夫妻欣然與房東簽約，並開始申請營業許可、裝潢店面。

• Downgrade of financial protection agency threatens overhaul plan. The move this week to downgrade a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency to lure bipartisan support instead appears to be undermining the Obama administration's effort to overhaul the nation's regulation of the entire industry. The…

03

• A timeline for home buyers who want the tax credit. Intending to snag the $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers or the $6,500 credit for repeat buyers? If you haven't done anything except think about what you'd do with the dough, Realtor.com -- run by…

• Energy savers may get rebates. President Obama on Tuesday revealed details of a program to boost the energy efficiency of the nation's homes, create jobs and cut energy bills. The Home Star program, which needs congressional approval, envisions rebates of…

02

• Refinancing program extended for troubled homeowners. The Obama administration announced Monday that borrowers with little or no equity in their homes will have another year to take advantage of a refinancing program that so far has made little progress. The Home…

• Consumer protection may be headed for the Fed. The chairman of the Senate banking committee is seeking Democratic support for a Republican proposal to house a new consumer-protection regulator inside the Federal Reserve, a compromise that could clear the way for bipartisan legislation…

01

• Financial reform endgame. So here’s the situation. We’ve been through the second-worst financial crisis in the history of the world, and we’ve barely begun to recover: 29 million Americans either can’t find jobs or can’t find full-time work.…

• Renewed effort in Senate to reach financial regulation. When Christopher J. Dodd announced in January that he would not seek a sixth term in the Senate, he called reform of financial regulation, along with health care, “the two most important issues of our…

February

26

• FDIC to test mortgage reductions for underwater borrowers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is developing a program to test whether cutting the mortgage balances of distressed borrowers who owe significantly more than their homes are worth is an effective method for saving homeowners…

25

• Mortgage servicers offer aid plan for jobless. The Mortgage Bankers Association proposed a forbearance program Wednesday aimed at helping the unemployed pay their mortgages for up to nine months. Under the proposal, loan servicers would reduce eligible borrowers' monthly payments to no…

• U.S. may bend on consumer agency. The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system. In hopes of quick congressional…

23

• Cash-for-clunkers rebates for new appliances. Three dozen states will launch programs in March and April to distribute almost $300 million in rebates to consumers buying energy-efficient appliances. The federally funded programs, similar to the cash-for-clunkers auto rebate program last year,…

19

• Administration to provide more aid to homeowners. President Obama will announce a plan Friday to direct $1.5 billion in taxpayer money to five state housing finance agencies to help them develop new programs for addressing the housing crisis in their communities, according…

18

• Pressure to expand foreclosure prevention. The Obama administration is facing increasing pressure from lawmakers and housing advocates to retool its troubled mortgage relief program a year after its debut as the housing crisis continues to deepen and spreads to more…

14

• Money matters in a marriage. The recession has unearthed another economic truism: Having a sound financial marriage is as romantic as roses and chocolate. Money definitely matters for contemporary American marriages, according to "The State of Our Unions," an annual…