News

2022

November

01

• Sharp spike in Black, Asian and Latino homeownership. Helped by pandemic-era stimulus programs, Black, Latino and Asian households saw the sharpest increase in homeownership in 2021 since the Great Recession, when all their levels of owning had fallen, according to an analysis of new

October

27

• U.S. mortgage rates soar past 7%. Mortgage rates barreled past the 7 percent mark to their highest level since 2002, as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate increases, meant to combat inflation, continued to seep through the economy and worry markets.

September

01

• Bank of America tests no-down-payment mortgages for minorities. Bank of America Corp. started a trial program aimed at helping first-time homebuyers in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods by offering mortgages that don’t require down payments, closing costs or minimum credit scores, all

August

31

• Consumer Action INSIDER - September 2022. The September issue of INSIDER brings you stories about some new grants and initiatives at Consumer Action, as well as standard features, like Hotline Chronicles (a terrible snafu with airline tickets) and CFPB Watch (a rundown of what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been up to). Learn about some upcoming class action settlements, too.

01

• Corporate landlords ‘aggressively’ evicted tenants during pandemic. Four major corporate landlords filed thousands of evictions while federal moratorium orders were still standing, using aggressive tactics to force out tenants at the height of the pandemic, according to a new investigation by a

July

25

• We need to keep building houses, even if no one wants to buy. While the challenge for builders, in the short term, might be that they have too many homes and not enough buyers, the challenge for the country, in the long term, remains precisely the opposite: There

June

22

• Justice Department and Meta settle landmark housing discrimination case. Facebook-owner Meta agreed to revamp the social network’s targeted advertising system under a sweeping settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, after the company was accused of allowing landlords to market their housing

07

• Massive rent increases hit mobile homes. Surging home prices and rents are cascading down to the country’s mobile home parks, where heightened demand, low supply and an increase in corporate owners is driving up monthly costs for low-income residents

02

• You can ask Google to take your personal data out of its search results. Google is offering a new tool to anyone who doesn't want their phone number, email or street address and other personal information to be found online: People can ask for their contact details to

May

01

• Consumer Action INSIDER - May 2022. This month's INSIDER features stories about our recent activities, including a webinar exploring the impact of COVID on small businesses and a project using FinTech to improve financial wellness. Hotline Chronicles relates a woman's difficulty in receiving her income tax refund after attempting to have it sent to a prepaid card. And, we announce new settlements in our Class Action Database.

April

24

• Emergency assistance for tenants and homeowners (Spring 2022). This issue of Consumer Action's quarterly newsletter provides an update on the various types of financial assistance available to help qualifying homeowners and renters stay in their homes. It also presents various efforts at preventing inaccurate eviction records from impeding consumers' ability to rent a home.

• Emergency assistance for tenants and homeowners (Spring 2022). This issue of Consumer Action's quarterly newsletter provides an update on the various types of financial assistance available to help qualifying homeowners and renters stay in their homes. It also presents various efforts at preventing inaccurate eviction records from impeding consumers' ability to rent a home.

18

• Find out and fix what big data says about you. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains a list of consumer reporting agencies that’s currently 38 pages long. In addition to the big three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — the list includes 22

13

• The federal consumer bureau sued TransUnion over deceptive sales tactics. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the credit-reporting firm TransUnion and a former senior executive — John Danaher, who led the company’s consumer sales unit — for violating a 2017 order to stop using

12

• Aging in place easier with smart home technology. Technology helps all homeowners, but especially seniors, by automating “things that are a pain or difficult to do,” says Michael Miller, author of “My Smart Home for Seniors.” Tech advances also

March

29

• Your shadow credit score could decide if you get an apartment. The rapid rise of tenant screening is one of the seismic changes to hit the rental market since the Great Recession. Tenant screening companies compile information beyond what’s in renters’ credit reports,

21

• Remote appraisals of homes could reduce racial bias. The majority of appraisals on home purchases in the United States can now be conducted without an appraiser ever stepping foot into the home — a move that some lawmakers and real estate professionals say

16

• Wells Fargo rejected half Its Black applicants for refinancing. Nationwide, only 47% of Black homeowners who completed a refinance application with Wells Fargo in 2020 were approved, compared with 72% of White homeowners, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of federal mortgage data. While Black applicants

01

• Rents reach ‘insane’ levels across US with no end in sight. In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor.com analysis of properties with two or fewer bedrooms. Nowhere was the jump bigger than

February

16

• See where investors bought a record share of homes. Last year, investors bought nearly one in seven homes sold in America’s top metropolitan areas, the most in at least two decades, according to the realty company Redfin. Neighborhoods where a majority of