News

2019

April

24

• How Nest home protection allowed hackers in. Software designed to help people break into websites and devices has gotten so easy to use that it’s practically child’s play, and many companies, including Nest, have effectively chosen to let

• Tax tips for home buyers and sellers. While the 2019 tax filing season may be over, if you’re buying or selling real estate this year, you may want to consult a tax expert as well as a real estate agent.

22

• Why aren't more people tapping into their home equity?. The options for tapping in to home equity appear to be growing.  Of course, you have your standard HELOCs and home equity loans and – for seniors –reverse mortgages could be an option.

19

• How to make retirement last the rest of your life. I thought the hard part was living within your means and saving for retirement. It’s not. Trying to figure out how to cash out your nest egg—your tax-deferred retirement account, your

• CFPB head says people need ‘to help themselves’. After becoming head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—a job for which she had little if any relevant experience—Kathleen Kraninger went on what she called a three-month “listening tour”

18

• Could debt collectors send you texts, emails?. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will unveil debt collection rules in a few weeks, the agency’s director said potentially unleashing a battle over the industry’s tactics and consumers’ rights. The

• No-income, no-asset mortgages are back. NINA loans are loans that do not include a requirement for a borrower to prove income or assets. No Income, No Assets = NINA. And now, NINA loans are back, as 360 Mortgage Group announced, that it

• Same-sex couples face higher rejection and worse mortgage rates. Gay couples were 73 percent more likely to be denied a mortgage than heterosexual couples with the same financial worthiness, according to an analysis of national mortgage data from 1990 to 2015. The study, published in the Proceedings

16

• Mulvaney’s master class in destroying the government from within. The C.F.P.B. was created to protect Americans from predatory lenders after the financial crisis. President Trump’s new chief of staff took it apart on his way to White House. Inside

11

• With $13 billion in disaster relief stuck in gridlock, lawmakers head to recess. The fight between President Trump and Democrats over money for Puerto Rico has left a major disaster aid bill languishing on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers preparing to head home for a two-week recess with no

10

• Bank of America to raise minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2021. Bank of America said Tuesday that it would raise its minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2021, a move that comes a day before banking industry leaders are scheduled to be grilled on Capitol Hill on

08

• Increase in risky corporate loans could lead to financial crisis. Actions by federal regulators and Republicans in Congress over the past two years have paved the way for banks and other financial companies to issue more than $1 trillion in risky corporate loans, sparking fears that

04

• Need a boost to your credit rating? Try these new financial tools. FICO’s “Ultra” score credit raises scores by importing data from your checking, banking, savings and money-market accounts into your credit report when calculating your score. If you have some savings, maintain

• Following Equifax hack attack, federal power to punish needed. The hack attack victim provided a short narrative in the CFPB complaint: “My life has been a complete nightmare, for I have been denied credit, turned down employment, and unable to provide adequate shelter

• Bank of America to give borrowers up to $10,000 to close a home loan. Bank of America is committing $5 billion to help boost homeownership for “low- to moderate-income and multicultural homebuyers and communities” across the country. One of the new options in the Neighborhood Solutions program, set

02

• Student loan debt still impacting Millennial homebuyers. Student loan debt, currently estimated at 1.56 trillion is still impacting Millennial homebuyers according to a recent report from Bankrate.com.

01

• Warren, Cummings look to crack down on credit bureaus. Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) have released a report from a government watchdog looking at the security practices of the consumer credit reporting agencies, or CRAs, finding that their defenses are inadequate and

• How to choose a vacation rental. This is the time of year when vacation rental decisions are being made for the summer, so chances are you’re looking at properties on Airbnb, HomeAway or TurnKey, and you don’t

• Mortgage rates continue to nose-dive. Just a handful of months ago, mortgage rates were soaring. Now they are sinking. According to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average plunged to 4.06 percent, with an average 0.5 point.

March

29

• HUD accused Facebook of racial, color, religion discrimination in their advertisement sales (Chinese). 聯邦住宅與都市發展部(HUD)28日控告臉書住房歧視，讓房東和房地產經紀人能根據種族、膚色、宗教、家庭情況、性別、殘障和母國等各種因素，限制哪些人才能看到它們的房屋和公寓租售廣告