News

2010

August

15
  • In this play, one role is enough. Meet Brad Miller, a Democratic representative from North Carolina who was elected to Congress in 2002, talks straight and understands how big banks can put consumers at peril. He is worth getting to know, not only
14
  • Beware of 'virtual staging' makeovers. Try to picture this real estate scenario -- virtually. Like most shoppers searching for a home, you start on the Web, checking out listings and locations. You find a house that appears to be what
13
  • Elizabeth Warren: poised to become borrower's best friend. Somewhere along the line, Elizabeth Warren became a symbol. She's either the plain-spoken, supremely smart crusader for middle-class families that her supporters adore, or she's the power-hungry headline seeker her critics loathe, a fiery zealot
12
  • Borrowers refuse to pay billions in home equity. During the great housing boom, homeowners nationwide borrowed a trillion dollars from banks, using the soaring value of their houses as security. Now the money has been spent and struggling borrowers are unable or unwilling
  • U.S. plans more aid for jobless homeowners. In an acknowledgment that the foreclosure crisis is far from over, the Obama administration on Wednesday pumped $3 billion into programs intended to stop the unemployed from losing their homes. The housing market, which usually helps
11
  • Short sales soar in California, U.S.. Sales of homes for less than the amount of their outstanding mortgage debt have tripled since 2008, particularly in California and the Sunbelt, according to a report released Tuesday. Known as short sales, the increasingly common
  • Feds rethink policies that encourage home ownership. Just how much should Uncle Sam do to help Americans buy their own homes? For 70 years — and for the last 15 in particular — the answer has been: Whatever it takes. Now, policymakers are pausing to reconsider.
09
  • Angry customers venting online. You've been cheated or mistreated by a business, and no one from the company seems to care. Now what? Thousands of jilted consumers have turned to complaint websites, where they anonymously share with the Internet
07
  • Diverse coalition targets home transfer fees. Can you name a housing controversy that pulls Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, consumer advocates, labor unions representing transport workers and government employees, the title insurance industry, the National Council of La Raza, libertarian and property
  • How to live close to the neighbors. Melissa Danielson doesn't mind hearing the occasional dog barking on the other side of the wall. She enjoys the chance to bump into neighbors as they come and go. And she laughs when little ones
03
  • Countrywide to pay $600 million in shareholder lawsuits. Countrywide Financial Corp. which epitomized the home-loan industry's boom and bust, has agreed to pay $600 million in the largest settlement yet of shareholder lawsuits stemming from the mortgage meltdown. The agreement, given preliminary approval Monday
  • Big bucks in online social games. The most-used function on Angela Shields's iPhone is not the phone. Or e-mail. Or the Web browser. It's a game called Words With Friends, and she taps it open more than 10 times a day, anxious
02
  • Homeownership rate continues to fall. Millions of houses on the verge of foreclosure threaten to send homeownership to its lowest level in 50 years, according to new industry estimates. Fresh projections say the rate could plummet to about 62% as early as 2012
01
  • Arbitration quietly closes doors of protest. Lease a car, enroll in a cell phone plan or finance the purchase of a major appliance, and you're likely signing away your rights. Most consumer contracts include clauses that require you to take any

July

29
  • Foreclosures boom among most creditworthy. A record number of borrowers once judged the most creditworthy are heading into foreclosure as the job market leaves more homeowners unable to keep up with mortgage payments. Foreclosures among borrowers with prime conforming loans
26
  • Warren's candidacy raises a partisan debate. Elizabeth Warren last week won the endorsements of several dozen Congressional Democrats, two of the nation’s leading labor groups and her hometown newspaper, The Boston Globe. One would be forgiven for thinking that the
25
  • Pondering when to reenter the housing market. In hindsight, Scott Feldman's decision to sell his first home in late 2006 could have been a case study in a textbook called "How to Time the Real Estate Market." Feldman, who works at a private
24
  • How to score a better deal on a mortgage. Call it the great real estate disconnect of 2010: Mortgage rates have been at half-century lows and home prices have stabilized, but applications for mortgages have declined most weeks during the past three months, as measured
22
  • Obama signs financial overhaul into law. As much as it felt like an ending, President Obama launched a new era in the relationship between Washington and the financial world when he placed his signature Wednesday on a massive bill to rewrite
 

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