News

2009

October

10

• A mortgage loan form to take seriously. You might assume it's just another boring-looking piece of the paper blitz you're hit with when applying for a home loan. But given the new prominence of IRS Form 4506-Ts in the fraud-shocked mortgage market,

• Report criticizes mortgage program. A federal program that has cut mortgage payments for more than 500,000 homeowners since spring is falling well short of what's needed to fix the nation's foreclosure crisis, warns a congressional panel's report out Friday. "We're

06

• Lawyers scarce for poor facing foreclosure. The nation's foreclosure crisis has swamped lawyers for the poor, leaving thousands of low-income homeowners across the country without legal assistance that could save their homes. Legal offices providing help to the poor are turning

05

• Reporting overlooked economic troubles of ordinary people. A study to be released Monday of financial news coverage this year found that government, Wall Street and a small handful of story lines got the bulk of the attention while much less was paid

• Heating aid could fall short of needs. Record numbers of low-income people and senior citizens who can't afford to heat their homes are applying for help, say some local agencies that distribute aid and struggle with the recession's fallout. "The overwhelming need

03

• Reverse mortgages feel the squeeze. Declining home values have put a serious squeeze on one of the mortgage market's most popular and fastest-growing financing concepts: the Federal Housing Administration's reverse mortgage program for people 62 and older. In a letter to

September

27

• New mortgage rules Oct. 1. States have taken the lead in adopting laws to protect consumers from some of the problem loans that helped trigger the home foreclosure crisis, but the federal government is now stepping up its efforts. On

• The mortgage machine backfires. With the mortgage bust approaching Year Three, it is increasingly up to the nation’s courts to examine the dubious practices that guided the mania. A ruling that the Kansas Supreme Court issued last month

• Could your financial life survive a disaster?. Every natural disaster sears us with the same images: Forlorn families sifting through ashes for possessions. And business owners peeling open the charred remnants of payroll records and money bags. Fires, floods, earthquakes and other

• Fed stayed on sidelines in subprime mortgage fallout. The visits had a ritual quality. Three times a year, a coalition of Chicago community groups met with the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators to warn about the growing prevalence of abusive mortgage lending.

26

• Hotel too pricey? Try a home swap. When the concept of home-swapping was portrayed in 2006 by Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet in the movie "The Holiday," it seemed fairly ambitious: Cross continents and trade out a Los Angeles mansion for a cottage

• New life for first time buyer credit?. Will Congress extend the wildly popular $8,000 home-buyer tax credit beyond its Nov. 30 expiration date? That's a question generating huge pressure on Capitol Hill from would-be buyers who haven't found the right house, realty agents, builders,

24

• Mortgage modification event in L.A.. More than 50,000 homeowners are expected to begin streaming through the Los Angeles Convention Center today, hoping for a hand in restructuring their mortgages or avoiding foreclosure. The free five-day event, running through Monday, is organized

• Consumer watchdog's powers scaled back. Banks could appeal decisions by a new watchdog agency under a scaled-back version of an Obama administration plan to protect consumers from financial abuses. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency proposal has met fierce resistance from

22

• Lenders clamp down, credit scores take a hit. Long after the economy recovers, millions of Americans will be left with a grim legacy of the recession: damaged credit scores, the three-digit ratings that help determine consumers' ability to get loans and other types

20

• Poof: How some home loans transform. It could be said — with a bit of imagination — that mortgage-backed securities, a prime trigger of last year’s financial meltdown, are to this age what strains of the bubonic plague or thermonuclear explosions were

19

• Good credit scores, deadbeat choices. Who is more likely to walk away from a house and a mortgage - a person with super-prime credit scores or someone with lower scores? Hint: It's probably not who you think. New research using

15

• Mortgage modifications make things worse for some. Tens of thousands of financially strapped homeowners who have asked lenders to lower their mortgage payments are instead winding up with higher monthly payments and larger debts on their homes. Homeowners who were hoping for

14

• Sinking in a sea of debt?. If your credit card's monthly minimum payment is starting to look more like your old balance or you're not answering the phone for fear of a call from a creditor, it's time to act. As

• Foreclosures force condos into action. Condo associations, developers and lenders across the nation are trying innovative tactics to save themselves from financial disaster amid the foreclosure crisis. The growing number of foreclosures deprive associations of the assessments they need to