News

2009

July

09

• Democrats skeptical of consumer protection agency. President Obama's plan to create a new government agency to protect consumers from risky mortgages and credit cards ran into resistance from several House Democrats on Wednesday. House lawmakers who oversee the Federal Trade Commission

• Don't add confusion to survivors' grief. The death of Michael Jackson, and the initial confusion over his will, got me to thinking: My husband and I are long overdue for updating ours. Along with the updated will, we need to attach

08

• Pobre futuro para las casas. Hay alta probabilidad de que precios de vivienda decaigan, porque persisten indicadores negativos. Un reporte inmobiliario dado a conocer ayer indica que existe una probabilidad del 99% de que los precios de las viviendas caigan en

07

• No es tan fácil evitar el embargo. Para iniciar una refinanciación es importante conocer cómo funciona. José Enrique y Amalia Orantes son una de las muchas familias que esperan ansiosamente una respuesta del banco que les permita mantener su casa.

06

• La morosidad crece entre los más solventes. La tasa de morosidad en las hipotecas de menor riesgo creció a más del doble en el primer trimestre con respecto al mismo período del año previo, según los esfuerzos del

05

• Tax appeals take toll on local governments. Homeowners across the country are challenging their property tax bills in droves as the value of their homes drop, threatening local governments with another big drain on their budgets. The requests are coming in record

• Complaints erupt about lowball home valuations. It's by far the hottest controversy in real estate this summer, and it could directly affect the value of your house - probably negatively - by tens of thousands of dollars. The issue concerns lowball

• Scam: Fraudulent Treasury 'promissory notes'. Yet another scam designed to separate homeowners from their money is making its way across the country from the West, where desperate sellers are willing to accept just about any kind of compensation to get

04

• Foreclosure help will reach more homeowners. The government will allow more distressed borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth to be eligible for refinancing assistance under an Obama administration housing rescue program. Currently, homeowners who owe 5% more than their

• Chinese drywall blamed for problems in U.S. homes. The final years of the U.S. housing boom and a disastrous series of Gulf Coast hurricanes created a golden opportunity for Chinese drywall manufacturers. With domestic suppliers unable to keep up with demand, imports

02

• 'Operation Short Change' charges fraud. The recession has killed jobs by the millions, but it's been a boon to one sector of the population: con artists. They've been offering consumers help in repairing bad credit, landing new jobs, starting lucrative

• Mortgage refinance program expands. The Obama administration announced yesterday that it would loosen the eligibility requirements for a program aimed at helping borrowers with no equity in their homes to refinance into cheaper mortgages. Acknowledging that falling housing prices

June

30

• Ruling adds teeth to state oversight of banks. For years, state governments have had little power to enforce consumer-protection and lending rules at the country's biggest banks. No more. Yesterday, in a decision that marked a major victory for consumer advocates, the Supreme

• Peligra la recuperación de la vivienda en EEUU. Paseando por Riverside, California, Bruce Norris apuntó hacia media docena de casas vacías con letreros de ''En venta'' colocados en jardines desatendidos, casas que, según él, los inversores podrían comprar si los

29

• Foreclosure plan buried in paper avalanche. Somewhere on earth, there must be a more difficult task than this: persuading American mortgage companies to lower payments for homeowners who can no longer afford their loans. But as Karina Montenegro struggles to accomplish

27

• How to check your life insurer's health. If you want to know why it's important to know the health of your life insurance company, ask Vince Watson. His daughter, Katie, was left severely disabled and in need of 24-hour care because

• La hipoteca en tiempos de excepción. En esta inusual etapa de la economía norteamericana han surgido términos y usanzas desconocidas para muchos de nosotros. Si hace dos años alguien me hubiese preguntado si era posible modificar o rectificar

25

• Split over new consumer watchdog agency. There is broad agreement in Congress that government regulators failed to protect Americans from subprime mortgages and other risky credit products, but Democrats and Republicans split sharply Wednesday over creating a consumer watchdog agency to

23

• Obama refis: slow out of the gate. The Mortgage Bankers Association has slashed its estimate of the number of mortgages its members will issue in 2009. One reason: Few refinancings are being done under President Obama's ballyhooed Home Affordable Refinance Program. Only 13,000 Obama

• Lost jobs forcing more out of homes. The nation's foreclosure crisis — once largely confined to only a few corners of the country — is spreading to new areas as the economy teeters. The foreclosure rates in 40 of the nation's counties that have the