News

2008

February

26

• Aid on home loans sought. Over the opposition of the nation's lenders, Senate Democrats are seeking a change in the bankruptcy law that they say could keep hundreds of thousands of hard-pressed borrowers in their homes. The proposal, part of

• Housing prices fall, foreclosures rise 57%. Prices of existing single-family homes slumped 8.9% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the largest decline in the 20-year history of a national home price index released Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller home

24

• Wrong questions about the mortgage market. Daniel H. Mudd, chief executive of Fannie Mae, knows the feeling a physician gets when she attends a party and a guest wants a diagnosis for a rash or some other unexplained ailment. In Mudd's

23

• New reasons to question mortgage costs. A seemingly arcane policy change by mortgage investor Freddie Mac sheds new light on issues of much broader concern for consumers: Do you really understand where the money flows -- all the nooks and crannies

• Homeowners losing equity lines. In one brief phone call, Nancy Corazzi's lender yanked away what was left of the $95,000 home equity line of credit that she and her husband took out five months ago. The lender informed her that

21

• IRS explains how to handle forgiven mortgage debt (Mortgage workouts now tax-free for many homeowners). Homeowners whose mortgage debt was forgiven during 2007 may be able to claim special tax relief by filling out newly-revised Form 982 and attaching it to their 2007 federal income tax return, according to the IRS.

• Sears settles stove suit. Sears will install safety brackets on its stoves in millions of households or offer gift cards in settling an Illinois class-action lawsuit over the appliances' supposed propensity to topple. Under an agreement a judge signed

• New mortgage plan to stem foreclosures. The Office of Thrift Supervision is preparing a plan to help mortgage borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth and to discourage them from abandoning those properties, agency officials said yesterday. Under the

• Dudan de los estímulos fiscales del plan de Bush. Algunos gobernadores del Banco de Reserva Federal (Fed) expresaron sus dudas sobre la conveniencia de los estímulos fiscales impulsados por el gobierno del Presidente Bush y bajaron sus expectativas de crecimiento económico para

20

• Si sólo tienes ITIN no recibirás el cheque de ayuda. Millones de consumidores en EU comenzarán a recibir cheques enviados por el Servicio de Impuestos Internos (IRS) a partir de mayo, como parte de un nuevo paquete de estímulo económico aprobado por

19

• House hunters' bus tour of foreclosed properties. The foreclosure crisis has come to this in Massachusetts: guided bus tours of bank-owned properties for sale, led by real estate agents drumming up business in a slow market. In yesterday's downpour, a dozen bargain

16

• Jumbo help. Anna Galloway keeps a watchful eye on interest rates and stays in touch with her mortgage broker because she is eager to refinance the "jumbo" loan on her Charles County home. "But I haven't even

• You're invited . . . to pay your mortgage. Mortgage lenders hunting for delinquent homeowners who have dodged their phone calls and letters are employing aggressive new methods to track them down, potentially making every knock on the door or fancy envelope seem like

15

• Top Officials See Bleaker Outlook for Economy. With the credit markets once again deteriorating, the nation’s two top economic policy makers acknowledged Thursday that the outlook for the economy had worsened, as both came under criticism for being overtaken by events

14

• FBI, SEC join complex probe of housing crisis. Congress approved an economic stimulus package. The Treasury Department pressed lenders to reset mortgage rates for millions of troubled homeowners. And New York's insurance regulator is attempting to bail out a critical sector of the

13

• Shadow victims of the mortgage crisis: renters. The Bush administration's announcement Tuesday that it would put the foreclosure process on hold for 30 days to rescue struggling homeowners came several weeks too late for Mike Salgado. And he's not even a homeowner. Salgado, 40,

• Lifeline for whom?. When pressed by government officials, the mortgage industry has repeatedly pledged to modify the loans of at-risk borrowers. In May last year, Senator Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, convened a group of

• Foreclosure sales grow feeding vicious cycle. A growing share of home sales comes from foreclosures, especially in states hardest hit by the housing bust, according to an analysis of data. In some parts of California lately, nearly half of home sales

• Más personas dejan de pagar sus cuentas. La Fundación Nacional para la Consejería de Créditos (NFCC) de Estados Unidos aseguró ayer que entre quienes han accedido a su portal de asesoramiento en asuntos crediticios, el número de personas

• Quejas buenas y escritas. Un número de teléfono en el que es imposible hablar con un ser humano y un montón de reglas confusas son a menudo los primeros pasos a los que se enfrentan los