News

2018

April

10

• 3 ways parents can help grown kids own a home. When responsible first-time homebuyers need help buying a home, the family bank sometimes can lend a hand.

• Under Trump, a voice for the American consumer goes silent. In the 135 days since the Trump administration took control of the nation’s consumer watchdog agency, it has not recorded a single enforcement action against banks, credit card companies, debt collectors or any finance companies…

• Presentan en Francia la primera vivienda social impresa en 3D. Un grupo de investigadores dio a conocer la que dijo que es la primera vivienda social del mundo impresa en 3D, que desde junio será el hogar de una familia francesa.

04

• Treasury proposes updates meant to boost lending in poor communities. The Treasury Department called on federal regulators to update a 1977 law meant to prevent mortgage discrimination and encourage banks to invest in struggling areas in which they operate. Treasury released close to a dozen…

• Mortgage applicants beware IRS ‘tax transcript’ program's security. Federal auditors say the popular “tax transcript” program run by the Internal Revenue Service and used by millions of mortgage applicants a year lacks adequate security protections against disclosures of tax-return details to people who…

• Mulvaney, Consumer Bureau’s chief, urges Congress to cripple agency. Mr. Mulvaney, a longtime and unapologetic critic of the financial crisis-era bureau, has spent the last several months freezing its enforcement activities, dropping cases on payday lenders and shutting out career staff from major decisions.…

03

• Trump appointee helps companies, not consumers. In 1959, the late Dinah Washington won a Grammy for her hit, “What a Difference a Day Makes,” a song of how a blossoming romance dramatically changed life for the better. Its lyrics conclude, “the…

• What it was like to finally write my will. Did you know Prince died without a will? It’s true! All that money, and one of the greatest performers I ever saw onstage didn’t spend a little of it on sorting out his estate? It…

01

• Consumer Action INSIDER - April 2018. This month's INSIDER brings you stories about the Federal Trade Commission's Contact Lens Workshop; an agency that protects municipal bond investors; updates to our Consumer Services Guide; new legislation we're following in California; and planning activities for our annual Consumer Empowerment Conference. Hotline Chronicles discusses a complaint from a homebuyer who was asked to pay a real estate agent in advance in order to find a home.

• Consumer Action INSIDER - April 2018. This month's INSIDER brings you stories about the Federal Trade Commission's Contact Lens Workshop; an agency that protects municipal bond investors; updates to our Consumer Services Guide; new legislation we're following in California; and planning activities for our annual Consumer Empowerment Conference. Hotline Chronicles discusses a complaint from a homebuyer who was asked to pay a real estate agent in advance in order to find a home.

• Consumer Action INSIDER - April 2018. This month's INSIDER brings you stories about the Federal Trade Commission's Contact Lens Workshop; an agency that protects municipal bond investors; updates to our Consumer Services Guide; new legislation we're following in California; and planning activities for our annual Consumer Empowerment Conference. Hotline Chronicles discusses a complaint from a homebuyer who was asked to pay a real estate agent in advance in order to find a home.

• Barclays agrees to pay $2 billion for selling toxic mortgages. Prosecutors say that between 2005 and 2007 Barclays sold investors packages of mortgages that were worth less than the bank claimed, costing the investors billions of dollars. More than half of the $31 billion in mortgage packages eventually defaulted, prosecutors…

March

29

• Under Ben Carson, HUD scales back fair housing enforcement. The Trump administration is attempting to scale back federal efforts to enforce fair housing laws, freezing enforcement actions against local governments and businesses, including Facebook, while sidelining officials who have aggressively pursued civil rights cases.…

28

• Facebook sued for allegedly allowing housing advertisers to discriminate. In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York City, several fair housing groups accuse Facebook of allowing landlords and real estate companies to illegally tailor their advertisement audiences on the basis of sex, family status,…

• Redlining, banned 50 years ago, is still hurting minorities today. Racial discrimination in mortgage lending in the 1930s shaped the demographic and wealth patterns of American communities today, a new study shows, with 3 out of 4 neighborhoods “redlined” on government maps 80 years ago continuing to…

• Limited English proficiency is a barrier to homeownership. Looking at data at the zip code level from the Urban Institute and Sloan Foundation’s Administrative Data Research Facility, we found a considerable gap in homeownership rates between neighborhoods with low levels of limited English…

22

• Chase rarely lends to people of color in DC – and it’s probably legal. Across the street from the White House is the U.S. capital’s only outpost of the nation’s largest bank – tucked away on the ninth floor of a grey stone tower.  The bank’s name, JPMorgan Chase…

21

• Shopping around for a mortgage can save you thousands. It’s one of the weirder documented facts about home-buying in America: Surprising numbers of consumers don’t bother to shop for mortgage money, even though they could save tens of thousands of dollars through lower interest…

• Dos varas de medir su calificación crediticia. Tradicionalmente FICO ha establecido el riesgo que suponen los acreedores, ahora VantageScore gana terreno Desde los años ochenta FICO se encarga de medir su calidad crediticia a partir de su historial de crédito pero hay…

19

• CA homeowners receive $6 billion in subsidies—15 times more than renters. Homeowners in California received nearly $6 billion in state tax subsidies last year, according to a new report that also revealed a wide gap between state support for homeowners and renters.