Headline News Archive

2022

June

22

• Justice Department and Meta settle landmark housing discrimination case. Facebook-owner Meta agreed to revamp the social network’s targeted advertising system under a sweeping settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, after the

07

• Massive rent increases hit mobile homes. Surging home prices and rents are cascading down to the country’s mobile home parks, where heightened demand, low supply and an increase in

02

• You can ask Google to take your personal data out of its search results. Google is offering a new tool to anyone who doesn't want their phone number, email or street address and other personal information to be

April

18

• Find out and fix what big data says about you. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains a list of consumer reporting agencies that’s currently 38 pages long. In addition to the big three credit

13

• The federal consumer bureau sued TransUnion over deceptive sales tactics. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the credit-reporting firm TransUnion and a former senior executive — John Danaher, who led the company’s consumer

12

• Aging in place easier with smart home technology. Technology helps all homeowners, but especially seniors, by automating “things that are a pain or difficult to do,” says Michael Miller, author of

March

29

• Your shadow credit score could decide if you get an apartment. The rapid rise of tenant screening is one of the seismic changes to hit the rental market since the Great Recession. Tenant screening companies compile

21

• Remote appraisals of homes could reduce racial bias. The majority of appraisals on home purchases in the United States can now be conducted without an appraiser ever stepping foot into the home —

16

• Wells Fargo rejected half Its Black applicants for refinancing. Nationwide, only 47% of Black homeowners who completed a refinance application with Wells Fargo in 2020 were approved, compared with 72% of White homeowners, according to a Bloomberg

01

• Rents reach ‘insane’ levels across US with no end in sight. In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor.com analysis of properties with

February

16

• See where investors bought a record share of homes. Last year, investors bought nearly one in seven homes sold in America’s top metropolitan areas, the most in at least two decades, according

08

• Equifax breach settlement: Money for some, free monitoring for all. Equifax will pay up to $425 million in restitution to those directly impacted by the massive data breach of the credit bureau in 2017. A federal court

07

• When private equity becomes your landlord. Rents soared. Trash collected in the hallways and on the rooftop deck, Cooper said. The security guard showed up less often. Another renter described having

02

• Serious about tackling inflation? Then address soaring housing costs. Home builders have been unable to keep up with demand for well over a decade, held back by restrictive zoning requirements, high permitting costs and

01

• Free weekly credit report offer extended through 2022. Free weekly access to your credit reports will be available through the rest of 2022, according to an announcement from the three major credit-reporting companies. That

• Rents are up more than 30 percent in some cities. Average rents rose 14 percent last year, to $1,877 a month, with cities like Austin, New York and Miami notching increases of as much as 40 percent, according

January

27

• Experian, Equifax, TransUnion rarely act on credit file complaints, report says. If you spot a mistake on your credit report and contact the credit bureau, there’s a good chance nothing will happen. Equifax, Experian,

06

• Credit bureaus drew more than half of consumer complaints. A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reveals that more than half of the complaints the agency has received from the public from

• Here’s what pandemic aid remains available. There continues to be billions of dollars in federal rental assistance accessible to tenants who’ve fallen behind. The National Low Income

2021

December

27

• Many home insurance premiums are rising. Across the country, homeowners renewing their policies are discovering that rising material costs, supply chain disruptions and climate change are combining to drive premiums up

16

• The return of the 10-minute eviction. Nobody in Phoenix was better or more practiced at the business of eviction than Lennie, who had personally removed more than 20,000 Arizonans from their homes

15

• Global investors gobbling up first-time homebuyer homes. Over the past six years, 19 of the 32 homes on Tammy Sue Lane have been purchased by a billion-dollar investment venture, part of an unprecedented flow

08

• What you need to know if you’re being tracked down by a debt collector. What proof does a debt collector have to provide me that I owe the debt? This “debt collection validation notice” should include enough

01

• New rule will let debt collectors track you down on social media. Debt collection rules have expanded the ways debt collectors can chase down debtors. In practice, it may mean millions of consumers can now be bombarded

November

07

• Last chance to get advance child tax credit. It could be a financial lifeline just in time for the holidays — a child tax credit payment to cover food, rent or presents for