Headline News Archive

2010

April

18

• Buying a credit score?. Everyone's got your number — a credit score, that is — and as a savvy consumer, you might want to find out exactly what they've got. This

17

• Urgent mortgage moves need not destroy credit scores. Financially stressed homeowners looking to cut their mortgage payments through a loan modification, short sale or principal reduction under one of the Obama administration's programs

• Reverse mortgages still costly but less so. The adage that you can’t take out a loan to pay for retirement is not entirely true. Reverse mortgages, which allow older homeowners to

15

• Federal aid forestalling only a fraction of foreclosures. The government's foreclosure prevention efforts are struggling to make an impact on millions of borrowers who are in trouble on their mortgages, according to a

• Foreclosure rates surge, biggest jump in 5 years. A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year, a sign banks are starting to

13

• Senate panel finds major fraud at Washington Mutual. The mortgage lending operations of Washington Mutual, the biggest U.S. bank ever to fail, were threaded through with fraud and the bank's own inquiries

• Financial overhaul remains a pr battle. For the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the proposed financial regulations headed to the Senate floor would create sleepless nights and a lack of credit

11

• Test your knowledge of credit scores. Here's a quiz to test your knowledge of credit scores, that all-important number on which mortgage lenders and most other creditors base their decisions not

10

• Lenders must pay for mortgage brokers' discrimination. A new Obama administration policy that gets tough on home-mortgage discrimination is drawing kudos from consumer advocates, along with expressions of serious concern from lawyers

• Working financial literacy with the 3 Rs. Most Americans aren’t fluent in the language of money. Yet we’re expected to make big financial decisions as early as our teens — Should

08

• SEC proposes tighter loan rules. Federal regulators unveiled stricter rules Wednesday for a key source of funding for home, auto and credit-card loans that has been blamed for worsening the

07

• Free credit report no longer. The credit report you get from freecreditreport.com is no longer free, no matter what that Web address promises. In the face of a legislative

06

• Plastic pipe maker extends warranty amid claims of defects. M Eagle, fighting a whistle-blower's claim that it delivered defective PVC pipes to government utilities across the nation, said Monday that it would extend one-year

• Financial crisis panel turns to risky mortgages. A panel investigating the roots of the financial crisis will press current and former executives of Citigroup at hearings this week about the bank's role

• Tax credits for energy-saving windows, cars. If your air conditioner sputtered and died last August, forcing you to buy a new one, you probably didn't clap your sweaty hands and shout,

• Faith in homeownership drops. Despite turbulence in the housing market during the past three years, most people still think homeownership is important and preferable to renting, but many remain

04

• Help paying mortgages elicits anger. The angry comments flooded in after the federal government announced it was expanding its program to assist unemployed homeowners, as well as borrowers who owe

03

• Short sale program will help some homeowners. As foreclosure prevention efforts struggle to make an impact, the Obama administration will launch a program Monday encouraging lenders to allow more distressed homeowners to

• Housing tax credit moves few repeat buyers. Could Congress's ambitious second round of home purchase tax credits -- especially the $6,500 repeat-buyer credit -- turn out to be a wimp in terms of

March

29

• Smart meters may have security holes. SAN FRANCISCO - Computer-security researchers say new "smart" meters that are designed to help deliver electricity more efficiently also have flaws that could let hackers

27

• Second mortgages complicate modification relief. As government regulators and lenders work to stabilize the housing market, one of the factors that helped propel the housing boom of the past decade

• Help for underwater homeowners?. For hundreds of thousands of homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages, it's been a tantalizing question: Is there any way that our lender might

25

• Underwater mortgages drain equity. When Jennifer and David Wakefield bought their home at the end of 2005, they believed its value would rise. After all, the couple they'd bought it

• Financial tuneup: In a few hours unlock some cash. To be a modern American consumer is to be plagued by a never-ending, guilt-inducing stream of undone tasks. There’s the nagging feeling that you

• BofA may trim mortgage balances. Bank of America, the nation's largest mortgage lender, announced a program Wednesday that it said could reduce the mortgage balances of about 45,000 homeowners nationwide who