News

2007

October

21
  • Knowing the rules results in tax savings. Achance remark on a column about year-round tax savings has prompted a few skeptical, if not downright cynical, responses. I mentioned that my wife, Georgina, and I are in the 15 percent tax bracket, the second-lowest
20
  • Vultures circle over distressed properties. Call them grave dancers, vulture funds, turnaround specialists or the more euphemistic "opportunity investors." However you identify them, the deal is the same: When hyperactive real estate markets lose their sizzle, or property owners no
19
  • Fix rates to save loans. There have been many proposals to deal with the problems in the mortgage market. But the best place to begin is by looking at the poor lending standards and weak consumer protections at the root
  • Homeowners: Sell it yourself. The last time Sabrina Williams sold a home herself, she received a solid offer the first week, got her asking price of $319,000 and saved nearly $9,000 in broker fees in the process. Snap, just like that.
16
  • An unsavory slice of subprime. It's getting hard to wrap your brain around subprime mortgages, Wall Street's fancy name for junk home loans. There's so much subprime stuff floating around -- more than $1.5 trillion of loans, maybe $200 billion of losses,
  • Home Insurers Canceling in East. It is 1,200 miles from the coastline where Hurricane Katrina touched land two years ago to the neat colonial-style home here where James Gray, a retired public relations consultant, and his wife, Ann, live. But this
15
  • NYC study: Minorities pay more for mortgages. Home buyers in predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods in New York City were more likely to get their mortgages last year from a subprime lender than home buyers in white neighborhoods with similar income levels,
12
  • Foreclosures drop, but they're nearly double 2006. Home foreclosure filings fell 8% in September from a 32-month peak in August, but they were still nearly double year-ago levels, real estate information company said Thursday. A total of 223,538 foreclosure filings were reported in September,
  • Countrywide is assailed in protest of policies. The Countrywide Financial Corporation, the nation’s largest lender and loan servicer, reported on Thursday that delinquencies and foreclosures in its portfolio were rising steeply. A few hours later, the company became a target of
11
  • Industry alliance aims to prevent foreclosures. The Bush administration announced a new mortgage industry coalition on Wednesday aimed at helping homeowners avoid being trapped in a rising tide of foreclosures. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the initiative would help coordinate efforts
  • Coalición busca evitar embargos de casas. Los principales actores del sector hipotecario en Estados Unidos, como son los bancos, los intermediarios inmobiliarios y la administración federal, han lanzado una campaña para tratar de frenar el auge en la morosidad
09
  • Home builders' foundations shift with shaky market. Even as home buyers were being offered a free washer, dryer, refrigerator and window blinds, plus 5% off the price or in cash to pay closing costs, business was dragging at Reeves Williams' communities. So at
08
  • National homeless number raises as Fed cuts housing program (Chinese). 【美聯社七日電】近年來,全國無家可歸者人數上升,麻省有官員將其歸咎於是由低收入,住屋費用高昂,住屋被銀主沒收增加,以及聯邦和州府削減房屋資助計劃等等造成。 聯邦跨部門無家可歸者問題委員會主任曼加諾說,來自聯邦房屋部的數據指出,每一個晚上全美國約有75萬名無家可歸者露宿街頭,其中約有4成是屬於無家可歸者家庭。他指出,現時美國整體無家可歸者的數字,已比數年前增加,但沒有人能夠準確指出無家可歸者家庭的確實數字,因為每一州的申報規定,明顯不同。他說:「我們渴望會有更多州份加強追查這種數據。」他希望各州進行研究得出數據,不要依靠猜測和道聽途說。
  • American Dream becomes debtor's nightmare. Soledad Aviles dreamed for years of owning a home, with a plot of land where he could grow corn and chiles as he did in his native Mexico. So he felt blessed last year when
07
  • Credit scores need be good, not perfect. Whether you're considering buying a new home or refinancing an existing mortgage, credit scores matter more than ever. To find out what consumers need to know about their credit reports and scores to get the
06
  • Tax relief for distressed but not the rest. In a tax-Peter-to-pay-Paul move, the House voted Thursday to permanently remove the "phantom income" tax penalty that haunts financially distressed homeowners whose debt is partially forgiven by a lender after a foreclosure or a short
04
  • Mortgages for those who lack credit history. CitiMortgage plans to announce today that it has set aside $200 million for mortgages to Washington area residents who have limited credit histories and therefore often end up with high-cost or risky home loans. CitiMortgage, a
03
  • Mortgage brokers' sleight of hand. *The following op-ed, Mortgage brokers' sleight of hand, written by Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, was published in the Boston Globe on October 2, 2007. In the past five years, if you called a mortgage broker
02
  • HUD sued over down-payment rule. Two nonprofit organizations have sued the Department of Housing and Urban Development in an attempt to overturn an agency decision that bans seller-financed down-payment assistance to some low- and moderate-income home buyers. Gaithersburg's AmeriDream and
  • Self-employed face difficulty finding mortgages. David Brannan, 44, of Monroe, N.C., is co-founder of a software company that's been in business since 1989. He and his wife have owned their home for 18 years and are in the process of buying a
 

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