When the housing market collapsed five years ago, it was due in no small part to mortgage lenders who handed out loans without really considering whether or not the borrower could ultimately pay that money back. Hoping to minimize the chances of this happening again, regulators have introduced a new rule today. [More]
less is mortgage
Chase Is Now Surprising People With Mortgage Adjustments
By 9.11.12
While we’ve seen many a story during the last few years of people stuck chasing their tail in an attempt to get a mortgage modification from their lender, some Chase customers are now finding out they’ve gotten a loan adjustment without ever having to lift a finger. [More]
New Guidelines Aim To Make Short Sales Less Of A Pain In The Butt To Everyone
By 8.22.12
Short sales now account for nearly 1-in-11 home sales in the U.S., so there’s a decent chance that anyone who has been house-shopping recently has visited a for-sale property only to have the realtor say, “Now I have to warn you, it is a short sale.” At this point, many of you would go running for the hills rather than be stuck in bank-approval muck for months. But new guidelines issued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency are aimed at speeding up the process. [More]
Report: Forced-Place Insurance Pushing Homeowners Into Foreclosure
By 5.7.12
If you’ve got a mortgage on your home, it needs to be insured. So if you stop paying that insurance premium, the bank will often go out and get insurance for you. Problem is, according to Bloomberg News, those policies cover less, cost more and will likely just end up putting you into foreclosure anyway. [More]
Is 3 Weeks Too Long To Wait For My Bank To Refund $1,200 It Took By Mistake?
By 5.3.12
Consumerist reader Josh is currently staring at a depleted checking account — and it could be several weeks before it’s back to looking healthy again — all because his mortgage lender screwed up some paperwork. [More]
Former Goldman Sachs Staffer: Company's Mortgage Mod Process Was "Total Disaster"
By 4.11.12
In 2009, tens of thousands of homeowners with mortgages serviced by Goldman Sachs subsidiary Litton Loan Servicing entered into trial loan modifications. But fewer than 12% of those same people ever received permanent adjustments to their mortgages, not because they didn’t qualify, but because Litton’s system for handling paperwork was a horrendous mess. [More]
Couple Spends Five Years In $1.2 Mansion Without Ever Making Mortgage Payment
By 3.5.12
It now takes an average of 634 to foreclose on a home in Maryland, but one couple has managed to live large in their 4,900 square-foot abode on the Potomac River for nearly three times as long — all without ever having made a single mortgage payment. [More]
Big Banks Pinky-Swear To Overhaul Lending & Foreclosure Practices
By 1.23.12
Nearly a half-decade after the U.S. housing market collapsed like something that collapses really badly, the country’s five biggest mortgage providers — Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and Ally — are oh-so-close to reaching a settlement with the states that could include overhauls to how they operate when it comes to the whole lending/servicing/foreclosing process. [More]
Rules Changed To Make Refinancing Your Home Easier
By 10.24.11
With mortgage interest rates continuing to hover near record lows, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has announced big changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program with the intention of making it easier for homeowners to save money by refinancing their loans at these rock-bottom rates. [More]
30-Year Mortgage Rates Now Lowest Ever, People Still Aren't Buying
By 8.18.11
It’s like that scene in Groundhog Day, where Chris Elliott’s character enters the Punxsutawney bachelor auction and is greeted by dead silence from the women in the crowd…. Once again, mortgage rates have dropped to record lows while potential home buyers continue to hold off on making a purchase. [More]
Mortgage Rates Hit Record Low
By 8.12.11
It continues to be a buyer’s market out there — for those with enough money to make a down-payment on a home at least — as mortgage rates continue to sink to historically low levels. [More]
New Federal Program Offers Underwater Homeowners Loans They May Not Have To Repay
By 6.29.11
With millions of homeowners still having difficulties catching up to their mortgage payments, the federal government continues to look for ways to stem the tide of foreclosures. The latest effort provides loans of up to $50,000 that some homeowners will never have to repay. [More]
Elizabeth Warren: Mortgage Forms Should Be Comprehensible To Normal Human Beings
By 6.9.11
At yesterday’s White House Personal Finance Online Summit, Elizabeth Warren, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, went into details about the still-nascent agency’s “Know Before You Owe” project and how the CFPB is working to simplify the documents that consumers are shown when shopping for a mortgage. [More]
Chase Screws Up Loan Modification, "Fixes" Error By Adding $8,000 To Balance Of Loan
By 6.2.11
The folks at ProPublica recently looked into the all-too-common problem of homeowners who thought they had successfully run through the loan modification gauntlet only to later find out that their bank had no record of the reduction and their house was suddenly in foreclosure. [More]
Family Of Three Lives Mortgage-Free By Downsizing To 320 Sq. Ft. Home
By 6.2.11
Until recently, one Arkansas family had been living well in a spacious 2,000 sq. ft. home. But after realizing that they were paying a mortgage for a house they didn’t fully utilize, they decided to downsize… significantly. [More]
Just Because You Defaulted On Your Mortgage Doesn't Mean You Can't Get A Loan These Days
By 6.1.11
As we reported last month, U.S. banks are finally getting back into the business of making loans to consumers. And a new report says that it’s not just those with pristine credit histories that are able to borrow. [More]
Bank Of America Does Something That Makes Sense, But Only Because It Has To
By 5.10.11
Ever since Bank of America got greedy and gobbled up the greasy, calorie-filled platter that was Countrywide, it’s been dealing with the indigestion caused by that company’s oodles of toxic mortgages. Now, after losing the Worst Company In America title by less than 1% to BP, BofA has decided to do something more than pay lip service to its crappy state of affairs. The bank has announced it will open 28 new foreclosure prevention centers in 22 states between now and July. [More]
Foreclosure Filings Hit 3-Year Low In February, But Don't Get Too Excited Yet
By 3.10.11
The latest report from RealtyTrac on foreclosures shows a precipitous drop in the number of foreclosure filings between January and February, and that the total number of foreclosures in February was the lowest since February 2008. If you only want to hear the good news, stop reading now. [More]
