Mortgages
To have and to hold (Title, that is): Advice for the unmarried
Filed under: Borrowing, Budgets, Debt, Real Estate, Saving Money, Wealth, Investing, Personal loans, Mortgages
Who doesn't have an unmarried friend who lost the house, or at least their investment in the condo, when the relationship went sour?The key question when buying property together, according to a new book -- "Living Together: A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples" -- seems pretty simple: Does your legal relationship match your private agreement?
But who wants to have that conversation when you are newly in love, or at least new to nesting?
No one, the book's author admitted to WalletPop.
Recovery? Then why do mortgage loan delinquencies keep climbing?
Filed under: Home, Real Estate, Mortgages
The proof, they say, is in the pudding. Maybe it ought to be in the foreclosure rate?
Yes, I know we are being told on Sunday morning power-breakfast talk shows that the nation's economy is improving. But the latest survey on the delinquency rate for mortgage loans from the Mortgage Bankers Association would seem to indicate otherwise.
You can read the report itself for the hard numbers, but, the bottom line is, the delinquency rate has now broken the record set just this past quarter.
'Too big to fail banks' leaving behind 'too small to help' customers and businesses
Filed under: Real Estate, Wealth, Recession, Mortgages
Another week and another round of the national guessing game: when exactly will the Great Recession's alleged end impact me? Or my children? Or my neighbors? The "too big to fail" banking crowd has gotten lots of help from D.C. But the jobless rate, despite a decline of late in layoffs, continues to go skyward, or, in the words of that most famous working-class stiff Ralph Kramer to his wife, Alice, "to the moon!"
"This will be a very slow recovery," says Jack Kyser, founder of the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. In a telephone interview with WalletPop, Kyser said that "small- and medium-sized businesses still can't get loans from banks." It is, says Kyser, "the perfect stalemate" -- unemployment continues to rise, businesses (especially smaller ones) suffer, and banks don't want to risk lending out their money.
5 strategies for saving money in a divorce
Filed under: Budgets, Debt, Home, Bankruptcy, Mortgages
The honeymoon has been over for a long time and in spite of your best efforts, the marriage is too. As you and your spouse approach the legal, financial and emotional issues of getting divorced, you can save a lot of money by working together. Yes, I know, "If we could work together we wouldn't be getting divorced." But sometimes when people aren't trying to make the marriage work anymore, they can approach problems and discussions under a new light. And it is critical.
Divorce is very expensive and can have a long term impact on a family's finances. Here are some strategies to try before your day in court.
FHA going broke? How to qualify for a home loan anyway
Filed under: Real Estate, Mortgages
As the economy is supposed to be emerging from the dark cave of deep recession, you might expect it would become easier for you to secure a mortgage in the months ahead. The truth is, however, that unless you start taking some key steps right now, you may find yourself still in that recessionary cave instead of a new home, because the Federal Housing Administration is running out of money. For many potential home buyers, that's a bit like your rich uncle Sam, who was always a soft touch for a few extra bucks, filing for bankruptcy and leaving you in the lurch.Faces of loan modification: Kathy Partak, Auburn, Calif.
Filed under: Banks, Budgets, Debt, Real Estate, Recession, Mortgages, Refinancing
How well is the government's loan modification working? WalletPop's four-part special report continues with profiles of some of those trying to get help. To read the overview, click here.Kathy Partak went into loan modification armed with the powerful combination of knowledge and motivation. She had worked in the mortgage business, so she knew her rights and the right vocabulary to use. And she had a step-rate loan that was about to step up dramatically.
Add to that an on-the-job shoulder injury that left her unemployed and Partak figured she was a perfect candidate for modifying the loan on her three-bedroom home in Auburn, Calif.
But Chase Manhattan Bank denied her a modification, Partak said, telling her, "Unemployment is not a permanent hardship."
"Hopefully not!" said Partak, 42. "But it's one of the reasons they allow for on their paperwork of qualification."
Faces of loan modification: Mark Bonacorso, Tucson, Ariz.
Filed under: Banks, Real Estate, Recession, Mortgages, Refinancing
How well is the government's loan modification working? WalletPop's four-part special report continues with profiles of some of those trying to get help. To read the overview, click here.Public relations consultant Mark Bonacorso faced the good and bad news of divorce with resolve. The good: he got the 3,500-square-foot adobe in northwest Tucson. The bad: he also got the first and second mortgages and the $2,700-a-month payments.
He wanted to make it work, especially since his home was worth less than he owed.
At first, with business strong at his firm, Media Ink, this seemed feasible. Then, as the recession slowed work, forcing him to lay off his two employees in March, those payments became daunting.
Bonacorso was not looking for Bank of America, his lender, to cut his principal. He called hoping to reduce his monthly payments by combining his first and second mortgages, lowering their interest rates -- now 5.875% on his first; 7.625% on his second -- and extending the loan's term from 30 years to at least 40.
Loan modification: Needed help or an exercise in frustration?
Filed under: Banks, Credit, Debt, Real Estate, Mortgages, Refinancing
How well is the government's loan modification working? Find out in this four-part WalletPop special report, which begins with this overview and continues with three profiles of those trying to get help, which can be found here, here and here.If the goal of the federal government's loan modification program was to frustrate applicants, then it certainly is succeeding. But if its goal was to prevent foreclosures, the effort may simply be postponing that eventuality for many.
With an estimated 3.1 million mortgages at least two months delinquent, through the end of October, just 650,994 homeowners had received adjustments through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) -- a notable uptick from past reports and a measurable step toward the Obama administration's goal of helping 4 million by 2012.
But from the halls of Congress to Internet message boards, anger rises about mixed messages, delays and denials without explanation and, most tangibly, the sharp decline in converting short-term loan adjustments into something more meaningful.
Home buyer tax credit extended & improved!
Filed under: Borrowing, Real Estate, Tax, Video, The2MortgageGuys, Mortgages, Taxes-advice, Taxes-tax credits
Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.
Homeowners may be able to rent rather than lose home to foreclosure
Filed under: Home, Real Estate, Mortgages
If you're having trouble making your mortgage payments, but want to stay in your home, you may get the option if your loan is held by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae announced a new program recently that will allow you to stay in your home as a renter if you hand back the deed to the lender. This new "Deed for Lease Program" will allow families to stay in their home rather than being displaced. It will also help to stem foreclosures and prevent further deterioration of neighborhoods filled with vacant foreclosures, according to an announcement from Frannie Mae.
Why the Home Buyer Tax Credit should be allowed to expire
Filed under: Home, Real Estate, Mortgages, Taxes-advice
It appears Uncle Sam will keep propping up the still shaky real estate market for months to come. The Senate last night voted to extend the $8,000 first-time home buyers tax credit, and the House followed suit today. The president is expected to soon sign it into law. But is the bill good for real estate? Not at all. What better way to fix a bubble caused by way too much home ownership than to encourage more home ownership?
Extending the home buyer tax credit is a bad idea because the real estate market doesn't need it. The panic phase of the housing crisis is essentially over. Americans know full well that house prices are no longer in free fall, but still have a ways to go before resembling anything close to a recovery.
Bad actors continue to prey on seniors
Filed under: Banks, Borrowing, Home, Insurance, Real Estate, Retire, Fraud, Mortgages
Bad actors have solidly shifted their attention to reverse mortgages, causing a top consumer organization to warn seniors to choose such loans carefully. A new report by the National Consumer Law Center likens the aggressive lending practices in today's reverse mortgage lending to those common in the sub-prime mortgage heyday -- featuring some of the same players.
"Well-funded marketing campaigns and perverse incentives to brokers are targeting seniors' home equity and using reverse mortgages as their tools," attorney Tara Twomey said in the NCLC news release.
Mortgage rates may be rising, thanks to Bernanke
Filed under: Banks, Real Estate, Mortgages
Premature withdrawal could prove painful -- to your pocket. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is apparently set to stop the central bank's purchase of mortgage-backed securities in a few months, which could contribute to a full percentage point increase in the rates of 30-year mortgages.
Talk about shooting the alleged economic recovery in the foot before it has a chance to really get going.
Seems that Bernanke feels strongly, says a Bloomberg report, that by March it will be time for private investors to step in and start making the purchases in place of Uncle Sam -- or, in this case, Uncle Ben.
Goldman's new role: repossessing foreclosed homes
Filed under: Banks, Credit, Real Estate, Investing, Bankruptcy, Mortgages
Goldman Sachs spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages during the real estate boom, packaging them into high-yield bonds. Now that the bottom has fallen out of the property market, the Wall Street behemoth finds itself in a different role: taking homes away from Americans defaulting on their loans. That's according to a lengthy investigation by McClatchy Newspapers . The report says there are hundreds of cases in which subsidiaries of Goldman have sought to contain bondholder losses by foreclosing on properties and evicting delinquent borrowers.
The 2 Mortgage Guys: Fixed vs. adjustable mortgage rates
Filed under: Borrowing, Real Estate, Video, The2MortgageGuys, Mortgages, Refinancing
If you have short term plans to pay off your loan in full then an adjustable rate may save you money over the term of the mortgage. If you're planning on keeping your mortgage for a longer period of time then an adjustable rate may be too risky considering today's evolving stock market.
Check out this week's video and we'll explain a few more scenarios to help determine which option is right for you. Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.


