rssPosts by Mary Kane
Mortgage Fraud Threatens Housing Rebound
With home prices continuing to fall and more foreclosures yet to come, it’s clear that tough times remain for a housing market recovery. And to add to the troubles, another threat to any rebound is emerging: mortgage fraud.
The risk of mortgage fraud in More…
If You Can’t Rent a Foreclosed Property Back to the Owner, You May as Well Throw a Party
With a sprawling, multi-million dollar mansion in Sandy Springs, Ga., sitting empty for two years, some enterprising folks nearby had an idea: Fill it with a big party.
According to USA Today, the Halloween bash at the six-bedroom mansion was a huge success, drawing 1,000 people. It ended only when More…
Renters ‘Lost in the Shuffle’ in Anti-Foreclosure Efforts
Mortgage giant Fannie Mae’s recent announcement that it will give homeowners facing foreclosure the chance to stay in their properties as renters for as long as a year is the latest aggressive move by the government to help troubled borrowers and tenants avoid being evicted. But as More…
More Bad News on the Jobs Front: Families Unprepared for Unemployment
As lawmakers start to shift their attention to job creation, a Brandeis University study finds that four in 10 families don’t have enough savings or assets on hand to pay for essential expenses during a period of unemployment. The report also notes that the poor economy is hitting minority More…
Teaching Financial Literacy in a Credit Card Nation
The subprime crisis certainly highlighted the need for American consumers to become more financially literate. But who defines financial literacy? And what makes someone an expert? Mike Konczal at Rortybomb asks these and other questions regarding financial literacy education — a subject TWI has also been looking into More…
America’s Abandoned Cities: Detroit Pranksters Make Playthings of Empty Buildings
Pranksters with too much time on the hands are alleviating their boredom by scavaging around Detroit’s ample supply of abandoned and vacant properties, The Wall Street Journal reports. A staff videographer even documented a group of perpetrators in the act of pushing a dump truck out a fourth-floor window More…
Stay Home if You Have Swine Flu, Unless You Work at Wal-Mart
During the summer, when swine flu was not yet a widespread reality in the United States, giant retailer Wal-Mart made the news for being in talks with the government about possibly distributing the swine flu vaccine through its extensive network of stores.
But now the swine flu has Wal-Mart More…
Credit Monitoring Rip-Offs More Proof of the Need for Financial Literacy
Just as we wrote about the pressing need for financial literacy among consumers as credit tightens, The New York Times reports on the government’s efforts to combat those “free” credit report firms, which charge people for a service they are entitled to get for free.
On television it’s
Ties Run Deep Between Subprime Lenders, Financial Literacy Groups
As a credit squeeze continues, calls to beef up financial literacy among America’s consumers are taking on a new urgency.
In Massachusetts, Democratic Senate candidate Stephen Pagliuca is pushing for a national financial literacy campaign, saying it would help avoid a repeat of the financial system collapse More…
Habitat for Humanity Welcomed in Wealthy Enclave that Once Opposed It
The foreclosure crisis has taken a turn in California’s wealthy Marin County, according to Miriam Alex-Lute at Rooflines. Marin residents waged a legal fight a few years back to keep out Habitat for Humanity, the charitable group that builds houses for low-income buyers. But now that abandoned, foreclosed houses More…
