lenders

Less Hope for Homeowners

When Congress passed the mortgage rescue bill in July, politicians touted help for homeowners as a big part of the legislation. By Oct. 1, the Federal Housing Admin. was to set up a program that would back, with $300 billion in guarantees, the refinanced loans of homeowners in trouble. Lenders who wanted to participate would [...]

New Deal Ideas for Stopping Foreclosures

With the mortgage crisis dragging on and no quick fix in sight, lots of new ideas to help people stay in their homes are floating around. Maybe one upside to the lack of action on stopping foreclosures is an opening for some innovation — for ways to break through the complications that seem to be [...]

McCain’s Mortgage Giveaway

Incredibly, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain changed his surprise mortgage plan this week to make it even easier on lenders, Politico noted.
After introducing the idea in Tuesday’s debate, a summary of the proposal on McCain’s Website noted that lenders taking part must recognize the losses they’ve already suffered - which led people to believe [...]

Bailout Bill Gives Go Ahead to Questionable Foreclosure Fees

That change in federal law to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages in foreclosure isn’t going to make it into the $700-billion bailout bill, disappointing community and housing groups that pushed for it.
On Friday, Georgetown University credit expert Adam Levitin argued on TWI that the change would be the best way to help homeowners in [...]

Bailout Bill Must Include Help for Homeowners

The only way to guarantee help for those facing disclosure is to supplement the Wall Street bailout.

Financial Literacy for Wall Street

Remember when the subprime crisis first broke out last fall, and the Bush administration’s first response was to suggest that people read the fine print on their mortgages and take financial literacy courses?
It would not be such a bad idea for Wall Street to do the same now.

Who Benefits From the Bailout?

So far it looks like shareholders, employees and, of course, taxpayers are the big losers in the unprecedented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac government bailout just announced over the weekend.
But some people are going to come out of this mess just fine, The New York Times says. And guess who that might be?
Departing chief executives [...]

Mortgage Workouts Not Solution

Part 1: Programs like Bush-initiated Hope Now allow government and lending industry to show they are doing something while not doing much

Real Reasons to Whine

Maybe we’re whiners for a reason. Bankruptcy filings climbed again in August, providing more proof that people are feeling the strains of a softening economy, creditslips reports.
The August figures show bankruptcy filings have reached a post-2005 high of 4,476 filings per day, notes credit expert Robert Lawless, a University of Illinois law professor. That milestone [...]