mortgage

How to keep the low teaser rate for your mortgage

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson gave a speech yesterday, talking about the administration's plan to "address the challenges" of the housing market downturn and relat

They used to call it "loan workout"

It has never been unusual for borrowers to run into difficulty, and sometimes it becomes clear that a loan will never be repaid in full. The lender's job then is to recover as

Why mortgages have eaten Americans out of house and home

What lessons can future homeowners take away from today's "mortgage crisis?"

Interview with AFFIL executive director Jim Campen

Early in the subprime lending collapse, Wise Bread posted a report from Americans for Fairness in Lending explaining how the subprime lending boom hurt everyone. Since it's a

How the subprime lending boom hurt everybody

Among the Wise Bread community, I get the sense that there's a kind of "pox on both their houses" attitude to the problems in the subprime mortgage markets. People who worked thro

Speeding through your mortgage

Now that many of you have crunched the numbers for accelerating your mortgage payoff, I think you are ready for a quick lesson on speeding through your mortgage. Now, I am not sayi

DIY Mortgage Acceleration

Do-it-yourselfers who are weary of yet another trip to the home improvement store may like this DIY project. It has the possibilities of increasing home equity just as quickly as a bath remodel or new deck. [more]

How to Build Your Own Amortization Schedule

Looking for a dull, but financially eye-opening home project? Great! Today, we're going to build an amortization schedule. [more]

Money Metaphors (You wouldn't punch a kitten, would you?)

Equating my money, emotionally, with something that I find dear and worthy of protection, may force me to treat my money with the respect it deserves.

How to Avoid Foreclosure

What would you do if you were about to lose your home? What would you be willing to do to keep it? Is it even possible to keep it once you've missed a few payments? [more]