Posted 1 day 22 hours ago by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs
When the Obama administration first announced the details of the Making Home Affordable program in March, the guidelines for the refinance portion stated that the loan refinanced cannot be more than 105% of the value of the home. Now a new expansion of the program allows the loan to value ratio to be up to 125%. Will this help consumers or just worsen the situation?
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Posted 3 days 21 hours ago by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs
On May 1st a new set of home appraisal rules called the Home Valuation Code of Conduct was put into effect by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in order to distance realtors and mortgage brokers from appraisers. This was put in place because during the housing bubble appraisal fraud was rampant and some appraisers felt pressured by realtors and brokers to hit the desired numbers. How is this affecting consumers?
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Posted 4 days 1 hour ago by Paul Michael
Personal Finance, Frugal Living, Life Hacks, General Tips, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs, Cars and Transportation
Home alarm systems can be expensive. A basic alarm system can be hundreds of dollars. Move up to the home-monitoring systems of ADT and Brink's, and you're talking big money. Installation can cost over $1000, and the monthly monitoring fee can be upwards of $40 a month. But, chances are, you already own a pretty good alternative.
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Posted 3 weeks 3 days ago by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Taxes, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs
As part of the Obama stimulus plan passed in January, first time home buyers in 2009 are entitled to a tax credit of up to $8000 that they do not have to repay. This tax credit was supposed to be given to the taxpayer after they file their 2009 taxes in 2010, but it seems that a new set of FHA guidelines is allowing many to take the money during closing. Here are some of the details.
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Posted 3 weeks 4 days ago by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing
Lately it seems that rent prices have been dropping in many areas of the country. Here in San Mateo some residential apartments are dropping prices as much as 20%. This seemed a bit unbelievable until I looked on Craigslist and found that a specific apartment my husband and I looked at around two years ago actually dropped its price by $300 a month from $1699 to $1399 a month. With our lease expiring soon, I wonder if we should move or try to negotiate a lower rent.
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Posted 8 weeks 1 day ago by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Deals, Real Estate and Housing
Amidst the financial crisis, many home builders around the country have run out of financing. Last week a bank decided to completely level 16 completed and partially built homes in Victorville, California because the builder defaulted on the project. While this is unfortunate, some bargain hunters were able to pick up some extremely cheap construction materials and home fixtures.
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Posted 9 weeks 2 days ago by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing
The United States government launched the "Hope for Homeowners" program back in October, 2008, and so far only one loan has received final approval to refinance under this program. This week the Obama administration took another step to expand incentives to banks and borrowers to modify mortgages. This time, the plan targets second mortgages and it is called the Second Lien Program.
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Posted 10 weeks 1 day ago by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs
The Obama administration announced a foreclosure prevention and mortgage reduction program about two months ago, and as of April less than 1000 loans have been refinanced under the program. One of the reasons that this program is getting a slow start may be that banks are hesistant to work with struggling homeowners who are still making their payments. A recent Los Angeles Times article profiled a family who tried to negotiate with their servicer to no avail, and once they missed a payment the servicer opened negotiations. So if you were a struggling home owner should you skip a mortgage payment just to get a bank attention?
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Posted 10 weeks 1 day ago by Paul Michael
Real Estate and Housing, Investment, Consumer Affairs
I’ve seen several houses in my area go into foreclosure over the last 12 months. The economy and over-inflated housing prices, coupled with predatory lenders and some very bad decision-making, have turned something that was once quite rare into a full-blown epidemic. But some places are having it worse than others; much worse. Do you live in one of those unfortunate towns? You're about to find out.
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Posted 12 weeks 1 day ago by Nora Dunn
Making Extra Cash, Art and Leisure, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs
Many people have put their vacation on hold with the current economic downturn, or are searching for alternative ways to travel on the cheap. Other people yet are looking to earn some extra income on the side to help pay the bills. iStopOver is a solution for both of these groups. And they are offering a special promotion just for Wise Bread readers.
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