Foreclosures were up 5 percent in the third quarter, and the figures indicate that the proportion of foreclosures resulting from recessionary stress is up and the proportion caused by the government's inflating of the housing bubble and encouragement of subprime and Alt-A mortgages in fast-growing parts of the country is down. Specifically, in the third quarter 54 percent of the foreclosures were in the four "sand states,"California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida, and 4 percent in Michigan (which, with its 15 percent-plus unemployment rate, is a good proxy for recessionary distress). The number of Washington area homeowners in foreclosure has more that doubled in the past year, according to a report to be released Wednesday that shows the problem remains most acute in a few counties and could get worse as more borrowers fall behind on their payments. The foreclosure problem locally is not nearly as acute as it is in hard-hit places such as Arizona and Nevada. But the crisis is evolving, and not enough is being done to help borrowers who have lost their homes find new housing.
How Boomers can turn around the reversals of fortune in time for retirement Economists say that, technically, the recession is over and the economy is starting to move again. But for millions of Baby Boomers, the pain is still with us, including ...
Paul Goulet hopes Connecticut will help him get from under nearly $8,000 he's borrowed for college after losing his job in a paper manufacturing plant. Goulet, 55, is a student in environmental studies at Goodwin College in East Hartford, aiming to find ...
Health care plan could also help resurrect college aid plan Congressional Democrats want a stalled overhaul of college aid programs to get strapped onto a fast-track health care bill, giving both Obama administration priorities a better chance of passage. The student loan ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's stalled bid to overhaul the federal student loan program by cutting subsidies to private lenders and increasing aid to students received a boost on Friday. Democratic congressional leaders agreed to fold Obama's student-loan proposal into a ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Obama administration program to help struggling homeowners modify their mortgages has more than one million active borrowers, though fewer than 10 percent have obtained permanent loan modifications, according to a Treasury Department report released on Friday. The report ...
UK lenders say home mortgage business fell by half in January The value of home mortgage advances in January fell by half from December, when there was a late rush to complete deals before a tax break ended at the New Year, ...
Banks reduce their borrowing by daily average of $43 million from Fed's emergency loan program Banks borrowed less from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program over the past week, providing further evidence that the strains caused by the financial crisis are easing. ...
Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages fall to 4.95 percent, weeks before Fed exit Mortgage rates held below the 5 percent threshold for the second straight week, a report said Thursday, weeks before a government program that has been keeping rates low is ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed. Foreclosures are by far one of ...
Are credit card users really paying down debt? Analysis finds bank write-offs caused 2009 drop With unemployment high and personal wealth diminished, how was it that strapped consumers were paying down their credit card debt last year? It turns out they probably ...
