Everyone has things they want to improve about their financial lives -- and we at DailyFinance are no exceptions. So we asked money expert Jean Chatzky for advice on how to reach our goals. Today: A photo editor looking to modify an underwater mortgage.
Together, Mike and Lora Zook have faced cancer, a disabling accident, a crippling genetic disease, and even a fire that almost destroyed their home. What they couldn't face was the idea of losing their home to foreclosure.
Janet's a lawyer who's losing her home, and she knows: When it comes to foreclosure, bureaucracy and paperwork can be your friends. Her foreclosure process has lasted for nearly 900 days, and counting. For homeowners in dire financial straits, her story is a lesson in how to keep a roof over your head as long as possible.
In the last few years, outreach events by banks and nonprofits have been held all over the country, offering help to distressed homeowners. But even when they get personal invitations to these events, the vast majority of people who need mortgage modifications or short sales aren't showing up.
Financial advice columnist Laura Rowley recently received an email from a homeowner who had negotiated a successful mortgage modification, but may end up as a short-sale candidate anyway -- because she can't finance home repairs. Her options are limited, but possible solutions do exist.
The housing crisis continues unabated, and millions of unemployed Americans remain at risk of ending up homeless. But additional government help is arriving from the Obama administration, and nonprofit agencies are making a difference in the efforts of some families to get help from their lenders.
Investors have generally taken a negative position on big banks lately: Major financial institutions face a host of issues that are punishing their bottom lines. However, some of Wall Street's most carefully watched investors -- short sellers -- are withdrawing their bets against them.
Regulators want the nation's big banks to reduce what borrowers owe on underwater mortgages, but they're still focused on solutions that rely on banks to voluntarily do the right thing. But we've already seen that won't work, and history shows what will -- giving bankruptcy judges back the right to cram down mortgages.
A partial settlement plan has been constructed by a group of state attorneys general and federal regulators. In theory, it addresses banks' flawed mortgage servicing, modification and foreclosure practices. In reality, it just lets the banks off the hook.
2010 was an especially tough year for homeowners, according to a year-end report from RealtyTrac. Many foreclosure proceedings, however, were stopped late in the year, which means that as many as a quarter million foreclosure filings could be added to the data in early 2011.
Bank of America's persistent failure to modify home loans has resulted in the inevitable: a consumer class action lawsuit. Last week, Susan Fraser of Missouri filed suit on behalf of herself and other qualified homeowners whom the bank failed to give permanent loan modifications to.
Back in December 2008, John H. was small-business owner with perfect credit and a house he could afford. But when his business started suffering, he appealed to Citi Residential Mortgage for a modification. Now, he faces foreclosure -- for the fourth time -- the day before Thanksgiving.
Many troubled homeowners in the federal foreclosure relief program end up losing their property anyway. Banks gain the most by delaying repossessing houses they can't sell, while collecting monthly payments from strapped borrowers.
