HomeLoans

Good news: The housing market is looking up. Bad news: Nearly 11 million mortgages are still underwater. More good news: Real help for those homeowners is finally available. More bad news: Getting that help can be baffling. Extra good news: Jean Chatzky's here to help.

It might not be the right method for everyone seeking a home loan, but it worked for one Georgia couple: A music video that went viral got Bank of America to close on Ken and Meredith Williams' long-delayed mortgage.

Attitudes toward mortgage default are shifting in America. People who've never missed a payment on anything in their lives are walking away from underwater homes, even when they can afford their monthly payments, because staying doesn't make financial sense. But how good a business decision is a strategic default?

Mortgage rates have hit an all-time low according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The drop has done little to help new home sales, but it did cause a surge in refinancings.

With interest rates dipping to historic lows, many homeowners are refinancing their mortgages to shorten either the terms of their loans or their monthly payments. Here's what you need to know to decide whether refinancing now is right for you.

If Ford came out with another junker like the Pinto, car buyers probably would think twice about buying one, right? So why is it that home buyers, despite the widely publicized mortgage meltdown, report that they are spending no more time researching home loans today than they did two years ago?...

A survey by mortgage finance company Freddie Mac showing that U.S. mortgage rates have gone up for three weeks in a row and now top 5% is already setting off some alarm bells over fears that any possibility of a recovery of the nation's real estate market might now be doomed because the Federal...

Some experts believe an unintended consequence of credit card reform in the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act may be to actually make it more difficult for a potential homeowner to get a mortgage loan. Heavy Hammer, Inc. is an "online networking and consulting...

The landscape of refinancing has changed dramatically in recent months, but the reason for doing it remains largely the same. "It was about the dollars," says Owen Metz, 26, of Plymouth, Minn., who dropped his monthly payments by $150 when he refinanced earlier this month. "Anytime I can save money...

My mother-in-law is divorced, newly retired and wants to enjoy her Golden Years. Because she just turned 62 and owns her house, she considered a reverse mortgage to turn her home equity into a steady income stream every month. But after I gave her the highlights of a new report from the National...