6 Smart Moves to Boost Your Credit Score
Even if you're not planning on applying for a mortgage or credit card anytime soon, you need a good credit score. Here are some lesser-known strategies to help boost yours.
short sales
Foreclosures Were 26% of Home Sales in Q1 as Short Sales Rose
Homes in some stage of the foreclosure process saw their share of U.S. home sales grow in the first quarter even as sales of bank-owned homes fell. The increase was driven by a spike in short sales, or homes that sell for less than what the owner owed on their mortgage.
How to Stretch Out Foreclosure for Years
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.
Personal Bankruptcy Filings Fall, but Hold the Applause
In this cloudy economy, we're all constantly hunting through the news and statistics for silver linings. Here's one that looks promising: In the first nine months of 2011, personal bankruptcy filings decreased 10% compared to a year earlier -- but experts say it's nothing to cheer about.
New Face of Foreclosure: Strategic Defaults
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?
Will Latinos Drive the Housing Recovery?
More than any other demographic, Latino homeowners were slammed by the mortgage crisis: Two-thirds of total Hispanic wealth in the U.S. evaporated from 2005 to 2009. But as the fastest growing demographic in the nation, they are also well positioned to power the housing rebound.
Home Prices Fall Again in Worst Decline Since 2008
If you're looking to score a great deal on a house, you may want to wait a bit longer: U.S. home prices dropped 3% in the first quarter, their sharpest quarter-over-quarter decline since late 2008, according to real estate tracking service Zillow, which now says prices won't begin to rebound until at least 2012.
Don't Ask, Just Cram: Let Judges Modify Mortgages Again
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.
Housing 2011: Unsettled, Underwater, Unsold
Sales agreements for previously occupied homes rose 10.4 % in October. But that one spark of hope comes against a backdrop of declining prices, bulging inventories and ongoing legal issues around foreclosures. Don't count on a real estate recovery next year.
How to Profit From Earnings Report Surprises
Buy-and-hold investing has been a loss for the last decade, and low-risk options will never get you the returns you'll need to retire in style. So how can you find real profits in the market? As venture capitalist and business guru Peter Cohen explains, the answer may be in anticipating surprises.
Biz Brief: Mortgage Fraud in Short Sales Rising
A new form of mortgage fraud called "flopping" is spreading as banks increase the use of short sales to cut their losses from the growing number of home foreclosures.
Beyond Germany's New Ban Is a
Bigger Problem
Investors would be wise to look past the short-selling ban to the growing regulatory fervor that's catching on in Europe. None of this can be good for the financial sector.