homeowners

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Freddie Mac to Let People Stay in Foreclosed Houses

Rental program aims to stop evictions

(Newser) - Freddie Mac has forged a first-of-its-kind plan to allow homeowners and tenants to remain in foreclosed homes, USA Today reports. Residents will be charged a market rental rate on leases renewable monthly after their homes have been acquired by the lender. Freddie Mac expects the program to save thousands of...

Denied Rate Hike, State Farm to Axe Fla. Home Insurance

Company holds 1.2M policies in state hit hard, and often, by nature

(Newser) - Citing a “weakened financial position,” State Farm’s Florida operation is planning to completely exit the home insurance business there within 2 years, the Miami Herald reports. Such a move would need regulatory approval, and require a 180-day heads-up to affected homeowners. The move comes after the insurer,...

Foreclosures Soar 81%
 Foreclosures Soar 81% 
Jan 15, 2009 6:05 AM CST

Foreclosures Soar 81%

States where property prices spiked during boom now seeing highest foreclosure rates

(Newser) - Foreclosures rocketed 81% in the US during 2008, affecting one of every 54 households in the nation, reports Reuters. A total of 3.2 million foreclosures were filed, according to research firm Realtytrac. The hardest-hit states were Nevada, Florida, Arizona, and California, the same states where property prices surged the...

Scamsters Cash In on Foreclosure Crisis

Phony rescuers collect big upfront fees from desperate homeowners

(Newser) - A new breed of crook is getting rich preying on homeowners desperate to fend off foreclosure, the New York Times reports. Scamsters set themselves up as "foreclosure rescue companies,” collect big upfront fees for the promise to modify loans, then do little or nothing to help. Some people...

Hillary: Bailout Must Help Homeowners
Hillary: Bailout Must Help Homeowners
OPINION
Sep 25, 2008 7:09 AM CDT

Hillary: Bailout Must Help Homeowners

Wants federal company to buy bad mortgages, address root causes

(Newser) - As Congress debates the terms of the $700 billion bailout, Hillary Clinton warns in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that "this is not just a financial crisis; it's an economic crisis." For the New York senator, any federal action has to tackle the underlying causes of the turmoil—...

7 Reasons to Get Hitched
 7 Reasons to Get Hitched
Aug 3, 2008 6:55 PM CDT

7 Reasons to Get Hitched

Marriage has physical, emotional and financial benefits

(Newser) - If you're considering getting married—or divorced—it may be time to mull over Maclean's reasons why matrimony is healthy:
  • Married people have less chance of dying from car accidents, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, heart attacks, and homicide.
  • Men who divorce or separate are six times more likely to
...

'Super Termite' Found in Fla.
 'Super Termite' Found in Fla.
Aug 2, 2008 3:51 PM CDT

'Super Termite' Found in Fla.

Fast-eating bug known to cause panic among homeowners

(Newser) - One of the world's most feared termites has been caught gnawing on a Florida Gulfport home. Exterminators say they have saved the house, but admit that the "super termites"—or Formosan subterraneans—included winged swarmers, which indicates that that colony has existed for more than 5 years. "...

Rich Turn to Pimping Basements
 Rich Turn to Pimping Basements 
GLOSSIES
Jul 29, 2008 9:29 AM CDT

Rich Turn to Pimping Basements

Media rooms, arcade games, full gyms making downstairs space not so musty

(Newser) - Basements are no longer the lowly underbelly of the high-end home. With the rise of home-theater technology, and widespread community opposition to mansion expansion, wealthy homeowners are increasingly turning basements into underground playgrounds, Portfolio reports, featuring everything from faux-'50s diners to recording studios to saunas. “Whether you have a...

Stealing Home: Five Signs It's Time to Lowball

Forget the market and climb inside the seller's head

(Newser) - It's not always the economy, stupid. Even in a weak market, buyers should consider a homeowner's situation before hurling a lowball bid, writes Daniel McGinn in Newsweek. One real estate broker offers five sure signs that a seller is ready to deal:
  1. Nobody's home. Sellers who have moved on, or
...

House OKs Mortgage Rescue Plan, Despite Veto Threat

Plan would allow homeowners to get more stable government loans

(Newser) - The House today shrugged off a veto threat from President Bush and passed a wide-ranging rescue plan for US homeowners, Reuters reports. The centerpiece of the legislation would allow people to trade in risky, fast-rising mortgages for more stable government loans. The $300 billion measure would help an estimated 500,...

Ditch the Lawn, Grow a Garden!
 Ditch the Lawn, Grow a Garden! 
Apr 20, 2008 5:18 AM CDT

Ditch the Lawn, Grow a Garden!

Artist/architect wages war on 'antisocial' front yards

(Newser) - A renegade architect/artist has declared war on an unlikely enemy: the suburban front lawn. To improve what he sees as an “actively antisocial space” which consumes resources and serves no definite purpose, Fritz Haeg is looking to transform lawns into food gardens, reports Men's Vogue. His first four repurposed...

More Fed Help on the Way for Homeowners

More FHA-insured mortgages to be available for strapped consumers

(Newser) - Homeowners struggling to avoid foreclosure are about to get a boost from the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA commissioner is expected to announce plans to expand an aid program that will allow borrowers saddled with negative equity to write down part of their mortgages and refinance their homes with cheaper...

Couple Seeks $25K Over Google's 'Street View'

Privacy-seeking couple claims 'mental suffering' after home appears online

(Newser) - Google gave in to the Defense Department, but can it fight a couple in Pittsburgh? Aaron and Christine Boring are seeking more than $25,000 for invasion of privacy by Google's “Street View” feature, the Smoking Gun reports. The couple says that a “major component of their purchase...

Bernanke: Homeowners Need More Help

Fed chief calls for writing down problem mortgages' principal

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke says homeowners need more help, and that help might include writing down the principal on some problem loans, reports the Wall Street Journal.  "Efforts by both government and private-sector entities to reduce unnecessary foreclosures are helping, but more can, and should, be done,"  the...

Best Places for Home Bargains
Best Places for Home Bargains
Feb 13, 2008 2:13 PM CST

Best Places for Home Bargains

Plenty of opportunity exists for money-minded buyers, Forbes says

(Newser) - Certain housing markets are better than others for bargain-hunters, Forbes reports, and they're generally the ones with a glut of homes, strong job growth, and a low rate of foreclosures. Forbes rattles off its top 10:
  1. Salt Lake City: highest job growth in the country, and low foreclosure
  2. Raleigh, NC:
...

10 Lies Homeowners Tell Buyers
10 Lies Homeowners Tell Buyers
Feb 8, 2008 6:41 PM CST

10 Lies Homeowners Tell Buyers

Few are above making a fib or two part of the sales pitch

(Newser) - When a homeowner is desperate to sell and a buyer is ready to fork over the cash, the truth about a house is often swept under the rug, MSNBC reports. Watch out for frequent fibs when talking about:
  1. Personality of neighbors and the neighborhood.
  2. Status of home repairs (particularly the
...

Given Rent Prices, Homes Still Too High

Expect another 15% drop if historical relationship holds

(Newser) - If rent prices are any indication, home prices aren’t done falling, according to one former and two current Federal Reserve economists. Annual rents have historically held steady at about 5% of home prices, but since 1996 home prices have left rents in the dust, the Wall Street Journal explains....

Some Critics of Rate Freeze May Be Angry Investors

FDIC chief speculates that investors are blasting the plan to boost their income

(Newser) - Critics of the government’s new rescue plan for strapped homeowners may be investors who would cash in on a foreclosure-ridden market, one of the plan’s chief architects charges. Sheila Blair, head of the FDIC, speculated that naysayers may have a conflict of interest, the Wall Street Journal reports....

Subprime Nightmare to Get Worse
Subprime Nightmare to Get Worse
Nov 24, 2007 2:28 PM CST

Subprime Nightmare to Get Worse

With rates about to reset higher, expect more foreclosures

(Newser) - The subprime mortgage crisis is only just beginning, new data suggests. Hundreds of billions of dollars in subprime adjustable-rate mortgages are due to reset to higher rates in the year ahead, reports the Wall Street Journal. Analysts say this means the steep rise in defaults and foreclosures this year may...

Black Families Need Their 40 Acres
Black Families Need Their
40 Acres
OPINION
Nov 18, 2007 3:22 PM CST

Black Families Need Their 40 Acres

The ticket to black success is property ownership, says Gates

(Newser) - With a poll last week showing that African Americans no longer think of themselves as a "single race," Henry Louis Gates Jr explores causes of  the widening gap between middle class and poor blacks. His study of 20 highly successful African Americans, from Oprah to Whoopi to...

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