Published Friday, January 20, 2012 @ 7:08 pm

Jobs in the private sector may be on the way up—a complete change of pace from the post-Recessionary years—but optimism about the mortgage industry is still way down in the wake of massive foreclosure abuses at major mortgage lenders.

In fact, The New York Times recently published a shocking article detailing the struggles of homeowners facing foreclosure framed by mortgage servicing horror stories piling up all across the nation.…

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Published Friday, December 2, 2011 @ 5:48 pm

In this blog we often talk about the benefits of bankruptcy for individuals and businesses—debtors who are part of the American fabric that are facing the significant financial perils of the current economic malaise.

But what if one of the financial entities that is often the primary culprit for harassing these same American debtors seeks the safe havens of bankruptcy relief?…

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Published Sunday, September 25, 2011 @ 10:20 am

Foreclosures? Theeeey’re Baaaaack.

After several months of falling default rates, foreclosures were up again in August 2011, rising by about 7 percent compared to the month before. In fact, according to new numbers from the real estate firm RealtyTrac, some of the biggest increases were in the nation’s wealthier places: suburbs, industrial hubs, as well as small town service worker centers, already hard-hit by the great recession.…

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Published Monday, September 19, 2011 @ 8:51 am

The big news recently seems to be rising unemployment, with jobs coming back into focus as yet another election season begins to heat up. But a recent jump in another bad economic bellwether—home foreclosures—is a new cause for concern in these uncertain economic times.

According to a latest reports, the number of mortgage-default notices filed by banks climbed 33 percent between July and August — the biggest single-month increase in four years, according to the data provider RealtyTrac.…

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Published Tuesday, September 13, 2011 @ 10:16 am

In the years since the end of America’s recent Great Recession, there have been plenty of ups and downs in economic forecasts, fiscal prognostications, and financial facts and figures. But as mortgages rates rose forcing many into foreclosure, the personal health of those impacted went on the decline, as the real estate reckoning wrought a wave of depressed homeowners.…

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Published Sunday, September 4, 2011 @ 8:52 am

When you’re drowning in debt, and dodging your creditors, you may feel stuck—forced to eliminate your financial trappings as soon as possible and by any means necessary. But, in the process of dispensing with debt through the benefits of bankruptcy, it’s vital that you deal with that debt deliberately and follow certain rules pre-filing in order to assure that your financial future is as fruitful as possible.…

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Published Friday, August 12, 2011 @ 9:11 am

As active duty service members come home from wars winding down abroad in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are welcomed to friends, family and staggering unemployment. Now, tens of thousands of veterans are flooding the job market at a time when millions of civilians can’t even head back to work.

According to a new report from Reuters, unemployment among recent veterans grew to 13.3 percent in June, more than 4 percentage points higher than the national average.…

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Published Friday, July 15, 2011 @ 5:13 am

Everything old is new again with news that private investment firms are now lending to subprime borrowers again.

In fact, based on a Wall Street Journal report, subprime borrowers—home buyers whose credit scores do not meet the standards of banks—who had been largely shut out of the lending market in the years since the financial crisis, are now finding a much more liberal environment for getting a home loan.…

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Published Friday, June 24, 2011 @ 10:08 am

If you’re like so many Americans experiencing tough economic times, you may feel completely overwhelmed by your current financial situation and unsure as to what options actually exist to alleviate it. Maybe you’ve been unable to modify your mortgage, hit with the costs of an unexpected medical situation, dealing with high interest credit cards or are navigating through the pitfalls of unemployment or underemployment with little understanding of how to pull yourself out of the subsequent a financial hole.…

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Published Saturday, June 18, 2011 @ 8:21 am

It’s no secret that a big reason for our country’s lingering financial malaise is the real estate market’s seemingly unending mortgage crisis—forcing many Americans out of house and home while also contributing to a bleak economic environment for home purchases, investment and spending.

But along with the knowledge that the mortgage servicing industry foreclosed on more than one million homes last year and is on track to do better in 2011, comes more bad news for the beleaguered economy: high unemployment is now further dragging down the housing market and subsequent prospects for our country’s economic recovery.…

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Published Wednesday, June 15, 2011 @ 2:36 pm

While many Americans learned a harsh lesson during the economic recession—turning away from reckless spending in an attempt to increase much-needed savings and avoid high-interest consumer debts—auto lenders still did well during the downturn, as demand for cars remained high and auto loans became one of the very few types of consumer debts that grew even as consumer confidence dwindled.…

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Published Tuesday, May 24, 2011 @ 5:49 pm

While many are led to believe that filing for bankruptcy can kill your credit score, it turns out missing a single mortgage payment—a common symptom of recent economic malaise—may be just as deadly to your credit’s near future.

According to a recent article from The New York Times, “Missed mortgage payments, serious loan delinquencies, loan modifications, short sales, foreclosures and bankruptcies all drag down credit scores.…

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Published Monday, April 4, 2011 @ 5:37 pm

In 2010, the President Obama reworked his $75 billion foreclosure prevention plan. The second incarnation of the Home Affordable Modification Program (or HAMP) added new incentives to help those hardest hit by the housing crisis, targeting homeowners who were unemployed or underwater in their mortgages (i.e., folks owing more on their loans than their homes were worth).…

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Published Friday, March 18, 2011 @ 6:08 am

To commemorate the Federal Trade Commission’s annual National Consumer Protection Week (March 6 – 12, 2011), the FTC is providing a budget-load of handy-dandy information designed to protect your money, your credit, and your overall post-recessionary financial future. So whether you’re rebuilding your economic life post-bankruptcy, or simply trying to speed up your savings, the NCPW blog can yield a wealth of resources exactly at a time when average Americans need a financial infusion, including information about:

• Avoiding foreclosure rescue and other mortgage-related scams;
• Knowing how to spot employment opportunity scams;
• Making the most of your money in the early stages of your career;
• Building and maintaining a budget to improve financial stability;
• Avoiding time-share and credit-card scams offered via text messages; and
• Learning what steps to take to save your home from foreclosure.

…

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Published Tuesday, March 15, 2011 @ 9:03 am

With its many Armed Forces outposts, bases and camps, North Carolina is among a select group of states that are home to a storied U.S. military tradition as well as large military and veteran populations. As such, citizens of North Carolina and other states are often familiar not only with the duties and honorable service of these military men and women, but are also aware of the many laws passed to give veterans preferred status as a token for their former and continuing sacrifice.…

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Published Monday, March 14, 2011 @ 9:53 am

To commemorate the Federal Trade Commission’s annual National Consumer Protection Week (March 6 – 12, 2011), the FTC is providing a budget-load of handy-dandy information designed to protect your money, your credit, and your overall post-recessionary financial future. So whether you’re rebuilding your economic life post-bankruptcy, or simply trying to speed up your savings, the NCPW blog can yield a wealth of resources exactly at a time when average Americans need a financial infusion, including information about:

• Avoiding foreclosure rescue and other mortgage-related scams;
• Knowing how to spot employment opportunity scams;
• Making the most of your money in the early stages of your career;
• Building and maintaining a budget to improve financial stability;
• Avoiding time-share and credit-card scams offered via text messages; and
• Learning what steps to take to save your home from foreclosure.

…

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Published Tuesday, February 15, 2011 @ 10:40 pm

As countless bankruptcy clients in this country have made clear, seeking the debt dissolution solutions of a personal bankruptcy can help free up finances that help with home mortgage payments—even amid the real estate reckoning of the recent recession—and, as such, aid many households in avoiding the perils of foreclosure.

But now the proof is in the reporting.…

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Published Tuesday, January 25, 2011 @ 8:22 am

Amid a 2010 marred by some of the highest foreclosure rates ever recorded, came the news that many of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders had been forced to suspend foreclosure proceedings following charges that these same “mega mortgage-holders” rushed the recordation process by forcing thousands of borrowers from their “home sweet homes” without the appropriate documentation to do so.…

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Published Saturday, January 22, 2011 @ 7:24 am

In 2010, the Obama administration reworked its $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program (AKA “HAMP”) in an attempt to better help those hardest hit by the housing crisis: homeowners who were unemployed or underwater in their mortgages (i.e., owing more on their loans than their homes are worth). Within these changes, (1) the unemployed could qualify for up to a six month stay on their mortgage payments;  (2) in turn, participating banks would receive financial incentives to reduce mortgage balances for underwater homeowners; and (3) lenders could refinance mortgage loans secured by the Federal Housing Administration.…

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Published Friday, January 14, 2011 @ 11:52 am

Following the worst financial downturn since the Depression of the 1930s, men and women of the middle-class have found themselves profoundly affected by an economic meltdown that’s quickly pushed many into poverty. Widening unemployment paired with shrinking government safety nets means one unexpected and unfortunate incident—a sudden layoff, debilitating injury or illness, a missed mortgage payment—can mean a person’s life is instantly transformed from “happy-go-lucky” to the brink of homelessness or worse.…

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Published Thursday, January 13, 2011 @ 3:56 pm

Business insiders and industry experts are all aflutter after last week’s US Bancorp v. Ibanez decision in which Massachusetts’ highest court found that Wells Fargo and US Bancorp had no right to seize the homes of two delinquent borrowers since neither financial institution could prove they legally owned the mortgages at the time they foreclosed.…

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Published Monday, January 3, 2011 @ 8:51 am

Despite an apparent uptick in consumer confidence this during the latter part of 2010, no one is buying the idea that the housing market—a major cause for this decade’s economic meltdown—is getting better anytime soon. In fact, according to U.S. Bank regulators, the country’s home foreclosures actually spiked in the third quarter as banks and other mortgage lenders became less inclined to help Americans stay in their homes as the housing market continues to struggle.…

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Published Saturday, December 18, 2010 @ 4:50 pm

Facing everything from medical markups, to investment issues, to mortgage meltdowns to cash-strapped kids, it’s clearer than ever that our country’s oldest citizens represent one of the hardest hit demographics in the country’s lingering economic malaise. As a result, more and more mature Americans have been relying on high interest credit cards to scrape by, leading some to subsequently seek the financial safe havens a bankruptcy can provide.…

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Published Friday, December 17, 2010 @ 9:44 pm

In the midst of a record number of foreclosures, inattentive banks riddled with an ever-growing wave of scandal and a widely held mistrust of the financial industry, Raleigh based State Employees Credit Union has won major kudos from customers all across the state for their handling of homeowners’ struggles throughout the recession.…

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Published Wednesday, December 8, 2010 @ 11:56 am

A program designed to help American homeowners stay afloat during the tsunami of foreclosures is starting to take on water, according to a committee of Washington Republicans assigned to overseeing White House programs.

Announced not long after it became readily apparent that a major national financial crisis was at hand, the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, offered mortgage lenders financial incentive for restructuring customers’ payment plans.…

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Published Monday, November 15, 2010 @ 10:13 am

While some experts are calling the latter portions of 2010 a new era of economic recovery, bankruptcy filings remain in true recession-era form.  In fact, according to the 2010 Fiscal Year statistics from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the number of bankruptcies filed between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010 increased from 1,402,816 to 1,596,355, marking an increase of 13.8%.…

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Published Friday, November 12, 2010 @ 10:36 am

As has been well reported, mortgage modifications in the current housing market remain hard to come by. But what is less well known is that even for many lucky enough to modify their current house payments, the financial future is far from safely sheltered.  According to a recent report, more than 50 percent of homeowners who received mortgage modifications were at least two mortgage payments behind within a single year’s time, yet again making them vulnerable to perils of foreclosure.  The report also showed that approximately one-third of homeowners who received mortgage modifications that reduced their monthly payments by 20 percent or more had fallen behind again within a year compared to 60 percent for borrowers whose loan payments were left unchanged or increased.…

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Published Sunday, October 31, 2010 @ 5:41 pm

This week you may have seen many ghouls and goblins trolling around your neighborhoods, asking for tricks or treats. But, the scariest thing currently happening in your community is an array of potentially unlawful home repossessions from mortgage companies expediting the foreclosure process or refusing mortgage modifications in bad faith. In turn, a whole host of homeowner lawsuits have erupted on the scene, with the vast majority of them revolving around the idea that mortgage companies are deliberately misleading and manipulating homeowners just like you for their own financial benefit.…

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Published Tuesday, October 5, 2010 @ 12:12 pm

Following the last several years of the worst economic downturn in recent history, economists, commentators and financial experts have recently been heartened about prospects for economic growth and recovery as industries increasingly report better profits and the potential for new jobs with these increased revenues. Yet, even as the economy begins to emerge from its recent doldrums, many Americans remain buried in bills, job applications, and home and consumer debts.…

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Published Tuesday, October 5, 2010 @ 12:06 pm

If you’re reading this, odds are you might be suffering through a pretty tough financial time. What may make you feel a bit better about your current economic situation is the firm knowledge that you’re not alone in this global economic meltdown. Specifically, millions of average Americans just like you are facing a shared financial burden as we all struggle to stay afloat in the wake of this country’s recent Great Recession—full of folks facing insurmountable health care costs, foreclosure, job insecurity and losses, and, in some cases, complete and total insolvency.…

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Published Thursday, September 2, 2010 @ 10:36 am

Imagine for a moment that you’ve fallen on hard times. You’ve gotten one, two, or maybe more payments than you can count behind on your mortgage. Your bank or mortgage lender has contacted you over and over, threatening you with talk of a foreclosure. You’ve even been told to expect a foreclosure sale in the coming month.…

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Published Thursday, September 2, 2010 @ 10:34 am

Baby Boomers and their cohorts born during the middle part of the 20th Century—between the years of 1946-1964—are a generation of active lifestyles, risk-taking rebellions, musical and cultural significance, and, as they come to represent one third of the population of North America, a group making significant demands on the societies in which they live.  But now, Baby Boomers are adding one more superlative to the bunch: they’re also a generation of financial insolvency.…

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Published Tuesday, August 31, 2010 @ 9:32 pm

The Obama Administration’s Credit CARD Act, meant to tighten the reins on credit card industry treatment of card customers—and thereby assist most average Americans— has slowly (but imperceivably?) begun changing our credit card rates, rewards, the appearance of our statements, and even the number of offers we receive.

But despite these significant changes in credit card law to this point, many Americans are still struggling to pay their bills on time, every time.…

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Published Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 2:20 pm

In previous posts we’ve mentioned the findings of Third World America, Arianna Huffington’s new book taking an up-close-and-person and personal look at those hardest hit by the ongoing economic crisis: individuals, families and even whole communities.

In the process of capturing this unwelcome slice of American life, Huffington’s own news and information website The Huffington Post has “mapped the areas hardest hit by home foreclosure, unemployment and bankruptcy this year.”

To give you an idea of the depth and scope of the damage done by the financial meltdown, here’s an overview of how hard people are being in hit throughout a state like North Carolina.…

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Published Saturday, August 28, 2010 @ 8:17 am

Deciding to file bankruptcy requires that you take an honest assessment of your financial situation.

Now if our government would just approach our economy the same way.

News this week about an economic recovery that probably never was and a perpetuating recession are putting into a harsh perspective just how much time, energy and tax-payer money has been dumped into a financial revitalization effort that looks to have not just stalled, but pulled us backward.…

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Published Friday, August 27, 2010 @ 9:47 am

In the hard-hit housing market, there’s some good news and some bad news. First the good news: according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, for the first time since 2006, the number of loans in the process of foreclosure fell in the second quarter. But then there’s the bad news: even with these drops in default leading to foreclosure, still more early delinquencies are apparent all across the county as homeowners continue to struggle with high unemployment and job insecurity.…

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Published Thursday, August 26, 2010 @ 11:41 am

Just a few years ago, home ownership was something available to just about anyone—an economic reality that to an extent, contributed to where we are today. Nevertheless, the mortgage boom helped a lot of people realize that benefits of home ownership. It’s simply too bad that it came with so many hidden financial pitfalls, many of which have subjected sub-prime borrowers (and also those with standard mortgages) to serious, long-term hardships.…

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Published Wednesday, August 18, 2010 @ 7:44 am

With many experts predicting a protracted economic malaise with imperceptible growth and stubbornly high joblessness, bankruptcy filings appear to be in true recession-era form, rising in recent months, and, according to many analysts, increasing with no end in sight. In fact, during early summer, the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) validated these fears, reporting that personal bankruptcy filings increased in 2010 compared with only one year ago.…

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Published Thursday, August 12, 2010 @ 10:22 am

If you’re reading this, odds are you may be suffering through  a tough financial time. Yet, what might make you feel a bit better about your current ordeal is the knowledge that you’re not alone. Millions of average Americans just like you are facing a shared financial circumstance as they struggle to stay afloat in the wake of this decade’s Great Recession—facing foreclosure, job insecurity, and, in some cases, insolvency.…

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Published Thursday, August 12, 2010 @ 10:18 am

If you’re reading this, odds are you’re considering bankruptcy. As such, you have a lot on your plate. Yet, what might make you feel a bit better about being bankruptcy bound is the knowledge that you’re not alone. Millions of average Americans just like you are facing desperate circumstances as they struggle to stay afloat in the wake of this decade’s Great Recession—facing foreclosure, job insecurity, and, of course, insolvency.  In the series, Our Great Recession 2.0, we’ll delve into some of the more unique stories of this decade’s unprecedented economic downturn, allowing you to see familiar faces and dire places people are going in order to handle the financial meltdown head-on.…

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Published Tuesday, August 10, 2010 @ 9:53 am

In the wake of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, millions of people are finding themselves bankruptcy bound. And with so many people forced to find relief in the protections a bankruptcy filing can provide, gone are the days of societal stigmatization and shame.

Yet, many debtors enduring tough financial times are still stuck in an old mindset that bankruptcy is a measure of last result.…

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Published Tuesday, August 10, 2010 @ 9:30 am

What was once a white picket fence is now a potential foreclosure; what used to be some measure of Social Security is now using retirement just to get by; what would have been the expectation of (and ability to) send your kids – all of them — to college, is now in question, along with all of the other trappings of a now-fleeting American Dream.…

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Published Friday, July 30, 2010 @ 2:58 pm

More bad news for those facing tough financial times: mortgage foreclosures are likely to top the one million mark in 2010. As The Associated Press reported in the last week, “Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service.”

By comparison, according to RealtyTrac, in an average year the United States only sees about 100,000 homes in foreclosure.…

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Published Wednesday, July 7, 2010 @ 8:53 am

News just moved from bad to worse for many homeowners seeking shelter under the Obama Administration’s Home Affordability Modification Program (otherwise known as HAMP).

Recent government figures show that the average beneficiary of the administration’s flagship homeowner-assistance program owes their mortgage lender more than $1.50 for every dollar their home is currently worth.…

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Published Friday, July 2, 2010 @ 8:14 am

Bankruptcy Myth #1: You won’t receive credit offers after your bankruptcy.

Don’t be surprised to receive many credit offers following your bankruptcy. Car lenders, mortgage financiers, credit card companies and more, often line up for the chance to provide post-bankruptcy debtors with all types of consumer spending opportunities.

Bankruptcy Myth #2: Taking creditors up on all of their offers is a good thing.…

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Published Thursday, July 1, 2010 @ 12:04 pm

While some experts are calling 2010 the year of the economic recovery, bankruptcy filings are in true recession-era form, rising in recent months, and, according many analysts, increasing with no end in sight. In early June, the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) validated these fears, reporting that personal bankruptcy filings for the month of May 2010 increased compared with a year ago (May 2009).…

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Published Monday, June 28, 2010 @ 6:52 pm

Only three months ago, the President Obama reworked his $75 billion foreclosure prevention plan. Part two of the Home Affordable Modification Program (or HAMP), put into play new incentives to help those hardest hit by the housing crisis, targeting homeowners who were unemployed or underwater in their mortgages (i.e., folks owing more on their loans than their homes are worth).…

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Published Tuesday, June 1, 2010 @ 12:11 pm

Are you struggling to stay current with mounting mortgage costs or finding yourself already in arrears? Well, you’re not alone.  According to a recent Reuters article by Lynn Adler, a staggering one in seven households were behind on mortgage payments or is in foreclosure in the first quarter of 2010.  And while the rate of new foreclosures has slowed, the sheer number of delinquencies and foreclosure actions still occurring, some two years following the beginning of the recession, is a clear sign that the U.S.…

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Published Wednesday, May 19, 2010 @ 8:20 am

In a move that, as The New York Times described it, “will affect most American corporations,” the Labor Department has announced its latest mandates for company compliance with plans to end wage violations, increase workplace safety and adhere to equal employment laws.

As The New York Times’ Steve Greenhouse reported, “The effort, aimed in part at reducing the incidence of employers not paying overtime and improperly classifying workers as independent contractors, will require them to document many of their decisions and share that information with their workers and the government.…

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Published Thursday, May 13, 2010 @ 3:20 pm

When you’re deep in debt, it may seem like your creditors are an ever-present part of your life…showing up where and when you least expect them. The calls and letters alone can leave your reeling, and feeling, used and abused.

As we’ve already seen in the first two parts of the four-part series, “Creating a Barrier to Bill Collectors,” unsecured creditors, the ones at the bottom of the financial food chain, are more likely to be the ones contacting you via phone, sending you letters, and generally harassing you for cash, any cash, where and when they can.…

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Published Friday, May 7, 2010 @ 8:06 am

Facing everything from retirement woes to cash-strapped kids, it has been well-reported that older Americans are some of the hardest hit by a lingering recession and rising health care costs.
And now, according The Huffington Post’s Laura Bassett, things just got a little worse for mature Americans looking for work.…

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Published Wednesday, April 28, 2010 @ 8:23 am

While millions of struggling Americans still working hard to find meaningful employment might disagree, economists are heartened about prospects for growth this year as industries increasingly report better profits and add new jobs, though they still expect the recovery to remain slow, a new survey shows.

As The Huffington Post reported this week, 70% of those recently surveyed by The National Association for Business Economics believe real Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—the measure of our country’s overall economic output— will “grow by more than two percent this year, up from 61 percent who said the same in January.…

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Published Wednesday, March 31, 2010 @ 10:02 am

This week, amid groundbreaking health care legislation, many missed the Obama administration’s other big news: a major reworking of its troubled $75 billion foreclosure prevention plan. In an attempt to help those hardest hit by the housing crisis, the newly revamped program targets homeowners who are unemployed or underwater in their mortgages (owing more on their loans than their homes are worth).…

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Published Wednesday, March 3, 2010 @ 12:24 pm

Are you angry at banks that are supposedly too big to fail? But you haven’t withdrawn your money because you think your account is too small to matter?

Well, one media matriarch has some alternative advice. 

Started by Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post is an American news website and aggregator for a host of blogs, columns, stories and moderated comments.…

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Published Thursday, February 25, 2010 @ 3:09 pm

While many economists argue that the economy is steadily rebounding, whether you’re in a recession or recovery seems to largely depend on where you live, if you have a job, if you can pay your bills, or if you still have your home.

The Huffington Post reported this week that facing an economic meltdown in their personal lives, many formerly middle-class families have had to find “creative ways to cope with the sudden loss of their jobs and homes.” In her article, “Rattlesnake for Breakfast, Wedding rings on Craigslist: Families Cope With Falling Out of the Middle Class,” Laura Bassett describes how the American dream, for many, has turned into a surreal nightmare.…

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Published Friday, February 5, 2010 @ 12:07 pm

Foreclosures have become a plague across the country, sickening the economies of small towns, the general contractor industry and even the commercial real estate industry. No facet of the real estate world has gone unaffected.

Whether your home was foreclosed upon or your mortgage lender granted you a short sale (negotiated permission to sell your home for less than what is owed), it was probably considered a tremendous relief to drop the proverbial financial anchor tied around your neck.…

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Published Sunday, January 31, 2010 @ 6:10 pm

As the mortgage crisis continues on, ironically, President Obama seemed right at home at the podium during his 2010 State of the Union address just as millions of Americans face losing their home. As a result, many concerned citizens sought in the President’s national address any signs not only of “hope” or “change”—expressions made famous during his campaign days—but also second year specifics about what a new year would mean for the millions of average Americans, just like them, facing imminent foreclosure.…

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Published Monday, January 25, 2010 @ 6:57 pm

Ugh. Debt. These days most Americans are sick of hearing the d-word. And who can blame us? Americans are in more debt now than ever before. Avoiding debt seems impossible…there are so many things you can’t even do without credit cards or loans that we now take debt as a matter of course.…

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Published Monday, January 25, 2010 @ 5:50 am

Is Mortgage Cramdown Back on the Table?

Last week, amidst the hectic flurry of the election in Massachusetts and Obama’s announcement of new regulations on banks, another announcement didn’t get quite as much attention: the Obama administration will revamp the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The program will be streamlined, making it easier to file the necessary documents; for example, borrowers will be able to use pay stubs as proof of income rather than having to provide tax forms.…

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Published Sunday, January 24, 2010 @ 8:18 am

Brent T. White, a law professor at the University of Arizona, has a provocative new study out, “Underwater and Not Walking Away.” He points out that as many as 32 percent of all homeowners are ‘underwater’ on their mortgages – they owe more money than their houses are worth. The media has produced a series of articles decrying homeowners who simply stop paying on these ‘upside down’ mortgages as irresponsible and even obscene.…

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Published Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 11:50 am

The latest chapter in the Obama administration’s attempts to make lenders modify mortgages is to send SWAT teams – no, I’m not kidding, really, SWAT teams – into the call centers of major lenders to try to ensure that they follow the proper procedures and actually modify loans. Seriously, wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier just to pass cramdown and allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages than to try to sweet talk, bribe or otherwise convince bankers to do it on their own?…

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Published Tuesday, January 19, 2010 @ 11:23 am

In the Preventing Foreclosure series, you’ve received an introductory look at how to stay in your home, either through bankruptcy proceedings or via negotiations with your mortgage lender, with later discussions specifically devoted to how Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings can force creditors to end their collection activities and delay a foreclosure sale.…

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Published Thursday, January 7, 2010 @ 9:25 pm

The bankruptcy numbers for 2009 are out, and as expected, they’re high. According to a report in the Associated Press, 1.4 million people declared bankruptcy last year. That’s the seventh highest number ever, and the largest number since the change in the 2005 bankruptcy laws. 110,000 people declared bankruptcy in November, marking the 9th straight month of more than 100,000 bankruptcy filings.…

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Published Tuesday, January 5, 2010 @ 1:52 pm

Foreclosure is a common precursor to bankruptcy. More often than necessary, it happens before a family really knows where to turn for help.

Worse yet, those who lose their home in foreclosure continue to spiral into debt and end up filing bankruptcy long after it could have been used to help save their home in addition to relieving them from the agony of overwhelming monthly credit card bills and other debts.…

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Published Sunday, December 27, 2009 @ 5:31 pm

If the present economic environment wasn’t Scrooge enough, just in time for the holidays, it appears the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable foreclosure prevention plan has failed to meet its goal of helping millions of Americans avoid foreclosure.

In fact, according to a recent Treasury Department report, 27 percent of the 650,000 homeowners taking part in the mortgage modification program are now delinquent on their mortgage payments.  Reflecting the mortgage industry’s aversion to permanently modify mortgages, of that number, only 1,711 participating homeowners attempting to avoid foreclosure have been able to convert their modifications to permanent status.…

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Published Saturday, December 19, 2009 @ 10:10 am

Back in 2005, credit card companies were convinced – or at least tried hard to convince everyone else – that there was a bankruptcy crisis in the United States. Bankruptcy rates had doubled since 1980, they pointed out. ‘Shopaholics’ were charging everything under the sun and then declaring bankruptcy, forcing the credit card companies to eat their debt.…

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Published Friday, December 18, 2009 @ 7:21 pm

Last Friday, the House of Representatives passed a wide-reaching swath of financial reforms, designed to reign in the worse excesses of the banking industry. Democratic lawmakers are hailing the bill as a huge victory for consumers. However, one important provision failed to pass: cramdown.

‘Cramdown’ would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce the principle balance of the mortgage on a primary residence in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, resulting in lower monthly payments for the filer.…

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Published Thursday, December 10, 2009 @ 8:37 am

In Part I of the Preventing Foreclosure series, you received an introductory look at how to stay in your home, either through bankruptcy proceedings or via negotiations with your mortgage lender. In Part II of this six-part series, we’ll elaborate on the ins and out of working with your mortgage lender, including timelines, terms, and what to say when starting this important dialogue.…

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Published Monday, December 7, 2009 @ 7:41 pm

While mortgage companies continue to refuse lower payments to borrowers who can no longer afford their loans, millions are facing delinquency, foreclosure and the loss of their homes. But just because you’re facing tough odds doesn’t mean that you can’t plan ahead to minimize the possibility of foreclosure or mitigate the damage if you find yourself moving toward it.…

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Published Monday, November 23, 2009 @ 6:49 pm

The Associated Press is reporting that the foreclosure crisis will persist well into next year as high unemployment “pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery.”

The latest evidence comes this week in a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association identifying that a rising tide of fixed-rate home loans made to people with good credit are now facing foreclosure, marking a surprising shift from assumptions that only riskier subprime loans are driving the current housing crisis.…

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Published Friday, October 9, 2009 @ 5:23 pm

Even though we are in the business of helping people through bankruptcy, legally and sometimes even emotionally, we understand that filing is not always the best option for you. However, our greatest fear is for those who should file but decide not to for the wrong reasons, whether it be because of the stigma of bankruptcy, an inability to face financial reality, or opting for a “less than legitimate” credit counselor.…

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Published Monday, August 24, 2009 @ 11:52 am

Think that only credit card companies and gym memberships get passed off to collection agents? Think again.

In recent years, and now more than ever given the economy, local governments are selling overdue property tax accounts to private companies to gain immediate access to the money needed to supply public services.…

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Published Friday, August 21, 2009 @ 10:04 am

It’s official: Making Home Affordable isn’t owning up to its namesake.

After months of simmering frustration with the federal program designed to financially encourage lenders to be more cooperative with economically-challenged mortgage holders, it seems that the national media has finally created an outlet for the hundreds of thousands of Americans trying to sort it all out.…

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Published Thursday, August 6, 2009 @ 6:56 am

In a recent post, we talked a little about the “Meeting of Creditors.” That got us to thinking, are there other terms and steps along the way that we could help you better understand if you are still considering filing bankruptcy? And, does the blog mention or gloss over some terms that leave you with questions?…

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Published Tuesday, August 4, 2009 @ 6:20 am

Sometimes life throws you the unexpected. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, all it takes is one unanticipated expense to put you on the path to a truly disastrous financial scenario. It’s often the unforeseen emergency expense which starts the ball rolling. Soon you’re 2 or 3 months behind on the car payment, and repossession of your car or foreclosure becomes a very real possibility.…

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Published Wednesday, July 8, 2009 @ 11:11 am

So you’ve had a few mishaps lately in your financial life– like just about everybody else in America. And you’ve been working really hard to keep up the juggling act: spread the minimum amount of money around to the maximum number of creditors to appease them until you finally get a break.…

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Published Monday, July 6, 2009 @ 11:47 am

Are you hopelessly behind on your mortgage payments and wondering what to do about it? People in your shoes typically do one of three things: (1) try to convince the bank to just take whatever the property can fetch on the market (a “short sale”); (2) just let the bank foreclose; or (3) file bankruptcy.…

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Published Tuesday, June 9, 2009 @ 11:10 am

As you are probably well aware, bankruptcy is an important decision that should not be taken lightly. If you are eligible to file but hesitate to do so, you stand to lose more than you may guess. Dithering too long can ruin the strategic advantage of timing; deciding not to file at all could cause you to lose everything.…

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Published Tuesday, May 26, 2009 @ 4:00 pm

Despite the defeat of the mortgage cramdown bill that would have allowed bankruptcy judges more power to renegotiate mortgages on behalf of those seeking relief, the Obama administration is realizing some slow success with its heavily touted foreclosure prevention program.

Mortgages eligible for the program started to be serviced last month and to date, 55,000 home loans have been subjected to modification as a way to alleviate the financial pain caused by sub-prime loan interest rate spikes.…

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Published Tuesday, May 12, 2009 @ 5:20 pm

In a surprising move, the South Carolina Supreme Court on May 5th issued a temporary restraining order against thousands of lenders in the process foreclosing homes in the state. The court was acting in response to a request from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two federal mortgage giants charged with implementing the new Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which is designed to give certain homeowners an opportunity to modify their mortgages to avoid foreclosure.…

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Published Thursday, April 30, 2009 @ 1:09 pm

If your debt problems are beginning to wear you down, like they are for so many people today, it’s important that you remain aware of the fact that there are people looking to further erode your unstable financial position to better their own. Unfortunately, financial “help” begins to show up in many forms, from payday lenders to credit counselors to phony financial counselors.…

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Published Saturday, April 25, 2009 @ 7:14 am

So you’ve got a pile of bills and not enough money to pay them. This has been going on for some time now and you’re getting further and further behind on your payments: 30 days on some, 90 days on others, and even six months on a few. So what can you do?…

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Published Tuesday, April 14, 2009 @ 9:56 pm

Chapter 13 bankruptcy (sometimes called the “wage-earner’s bankruptcy”) is designed to allow you to restructure your past due financial obligations into an affordable repayment plan. The repayment plan will include secured debts (such as mortgages and car loans). In some circumstances, it can include repayment of some of your unsecured debt (such as credit cards and personal loans).…

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Published Monday, April 6, 2009 @ 3:47 pm

Are you one of the thousands of people across the country who got caught up in the turmoil of the home mortgage meltdown? Are you afraid of losing your home and wondering what to do? First ask yourself whether you want to save your home or whether you are willing to let it go.  Whichever decision you make, bankruptcy can help you and your family with a fresh start.…

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