Steadfast Finances
A Personal Finance & Investing 101 blog that delves into current events, consumer education, and techniques to improve your bottom line.
Facing Foreclosure? Here are Some Programs that Might Be Available for You
If there is anything this recession has proven to Americans, it is that unemployment can happen to anyone. The economic turmoil has been particularly brutal for those on unemployment. According to economic reports, the average duration for unemployment has ballooned to over nine months in the last few years. Just because your paychecks have stopped, doesn’t mean that your mortgage payments go into hibernation.
Why are Home Foreclosures Picking Up in 2012?
After several months of improvement, we are beginning to see home foreclosures pick up again. Last month, data showed that nearly half of states are seeing a dramatic increase in foreclosures. It’s not a giant surprise, many experts are expecting 2012 to be a boom year of foreclosure filings and there are a number of interesting developments that help us to understand why.
Benefits of an Adjustable Rate Mortgage
Adjustable rate mortgages are loans that offer the buyer low interest rates for some set period of time, such as five years. These rates will fluctuate depending on the prevailing market interest rate. Of course, this means that the interest rates rise or fall depending on the market situation. This fact is especially important when you are living in a crumbling economy like that of the United States with hardly any national income growth these days.
Mortgage-To-Lease Program from Bank of America: Helpful, or Next Foreclosure Scam?
The news is abuzz over Bank of America’s latest program, mortgage-to-lease, to help homeowners abate impending foreclosure. Unfortunately, when you hear anything with Bank of America’s name on it, you’ll be faced with a lot of dishonest reporting from those with political agenda from both the bandwagon and peanut gallery of detractors. If you want an impartial opinion of the program, you’ve come to the right place.
Why Your Rent is on the Rise in 2012
No doubt, you are already grumbling about rising gas prices. You may even complain about your inflated grocery bill. However, there’s one other major cost on the rise this year: rent. Depending on where you live, the increase on rent could have a very powerful effect on your budget.
Real Estate Investing for Beginners
Investing in real estate for the first time can be a difficult thing. The person who has yet to invest in rental properties, may have lots of questions about the process, benefits, etc. The popular phrase, ‘You don’t know what you don’t know,” rings true in this situation. It is hard to jump into the realm of real estate investing without asking for some form of help. Here’s what every beginner investor should do.
Why Homebuyers Should Be Thankful About Paying Large Closing Costs
An under-reported study conducted by the St. Louis Fed reveals a very different narrative with regards to the causes of the recent housing crisis. Researchers studied national foreclosure demographics to determine if predatory lending played a crucial role in the recent housing collapse. Economists were able to hone in on two demographics that made up [...]
Delaying Foreclosure: 62 Years to Repossess New York Homes at Current Pace
More troubling data on real estate and foreclosures as a whole from the NYT: In New York State, it would take lenders 62 years at their current pace, the longest time frame in the nation, to repossess the 213,000 houses now in severe default or foreclosure, according to calculations by LPS Applied Analytics, a [...]
Case Shiller: Confirmation of the Double-Dip in Home Prices
As if we had any real doubt that U.S. real estate was FUBAR, but the March Case Shiller Index numbers did us a favor and confirmed what the smart money already knew. Too bad the Case Shiller model doesn’t take condos, bank owned real estate, short term prices, etc. Wouldn’t want to show chartology for [...]
Chartporn: Number of Days Foreclosed Homeowners Not Paying Their Mortgage
Legendary chartporn of this quality would almost make me ill had I not been so prepared for the smell of Castor Oil. From the article: This chart is really astounding. It shows the average number of days that homeowners with defaulted loans (NOD) have not made a mortgage payment. For New York, one of the [...]
Median Home Prices and The ‘Double Dip’
Image via Chart of the Day A 20 second scan of the headlines for the real estate tab on this blog will show you I’ve been bearish on U.S. real estate since this blog began several years ago, but I’m thinking it might be time to go from ultra bearish to neutral on select markets based [...]
60 Minutes on the Housing Crash & Foreclosure Fraud
A few of us knew the double dip in real estate was a no brainer, but what I didn’t expect, and for some inexplicable reason no one from the financial establishments is facing criminal charges for, is the outright fraud in an attempt to cover up (e.g. paper over) their incompetence. If you or I [...]
