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Posted
Aug 29 2008, 11:40 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Congratulations are due to blogger Lynnae, who recently realized her personal version of the American dream: She and her husband have bought their first house. "I'm now the proud owner of my own home, and in more debt than I've ever been in my life! It feels good!" she wrote. How can she be happy about debt, when so many others are ruing their home-purchasing decisions? Lynnae and Jim bucked the trend: They waited for prices to fall and made an offer on a house they can actually afford -- even if they were ever forced to swing it on one income.
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Posted
Aug 18 2008, 12:14 AM
by
Ryan MacClanathan
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
My wife and
I had been in our first house for 10 years when our dream home fell in our laps
one day. Until then, we had no plans to move. We were completely unprepared to
sell our existing home while buying a new one. Eventually we made it happen,
but we violated a number of home-buying best practices as we scrambled to make
our dream a reality.
We were
particularly worried about how to time things financially. We couldn't afford
to carry two mortgages -- how would we possibly make ends meet? Ultimately, we
were saved by the rise of the housing bubble and a friendly banker. Our home
sold in one day, and we were able to
close on that sale soon after closing on the new house. Meanwhile, a home-equity
loan floated us the cash we needed to get by.
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Posted
Aug 13 2008, 06:13 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Financially stressed homeowners hoping to benefit from the federal housing bailout should be glad that Kyle at Rather Be Shopping is not in charge. While people who seek help through the plan will have to show they can afford to make (newly reduced) mortgage payments, Kyle has a different set of questions they'd have to answer before getting help. Among them would be: How much do you spend on vacations? What kind of car do you drive, and what kind of clothes do you buy? In other words, are you responsible with your money?
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Posted
Jul 31 2008, 03:02 PM
by
Karen Datko
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"JLP" at All Financial Matters bought a house he knew he could afford, even though he was told he could qualify for a much larger mortgage. He saved over the years to remodel the modest house into a dream home. Did we also mention that the homeowner bailout passed by Congress and signed by President Bush really ticks him off? He wrote, "As a responsible, taxpaying citizen of the United States of America, I find it offensive that our goverment is bending over backward to keep irresponsible people in houses they can't afford." His post, "Let people (and companies) fail," provoked a rebuttal from one of the homeowners hoping to keep her house with the government's help.
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Posted
Jul 22 2008, 11:34 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from Martin H. Bosworth at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. Two reports released this week show that bankruptcy reform passed in 2005 -- rather than helping consumers -- actually costs consumers in the form of more credit card debt, and may be causing greater losses to banks due to increased foreclosures. According to a study by Michael Simkovic of the John M. Olin Center for Law and Economics at Harvard Law School: Supporters of the law claimed that it would benefit consumers as well as creditors, because reducing the losses faced by creditors would lower the cost of credit to consumers. ... The data suggests that although bankruptcies and credit card company losses decreased, and credit card companies achieved record profits, the cost to consumers of credit card debt actually increased. In other words, the 2005 bankruptcy reforms profited credit card companies at consumers' expense.
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Posted
Jul 20 2008, 10:47 AM
by
Karen Datko
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Do you want to purchase a Cape Cod with an asphalt front yard and an abundance of broken beer bottles and cigarette butts all about? Please, please buy this house and become the new neighbor of "Brainy Smurf," the blogger at Pants in a Can. You can't be any worse than the people who have the house up for sale. You'd think the very existence of these people would be enough to drive property values down (although, due to other factors, Brainy's property taxes have gone up).
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Posted
Jun 10 2008, 12:35 PM
by
Karen Datko
Sure, it's sad that TV icon Ed McMahon is facing foreclosure on his $6 million Beverly Hills mansion. But "PT" at Prime Time Money is irritated by the way McMahon has gone public with his housing woes. Ed has said he hopes his story will help others who are about to lose their homes. "In my opinion, a millionaire, who could get any type of mortgage he wanted, has no business being the spokesperson for the foreclosure issues facing the few who really got duped," PT writes. "... I'm convinced he's simply hyping this to get the house sold."
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Posted
May 28 2008, 06:09 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. I'm a "Seinfeld" fan, and I'm reminded of the episode when George Costanza pushed an elderly woman, a clown and a roomful of children out of his way so he could escape what he thought was a blazing fire. The clown ended up dousing the blaze with his big shoe. When you think of your home-equity line of credit, you should be reminded of George. In an emergency, your home-equity line of credit may be the first thing to leave the room.
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Posted
May 19 2008, 04:35 PM
by
Karen Datko
Just how bad is foreclosure? As the "Silicon Valley Blogger" points out, pretty awful. But it might just be the end to a financial nightmare that's keeping you up at night. If faced with the prospect of foreclosure, the important thing is that you understand the consequences -- and there will be some -- of this huge financial step.
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Posted
May 19 2008, 02:19 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
You don't need to have a crazy interest-only or adjustable-rate mortgage to feel the pain of the housing slump. A reader who posted a question at Free Money Finance wisely put 20% down and got a fixed-rate mortgage in Las Vegas when that housing market was sizzling hot. Now it's not, and he's upside down -- he owes more on the house than it's worth because of dropping values. His problem is that he wants to move.
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