Buying a home with the intention of reselling it at a profit in the near future made a lot of sense in 2005, when home values …
underwater
From Underwater to ‘Equity Poor’: Why the Housing Market Isn’t Recovering Faster
Rates are at historic lows of 3.53% for 30-year mortgages. Rents are at record levels all over the country, hitting highs in 74 markets tracked by real-estate-data provider Reis Inc. And housing prices appear to have finally …
U.S. Households Still Digging Out of Recession-Related Debt
After the recession, many Americans began cutting back and slowly chipping away at their household debt. Unfortunately, this noble effort seems to have tapered off, according to a new University of Michigan study. In fact, according to the study, one in every five households now owes more in credit cards, medical bills, student loans and …
Struggling to Stay Afloat: Number of Underwater Homeowners Keeps on Rising
Despite signs that some housing markets are improving, the overall trend is for home prices (and values) to keep dropping—and dropping. As values shrink, more and more homeowners find themselves underwater, the unfortunate …
To Default or Not to Default?
One of the leading proponents of strategic default—a.k.a. walking away, even when you have the money to keep up with mortgage payments—says there are three situations in which it’s actually a good idea to keep paying the mortgage.
The ‘Free Rent’ Approach: When Homeowners Just Stop Paying their Mortgages
Strategic mortgage default has “really been a blessing,” says one Florida man, who stopped making payments last summer. His mother, who lives a few blocks away, has been in default since the spring of 2008, and says, “the longer I’m in foreclosure, the better.” They both pay a lawyer not to actually help them keep their homes in the long …
Signs the Economy Isn’t a Total Basket Case
For quite some time, there was no shortage of indicators pointing to the fact that the economy wasn’t doing so hot—including some odd data about a falloff in men’s underwear sales, a rise in animals being abandoned at pet shelters, and the impressively overqualified status of this year’s census workers. Now, at long last, we’ve got …
